His
leave-taking from Ashe on the morning afterwards had been almost
cordial--almost intimate. And as to Lady Tranmore, whenever she had been
able to leave her paralyzed husband she had been with Kitty, nursing her
with affectionate wisdom night and day. While on the other members of
the Haggart party the sheer pity of Kitty's condition had worked with
surprising force. Lord Grosville had actually made his wife offer
Grosville Park for Kitty's convalescence--Kitty got her first laugh out
of the proposal. The Dean had journeyed several times from his distant
cathedral town, to see and sit with Kitty; Eddie Helston's flowers had
been almost a nuisance; Mrs. Alcot had shown herself quite soft and
human.
The effect, indeed, of this general sympathy on Lord Parham's relations
to the chief member of his cabinet had been but small and passing. Ashe
disliked and distrusted him more than ever; and whatever might have
happened to the Premier's resentment of a particular offence, there
could be no doubt that a visit from which Ashe had hoped much had ended
in complete failure, that Parham was disposed to cross his powerful
henchman where he could, and that intrigue was busy in the cabinet
itself against the reforming party of which Ashe was the head Ashe,
indeed, felt his own official position, outwardly so strong, by no means
secure.
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