"If I am to help you," the Prince said, "I must know everything.
Have you made any proposals to Lucille? In plain words, how much
of your political future are you disposed to sacrifice?"
"All!" Brott said hoarsely. "All for a certainty of her. Not
one jot without."
"And she?"
Brott sprang to his feet, white and nervous.
"It is where I am at fault," he exclaimed. "It is why I have asked
for your advice, your help perhaps. I do not find it easy to
understand Lucille. Perhaps it is because I am not well versed in
the ways of her sex. I find her elusive. She will give me no
promise. Before I went to Glasgow I talked with her. If she
would have married me then my political career was over--thrown on
one side like an old garment. But she would give me no promise.
In everything save the spoken words I crave she has promised me her
love. Again there comes a climax. In a few hours I must make my
final choice. I must decline to join Letheringham, in which case
the King must send for me, or accept office with him, and throw away
the one great chance of this generation. Letheringham's Cabinet,
of course, would be a moderate Liberal one, a paragon of milk and
water in effectiveness. If I go in alone we make history. The
moment of issue has come. And, Prince, although I have pleaded
with all the force and all the earnestness I know, Lucille remains
elusive.
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