What were the forces that pulled her away from me when it was
so clearly manifest she loved me? Did she think of marrying him? Had
I invaded some long-planned scheme? It was evident he did not like me,
that in some way I spoilt the world for him. She returned to Bedley
Corner, and for some weeks she was flitting about me, and never once
could I have talk with her alone. When she came to my sheds Carnaby was
always with her, jealously observant. (Why the devil couldn't she send
him about his business?) The days slipped by and my anger gathered.
All this mingles with the making of Lord Roberts B. I had resolved upon
that one night as I lay awake at Bedley Corner; I got it planned out
before the bandages were off my face. I conceived this second navigable
balloon in a grandiose manner. It was to be a second Lord Roberts A,
only more so; it was to be three times as big, large enough to carry
three men, and it was to be an altogether triumphant vindication of my
claims upon the air. The framework was to be hollow like a bird's bones,
airtight, and the air pumped in or out, and the weight of fuel I carried
changed.
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