And each, as he passed, looked at Barbara,
with his fingers itching to remove his hat, and a feeling that this was
She. After a day spent amongst precedents and practice, after six hours
at least of trying to discover what chance A had of standing on his
rights, or B had of preventing him, it was difficult to feel otherwise
about that calm apparition--like a golden slim tree walking. One of
them, asked by her the way to Miltoun's staircase, preceded her with shy
ceremony, and when she had vanished up those dusty stairs, lingered on,
hoping that she might find her visitee out, and be obliged to return
and ask him the way back. But she did not come, and he went sadly away,
disturbed to the very bottom of all that he owned in fee simple.
In fact, no one answered Barbara's knock, and discovering that the door
yielded, she walked through the lobby past the clerk's den, converted
to a kitchen, into the sitting-room. It was empty. She had never been to
Miltoun's rooms before, and she stared about her curiously. Since he did
not practise, much of the proper gear was absent. The room indeed had a
worn carpet, a few old chairs, and was lined from floor to ceiling
with books. But the wall space between the windows was occupied by an
enormous map of England, scored all over with figures and crosses; and
before this map stood an immense desk, on which were piles of double
foolscap covered with Miltoun's neat and rather pointed writing.
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