Go down and wait for
me." She left him in the corridor and ran away.
He marched down the stairs with as much self-possession as he could
command.
Below him he saw Senator Corson, Mrs. Stanton, Silas Daunt, and the
banker's son. All were garbed for outdoors and the Senator was inquiring
of Mrs. Stanton why Lana was not ready.
From the landing down to the hall Stewart found the ordeal an exacting
one. Those below surveyed him with an open astonishment that was more
disconcerting than hostility; he was in a mood to fight for himself and
his own; but to deal in mere polite explanations, after Lana's imperious
command to keep silent on an important matter, was beyond any sagacity he
possessed in that period of abashed wonder what to say or do.
It was his thought that Miss Corson, in her efforts to avoid an anticlimax
of conventional procedure, was making a rather too severe test of him in
forcing him to endure the unusual.
He did manage to say, "Good morning!" and smiled at them in a deprecatory
way.
Coventry Daunt amiably responded as a spokesman for the group; but he had
waited deferentially for his elders to make some response.
The Senator held a packet of telegrams in his hand.
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