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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nobody's Man, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Nobody's Man
+
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 19, 2005  [eBook #17356]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOBODY'S MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by MRK
+
+
+
+NOBODY'S MAN
+
+by
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+1921
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOBODY'S MAN
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Andrew Tallente stepped out of the quaint little train on to the
+flower-bedecked platform of this Devonshire hamlet amongst the hills, to
+receive a surprise so immeasurable that for a moment he could do nothing
+but gaze silently at the tall, ungainly figure whose unpleasant smile
+betrayed the fact that this meeting was not altogether accidental so far
+as he was concerned.
+
+"Miller!" he exclaimed, a little aimlessly.
+
+"Why not?" was the almost challenging reply. "You are not the only
+great statesman who needs to step off the treadmill now and then."
+
+There was a certain quiet contempt in Tallente's uplifted eyebrows. The
+contrast between the two men, momentarily isolated on the little
+platform, was striking and extreme. Tallente had the bearing, the voice
+and the manner which were his by heritage, education and natural
+culture. Miller, who was the son of a postman in a small Scotch town,
+an exhibitioner so far as regards his education, and a mimic where
+social gifts were concerned, had all the aggressive bumptiousness of the
+successful man who has wit enough to perceive his shortcomings. In his
+ill-chosen tourist clothes, untidy collar and badly arranged tie, he
+presented a contrast to his companion of which he seemed, in a way,
+bitterly conscious.
+
+"You are staying near here?" Tallente enquired civilly.
+
+"Over near Lynton. Dartrey has a cottage there. I came down
+yesterday."
+
+"Surely you were in Hellesfield the day before yesterday?"
+
+Miller smiled ill-naturedly.
+
+"I was," he admitted, "and I flatter myself that I was able to make the
+speech which settled your chances in that direction."
+
+Tallente permitted a slight note of scorn to creep into his tone.
+
+"It was not your eloquence," he said, "or your arguments, which brought
+failure upon me. It was partly your lies and partly your tactics."
+
+An unwholesome flush rose in the other's face.
+
+"Lies?" he repeated, a little truculently.
+
+Tallente looked him up and down. The station master was approaching
+now, the whistle had blown, their conversation was at an end.
+
+"I said lies," Tallente observed, "most advisedly." The train was
+already on the move, and the departing passenger was compelled to step
+hurriedly into a carriage. Tallente, waited upon by the obsequious
+station master, strolled across the line to where his car was waiting.
+It was not until his arrival there that he realised that Miller had
+offered him no explanation as to his presence on the platform of this
+tiny wayside station.
+
+"Did you notice the person with whom I was talking?" he asked the
+station master.
+
+"A tall, thin gentleman in knickerbockers? Yes, sir," the man replied.
+
+"Part of your description is correct," Tallente remarked drily. "Do you
+know what he was doing here?"
+
+"Been down to your house, I believe, sir. He arrived by the early train
+this morning and asked the way to the Manor."
+
+"To my house?" Tallente repeated incredulously.
+
+"It was the Manor he asked for, sir," the station master assured his
+questioner. "Begging your pardon, sir, is it true that he was Miller,
+the Socialist M.P.?"
+
+"True enough," was the brief reply. "What of it?"
+
+The man coughed as he deposited the dispatch box which he had been
+carrying on the seat of the waiting car.
+
+"They think a lot of him down in these parts, sir," he observed, a
+little apologetically.
+
+Tallente made no answer to the station master's last speech and merely
+waved his hand a little mechanically as the car drove off. His mind was
+already busy with the problem suggested by Miller's appearance in these
+parts. For the first few minutes of his drive he was back again in the
+turmoil which he had left. Then with a little shrug of the shoulders he
+abandoned this new enigma. Its solution must be close at hand.
+
+Arrived at the edge of the dusty, white strip of road along which he had
+travelled over the moors from the station, Tallente leaned forward and
+watched the unfolding panorama below with a little start of surprise.
+He had passed through acres of yellowing gorse, of purple heather and
+mossy turf, fragrant with the aromatic perfume of sun-baked herbiage.
+In the distance, the moorland reared itself into strange promontories,
+out-flung to the sea. On his right, a little farm, with its cluster of
+out-buildings, nestled in the bosom of the hills. On either side, the
+fields still stretched upward like patchwork to a clear sky, but below,
+down into the hollow, blotting out all that might lie beneath, was a
+curious sea of rolling white mist, soft and fleecy yet impenetrable.
+Tallente, who had seen very little of this newly chosen country home of
+his, had the feeling, as the car crept slowly downward, of one about to
+plunge into a new life, to penetrate into an unknown world. A man of
+extraordinarily sensitive perceptions, leading him often outside the
+political world in which he fought the battle of life, he was conscious
+of a curious and grim premonition as the car, crawling down the
+precipitous hillside, approached and was enveloped in the grey shroud.
+The world which a few moments before had seemed so wonderful, the
+sunlight, the distant view of the sea, the perfumes of flowers and
+shrubs, had all gone. The car was crawling along a rough and stony
+road, between hedges dripping with moisture and trees dimly seen like
+spectres. At last, about three-quarters of the way down to the sea,
+after an abrupt turn, they entered a winding avenue and emerged on to a
+terrace. The chauffeur, who had felt the strain of the drive, ran a
+little past the front door and pulled up in front of an uncurtained
+window. Tallente glanced in, dazzled a little at first by the
+unexpected lamplight. Then he understood the premonition which had sat
+shivering in his heart during the long descent.
+
+
+The mist, which had hung like a spectral curtain over the little demesne
+of Martinhoe Manor, had almost entirely disappeared when, at a few
+minutes before eight, with all traces of his long journey obliterated,
+Andrew Tallente stepped out on to the stone-flagged terrace and looked
+out across the little bay below. The top of the red sandstone cliff
+opposite was still wreathed with mists, but the sunlight lay upon the
+tennis lawn, the flower gardens below, and the rocks almost covered by
+the full, swelling tide. Tall, and looking slimmer than ever in his
+plain dinner garb, there were some indications of an hour of strange and
+unexpected suffering in the tired face of the man who gazed out in
+somewhat dazed fashion at the little panorama which he had been looking
+forward so eagerly to seeing again. Throughout the long journey down
+from town, he had felt an unusual and almost boyish enthusiasm for his
+coming holiday. He had thought of his tennis racquet and fishing rods,
+wondered about his golf clubs and his guns. Even the unexpected
+encounter with Miller had done little more than leave an unpleasant
+taste in his mouth. And then, on his way down from "up over," as the
+natives called that little strip of moorland overhead, he had vanished
+into the mist and had come out into another world.
+
+"Andrew! So you are out here? Why did you not come to my room? Surely
+your train was very punctual?"
+
+Tallente remained for a moment tense and motionless. Then he turned
+around. The woman who stood upon the threshold of the house, framed
+with a little cascade of drooping roses, sought for his eyes almost
+hungrily. He realised how she must be feeling. A dormant vein of
+cynicism parted his lips as he held her fingers for a moment. His tone
+and his manner were quite natural.
+
+"We were, I believe, unusually punctual," he admitted. "What an
+extraordinary mist! Up over there was no sign of it at all."
+
+She shivered. Her eyes were still watching his face, seeking for an
+answer to her unasked question. Blue eyes they were, which had been
+beautiful in their day, a little hard and anxious now. She wore a white
+dress, simple with the simplicity of supreme and expensive art. A rope
+of pearls was her only ornament. Her hair was somewhat elaborately
+coiffured, there was a touch of rouge upon her cheeks, and the
+unscreened evening sunlight was scarcely kind to her rather wan features
+and carefully arranged complexion. She still had her claims to beauty,
+however. Tallente admitted that to himself as he stood there appraising
+her, with a strange and almost impersonal regard,--his wife of thirteen
+years. She was beautiful, notwithstanding the strained look of anxiety
+which at that moment disfigured her face, the lurking fear which made
+her voice sound artificial, the nervousness which every moment made
+fresh demands upon her self-restraint.
+
+"It came up from the sea," she said. "One moment Tony and I were
+sitting out under the trees to keep away from the sun, and the next we
+were driven shivering indoors; It was just like running into a fog bank
+in the middle of the Atlantic on a hot summer's day."
+
+"I found the difference in temperature amazing," he observed. "I, too,
+dropped from the sunshine into a strange chill."
+
+She tried to get rid of the subject.
+
+"So you lost your seat," she said. "I am very sorry. Tell me how it
+happened?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The Democratic Party made up their mind, for some reason or other, that
+I shouldn't sit. The Labour Party generally were not thinking of
+running a candidate. I was to have been returned unopposed, in
+acknowledgment of my work on the Nationalisation Bill. The Democrats,
+however, ratted. They put up a man at the last moment, and--well, you
+know the result--I lost."
+
+"I don't understand English politics," she confessed, "but I thought you
+were almost a Labour man yourself."
+
+"I am practically," he replied. "I don't know, even now, what made them
+oppose me."
+
+"What about the future?"
+
+"My plans are not wholly made."
+
+For the first time, an old and passionate ambition prevailed against the
+thrall of the moment.
+
+"One of the papers this morning," she said eagerly, "suggested that you
+might be offered a peerage."
+
+"I saw it," he acknowledged. "It was in the Sun. I was once
+unfortunate enough to be on the committee of a club which blackballed
+the editor."
+
+Her mouth hardened a little.
+
+"But you haven't forgotten your promise?"
+
+"'Bargain' shall we call it?" he replied. "No, I have not forgotten."
+
+"Tony says you could have a peerage whenever you liked."
+
+"Then I suppose it must be so. Just at present I am not prepared to
+write 'finis' to my political career."
+
+The butler announced dinner. Tallente offered his arm and they passed
+through the homely little hall into the dining room beyond. Stella came
+to a sudden standstill as they crossed the threshold.
+
+"Why is the table laid for two only?" she demanded. "Mr. Palliser is
+here."
+
+"I was obliged to send Tony away--on important business," Tallente
+intervened. "He left about an hour ago."
+
+Once more the terror was upon her. The fingers which gripped her napkin
+trembled. Her eyes, filled with fierce enquiry, were fixed upon her
+husband's as he took his place in leisurely fashion and glanced at the
+menu.
+
+"Obliged to send Tony away?" she repeated. "I don't understand. He
+told me that he had several days' work here with you."
+
+"Something intervened," he murmured.
+
+"Why didn't you wire?" she faltered, almost under her breath. "He
+couldn't have had any time to get ready."
+
+Andrew Tallente looked at his wife across the bowl of floating flowers.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed. "I didn't think of that. But in any case I did not
+make up my mind until I arrived that it was necessary for him to go."
+
+There was silence for a time, an unsatisfactory and in some respects an
+unnatural silence. Tallente trifled with his _hors d'oeuvres_ and was
+inquisitive about the sauce with which his fish was flavoured. Stella
+sent away her plate untouched, but drank two glasses of champagne. The
+light came back to her eyes, she found courage again. After all, she
+was independent of this man, independent even of his name. She looked
+across the table at him appraisingly. He was still sufficiently
+good-looking, lithe of frame and muscular, with features well-cut
+although a little irregular in outline. Time, however, and anxious work
+were beginning to leave their marks. His hair was grey at the sides,
+there were deep lines in his face, he seemed to her fancy to have
+shrunken a little during the last few years. He had still the languid,
+high-bred voice which she had always admired so munch, the same coolness
+of manner and quiet dignity. He was a personable man, but after all he
+was a failure. His career, so far as she could judge it, was at an end.
+She was a fool to imagine, even for a moment, that her whole future lay
+in his keeping.
+
+"Have you any plans?" she asked him presently. "Another constituency?"
+
+He smiled a little wearily. For once he spoke quite naturally.
+
+"The only plan I have formulated at present is to rest for a time," he
+admitted.
+
+She drank another glass of champagne and felt almost confident. She
+told him the small events of the sparsely populated neighbourhood, spoke
+of the lack of water in the trout stream, the improvement in the golf
+links, the pheasants which a near-by landowner was turning down. They
+were comparative newcomers and had seen as yet little of their
+neighbours.
+
+"I was told," she concluded, "that the great lady of the neighbourhood
+was to have called upon me this afternoon. I waited in but she didn't
+come."
+
+"And who is that?" he enquired.
+
+"Lady Jane Partington of Woolhanger--a daughter of the Duke of
+Barminster. Woolhanger was left to her by an old aunt, and they say
+that she never leaves the place."
+
+"An elderly lady?" he asked, merely with an intent of prolonging a
+harmless subject of conversation.
+
+"On the contrary, quite young," his wife replied. "She seems to be a
+sort of bachelor-spinster, who lives out in that lonely place without a
+chaperon and rules the neighborhood. You ought to make friends with
+her, Andrew. They say that she is half a Socialist.--By the by, how
+long are we going to stay down here?"
+
+"We will discuss that presently," he answered.
+
+The service of dinner came to its appointed end. Tallente drank one
+glass of port alone. Then he rose, left the room by the French windows,
+passed along the terrace and looked in at the drawing-room, where Stella
+was lingering over her coffee.
+
+"Will you walk with me as far as the lookout?" he invited. "Your maid
+can bring you a cloak if you are likely to be cold."
+
+She responded a little ungraciously, but appeared a few minutes later, a
+filmy shawl of lace covering her bare shoulders. She walked by his side
+to the end of the terrace, along the curving walk through the
+plantation, and by the sea wall to the flagged space where some seats
+and a table had been fixed. Four hundred feet below, the sea was
+beating against jagged rocks. The moon was late and it was almost dark.
+She leaned over and he stood by her side.
+
+"Stella," he said, "you asked me at dinner when we were leaving here.
+You are leaving to-morrow morning by the twelve-thirty train."
+
+"What do you mean?" she demanded, with a sudden sinking of the heart.
+
+"Please do not ask," he replied. "You know and I know. It is not my
+wish to make public the story of our--disagreement."
+
+She was silent for several moments, looking over into the black gulf
+below, watching the swirl of the sea, listening to its dull booming
+against the distant rocks, the shriek of the backward-dragged pebbles.
+An owl flew out from some secret place in the cliffs and wheeled across
+the bay. She drew her shawl around her with a little shiver.
+
+"So this is the end," she answered.
+
+"No doubt, in my way," he reflected, "I have been as great a
+disappointment to you as you to me. You brought me your great wealth,
+believing that I could use it towards securing just what you desired in
+the way of social position. Perhaps that might have come but for the
+war. Now I have become rather a failure."
+
+"There was no necessity for you ever to have gone soldiering," she
+reminded him a little hardly.
+
+"As you say," he acquiesced. "Still, I went and I do not regret it. I
+might even remind you that I met with some success."
+
+"Pooh!" she scoffed. "What is the use of a few military distinctions?
+What are an M.C. and a D.S.O. and a few French and Belgian orders going
+to do for me? You know I want other things. They told me when I
+married you," she went on, warming with her own sense of injury, "that
+you were certain to be Prime Minister. They told me that the Coalition
+Party couldn't do without you, that you were the only effective link
+between them and Labour. You had only to play your cards properly and
+you could have pushed out Horlock whenever you liked. And now see what
+a mess you have made of things! You have built up Horlock's party for
+him, he offers you an insignificant post in the Cabinet, and you can't
+even win your seat in Parliament."
+
+"Your epitome of my later political career has its weak points, but I
+dare say, from your point of view, you have every reason for complaint,"
+he observed. "Since I have failed to procure for you the position you
+desire, our parting will have a perfectly natural appearance. Your
+fortune is unimpaired--you cannot say that I have been extravagant--and
+I assure you that I shall not regret my return to poverty."
+
+"But you won't be able to live," she said bluntly. "You haven't any
+income at all."
+
+"Believe me," he answered quietly, "you exaggerate my poverty. In any
+case, it is not your concern."
+
+"You wouldn't--"
+
+She paused. She was a woman of not very keen perceptions, but she
+realised that if she were to proceed with the offer which was half
+framed in her mind, the man by her side, with his, to her outlook,
+distorted sense of honour, would become her enemy. She shrugged her
+shoulders, and turning towards him, held out her hand.
+
+"It is the end, then," she said. "Well, Andrew, I did my best according
+to my lights, and I failed. Will you shake hands?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I cannot, Stella. Let us agree to part here. We know all there is to
+be known of one another, and we shall be able to say good-by without
+regret."
+
+She drifted slowly away from him. He watched her figure pass in and out
+among the trees. She was unashamed, perhaps relieved,--probably, he
+reflected, as he watched her enter the house, already making her plans
+for a more successful future. He turned away and looked downwards. The
+darkness seemed, if possible, to have become a little more intense, the
+moaning of the sea more insistent. Little showers of white spray
+enlaced the sombre rocks. The owl came back from his mysterious
+journey, hovered for a moment over the cliff and entered his secret
+home. Behind him, the lights in the house went out, one by one.
+Suddenly he felt a grip upon his shoulder, a hot breath upon his cheek.
+It was Stella, returned dishevelled, her lace scarf streaming behind,
+her eyes lit with horror. "Andrew!" she cried. "It came over me--just
+as I entered the house! What have you done with Anthony?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Tallente's first impressions of Jane Partington were that an exceedingly
+attractive but somewhat imperious young woman had surprised him in a
+most undignified position. She had come cantering down the drive on a
+horse which, by comparison with the Exmoor ponies which every one rode
+in those parts, had seemed gigantic, and, finding a difficulty in making
+her presence known, had motioned to him with her whip. He climbed down
+from the steps where he had been busy fastening up some roses, removed a
+nail from his mouth and came towards her.
+
+"How is it that I can make no one hear?" she asked. "Do you know if
+Mrs. Tallente is at home?"
+
+Tallente was in no hurry to reply. He was busy taking in a variety of
+pleasant impressions. Notwithstanding the severely cut riding habit and
+the hard little hat, he decided that he had never looked into a more
+attractively feminine face. For some occult reason, unconnected, he was
+sure, with the use of any skin food or face cream, this young woman who
+had the reputation of living out of doors, winter and summer, had a
+complexion which, notwithstanding its faint shade of tan, would have
+passed muster for delicacy and clearness in any Mayfair drawing-room.
+Her eyes were soft and brown, her hair a darker shade of the same
+colour. Her mouth, for all its firmness, was soft and pleasantly
+curved. Her tone, though a trifle imperative, was kindly, gracious and
+full of musical quality. Her figure was moderately slim, but
+indistinguishable at that moment under her long coat. She possessed a
+curious air of physical well-being, the well-being of a woman who has
+found and is enjoying what she seeks in life.
+
+"Won't you tell me why I can make no one hear?" she repeated, still
+good-naturedly but frowning slightly at his silence.
+
+"Mrs. Tallente is in London," he announced. "She has taken most of the
+establishment with her."
+
+The visitor fumbled in her side pocket and produced a diminutive ivory
+case. She withdrew a card and handed it to Tallente, with a glance at
+his gloved hands.
+
+"Will you give this to the butler?" she begged. "Tell him to tell his
+mistress that I was sorry not to find her at home."
+
+"The butler," Tallente explained, "has gone for the milk. He shall have
+the card immediately on his return."
+
+She looked at him for a moment and then smiled.
+
+"Do forgive me," she said. "I believe you are Mr. Tallente?"
+
+He drew off his gloves and shook hands.
+
+"How did you guess that?" he asked.
+
+"From the illustrated papers, of course," she answered. "I have come to
+the conclusion that you must be a very vain man, I have seen so many
+pictures of you lately."
+
+"A matter of snapshots," he replied, "for which, as a rule, the victim
+is not responsible. You should abjure such a journalistic vice as
+picture papers."
+
+"Why?" she laughed. "They lead to such pleasant surprises. I had been
+led to believe, for instance, by studying the Daily Mirror, that you
+were quite an elderly person with a squint."
+
+"I am becoming self-conscious," he confessed. "Won't you come in?
+There is a boy somewhere about the premises who can look after your
+horse, and I shall be able to give you some tea as soon as Robert gets
+back with the milk."
+
+He cooeed to the boy, who came up from one of the lower shelves of
+garden, and she followed him into the hall. He looked around him for a
+moment in some perplexity.
+
+"I wonder whether you would mind coming into my study?" he suggested.
+"I am here quite alone for the present, and it is the only room I use."
+
+She followed him down a long passage into a small apartment at the
+extreme end of the house.
+
+"You are like me," she said. "I keep most of my rooms shut up and live
+in my den. A lonely person needs so much atmosphere."
+
+"Rather a pigsty, isn't it?" he remarked, sweeping a heap of books from
+a chair. "I am without a secretary just now--in fact," he went on, with
+a little burst of confidence engendered by her friendly attitude, "we
+are in a mess altogether."
+
+She laughed softly, leaning back amongst the cushions of the chair and
+looking around the room, her kindly eyes filled with interest.
+
+"It is a most characteristic mess," she declared. "I am sure an
+interviewer would give anything for this glimpse into your tastes and
+habits. Golf clubs, all cleaned up and ready for action; trout rod,
+newly-waxed at the joints--you must try my stream, there is no water in
+yours; tennis racquets in a very excellent press--I wonder whether
+you're too good for a single with me some day? Typewriter--rather
+dusty. I don't believe that you can use it."
+
+"I can't," he admitted. "I have been writing my letters by hand for the
+last two days."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"Men are helpless creatures! Fancy a great politician unable to write
+his own letters! What has become of your secretary?"
+
+Tallente threw some books to the floor and seated himself in the vacant
+easy-chair.
+
+"I shall begin to think," he said, a little querulously, "that you don't
+read the newspapers. My secretary, according to that portion of the
+Press which guarantees to provide full value for the smallest copper
+coin, has 'disappeared'."
+
+"Really?" she exclaimed. "He or she?"
+
+"He--the Honourable Anthony Palliser by name, son of Stobart Palliser,
+who was at Eton with me."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I expect I know his mother. What exactly do you mean by
+'disappeared'?"
+
+Tallente was looking out of the window. A slight hardness had crept
+into his tone and manner. He had the air of one reciting a story.
+
+"The young man and I differed last Tuesday night," he said. "In the
+language of the novelists, he walked out into the night and disappeared.
+Only an hour before dinner, too. Nothing has been heard of him since."
+
+"What a fatuous thing to do!" she remarked. "Shall you have to get
+another secretary?"
+
+"Presently," he assented. "Just for the moment I am rather enjoying
+doing nothing."
+
+She leaned back amongst the cushions of her chair and looked across at
+him with interest, an interest which presently drifted into sympathy.
+Even the lightness of his tone could not mask the inwritten weariness of
+the man, the tired droop of the mouth, and the lacklustre eyes.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "I have never been more intrigued than when I
+heard you were really coming down here. Last summer I was in
+Scotland--in fact I have been away every time the Manor has been open.
+I am so anxious to know whether you like this part of the world."
+
+"I like it so much," he replied, "that I feel like settling here for the
+rest of my life."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You will never be able to do that," she said, "at least not for many
+years. The country will need so much of your time. But it is
+delightful to think that you may come here for your holidays."
+
+"If you read the newspapers," he remarked, a little grimly, "you might
+not be so sure that the country is clamouring for my services."
+
+She waved away his speech with a little gesture of contempt.
+
+"Rubbish! Your defeat at Hellesfield was a matter of political jobbery.
+Any one could see through that. Horlock ought never to have sent you
+there. He ought to have found you a perfectly safe seat, and of course
+he will have to do it."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I am not so sure. Horlock resents my defeat almost as though it were a
+personal matter. Besides, it is an age of young men, Lady Jane."
+
+"Young men!" she scoffed. "But you are young."
+
+"Am I?" he answered, a little sadly. "I am not feeling it just now.
+Besides, there is something wrong about my enthusiasms. They are
+becoming altogether too pastoral. I am rather thinking of taking up the
+cultivation of roses and of making a terraced garden down to the sea.
+Do you know anything about gardening, Lady Jane?"
+
+"Of course I do," she answered, a little impatiently. "A very excellent
+hobby it is for women and dreamers and elderly men. There is plenty of
+time for you to take up such a pursuit when you have finished your
+work."
+
+"Fifteen thousand intelligent voters have just done their best to tell
+me that it is already finished," he sighed.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"Am I going to be disappointed in you, I wonder?" she asked. "I don't
+think so. You surely wouldn't let a little affair like one election
+drive you out of public life? It was so obvious that you were made the
+victim for Horlock's growing unpopularity in the country. Haven't you
+realised that yourself--or perhaps you don't care to talk about these
+things to an ignoramus such as I am?"
+
+"Please don't believe that," he begged hastily. "I think yours is
+really the common-sense view of the matter. Only," he went on, "I have
+always represented, amongst the coalitionists, the moderate Socialist,
+the views of those men who recognise the power and force of the coming
+democracy, and desire to have legislation attuned to it. Yet it was the
+Democratic vote which upset me at Hellesfield."
+
+"That was entirely a matter of faction," she persisted. "That horrible
+person Miller was sent down there, for some reason or other, to make
+trouble. I believe if the election had been delayed another week, and
+you had been able to make two more speeches like you did at the Corn
+Exchange, you would have got in."
+
+He looked at her in some surprise.
+
+"That is exactly what I thought myself," he agreed. "How on earth do
+you come to know all these things?"
+
+"I take an interest in your career," she said, smiling at him, "and I
+hate to see you so dejected without cause."
+
+He felt a little thrill at her words. A queer new sense of
+companionship stirred in his pulses. The bitterness of his suppressed
+disappointment was suddenly soothed. There was something of the
+excitement of the discoverer, too, in these new sensations. It seemed
+to him that he was finding something which had been choked out of his
+life and which was yet a real and natural part of it.
+
+"You will make an awful nuisance of me if you don't mind," he warned
+her. "If you encourage me like this, you will develop the most juvenile
+of all failings--you will make me want to talk about myself. I am
+beginning to feel terribly egotistical already."
+
+She leaned a little towards him. Her mouth was soft with sweet and
+feminine tenderness, her eyes warm with kindness.
+
+"That is just what I hoped I might succeed in doing," she declared. "I
+have been interested in your career ever since I had the faintest idea
+of what politics meant. You could not give me a greater happiness than
+to talk to me--about yourself."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Very soon tea was brought in. The homely service of the meal, and
+Robert's plain clothes, seemed to demand some sort of explanation. It
+was she who provided the opening.
+
+"Will your wife be long away?" she enquired.
+
+Tallente looked at his guest thoughtfully. She was pouring out tea from
+an ordinary brown earthenware pot with an air of complete absorption in
+her task. The friendliness of her seemed somehow to warm the atmosphere
+of the room, even as her sympathy had stolen into the frozen places of
+his life. For the moment he ignored her question. His eyes appraised
+her critically, reminiscently. There was something vaguely familiar in
+the frank sweetness of her tone and manner.
+
+"I am going to make the most idiotically commonplace remark," he said.
+"I cannot believe that this is the first time we have met."
+
+"It isn't," she replied, helping herself to strawberry
+
+"Are you in earnest?" he asked, puzzled.
+
+"Do you mean that I have spoken to you?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Not only that but you have made me a present."
+
+He searched the recesses of his memory in vain. She smiled at his
+perplexity and began to count on her fingers.
+
+"Let me see," she said, "exactly fourteen years ago you arrived in Paris
+from London on a confidential mission to a certain person."
