 aid his suit by
exciting her ambition; for he was anything but confident of immediate success
with Adela, especially since recent conversations with Mrs. Waltham. But in any
case she would attend the afternoon ceremony, when his glory would be
proclaimed.
    Mrs. Waltham was anxiously meditative of plans for bringing Adela to regard
her Socialist wooer with more favourable eyes. She, too, had hopes that
Mutimer's fame in the mouths of men might prove an attraction, yet she suspected
a strength of principle in Adela which might well render all such hopes vain.
And she thought it only too likely, though observation gave her no actual
assurance of this, that the girl still thought of Hubert Eldon in a way to
render it doubly hard for any other man to make an impression upon her. It was
dangerous, she knew, to express her abhorrence of Hubert too persistently; yet,
on the other hand, she was convinced that Adela had been so deeply shocked by
the revelations of Hubert's wickedness that her moral nature would be in arms
against her lingering inclination. After much mental wear and tear, she decided
to adopt the strong course of asking Alfred's assistance. Alfred was sure to
view the proposed match with hearty approval, and, though he might not have much
influence directly, he could in all probability secure a potent ally in the
person of Letty Tew. This was rather a brilliant idea; Mrs. Waltham waited
impatiently for her son's return from Belwick on Saturday.
    She broached the subject to him with much delicacy.
    »I am so convinced, Alfred, that it would be for your sister's happiness.
There really is no harm whatever in aiding her inexperience; that is all that I
wish to do. I'm sure you understand me?«
    »I understand well enough,« returned the young man; »but if yon convince
Adela against her will you'll do a clever thing. You've been so remarkably
successful in closing her mind against all arguments of reason -«
    »Now, Alfred, do not begin and talk in that way! It has nothing whatever to
do with the matter. This is entirely a personal question.«
    »Nothing of the kind. It's a question of religious prejudice. She hates
Mutimer because he doesn't go to church, there's the long and short of it.«
    »Adela very properly condemns his views, but that's quite a different thing
from hating him.«
    »Oh dear, no; they're one and the same thing.
