She was devoted to her son, and not at all disposed to take the General's views about his recreancy in politics.
"A good many good people are on the Radical side, after all," she said, "and there is, perhaps, more room, too, for a young man of Robin's ambitions in the Radical party." "So far as I can see," said the General, acidly, "his ambitions are rather to succeed at the bottom than at the top.

The applause of the multitude appeals to him more than the praise of his equals or superiors." Lady Drummond glanced coldly at his heated face.
"I fancy you've an attack of gout coming on, Denis," she said.

"I should send for Sir Harley Dix, if I were you." She had stopped the General just as he was on his own doorstep, setting his face cheerfully eastwards on his way to Pall Mall.

He had come back with her.

He knew his duty to his brother's widow better than to do anything else.