And there is the money, if his mother didn't
strip him of it for marrying me! And there's the famous name, and
the family, and the prestige. Oh yes, I see all that. It attracts me
enormously. I'm no ascetic, as Coryston has discovered. And yet when I
think of going from my father to that man--from my father's ideas to
Arthur's ideas--it's as though some one thrust me into a cave, and rolled
a stone on me. I should beat myself dead, trying to get out! I told him I
couldn't make up my mind yet--for a long, long time."
"Was that kind?" said Marion, gently.
"Well, he seemed to like it better than a final No," laughed the girl, but
rather drearily. "Marion! you don't know, nobody can know but me, what a
man my father is!"
And sitting erect she looked absently at the plain, the clear hardness of
her eyes melting to a passionate tenderness. It was to Marion as though the
rugged figure of the Chancellor overshadowed them; just as, at that moment,
in the political sense, it overshadowed England.
CHAPTER V
Lady Coryston's quarters at Coryston Place were not quite so devoid of all
the lighter touches as her London sitting-room. The view from the windows,
of the formal garden outside, with its rows of white statues, leading to
a winding lake, and parklike slopes beyond it, was certainly cheerful.
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