+
+"To Lord Peters!" he exclaimed.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"You had half an hour to spare after you had finished your business, and
+you begged to see the young people. Maggie Peters was always a friend
+of yours. You came into the morning-room and I was there."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes! I was at school in Paris, and I was spending my half-holiday with
+Maggie."
+
+"The little brown girl!" he murmured. "I never heard your name, and
+when I sent the chocolates I had to send them to 'the young lady in
+brown.' Of course I remember! But your hair was down your back, you had
+freckles, and you were as silent as a mouse."
+
+"You see how much better my memory is than yours," she laughed.
+
+"I am not so sure," he objected. "You took me for the gardener just
+now."
+
+"Not when you came down the steps," she protested, "and besides, it is
+your own fault for wearing such atrociously old clothes."
+
+"They shall be given away to-morrow," he promised.
+
+"I should think so," she replied. "And you might part with the battered
+straw hat you were wearing, at the same time."
+
+"It shall be done," he promised meekly.
+
+She became reminiscent.
+
+"We were all so interested in you in those days. Lord Peters told us,
+after you were gone, that some day you would be Prime Minister."
+
+"I am afraid," he sighed, "that I have disappointed most of my friends."
+
+"You have disappointed no one," she assured him firmly. "You will
+disappoint no one. You are the one person in politics who has kept a
+steadfast course, and if you have lost ground a little in the country,
+and slipped out of people's political appreciation during the last
+decade, don't we all know why? Every one of your friends--and your
+wife, of course," she put in hastily, "must be proud that you have lost
+ground. There isn't another man in the country who gave up a great
+political career to learn his drill in a cadet corps, who actually
+served in the trenches through the most terrible battles of the war, and
+came out of it a Brigadier-General with all your distinctions."
+
+He felt his heart suddenly swell. No one had ever spoken to him like
+this. The newspapers had been complimentary for a day and had accepted
+the verdict of circumstances the next. His wife had simply been the
+reflex of other people's opinion and the trend of events.
+
+"You make me feel," he told her earnestly, "almost for the first time,
+that after all it was worth while."
+
+The slight unsteadiness of his tone at first surprised, then brought her
+almost to the point of confusion. Their eyes met--a startled glance on
+her part, merely to assure herself that he was in earnest--and
+afterwards there was a moment's embarrassment. She accepted a cigarette
+and went back to her easy-chair.
+
+"You did not answer the question I asked you a few minutes ago," she
+reminded him. "When is your wife returning?"
+
+The shadow was back on his face.
+
+"Lady Jane," he said, "if it were not that we are old friends, dating
+from that box of chocolates, remember, I might have felt that I must
+make you some sort of a formal reply. But as it is, I shall tell you
+the truth. My wife is not coming hack."
+
+"Not at all?" she exclaimed.
+
+"To me, never," he answered. "We have separated."
+
+"I am so very sorry," she said, after a moment's startled silence. "I
+am afraid that I asked a tactless question, but how could I know?"
+
+"There was nothing tactless about it," he assured her. "It makes it
+much easier for me to tell you. I married my wife thirteen years ago
+because I believed that her wealth would help me in my career. She
+married me because she was an American with ambitions, anxious to find a
+definite place in English society. She has been disappointed in me.
+Other circumstances have now presented themselves. I have discovered
+that my wife's affections are bestowed elsewhere. To be perfectly
+honest, the discovery was a relief to me."
+
+"So that is why you are living down here like this?" she murmured.
+
+"Precisely! The one thing for which I am grateful," he went on, "is
+that I always refused to let my wife take a big country house. I
+insisted upon an unpretentious place for the times when I could rest. I
+think that I shall settle down here altogether. I can just afford to
+live here if I shoot plenty of rabbits, and if Robert's rheumatism is
+not too bad for him to look after the vegetable garden."
+
+"Of course you are talking nonsense," she pronounced, a little curtly.
+
+"Why nonsense?"
+
+"You must go back to your work," she insisted.
+
+"Keep this place for your holiday moments, certainly, but for the rest,
+to talk of settling down here is simply wicked."
+
+"What is my work?" he asked. "I tell you frankly that I do not know
+where I belong. A very intelligent constituency, stuffed up to the
+throat with schoolboard education, has determined that it would prefer a
+representative who has changed his politics already four times. I seem
+to be nobody's man. Horlock at heart is frightened of me, because he is
+convinced that I am not sound, and he has only tried to make use of me
+as a sop to democracy. The Whigs hate me like poison, hate me even
+worse than Horlock. If I were in Parliament, I should not know which
+Party to support. I think I shall devote my time to roses."
+
+"And between September and May?"
+
+"I shall hibernate and think about them."
+
+"Of course," she said, with the air of one humoring a child, "you are
+not in earnest. You have just been through a very painful experience
+and you are suffering from it. As for the rest, you are talking
+nonsense."
+
+"Explain, please," he begged.
+
+"You said just now that you did not know where your place was," she
+continued. "You called yourself nobody's man. Why, the most ignorant
+person who thinks about things could tell you where you belong. Even I
+could tell you."
+
+"Please do," he invited.
+
+She rose to her feet.
+
+"Walk round the garden with me," she begged, brushing the cigarette ash
+from her skirt. "You know what a terrible out-of-door person I am.
+This room seems to me close. I want to smell the sea from one of those
+wonderful lookouts of yours."
+
+He walked with her along one of the lower paths, deliberately avoiding
+the upper lookouts. They came presently to a grass-grown pier. She
+stood at the end, her firm, capable fingers clenching the stone wall,
+her eyes looking seaward.
+
+"I will tell you where you belong," she said. "In your heart you must
+know it, but you are suffering from that reaction which comes from
+failure to those people who are not used to failure. You belong to the
+head of things. You should hold up your right, hand, and the party you
+should lead should form itself about you. No, don't interrupt me," she
+went on. "You and all of us know that the country is in a bad way. She
+is feeling all the evils of a too-great prosperity, thrust upon her
+after a period of suffering. You can see the dangers ahead--I learnt
+them first from you in the pages of the reviews, when after the war you
+foretold the exact position in which we find ourselves to-day.
+Industrial wealth means the building up of a new democracy. The
+democracy already exists but it is unrepresented, because those people
+who should form its bulwark and its strength are attached to various
+factions of what is called the Labour Party. They don't know themselves
+yet. No Rienzi has arisen to hold up the looking-glass. If some one
+does not teach them to find themselves, there will be trouble. Mind, I
+am only repeating what you have told others."
+
+"It is all true," he agreed.
+
+"Then can't you see," she continued eagerly, "what party it is to which
+you ought to attach yourself--the party which has broken up now into
+half a dozen factions? They are all misnamed but that is no matter.
+You should stand for Parliament as a Labour or a Socialist candidate,
+because you understand what the people want and what they ought to have.
+You should draw up a new and final programme."
+
+"You are a wonderful person," he said with conviction, "but like all
+people who are clear-sighted and who have imagination, you are also a
+theorist. I believe your idea is the true one, but to stand for
+Parliament as a Labour member you have to belong to one of the
+acknowledged factions to be sure of any support at all. An independent
+member can count his votes by the capful."
+
+"That is the old system," she pointed out firmly. "It is for you to
+introduce a new one. If necessary, you must stoop to political cunning.
+You should make use of those very factions until you are strong enough
+to stand by yourself. Through their enmity amongst themselves, one of
+them would come to your side, anyway. But I should like to see you
+discard all old parliamentary methods. I should like to see you speak
+to the heart of the man who is going to record his vote."
+
+"It is a slow matter to win votes in units," he reminded her.
+
+"But it is the real way," she insisted. "Voting by party and government
+by party will soon come to an end. It must. All that it needs is a
+strong man with a definite programme of his own, to attack the whole
+principle."
+
+He looked away from the sea towards the woman by his side. The wind was
+blowing in her face, blowing back little strands of her tightly coiled
+hair, blowing back her coat and skirt, outlining her figure with soft
+and graceful distinction. She was young, healthy and splendid, full of
+all the enthusiasm of her age. He sighed a little bitterly.
+
+"All that you say," he reminded her, "should have been said to me by the
+little brown girl in Paris, years ago. I am too old now for great
+tasks."
+
+She turned towards him with the pitying yet pleasant air of one who
+would correct a child.
+
+"You are forty-nine years old and three months," she said.
+
+"How on earth did you know that?" he demanded.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"A valuable little red book called 'Who's Who.' You see, it is no use
+your trying to pose as a Methuselah. For a politician you are a young
+man. You have time and strength for the greatest of all tasks. Find
+some other excuse, sir, if you talk of laying down the sword and picking
+up the shuttle."
+
+He looked back seawards. His eyes were following the flight of a
+seagull, wheeling in the sunlight.
+
+"I suppose you are right," he acknowledged. "No man is too old for
+work."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir."
+
+They turned abruptly around. They had been so engrossed that they had
+not noticed the sound of footsteps. Robert, a little out of breath, was
+standing at attention. There was a disturbed look in his face, a tremor
+in his voice.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," he repeated, "there is--some one here to see
+you."
+
+"Some one?" Tallente repeated impatiently.
+
+Robert leaned a little forward. The effort at lowering his voice only
+made his hoarse whisper sound more agitated.
+
+"A police inspector, sir, from Barnstaple, is waiting in the study."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Mr Inspector Gillian of Barnstaple had no idea of denying his
+profession. He had travelled over in a specially hired motor-car, and
+he was wearing his best uniform. He rose to his feet at Tallente's
+entrance and saluted a little ponderously.
+
+"Mr. Andrew Tallente, sir?" he enquired.
+
+Tallente silently admitted his identity, waved the inspector back to his
+seat--the one high-backed and uncomfortable chair in the room--and took
+an easy-chair himself.
+
+"I have come over, sir," the man continued, "according to instructions
+received by telephone from Scotland Yard. My business is to ask you a
+few questions concerning the disappearance of the Honourable Anthony
+Palliser, who was, I am given to understand, your secretary."
+
+"Dear me!" Tallente exclaimed. "I had no idea that the young man's
+temporary absence from polite society would be turned into a
+melodramatic disappearance."
+
+The inspector took mental note of the levity in Tallente's tone, and
+disapproved.
+
+"The Honourable Anthony Palliser disappeared from here, sir, on Tuesday
+night last, the night of your return from London," he said. "I have
+come to ask you certain questions with reference to that disappearance."
+
+"Go ahead," Tallente begged. "Care to smoke a cigar?"
+
+"Not whilst on duty, thank you, sir," was the dignified reply.
+
+"You will forgive my cigarette," Tallente observed, lighting one. "Now
+you can go ahead as fast as you like."
+
+"Question number one is this, sir. I wish to know whether Mr.
+Palliser's abrupt departure from the Manor was due to any disagreement
+with you?"
+
+"In a sense I suppose it was," the other acknowledged. "I turned him
+out of the house."
+
+The inspector did not attempt to conceal his gratification. He made a
+voluminous note in his pocketbook.
+
+"Am I to conclude, then, that there was a quarrel?" he enquired.
+
+"I do not quarrel with people to whom I pay a salary," Tallente replied.
+
+"When you say that you turned him out of the house, that rather implies
+a quarrel, doesn't it? It might even imply--blows."
+
+"You can put your own construction upon it," was the cool reply.
+
+"Had you any idea where the honourable Anthony Palliser was going to?"
+
+"I suggested the devil," Tallente confided blandly. "I expect he will
+get there some time. I put up with him because I knew his father, but
+he is not a young man to make a fuss about."
+
+The inspector was a little staggered.
+
+"I am to conclude, then," he said, "that you were dissatisfied with his
+work as your secretary?"
+
+"Absolutely," was the firm reply. "You have no idea what a mess he was
+liable to make of things if he was left alone."
+
+The inspector coughed.
+
+"Mr. Tallente, sir," he said, "my instructions are to ask you to
+disclose the nature of your displeasure, if any, with the Honourable Mr.
+Anthony Palliser. In plain words, Scotland Yard desires to know why he
+was turned away from his place at a moment's notice."
+
+"I suppose it is the duty of Scotland Yard to be inquisitive in cases of
+this sort," Tallente observed. "You can report to them the whole of the
+valuable information with which I have already furnished you, and you
+can add that I absolutely refuse to give any information respecting
+the--er--difference of opinion between the young man and myself."
+
+The inspector did not conceal his dissatisfaction.
+
+"I shall ask, you, sir," he said with dignity, "to reconsider that
+decision. Remember that it is the police who ask, and in cases of this
+sort they have special privileges."
+
+"As soon as any criminal case arises from Anthony Palliser's
+disappearance," Tallente pointed out, "you will be in a position to ask
+me questions from a different standpoint. For the present I have given
+you just as much information as I feel inclined to. Shall we leave it
+at that?"
+
+The inspector appeared to have become hard of hearing. He did not
+attempt to rise from his chair.
+
+"Being your private secretary, sir," he said, "the Honourable Anthony
+Palliser would no doubt have access to your private papers?"
+
+"Naturally," Tallente conceded.
+
+"There might be amongst them papers of importance, papers whose
+possession by parties in the other camp of politics--"
+
+"Stop!" Tallente interrupted. "Inspector Gillan, you are an astute man.
+Excuse me."
+
+He crossed the room and, with a key which he took from a chain attached
+to his trouser button, opened a small but powerful safe fitted into the
+wall. He opened it confidently enough, gazed inside and remained for a
+moment transfixed. Then he took up a few little packets of papers,
+glanced them through and replaced them. He still stood there, dangling
+the key in his hard. The inspector watched him curiously.
+
+"Anything missing, sir?" he asked.
+
+Tallente swung the door to and came back to his chair.
+
+"Yes!" he admitted.
+
+"Can I make a note of the nature of the loss, sir?" the man asked,
+moistening his pencil.
+
+"A political paper of some personal consequence," Tallente replied.
+"Its absence disquiets me. It also confirms my belief that Palliser is
+lying doggo for a time."
+
+"A hint as to the contents of the missing paper would be very
+acceptable, sir," Inspector Gillian begged.
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"For the present," he decided, "I can only repeat what I said a few
+moments ago--I have given you just as much information as I feel
+inclined to."
+
+The inspector rose to his feet.
+
+"My report will not be wholly satisfactory to Scotland Yard, sir," he
+declared.
+
+"My experience of the estimable body is that they take a lot of
+satisfying," Tallente replied. "Will you take anything before you go,
+Inspector?"
+
+"Nothing whatever, thank you, sir. At the risk of annoying you, I am
+bound to ask this question. Will you tell me whether anything in the
+nature of blows passed between you and the Honourable Anthony Palliser,
+previous to his leaving your house?"
+
+"I will not even satisfy your curiosity to that extent," Tallente
+answered.
+
+"It will be my duty, sir," the inspector said ponderously, "to examine
+some of your servants."
+
+"Scotland Yard can do that for themselves," Tallente observed. "My wife
+and the greater part of the domestic staff left here for London a week
+ago."
+
+The representative of the law saluted solemnly.
+
+"I am sorry that you have not felt inclined to treat me with more
+confidence in this matter, Mr. Tallente," he said.
+
+He took his leave then. Tallente heard him conversing for some time
+with Robert and saw him in the garden, interviewing the small boy.
+Afterwards, he climbed into his car and drove away. Tallente opened his
+safe and once more let the little array of folded papers slip through
+his hands. Then he rang the bell for Robert, who presently appeared.
+
+"The inspector has quite finished with you?" his master asked.
+
+Robert was a portly man, a little unhealthy in colour and a little short
+of breath. He had been gassed in the war and his nerves were not what
+they had been. It was obvious, as he stood on the other side of the
+table, that he was trembling.
+
+"Quite, sir. He was enquiring about Mr. Palliser."
+
+His master nodded.
+
+"I am afraid he will find it a little difficult to obtain any
+information round here," he remarked. "There are certain things
+connected with that young man which may throw a new light upon his
+disappearance."
+
+"Indeed, sir?" Robert murmured.
+
+Tallente glanced towards the safe.
+
+"Robert," he confided, "I have been robbed."
+
+The man started a little.
+
+"Indeed, sir?" he replied. "Nothing very valuable, I hope?"
+
+"I have been robbed of papers," Tallente said quietly, "which in the
+wrong hands might ruin me. Mr. Palliser had a key to that safe. Have
+you ever seen it open?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"When did Mr. Palliser arrive here?"
+
+"On the evening train of the Monday, sir, that you arrived by on the
+Tuesday."
+
+"Tell me, did he receive any visitors at all on the Tuesday?"
+
+"There was a man came over from a house near Lynton, sir, said his name
+was Miller."
+
+"Have you any idea what he wanted?"
+
+"No certain idea, sir," Robert replied doubtfully. "Now I come to think
+of it, though, it seemed as though he had come to make Mr. Palliser
+some sort of an offer. After I had let him out, he came back and said
+something to Mr. Palliser about three thousand pounds, and Mr.
+Palliser said he would let him know. I got the idea, somehow or other,
+that the transaction, whatever it might have been, was to be concluded
+on Tuesday night."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me this before, Robert?" his master enquired.
+
+"Other things drove it out of my mind, sir," the man confessed. "I
+didn't look upon it as of much consequence. I thought it was something
+to do with Mr. Palliser's private affairs."
+
+Tallente glanced at the safe.
+
+"I saw this man Miller at the station," he said, "when I arrived."
+
+"That would be on his way back from here, sir," Robert acquiesced. "I
+gathered that he was coming back again after dinner in a car."
+
+"Did you hear a car at all that night?"
+
+"I rather fancied I did," the man asserted. "I didn't take particular
+notice, though."
+
+Tallente frowned.
+
+"I am very much afraid, Robert," he said, "that wherever Mr. Palliser
+is, those papers are."
+
+Robert shivered.
+
+"Very good, sir," he said, in a low tone.
+
+"Any speculations as to that young man's whereabouts," Tallente
+continued thoughtfully, "must necessarily be a matter of pure guesswork,
+but supposing, Robert, he should have wandered in that mist the wrong
+way--turned to the left, for instance, outside this window, instead of
+to the right--he might very easily have fallen over the cliff."
+
+"The walk is very unsafe in the dark, sir," Robert acquiesced, looking
+down at the carpet.
+
+"It was not my intention," Tallente remarked thoughtfully, "to kill the
+young man. A brawl in front of the windows was impossible, so I took
+him with me to the lookout. I suppose he was tactless and I lost my
+temper. I struck him on the chin and he went backwards, through that
+piece of rotten paling, you know, Robert--"
+
+"I know, sir," the man interrupted, with a little moan. "Please don't!"
+
+Tallente shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I took him at no disadvantage," he said coolly. "He knew how to use
+the gloves and he was twenty years younger than I. However, there it is.
+Backwards he went, all legs and arms and shrieks. And with him went the
+papers he had stolen.--At twelve o'clock to-night, Robert, I must go
+down after him."
+
+"It's impossible, sir! It's a sheer precipice for four hundred feet!"
+
+"Nothing of the sort," was the cool reply. "There are heaps of ledges
+and little clumps of pines and yews. All that you will have to do is to
+pull up the rope when I am ready. You can fasten it to a tree when I go
+down."
+
+"It's not worth it, sir," the man protested anxiously. "No one will
+ever find the body down there."
+
+"Send the boy home to stay with his parents to-night," Tallente
+continued. "Your wife, I suppose, can be trusted?"
+
+"She is living up at the garage, sir," Robert answered. "Besides, she
+is deaf. I'll tell her that I am sleeping in the house to-night as you
+are not very well. And forgive me, sir--her ladyship left a message.
+She hoped you would lunch with her to-morrow."
+
+Tallente strolled out again in a few minutes, curiously impatient of the
+restraint of walls, and clambered up the precipitous field at the back
+of the Manor. Far up the winding road which led back into the world, a
+motor-car was crawling on its way up over. He watched it through a pair
+of field glasses. Leaning back in the tonneau with folded arms, as
+though solemnly digesting a problem, was Inspector Gillian. Tallente
+closed the glasses with a little snap and smiled.
+
+"The Bucket type," he murmured to himself, "very much the Bucket type."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The moon that night seemed to be indulging in strange vagaries, now
+dimly visible behind a mist of thin grey vapour, now wholly obscured
+behind jagged masses of black cloud, and occasionally shining
+brilliantly from a little patch of clear sky. Tallente waited for one
+of the latter moments before he finally tested the rope which was wound
+around the strongest of the young pine trees and stepped over the rustic
+wooden paling at the edge of the lookout He stood there balanced between
+earth and sky, until Robert, who watched him, shivered. "There is
+nothing to fear," his master said coolly. "Remember, I am an old hand
+at mountain climbing, Robert. All the same, if anything should happen,
+you'd better say that we fancied we heard a cry from down below and I
+went to see what it was. You understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir!"
+
+Tallente took a step into what seemed to be Eternity. The rope cut into
+his hands for the first three or four yards, as the red sand crumbled
+away beneath his feet, and he was obliged to grip for his life.
+Presently he gained a little ledge, from which a single yew tree was
+growing, and paused for breath.
+
+"Are you all right, sir?" Robert called out from above.
+
+"Quite," was the confident answer. "I shall be off again in a minute."
+
+Tallente's head had been the wonder even of members of the Alpine Club,
+years ago in Switzerland. He found himself now in this strangest of all
+positions, absolutely steady and unmoved. Sheer below him, dark,
+rushing waves broke upon the rocks, sending showers of glittering spray
+upwards. Above, the little lookout with its rustic paling seemed almost
+more than directly overhead. The few stars and the fugitive moon seemed
+somehow set in a different sky. He felt a new kinship with a great gull
+who came floating by. He had become himself a creature of the wild
+places. Presently he began once more to let himself down, hand over
+hand, to where the next little clump of trees showed a chance of a
+precarious foothold. The rope chafed his fingers but he remained
+absolutely steady. Once he trusted for a moment to a yew tree, growing
+out of a fissure in the rock, which came out by the roots and went
+hurtling down into space. From overhead he heard Robert's terrified
+cry. The rope stood the strain of his sudden clutch, however, and all
+was well. A little lower down, holding on with one hand, he took his
+torch from his pocket and examined the surface of the cliff. Nothing
+apparently had been disturbed, nor was there any sign of any heavy body
+having been dashed through the undergrowth. Soon he went on again,
+and, working a little to the left, stood for a moment upon a green,
+turf-covered crag, a tiny plateau covered with the refuse of seagulls
+and a few stunted trees, from amongst which a startled hawk rose with a
+wild cry. He waited here until the moon shone once more and he could
+see the little strip of shingle below. Nowhere could he find any trace
+of the thing he sought.
+
+At the end of half an hour's climbing, he reached the end of the rope.
+The little cove, filled with tumbled rocks and a narrow strip of beach,
+was still about eighty feet below. The slope here was far less
+precipitous and there was a foothold in many places amongst the thinly
+growing firs and dwarfed oaks. Calmly he let go the rope and commenced
+to scramble. More than once his foot slipped, but he was always in a
+position to save himself. The time came at last when he stood upon the
+pebbly beach, surprised to find that his knees were shaking and his
+breath coming fast. The little place was so enclosed that when he
+looked upwards it seemed as though he were at the bottom of a pit, as
+though the stars and the doubtful moon had receded and he was somehow in
+the bowels of the earth instead of being on the sea level. There were
+only a few feet of the shingle dry, and a great wave, breaking amongst
+the huge rocks, drenched him with spray. He proceeded with his task,
+however, searching methodically amongst the rocks, scanning the pebbly
+beach with his torch, always amazed that nowhere could he find the
+slightest trace of what he sought. Finally, drenched to the skin and
+utterly exhausted, he commenced once more the upward climb. He was an
+hour reaching the end of the rope. Then he blew the whistle and the
+rest was easy. Nevertheless, when the paling came into sight and he
+felt Robert's arms under his shoulders, he reeled over towards the seat
+and lay there, his clothes caked in red mud, the knees of his
+knickerbockers cut, blood on his hands and forehead, breathless. Robert
+forced brandy down his throat, however, and in a moment or two he was
+himself again.
+
+"A miracle!" he gasped. "There is nothing there."
+
+"There was something dark, I fancied, upon the strip of beach, sir,"
+Robert ventured.
+
+"I thought so too. It was a tarred plank of timber."
+
+"Then the tide must have reached him."
+
+Tallente rose to his feet and looked over.
+
+"The sea alone knows," he said. "For the first time, though, Robert, I
+feel inclined to agree with the newspapers, who speak of the strange
+disappearance of the Honourable Antimony Palliser. Could any man go
+backwards over that palisading, do you think, and save his life?"
+
+Robert shook his head.
+
+"Miracles can't happen, sir," he muttered.
+
+"Nevertheless," Tallente said, a little gloomily, "the sea never keeps
+what the land gives it. My fate will rest with the tides."
+
+Robert suddenly gripped his master's arm. The moon had disappeared
+underneath a fragment of cloud and they stood in complete darkness.
+Both men listened. From one of the paths which led through the grounds
+from the beach, came the sound of muffled footsteps. A startled owl
+flew out and wheeled over their heads with a queer little cry.
+
+"Who's that in the grounds, Robert?" Tallente demanded.
+
+"I've no idea, sir," the latter replied, his voice shaking. "The
+cottage is empty. The boy went home--I saw him start off. There is no
+one else about the place."
+
+Nevertheless, the footsteps came nearer. By and by, through the trees,
+came the occasional flash of an electric torch. Robert turned towards
+the house but Tallente gripped him by the arm.
+
+"Stop here," he muttered. "We couldn't get away. Any one would hear
+our footsteps along this flinty path. Besides, there is the rope."
+
+"It's someone else searching!" Robert whispered hoarsely.
+
+The light grew nearer and nearer. A little way below, the path branched
+to the right and the left. To the left it encircled the tennis lawn and
+led to the Manor or back to the road. The path to the right led to the
+little lookout upon which the two men were standing. The footsteps for
+a moment hesitated. Then the light flashed out and approached. Whoever
+the intruder might be, he was making his way directly towards them.
+Tallente shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We must see this through, Robert," he said. "We were in a tighter
+corner at Ypres, remember. Keep as quiet as you can. Now, then."
+
+Tallente flashed on his own torch.
+
+"Who's there?" he asked sternly.
+
+There was no answer. The torch for a moment remained stationary, then
+it began again to advance.
+
+"What are you doing in my grounds?" Tallente demanded. "Who are you?"
+
+A shape loomed into distinctness. A bulky man in dark clothes came into
+sight.
+
+"I am Gillian--Inspector Gillian. What are you doing out here, Mr.
+Tallente?"
+
+Tallente laughed a little scornfully.
+
+"It seems to me that the boot is on the other leg," he said. "I should
+like to know what the mischief you mean by wandering around my grounds
+at this hour of the night without my permission?"
+
+The inspector completed his climb and stood in the little circle of
+light. He took note of the rope and of Tallente's condition.
+
+"My presence here, sir," the inspector announced, "is connected with the
+disappearance of the Honourable Anthony Palliser."
+
+"Confidence for confidence," Tallente replied. "So is mine."
+
+The inspector moved to the palisading. The top rail had been broken, as
+though it had given under the weight of some heavy body. He held up the
+loose fragment, glanced downwards into the dark gulf and back again to
+Tallente. "You've been over there," he said. "I have," Tallente
+admitted. "I've made a search that I don't fancy you'd have tackled
+yourself. I've been down the cliff to the beach."
