Once or twice he half reproached himself for not striking out yet more boldly into the currents of ambition, for it was plain that a twelvemonth must see him either made or ruined, and probably everything depended on the quality of his courage.

Now, he began to wonder whether Mrs.Toplady's favour would be likely to manifest itself in any still more practical way; but of this his reflection offered him no assurance.

The probability was that in Lady Ogram lay his only reasonable hope.

On the spur of such feeling, he addressed a letter to Rivenoak, giving an account of his luncheon in Pont Street, and thanking the old autocrat more fervently than he yet had done for all her good offices.
Since his return from Rivenoak, he had not met Lord Dymchurch.

He might of course write his invitation, but he fancied that it would have more chance of being accepted if he urged it orally, and, as he could not call upon the peer (whose private address, in books of reference, was merely the house in Somerset), he haunted the club with the hope of encountering him.