formed no conception, and in fact avoided purposely any
temptation to do so. He preferred that the play should unroll itself in a
series of delightful surprises. The one question which he asked himself
at this time was whether Drake might not decline to act his proper and
assigned part. He glanced at him as they walked along. Drake looked
thoughtful, and was certainly silent; both thought and silence were
propitious signs. On the other hand, Drake had interests in the City, had
them at heart too, and, worse still, had the City itself at heart.

Fielding recollected an answer he had made to Mallinson. The word 'heart'
brought it to his mind. Mallinson was jeering at the journalist's
metaphor of the 'throbbing heart' as applied to London. 'The phrase,'
Drake had said, 'to me is significant of something more than cheap
phraseology. I know that half a throb could create an earthquake in
Matanga.' What if the man's established interest in this direction were
to suppress his nascent interest in Clarice! Fielding immediately asked
Drake what he thought of Miss Le Mesurier.

'Oh!' said the latter, palpably waking from reflections of quite another
order, 'I liked her,' and he spoke of her looks.

'She has the art of dressing well,' corrected Fielding, disappointment
spurring him to provoke advocacy of the lady. Drake, however, was
indifferent to the correction.

'I like her eyes,' he said.

'She is skilled in the use of them.'

'I didn't notice that. They seemed of the quiet kind.'

'At need she can swing a wrecker's light behind them.'

'I like her hand too. It has the grip of a friend.'

'A friend! Yes. There's the pitfall.'

Drake only laughed. He was not to be persuaded to any strenuous defence,
and Fielding felt inclined to harbour a grudge against him as needlessly
a spoil-sport. Later on, however, when he was in bed it occurred to him
that the play might still be performed, though upon different lines, and
with a plot rather different from what he had imagined--his plot
inverted, in fact. Clarice Le Mesurier, he remembered, had made the first
advance to Drake. What if she for once in a while were to figure as the
pursuer! That alternative would, perhaps, be the more diverting of the
two. He must consult Mrs. Willoughby as to the effect which Drake's
bearing would produce on women--consult her cautiously, prudence warned
him. Mrs. Willoughby, a cousin and friend of Miss Le Mesurier's, was not
of the sort to lend