+
+"What reason had you for supposing that you might discover Mr.
+Palliser's body there?" the other asked bluntly.
+
+Tallente sat on the stone seat and lit a cigarette.
+
+"I will take you into my confidence, Mr. Inspector," he said. "This
+afternoon I strolled round here with a lady caller, just before you
+came, and I fancied that I heard a faint cry. I took no notice of it at
+the time, but to-night, after dinner, I wandered out here again, and
+again I fancied I heard it. It got on my nerves to such an extent that
+I fetched Robert here, a coil of rope, put on some shoes with spikes and
+tried to remember that I was an Alpine climber."
+
+"You've been down to the beach and back, sir?" the inspector asked,
+looking over a little wonderingly.
+
+"Every inch of the way. The last eighty feet or so I had to scramble."
+
+"Did you discover anything, sir?"
+
+"Not a thing. I couldn't even find a broken twig in any of the little
+clumps of outgrowing trees. There wasn't a sign of the sand having been
+disturbed anywhere down the face of the cliff, and I shouldn't think a
+human being had been on that beach during our lifetimes. I have had my
+night's work for nothing."
+
+"It was just the cry you fancied you heard which made you undertake this
+expedition?"
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+The inspector held up the broken rail.
+
+"When was this smashed?" he enquired.
+
+"I have no idea," Tallente answered. "All the woodwork about the place
+is rotten."
+
+"Doesn't it occur to you, sir, as being an extraordinarily dangerous
+thing to put it back in exactly the same position as though it were
+sound?"
+
+"Iniquitous," Tallente agreed.
+
+The inspector made a mental note. Tallente threw the remains of his
+cigarette into the sea. "I am going to bed now." he said. "Can I offer
+you any refreshment, Mr. Inspector, or are your investigations not yet
+complete?"
+
+"I thank you, sir, but I require nothing. I have some men up in the
+wood there and I shall join them presently. I am staying in the
+neighborhood."
+
+Tallente pointed to the rope.
+
+"If you would care to search for yourself, Mr. Inspector, we'll help
+you down."
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Scarcely a job for a man of my build, sir. I have a professional
+climber coming to-morrow. I wish you had informed me of your intention
+to go down to-night."
+
+"If you had informed me of your intention to remain in the neighborhood,
+that might have been possible," was the cool reply. The man took the
+loose wooden rail from its place and held it under his arm. "Walking
+off with a portion of my fence, eh?" Tallente asked.
+
+The inspector made no direct reply. He turned his torch on to the
+broken end.
+
+"A clue?" Tallente asked him lightly. The other turned away. "It is
+not my place, sir," he announced, "to share any discovery I might make
+with a person who has deliberately refused to assist the law."
+
+"No one has convinced me yet," Tallente replied, "that Palliser's
+disappearance is a matter in which the law need concern itself." The
+inspector coughed. "I wish you good night, sir." He disappeared along
+the narrow path. They listened to his retreating footsteps. Tallente
+picked up his end of the rope. "I was right," he said, as he led the
+way back to the house. "Quite the Inspector Bucket type."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+At noon the next day, Tallente, nervously as well as physically
+exhausted with the long climb from the Manor, turned aside from the
+straight, dusty road and seated himself upon a lichen-covered boulder.
+He threw his cap on the ground, filled and lighted an old briar pipe,
+and gazed with a queer mixture of feelings across the moorland to where
+Woolhanger spread itself, a queer medley of dwelling house and farm
+buildings, strangely situated at the far end of the table-land he was
+crossing, where the moor leaned down to a great hollow in the hills.
+The open stretch of common which lay between him and his destination had
+none of the charm of the surrounding country. It was like a dark spot
+set in the midst of the rolling splendours of the moorland proper.
+There were boulders of rock of unknown age, dark patches of peat land,
+where even in midsummer the mud oozed up at the lightest footfall, pools
+and sedgy places, the home and sometimes the breeding place of the
+melancholy snipe. Of colour there was singularly little. The heather
+bushes were stunted, their roots blackened as though with fire, and even
+the yellow of the gorse shone with a dimmer lustre. But in the
+distance, a flaming carpet of orange and purple stretched almost to the
+summit of the brown hills of kindlier soil, and farther round,
+westwards, richly cultivated fields, from which the labourers seemed to
+hang like insects in the air, rolled away almost to the clouds.
+
+Tallente looked at them a little wearily, impressed with the allegorical
+significance of his position. It seemed to him that he was in the land
+to which he belonged, the barren land of desolation and failure. The
+triumphs of the past failed for a moment to thrill his pulses. The
+memory of his well-lived and successful life brought him not an atom of
+consolation. The present was all that mattered, and the present had
+brought him to the gates of failure.--After all, what did a man work
+for, he wondered? What was the end and aim of it all? Life at
+Martinhoe Manor, with a faithful but terrified manservant, bookshelves
+ready to afford him the phantasmal satisfaction of another man's
+thoughts, sea and winds, beauties of landscape and colour, to bring him
+to the threshold of an epicurean pleasure which needed yet that one
+pulsating link with humanity to yield the full meed of joy and content.
+It all came back to the old story of man's weakness, he thought, as he
+rose to his feet, his teeth almost savagely clenching his pipe. He had
+become a conqueror of circumstances only to become a victim of the
+primitive needs of life.
+
+At about a quarter of a mile from the house, the road branched away to
+the left to disappear suddenly over the edge of a drop of many hundreds
+of feet. Tallente passed through a plain white gate, down an avenue of
+dwarfed oaks, to emerge into an unexpectedly green meadow, cloven
+through the middle with a straight white avenue. Through another gate
+he passed into a drive which led through flaming banks of rhododendrons,
+now a little past their full glory, to the front of the house, a long
+and amplified building which, by reason of many additions, had become an
+abode of some pretensions. A manservant answered his ring at once and
+led him into a cool, white stone hall, the walls of which were hung from
+floor to ceiling with hunting and sporting trophies.
+
+"Her ladyship is still at the farm, sir," the man announced. "She said
+if you came before she returned would you care to step round?"
+
+Tallente signified his assent and was led through the house, across a
+more extensive garden, from which a marvellous view of the valley and
+the climbing slopes behind held him spellbound, by the side of a small,
+quaintly shaped church, to a circular group of buildings of considerable
+extent. The man conducted him to the front of a white-plastered cottage
+covered with roses, and knocked at the door.
+
+"This is her ladyship's office, sir," he announced.
+
+Lady Jane's invitation to enter was clear and friendly. Tallente found
+her seated behind a desk, talking to a tall man in riding clothes, who
+swung around to eye the newcomer with a curiosity which seemed somehow
+not altogether friendly. Lady Jane held out her hand and smiled
+delightfully.
+
+"Do come in, Mr. Tallente," she begged. "I can't tell you how glad I
+am to see you. Now you will believe, won't you, that I am not
+altogether an idler in life? This is my agent, Mr. Segerson--Mr.
+Tallente."
+
+Lionel Segerson held out his hand. He was a tall, well-built young
+Devonian, sunburnt, with fair curly hair, a somewhat obstinate type of
+countenance, and dressed in the dandified fashion of the sporting
+farmer.
+
+"Glad to know you, Mr. Tallente," he said, in a tone which lacked
+enthusiasm. "I hope you're going to stay down in these parts for a
+time?"
+
+Tallente made only a monosyllabic reply, and Lady Jane, with a little
+gesture of apology, continued her conversation with Segerson.
+
+"I should like you," she directed, "to see James Crockford for yourself.
+Try and explain my views to him--you know them quite well. I want him
+to own his land. You can tell him that within the last two years I have
+sold eleven farms to their tenants, and no one could say that I have not
+done so on easy terms. But I need further convincing that Crocker is in
+earnest about the matter, and that he will really work to make his farm
+a success. In five good years he has only saved a matter of four
+hundred pounds, although his rental has been almost insignificant. That
+is the worst showing of any of the tenants on the estate, and though if
+I had more confidence in him I would sell on a mortgage, I don't feel
+inclined to until he has shown that he can do better. Tell him that he
+can have the farm for two thousand pounds, but he must bring me eight
+hundred in cash and it must not be borrowed money. That ought to
+satisfy him. He must know quite well that I could get three thousand
+pounds for it in the open market."
+
+"These fellows never take any notice of that," Segerson remarked.
+"Ungrateful beggars, all of them. I'll tell him what you say, Lady
+Jane."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Anything else?" the young man asked, showing a disposition to linger.
+
+"Nothing, thanks, until to-morrow morning." There was even then a slight
+unwillingness in his departure, which provoked a smile from Lady Jane as
+the door closed.
+
+"The young men of to-day are terribly spoilt," she said. "He expected
+to be asked to lunch."
+
+"I am glad he wasn't," Tallente observed.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Why not? He is quite a nice young man."
+
+"No doubt," Tallente agreed, without conviction. "However, I hate young
+men and I want to talk to you."
+
+"Young men are tiresome sometimes," she agreed, rising from her chair.
+
+"And older ones too, I am afraid!"
+
+She closed her desk and he stood watching her. She was wearing an
+extraordinarily masculine garb--a covert-coating riding costume, with
+breeches and riding boots concealed under a long coat--but she
+contrived, somehow, to remain altogether feminine. She stood for a
+moment looking about her, as though wondering whether there were
+anything else to be done, a capable figure, attractive because of her
+earnest self-possession.
+
+"Sarah," she called out.
+
+The sound of a typewriter in an inner room ceased. The door was opened
+and a girl appeared on the threshold.
+
+"You won't see me again to-day unless you send up for me," her mistress
+announced. "Let me have the letters to sign before five. Try and get
+away early, if you can. The car is going in to Lynton. Perhaps you
+would like the ride?"
+
+"I should enjoy it very much, your ladyship," the girl replied
+gratefully. "There is really very little to do this afternoon."
+
+"You can bring the letters whenever you like, then," Lady Jane told her,
+"and let Martin know that you are going in with him."
+
+"You study your people, I see," Tallente remarked, as they strolled
+together back to the house.
+
+"I try," she assented. "I try to do what I can in my little community
+here, very much as you, in a far greater way, try to study the people in
+your political programme. Of course," she went on, "it is far easier
+for me. The one thing I try to develop amongst them is a genuine, not
+a false spirit of independence. I want them to lean upon no one. I
+have no charities in connection with the estate, no soup kitchens or
+coal at Christmas, or anything of that sort. My theory is that every
+person is the better for being able to look after himself, and my idea
+of charity is placing him in a position to be able to do it. I don't
+want to be their Lady of the Manor and accept their rents and give them
+a dinner. I try to encourage them to save money and to buy their own
+farms. The man here who owns his own farm and makes it pay is in a
+position to lead a thoroughly self-respecting and honourable life. He
+ought to get what there is to be got out of life, and his children
+should be yeomen citizens of the best possible type. Of course, all
+this sort of thing is so much easier in the country. Very often, in the
+winter nights here, I waste my time trying to think out your greater
+problems."
+
+"Problems," he observed, "which the good people of Hellesfield have just
+decided that I am not the man to solve."
+
+"An election counts for nothing," she declared. "The merest whim will
+lead thousands of voters into the wrong polling booth. Besides, nearly
+all the papers admit that your defeat was owing to a political intrigue.
+The very men who should have supported you--who had promised to support
+you, in fact--went against you at the last moment. That was entirely
+due to Miller, wasn't it?"
+
+"Miller has been my political bête noir for years," he confessed. "To
+me he represents the ignominious pacifist, whereas to him I represent
+the sabre-rattling jingo. I got the best of it while the war was on.
+To-day it seems to me that he has an undue share of influence in the
+country."
+
+"Who are the men who really represent what you and I would understand as
+Labour?" she asked.
+
+"That is too difficult a question to answer offhand," he replied.
+"Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Labour is
+unrepresentable--Labour as a cause. There are too many of the people
+yet who haven't vision."
+
+They passed into the cool, geranium-scented hall. She pointed to an
+easy-chair by the side of which was set, on a small mahogany table, a
+silver cocktail shaker and two glasses.
+
+"Please be as comfortable as you can," she begged, "for a quarter of an
+hour. If you like to wash, a touch of the bell there will bring Morton.
+I must change my clothes. I had to ride out to one of the outlying
+farms this morning, and we came back rather quickly."
+
+She moved about the hall as she spoke, putting little things to rights.
+Then she passed up the circular staircase. At the bend she looked back
+and caught him watching her. She waved her hand with a little less than
+her usual frankness. Tallente had forgotten for a moment his
+whereabouts, his fatigue, his general weariness. He had turned around
+in his chair and was watching her. She found something in the very
+intensity of his gaze disturbing, vaguely analogous to certain
+half-formed thoughts of her own. She called out some light remark,
+scoffed at herself, and ran lightly out of sight, calling to her maid as
+she went.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Luncheon was served in a small room at the back of the house. Through
+the wide-flung French windows was a vista of terraced walks, the two
+sunken tennis lawns, a walled garden leading into an orchard, and
+beyond, the great wood-hung cleft in the hills, on either side of which
+the pastoral fields, like little squares, stretched away upwards. From
+here there was no trace of the more barren, unkinder side of the
+moorland. The succession of rich colours merged at last into the dim,
+pearly hue where sky and cloud met, in the golden haze of the August
+heat, a haze more like a sort of transparent filminess than anything
+which really obscured.
+
+Lady Jane, whose gift of femininity had triumphed even over her farm
+clothes, seemed to Tallente to convey a curiously mingled impression of
+restfulness and delicate charm in her cool, white muslin dress, low at
+the neck, the Paquin-made garment of an Aphrodite. She talked to him
+with all the charm of an accomplished hostess, and yet with the
+occasional fascinating reserve of the woman who finds her companion
+something more than ordinarily sympathetic. The butler served them
+unattended from the sideboard, but before luncheon was half way through
+they dispensed with his services.
+
+"I suppose it has occurred to you by this time, Mr. Tallente," she
+said, as she watched the coffee in a glass machine by her side, "that I
+am a very unconventional person."
+
+"Whatever you are," he replied, "I am grateful for."
+
+"Cryptic, but with quite a nice sort of sound about it," she observed,
+smiling. "Tell me honestly, though, aren't you surprised to find me
+living here quite alone?"
+
+"It seems to me perfectly natural," he answered.
+
+"I live without a chaperon," she went on, "because a chaperon called by
+that name would bore me terribly. As a matter of fact, though, there is
+generally some one staying here. I find it easy enough to persuade my
+friends and some of my relatives that a corner of Exmoor is not half a
+bad place in the spring and summer. It is through the winter that I am
+generally avoided."
+
+"I have always had a fancy to spend a winter on Exmoor," he confided.
+
+"It has its compensations," she agreed, "apart, of course, from the
+hunting."
+
+He felt the desire to speak of more vital things. What did hunting or
+chaperons more or less matter to the Lady Janes of the world! Already
+he knew enough of her to be sure that she would have her way in any
+crisis that might arise. "How much of the year," he asked, "do you
+actually spend here?"
+
+"As much as I can."
+
+"You are content to be here alone, even in the winter?"
+
+"More contented than I should be anywhere else," she assured him.
+"There is always plenty to do, useful work, too--things that count."
+
+"London?"
+
+"Bores me terribly," she confessed.
+
+"Foreign travel?"
+
+She nodded more tolerantly.
+
+"I have done a little of it," she said. "I should love to do more, but
+travel as travel is such an unsatisfying thing. If a place attracts
+you, you want to imbibe it. Travel leaves you no time to do anything
+but sniff. Life is so short. One must concentrate or one achieves
+nothing. I know what the general idea of a stay-at-home is," she went
+on. "Many of my friends consider me narrow. Perhaps I am. Anyhow, I
+prefer to lead a complete and, I believe, useful life here, to looking
+back in later years upon that hotchpotch of lurid sensations, tangled
+impressions and restless moments that most of them call life."
+
+"You display an amazing amount of philosophy for your years," he
+ventured, after a little hesitation. "There is one instinct, however,
+which you seem to ignore."
+
+"What is it, please?"
+
+"Shall I call it the gregarious one, the desire for companionship of
+young people of your own age?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. She had the air of one faintly amused by
+his diffidence.
+
+"You mean that I ought to be husband hunting," she said. "I quite admit
+that a husband would be a very wonderful addition to life. I have none
+of the sentiments of the old maid. On the other hand, I am rather a
+fatalist. If any man is likely to come my way whom I should care to
+marry, he is just as likely to find me here as though I tramped the
+thoroughfares of the world, searching for him. At last!" she went on,
+in a changed tone, as she poured out his coffee. "I do hope you will
+find it good. The cigarettes are at your elbow. This is quite one of
+the moments of life, isn't it?"
+
+He agreed with her emphatically.
+
+"A counsel of perfection," he murmured, as he sniffed the delicate
+Turkish tobacco. "Tell me some more about yourself?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am much too selfish a person," she declared, "and nothing that I do
+or say or am amounts to very much. I want you to let me a little way
+into your life. Talk either about your soldiering or your politics.
+You have been a Cabinet Minister and you will be again. Tell me what it
+feels like to be one of the world's governors?"
+
+"Let us finish talking about you first," he begged. "You spoke quite
+frankly of a husband. Tell me, have you made up your mind what manner
+of man he must be?"
+
+"Not in the least. I am content to leave that entirely to fate."
+
+"Bucolic? Intellectual? An artist? A man of affairs?"
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"How can I tell? I cannot conceive caring for an ordinary person, but
+then every woman feels like that. And, you see, if I did care, he
+wouldn't be ordinary--to me. And so far as I am concerned," she
+insisted, with a shade of restlessness in her manner, "that finishes the
+subject. You must please devote yourself to telling me at least some
+of the things I want to know. What is the use of having one of the
+world's successful men tête-a-tête, a prisoner to my hospitality, unless
+I can make him gratify my curiosity?"
+
+The thought created by her words burned through his mind like a flash of
+destroying lightning.
+
+"One of the world's successful men," he repeated. "Is that how I seem
+to you?"
+
+"And to the world," she asserted.
+
+He shook his head sadly.
+
+"I have worked very hard," he said. "I have been very ambitious. A few
+of my ambitions have been gratified, but the glory of them has passed
+with attainment. Now I enter upon the last lap and I possess none of
+the things I started out in life to achieve."
+
+"But how absurd!" she exclaimed. "You are one of our great politicians.
+You would have to be reckoned with in any regrouping of parties."
+
+"Without even a seat in the House of Commons," he reminded her bitterly.
+"And again, how can a man be a great politician when there are no
+politics? The confusion amongst the parties has become chaos, and I for
+one have not been clear-sighted enough to see my way through."
+
+"Of course, I know vaguely what you mean," she said, "but remember that
+I am only a newspaper-educated politician. Can't you be a little more
+explicit?"
+
+He lit another cigarette and smoked restlessly for a moment.
+
+"I'll try and explain, if I can," he went on. "To be a successful
+politician, from the standard which you or I would aim at, a man needs
+not only political insight, but he needs to be able to adopt his views
+to the practical programme of one of the existing parties, or else to be
+strong enough to form a party of his own. That is where I have come to
+the cul-de-sac in my career. It was my ambition to guide the working
+classes of the country into their rightful place in our social scheme,
+but I have also always been an intensely keen Imperialist, and therefore
+at daggers drawn with many of the so-called Labour leaders. The
+consequence has been that for ten years I have been hanging on to the
+thin edge of nothing, a member of the Coalition Government, a member by
+sufferance of a hotchpotch party which was created by the combination of
+the Radicals and the Unionists with the sole idea of seeing the country
+through its great crisis. All legislation, in the wider sense of the
+term, had to be shelved while the country was in danger and while it was
+recovering itself. That time I spent striving to educate the people I
+wanted to represent, striving to make them see reason, to combat the two
+elements in their outlook which have been their eternal drawback, the
+elements of blatant selfishness and greedy ignorance. Well, I failed.
+That is all there is about it--I failed. No party claims me. I haven't
+even a seat in the House of Commons. I am nearly fifty years old and I
+am tired."
+
+"Nearly fifty years old!" she repeated. "But what is that? You
+have--health, you are strong and well, there is nothing a younger man
+can do that you cannot. Why do you worry about your age?"
+
+"Perhaps," he admitted, with a faint smile, and an innate compulsion to
+tell her of the thought which had lurked behind, "because you are so
+marvelously young."
+
+"Absurd!" she scoffed. "I am twenty-nine years old--practically thirty.
+That is to say, with the usual twenty years' allowance, you and I are of
+the same age."
+
+He looked across at her, across the lace-draped table with its bowls of
+fruit, its richly-cut decanter of wine, its low bowl of roses, its haze
+of cigarette smoke. She was leaning back in her chair, her head resting
+upon the fingers of one hand. Her face seemed alive with so many
+emotions. She was so anxious to console, so interested in her
+companion, herself, and the moment. He felt something unexpected and
+irresistible.
+
+"I would to God I could look at it like that!" he exclaimed suddenly.
+
+The words had left his lips before he was conscious that the thought
+which had lain at the back of them had found expression in his tone and
+glance. Just at first they produced no other effect in her save that
+evidenced by the gently upraised eyebrows, the sweetly tolerant smile.
+And then a sudden cloud, scarcely of discomfiture, certainly not of
+displeasure, more of unrest, swept across her face. Her eyes no longer
+met his so clearly and frankly. There was a little mist there and a
+silence. She was looking away through the windows to the dim, pearly
+line of blue, the actual horizon of things present. Her pulses were
+scarcely steady. She was possessed to a full extent of the her
+qualities of courage, physical and spiritual, yet at that moment she
+felt a wave of curious fear, the fear of the idealist that she may not
+be true to herself.
+
+The moment passed and she looked at him with a smile. An innate gift of
+concealment, the heritage of her sex, came to her rescue, but she felt,
+somehow or other, as though she had passed through one of the crises of
+her life--that she could never be quite the same again. She had ceased
+for those few seconds to be natural.
+
+"What does that wish mean?" she asked. "Do you mean that you would like
+to agree with me, or would you like to be twenty-nine?"
+
+He too turned his back upon that little pool of emotion, did his best to
+be natural and easy, to shut out the memory of that flaming moment.
+
+"At twenty-nine," he told her, "I was First Secretary at St.
+Petersburg. I am afraid that I was rather a dull dog, too. All Russia,
+even then, was seething, and I was trying to understand. I never did.
+No one ever understood Russia. The explanation of all that has happened
+there is simply the eternal duplication of history--a huge class of
+people, physically omnipotent, conscious of wrongs, unintelligent, and
+led by false prophets. All revolutions are the same. The purging is
+too severe, so the good remains undone."
+
+There followed a silence, purposeful on her port, scarcely realised by
+him. She sought for means of escape, to bring their conversation down
+to the level where alone safety lay. She moved her chair a little
+farther back into the scented chamber, as though she found the sunlight
+too dazzling.
+
+"You are like so many of the men who work for us," she said. "You are
+just a little tired, aren't you? You come down here to rest, and I dig
+up all the old problems and ask you to vex yourself with them. We must
+talk about slighter things. You are going to shoot here this
+season--perhaps hunt, later on?"
+
+"I do not think so," he answered. "I have forgotten what sports mean.
+I may take a gun out sometimes. There is a little shooting that goes
+with the Manor, but very few birds, I believe. The last ten years seem
+to have driven all those things out of one's mind."
+
+"Don't you think that you are inclined to take life a little too
+earnestly?" she asked. "One should have amusements."
+
+"I may feel the necessity," he replied, "but it is not easy to take up
+one's earlier pleasures at my time of life."
+
+"Don't think me inquisitive," she went on, "but, as I told you, I have
+looked you up in one of those wonderful books which tell us everything
+about everybody. You were a Double Blue at Oxford."
+
+"Racquets and cricket," he assented. "Neither of them much use to me
+now."
+
+"Racquets would help you with lawn tennis," she said, "but beyond that I
+find that not a dozen years ago you were a scratch golfer, and you
+certainly won the amateur championship of Italy."
+
+"It is eleven years since I touched a club," he told her.
+
+"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself," she declared. "Games are
+part of an Englishman's life, and when he neglects them altogether there
+is something wrong. I shall insist upon your taking up lawn tennis
+again. I have two beautiful courts there, and very seldom any one to
+play with who has the least idea of the game."
+
+His eyes rested for a moment upon the smoothly shaven lawns.
+
+"So you think that regeneration may come to me through lawn tennis?" he
+murmured.
+
+"And why not? You are taking yourself far too seriously, you know. How
+do you expect regeneration to come?"
+
+"Shall I tell you what it is I lack?" he answered suddenly. "Incentive.
+I think my will has suddenly grown flabby, the ego in me unresponsive.
+You know the moods in which one asks oneself whether it is worth while,
+whether anything is worth while. Well, I am there at the crossroads. I
+think I feel more inclined to look for a seat than to go on."
+
+"The strongest of us need to rest sometimes," she agreed quietly.
+
+He relapsed into a silence so apparently deliberate that she accepted it
+as a respite for herself also. From the greater seclusion of her
+shadowy seat, she found herself presently able to watch him
+unnoticed,--the brooding melancholy of his face, the nervous,
+unsatisfied mouth, the discontent of his sombre brows. Then, even as
+she watched, the change in his expression startled her. His eyes were
+fixed upon the narrow ribbon of road which twisted around the other side
+of the house and led over the bleaker moors, seawards. The look puzzled
+her, gave her an uncomfortable feeling. Its note of appreciation seemed
+to her inexplicable. With a quaint, electrical sympathy, he caught the
+unspoken question in her eyes and translated it.
+
+"You are beginning to doubt me," he said. "You are wondering if the
+shadow I carry with me is not something more than the mere depression of
+a man who has failed."
+
+"You have not failed," she declared, "and I never doubt you, but there
+was something in your face just then which was strange, something alien
+to our talk. It was as though you saw something ominous in the
+distance."
+
+"It is true," he admitted. "In the distance I can see the car I ordered
+to come and fetch me. There is a passenger--a man in the tonneau. I am
+wondering who he is."
+
+"Some one to whom your man has given a lift, perhaps," she suggested.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I have another feeling--perhaps I should say an apprehension. It is
+some one who brings news."
+
+"Political or--domestic?"
+
+"Neither," he answered. "I thought that Fate had dealt me out most of
+her evil tricks when I came down here, a political outcast. She had
+another one up her sleeve, however. Do you read your morning papers?"
+
+"Every day," she confessed. "Is it a weakness?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"You read of the disappearance of the Honourable Anthony Palliser?"
+
+"Of course," she answered. "Besides, you told me about it, did you
+not, yesterday afternoon? I know one of his sisters quite well, and I
+was looking forward to seeing something of him down here."
+
+"I was obliged to dismiss him at a moment's notice," Tallente went on.
+"He betrayed his trust and he has disappeared. That very imposing
+police inspector who broke up our tête-a-tête yesterday afternoon and I
+fear shortened your visit came on his account. He was the spokesman for
+a superior authority in London. They have come to the conclusion that I
+could, if I chose, throw some light upon his disappearance."
+
+"And could you?"
+
+He rose to his feet.
