"You are one and all of you wonderful supports to a man who has taken up a thankless and difficult task," he said. "When I see you so cheerfully ready to bear your share of the burden, I must not shrink from doing my part. I am still whole-hearted in my sympathy with the rich. Blother, old friend, bring up a bottle of champagne--two bottles. I must not falter. I cannot go to prison, but I can and will continue to play my part in the great work." Blother brought the champagne. He was much moved, and put all the trouble down to the malignity of Lord Potter. "No one would have taken any notice of Edward's foolish little game if Potter hadn't forced them to," he said. "It is well known that Edward is a quite harmless crank, and for your sake, Perry, they ought to have left him alone. But don't take on about it. You won't find yourself any the less regarded because of this, and when young Edward comes back to us, we must try to keep him in better order." Mr. Blother was right in saying that no one thought the worse of Mr. Perry for the blow that had been dealt him. He received many tokens of sympathy from both public and private sources, and soon came to regard Edward's imprisonment with complete equanimity. "I think this trial must have been sent to me for my good," he said to me two days later. "I am experiencing a wonderful calm of spirit in spite of it. I shall use the period of my poor Edward's incarceration as a breathing space, and shall give up as many of my activities as possible for the next month. When he returns to us, I think I shall persuade him to travel for a time, and after that we shall be able to return to our work together with renewed zest." CHAPTER XXIX Two days after Edward's conviction, when we were all getting a little accustomed to his loss, Miriam and I had spent an hour of the afternoon in her garden, laying plans for our now fast-approaching elopement, and had just left it when Mollie came running towards us with the news that Herman and Amelia had come to tea, and wanted to see us both. I always felt a little uneasy at the thought of Herman Eppstein, and as in two days' time he was to sell my holding in Mount Lebanons, I thought that he might have come to say something to me about them. I was determined, however, that he should not say it in the drawing-room, if I could possibly help it. Directly we went in, I began to talk about Edward, and about the exciting things that were happening generally, and so infected the rest with my loquacity that they all became loquacious too, and we made an animated party. Mr. Perry was there, which was somewhat unusual, but since Edward's departure he had been about the house a good deal, and seemed to find it restful.