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Updated: September 5, 2025
Clarice invited him to speak of Matanga, but Drake was reticent on the subject, through sheer disinclination to talk about himself, a disinclination which the girl recognised, and gave him credit for, shooting a comparing glance at Mallinson. Mr. Le Mesurier, it should be said, remarked this reticence as well, and it gave him an idea.
No, I expect she sent him. A smirk upon the invalid's face showed he shared the thought. 'By the way, Fielding continued, 'talking of Miss Le Mesurier, did you ever meet a man called Gorley? 'No. There was a Gorley who was engaged to her. Is that the man? 'Yes. I heard rather a strange story about him. He went out to Africa, you know. Mallinson lifted himself on his elbow.
'Mrs. Mallinson, he said, 'you will probably think me intrusive, but do you think your visit really wise? Clarice turned towards him quickly with something of defiance in her manner. 'You are tired, he went on, 'you want rest. Well, an election isn't a very restful time, even for the onlooker.
He argued to convince himself that he felt she ought to be told, but he could not bring himself to the point of telling. He decided finally upon an alternative which would, he imagined, secure his purpose, while relieving him of the responsibility. He would tell Mallinson of the Gorley episode, for the rival surely had a right to know.
Acquaintanceship with a celebrity lifts him in their eyes, he thinks, so really in his own. Drake remained doubtfully pondering what credit acquaintanceship with him could confer on any one. He was led back to his old view of Mallinson as a man tottering on a rickety base.
Mallinson had not spoken of him so often as his friend. She directed her sweetest smile to Mallinson. 'You did, didn't you? Yes! Mr. Drake had been away from England for so long that I thought it would be only kind to ask you to bring him. But if I had known that papa had any objection, I should naturally never have done it. I am very sorry.
Drake received a notion of unimpressive prettiness and turned his attention to the stage. When the lights were raised again in the auditorium, he noticed that Fielding was in the box talking to a gentleman with white hair, and that Mallinson was seated by the side of Miss Le Mesurier.
Whether Clarice was to be informed or not, Mallinson should be allowed to judge. Fielding assured himself of the justice of his intention for the space of two days without putting it into execution, but on the third he chanced to meet Conway, and was given the information that Mallinson's inherited income amounted to a thousand pounds. The news decided him.
He took them out and glanced over the envelopes. One was in Clarice's handwriting. It announced to him her engagement with Sidney Mallinson. Of Drake's arrival at the Seigneurie Mrs. Willoughby wrote some account to Hugh Fielding, who was taking the waters for no ailment whatever at Marienbad. 'I was surprised to see him, she wrote, 'because Clarice told me that she had written to him.
Mallinson began immediately to imagine himself in Drake's position, the candidate for whom brass bands played, and hats went spinning into the air. And it needed no conscious effort for one so agile in egotistical leaps to spring thence to the fancy that Drake was a kind of vicarious substitute for himself, doing his work, too, not without blemishes.
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