+
+"You are the one person in the world," he said, "to whom I could tell
+nothing but the truth. I could."
+
+They both heard the sound of footsteps in the hall. Lady Jane,
+disturbed by the ominous note in Tallente's voice, rose also to her
+feet, glancing from him towards the door, filled with some vague,
+inexplicable apprehension. Tallente showed no fear, but it was plain
+that he had nerved himself to face evil things. There was something
+almost ludicrous in this denouement to a situation which to both had
+seemed filled with almost dramatic possibilities. The door was opened
+by Parkins, the stout, discreet man servant, ushering in the unkempt,
+ill-tailored, ungainly figure of James Miller.
+
+"This gentleman," Parkins announced, "wishes to see Mr. Tallente on
+urgent business."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The newcomer had distinctly the best of the situation. Tallente, who
+had expected a very different visitor, was for the moment bereft of
+words. Lady Jane, who, among her minor faults, was inclined to be a
+supercilious person, with too great a regard for externals, gazed upon
+this strange figure which had found its way into her sanctum with an
+astonishment which kept her also silent.
+
+"Sorry to intrude," Mr. Miller began, with an affability which he meant
+to be reassuring. "Mr. Tallente, will you introduce me to the lady?"
+
+Tallente acquiesced unwillingly.
+
+"Lady Jane," he said, "this is Mr. James Miller--Lady Jane Partington."
+
+Mr. Miller was impressed, held out his hand and withdrew it.
+
+"I must apologize for this intrusion, Lady Jane, and to you, Tallente,
+of course. Mr. Tallente is naturally surprised to see me. He and I
+are political opponents," he confided, turning to Jane.
+
+Her surprise increased, if possible.
+
+"Are you Mr. Miller, the Democrat M.P.?" she asked,--"the Mr. Miller
+who was making those speeches at Hellesfield last week?"
+
+"At your ladyship's service," he replied, with a low bow. "I am afraid
+if you are a friend of Mr. Tallente's you must look upon me as a very
+disagreeable person."
+
+"If the newspapers are to be believed, your strategies up at Hellesfield
+scarcely give one an exalted idea of your tactics," she replied coldly.
+"They all seem to agree that Mr. Tallente was cheated out of his seat."
+
+The intruder smiled tolerantly. He glanced around the room as though
+expecting to be asked to seat himself. No invitation of the sort,
+however, was accorded him. "All's fair in love and politics, Lady
+Jane," he declared. "We Democrats have our programme, and our motto is
+that those who are not with us are against us. Mr. Tallente here knew
+pretty well what he was up against."
+
+"On the contrary," Tallente interrupted, "one never knows what one is up
+against when you are in the opposite camp, Miller. Would you mind
+explaining why you have sought me out in this singular fashion?"
+
+"Certainly," was the gracious reply. "You have a very distinguished
+visitor over at the Manor, waiting there to see you. I came over with
+him and found your car on the point of starting. I took the liberty of
+hunting you up so that there should be no delay in your return."
+
+"And who may this distinguished visitor he?" Tallente enquired, with
+unconscious sarcasm. "Stephen Dartrey," Miller answered. "He and Miss
+Miall and I are staying not far from you."
+
+"Stephen Dartrey?" Lady Jane murmured. "Dartrey?" Tallente echoed. "Do
+you mean to say that he is over at the Manor now?"
+
+"Waiting to see you," Miller announced, and for a moment there was a
+little gleam of displeasure in his eyes. Lady Jane sighed. "Now, if
+only you'd brought him over with you, Mr. Miller," she said, a shade
+more amiably, "you would have given me real pleasure. There is no man
+whom I am more anxious to meet." Miller smiled tolerantly. "Dartrey is
+a very difficult person," he declared. "Although he is the leader of
+our party, and before very long will be the leader of the whole Labour
+Party, although he could be Prime Minister to-morrow if he cared about
+it; he is one of the most retiring men whom I ever knew. At the present
+moment I believe that he would have preferred to have remained living
+his hermit's life, a writer and a dilettante, if circumstances had not
+dragged him into politics. He lives in the simplest way and hates all
+society save the company of a few old cronies."
+
+"What does Dartrey want with me?" Tallente interrupted, a little
+brusquely. "It is no part of my mission to explain," Miller replied.
+"I undertook to come here and beg you to return at once." Tallente
+turned to Lady Jane. "You will forgive me?" he begged. "In any case, I
+must have been going in a few minutes."
+
+"I should forgive you even if you went without saying good-by," she
+replied, "and I can assure you that I shall envy you. I do not want to
+turn your head," she went on pleasantly, as she walked by his side
+towards the door and across the hall, rather ignoring Miller, who
+followed behind, "but for the last two or three years the only political
+figures who have interested me at all have been Dartrey and
+yourself--you as the man of action, and Dartrey as the most wonderful
+exponent of the real, higher Socialism. I had a shelf made for his
+three books alone. They hang in my bedroom and I look upon them as my
+textbooks."
+
+"I must tell Dartrey this," Miller remarked from behind. "I am sure
+he'll be flattered."
+
+"What can he want with you?" Lady Jane asked, dropping her voice a
+little.
+
+"I can't tell," Tallente confessed. "His visit puzzles me. He is the
+hermit of politics. He seldom makes advances and has few friends. He
+is, I believe, a man with the highest sense of honour. Perhaps he has
+come to explain to me why they threw me out at Hellesfield."
+
+"In any case," she said, as they stood for a moment on the step, "I feel
+that something exciting is going to happen."
+
+Miller, carrying his tweed cap in his hand, insisted upon a farewell.
+
+"Sorry to have taken your guest away, Lady Jane," he said. "It's an
+important occasion, however. Would you like me to bring Dartrey over,
+if we are out this way before we go back?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, I don't think so," she answered quietly. "I might have an illusion
+dispelled. Thank you very much, all the same."
+
+Mr. Miller stepped into the car, a little discomfited. Tallente
+lingered on the step.
+
+"You will let me know?" she begged.
+
+"I will," he promised. "It is probably just a visit of courtesy.
+Dartrey must feel that he has something to explain about Hellesfield."
+
+There was a moment's curious lingering. Each seemed to seek in vain for
+a last word. They parted with a silent handshake. Tallente looked
+around at the corner of the avenue. She was still standing there,
+gazing after the car, slim, cool and stately. Miller waved his cap and
+she disappeared.
+
+The car sped over the moorland. Miller, with his cap tucked into his
+pocket, leaned forward, taking deep gulps of the wonderful air.
+
+"Marvellous!" he exclaimed. "Tallente, you ought to live for ever in
+such a spot!"
+
+"What does Dartrey want to see me about?" his companion asked, a little
+abruptly.
+
+Miller coughed, leaned back in his place and became impressive.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "I don't know exactly what Dartrey is going to say
+to you. I only know this, that it is very possible he may make you, on
+behalf of all of us--the Democratic Party, that is to say--an offer
+which you will do well to consider seriously."
+
+"To join your ranks, I suppose?"
+
+"I must not betray a confidence," Miller continued cautiously. "At the
+same time, you know our power, you have insight enough to guess at our
+destiny. It is an absolute certainty that Dartrey, if he chooses, may
+be the next Prime Minister. You might have been in Horlock's Cabinet
+but for an accident. It may be that you are destined to be in
+Dartrey's."
+
+Tallente found his thoughts playing strange pranks with him. No man
+appreciated the greatness of Dartrey more than he. No man, perhaps, had
+a more profound conviction as to the truth and future of the principles
+of which he had become the spokesman. He realised the irresistible
+power of the new democracy. He was perfectly well aware that it was
+within Dartrey's power to rule the country whenever he chose. Yet there
+seemed something shadowy about these things, something unpleasantly real
+and repulsive in the familiarity of his companion, in the thought of
+association with him, He battled with the idea, treated it as a
+prejudice, analysed it. From head to foot the man wore the wrong
+clothes in the wrong manner,--boots of a vivid shade of brown, thick
+socks without garters, an obviously ready-made suit of grey flannel, a
+hopeless tie, an unimaginable collar. Even his ready flow of speech
+suggested the gifts of the tubthumpers his indomitable persistence, a
+lack of sensibility. He knew his facts, knew all the stock arguments,
+was brimful of statistics, was argumentative, convincing, in his way
+sincere. Tallente acknowledged all these things and yet found himself
+wondering, with a grim sense of irony, how he could call a man "Comrade"
+with such finger nails!
+
+"It's given you something to think about, eh?" Miller remarked affably.
+
+Tallente came to himself with a little start.
+
+"I'm afraid my mind was wandering," he confessed.
+
+His companion smiled knowingly. He was conscious of Tallente's
+aloofness, but determined to break through it if he could. After all,
+this caste feeling was absurd. He was, in his way, a well-known man, a
+Member of Parliament, a future Cabinet Minister. He was the equal of
+anybody.
+
+"Don't wonder at it! Pleasant neighbours hereabouts, eh?"
+
+Tallente affected to misunderstand. He glanced around at the few
+farmhouses dotted in sheltered places amongst the hills.
+
+"There are very few of them," he answered. "That makes this place all
+the more enjoyable for any one who comes for a real rest."
+
+Miller felt that he was suffering defeat. He opened his lips and closed
+them again. The jocular reference to Lady Jane remained unspoken.
+There was something in the calm aloofness of the man by his side which
+intimidated even while it annoyed him. Soon they commenced the drop
+from the moorland to where, far away below, the Manor with its lawn and
+gardens and outbuildings seemed like a child's pleasure palace. Miller
+leaned forward and pointed downwards.
+
+"There's Dartrey sitting on the terrace," he pointed out. "Dartrey and
+Nora Miall. You've heard of her, I expect?"
+
+"I know her by repute, of course," Tallente admitted. "She is a very
+brilliant young woman. It will give me great pleasure to meet her."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Tallente took tea that afternoon with his three guests upon the terrace.
+Before them towered the wood-embosomed cliffs, with here and there great
+red gashes of scarred sandstone. Beyond lay the sloping meadow, with
+its clumps of bracken and grey stone walls, and in the background a more
+rugged line of rocky cliffs. The sea in the bay flashed and glittered
+in the long rays of the afternoon sunshine. The scene was
+extraordinarily peaceful. Stephen Dartrey for the first few minutes
+certainly justified his reputation for taciturnity. He leaned back in a
+long wicker chair, his head resting upon his hand, his thoughtful eyes
+fixed upon vacancy. No man in those days could have resembled less a
+popular leader of the people. In appearance he was a typical
+aristocrat, and his expression, notwithstanding his fine forehead and
+thoughtful eyes, was marked with a certain simplicity which in his
+younger days had lured many an inexperienced debater on to ridicule and
+extinction. In an intensely curious age, Dartrey was still a man over
+whose personality controversy raged fiercely. He was a poet, a dreamer,
+a writer of elegant prose, an orator, an artist. And behind all these
+things there was a flame in the man, a perfect passion for justice, for
+seeing people in their right places, which had led him from the more
+flowery ways into the world of politics. His enemies called him a
+dilettante and a poseur. His friends were led into rhapsodies through
+sheer affection. His supporters hailed him as the one man of genius who
+held out the scales of justice before the world.
+
+"Of course," Nora Miall observed, looking up at her host pleasantly, "I
+can see what is going to happen. Mr. Dartrey came out here to talk to
+you upon most important matters. This place, the beauty of it all, is
+acting upon him like a soporific. If we don't shake him up presently,
+he will go away with wonderful mind pictures of your cliffs and sea, and
+his whole mission unfulfilled."
+
+"Libellous as usual, Nora," Dartrey murmured, without turning his head.
+"Mr. Tallente is providing me with a few minutes of intense enjoyment.
+He has assured me that his time is ours. Soon I shall finish my tea,
+light a cigarette and talk. Just now you may exercise the privilege of
+your sex unhindered and better your own acquaintance with our host."
+
+The girl laughed up into Tallente's face.
+
+"Very likely Mr. Tallente doesn't wish to improve his acquaintance with
+me," she said.
+
+Tallente hastened to reassure her. Somehow, the presence of these two
+did much to soothe the mental irritation which Miller had set up in him.
+They at least were of the world of understandable things. Miller,
+slouching in his chair, with a cheap tie-clip showing underneath his
+waistcoat, a bulging mass of sock descending over the top of his boot,
+rolling a cigarette with yellow-stained, objectionable fingers, still
+involved him in introspective speculation as to real values in life.
+
+"I have often felt myself unfortunate in not having met you before, Miss
+Miall," he said. "Some of your writings have interested me immensely."
+
+"Some of them?" she queried, with a smile.
+
+"Absolute agreement would deny us even the stimulus of an argument," he
+observed. "Besides, after all, men find it more difficult to get rid of
+prejudices than women."
+
+She leaned forward to help herself to a cigarette and he studied her for
+a moment. She was a little under medium height, trimly yet almost
+squarely built. Her mouth was delightful, humourous and attractive, and
+her eyes were of the deepest shade of violet, with black, silken
+eyelashes. Her voice was the voice of a cultivated woman, and Tallente,
+as he mostly listened to her light ripple of conversation, realised that
+the charm which was hers by reputation was by no means undeserved. In
+many ways she astonished him. The stories which had been told of her,
+even written, were incredible, yet her manners were entirely the manners
+of one of his own world. The trio--Dartrey, with his silence and
+occasional monosyllabic remarks--seemed to draw closer together at every
+moment until Miller, obviously chafing at his isolation, thrust himself
+into the conversation.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," he said, taking advantage of a moment's pause to direct
+the conversation into a different channel, "we kept our word at
+Hellesfield."
+
+"You did," his host acknowledged drily. "You succeeded in cheating me
+out of the seat. I still don't know why."
+
+He turned as though appealing to Dartrey, and Dartrey accepted the
+challenge, swinging a little around in his chair and tapping his
+cigarette against the table, preparatory to lighting it.
+
+"You lost Hellesfield, Mr. Tallente, as you would have lost any seat
+north of Bedford," he declared.
+
+"Owing to the influence of the Democrats?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"But why is that influence exercised against me?" Tallente demanded. "I
+am thankful to have an opportunity of asking you that question, Dartrey.
+Surely you would reckon me more of a people's man than these Whigs and
+Coalitionists?"
+
+"Very much more," Dartrey agreed. "So much more, Mr. Tallente, that we
+don't wish to see you dancing any longer between two stools. We want
+you in our camp. You are the first man, Tallente, whom we have sought
+out in this way. We have come at a busy time, under pretext of a
+holiday, some two hundred miles from London to suggest to you,
+temporarily deprived of political standing, that you join us."
+
+"That temporary deprivation," Tallente murmured, "being due to your
+efforts."
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+"And the alternative?"
+
+"Those who are not with us are against us," Dartrey declared. "If you
+persist in remaining the doubtful factor in politics, it is our business
+to see that you have no definite status there."
+
+Tallente laughed a little cynically.
+
+"Your methods are at least modern," he observed. "You invite a man to
+join your party, and if he refuses you threaten him with political
+extinction."
+
+"Why not?" Dartrey asked wonderingly. "You do not pause to consider the
+matter. Government is meant for the million. Where the individual
+might impede good government, common sense calls for his ostracism. No
+nation has been more slow to realise this than England. A code of order
+and morals established two thousand years ago has been accepted by them
+as incapable of modification or improvement. To take a single instance.
+Supposing De Valera had been shot the first day he talked treason
+against the Empire, your troubles with Ireland would have been immensely
+minimised. And mark this, for it is the crux of the whole matter, the
+people of Ireland would have attained what they wanted much sooner. You
+are not one of those, Andrew Tallente, who refuse to see the writing on
+the wall. You know that in one form or another in this country the
+democracy must rule. They felt the flame of inspiration when war came
+and they helped to win the war. What was their reward? The opulent
+portion of them were saddled with an enormous income tax and high prices
+of living through bad legislation, which made life a burden. The more
+poverty-stricken suffered sympathetically in exactly the same way. We
+won the war and we lost the peace. We fastened upon the shoulders of
+the deserving, the wage-earning portion of the community, a burden
+which their shoulders could never carry a burden which, had we lost the
+war instead of winning it, would have led promptly to a revolution and a
+measure at least of freedom."
+
+"There is so much of truth in what you say," Tallente declared, "that I
+am going to speak to you frankly, even though my frankness seems brutal.
+I am going to speak about your friend Miller here. Throughout the war,
+Miller was a pacifist. He was dead against killing Germans. He was all
+for a peace at any price."
+
+"Steady on," Miller interrupted, suddenly sitting up in his chair.
+"Look here, Tallente--"
+
+"Be quiet until I have finished," Tallente went on. "He was concerned
+in no end of intrigue with Austrian and German Socialists for
+embarrassing the Government and bringing the war to an end. I should
+say that but for the fact that our Government at the time was wholly one
+of compromise, and was leaning largely upon the Labour vote, he would
+have been impeached for high treason."
+
+Miller, who had been busy rolling a cigarette, lit it with ostentatious
+carelessness.
+
+"And what of all this?" he demanded.
+
+"Nothing," Tallente replied, "except that it seems a strange thing to
+find you now associated with a party who threaten me openly with
+political extinction unless I choose to join them. I call this
+junkerdom, not socialism."
+
+"No man's principles can remain stable in an unstable world," Miller
+pronounced. "I still detest force and compulsion of every sort, but I
+recognise its necessity in our present civil life far more than I did in
+a war which was, after all, a war of politicians."
+
+Nora Miall leaned over from her chair and laid her hand on Tallente's
+arm. After Miller's raucous tones, her voice sounded almost like music.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she said, "I can understand your feeling aggrieved.
+You are not a man whom it is easy to threaten, but remember that after
+all we must go on our fixed way towards the appointed goal.
+And--consider--isn't the upraised rod for your good? Your place is with
+us--indeed it is. I fancy that Stephen here forgets that you are not
+yet fully acquainted with our real principles and aims. A political
+party cannot be judged from the platform. The views expressed there
+have to be largely governed by the character of the audience. It is to
+the textbooks of our creed, Dartrey's textbooks, that you should turn."
+
+"I have read your views on certain social matters, Miss Miall," Tallente
+observed, turning towards her.
+
+She laughed understandingly. Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him.
+
+"And thoroughly disapproved them, of course! But you know, Mr.
+Tallente, we are out not to reconstruct Society but to lay the stepping
+stones for a reconstruction. That is all, I suppose, that any single
+generation could accomplish. The views which I have advocated in the
+_Universal Review_ are the views which will be accepted as a matter of
+course in fifty years' time. To-day they seem crude and unmoral,
+chiefly because the casual reader, especially the British reader, dwells
+so much upon external effects and thinks so little of the soul that lies
+below. Even you, Mr. Tallente, with your passion for order and your
+distrust of all change in established things, can scarcely consider our
+marriage laws an entire success?"
+
+Tallente winced a little and Dartrey hastily intervened.
+
+"We want you to remember this," he said. "The principles which we
+advocate are condemned before they are considered by men of inherited
+principles and academic education such as yourself, because you have
+associated them always with the disciples of anarchy, bolshevism, and
+other diseased rituals. You have never stooped to separate the good
+from the bad. The person who dares to tamper with the laws of King
+Alfred stands before you prejudged. Granted that our doctrines are
+extreme, are we--let me be personal and say am I--the class of man whom
+you have associated with these doctrines? We Democrats have gained
+great power during the last ten years. We have thrust our influence
+deep into the hearts of those great, sinister bodies, the trades unions.
+There is no one except ourselves who realises our numerical and
+potential strength. We could have created a revolution in this country
+at any time since the Premier's first gloomy speech in the House of
+Commons after the signing of peace, had we chosen. I can assure you
+that we haven't the least fancy for marching through the streets with
+red flags and letting loose the diseased end of our community upon the
+palaces and public buildings of London. We are Democrats or
+Republicans, whichever you choose to call us, who desire to conquer with
+the brain, as we shall conquer, and where we recognise a man of genius
+like yourself, who must be for us or against us, if we cannot convert
+him then we must see that politically he ceases to count."
+
+Robert came out and whispered in his master's ear. Tallente turned to
+his guests.
+
+"I cannot offer you dinner," he said, "but my servant assures me that he
+can provide a cold supper. Will you stay? I think that you, Dartrey,
+would enjoy the view from some of my lookouts."
+
+"I accept your invitation," Dartrey replied eagerly. "I have been
+sitting here, longing for the chance to watch the sunset from behind
+your wood."
+
+"It will be delightful," Nora murmured. "I want to go down to the grass
+pier."
+
+Miller too accepted, a little ungraciously. The little party wandered
+off down the path which led to the seashore. Miller detained his host
+for a moment at one of the corners.
+
+"By the by, Tallente," he asked, "what about the disappearance of
+Palliser?"
+
+"He has disappeared," Tallente answered calmly. "That is all I know
+about it."
+
+Miller stood with his hands in his pockets, gnawing the end of his
+moustache, gazing covertly at the man who stood waiting for him to pass
+on. Tallente's face was immovable.
+
+"Disappeared? Do you mean to say that you don't know where he is?"
+
+"I have no idea."
+
+Again there was a moment's silence. Then Miller leaned a little
+forward. "Look here, Tallente," he began--Nora turned round and
+suddenly beckoned her host to her.
+
+"Come quickly," she begged. "I can do nothing with Mr. Dartrey. He
+has just decided that our whole scheme of life is absurd, that politics
+and power are shadows, and that work for others is lunacy. All that he
+wants is your cottage, a fishing rod and a few books."
+
+"Nothing else?" Tallente asked, smiling.
+
+There was a momentary cloud upon her face.
+
+"Nothing else in the world," she answered, her eyes fixed upon the
+figure of the man who was leaning now over the grey stone wall, gazing
+seaward.
+
+
+During the service of the meal, on the terrace afterwards, and even when
+they strolled down to the edge of the cliff to see the great yellow moon
+come up from behind the hills, scarcely a word was spoken on political
+subjects. Dartrey was an Oxford man of Tallente's own college, and,
+although several years his senior, they discovered many mutual
+acquaintances and indulged in reminiscences which seemed to afford
+pleasure to both. Then they drifted into literature, and Tallente found
+himself amazed at the knowledge of the man whose whole life was supposed
+to have been given to his labours for the people. Dartrey explained his
+intimate acquaintance with certain modern writings and his marvellous
+familiarity with many of the classics, as he and his host walked down
+together along one of the narrow paths. "You see, Tallente," he said,
+"I have never been a practical politician. I dare say that accounts for
+my rather peculiar position to-day. I have evolved a whole series of
+social laws by which I maintain that the people should be governed, and
+those laws have been accepted wherever socialism flourishes. They took
+me some years of my earlier life to elaborate, some years of study
+before I set pen to paper, some years of my later life to place before
+the world, and there my task practically ended. There is nothing fresh
+to say about these great human problems. They are there for any man to
+whom daylight comes, to see. They are all inevitably bound up with the
+future of our race, but there is no need to dig further. My work is
+done."
+
+"How can you say that," Tallente argued, "when day by day your power in
+the country grows, when everything points to you as the next Premier?"
+
+"Precisely," Dartrey replied quietly. "That is why I am here. The head
+of the Democratic Party has a right to the government of this country,
+but you know, at this point I have a very sad confession to make. I am
+the worst politician who ever sat in the House. I am a poor debater, a
+worse strategist. Again, Tallente, that is why you and I at this moment
+walk together through your beautiful grounds and watch the rim of that
+yellow moon. It is yourself we want."
+
+Tallente felt the thrill of the moment, felt the sincerity of the man
+whose hand pressed gently upon his arm.
+
+"If you are our man, Tallente," his visitor continued, "if you see eye
+to eye with us as to the great Things, if you can cast away what remains
+to you of class and hereditary prejudice and throw in your lot with
+ours, there is no office of the State which you may not hope to occupy.
+I had not meant to appeal to your ambitions. I do so now only
+generally. As a rule, every man connected with a revolution thinks
+himself able to govern the State. That is not so with us. A man may
+have the genius for seeing the truth, the genius even for engraving the
+laws which should govern the world upon tablets of stone, without having
+the capacity for government."
+
+"But do you mean to say," Tallente asked, "that when Horlock goes down,
+as go down he must within the next few months, you are not prepared to
+take his place?"
+
+"I should never accept the task of forming a government," Dartrey said
+quietly, "unless I am absolutely driven to do so. I have shown the
+truth to the world. I have shown to the people whom I love their
+destiny, but I have not the gifts to lead them. I am asking you,
+Tallente, to join us, to enter Parliament as one of our party and to
+lead for us in the House of Commons."
+
+"Yours is the offer of a prince," Tallente replied, after a brief,
+nervous pause. "If I hesitate, you must remember all that it means for
+me."
+
+Dartrey smiled.
+
+"Now, my friend," he said, "look me in the face and answer me this
+question. You know little of us Democrats as a party. You see nothing
+but a hotchpotch of strange people, struggling and striving to attain
+definite form. Naturally you are full of prejudices. Yet consider your
+own political position. I am not here to make capital out of a man's
+disappointment in his friends, but has your great patron used you well?
+Horlock offers you a grudging and belated place in his Cabinet. What
+did he say to you when you came hack from Hellesfield?" Tallente was
+silent. There was, in fact, no answer which he could make. "I do not
+wish to dwell on that," Dartrey went on. "Ingratitude is the natural
+sequence of the distorted political ideals which we are out to destroy.
+You should be in the frame of mind, Tallente, to see things clearly.
+You must realise the rotten condition of the political party to which
+Horlock belongs--the Coalitionists, the Whip, or whatever they like to
+call themselves. The government of this country since the war has been
+a farce and a mockery. We are dropping behind in the world's race.
+Labour fattens with sops, develops a spirit of greed and production
+languishes. You know why. Labour would toil for its country, Labour
+can feel patriotism with the best, but Labour hates to toil under the
+earth, upon the earth, and in the factories of the world for the sake of
+the profiteer. This is the national spirit, that jealousy, that
+slackness, which the last ten years has developed. There is a new
+Little Englander abroad and he speaks with the voice of Labour. It is
+our task to find the soul of the people. And I have come to you for
+your aid."
+
+Tallente looked for a moment down to the bay and listened to the sound
+of the incoming tide breaking upon the rocks. Dimmer now, but even more
+majestic in the twilight, the great, immovable cliffs towered up to the
+sky. An owl floated up from the grove of trees beneath and with a
+strange cry circled round for a moment to drop on to the lawn, a
+shapeless, solemn mass of feathers. At the back of the hills a little
+rim of gold, no wider than a wedding ring, announced the rising of the
+moon. He felt a touch upon his sleeve, a very sweet, persuasive voice
+in his ear. Nora had left Miller in the background and was standing by
+his side.
+
+"I heard Mr. Dartrey's last words," she said. "Can you refuse such an
+appeal in such a spot? You turn away to think, turn to the quietness of
+all these dreaming voices. Believe me, if there is a soul beneath them,
+it is the same soul which has inspired our creed. You yourself have
+come here full of bitterness, Andrew Tallente, because it seemed to you
+that there was no place for you amongst the prophets of democracy. It
+was you yourself, in a moment of passion, perhaps, who said that
+democracy, as typified in existing political parties, was soulless. You
+were right. Hasn't Mr. Dartrey just told you so and doesn't that make
+our task the clearer? It brings before us those wonderful days written
+about in the Old Testament--the people must be led into the light."
