The earl was impressionable to the remark, in his disgust at the incident. It added a touch of a new kind of power to her image.
‘She’s aware of my coming?’
‘To-day or to-morrow.’
They scaled the phaeton and drove.
‘You undervalue Lord Feltre. You avoid your adversaries,’ Fleetwood now rebuked his hearer. ‘It ‘s an easy way to have the pull of them in your own mind. You might learn from him. He’s willing for controversy. Nature-worship—or “aboriginal genuflexion,” he calls it; Anglicanism, Methodism; he stands to engage them. It can’t be doubted, that in days of trouble he has a faith “stout as a rock, with an oracle in it,” as he says; and he’s right, “men who go into battle require a rock to back them or a staff to lean on.” You have your “secret,” you think; as far as I can see, it’s to keep you from going into any form of battle.’
The new influence at work on the young nobleman was evident, if only in the language used.
Gower answered mildly: ‘That can hardly be said of a man who’s going to marry.’
‘Perhaps not. Lady Fleetwood is aware?’
‘Lady Fleetwood does me the honour to approve my choice.’
‘You mean, you’re dead on to it with this girl?’