“I don’t wish anything—now I have you—but to be a comfort to your mother. That is my first earthly wish just now.”
“If that be earthly, it has a touch of the heavenly,” muttered Miles to himself. “You will make it clear to mother then that you like to go on with her?”
“If she does not mind having me.”
“And Julius says it really cheered our dear Raymond to think you would be the one to look after her! But that’s not all, Nanny, I’ve only till to-morrow to decide whether I am to be Member for Wil’sbro’.”
“Is that a duty?”
“Not such a duty as to bind me if it were altogether repugnant to you. I was not brought up for it, and may be a mere stop-gap, but it is every man’s duty to come to the front when he is called for, and do his utmost for his country in Parliament, I suppose, as much as in action.”
“I see; but it would be leaving your mother alone a great deal.”
“Not necessarily. You could stay here part of the time, and I go backwards and forwards, as Raymond did before his marriage.”
“It would be better than your being at sea.”
“But remember,” he added, “there is much that can’t be shirked. I don’t mean currying popularity, but if one is in that position, there’s no shutting oneself up. It becomes a duty to keep society going, and give it the sort of tone that a nice woman can do. Do you see?”