He had emerged from it--after a series of
speeches laying down the principles and vindicating the action of his
party--one of the most important men in England, with whom Lord Parham
himself must henceforth treat on quasi-equal terms. Ashe was now Home
Secretary, and, if Lord Parham's gout should take an evil turn, there
was no saying to what height fortune might not soon conduct him.
The will--the iron purpose--with which it had all been done--that was
the amazing part of it. The complete independence, moreover. Darrell
imagined that Lord Parham must often have regretted the small intrigue
by which Ashe's promotion had been barred in the crisis of the summer.
It had roused an indolent man to action, and freed him from any
particular obligation towards the leader who had ill-treated him. Ashe's
campaign had not been in all respects convenient; but Lord Parham had
had to put up with it.
The summer evening broadened as the two men sauntered on through the
park, beside a small stream fringed with yellow flags. Even the dingy
Midland landscape, with its smoke-blackened woods and lifeless grass,
assumed a glory of great light; the soft, interlacing clouds parted
before the dying sun; the water received the golden flood, and each coot
and water-hen shone jet and glossy in the blaze.
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