“It’s for them to live down their ignorance of the case. And it is for us to help them to do it and show them, day by day, that we were right and they were wrong. But you can’t do big things without suffering big things. I warn you there will be a lot at first who will side against us—the sort that judge by the outside, as most do.”
“I dare say we’ll be sent to Coventry.”
“They may cabal against us like that. But the harder the opposition, the greater the triumph when we show them what we are. We must look to each other for our comfort and support and to our own hearts and good conscience. I’m not afraid for myself. A man can weather anything if he knows he is right. But for a tender creature like you, all full of nerves and that, it will be harder. But you may trust me to be pretty wide awake on your behalf, Medora. I’ll be sleepless to shield you and come between you and every hard word. I’ll fight for you, I promise you.”
“I know that,” she said. “The pinch will be before we’re married. Afterwards they’ll soon calm down.”
Her affection and trust were unbounded. She believed that he would fight for her, and she looked forward not a little to seeing him do so.
Through the atmosphere of the Metropolis, the people at Dene shrank a little. She was prepared to return with a mind enlarged and a perspective widened. No doubt she and Jordan would come to London themselves some day, when he took his place among the leaders. But in the meantime she would not for anything have missed the return to her native village. Her new clothes alone must have sufficed to dictate this step. He, too, at her wish, had bought some new clothes, and though he hesitated at her choice, which led to rather more radiant colours than Kellock was wont to wear, yet he told himself, very truly, that in such a matter no principle was involved. He also felt that it became him to fall in with his future wife’s wishes when and where it was possible and reasonable to do so.
They visited the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, where the new Dene water-mark pictures created daily admiration, completed their holiday and so returned; and their homecoming was anticipated in various ways, showing, though ignorance is the root of all evil, as Jordan never wearied of declaring, that even ignorant hearts may soar to heights of distinguished humanism.