Arrogant and insistent,
he had his way, and, on a division, the Government was saved by a mere
handful of votes--votes to save the party, not to indorse Eglington's
speech or policy.
Exasperated and with jaw set, but with a defiant smile, Eglington drove
straight home after the House rose. He found Hylda in the library with an
evening paper in her hands. She had read and reread his speech, and had
steeled herself for "the inevitable hour," to this talk which would
decide for ever their fate and future.
Eglington entered the room smiling. He remembered the incident of the
night before, when she came to his study and then hurriedly retreated. He
had been defiant and proudly disdainful at the House and on the way home;
but in his heart of hearts he was conscious of having failed to have his
own way; and, like such men, he wanted assurance that he could not err,
and he wanted sympathy. Almost any one could have given it to him, and he
had a temptation to seek that society which was his the evening before;
but he remembered that she was occupied where he could not reach her, and
here was Hylda, from whom he had been estranged, but who must surely have
seen by now that at Hamley she had been unreasonable, and that she must
trust his judgment.
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