+
+Her voice had become almost part of the music of the evening. She was
+looking up at him, her beautiful eyes aglow. Dartrey, a yard or two
+off, his thoughtful face paler than ever in the faint light, was
+listening with joyous approval. In the background, Miller, with his
+hands in his pockets, was smoking mechanically the cigarette which he
+had just rolled and lit. The thrill of a great moment brought to
+Tallente a feeling of almost strange exaltation.
+
+"I am your man, Dartrey," he promised. "I will do what I can."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The Right Honourable John Augustus Horlock, Prime Minister of England
+through a most amazing fluke, received Tallente, a few days later, with
+the air of one desiring to show as much graciousness as possible to a
+discomfited follower. He extended two fingers and indicated an
+uncomfortable chair.
+
+"Well, well, Tallente," he said, "sorry I wasn't in town when you passed
+through from the north. Bad business, that Hellesfield affair."
+
+"It was a very bad business indeed," Tallente agreed, "chiefly because
+it shows that our agents there must be utterly incapable."
+
+The Prime Minister coughed.
+
+"You think so, Tallente, eh? Now their point of view is that you let
+Miller make all the running, let him make his points and never got an
+answer in--never got a grip on the people, eh?"
+
+"That may do for the official explanation," Tallente replied coldly,
+"but as a plain statement of facts it is entirely beside the mark. If
+you will forgive my saying so, sir, it has been one of your
+characteristics in life, born, without doubt," he added, with a little
+bow, "of your indomitable courage, to minimise difficulties and dangers
+of a certain type. You did not sympathise with me in my defeat at
+Hellesfield because you underrated, as you always have underrated, the
+vastly growing strength and dangerous popularity of the party into whose
+hands the government of this country will shortly pass."
+
+Mr. Horlock frowned portentously. This was not at all the way in which
+he should have been addressed by an unsuccessful follower. But
+underneath that frown was anxiety.
+
+"You refer to the Democrats?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Do I understand you to attribute your defeat, then, to the tactics of
+the Democratic Party?"
+
+"It is no question of supposition," Tallente replied. "It is a
+certainty."
+
+"You believe that they have a greater hold upon the country than we
+imagine, then?"
+
+"I am sure of it," was the confident answer. "They occupy a position no
+other political party has aimed at occupying in the history of this
+country. They aid and support themselves by means of direct and logical
+propaganda, carried to the very heart and understanding of their
+possible supporters. Their methods are absolutely unique and personally
+I am convinced that it is their destiny to bring into one composite body
+what has been erroneously termed the Labour vote."
+
+Horlock smiled indulgently. He preferred to assume a confidence which
+he could not wholly feel.
+
+"I am glad to hear your opinion, Tallente," he said. "I have to
+remember, however, that you are still smarting under a defeat inflicted
+by these people. What I cannot altogether understand is this: How was
+it that you were entirely deprived of their support at Hellesfield. You
+yourself are supposed to be practically a Socialist, at any rate from
+the point of view of the staider of my party. Yet these fellows down at
+Hellesfield preferred to support Bloxham, who twenty years ago would
+have been called a Tory."
+
+"I can quite understand your being puzzled at that," Tallente
+acknowledged. "I was myself at first. Since then I have received an
+explanation."
+
+"Well, well," Mr. Horlock interjected, with a return of his official
+genial manner, "we'll let sleeping dogs lie. Have you made any plans,
+Tallente?"
+
+"A week ago I thought of going to Samoa," was the grim reply. "You
+don't want me, the country didn't seem to want me. I have worked for
+other people for thirty years. I rather thought of resting, living the
+life of a lotus eater for a time."
+
+"An extremist as ever," the Prime Minister remarked tolerantly. "Even a
+politician who has worked as hard as you have can find many pleasurable
+paths in life open to him in this country. However, the necessity for
+such an extreme course of action on your part is done away with. I am
+very pleased to be able to tell you that the affair concerning which I
+have been in communication with your secretary for the last two months
+has taken an unexpectedly favourable turn."
+
+"What the mischief do you mean?" Tallente enquired, puzzled.
+
+"I mean," Mr. Horlock announced, with a friendly smile, "that sooner
+than be deprived of your valuable services, His Majesty has consented
+that you should go to the Upper House. You will be offered a peerage
+within the next fortnight."
+
+Tallente stared at the speaker as though he had suddenly been bereft of
+his senses.
+
+"What on earth are you talking about, sir?" he demanded.
+
+Mr. Horlock somewhat resented his visitor's tone.
+
+"Surely my statement was sufficiently explicit?" he said, a little
+stiffly. "The peerage concerning which at first, I admit, I saw
+difficulties, is yours. You can, without doubt, be of great service to
+us in the Upper House and--"
+
+"But I'd sooner turn shopkeeper!" Tallente interrupted. "If I
+understand that it is your intention to offer me a peerage, let us have
+no misunderstanding about the matter. It is refused, absolutely and
+finally."
+
+The Prime Minister stared at his visitor for a moment in amazement.
+Then he unlocked a drawer in his desk, drew out several letters and
+threw them over to Tallente.
+
+"And will you tell me what the devil you mean by authorising your
+secretary to write these letters?" he demanded.
+
+Tallente picked them up, read them through and gasped.
+
+"Written by Palliser, aren't they?" Mr. Horlock demanded.
+
+"Without a doubt," Tallente acknowledged. "The amazing thing, however,
+is that they are entirely unauthorised. The subject has never even been
+discussed between Palliser and myself. I am exceedingly sorry, sir," he
+went on, "that you should have been misled in this fashion, but I can
+only give you my word of honour that these letters are entirely and
+absolutely unauthorised."
+
+"God bless my soul!" the Prime Minister exclaimed. "Where is Palliser?
+Better telephone."
+
+"Palliser left my service a week or more ago," Tallente replied. "He
+left it at a moment's notice, in consequence of a personal disagreement
+concerning which I beg that you will ask no questions I can only assure
+you that it was not political. Since he left no word has been heard of
+him. The papers, even, have been making capital of his disappearance."
+
+"It is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard in my life," Horlock
+declared, a little irritably. "Why, I've spent hours of my time trying
+to get this matter through."
+
+"Dealing seriously with Palliser, thinking that he represented me in
+this matter?"
+
+"Without a doubt."
+
+"Will you lend me the letters?" Tallente asked.
+
+Mr. Horlock threw them across the table.
+
+"Here they are. My secretary wrote twice to Palliser last week and
+received no reply. That is why I sent you a telegram."
+
+"I was on my way to see you, anyway," Tallente observed. "I thought
+that you were going to offer me a seat."
+
+Mr. Horlock shook his head.
+
+"We simply haven't a safe one," he confided, "and there isn't a soul I
+could ask to give up, especially, to speak plainly, for you, Tallente.
+They look upon you as dangerous, and although it would have been a nine
+days' wonder, most of my people would have been relieved to have heard
+of your going to the Upper House."
+
+"I see," Tallente murmured. "In plain words, you've no use for me in
+the Cabinet?"
+
+"My dear fellow," the Prime Minister expostulated, "you have no right to
+talk like that. I offered you a post of great responsibility and a seat
+which we believed to be perfectly safe. You lost the election, bringing
+a considerable amount of discredit, if you will forgive my saying so,
+upon the Government. What more can I do?"
+
+Tallente was watching the speaker curiously. He had thought over this
+interview all the way up on the train, thought it out on very different
+lines.
+
+"Nothing, I suppose," he admitted, "yet there's a certain risk about
+dropping me, isn't there? You might drive me into the arms of the
+enemy."
+
+"What, the old Whig lot? Not a chance! I know you too well for that."
+
+"No, the Democrats."
+
+Horlock moved restlessly in his chair. He was eyeing his visitor
+steadfastly.
+
+"What, the people who have just voted solidly against you?"
+
+"Hasn't it occurred to you that that might have been political
+strategy?" Tallente suggested. "They might have maneuvered for the very
+situation which has arisen--that is, if I am really worth anything to
+anybody."
+
+Horlock shook his head.
+
+"Oil and water won't mix, Tallente, and you don't belong to that crowd.
+All the same," he confessed, "I shouldn't like you with them. I cannot
+believe that such a thing would ever come to pass, but the thought isn't
+a pleasant one."
+
+"Now that you have made up your mind that I don't want to go to the
+House of Lords and wouldn't under any possible consideration," Tallente
+asked, "have you anything else to suggest?"
+
+Mr. Horlock was a little annoyed. He considered that he had shown
+remarkable patience with a somewhat troublesome visitor.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "it is of no use your being unreasonable. You had
+your chance at Hellesfield and you lost it; your chance in my Cabinet
+and lost that too. You know for yourself how many rising politicians I
+have to satisfy. You'll be back again with us before long, of course,
+but for the present you must be content to take a rest. We can make use
+of you on the platform and there are always the reviews."
+
+"I see," Tallente murmured.
+
+"The fact is," his host concluded, as his fingers strayed towards the
+dismissal bell, "you made rather a mistake, Tallente, years ago, in
+dabbling at all with the Labour Party. At first, I must admit that I
+was glad. I felt that you created, as it were, a link between my
+Government and a very troublesome Opposition. To-day things have
+altered. Labour has shown its hand and it demands what no sane man
+could give. We've finished with compromise. We have to fight Socialism
+or go under."
+
+Tallente nodded.
+
+"One moment," he begged, as the Prime Minister's forefinger rested upon
+the button of the bell. "Now may I tell you just why I came to pay you
+this visit?"
+
+"If there is anything more left to be said," Mr. Horlock conceded, with
+an air of exaggerated patience.
+
+"There is just this," Tallente declared. "If you had had a seat to
+offer me or a post in your Cabinet, I should have been compelled to
+decline it, just as I have declined that ridiculous offer of a peerage.
+I have consented to lead the Democratic Party in the House of Commons."
+
+The Prime Minister's fingers slipped slowly from the knob of the bell.
+He was a person of studied deportment. A journalist who had once
+written of his courtly manners had found himself before long the
+sub-editor of a Government journal. At that moment he was possessed of
+neither manners nor presence. He sat gazing at Tallente with his mouth
+open. The latter rose to his feet.
+
+"I ask you to believe, sir," he said, "that the step which I am taking
+is in no way due to my feeling of pique or dissatisfaction with your
+treatment. I go where I think I can do the best work for my country and
+employ such gifts as I have to their best advantage."
+
+"But you are out to ruin the country!" Horlock faltered. "The Democrats
+are Socialists."
+
+"From one point of view," Tallente rejoined, "every Christian is a
+Socialist. The term means nothing. The programme of my new party aims
+at the destruction of all artificial barriers which make prosperity easy
+to one and difficult to another. It aims not only at the abolition of
+great fortunes and trusts, but at the abolition of the conditions which
+make them possible. It embraces a scheme for national service and a
+reasonable imperialism. It has a sane programme, and that is more than
+any Government which has been in office since the war has had."
+
+Mr. Horlock rose to his feet.
+
+"Tallente," he pronounced, "you are a traitor to your class and to your
+country."
+
+He struck the bell viciously. His visitor turned away with a faint
+smile.
+
+"Don't annoy me," he begged, "or I may some day have to send you to the
+House of Lords!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Tallente, obeying an urgent telephone message, made his way to
+Claridge's and sent his card up to his wife. Her maid came down and
+invited him to her suite, an invitation which he promptly declined. In
+about a quarter of an hour she descended to the lounge, dressed for the
+street. She showed no signs of confusion or nervousness at his visit.
+She was hard and cold and fair, with a fraudulent smile upon her lips,
+dressed to perfection, her maid hovering in the background with a
+Pekinese under one arm and a jewel case in her other hand.
+
+"Thank goodness," she said, as she fluttered into a chair by his side,
+"that you hate scenes even more than I do! You have the air of a man
+who has found out no end of disagreeable things!"
+
+"You are observant," he answered drily. "I have just come from the
+Prime Minister."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I find that Palliser has been conducting a regular conspiracy behind my
+back, with reference to this wretched peerage. He has practically
+forged my name and has placed me in a most humiliating position. You, I
+suppose, were his instigator in this matter?"
+
+"I suppose I was," she admitted.
+
+"What was to be his reward--his ulterior reward, I mean?"
+
+"I promised him twenty thousand pounds," she answered, with cold fury.
+"It appears that I overvalued your importance to your party. Tony
+apparently did the same. He thought that you had only to intimate your
+readiness to accept a peerage and the thing would be arranged. It seems
+that we were wrong."
+
+"You were doubly wrong," he replied. "In the first place, there were
+difficulties, and in the second, nothing would have induced me to accept
+such a humiliating offer."
+
+"How did you find this out?" she enquired.
+
+"The Prime Minister offered me the peerage less than an hour ago," he
+answered. "I need not say that I unhesitatingly refused it."
+
+Stella ceased buttoning her gloves. There was a cold glitter in her
+eyes.
+
+"You refused it?"
+
+"Of course!"
+
+She was silent for a moment.
+
+"Andrew," she said, "you have scarcely kept your bargain with me."
+
+"I am not prepared to admit that," he replied. "You had a very
+considerable social position at the time when I was in office. It was
+up to you to make that good."
+
+"I am tired of political society," she answered. "It isn't the real
+thing. Now you are out of Parliament, though, even that has vanished.
+Andrew!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+She leaned a little towards him. She began to regret that he had not
+accepted her invitation to visit her in her suite. Years ago she had
+been able to bend him sometimes to her will. Why should she take it for
+granted that she had lost her power? Here, however, even persuasions
+were difficult. He sat upon a straight, high-backed chair by her side
+and his face seemed as though it were carved out of stone.
+
+"You have always declined, Andrew, to make very much use of my money,"
+she said. "Could we not make a bargain now? I will give you a hundred
+thousand pounds and settle five million dollars on the holder of the
+title forever, if you will accept this peerage. I wouldn't mind a
+present to the party funds, either, if that helped matters."
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I am sorry for your disappointment," he said, "but nothing would induce
+me to accept a seat in the Upper House. I have other plans."
+
+"They could be changed."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You might be forced to change them."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+The smile maddened her. She had meant to be subtle. She became
+flamboyant. She leaned forward in her chair.
+
+"What have you done with Tony Palliser?" she demanded.
+
+Tallente remained absolutely unruffled. He had been expecting something
+of this sort. The only wonder was that it had been delayed so long.
+
+"A threat?" he asked pleasantly.
+
+"Call it what you like. Men don't disappear like that. What did you do
+with him?"
+
+"What do you think he deserved?"
+
+She bit her lip.
+
+"I think you are the most detestable human being who ever breathed," she
+faltered. "Supposing I go to the police?"
+
+"Don't be melodramatic," he begged. "In the first place, what have you
+to tell? In the second place, in this country, at any rate, a wife
+cannot give evidence against her husband."
+
+"You admit that something has happened?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"I admit nothing," he replied, "except that Anthony Palliser has
+disappeared under circumstances which you and I know about, that he has
+forged my name and entered into a disgraceful conspiracy with you, and
+that he has stolen from my wife a political document of great importance
+to me."
+
+"I knew nothing about the political document," she said quickly.
+
+"Possibly not," he agreed. "Still, the fact remains that Tony was a
+thoroughly bad lot. I find myself able to regard the possibility of an
+accident having happened to him with equanimity. Have you anything
+further to say?"
+
+She sat looking down on the floor for several minutes. She had
+probably, Tallente decided as he watched her, some way of suffering in
+secret, all the more terrible because of its repression. When she
+looked up, her face seemed pinched and older. Her voice, however, was
+steady.
+
+"Let us have an understanding," she said. "You do not desire my return
+to Martinhoe?"
+
+"I do not," he agreed.
+
+"And what about Cheverton House here?"
+
+"I have nothing to do with it," he replied. "You persuaded me to allow
+you to take it and I have lived with you there. I never pretended,
+however, to be able to contribute to its upkeep. You can live there, if
+you choose, or wherever else you please."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"It would be more reputable."
+
+"You mean that you will not return there?"
+
+"I do mean that."
+
+His cold firmness daunted her. She was, besides, at a disadvantage; she
+had no idea how much he knew.
+
+"I can make you come back to me if I choose," she threatened.
+
+"The attempt would cost you a great deal of money," he told her, "and
+the result would be the same. Frankly, Stella," he went on, striving to
+impart a note of friendliness into his tone, "we made a bad bargain and
+it is no use clinging to the impossible. I have tried to keep my end of
+it. Technically I have kept it. If I have failed in other ways, I am
+very sorry. The whole thing was a mistake. We have been frank about
+it more than once, so we may just as well be frank about it now. I
+married for money and you for position. I have not found your money any
+particular advantage, and I have realised that as a man gets on in life
+there are other and more vital things which he misses though making such
+a bargain. You are not satisfied with your position, and perhaps you,
+too, have something of the same feeling that I have. You are your own
+mistress and you are a very rich woman, and in whichever direction you
+may decide to seek for a larger measure of content, you will not find
+me in the Way."
+
+
+"I am not sentimental," she said coldly. "I know what I want and I am
+not afraid to own it. I want to be a Peeress."
+
+"In that respect I am unable to help you," he replied. "And in case I
+have not made myself sufficiently clear upon the subject, let me tell
+you that I deeply resent the plot by which you endeavoured to foist such
+an indignity upon me."
+
+"This is your last word?" she demanded.
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Then I demand that you set me free."
+
+He was a little staggered.
+
+"How on earth can I do that?"
+
+"You can allow me to divorce you."
+
+"And spoil any chance I might have of reentering political life," he
+remarked quietly.
+
+"I have no further interest in your political life," she retorted.
+
+He looked at her steadfastly.
+
+"There is another way," he suggested. "I might divorce you."
+
+Her eyes fell before the steely light in his. She did her best,
+however, to keep her voice steady.
+
+"That would not suit me," she admitted. "I could not be received at
+Court, and there are other social penalties which I am not inclined to
+face. In the case of a disagreement like ours, if the man realises his
+duty, it is he who is willing to bear the sacrifice."
+
+"Under some circumstances, yes," he agreed. "In our case, however,
+there is a certain consideration upon which I have forborne to touch--"
+
+It was as much her anger as anything else which induced her lack of
+self-control. She gave a little cry.
+
+"Andrew, you are detestable!" she exclaimed. "Let us end this
+conversation. You have said all that you wish to say?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"Please go away, then," she begged. "I am expecting visitors. I think
+that we understand each other."
+
+He rose to his feet.
+
+"I am sorry for our failure, Stella," he said. "Pray do not hesitate to
+write to me at any time if my advice or assistance can be of service."
+
+He passed down the lounge, more crowded now than when he had entered. A
+very fashionably dressed young woman, one of a smart tea party, leaned
+back in her chair as he passed and held out her hand.
+
+"And how does town seem, Mr. Tallente, after your sylvan solitude?" she
+asked.
+
+Tallente for a moment was almost at a loss. Then a glance into her
+really very wonderful eyes, and the curve of her lips as she smiled
+convinced him of the truth which he had at first discarded.
+
+"Miss Miall!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Please don't look so surprised," she laughed. "I suppose you think I
+have no right to be frivolling in these very serious times, but I am
+afraid I am rather an offender when the humour takes me. You kept your
+word to Mr. Dartrey, I see?"
+
+Tallente nodded.
+
+"I came to town yesterday."
+
+"I must hear all the news, please," she insisted. "Will you come and
+see me to-morrow afternoon? I share a flat with another girl in
+Westminster--Number 13, Brown Square."
+
+"I shall be delighted," he answered. "I think your hostess wants to
+speak to me. She is an old friend of my aunt."
+
+He moved on a few steps and bowed over the thin, over-bejewelled fingers
+of the Countess of Clanarton, an old lady whose vogue still remained
+unchallenged, although the publication of her memoirs had very nearly
+sent a highly respected publisher into prison.
+
+"Andrew," she exclaimed, "we are all so distressed about you! How dared
+you lose your election! You know my little fire-eating friend, I see.
+I keep in with her because when the revolution comes she is going to
+save me from the guillotine, aren't you, Nora?"
+
+"My revolution won't have anything to do with guillotines," the girl
+laughed back, "and if you really want to have a powerful friend at
+court, pin your faith on Mr. Tallente."
+
+Lady Clanarton shook her head.
+
+"I have known Andrew, my dear, since he was in his cradle," she said.
+"I have heard him spout Socialism, and I know he has written about
+revolutions, but, believe me, he's a good old-fashioned Whig at heart.
+He'll never carry the red flag. I see your wife has bought the
+Maharajaim of Sapong's pearls, Andrew. Do you think she'd leave them to
+me if I were to call on her?"
+
+"Why not ask her?" Tallente suggested. "She is over there."
+
+"Dear me, so she is!" she exclaimed. "How smart, too! I thought when
+she came in she must be some one not quite respectable, she was so
+well-dressed. Going, Andrew? Well, come and see me before you return
+to the country. And I wouldn't go and have tea with that little hussy,
+if I were you. She'll burn the good old-fashioned principles out of
+you, if anything could."
+
+"Not later than five, please," Nora called out. "You shall have
+muffins, if I can get them."
+
+"She's got her eye on you," the old lady chuckled. "Most dangerous
+child in London, they all tell me. You're warned, Andrew."
+
+He smiled as he raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+"Is my danger political or otherwise?" he whispered.
+
+"Otherwise, I should think," was the prompt retort. "You are too
+British to change our politics, but thank goodness infidelity is one of
+the cosmopolitan virtues. You were never the man to marry a
+plaster-cast type of wife, Andrew, for all her millions. I could have
+done better for you than that. What's this they are telling me about
+Tony Palliser?"
+
+Tallente stiffened a little.
+
+"A good many people seem to be talking about Tony Palliser," he
+observed.
+
+"You shouldn't have let your wife make such an idiot of herself with
+him--lunching and dining and theatring all the time. And now they say
+he has disappeared. Poor little man! What have you done to him,
+Andrew?"
+
+Tallente sighed.
+
+"I can see that I shall have to take you into my confidence," he
+murmured.
+
+"You needn't tell me a single word, because I shouldn't believe you if
+you did. Are you staying here with your wife?"
+
+"No," Tallente answered. "I am back at my old rooms in Charges Street."
+
+The old lady patted him on the arm and dismissed him.
+
+"You see, I've found out all I wanted to know!" she chuckled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Dartrey had been called unexpectedly to the north, to a great Labour
+conference, and Tallente, waiting for his return, promised within the
+next forty-eight hours, found himself rather at a loose end. He avoided
+the club, where he would have been likely to meet his late political
+associates, and spent the morning after his visit to the Prime Minister
+strolling around the Park, paying visits to his tailor and hosier, and
+lunched by himself a little sadly in a fashionable restaurant. At five
+o'clock he found his way to Westminster and discovered Nora Miall's
+flat. A busy young person in pince-nez and a long overall, who
+announced herself as Miss Miall's secretary, was in the act of showing
+out James Miller as he rang the bell. "Any news?" the latter asked,
+after Tallente had found it impossible to avoid shaking hands. "I am
+waiting for Mr. Dartrey's return. No, there is no particular news that I
+know of."
+
+"Dartrey's had to go north for a few days," Miller confided officiously.
+"I ought to have gone too, but some one had to stay and look after
+things in the House. Rather a nuisance his being called away just now."
+
+Tallente preserved a noncommittal silence. Miller rolled a cigarette
+hastily, took up his unwrapped umbrella and an ill-brushed bowler hat.
+
+"Well, I must be going," he concluded. "If there is anything I can do
+for you during the chief's absence, look me up, Mr. Tallente. It's all
+the same, you know--Dartrey or me--Demos House in Parliament Street, or
+the House. You haven't forgotten your way there yet, I expect?"
+
+With which parting shaft Mr. James Miller departed, and the secretary,
+Opening the door of Nora's sitting room, ushered Tallente in.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she announced, with a subdued smile, "fresh from a most
+engaging but rather one-sided conversation with Mr. Miller."
+
+Nora was evidently neither attired nor equipped this afternoon for a tea
+party at Claridge's. She wore a dark blue princess frock, buttoned
+right up to the throat. Her hair was brushed straight back from her
+head, revealing a little more completely her finely shaped forehead.
+She was seated before a round table covered with papers, and Tallente
+fancied, even as he crossed the threshold, that there was an electric
+atmosphere in the little apartment, an impression which the smouldering
+fire in her eyes, as she glanced up, confirmed. The change in her
+expression, however, as she recognised her visitor, was instantaneous.
+A delightful smile of welcome chased away the sombreness of her face.
+
+"My dear man," she exclaimed, "come and sit down and help me to forget
+that annoying person who has just gone out!"
+
+Tallente smiled.
+
+"Miller is not one of your favorites, then?"
+
+"Isn't he the most impossible person who ever breathed." she replied.
+"He was a conscientious objector during the war, a sex fanatic
+since--Mr. Dartrey had to use all his influence to keep him out of
+prison for writing those scurrulous articles in the Comet--and I think
+he is one of the smallest-minded, most untrustworthy persons I ever met.
+For some reason or other, Stephen Dartrey believes in him. He has a
+wonderful talent for organization and a good deal of influence with the
+trades unions.--By the by, it's all right about the muffins."
+
+She rang the bell and ordered tea. Tallente glanced for a moment about
+the room. The four walls were lined with well-filled bookcases, but the
+mural decorations consisted--except for one wonderful nude figure, copy
+of a well-known Rodin--of statistical charts and shaded maps. There
+were only two signs of feminine occupation: an immense bowl of red
+roses, rising with strange effect from the sea of manuscript, pamphlets,
+and volumes of reference, and a wide, luxurious couch, drawn up to the
+window, through which the tops of a little clump of lime trees were just
+visible. As she turned back to him, he noticed with more complete
+appreciation the lines of her ample but graceful figure, the more
+remarkable because she was neither tall nor slim.
+
+"So that was your wife at Claridge's yesterday afternoon?" she remarked,
+a little abruptly.
+
+He assented in silence. Her eyes sought his speculatively.
+
+"I know that Lady Clanarton is a terrible gossip," she went on. "Was
+she telling me the truth when she said that your married life was not an
+entire success?"
+
+"She was telling you the truth," Tallente admitted.
+
+"I like to know everything," she suggested quietly. "You must remember
+that we shall probably become intimates."
+
+"I did my wife the injustice of marrying her for money," Tallente
+explained. "She married me because she thought that I could provide her
+with a social position such as she desired. Our marriage was a double
+failure. I found no opportunity of making use of her money, and she was
+discontented with the value she received for it. We have within the
+last few days agreed to separate. Now you know everything," he added,
+with a little smile, "and curiously enough, considering the brevity of
+our acquaintance, you know it before anybody else in the world except
+one person."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I like to know everything about the people I am interested in," she
+admitted. "Besides, your story sounds so quaint. It seems to belong,
+somehow or other, to the days of Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen. I
+suppose that is because I always feel that I am living a little way in
+the future."
+
+Tea was brought in, and a place cleared for the tray upon a crowded
+table. Afterwards she lit a cigarette and threw herself upon the
+lounge.
