Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/138

Rh "Too many have made me their creed;—do you take some surer light to guide you. I do not seek a convert in you. You are happier, perhaps, if you can live thinking of none of these things. What I seek of you now is your service, not your adhesion. I want little else except your high courage; and I know that will never fail either you or others." "Try it as you will." There was a curious conflict of feelings in him as he heard her. He was moved to strong pleasure by the mere thought that she placed confidence, of whatever sort, in him, and he knew by her words that she held his honour, his faitb, and his courage in full esteem; yet as strong a pain smote him heavily. He felt that these great purposes of her life, vaguely as he could imagine them, were dearer to Idalia than any individual love could become, and he felt also that in her manner to him which seemed to place him farther off from her than he had ever been.

She bowed her head in thanks to him.

"What I need is told in few phrases," she resumed. "The Conservative faction, that you favour, is in the full exercise of its iniquity in Naples—for a little while longer; a very little. There are to-night in my house—concealed here, I