She must gain time to consider what this would mean, and, if worth while, how to lay her plans.
Should the scheme contain certain elevation for herself and certain humiliation for John Derringham, then there was something worthy of consideration in it, for undoubtedly Percy Hanbury-Green suited her the better of the two, as far as just the men themselves were concerned.

She knew she would get desperately tired of having to live up to John Derringham's standard, and a divorce in England would not be so easily obtained or so free from scandal, as her original one in America had been.

But she must think well, and weigh the matter before plunging in.
Mr.Hanbury-Green saw her hesitation and instantly applied another forceful note.

He dwelt upon the political situation and grew eloquent and magnetic, as when he was on the platform--for was he not playing for stakes which, for the moment, he valued even more than some thousands of votes?
It was no wonder Cecilia Cricklander's imagination grew inflamed.

He let her see that as his wife she would, for seven years or more, ride on the crest of the wave of an ever-rising tide to undreamed-of heights of excitement and intrigue.