owly up to his room again and threw himself in his writing
chair. His eye fell upon the notes on the sheet of foolscap. The
Radical candidate having been chosen, they were no longer relevant to
his speech. He crumpled up the paper and threw it into the waste-paper
basket. His speech! He held his head in both hands. A couple of hours
hence he would be addressing a vast audience, the centre of the hopes
of thousands of his fellow countrymen. The thought beat upon his brain.
He had had the common nightmare of standing with conductor's baton in
front of a mighty orchestra and being paralyzed by sense of impotence.
No less a nightmare was his present position. A couple of hours ago he
was athrill with confidence and joy of battle. But then he was a
different man. The morning stars, the stars of his destiny, sang
together in the ever-deepening glamour of the Vision Splendid. He was
entering into the lists of Camelot to fight for his Princess. He was
the Mysterious Knight, parented in fairy-far Avilion, the Fortunate
Youth, the Awakener of England. Now he was but a base-born young man
who had attained a high position by false pretences; an ordinary
adventurer with a glib tongue; a self-educated, self-seeking,
commonplace fellow. At least, so he saw himself in his Princess's eyes.
And he had meant that she should thus behold him. No longer was he
entering lists to fight for her. For what hopeless purpose was he
entering them? To awaken England? The awakener must have his heart full
of dreams and visions and glamour and joy and throbbing life; and in
his heart there was death.

He drew out the little cornelian talisman at the end of his watch-chain
and looked at it bitterly. It was but a mocking symbol of illusion. He
unhooked it and laid it on the table. He would carry it about with him
no longer. He would throw it away.

Ursula Winwood quietly entered the room.

"You must come down and have something to cat before the meeting."

Paul rose. "I don't want anything, thank you, Miss Winwood."

"But James and I do. So come and join us."

"Are you coming to the meeting?" he asked in surprise.

"Of course." She lifted her eyebrows. "Why not?"

"After what you have heard?"

"All the more reason for us to go." She smiled as she had smiled on
that memorable evening six years ago when she had stood with the
horrible pawn-ticket in her hand. "James has to support the Party. I
have to support you. James will do the same as I in a