He had detested them the whole day long.

The faces that yesterday had been long and anxious to-day had been wreathed in smirks.

Wherever he had gone he had found promise of victory in his father's disgrace.
Passionately the young man, fronting vital issues, longed for his own defeat.
But for the ironical interposition of the high gods, it might have been so different.

Any other candidate against him, he himself buoyed up with his own old glorious faith, his Princess, dazzling meteor illuminating the murky streets--dear God! what would not have been the joy of battle during the past week, what would not have been the intense thrill, the living of a thousand lives in these few hours of suspense now so dull with dreariness and pain! He sat apart, his legs crossed, a hand over his eyes.

Wilson and his men, puzzled by his apparent apathy, left him alone.