Ida watched him as--well, as one watches some "strong man" going through his performance. Howard, who boasted of his friend's invulnerability; and when she had conquered, and gratified her vanity--Ah, well, it would be easy to step aside and bring the curtain down upon her triumph and Stafford's discomfiture. I heard one of them say that he calculated to work at home a million and a half out of it. And Sir Stephen thinks there never was such a son as his," she said in a low voice. You speak of ruin as if it meant only the loss of money, the loss of every penny. Ida lay back in the great arm-chair in which he had sat, her small brown hands lying limply in her lap, her eyes fixed absently upon the open book which lay on the table as he had left it. Of course we are all total abstainers here, but we keep a little in the house for medicinal purposes, unknown to John; and it's a great comfort sometimes when you're tired and in low spirits. I know that you ought to know--but it's hard work--that cablegram contained news that the Zulus had risen _en masse_, and that for a time, perhaps for years, the railway scheme was blocked, if not utterly ruined.
Stafford rose, his pale, handsome face looking almost white above his black frock-coat and black tie.