Miltoun, pocketing the bargain, walked out.  He made his way into the Temple, left the book at his Chambers, and passed on down to the bank of Mother Thames.  The Sun was loving her passionately that afternoon; he had kissed her into warmth and light and colour.  And all the buildings along her banks, as far as the towers at Westminster, seemed to be smiling.  It was a great sight for the eyes of a lover.  And another vision came haunting Miltoun, of a soft-eyed woman with a low voice, bending amongst her flowers.  Nothing would be complete without her; no work bear fruit; no scheme could have full meaning.

Lord Valleys greeted his son at dinner with good fellowship and a faint surprise.

“Day off, my dear fellow?  Or have you come up to hear Brabrook pitch into us?  He’s rather late this time—­we’ve got rid of that balloon business no trouble after all.”

And he eyed Miltoun with that clear grey stare of his, so cool, level, and curious.  Now, what sort of bird is this? it seemed saying.  Certainly not the partridge I should have expected from its breeding!

Miltoun’s answer:  “I came up to tell you some thing, sir,” riveted his father’s stare for a second longer than was quite urbane.

It would not be true to say that Lord Valleys was afraid of his son.  Fear was not one of his emotions, but he certainly regarded him with a respectful curiosity that bordered on uneasiness.  The oligarchic temper of Miltoun’s mind and political convictions almost shocked one who knew both by temperament and experience how to wait in front.  This instruction he had frequently had occasion to give his jockeys when he believed his horses could best get home first in that way.  And it was an instruction he now longed to give his son.  He himself had ‘waited in front’ for over fifty years, and he knew it to be the finest way of insuring that he would never be compelled to alter this desirable policy—­for something in Lord Valleys’ character made him fear that, in real emergency, he would exert himself to the point of the gravest discomfort sooner than be left to wait behind.  A fellow like young Harbinger, of course, he understood—­versatile, ‘full of beans,’ as he expressed it to himself in his more confidential moments, who had imbibed the new wine (very intoxicating it was) of desire for social reform.  He would have to be given his head a little—­but there would be no difficulty with him, he would never ’run out’—­light handy build of horse that only required steadying at the corners.  He would want to hear himself talk, and be let feel that he was doing something.  All very well, and quite intelligible.  But with Miltoun (and Lord Valleys felt this to be no, mere parental fancy) it was a very different business.  His son had a way of forcing things to their conclusions which was dangerous, and reminded him of his mother-in-law.  He was a baby in public affairs, of course, as yet; but as