"No, Lakely," he said, very slowly, "it's not the sort of
moment in which a man doubts himself,"
XIX
And so it came about that Loder was freed from one
responsibility to undertake another. From the morning of
March 27th, when Lakely had expounded the political programme
in the offices of the 'St. George's Gazette', to the afternoon
of April 1st he found himself a central figure in the
whirlpool of activity that formed itself in Conservative
circles.
With the acumen for which he was noted, Lakely had touched the
key-stone of the situation on that morning; and succeeding
events, each fraught with its own importance, had established
the precision of his forecast.
Minutely watchful of Russia's attitude, Fraide quietly
organized his forces and strengthened his position with a
statesmanlike grasp of opportunity; and to Loder the
attributes displayed by his leader during those trying days
formed an endless and absorbing study. Setting the thought of
Chilcote aside, ignoring his own position and the risks he
daily ran, he had fully yielded to the glamour of the moment,
and in the first freedom of a loose rein he had given
unreservedly all that he possessed of activity, capacity, and
determination to the cause that had claimed him.
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