All Roads Lead to Calvary, page 169 by Jerome K. Jerome
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e could," answered Joan, "if she would pull herself together. It's her lack of will-power that's the trouble."
Madge did not reply immediately. She was watching the rooks settling down for the night in the elm trees just beyond the window. There seemed to be much need of coming and going, of much cawing.
"I met her pretty often during those months that Helen Lavery was running her round," she said at length. "It always seemed to me to have a touch of the heroic, that absurd effort she was making to 'qualify' herself, so that she might be of use to him. I can see her doing something quite big, if she thought it would help him."
The cawing of the rooks grew fainter. One by one they folded their wings.
Neither spoke for a while. Later on, they talked about the coming election. If the Party got back, Phillips would go to the Board of Trade. It would afford him a better platform for the introduction of his land scheme.
"What do you gather is the general opinion?" Joan asked. "That he will succeed?"
"The general opinion seems to be that his star is in the ascendant," Madge answered with a smile; "that all things are working together for his good. It's rather a useful atmosphere to have about one, that. It breeds friendship and support!"
Joan looked at her watch. She had an article to finish. Madge stood on tiptoe and kissed her.
"Don't think me unsympathetic," she said. "No one will rejoice more than I shall if God sees fit to call you to good work. But I can't help letting fall my little tear of fellowship with the weeping."
"And mind your p's and q's," she added. "You're in a difficult position. And not all the eyes watching you are friendly."
Joan bore the germ of worry in her breast as she crossed the Gray's Inn Garden. It was a hard law, that of the world: knowing only winners and losers. Of course, the woman was to be pitied. No one could feel more sorry for her than Joan herself. But what had Madge exactly meant by those wo