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Blinkhampton was not far enough away; it rather threw him with people who belonged to the old life than parted him from them. He was weak himself too; while the people were at hand, he would seek them, as he had sought Lady Evenswood.
The day had more than fulfilled its promise; what had seemed its great triumph appeared now to be valuable only as an introduction and a prelude to something larger and more real. Already he was looking back with some surprise on the extreme gravity which he had attached to his little Blinkhampton speculation.
Sloyd's nervous excitement and uneasy deference toward Iver were the only indications of any such thing. Duplay was there in the background, cool and easy. Iver himself was inclined to gossip with Harry and to chaff him on the fresh departure he had made, rather than to settle down to a discussion of Blinkhampton.
Two days later Duplay sat in the offices of Sloyd, Sloyd, and Gurney, as Iver's representative; his mission was to represent to the youthful firm the exceeding folly of their conduct in regard to Blinkhampton. His ready brain had assimilated all the facts, and they lost nothing by his ready tongue. He even made an impression on the enemy.
He had never thought of him as a speculator in building land. Seemingly that was what he had become. Harry sat down by the table, Sloyd standing by him and spreading out before him a plan of Blinkhampton and the elevation of a row of buildings. "You ask us," Harry went on resentfully, almost accusingly, "to throw up this thing just when we're ready to go ahead.
He turned to Harry and said without preface: "We're going to arbitrate this Barililand question, on behalf of the Company, you know, as well as ourselves. Another instance of my weakness! Lord Murchison's going over for us. He starts in a fortnight. He asked me to recommend him a secretary. Will you go?" Here was help in avoiding Cecily. But what about Blinkhampton? Harry hesitated a moment.
This returning to Blent was epidemic not so strange perhaps, since mid-August was come, and only the people who had to stayed in town. Harry met Duplay over at Blinkhampton; Duplay was to join his niece at Merrion in about ten days.
There was no appearance of embarrassment about her, rather a great gladness and a triumph in her own courage in coming. She seemed quite sure that she had done the right thing. "You didn't come to me, so I came to you," she explained, as though the explanation were quite sufficient. She brought everything back to him very strongly and in a moment banished Blinkhampton.
And somehow this notion had the effect of spoiling the success of the day for Harry Tristram; so that among the Imp's whirling words there was perhaps a grain or two of wisdom. At least his talk with her did not make Harry's visions less constant or less intense. It could not be denied that Blinkhampton was among the things which arose out of Blent.
"As things stand, I can never go to Blent, I can go only to Blinkhampton." "What does little Mina Zabriska say to that?" "Oh, everything that comes into her head, I suppose, and very volubly." "I like her," said the old lady with emphasis. "Is there such a thing as an absolute liking, Lady Evenswood? What's pleasant at one time is abominable at another.
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