"I really can't judge. It's such a very curious situation--and," she added, "Miss Bride is so peculiar." "Peculiar?--I understand. You don't find her very communicative. But I'm sure you'll make allowance for the difficulty of--" "Oh, I make all allowances," interrupted May, with her smile of superiority. "And of course Miss Bride's affairs don't in the least concern me." "Except I hope in so far as they concern me." Dyce spoke with insinuating humour. Both hands resting on his umbrella handle, he held himself very upright, and looked May steadily in the face. She, as though challenged, straightened herself and met his look. "I should be sorry to see your career spoilt," she said, with rather excessive dignity. "But you will admit that you have acted, to say the least, imprudently." "It looks so. You think I should have had _more courage_. But you will see that it's _not too late_." Speaking, he watched her face. He saw her lips twitch, and her eyes stray. "You know," he pursued, "that I _aim high_." Her look fell. "But no man can do without help. The strong man is he who knows how to choose his helper, and at the right moment. I am at a crisis of my life, and--it is to you that I turn." "I of course feel that to be a great compliment, Mr. Lashmar," said May, recovering her grand air. "I promise you to do what I can. But you mustn't count on me for impossibilities." "I count on nothing that isn't easy for _you_--with your character, your influence." "Thank you, again. My first piece of advice to you is to win the election." "I shall do my best. If I am beaten in this, I shall win another; you are aware of that. Are you easily discouraged? I think not." He smiled at her with admiration. That it was genuine, May easily perceived; how much, or how little, it implied, she did not care to ask. These two, alike incapable of romantic passion, children of a time which subdues everything to interest, which fosters vanity and chills the heart, began to imagine that they were drawn to each other by all the ardours of youth. Their minds remarkably lucid, reviewing the situation with coolest perspicuity, calculating each on the other's recognised weaknesses, and holding themselves absolutely free if contingency demanded freedom, they indulged, up to a certain point, the primitive impulse, and would fain have discovered in it a motive of the soul. May, who had formed her opinion as to Miss Bride's real attitude regarding Lashmar, took a keen pleasure in the treacherous part she was playing; she remembered the conversation last evening in the carriage, and soothed her wounded self-esteem. Dyce, gratified by yet another proof of his power over womankind, felt that in this case he had something to be really proud of; Miss Tomalin's beauty and her prospects spoke to the world at large. She was in love with him, and he detected in himself a reciprocal emotion. Interesting and agreeable state of things!