she waked. Eglington had gone to
the Foreign Office. The morning papers were full of sensational reports
concerning Claridge Pasha and the Soudan. A Times leader sternly
admonished the Government.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. JASPER KIMBER SPEAKS

That day the adjournment of the House of Commons was moved "To call
attention to an urgent matter of public importance"--the position of
Claridge Pasha in the Soudan. Flushed with the success of last night's
performance, stung by the attacks of the Opposition morning papers,
confident in the big majority behind, which had cheered him a few hours
before, viciously resenting the letter he had received from David that
morning, Eglington returned such replies to the questions put to him
that a fire of angry mutterings came from the forces against him. He
might have softened the growing resentment by a change of manner, but
his intellectual arrogance had control of him for the moment; and he
said to himself that he had mastered the House before, and he would do
so now. Apart from his deadly antipathy to his half-brother, and the
gain to himself--to his credit, the latter weighed with him not so much,
so set was he on a stubborn course--if David disappeared for ever, there
was at bottom a spirit of anti-expansion, of reaction against England's
world-wide responsibilities. He had no largeness of heart or view
concerning humanity. He had no inherent greatness, no breadth of policy.
With less responsibility taken, there would be less trouble, national
and international--that was his point of view; that had been his view
long ago at the meeting at Heddington; and his weak chief had taken it,
knowing nothing of the personal elements behind.

The disconcerting factor in the present bitter questioning in the House
was, that it originated on his own side. It was Jasper Kimber who had
launched the questions, who moved the motion for adjournment. Jasper had
had a letter from Kate Heaver that morning early, which sent him to her,
and he had gone to the House to do what he thought to be his duty. He
did it boldly, to the joy of the Opposition, and with a somewhat sullen
support from many on his own side. Now appeared Jasper's own inner
disdain of the man who had turned his coat for office. It gave a lead
to a latent feeling among members of the ministerial party, of distrust,
and of suspicion that they were the dupes of a mind of abnormal
cleverness which, at bottom, despised them.

With flashi