'The tall young fellow with the stoop? That appears to be the chairman.' Stonor himself stooped—to the eager girl who had clutched his sleeve from behind, and was following him closely through the press. 'The artless chairman, I take it, is scolding the people for not giving the woman a hearing!' They laughed together at the young man's foolishness.
Even had an open-air meeting been more of a commonplace to Stonor, it would have had for him that effect of newness that an old thing wears when seen by an act of sympathy through new eyes.
'You must be sure and explain everything to me, Geoffrey,' said the girl. 'This is to be an important chapter in my education.' Merrily and without a shadow of misgiving she spoke in jest a truer word than she dreamed. He fell in with her mood.
'Well, I rather gather that he's been criticizing the late Government, and Liberals have made it hot for him.'
'I shall never be able to hear unless we get nearer,' said Jean, anxiously.
'There's a very rough element in front there——'
'Oh, don't let us mind!'
'Most certainly I mind!'
'Oh, but I should be miserable if I didn't hear.'