"I can stay only for a few minutes. There's really nothing to tell—nothing. But you must have plenty of news. How are things going on?"
Lashmar hurriedly told of two or three circumstances which seemed to favour him in the opening campaign. There was now no doubt that Butterworth would be the Conservative candidate, and, on the whole, his name appeared to excite but moderate enthusiasm. He broke off with an impatient gesture.
"I can't talk about that stuff! It's waste of time, whilst I am with you."
"But it interests me very much," said May, who seemed to grow calmer as Dyce yielded to agitation. "Lord Dymchurch says he would gladly help you, if it were in his power. Don't you think he might be of some use?"
"No, I don't. Dymchurch is a dreaming nobody."
"What a strange way to speak of him!" said May, as if slightly offended. "You used to have quite a different opinion."
"Perhaps so. I didn't know him so well. There's nothing whatever in the man, and he'll never do anything as long as he lives. You know that as well as I do."
"I think you are mistaken," May answered, in an absent voice, her look betraying some travail of the mind, as if she were really debating with herself the question of Dymchurch's prospects.
"Do you mean that?" cried Lashmar, with annoyance.
"I certainly shouldn't call him a 'dreaming nobody,'" replied May, in the tone of dignified reproof. "Lord Dymchurch is very thoughtful, and very well-informed, and has very high principles."