The drill hall was full. Party feeling ran high in those days at
Hickney Heath, for a Liberal had ousted a Unionist from a safe seat at
the last General Election, and the stalwarts of the defeated party,
thirsting for revenge, supported the new movement. If a child was not
born a Conservative, he should be made one. That was the watchword of
the League. They were also prepared to welcome the new star that had
arisen to guide the younger generation out of the darkness. When,
therefore, the Chairman, Mr. John Felton, M.P., who had held minor
office in the last administration, had concluded his opening remarks,
having sketched briefly the history of the League and introduced Mr.
Paul Savelli, in the usual eulogistic terms, as their irresistible
Organizing Secretary, and Paul in his radiant young manhood sprang up
before them, the audience greeted him with enthusiastic applause. They
had expected, as an audience does expect in an unknown speaker, any one
of the usual types of ordinary looking politicians--perhaps bald,
perhaps grey headed, perhaps pink and fat--it did not matter; but they
did not expect the magnetic personality of this young man of
astonishing beauty, with his perfect features, wavy black hair,
athletic build and laughing eyes, who seemed the embodiment of youth
and joy and purpose and victory.
Before he spoke a word, he knew that he had them under his control, and
he felt the great thrill of it. Physically he had the consciousness of
a blaze of light, of a bare barn of an ungalleried place, of
thickly-set row upon row of faces, and a vast confused flutter of
beating hands. The applause subsided. He turned with his "Mr. Chairman,
Your Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen," to the circle behind him, caught
Miss Winwood, his dearest lady's smile, caught and held for a hundredth
part of a second the deep blue eyes of the Princess--she wore a great
hat with a grey feather and a chinchilla coat thrown open, and looked
the incarnation of all the beauty and all the desires of all his
dreams--and with a flash of gladness faced the audience and plunged
into his speech.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account