matter, or at least a dry matter,
for a lady to hear.

"'Perhaps for me to hear,' said I.

"He glanced at her, as though almost he would appeal to her.
Then he asked me suddenly if I had heard of a great and avenging
declaration that Evesham had made? Now, Evesham had always before
been the man next to myself in the leadership of that great party
in the north. He was a forcible, hard, and tactless man, and only
I had been able to control and soften him. It was on his account
even more than my own, I think, that the others had been so
dismayed at my retreat. So this question about what he had done
reawakened my old interest in the life I had put aside just for
a moment.

"'I have taken no heed of any news for many days,' I said.
'What has Evesham been saying?'

"And with that the man began, nothing loth, and I must confess
even I was struck by Evesham's reckless folly in the wild and
threatening words he had used. And this messenger they had sent to
me not only told me of Evesham's speech, but went on to ask counsel
and to point out what need they had of me. While he talked, my
lady sat a little forward and watched his face and mine.

"My old habits of scheming and organising reasserted
themselves. I could even see myself suddenly returning to the
north, and all the dramatic effect of it. All that this man said
witnessed to the disorder of the party indeed, but not to its
damage. I should go back stronger than I had come. And then I
thought of my lady. You see--how can I tell you? There were
certain peculiarities of our relationship--as things are I need not
tell you about that--which would render her presence with me
impossible. I should have had to leave her; indeed, I should have
had to renounce her clearly and openly, if I was to do all that I
could do in the north. And the man knew that, even as he talked to
her and me, knew it as well as she did, that my steps to duty
were--first, separation, then abandonment. At the touch of that
thought my dream of a return was shattered. I turned on the man
suddenly, as he was imagining his eloquence was gaining ground with
me.

"'What have I to do with these things now?' I said. 'I have
done with them. Do you think I am coquetting with your people in
coming here?'

"'No,' he said. 'But--'

"'Why cannot you leave me alone. I have done with these
things. I have ceased to be anything but a private man.'

"'Yes,' he answered. 'But have you thou