midday
Letty Tressady , elaborately dressed , with a huge white hat and lace parasol , was standing on the stairs , her pale face peering out of the shadows . The butler handed her the card , and telling him to get her a cab at once , she ran up again to the drawing-room . Meanwhile Maxwell sped on towards Westminster , frowning over his problem . As he drove down Whitehall the sun brightened to a naked midday heat , throwing its cloak of mists behind it . The gilding on the Clock Tower sparkled in the light ; even the dusty , airless street , with its withered planes , was on a sudden flooded with gaiety . Two or three official or Parliamentary acquaintances saluted the successful minister as he passed ; and each was conscious of a certain impatience with the gravity of the well-known face . That a great man should not be content to look victory , as well as win it , seemed a kind of hypocrisy .