His intermittent lack of readiness overtook him, and there was an awkward silence.

Then, pulling himself together with a strong hand, he left the subject and began to talk of her straw-plaiting scheme, of the Gairsley meeting, and of Hallin.

But in the middle Marcella unexpectedly said: "I wish you would tell me, seriously, what reasons you have for not liking Mr.Wharton ?--other than politics, I mean ?" Her black eyes fixed him with a keen insistence.
He was silent a moment with surprise; then he said: "I had rather not rake up old scores." She shrugged her shoulders, and he was roused to come and put his arm round her again, she shrinking and turning her reddened face away.
"Dearest," he said, "you shall put me in charity with all the world.

But the worst of it is," he added, half laughing, "that I don't see how I am to help disliking him doubly henceforward for having had the luck to put that fire out instead of me!".