to be explained to him
sooner or later, and which he had so magnanimously promised to wait for
the revelation of, and entertain no suspicions about in the meantime.
The worst of such magnanimity is that it is subject to dreadful failings
of the heart in its time of waiting--never giving in, indeed, but yet
feeling the pressure whenever there is a moment to think. This matter
mixed itself up so with all Philip saw that he never in after life
saw a great cannon, or a pyramid of balls (which is not, to be sure, an
every-day sight) without a vague sensation of trouble, as of something
lying behind which was concealed from him, and which he would scarcely
endure to have concealed. When he left his friends in the evening,
however, it was with another engagement for to-morrow, and several
to-morrows after, and great jubilation on the part of both father and
son, as to their good luck in meeting, and having his companionship in
their pleasures. And, in fact, these pleasures were carried on for
several days, always with the faint bitter in them to Philip, of that
consciousness that his mother was pleased to be rid of him, glad to see
his back turned, the most novel, extraordinary sensation to the boy.
And it must also be confessed that he kept a very keen eye on all the
passing carriages, always hoping to see that one in which the witch,
as he called her, and the girl with the keen eyes were--for he had not
picked up the name of Lady Mariamne, keen as his young ears were, and
though John had mentioned it in his presence, partly, perhaps, because
it was so very unlikely a name. As for the man with the opera-glasses,
he had not seen his face at all, and therefore could not hope to
recognise him. And yet he felt a little thrill run through him when any
tall man with grey hair passed in the street. He almost thought he could
have known the tall slim figure with a certain swaying movement in it,
which was not like anybody else. I need not say, however, that even had
these indications been stronger, Woolwich and the Isle of Dogs were
unlikely places in which to meet Lady Mariamne, or any gentleman likely
to be in attendance on her. In Whitechapel, indeed, had he but known, he
might have met Miss Dolly: but then in Whitechapel there were no
sights which virtuous youth is led to see. And Philip's man with the
opera-glass was, during these days, using that aid to vision in a very
different place, and had neither leisure nor inclination to