"I am afraid you find it rather dull up here," he said, " and it will be a few minutes yet before we get to my part of the business."
"You are looking rather pale. Are you nervous?"
"Horribly nervous. I am sick with nervousness."
"But that won't last."
"No," he said, "once I begin I shall get on well enough. It's the interval of waiting that sets my nerves going. It's like lying in the trenches, you know, before the enemy have come up. Now I must get back to my place."
He ran downstairs. He had hardly settled into his place when the Speaker began to read the speech which the Governor had delivered that morning. The instant the reading was done Hallett got on his legs and set himself to his task of moving the reply to the Address. Elsie went through a moment of breathless anxiety while he was standing, waiting before he spoke, and then she heard his voice, and felt reassured. After a minute or two of nervousness Hallett went on with his speech composedly and well. Elsie did not care very much about the substance of the speech, but it seemed to her to be well composed, and was delivered with the fluency which only just stopped short of being monotonous. It went over a great variety of topics to which she paid little attention, but she could hear that it was received with great favour on Hallett's side of the house, and with respectful attention on the other. She was glad to find that there were no ironical cheers or bursts of interruption, not, perhaps, quite realizing that a speech which escapes from these tributes of opposition is seldom a speech likely to make a name for the orator.
Hallett sat down amid very cordial applause from the house in general. She could see that. Everyone was glad to find the young man doing well in his first attempt, and she felt all but delighted at the result. He had certainly not failed. On the contrary, he had evidently succeeded. It was exactly what she had expected of him, and she was content with him. Perhaps she could have wished for something a little more dazzling, something thrilling, like
