And having done all this, he felt that he had committed a great act of faith; he felt also that he had done at last something which could not fail to win the admiration of Davidina.
Davidina was not herself a True Believer; but she had done him the compliment to come from a distance to hear his discourse; and much he wanted to know what she thought of it. There was the added circumstance that she had a direct interest—not theological but financial—in the severance which had now taken place, and it was with elated curiosity that he looked her in the eyes—with a look more straight and unembarrassed than he could usually muster—to see how she had taken it.
He found her waiting for him outside.
‘Well, what d’you think of that?’ he inquired.
‘I think you’d have made a wonderful jockey,’ she replied. ‘You’d have made your fortune.’
‘Jockey?’ he said, puzzled. ‘I didn’t exactly pull it off this time, at any rate.’
‘No,’ she replied. ‘Did you mean to?’
‘Yes; I did my best.’
‘That I’m sure.’
‘How d’you define a jockey?’ he asked uneasily, irritated by her fixed abstention from further comment.