+
+"Turn your chair around towards me," she invited. "This is the hour I
+like best of any during the day. Do you see what a beautiful view I
+have of the Houses of Parliament? And there across the river, behind
+that mist, the cesspool begins. Sometimes I lie here and think. I see
+right into Bermondsey and Rotherhithe and all those places and think out
+the lives of the people as they are being lived. Then I look through
+those wonderful windows there--how they glitter in the sunshine, don't
+they!--and I think I hear the men speak whom they have sent to plead
+their cause. Some Demosthenes from Tower Hill exhausts himself with
+phrase-making, shouts himself into a perspiration, drawing lurid,
+pictures of hideous and apparent wrongs, and a hundred or so
+well-dressed legislators whisper behind the palms of their hands, make
+their plans for the evening and trot into their appointed lobbies like
+sheep when the division bell rings. It is the most tragical epitome of
+inadequacy the world has ever known."
+
+"Have you Democrats any fresh inspiration, then?" he asked.
+
+"Of course we have," she rapped out sharply. "It isn't like you to ask
+such a question. The principles for which we stand never existed
+before, except academically. No party has ever been able to preach them
+within the realm of practical politics, because no party has been
+comprehensive enough. The Labour Party, as it was understood ten years
+ago, was a pitiful conglomeration of selfish atoms without the faintest
+idea of coordination. It is for the souls of the people we stand, we
+Democrats, whether they belong to trades unions or not, whether they
+till the fields or sweat in the factories, whether they bend over a desk
+or go back and forth across the sea, whether they live in small houses
+or large, whether they belong to the respectable middle classes whom the
+after-the-war legislation did its best to break, or to the class of
+actual manual laborers."
+
+"I don't see what place a man like Miller has in your scheme of things,"
+he observed, a little restlessly.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Miller is a limpet," she said. "He has posed as a man of brains for
+half a generation. His only real cleverness is an unerring but selfish
+capacity for attaching himself to the right cause. We can't ignore him.
+He has a following. On the other hand, he does not represent our
+principles any more than Pitt would if he were still alive."
+
+"What will be your position really as regards the two main sections of
+the Labour Party?" he asked. "We are absorbing the best of them, day by
+day," she answered quickly. "What is left of either will be merely the
+scum. The people will come to us. Their discarded leaders can crawl
+back to obscurity. The people may follow false gods for a very long
+time, but they have the knack of recognising the truth when it is shown
+them."
+
+"You have the gift of conviction," he said thoughtfully.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Our cause speaks, not I," she declared. "Every word I utter is a waste
+of breath, a task of supererogation. You can't associate with Stephen
+Dartrey for a month without realising for yourself what our party means
+and stands for. So--enough. I didn't ask you here to undertake any
+missionary work. I asked you, as a matter of fact, for my own pleasure.
+Take another cigarette and pass me one, please. And here's another
+cushion," she added, throwing it to him. "You look as though you needed
+it." He settled down more comfortably. He had the pleasant feeling of
+being completely at his ease.
+
+"So far as entertaining you is concerned," he confessed, "I fear I am
+likely to be a failure. I am beginning to feel like a constant note of
+interrogation. There is so much I want to know."
+
+"Proceed, then. I am resigned," she said with a smile. "About
+yourself. I just knew of you as the writer of one or two articles in
+the reviews. Why have I never heard more of you?"
+
+"One reason," she confided, "is because I am so painfully young. I
+haven't had time yet to become a wonderful woman. You see, I have the
+tremendous advantage of not having known the world except from
+underneath a pigtail, while the war was on. I was able to bring to
+these new conditions an absolutely unbiassed understanding."
+
+"But what was your upbringing?" he asked. "Your father, for instance?"
+
+"Is this going to be a pill for you?" she enquired, with slightly
+wrinkled forehead. "He was professor of English at Dresden University.
+We were all living there when the war broke out, but he was such a
+favourite that they let us go to Paris. He died there, the week after
+peace was declared. My mother still lives at Versailles. She was
+governess to Lady Clanarton's grandchildren, hence my presence yesterday
+in those aristocratic circles."
+
+"And you live here alone?"
+
+"With my secretary--the fuzzyhaired young person who was just getting
+rid of Mr. Miller for me when you arrived. We are a terribly advanced
+couple, in our ideas, but we lead a thoroughly reputable life. I
+sometimes think," she went on, with a sigh, "that all one's tendencies
+towards the unusual can be got rid of in opinions. Susan, for
+instance--that is my secretary's name--pronounces herself unblushingly
+in favour of free love, but I don't think she has ever allowed a man to
+kiss her in her life."
+
+"Your own opinions?" he asked curiously. "I suppose they, too, are a
+little revolutionary, so far as regards our social laws?"
+
+"I dare not even define them," she acknowledged, "they are so entirely
+negative. Somehow or other, I can't help thinking that the present
+system will die out through the sheer absurdity of it. We really shan't
+need a crusade against the marriage laws. The whole system is
+committing suicide as fast as it can."
+
+"How old are you?" he asked.
+
+"Twenty-four," she answered promptly.
+
+"And supposing you fell in love--taking it for granted that you have not
+done so already--should you marry?"
+
+Her eyes rested upon his, a little narrowed, curiously and pleasantly
+reflective. All the time the corners of her sensitive mouth twitched a
+little.
+
+"To tell you the truth," she confided, with a somewhat evasive air, "I
+have been so busy thinking out life for other people that I have never
+stopped to apply its general principles to myself."
+
+"You are a sophist," he declared.
+
+"I have not your remarkable insight," she laughed mockingly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"How this came about I don't even quite know," Tallente remarked, an
+hour or so later, as he laid down the menu and smiled across the corner
+table in the little Soho restaurant at his two companions.
+
+"I can tell you exactly," Nora declared. "You are in town for a few
+days only, and I want to see as much of you as I can; Susan here is
+deserting me at nine o'clock to go to a musical comedy; I particularly
+wanted a sole Georges, and I knew, if Susan and I came here alone, a
+person whom we neither of us like would come and share our table.
+Therefore, I made artless enquiries as to your engagements for the
+evening. When I found that you proposed to dine alone in some hidden
+place rather than run the risk of meeting any of your political
+acquaintances at the club, I went in for a little mental suggestion."
+
+"I see," he murmured. "Then my invitation wasn't a spontaneous one?"
+
+"Not at all," she agreed. "I put the idea into your head."
+
+"And now that we are here, are you going to stretch me on the rack and
+delve for my opinions on all sorts of subjects? is Miss Susan there
+going to take them down in shorthand on her cuff and you make a report
+to Dartrey when he comes back to-morrow?"
+
+She laughed at him from underneath her close-fitting, becoming little
+hat. She was biting an olive with firm white teeth.
+
+"After hours," she reassured him. "Susan and I are going to talk a
+little nonsense after the day's work. You may join in if you can unbend
+so far. We shall probably eat more than is good for us--I had a cup of
+coffee for lunch--and if you decide to be magnificent and offer us wine,
+we shall drink it and talk more nonsense than ever."
+
+He called for the wine list.
+
+"I thought we were going to discuss the effect of Grecian philosophy
+upon the Roman system of government."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You're a long way out," she declared, "Our conversation will skirt the
+edges of many subjects. We shall speak of the Russian Ballet, Susan and
+I will exchange a few whispered confidences about our admirers, we shall
+discuss even one who comes in and goes out, with subtle references to
+their clothes and morals, and when you and I are left alone we may even
+indulge in the wholesome, sentimental exercise of a little flirtation."
+
+"There you have me," he confessed. "I know a little about everything
+else you have mentioned."
+
+"A very good opening." she approved. "Keep it till Susan has gone and
+then propose yourself as a disciple. There is only one drawback about
+this place," she went on, nodding curtly across the room to Miller. "So
+many of our own people come here. Mr. Miller must be pleased to see us
+together."
+
+"Why?" Tallente asked. "Is he an admirer?"
+
+Nora's face was almost ludicrously expressive.
+
+"He would like to he," she admitted, "but, thick-skinned though he is, I
+have managed to make him understand pretty well how I feel about him.
+You'll find him a thorn in your side," she went on reflectively.
+
+"You see, if our party has a fault, it is in a certain lack of system.
+We have only a titular chief and no real leader. Miller thinks that
+post is his by predestination. Your coming is beginning to worry him
+already. It was entirely on your account he paid me that visit this
+afternoon."
+
+"To be perfectly frank with you," Tallente sighed, "I should find Miller
+a loathsome coadjutor."
+
+"There are drawbacks to everything in life," Nora replied. "Long before
+Miller has become anything except a nuisance to you, you will have
+realised that the only political party worth considering, during the
+next fifty years, at any rate, will be the Democrats. After that, I
+shouldn't be at all surprised if the aristocrats didn't engineer a
+revolution, especially if we disenfranchise them.--Susan, you have a new
+hat on. Tell me at once with whom you are going to Daly's?"
+
+"No one who counts," the girl declared, with a little grimace. "I am
+going with my brother and a very sober married friend of his."
+
+"After working hours," Nora confessed, glancing critically at the sole
+which had just been tendered for Tallente's examination, "the chief
+interest of Susan and myself, as you may have observed, lies in food and
+in your sex. I think we must have what some nasty German woman once
+called the man-hunger."
+
+"It sounds cannibalistic," Tallente rejoined. "Have I any cause for
+alarm?"
+
+"Not so far as I am concerned," Susan assured him. "I have really found
+my man, only he doesn't know it yet. I am trying to get it into his
+brain by mental suggestion."
+
+"You wouldn't think Susan would be so much luckier than I, would you?"
+Nora observed, studying her friend reflectively. "I am really much
+better-looking, but I think she must have more taking ways. You needn't
+be nervous, Mr. Tallente. You are outside the range of our ambitions.
+I shall have to be content with some one in a humbler walk of life."
+
+"Aren't you a little over-modest?" he asked. "You haven't told me much
+about the social side of this new era which you propose to inaugurate,
+but I imagine that intellect will be the only aristocracy."
+
+"Even then," Norah sighed, "I am lacking in confidence. To tell you the
+truth, I am not a great believer in my own sex. I don't see us
+occupying a very prominent place in the politics of the next few
+decades. The functions of woman were decided for her by nature and a
+million years of revolt will never alter them."
+
+Tallente was a little surprised.
+
+"You mean that you don't believe in woman Member of Parliament, doctors
+and lawyers, and that sort of thing?"
+
+"In a general way, certainly not," she replied. "Women doctors for
+women and children, yes! Lawyers--no! Members of Parliament--certainly
+not! Women were made for one thing and to do that properly should take
+all the energy they possess."
+
+"You are full of surprises," Tallente declared. "I expected a miracle
+of complexity and I find you almost primitive." She laughed. "Then
+considering the sort of man you are, I ought to have gone up a lot in
+your estimation."
+
+"There are a very few higher notches," he assured her, smiling, "than
+the one where you now sit enthroned."
+
+Nora glanced at her wrist watch.
+
+"Susan dear, what time do you have to join your friends?" she asked.
+
+Susan shook her head.
+
+"Nothing doing. I've got my seat. I am going when I've had my dinner
+comfortably. There's fried chicken coming and no considerations of
+friendship would induce me to hurry away from it."
+
+Nora sighed plaintively.
+
+"There is no doubt about it, women do lack the sporting instinct," she
+lamented. "Now if we'd both been men, and Mr. Tallente a charming
+woman, I should have just given you a wink, you would have muttered
+something clumsy about an appointment, shuffled off and finished your
+dinner elsewhere."
+
+"Our sex isn't capable of such sacrifices," Susan declared, leaning back
+to enable the waiter to fill her glass. "There's the champagne, too."
+
+The meal came to a conclusion with scarcely another serious word. Susan
+departed in due course, and Tallente called for his bill, a short time
+afterwards, with a feeling of absolute reluctance.
+
+"Shall we try and get in at a show somewhere?" he suggested.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Not to-night. Four nights a week I go to bed early and this is one of
+them. Let's escape, if we can, before Mr. Miller can make his way over
+here. I know he'll try and have coffee with us or something."
+
+Tallente was adroit and they left the restaurant just as Miller was
+rising to his feet. Nora sprang into the waiting taxi with a little
+laugh of triumph and drew her skirts on one side to make room for her
+escort. They drove slowly off along the hot and crowded street, with
+its long-drawn-out tangle of polyglot shops, foreign-looking restaurants
+and delicatessen establishments. Every one who was not feverishly busy
+was seated either at the open windows of the second or third floor, or
+out on the pavement below. The city seemed to be exuding the soaked-in
+heat of the long summer's day. The women who floated by were dressed in
+the lightest of muslins; even the plainest of them gained a new charm in
+their airy and butterfly-looking costumes. The men walked bareheaded,
+waistcoatless, fanning themselves with straw hats. Here and there, as
+they turned into Shaftesbury Avenue, an immaculately turned-out young
+man in evening dress passed along the baked pavements and dived into one
+of the theatres. Notwithstanding the heat, there seemed to be a sort of
+voluptuous atmosphere brooding over the crowded streets. The sky over
+Piccadilly Circus was almost violet and the luminous, unneeded lamps had
+a festive effect. The strain of a long day had passed. It was the
+pleasure-seekers alone who thronged the thoroughfares. Tallente turned
+and looked into the corner of the cab, to meet a soft, reflective gleam
+in Nora's eyes.
+
+"Isn't London wonderful!" she murmured dreamily. "On a night like this
+it always seems to me like a great human being whose pulses you can see
+heating, beating all the time."
+
+Tallente, a person very little given to self-analysis, never really
+understood the impulse which prompted him to lean towards her, the
+slightly quickening sense of excitement with which he sought for the
+kindness of her eyes. Suddenly he felt his fingers clasped in hers, a
+warm, pleasant grasp, yet which somehow or other seemed to have the
+effect of a barrier.
+
+"You asked me a question at dinner-time," she said, "winch I did not
+answer at the time. You asked me why I disliked James Miller so much."
+
+"Don't tell me unless you like," he begged. "Don't talk about that
+sort of person at all just now, unless you want to."
+
+"I must tell you why I dislike him so much," she insisted. "It is
+because he once tried to kiss me."
+
+"Was that so terrible a sin?" he asked, a little thickly.
+
+She smiled up at him with the candour of a child.
+
+"To me it was," she acknowledged, "because it was just the casual caress
+of a man seeking for a momentary emotion. Sometimes you have
+wondered--or you have looked as though you were wondering--what my ideas
+about men and women and the future and the marriage laws, and all that
+sort of thing really are. Perhaps I haven't altogether made up my mind
+myself, but I do know this, because it is part of myself and my life.
+The one desire I have is for children--sons for the State, or daughters
+who may bear sons. There isn't anything else which it is worth while
+for a woman thinking about for a moment. And yet, do you know, I never
+actually think of marrying. I never think about whether love is right
+or wrong. I simply think that no man shall ever kiss me, or hold me in
+his arms, unless it is the man who is sent to me for my desire, and when
+he comes, just whoever he may be, or whenever it may be, and whether St.
+George's opens its doors to us or whether we go through some tangle of
+words at a registry office, or whether neither of these things happens,
+I really do not mind. When he comes, he will give me what I want--that
+is just all that counts. And until he comes, I shall stay just as I
+have been ever since my pigtail went up and my skirts came down."
+
+She gave his hand a final little pressure, patted and released it. He
+felt, somehow or other, immeasurably grateful to her, flattered by her
+confidence, curiously exalted by her hesitating words. Speech, however,
+he found an impossibility.
+
+"So you see," she concluded, sitting up and speaking once more in her
+conversational manner, "I am not a bit modern really, am I? I am just as
+primitive as I can be, longing for the things all women long for and
+unashamed to confess my longing to any one who has the gift of
+understanding, any one who walks with his eyes turned towards the
+clouds."
+
+Their taxicab stopped outside the building in which her little flat was
+situated. She handed him the door key. "Please turn this for me," she
+begged. "I am at home every afternoon between five and seven. Come and
+see me whenever you can." He opened the door and she passed in, looking
+back at him with a little wave of the hand before she vanished lightly
+into the shadows. Tallente dismissed the cab and walked back towards
+his rooms. His light-heartedness was passing away with every step he
+took. The cheerful little groups of pleasure-seekers he encountered
+seemed like an affront to his increasing melancholy. Once more he had
+to reckon with this strange new feeling of loneliness which had made its
+disturbing entrance into his thoughts within the last few years. It was
+as though a certain weariness of life and its prospects had come with
+the temporary cessation of his day-by-day political work, and as though
+an unsuspected desire, terrified at the passing years, was tugging at
+his heartstrings in the desperate call for some tardy realisation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Tallente met the Prime Minister walking in the Park early on the
+following morning. The latter had established the custom of walking
+from Knightsbridge Barracks, where his car deposited him, to Marble Arch
+and back every morning, and it had come to be recognised as his desire,
+and a part of the etiquette of the place, that he should be allowed this
+exercise without receiving even the recognition of passersby. On this
+occasion, however, he took the initiative, stopped Tallente and invited
+him to talk with him.
+
+"I thought of writing to you, Tallente," he said. "I cannot bring
+myself to believe that you were in earnest on Wednesday morning."
+
+"Absolutely," the other assured him. "I have an appointment with
+Dartrey in an hour's time to close the matter."
+
+The Prime Minister was shocked and pained.
+
+"You will dig your own grave," he declared. "The idea is perfectly
+scandalous. You propose to sell your political birthright for a mess of
+pottage."
+
+"I am afraid I can't agree with you, sir," Tallente regretted. "I am at
+least as much in sympathy with the programme of the Democratic Party as
+I am with yours."
+
+"In that case," was the somewhat stiff rejoinder, "there is, I fear,
+nothing more to be said."
+
+There was a brief silence. Tallente would have been glad to make his
+escape, but found no excuse.
+
+"When we beat Germany," Horlock ruminated, "the man in the street
+thought that we had ensured the peace of the world. Who could have
+dreamed that a nation who had played such an heroic part, which had
+imperiled its very existence for the sake of a principle, was all the
+time rotten at the core!"
+
+"I will challenge you to repeat that statement in the House or on any
+public platform, sir," Tallente objected. "The present state of
+discontent throughout the country is solely owing to the shocking
+financial mismanagement of every Chancellor of the Exchequer and
+lawmaker since peace was signed. We won the war and the people who had
+been asked to make heroic sacrifices were simply expected to continue
+them afterwards as a matter of course. What chance has the man of
+moderate means had to improve his position, to save a little for his old
+age, during the last ten years? A third of his income has gone in
+taxation and the cost of everything is fifty per cent, more than it was
+before the war. And we won it, mind. That is what he can't understand.
+We won the war and found ruin."
+
+"Legislation has done its best," the Prime Minister said, "to assist in
+the distribution of capital."
+
+"Legislation was too slow," Tallente answered bluntly. "Legislation is
+only playing with the subject now. You sneer at the Democratic Party,
+but they have a perfectly sound scheme of financial reform and they
+undertake to bring the income tax down to two shillings in the pound
+within the next three years."
+
+"They'll ruin half the merchants and the manufacturers in the country if
+they attempt it."
+
+"How can they ruin them?" Tallente replied. "The factories will be
+there, the trade will be there, the money will still be there. The
+financial legislation of the last few years has simply been a blatant
+nursing of the profiteer."
+
+"I need not say, Tallente, that I disagree with you entirely," his
+companion declared. "At the same time, I am not going to argue with
+you. To tell you the truth, I spent a great part of last night with you
+in my thoughts. We cannot afford to let you go. Supposing, now, that I
+could induce Watkinson to give up Kendal? His seat is quite safe and
+with a little reshuffling you would be able to slip back gradually to
+your place amongst us?"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I am very sorry, sir," he said, "but my decision is taken. I have come
+to the conclusion that, with proper handling and amalgamation, the
+Democrats are capable of becoming the only sound political party at
+present possible. If Stephen Dartrey is still of the same mind when I
+see him this morning, I shall throw in my lot with theirs."
+
+The Prime Minister frowned. He recognised bitterly an error in tactics.
+The ranks of his own party were filled with brilliant men without
+executive gifts. It was for that reason he had for the moment ignored
+Tallente. He realised, however, that in the opposite camp no man could
+be more dangerous.
+
+"This thing seems to me really terrible, Tallente," he protested
+gravely. "After all, however much we may ignore it, there is what we
+might call a clannishness amongst Englishmen of a certain order which
+has helped this country through many troubles. You are going to leave
+behind entirely the companionship of your class. You are going to cast
+in your lot with the riffraff of politics, the mealy-mouthed anarchist
+only biding his time, the blatant Bolshevist talking of compromise with
+his tongue in his cheek, the tub-thumper out to confiscate every one's
+wealth and start a public house. You won't know yourself in this
+gallery."
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"These people," he admitted, "are full of their extravagances, although
+I think that the types you mention are as extinct as the dodo, but I
+will admit their extravagances, only to pass on to tell you this. I
+claim for them that they are the only political party, even with their
+strange conglomeration of material, which possesses the least spark of
+spirituality. I think, and their programme proves it, that they are
+trying to look beyond the crying needs of the moment, trying to frame
+laws which will be lasting and just without pandering to capital or
+factions of any sort. I think that when their time comes, they will try
+at least to govern this country from the loftiest possible standard."
+
+The Prime Minister completed his walk, the enjoyment of which Tallente
+had entirely spoilt. He held out his hand a little pettishly.
+
+"Politics," he said, "is the one career in which men seldom recover from
+their mistakes. I hope that even at the eleventh hour you will relent.
+It will be a grief to all of us to see you slip away from the reputable
+places."
+
+The Right Honourable John Augustus Horlock stepped into his motor-car
+and drove away. Tallente, after a glance at his watch, called a taxi
+and proceeded to keep his appointment at Demos House, the great block of
+buildings where Dartrey had established his headquarters. In the large,
+open waiting room where he was invited to take a seat he watched with
+interest the faces of the passers-by. There seemed to be visitors from
+every class of the community. A Board of Trade official was there to
+present some figures connected with the industry which he represented.
+Half a dozen operatives, personally conducted by a local leader, had
+travelled up that morning from one of the great manufacturing centres.
+A well-known writer was there, waiting to see the chief of the literary
+section. Tallente found his period of detention all too short. He was
+summoned in to see Dartrey, who welcomed him warmly.
+
+"Sit down, Tallente," he invited. "We are both of us men who believe in
+simple things and direct action. Have you made up your mind?"
+
+"I have," Tallente announced. "I have broken finally with Horlock. I
+have told him that I am coming to you."
+
+Dartrey leaned over and held out both his hands. The spiritual side of
+his face seemed at that moment altogether in the ascendant. He welcomed
+Tallente as the head of a great religious order might have welcomed a
+novice. He was full of dignity and kindliness as well as joy.
+
+"You will help us to set the world to rights," he said. "Alas! that is
+only a phrase, but you will help us to let in the light. Remember," he
+went on, "that there may be moments of discouragement. Much of the
+material we have to use, the people we have to influence, the way we
+have to travel, may seem sordid, but the light is shining there all the
+time, Tallente. We are not politicians. We are deliverers."
+
+It was one of Dartrey's rare moments of genuine enthusiasm. His visitor
+forgot for a moment the businesslike office with its row of telephones,
+its shelves of blue books and masses of papers. He seemed to be
+breathing a new and wonderful atmosphere.
+
+"I am your man, Dartrey," he promised simply. "Make what use of me you
+will."
+
+Dartrey smiled, once more the plain, kindly man of affairs.
+
+"To descend, then, very much to the earth," he said, "to-night you must
+go to Bradford. Odames will resign to-morrow. This time," he added,
+with a little smile, "I think I can promise you the Democratic support
+and a very certain election."
+
+
+
+BOOK TWO
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Tallente found himself possessed of a haunting, almost a morbid feeling
+that a lifetime had passed since last his car had turned out of the
+station gates and he had seen the moorland unroll itself before his
+eyes. There was a new pungency in the autumn air, an unaccustomed
+scantiness in the herbiage of the moor and the low hedges growing from
+the top of the stone walls. The glory of the heather had passed,
+though here and there a clump of brilliant yellow gorse remained. The
+telegraph posts, leaning away from the wind, seemed somehow scantier;
+the road stretched between them, lonely and desolate. From a farmhouse
+in the bosom of the tree-hung hills lights were already twinkling, and
+when he reached the edge of the moor, and the sea spread itself out
+almost at his feet, the shapes of the passing steamers, with their long
+trail of smoke, were blurred and uncertain. Below, his home field, his
+wall-enclosed patch of kitchen garden, the long, low house itself lay
+like pieces from a child's play-box stretched out upon the carpet. Only
+to-night there was no mist. They made their cautious way downwards
+through the clearest of darkening atmospheres. On the hillsides, as
+they dropped down, they could hear the music of an occasional sheep
+bell. Rabbits scurried away from the headlights of the car, an early
+owl flew hooting over their heads. Tallente, tired with his journey,
+perhaps a little worn with the excitement of the last two months, found
+something dark and a little lonely about the unoccupied house, something
+a little dreary in his solitary dinner and the long evening spent with
+no company save his books and his pipe. Later on, he lay for long
+awake, watching the twin lights flash out across the Channel and
+listening to the melancholy call of the owls as they swept back and
+forth across the lawn to their secret abodes in the cliffs. When at
+last he slept, however, he slept soundly. An unlooked-for gleam of
+sunshine and the dull roar of the incoming tide breaking upon the beach
+below woke him the next morning long after his usual hour. He bathed,
+shaved in front of the open window, and breakfasted with an absolute
+renewal of his fuller interest in life. It was not until he had sent
+back the car in which he had driven as far as the station, and was
+swinging on foot across Woolhanger Moor, that he realised fully why he
+had come, why he had schemed for these two days out of a life packed
+with multifarious tasks. Then he laughed at himself, heartily yet a
+little self-consciously. A fool's errand might yet be a pleasant one,
+even though his immediate surroundings seemed to mock the sound of his
+mirth. Woolhanger Moor in November was a drear enough sight. There
+were many patches of black mud and stagnant water, carpets of
+treacherous-looking green moss, bare clumps of bushes bent all one way
+by the northwest wind, masses of rock, gaunter and sterner now that
+their summer covering of creeping shrubs and bracken had lost their
+foliage. It was indeed the month of desolation. Every scrap of colour
+seemed to have faded from the dripping wet landscape. Phantasmal clouds
+of grey mist brooded here and there in the hollows. The distant hills
+were wreathed in vapour, so that even the green of the pastures was
+invisible. Every now and then a snipe started up from one of the weedy
+places with his shrill, mournful cry, and more than once a solitary hawk
+hovered for a few minutes above his head. The only other sign of life
+was a black speck in the distance, a speck which came nearer and nearer
+until he paused to watch it, standing upon a little incline and looking
+steadily along the rude cart track. The speck grew in size. A person
+on horseback,--a woman! Soon she swung her horse around as though she
+recognised him, jumped a little dike to reach him the quicker and reined
+up her horse by his side, holding one hand down to him. "Mr.
+Tallente!" she exclaimed. "How wonderful!" He held her hand, looking
+steadfastly, almost eagerly, up into her flushed face. Her eyes were
+filled with pleasure. His errand, in those few breathless moments,
+seemed no longer the errand of a fool.
+
+"I can't realise it, even now," she went on, drawing her hand away at
+last. "I pictured you at Westminster, in committee rooms and all sorts
+of places. Aren't you forging weapons to drive us from our homes and
+portion out our savings?"
