"No, I don't suppose you can," she assented, rising slowly. "But I do wish you'd talk to Mr. Ayling sometime, daddy. He seems to see all these things from new points of view—"
He was pacing about the room very much like Max in moments of agitation.
"Oh, new points of view! There's only one point of view, I tell you, and that's the one on what we've made the country prosperous."
She smiled wistfully.
"Prosperous for some."
"Well, that's better than prosperous for nobody, isn't it?"
She said good night to him then, for the reason that she herself was so stirred that she needed seclusion in which to think these strange things over. That Bob should have married Jennie Follett was a shock in itself; but that through his wife he should now be involved in this frightful tragedy was something that her mind found it hard to take in. It was the first time that she had ever come so close to the more terrible happenings in life.
Meanwhile, Junia, overhearing what was said, reconstructed her plan of campaign. In common with great generals, she possessed the faculty of rapid revision, as events took place differently from the way she had expected. By the time she heard Edith go upstairs she had foreseen the line of action which the new situation forced on them.
Collingham was still lashing about the library when she appeared on the threshold. Her calmness arrested him. In a measure it soothed him. It was the kind of juncture in which she always knew what to do, and he had confidence in her judgment. When she said, "Sit down, Bradley; I've something to say," he obeyed her quietly, relighting his cigar. As she, too, sat down, Max or Dauphin would have noted in her the aura of authority which a master wears when about to lecture a schoolboy.
"I've something startling to tell you, Bradley; but I want to say beforehand that you mustn't get worked up, because I see a way out."