“I shouldn’t have said so to you; but I’m glad you’re clever enough to see it, Medora. Yes, your letter no doubt. You can’t have anything for nothing in this world, and as you gave yourself the pleasure of telling him what you thought of him, he’ll give himself the pleasure apparently of making us pay for your fun.”
“You wrote what you thought would hurt; and I expect it did hurt; and the result, so far as I can see, is a very nasty and obstinate frame of mind in Mr. Dingle. I won’t tell you all he said, though he was more respectful to you than me. But he hasn’t done with it by a lot and he’ll very likely ask for heavy damages.”
“It wouldn’t be sinking from his point of view. It ain’t regarded as sinking by the law. The idea certainly hadn’t struck me till I heard him on the subject; but I dare say it will happen. It’s within his power.”
“Doesn’t that show I said nothing in my letter he didn’t deserve? A man who’d do that—”
Medora felt a shadow of dislike towards Jordan. It was not the first time that any suspicion of such an alarming sensation had coloured her thoughts before his temperate statements and unimpassioned speeches. Was he never to let himself go? But she fled from her impatience as from a supreme danger. Kellock must be her hero, or nothing. She must continue to see in him her salvation and her tower of strength; she must let him feel and understand the reverence, the adoration in which she held him and his superb sacrifice on the altar of the conventions. For such a man the things that he had done were greater far than they had been in the case of others. He had his future to think of as well as Medora’s. He must not be allowed off his pedestal in her regard for an instant. She realised that, and perceived how her own peace of mind depended entirely on keeping him there. Her histrionic gifts were again to be called to her assistance.
Watchfully she would guard her own mind against any doubt of Jordan’s essential qualities. His virtue and valour culminated, of course, in the heroism that had run away with her and rescued her from her dragon. The only weak and unintelligent action impartial judges might have brought against Kellock must be to Medora his supreme expression of masterful will and manly humanity. Even granting his love, indifferent spectators had criticised Kellock most for believing Medora at all, or allowing the assurances of such a volatile person to influence him upon such a crucial matter. His real heroism and distinction of mind was lost upon Medora; the achievements she valued in him belonged to his weakness of imagination and a lack of humour destined to keep him a second class man. He belonged to the order of whom it may be said that they are “great and good,” not that they are “great.” But the good qualifies—even discounts—the great.