+
+"I have left the thunderbolts alone for one short week-end," he
+answered. "I felt a hunger for this moorland air. London becomes so
+enveloping." Jane sat upright upon her horse and looked at him with a
+mocking smile. "How ungallant! I hoped you had come to atone for your
+neglect."
+
+"Have I neglected you?" he asked quietly, turning and walking by her
+side.
+
+"Shockingly! You lunched with me on the seventh of August. I see you
+again on the second of November, and I do believe that I shall have to
+save you from starvation again."
+
+"It's quite true," he admitted. "I have a sandwich in my pocket,
+though, in case you were away from home."
+
+"Worse than ever," she sighed. "You didn't even trouble to make
+enquiries."
+
+"From whom should I? Robert--my servant--his wife, and a boy to help in
+the garden are all my present staff at the Manor. Robert drives the car
+and waits on me, and his wife cooks. They are estimable people, but I
+don't think they are up in local news."
+
+"You were quite safe," she said, looking ahead of her. "I am never
+away." The tail end of a scat of rain beat on their faces. From the
+hollow on their left, the wind came booming up.
+
+"I should have thought that for these few months just now," he
+suggested, "you might have cared for a change."
+
+"I have my work here, such as it is," she answered, a little listlessly.
+"If I were in town, for instance, I should have nothing to do."
+
+"You would meet people. You must sometimes feel the need of society
+down here."
+
+"I doubt whether I should meet the people who would interest me," she
+replied, "and in any case I have my work here. That keeps me occupied."
+
+They turned into the avenue and soon the long front of the house spread
+itself out before them. Jane, who had been momentarily absorbed, looked
+down at her companion.
+
+"You are alone at the Manor?" she asked.
+
+"Quite alone."
+
+She became the hostess directly they had passed the portals of the
+house. She led him across the hall into her little sanctum.
+
+"This is the room," she told him, "in which I never do a stroke of
+work--sacred to the frivolities alone. I shall send Morton in to see
+what you will have to drink, while I change my habit. You must have
+something after that walk. I shan't be long."
+
+For the second time she avoided meeting his eves as she left the room.
+Tallente stood on the hearth-rug, still looking at the closed door
+through which she had vanished, puzzled, a little chilled. He gave his
+order to the attentive butler who presently appeared and who looked at
+him with covert interest,--the Press had been almost hysterically
+prodigal of his name during the last few weeks. Then he settled down to
+wait for her return with an impatience which became almost
+uncontrollable. It seemed to him, as he paced restlessly about, that
+this little apartment, which he remembered so well, had in a measure
+changed, was revealing a different atmosphere, as though in sympathy
+with some corresponding change in its presiding spirit. There was a
+huge and well-worn couch, smothered with cushions and suggestive of a
+comfort almost voluptuous; a large easy-chair, into which he presently
+sank, of the same character. The wood logs burning in the grate gave
+out a pleasant sense of warmth. He took more particular note of the
+volumes in the well-filled bookcases,--volumes of poetry, French novels,
+with a fair sprinkling of modern English fiction. There was a plaster
+cast of the Paris Magdalene over the door and one or two fine point
+etchings, after the style of Heillieu, upon the walls. There was no
+writing table in the room, nor any signs of industry, but a black oak
+gate-table was laden with magazines and fashion papers. Against the
+brown walls, a clump of flaming yellow gorse leaned from a distant
+corner, its faint almond-like fragrance mingling aromatically with the
+perfume of burning logs and a great bowl of dried lavender. More than
+ever it seemed to Tallente that the atmosphere of the room had changed,
+had become in some subtle way at the same time more enervating and more
+exciting. It was like a revelation of a hidden side of the woman, who
+might indeed have had some purpose of her own in leaving him here. He
+set down his empty glass with the feeling that vermouth was a heavier
+drink than he had fancied. Then a streak of watery sunshine filtered
+its way through the plantation and crept across the worn, handsome
+carpet. He felt a queer exultation at the sound of her footsteps
+outside. She entered, as she had departed, without directly meeting his
+earnest gaze.
+
+"I hope you have made yourself at home," she said. "Dear me, how untidy
+everything is!"
+
+She moved about, altering the furniture a little, making little piles of
+the magazines, a graceful, elegant figure in her dark velvet house
+dress, with a thin band of fur at the neck. She turned suddenly around
+and found him watching her. This time she laughed at him frankly.
+
+"Sit down at once," she ordered, motioning him back to his easy-chair
+and coming herself to a corner of the lounge. "Remember that you have a
+great deal to tell me and explain. The newspapers say such queer
+things. Is it true that I really am entertaining a possible future
+Prime Minister?"
+
+"I suppose that might be," he answered, a little vaguely, his eyes still
+fixed upon her. "So this is your room. I like it. And I like--"
+
+"Well, go on, please," she begged.
+
+"I like the softness of your gown, and I like the fur against your
+throat and neck, and I like those buckles on your shoes, and the way you
+do your hair."
+
+She laughed, gracefully enough, yet with some return to that note of
+uneasiness.
+
+"You mustn't turn my head!" she protested. "You, fresh from London,
+which they tell me is terribly gay just now! I want to understand just
+what it means, your throwing in your lot with the Democrats. My uncle
+says, for instance, that you have abandoned respectable politics to
+become a Tower Hill pedagogue."
+
+"Respectable politics," he replied, "if by that you mean the present
+government of the country, have been in the wrong hands for so long that
+people scarcely realise what is undoubtedly the fact--that the country
+isn't being governed at all. A Government with an Opposition Party
+almost as powerful as itself, all made up of separate parties which are
+continually demanding sops, can scarcely progress very far, can it?"
+
+"But the Democrats," she ventured, "are surely only one of these
+isolated parties?"
+
+"I have formed a different idea of their strength," he answered. "I
+believe that if a general election took place to-morrow, the Democrats
+would sweep the country. I believe that we should have the largest
+working majority any Government has had since the war."
+
+"How terrible!" she murmured, involuntarily truthful.
+
+"Your tame socialism isn't equal to the prospect," he remarked, a little
+bitterly.
+
+"My tame socialism, as you call it," she replied, "draws the line at
+seeing the country governed by one class of person only, and that class
+the one who has the least at stake in it."
+
+"Lady Jane," he said earnestly, "I am glad that I am here to point out
+to you a colossal mistake from which you and many others are suffering.
+The Democrats do not represent Labour only."
+
+"The small shopkeepers?" she suggested.
+
+"Nothing of the sort," he replied. "The influence of my party has
+spread far deeper and further. We number amongst our adherents the
+majority of the professional classes and the majority of the thinking
+people amongst the community of moderate means. Why, if you consider
+the legislation of the last seven or eight years, you will see how they
+have been driven to embrace some sort of socialism. Nothing so
+detestable and short-sighted as our financial policy has ever been known
+in the history of the world. The middle classes, meaning by the middle
+classes professional men and men of moderate means, bore the chief
+burden of the war. They submitted to terrible taxation, to many
+privations, besides the universal gift of their young blood. We won the
+war and what was the result? The wealth of the country, through ghastly
+legislation, drifted into the hands of the profiteering classes, the
+wholesale shopkeepers, the ship owners, the factory owners, the mine
+owners. The professional man with two thousand a year was able to save
+a quarter of that before the war. After the war, taxation demanded that
+quarter and more for income tax, thrust upon him an increased cost of
+living, cut the ground from beneath his feet. It isn't either of the
+two extremes--the aristocrat or the labouring man--where you must look
+for the pulse of a country's prosperity. It is to the classes in
+between, and, Lady Jane, they are flocking to our camp just as fast as
+they can, just as fast as the country is heading for ruin under its
+present Government."
+
+"You are very convincing," she admitted. "Why have you not spoken so
+plainly in the House?"
+
+"The moment hasn't arrived," Tallente replied. "There will be a General
+Election before many months have passed and that will be the end of the
+present fools' paradise at St. Stephen's."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"We shan't abuse our power," he assured her. "What we aim at is a
+National Party which will consider the interests of every class. That
+is our reading of the term 'Democrat.' Our programme is not nearly so
+revolutionary as you are probably led to believe, but we do mean to
+smooth away, so far as we can from a practical point of view, the
+inequalities of life. We want to sweep away the last remnants of
+feudalism."
+
+"Tell me why they were so anxious to gather you into the fold?" she
+asked.
+
+"I think for this reason," he explained. "Stephen Dartrey is a
+brilliant writer, a great orator, and an inspired lawmaker. The whole
+world recognises him as a statesman. It is his name and genius which
+have made the Democratic Party possible. On the other hand, he is not
+in the least a politician. He doesn't understand the game as it is
+played in the House of Commons. He lives above those things. That is
+why I suppose they wanted me. I have learnt the knack of apt debating
+and I understand the tricks. Even if ever I become the titular head of
+the party, Dartrey will remain the soul and spirit of it. If they were
+not able to lay their hands upon some person like myself, I believe that
+Miller was supposed to have the next claim, and I should think that
+Miller is the one man in the world who might disunite the strongest
+party on earth."
+
+"Disunite it? I should think he would disperse it to the four corners
+of the world!" she exclaimed.
+
+The butler announced luncheon. She rose to her feet.
+
+"I cannot tell you," he said, with a little sigh of relief, as he held
+open the door for her, "how thankful I am that I happened to find you
+alone."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Luncheon was a pleasant, even a luxurious meal, for the Woolhanger chef
+had come from the ducal household, but it was hedged about with
+restraints which fretted Tallente and rendered conversation
+monosyllabic. It was served, too, in the larger dining room, where the
+table, reduced to its smallest dimensions, still seemed to place a
+formidable distance between himself and his hostess. A manservant stood
+behind Lady Jane's chair, and the butler was in constant attendance at
+the sideboard. Under such circumstances, conversation became precarious
+and was confined chiefly to local topics. When they left the room for
+their coffee, they found it served in the hall. Tallente, however,
+protested vigorously.
+
+"Can't we have it served in your sitting room, please?" he begged. "It
+is impossible to talk to you here. There are people in the background
+all the time, and you might have callers."
+
+She hesitated for a moment but yielded the point. With the door closed
+and the coffee tray between them, Tallente drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"I hope you don't think I am a nuisance," he said bluntly, "but, after
+all, I came down from London purposely to see you."
+
+"I am not so vain as to believe that," she answered.
+
+"It is nevertheless true and I think that you do believe it. What have
+I done that you should all of a sudden build a fence around yourself?"
+
+"That may be," she replied, smiling, "for my own protection. I can
+assure you that I am not used to tête-a-tête luncheons with guests who
+insist upon having their own way in everything."
+
+"I wonder if it is a good thing for you to be so much your own
+mistress," he reflected.
+
+"You must judge by results. I always have been--at least since I
+decided to lead this sort of life."
+
+"Why have you never married?" he asked her, a little abruptly.
+
+"We discussed that before, didn't we? I suppose because the right man
+has never asked me."
+
+"Perhaps," he ventured, "the right man isn't able to."
+
+"Perhaps there isn't any right man at all--perhaps there never will be."
+
+The minutes ticked away. The room, with its mingled perfumes and
+pleasant warmth, its manifold associations with her wholesome and
+orderly life, seemed to have laid a sort of spell upon him. She was
+leaning back in her corner of the lounge, her hands hanging over the
+sides, her eyes fixed upon the burning log. She herself was so
+abstracted that he ventured to let his eyes dwell upon her, to trace the
+outline of her slim but powerful limbs, to admire her long, delicate
+feet and hands, the strong womanly face, with its kindly mouth and soft,
+almost affectionate eyes. Tallente, who for the last ten years had
+looked upon the other sex as non-existent, crushed into an uninteresting
+negation for him owing to his wife's cold and shadowy existence, twice
+within the last few months found himself pass in a different way under
+the greatest spell in life. Nora Miall had provoked his curiosity, had
+reawakened a dormant sense of sex without attracting it towards herself.
+Jane brought to him again, from the first moment he had seen her, that
+half-wistful recrudescence of the sentiment of his earlier days. He was
+amazed to find how once more in her presence that sentiment had taken to
+itself fire and life, how different a thing it was from those first
+dreams of her, which had seemed like an echo from the period of his
+poetry-reading youth. Of all women in the world she seemed to him now
+the most desirable. That she was unattainable he was perfectly willing
+to admit. Even then he had not the strength to deny himself the
+doubtful joys of imagination with regard to her. He revelled in her
+proximity because of the pleasure it gave him, heedless or reckless of
+consequences. Between them, in vastly different degrees, these two
+women seemed to have brought him back something of his youth.
+
+The silence became noticeable, led him at last into a certain measure of
+alarm.
+
+"Lady Jane," he ventured, "have I said anything to offend you?"
+
+"Of course not," she answered, looking at him kindly.
+
+"You are very silent. Are you afraid that I am going to attempt to make
+love to you?"
+
+She was startled in earnest this time. She sat up and looked at him
+disapprovingly. There was a touch of the old hauteur in her tone.
+
+"How can you be so ridiculous!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Would it be ridiculous of me?"
+
+"Does it occur to you," she asked, "that I am the sort of person to
+encourage attentions from a man who is not free to offer them?"
+
+"I had forgotten that," he admitted, quite frankly. "Of course, I see
+the point. I have a wife, even though of her own choosing she does not
+count."
+
+"She exists."
+
+"So do I."
+
+Jane broke into a little laugh.
+
+"Now we are both being absurd," she declared, "and I don't want to be
+and I don't want you to be. Of course, you can't look at things just as
+I do. You belong to a very large world. You spend your life destroying
+obstacles. All my people, you know," she went on, "look upon me as
+terribly emancipated. They think my mild socialism and my refusal to
+listen to such a thing as a chaperon most terribly improper, but at
+heart, you know, I am still a very conventional person. I have torn
+down a great many conventions, but there are some upon which I cannot
+bring myself even to lay my fingers."
+
+"Perhaps it wouldn't be you if you did," he reflected.
+
+"Perhaps not."
+
+"And yet," he went on, "tell me, are you wholly content here? Your
+life, in its way, is splendid. You live as much for the benefit of
+others as for yourself. You are encouraging the right principle amongst
+your yeomen and your farmers. You are setting your heel upon
+feudalism--you, the daughter of a race who have always demanded it. You
+live amongst these wonderful surroundings, you grow into the bigness of
+them, nature becomes almost your friend. It is one of the most
+dignified and beautiful lives I ever knew for a woman, and yet--are you
+wholly content?"
+
+"I am not," she admitted frankly. "And listen," she went on, after a
+moment's pause, "I will show you how much I trust you, how much I really
+want you to understand me. I am not completely happy because I know
+perfectly well that it is unnatural to live as I do. If I met the man I
+could care for and who cared for me, I should prefer to be married." She
+had commenced her speech with the faintest tinge of colour burning
+underneath the wholesome sunburn of her cheeks. She had spoken boldly
+enough, even though towards the end of her sentence her voice had grown
+very low. When she had finished, however, it seemed as though the
+memory of her words were haunting her, as though she suddenly realised
+the nakedness of them. She buried her face in her hands, and he saw her
+shoulders heave as though she were sobbing. He stood very close and for
+the first time he touched her. He held the fingers of her hand gently
+in his. "Dear Lady Jane," he begged, "don't regret even for a moment
+that you have spoken naturally. If we are to be friends, to be anything
+at all to one another, it is wonderful of you to tell me so sweetly what
+women take such absurd pains to conceal. . . . When you look up, let
+us start our friendship all over again, only before you do, listen to my
+confession. If fifteen years could be rolled off my back and I were
+free, it isn't political ambition I should look to for my guiding star.
+I should have one far greater, far more wonderful desire." The fingers
+he held were gently withdrawn. She drew herself up. Her forehead was
+wrinkled questioningly. She forced a smile. "You would be very
+foolish," she said, "if you tried to part with one of those fifteen
+years. Every one has brought you experiences Every one has helped to
+make you what you are."
+
+"And yet--" he began.
+
+He broke off abruptly in his speech. The hall seemed suddenly full of
+voices. Jane rose to her feet at the sound of approaching footsteps.
+She made the slightest possible grimace, but Tallente was oppressed with
+a suspicion that the interruption was not altogether unwelcome to her.
+
+"Some of my cousins and their friends from Minehead," she said. "I am
+so sorry. I expect they have lost the hunt and come here for tea."
+
+The room was almost instantly invaded by a company of light-hearted,
+noisy young people, flushed with exercise and calling aloud for tea,
+intimates all of them, calling one another by their Christian names,
+speaking a jargon which sounded to Tallente like another language. He
+stayed for a quarter of an hour and then took his leave. Of the
+newcomers, no one seemed to have an idea who he was, no one seemed to
+care in the least whether he remained or went, He was only able to
+snatch a word of farewell with Jane at the door. She shook her head at
+his whispered request.
+
+"I am afraid not," she answered. "How could I? Besides, there is no
+telling when this crowd will go. You are sure you won't let me send you
+home?"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"The walk will do me good," he said. "I get lazy in town. But you are
+sure--"
+
+The butler was holding open the door. Two of the girls had suddenly
+taken possession of Jane. She shook her head slightly.
+
+"Good-by," she called out. "Come and see me next time you are down."
+
+Tallente was suddenly his old self, grave and severe. He bowed stiffly
+in response to the little chorus of farewells and followed the butler
+down the hall. The latter, who was something of a politician, did his
+best to indicate by his manner his appreciation of Tallente's position.
+
+"You are sure you won't allow me to order a car, sir?" he said, with his
+hand upon the door. "I know her ladyship would be only too pleased.
+It's a long step to the Manor, and if you'll forgive my saying so, sir,
+you've a good deal on your shoulders just now."
+
+Tallente caught a glimpse of the bleak moorland and of the distant
+hills, wrapped in mist. The idea of vigorous exercise, however,
+appealed to him. He shook his head.
+
+"I'd rather walk, thanks," he said.
+
+"It's a matter of five miles, sir."
+
+Tallente smiled. There was something in the fresh, cold air wonderfully
+alluring after the atmosphere of the room he had quitted. He turned his
+coat collar up and strode down the avenue.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Tallente reached the Manor about an hour and a half later, mud-splashed,
+wet and weary. Robert followed him into the study and mixed him a
+whisky and soda.
+
+"You've walked all the way back, sir?" he remarked, with a note of
+protest in his tone.
+
+"They offered me a car," Tallente admitted. "I didn't want it. I came
+down for fresh air and exercise."
+
+"Two very good things in their way, sir, but easily overdone," was the
+mild rejoinder. "These hills are terrible unless you're at them all the
+time."
+
+Tallente drank his whisky and soda almost greedily and felt the benefit
+of it, although he was still weary. He had walked for five miles in the
+company of ghosts and their faces had been grey. Perhaps, too, it was
+the passing of his youth which brought this tiredness to his limbs.
+
+"Robert," he confessed abruptly, "I was a fool to come down here at
+all."
+
+"It's dreary at this time of the year unless you've time to shoot or
+hunt, sir. Why not motor to Bath to-morrow? I could wire for rooms,
+and I could drive you up to London the next day. Motoring's a good way
+of getting the air, sir, and you won't overtire yourself."
+
+"I'll think of it in the morning," his master promised.
+
+"My wife has found the silver, sir," Robert announced, as he turned to
+leave the room, "and I managed to get a little fish. That, with some
+soup, a pheasant, and a fruit tart, we thought--"
+
+"I shall be alone, Robert," Tallente interrupted. "There is no one
+coming for dinner."
+
+The man's disappointment was barely concealed. He sighed as he took up
+the tray.
+
+"Very good, sir. Your clothes are all out. I'll turn on the hot water
+in the bathroom."
+
+Tallente threw off his rain and mud-soaked clothes, bathed, changed and
+descended to the dining room just as the gong sounded. Robert was in
+the act of moving the additional place from the little round dining
+table which he had drawn up closer to the wood fire, but his master
+stopped him.
+
+"You can let those things be," he directed. "Take away the champagne,
+though. I shan't want that."
+
+Robert bowed in silent appreciation of his master's humour and began
+ladling out soup at the sideboard. Tallente's lips were curled a
+little, partly in self-contempt, with perhaps just a dash of self-pity.
+It had come to this, then, that he must dine with fancies rather than
+alone, that this tardily developed streak of sentimentality must be
+ministered to or would drag him into the depths of dejection. He began
+to understand the psychology of its late appearance. Stella's
+artificial companionship had kept his thoughts imprisoned, fettered with
+the meshes of an instinctive fidelity, and had driven him sedulously to
+the solace of work and books. Now that it was removed and he was to all
+practical purposes a free man, they took their own course. His life had
+suddenly become a natural one, and all that was human in him responded
+to the possibilities of his solitude, He had had as yet no time to
+experience the relief, to appreciate his liberty, before he was face to
+face with this new loneliness. To-night, he thought, as he looked at
+the empty place and remembered his wistful, almost diffident invitation,
+the solitude was almost unendurable. If she had only understood how
+much it meant, surely she would have made some effort, would not have
+been content with that half-embarrassed, half-doubtful shake of the
+head! In the darkened room, with the throb of the sea and the crackling
+of the lop in his ears, and only Robert's silent form for company, he
+felt a sudden craving for the things of his youth, for another side of
+life, the restaurants, the bright eyes of women, the whispered words of
+pleasant sentiment, the perfume shaken into the atmosphere they created,
+the low music in the background "I beg your pardon, sir," Robert said in
+his ear, "your soup. Gertrude has taken such pains with the dinner,
+sir," he added diffidently. "If I might take the liberty of suggesting
+it, it would be as well if you could eat something." Tallente took up
+his spoon. Then they both started, they both turned to the window. A
+light had flashed into the room, a low, purring sound came from outside.
+
+"A car, sir!" Robert exclaimed, his face full of pleasurable
+anticipation. "If you'll excuse me, I'll answer the door. Might it be
+the lady, after all, sir?" He hurried out. Tallente rose slowly to his
+feet. He was listening intently. The thing wasn't possible, he told
+himself. It wasn't possible! Then he heard a voice in the hall.
+Robert threw the door open and announced in a tone of triumph--
+
+"Lady Jane Partington, sir."
+
+She came towards him, smiling, self-possessed, but a little
+interrogative. He had a lightning-like impression of her beautiful
+shoulders rising from her plain black gown, her delightfully easy walk,
+the slimness and comeliness and stateliness of her.
+
+"I know that I ought to be ashamed of myself for coming after I had told
+you I couldn't," she said. "It will serve me right if you've eaten all
+the dinner, but I do hope you haven't."
+
+"I had only just sat down," he told her, as he and Robert held her
+chair, "and I think that this is the kindest action you ever performed
+in your life."
+
+Robert, his face glowing with satisfaction, had become ubiquitous. She
+had scarcely subsided into her chair before he was offering her a
+cocktail on a silver tray, serving Tallente with his forgotten glass, at
+the sideboard ladling out soup, out of the room and in again, bringing
+back the rejected bottle of champagne.
+
+"You will never believe that I am a sane person again," she laughed.
+"After you had gone, and all those foolish children had departed, I felt
+it was quite impossible to sit down and dine alone. I wanted so much to
+come and I realised how ridiculous it was of me not to have accepted at
+once. At the last moment I couldn't bear it any longer, so I rushed
+into the first gown I could find, ordered out my little coupé and here I
+am."
+
+"The most welcome guest who ever came to a lonely man," he assured her.
+"A moment ago, Robert was complaining because I was sending my soup
+away. Now I shall show him what Devon air can do."
+
+The champagne was excellent, and the dinner over which Gertrude had
+taken so much care was after all thoroughly appreciated. Tallente,
+suddenly and unexpectedly light-hearted, felt a keen desire to entertain
+his welcome guest, and remembered his former successes as a raconteur.
+They pushed politics and all personal matters far away. He dug up
+reminiscences of his class in foreign capitals, when he had first
+entered the Diplomatic Service, betrayed his intimate knowledge of the
+Florence which they both loved, of Paris, where she had studied and
+which he had seen under so many aspects,--Paris, the home of beauty and
+fashion before the war; torn with anguish and horror during its earlier
+stages; grim, steadfast and sombre in the clays of Verdun; wildly, madly
+exultant when wreathed and decorated with victory. There were so many
+things to talk about for two people of agile brains come together late
+in life. They had moved into the study and Lady Jane was sealed in his
+favourite easy-chair, sipping her coffee and some wonderful green
+chartreuse, before a single personal note had crept into the flow of
+their conversation.
+
+"It can't be that I am in Devonshire," she said. "I never realised how
+much like a succession of pictures conversation can be. You seem to
+remind me so much of things which I have kept locked away just because
+I have had no one to share them with."
+
+"You are in Devonshire all right," he answered, smiling. "You will
+realise it when you turn out of my avenue and face the hills. You see,
+you've dropped down from the fairyland of 'up over' to the nesting place
+of the owls and the gulls."
+
+"Nine hundred feet," she murmured. "Thank heavens for my forty
+horsepower engine! I want to see the sea break against your rocks," she
+went on, as she took the cigarette which he passed her. "There used to
+be a little path through your plantation to a place where you look
+sheer down. Don't you remember, you took me there the first time I
+came to see you, in August, and I have never forgotten it."
+
+He rang the bell for her coat. The night, though windy and dark, was
+warm. Stars shone out from unexpected places, pencil-like streaks of
+inky-black clouds stretched menacingly across the sky. The wind came
+down from the moors above with a dull boom which seemed echoed by the
+waves beating against the giant rocks. The beads of the bare trees
+among which they passed were bent this way and that, and the few
+remaining leaves rustled in vain resistance, or, yielding to the
+irresistible gusts, sailed for a moment towards the skies, to be dashed
+down into the ever-growing carpet. The path was narrow and they walked
+in single file, but at the bend he drew level with her, walking on the
+seaward side and guiding her with his fingers upon her arm. Presently
+they reached the little circular space where rustic seats had been
+placed, and leaned over a grey stone wall.
+
+There was nothing of the midsummer charm about the scene to-night.
+Sheer below them the sea, driven by tide and wind, rushed upon the huge
+masses of rock or beat direct upon the cave-indented cliffs. The spray
+leapt high into the air, to be caught up by the wind in whirlpools,
+little ghostly flecks, luminous one moment and gone forever the next.
+Far away across the pitchy waters they could see at regular intervals a
+line of white where the breakers came rushing in, here and there the
+agitated lights of passing steamers; opposite, the twin flares on the
+Welsh coast, and every sixty seconds the swinging white illumination
+from the Lynmouth Lighthouse, shining up from behind the headland. Jane
+slipped one hand through his arm and stood there, breathless,
+rapturously watchful. "This is wonderful," she murmured. "It is the
+one thing we have always lacked at Woolhanger. We get the booming of
+the wind--wonderful it is, too, like the hollow thunder of guns or the
+quick passing of an underground army--but we miss this. I feel,
+somehow, as though I knew now why it tears past us, uprooting the very
+trees that stand in its way. It rushes to the sea. What a meeting!"
+Her hand tightened upon his arm as a great wave broke direct upon the
+cliff below and a torrent of wind, rushing through the trees and
+downwards, caught the spray and scattered it around them and high over
+their heads.
+
+"We humans," he whispered, "are taught our lesson."
