"
Hylda smiled. "Then I must go and congratulate him," she answered, and
withdrew her hand from that of Lord Windlehurst, who seemed to hold it
longer than usual, and pressed it in a fatherly way.
"I'm afraid the House is up," he rejoined, as Hylda turned for her
opera-cloak; "and I saw Eglington leave Palace Yard as I came away." He
gave a swift, ominous glance towards the Duchess, which Hylda caught, and
she looked at each keenly.
"It's seldom I sit in the Peers' Gallery," continued Windlehurst; "I
don't like going back to the old place much. It seems empty and hollow.
But I wouldn't have missed Eglington's fighting speech for a good deal."
"What was it about?" asked Hylda as they left the box. She had a sudden
throb of the heart. Was it the one great question, that which had been
like a gulf of fire between them?
"Oh, Turkey--the unpardonable Turk," answered Windlehurst. "As good a
defence of a bad case as I ever heard."
"Yes, Eglington would do that well," said the Duchess enigmatically,
drawing her cloak around her and adjusting her hair.
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