By "the crisis" she meant, of course, the resignation of Ministers and a change of Government. So that a few days hence she would be no longer within his reach at all. Maxwell, once out of office, would, no doubt, for a long while to come prefer to spend the greater part of his time in Brookshire, away from politics. A sudden sharp perception woke in Tressady of what it would mean to him to find himself in a world where, on going out of a morning, it would be no longer possible to come across her.
At last she broke the silence.
"How little I really thought, in spite of all one's anxiety, that Lord
Fontenoy was going to win! He has played his cards amazingly well."
George took no notice. Thoughts were whirling in his brain.
"What would you say to me, I wonder," he said at last, "if I were to try the part?"
He spoke in a bantering tone, poking at the black London earth with his stick.
"What part?"
"Well, it seems to me I might put the case. One wants to argue the thing in a common-sense way. I don't feel towards this clause as I did towards the others. I know a good many men don't."
He turned to her with a light composure.
She stared in bewilderment.