That unfortunate recollection was the last
straw.
But it was the second that had the upper
hand.
I know, said Sir Arthur, and that is just the point
of mystory. I forced myself to sit down again with my face to the land.
The speech put George, as the phrase goes, on the
political map.
There was ofcourse the flare he had left me, but I
was not inclined to usethis. I set my fire going, cooked my supper, and made
everything snugfor the night.
They were at the critical point, you see, the
junction ofGough and Byng.
I had fallen out of civilisation intothe Outlands
and was feeling their spell. Always cheery and competent, and a born leader of men.
I left with a very real respect for one whom I hadwritten off as a failure. I had
fallen into a world that killed life, asort of Valley of the Shadow of Death. At
least he was candid withhimself, and he was sometimes candid with me. The sight
cheered and excited me, and I cooked mybreakfast in pretty good spirits. Yousee,
every moment I was becoming more childish.
I went to sleep in a stateof high excitement,
promising myself a fruitful time on the morrow. And then my knees gave under me and
my heart shrank like a pea,for I saw that the someone had come. I had been groping
for aword and I suddenly got it. The family wanted a stone putup in the churchyard
of the family place in Gloucestershire. It looked like throwing up the sponge and
confessing that myexpedition had been a farce. But it was the second that had the
upper hand. Oh, yes, hewas a big enough figure there. There hasna been a wall-ross
come to Una since my grandfathers day.
And there was never anynonsense about visitations
or messages from the dead.
For the first time in his life he spoke as
onehaving authority. The fact is that George wasless of an egotist than he had ever
been before. He had been returned to Parliament by a bigmajority, but he wasnt much
in the public eye.