+
+"Do we need it?" she asked, with sudden fierceness. "Do you believe
+that because some mysterious power imposes restraint upon us, the
+passion isn't there all the while?"
+
+She was suddenly in his arms, the warm wind shrieking about them, the
+darkness thick and soft as a mantle. Only he saw the anguished
+happiness in her eyes as they closed beneath his kisses.
+
+"One moment out of life," she faltered, "one moment!"
+
+Another great wave shook the ground beneath them, but she had drawn
+away. She struggled for breath. Then once more her hand was thrust
+through his arm. He knew so well that his hour was over and he
+submitted.
+
+"Back, please," she whispered, "back through the plantation--quietly."
+
+An almost supernatural instinct divined and acceded to her desire for
+silence. So they walked slowly back towards the long, low house whose
+faint lights flickered through the trees. She leaned a little upon him,
+the hand which she had passed through his arm was clasped in his. Only
+the wind spoke. When at last they were en the terraces she drew a long
+breath.
+
+"Dear friend," she said softly, "see how I trust you. I leave in your
+keeping the most precious few minutes of my life."
+
+"This is to be the end, then?" he faltered.
+
+"It is not we who have decided that," she answered. "It is just what
+must be. You go to a very difficult life, a very splendid one. I have
+my smaller task. Don't unfit me for it. We will each do our best."
+
+Her servant was waiting by the car. His figure loomed up through the
+darkness. "You will come into the house for a few minutes?" he begged
+hoarsely. She shook her head.
+
+"Why? Our farewells have been spoken. I leave you--so."
+
+The man had disappeared behind the bonnet of the car. She grasped his
+hand with both of hers and brushed it lightly with her lips. Then she
+gilded away. A moment later he was listening to her polite speeches as
+she leaned out of the coupé. "My dinner was too wonderful," she said.
+"Do make my compliments to that dear Robert and his wife. Good luck to
+you, and don't rob us poor landowners of every penny we possess in
+life."
+
+The car was gone in the midst of his vague little response. He watched
+the lights go flashing up the hillside, crawling around the hairpin
+corners, up until it seemed that they had reached the black clouds and
+were climbing into the heavens. Then he turned back into the house.
+The world was still a place for dreams.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Tallente sat in the morning train, on his way to town, and on the other
+side of the bare ridge at which he gazed so earnestly Lady Jane and
+Segerson had brought their horses to a standstill half way along a rude
+cart track which led up to a farmhouse tucked away in the valley.
+
+"This is where James Crockford's land commences," Segerson remarked,
+riding up to his companion's side. "Look around you. I think you will
+admit that I have not exaggerated."
+
+She frowned thoughtfully. On every side were evidences of poor farming
+and neglect. The untrimmed hedges had been broken down in many places
+by cattle. A plough which seemed as though it had been embedded there
+for ages, stood in the middle of a half-ploughed field. Several tracts
+of land which seemed prepared for winter sowing were covered with
+stones. The farmhouse yard, into which they presently passed, was dirty
+and untidy. Segerson leaned down and knocked on the door with his whip.
+After a short delay, a slatternly-looking woman, with tousled fair hair,
+answered the summons.
+
+"Mr. Crockford in?" Segerson asked.
+
+"You'll find him in the living room," the woman answered curtly, with a
+stare at Lady Jane. "Here's himself."
+
+She retreated into the background. A man with flushed face, without
+collar or tie, clad in trousers and shirt only, had stepped out of the
+parlour. He stared at his visitors in embarrassment.
+
+"I came over to have a word or two with you on business, Mr.
+Crockford," Jane said coldly. "I rather expected to find you on the
+land."
+
+The man mumbled something and threw open the door of the sitting room.
+
+"Won't you come in?" he invited. "There's just Mr. Pettigrew here--the
+vet from Barnstaple. He's come over to look at one of my cows."
+
+Mr. Pettigrew, also flushed, rose to his feet. Jane acknowledged his
+greeting and glanced around the room. It was untidy, dirty and close,
+smelling strongly of tobacco and beer. On the table was a bottle of
+whisky, half empty, and two glasses.
+
+"There is really no reason why I should disturb you," Jane said, turning
+back upon the threshold. "A letter from Mr. Segerson will do."
+
+Crockford, however, had pulled himself together. A premonition of his
+impending fate had already produced a certain sullenness.
+
+"Pettigrew," he directed, "you get out and have another look at the cow.
+If you've any business word to say to me, your ladyship, I'm here."
+
+Jane looked once more around the squalid room, watched the unsteady
+figure of Pettigrew departing and looked back at her tenant.
+
+"Your lease is up on March the twenty-fifth, Crockford," she reminded
+him. "I have come to tell you that I shall not be prepared to renew
+it."
+
+The man simply blinked at her. His fuddled brain was not equal to
+grappling with such a catastrophe.
+
+"Your farm is favourably situated," she continued, "and, although small,
+has great possibilities. I find you are dropping behind your neighbours
+and your crops are poorer each season. Have you saved any money,
+Crockford?"
+
+"Saved any money," the man blustered, "with shepherd's wages alone at
+two pounds a week, and a week's rain starting in the day I began
+hay-making. Why, my barley--"
+
+"You started your hay-making ten days too late," Segerson interrupted
+sternly. "You had plenty of warning. And as for your barley, you sold
+it in the King's Arms at Barnstaple, when you'd had too much to drink,
+at thirty per cent, below its value."
+
+Jane turned towards the door.
+
+"I need not stay any longer," she said. "I wanted to look at your farm
+for myself, Mr. Crockford, and I thought it only right that you should
+have early notice of my intention to ask you to vacate the place."
+
+The cold truth was finding its way into the man's consciousness. It had
+a wonderfully sobering effect.
+
+"Look here, ma'am," he demanded, "is it true that you lent Farmer
+Holroyd four hundred pounds to buy his own farm and the Crocombe
+brothers two hundred each?"
+
+"Quite true," Jane replied coldly. "What of it?"
+
+"What of it?" the man repeated. "You lend them youngsters money and
+then you come to me, a man who's been on this land for twenty-two years,
+and you've nothing to say but 'get out!' Where am I to find another farm
+at my time of life? Just answer me that, will you?"
+
+"It is not my concern," Jane declared. "I only know that I decline to
+have any tenants on my property who do not do justice to the land. When
+I see that they do justice to it, then it is my wish that they should
+possess it. It is true that I have lent money to some of the farmers
+round here, but the greater part of what they have put down for the
+purchase of their holdings is savings,--money they had saved and earned
+by working early and late, by careful farming and husbandry, by putting
+money in the bank every quarter. You've had the same opportunity. You
+have preferred to waste your time and waste your money. You've had more
+than one warning you know, Crockford."
+
+"Aye, more than a dozen," Segerson muttered.
+
+The man looked at them both and there was a dull hate gathering in his
+eyes.
+
+"It's easy to talk about saving money and working hard, you that have
+got everything you want in life and no work to do," he protested "It's
+enough to make a man turn Socialist to listen to un."
+
+"Mr. Crockford," Jane said, "I am a Socialist and if you take the
+trouble to understand even the rudiments of socialism, you will learn
+that the drones have as small a part in that scheme of life as in any
+other. You have a right to what you produce. It is one of the
+pleasures of my life to help the deserving to enjoy what they produce.
+It is also one of the duties, when I find a non-productive person
+filling a position to which his daily life and character do not entitle
+him, to pull him up like a weed. That is my idea of socialism, Mr.
+Crockford. You will leave on March 25th."
+
+They rode homeward into a gathering storm. A mass of black clouds was
+rolling up from the north, and an unexpected wind came bellowing down
+the coombs, bending the stunted oaks and dark pines and filling the air
+with sonorous but ominous music. The hills around soon became
+invisible, blotted out by fragments of the gathering mists. The cold
+sleet stung their faces. Out on the moors was no sound but time
+tinkling of distant sheep bells.
+
+"There's snow coming," Segerson muttered, as he turned up his coat
+collar.
+
+"It won't do any harm," she answered. "The earth lies warm under it."
+
+The lights of Parracombe, precipitous and unexpected, were like flecks
+in the sky, wiped out by a sudden driving storm of sleet. A little
+while later they cantered up the avenue to Woolhanger and Jane slipped
+from her horse with a little sigh of relief.
+
+"You'd better stay and have some tea, Mr. Segerson," she invited.
+"John will take your horse and give him a rubdown."
+
+She changed her habit and, forgetting her guest, indulged in the luxury
+of a hot bath. She descended some time later to find him sitting in
+front of the tea tray in the hall. A more than usually gracious smile
+soon drove the frown from his forehead.
+
+"I really am frightfully sorry," she apologised, as she handed him his
+tea. "I had no idea I was so wet. You'll have rather a bad ride home."
+
+"Oh, I'm used to it," he answered. "I'm afraid they'll lose a good many
+sheep on the higher farms, though, if the storm turns out as bad as it
+threatens. Hear that!"
+
+A tornado of wind seemed to shake the ground beneath their feet. Jane
+shivered.
+
+"I suppose," she reflected, "that man Crockford thought I was very cruel
+to-day."
+
+"I will tell you Crockford's point of view," Segerson replied. "He
+doesn't exactly understand what your aims are, and wherever he goes he
+hears nothing but praise of the way you have treated your tenants and
+the way you have tried to turn them into small landowners. He isn't
+intelligent enough to realise that there is a principle behind all this.
+He has simply come to feel that he has a lenient landlord and that he
+has only to sit still and the plums will drop into his mouth, too.
+Crockford is one of the weak spots in your system, Lady Jane. There is
+no place for him or his kind in a self-supporting world."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"Then I am afraid he must go down," she said. "He simply stands in the
+way of better men."
+
+"One reads a good deal of Mr. Tallente, nowadays," Segerson remarked,
+changing the conversation a little abruptly.
+
+Jane leaned over and stroked the head of a dog which had come to lie at
+her feet.
+
+"He seems to be making a good deal of stir," she observed.
+
+The young man frowned.
+
+"You know I am not unsympathetic with your views, Lady Jane," he said, a
+little awkwardly, "but I don't mind admitting that if I had a big stake
+in the country I should be afraid of Tallente. No one seems to be able
+to pin him down to a definite programme and yet day by day his influence
+grows. The Labour Party is disintegrated. The best of all its factions
+are joining the Democrats. He is practically leader of the Opposition
+Party to-day and I don't see how they are going to stop his being Prime
+Minister whenever he chooses."
+
+"Don't you think he'll make a good Prime Minister?" Jane asked.
+
+"No, I don't," was the curt answer. "He is too dark a horse for my
+fancy."
+
+"I expect Mr. Tallente will be ready with his programme when the time
+comes," she observed. "He is a people's man, of course, and his
+proposals will sound pretty terrible to a good many of the old school.
+Still, something of the sort has to come."
+
+The butler brought in the postbag while they talked. Segerson, as he
+rose to depart, glanced with curiosity at half a dozen orange-coloured
+wrappers which were among the rest of the letters.
+
+"Fancy your subscribing to a press-cutting agency, Lady Jane!" he
+exclaimed. "You haven't been writing a novel under a pseudonym, have
+you?"
+
+She laughed as she gathered up her correspondence in her hand.
+
+"Don't pry into my secrets," she enjoined. "We may meet in Barnstaple
+to-morrow. If the weather clears, I want to go in and see those cattle
+for myself."
+
+The young man took his reluctant departure. Jane crossed the hall,
+entered her own little sanctum, drew the lamp to the edge of the table
+and sank into her easy-chair with a little sigh of relief. All the rest
+of her correspondence she threw to one side. The orange-coloured
+wrappers she tore off, one by one. As she read, her face softened and
+her eyes grew very bright. The first cutting was a report of Tallente's
+last speech in the House, a clever and forceful attack upon the
+Government's policy of compromise in the matter of recent strikes. The
+next was a speech at the Holborn Town Hall, on workmen's dwellings,
+another a thoughtful appreciation of him from the pages of a great
+review. There was also a eulogy from an American journal and a gloomy
+attack upon him in the chief Whig organ. When she had finished the
+pile, she sat for some time gazing at the burning logs. The little
+epitome of his daily life--there were records there even of many of his
+social engagements-seemed to carry her into another atmosphere, an
+atmosphere far removed from this lonely spot upon the moors. She seemed
+to catch from those printed lines some faint, reflective thrill of the
+more vital world of strife in which he was living. For a moment the
+roar of London was in her ears. She saw the lighted thoroughfares, the
+crowded pavements, the faces of the men and women, all a little strained
+and eager, so different from the placid immobility of the world in which
+she lived. She rose to her feet and moved restlessly about the room.
+Presently she lifted the curtain and looked out. There was a pause in
+the storm and a great mass of black clouds had just been driven past the
+face of the watery moon. Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath,
+but so far as she could see, moors and hillsides were wrapped in one
+unending mantle of snow. There was no visible sign of any human
+habitation, no sound from any of the birds or animals who were cowering
+in their shelters, not even a sheep hell or the barking of a dog to
+break the profound silence. She dropped the curtain and turned back to
+her chair. Her feet were leaden and her heart was heavy. The struggle
+of the day was at an end. Memory was asserting itself. She felt the
+flush in her cheek, the quickening heat of her heart, the thrill of her
+pulses as she lived again through those few wild minutes. There was no
+longer any escape from the wild, confusing truth. The thing which she
+had dreaded had come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The most popular hostess in London was a little thrilled at the arrival
+of the moment for which she had planned so carefully. She laid her hand
+on Tallente's arm and led him towards a comparatively secluded corner of
+the winter garden which made her own house famous. "I must apologise,
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke," he said, "for my late appearance. I travelled up
+from Devonshire this afternoon and found snow all the way. We were
+nearly two hours late."
+
+"It is all the more kind of you to have turned out at all, then," she
+told him warmly. "I don't mind telling you that I should have been
+terribly disappointed if you had failed me. It has been my one desire
+for months to have you three--the Prime Minister, Lethbridge and
+you--under my roof at the same time."
+
+"You find politics interesting over here?" Tallente asked, a little
+curiously.
+
+She flashed a quick glance at him.
+
+"Why, I find them absolutely fascinating," she declared. "The whole
+thing is so incomprehensible. Just look at to-night. Half of Debrett
+is represented here, practically the whole of the diplomats, and yet,
+except yourself, not a single member of the political party who we are
+told will be ruling this country within a few months. The very anomaly
+of it is so fascinating."
+
+"There is no necessary kinship between Society and politics," Tallente
+reminded her. "Your own country, for instance."
+
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke, who was an American, shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"My own country scarcely counts," she protested. "After all, we came
+into being as a republic, and our aristocracy is only a spurious
+conglomeration of people who are too rich to need to work. But many of
+these people whom you see here to-night still possess feudal rights,
+vast estates, great names, and yet over their heads there is coming this
+Government, in which they will be wholly unrepresented. What are you
+going to do with the aristocracy, Mr. Tallente?"
+
+"Encourage them to work," he answered, smiling.
+
+"But they don't know how."
+
+"They must learn. No man has a right to his place upon the earth unless
+he is a productive human being. There is no room in the world which we
+are trying to create for the parasite pure and simple."
+
+"You are a very inflexible person, Mr. Tallente."
+
+"There is no place in politics for the wobbler."
+
+"Do you know," she went on, glancing away for a moment, "that my rooms
+are filled with people who fear you. The Labour Party, as it was
+understood here five or six years ago, never inspired that feeling.
+There was something of the tub-thumper about every one of them. I think
+it is your repression, Mr. Tallente, which terrifies them. You don't
+say what you are going to do. Your programme is still a secret and yet
+every day your majority grows. Only an hour ago the Prime Minister told
+me that he couldn't carry on if you threw down the gage in earnest."
+
+Tallente remained bland, but became a little vague.
+
+"I see Foulds amongst your guests," he observed. "Have you seen his
+statue of Perseus and Andromeda!'"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I have, but I am not going to discuss it. Of course, I accept the
+hint, but as a matter of fact I am a person to be trusted. I ask for no
+secrets. I have no position in this country. Even my sympathies are at
+present wobbling. I am simply a little thrilled to have you here,
+because the Prime Minister is within a few yards of us and I know that
+before many weeks are past the great struggle will come between you and
+him as to who shall guide the destinies of this country."
+
+"You forget, Mrs. Van Fosdyke," he objected, "that I am not even the
+leader of my party. Stephen Dartrey is our chief."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Dartrey is a brilliant person," she admitted, "but we all know that he
+is not a practical politician. The battle is between you and Horlock."
+
+Tallente was watching a woman go by, a woman in black and silver, whose
+walk reminded him of Jane. His hostess followed his eyes.
+
+"You are one of Alice Mountgarron's admirers?" she enquired.
+
+"I don't even know her," he replied. "She reminded me of some one for a
+moment."
+
+"She is one of the Duchess of Barminster's daughters," his companion
+told him. "She married Mountgarron last year. Her sister, Lady Jane,
+is rather inclined towards your political outlook. She lives in
+Devonshire and tries to do good."
+
+His eyes followed the woman in black and silver until she had passed out
+of sight. The family likeness was there, appealing to him curiously,
+tugging at his heartstrings. His artificial surroundings slipped easily
+away. He was back on the moors, he felt a sniff of the strong wind, the
+wholesome exaltation of the empty places. A more wonderful memory still
+was seeping in upon him. His companion intervened chillingly.
+
+"One never sees your wife, nowadays, Mr. Tallente."
+
+"My wife is in America." he answered mechanically. "She has gone there
+to stay with some relatives."
+
+"She is interested in politics?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke welcomed a newcomer with a gracious little smile and
+Tallente rose to his feet. Horlock had left the group in the centre of
+the room and was making his way towards them.
+
+"At least we can talk here," he said, shaking hands with Tallente,
+"without any suggestion of a conspiracy. The old gang, you know," he
+went on, addressing his hostess, "simply close around me when I try to
+have a word with Tallente. They are afraid of some marvellous
+combination which is going to shut them out."
+
+"Lethbridge is the only one of them here to-night," She observed, "and
+he is probably in one of the rooms where they are serving things. Now I
+must go back to my guests. If I see him, I'll head him off."
+
+She strolled away. The Prime Minister sank back upon a couch. His air
+of well-bred content with himself and life fell away from him the moment
+his hostess was out of sight.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "I suppose you mean to break us?"
+
+"I thought we'd been rather friendly," was the quiet reply. "We've been
+letting you have your own way for nearly a month."
+
+"That is simply because we are on work which we are tackling practically
+in the fashion you dictated," Horlock pointed out. "When we have
+finished this Irish business, what are you going to do?"
+
+"I am not the leader of the party," Tallente reminded him.
+
+"From a parliamentary point of view you are," was the impatient protest.
+"Dartrey is a dreamer. He might even have dreamed away his
+opportunities if you hadn't come along. Miller would never have handled
+the House as you have. Miller was made to create factions. You were
+made to coalesce, to smooth over difficulties, to bring men of opposite
+points of view into the same camp. You are a genius at it, Tallente.
+Six months ago I was only afraid of the Democrats. Now I dread them.
+Shall I tell you what it is that worries me most?"
+
+"If you think it wise."
+
+"Your absence of programme. Why don't you say what you want to do--give
+us some idea of how far you are going to carry your tenets? Are we to
+have the anarchy of Bolshevists or the socialism of Marx,--a red flag
+republic or a classical dictatorship?"
+
+"We are not out for anarchy, at all events," Tallente assured him, "nor
+for revolutions in the ordinary sense of the word."
+
+"You mean to upset the Constitution?"
+
+"Speaking officially, I do not know. Speaking to you as a fellow
+politician, I should say that sooner or later some changes are
+desirable."
+
+"You'll never get away from party government."
+
+"Perhaps not, but I dare say we can find machinery to prevent the house
+of Commons being used for a debating society."
+
+Horlock, whose sense of humour had never been entirely crushed by the
+exigencies of political leadership, suddenly grinned.
+
+"The old gang will commit suicide," he declared. "If they aren't
+allowed to spout, they'll either wither or die. Old man Lethbridge's
+monthly attacks of high-minded patriotism are the only things that keep
+him alive."
+
+"I don't fancy," Tallente remarked, "that we shall abandon any of our
+principles for the sake of keeping Lethbridge alive."
+
+"What the mischief are your principles?"
+
+"No doubt Dartrey would enlighten you, if you chose to go to him," was
+the indifferent reply. "Within the course of the next few months we
+shall launch our thunderbolt. You will know then what we claim for the
+people."
+
+"Hang the people!" Horlock exclaimed. "I've legislated for them myself
+until I'm sick of it. They're never grateful."
+
+"Perhaps you confine yourself too much to one class," Tallente observed
+drily. "As a rule, the less intelligent the voter, the more easily he
+is caught by flashy legislation."
+
+"The operative pure and simple," Horlock announced, "has no political
+outlook. He'll never see beyond his trades union. You'll never found a
+great national party with his aid."
+
+His companion smiled.
+
+"Then we shall fail and you will continue to be Prime Minister."
+
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke came back to them, on the arm of a foreign diplomat.
+She leaned over to Horlock and whispered:
+
+"Lethbridge has heard that you two are here together and he is on your
+track. Better separate."
+
+She passed on. The two men strolled away.
+
+"Have you any personal feeling against me, Tallente?" Horlock asked.
+
+"None whatever," his companion assured him. "You did me the best turn
+in your life when you left me stranded after Hellesfield."
+
+Horlock sighed.
+
+"Lethbridge almost insisted, he looked upon you as a firebrand. He said
+there would be no repose about a Cabinet with you in it."
+
+"Well, it's turned out for the best," Tallente remarked drily. "Au
+revoir!"
+
+On his way back to the reception rooms, an acquaintance tapped him on
+the shoulder.
+
+"One moment, Tallente. Lady Alice Mountgarron has asked me to present
+you."
+
+Tallente bowed before the woman who stood looking at him pleasantly, but
+a little curiously. She held out her hand.
+
+"I seem to have heard so much of you from my sister Jane," she said.
+"You are neighbours in Devonshire, aren't you?"
+
+"Neighbours from a Devon man's point of view," he answered. "I live
+half-way down a precipice, and she five miles away, at the back of a
+Stygian moor, and incidentally a thousand feet above me."
+
+"You seem to have surmounted such geographical obstacles."
+
+"Your sister's friendship is worth greater efforts," Tallente replied.
+
+Lady Alice smiled.
+
+"I wish that some of you could persuade her to come to town
+occasionally," she said. "Jane is a perfect dear, of course, and I know
+she does a great deal of good down there, but I can't help thinking
+sometimes that she is a little wasted. Life must now and then be dreary
+for her." Tallente seemed for a moment to be looking through the walls
+of the room. "We are all made differently. Lady Jane is very
+self-reliant and Devonshire is one of those counties which have a
+curiously strong local hold."
+
+"But when her moors and her farms are under snow, and Woolhanger is
+wreathed in mists, and one hears nothing except the moaning of animals
+in distress, what about the local attraction then?"
+
+"You speak feelingly," Tallente observed, smiling. "I spent a fortnight
+with Jane last winter," she explains. "I had some idea of hunting.
+Never again! Only I miss Jane. She is such a dear and I don't see half
+enough of her."
+
+"I saw her yesterday," Tallente said reminiscently. "This morning she
+told me she was going to ride out to inspect for herself the farm of the
+one black sheep amongst her tenants. I looked out towards Woolhanger as
+I came up in the train. It seemed like a miasma of driven snow and
+mists."
+
+"Every one to his tastes," Lady Alice observed, as she turned away with
+a friendly little nod. "I have just an idea, however, that this
+morning's excursion was a little too much even for Jane."
+
+"What do you mean?" Tallente asked eagerly. Lady Alice looked at him
+over the top of her fan. She was a woman of instinct. "I had a
+telegram from her just before I came out," she said. "There wasn't much
+in it, but it gave me an idea that after all perhaps she is thinking of
+a short visit to town. Come and see me, Mr. Tallente, won't you? I
+live in Mount Street--Number 17. My husband used to play cricket with
+you, I think."
+
+She passed on and Tallente stood looking after her for a moment, a
+little dazed. A friend came up and took him by the arm.
+
+"Unprotected and alone in the gilded halls of the enemy!" the newcomer
+exclaimed. "Come and have a drink. By the by, you look as though you'd
+had good news."
+
+"I have," Tallente assented, smiling.
+
+"Then we'll drink to it--Mum'll. Not bad stuff. This way."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Tallente, for the first time in his life, was dining a few evenings
+later at Dartrey's house in Chelsea, and he looked forward with some
+curiosity to this opportunity of studying his chief under different
+auspices. Dartrey, notwithstanding the fact that he was a miracle of
+punctuality and devotion to duty, both at the offices in Parliament
+Street and at the House, seemed to have the gift of fading absolutely
+out of sight from the ken of even his closest friends when the task of
+the day was accomplished. He excused himself always, courteously but
+finally, from accepting anything whatever in the way of social
+entertainment, he belonged to no clubs, and, if pressed, he frankly
+confessed a predilection which amounted almost to passion for solitude
+during those hours not actually devoted to official duties. The
+invitation to dinner, therefore, was received by Tallente with some
+surprise. He had grown into the habit of looking upon Dartrey as a man
+who had no real existence outside the routine of their daily work. He
+welcomed with avidity, therefore, this opportunity of understanding a
+little more thoroughly Dartrey's pleasant but elusive personality.
+
+The house itself, situated in a Chelsea square of some repute, was small
+and unostentatious, but was painted a spotless white and possessed, even
+from the outside, an air of quiet and unassuming elegance. A trim
+maid-servant opened the door and ushered him into a drawing-room of grey
+and silver, with a little faded blue in the silks of the French chairs.
+There were a few fine-point etchings upon the walls, a small grand piano
+in a corner, and very little furniture, although the little there was
+was French of the best period. There were no flowers and the atmosphere
+would have been chilly, but for the brightly burning fire. Tallente was
+scarcely surprised when Dartrey's entrance alone indicated the fact
+that, as was generally supposed, he was free from family ties.
+
+"I am a little early, I am afraid," Tallente remarked, as they shook
+hands.
+
+"Admirably punctual," the other replied. "I shall make no apologies to
+you for my small party. I have asked only Miss Miall and Miller to meet
+you--just the trio of us who came to lure you out of your Devonshire
+paradise."
+
+"Miller?" Tallente repeated, with instant comprehension.
+
+"Yes! I was thinking, only the other day, that you scarcely see enough
+of Miller."
+
+"I see all that I want to," was Tallente's candid comment.
+
+Dartrey laid his hand upon his guest's shoulder. In his sombre dinner
+garb, with low, turned-down collar and flowing black tie, his grey-black
+beard cut to a point, his high forehead, his straightly brushed-back
+hair, which still betrayed its tendency to natural curls, he looked a
+great deal more like an artist of the dreamy and aesthetic type than a
+man who had elaborated a new system of life and government.
+
+"It is because of the feeling behind those words, Tallente," he said,
+"that I have asked you to meet him here to-night. Miller has his
+objectionable points, but he possesses still a great hold upon certain
+types of the working man. I feel that you should appreciate that a
+little more thoroughly. The politician, as you should know better than
+I, has no personal feelings."
+
+"The politician is left with very few luxuries," Tallente replied, with
+a certain grimness.
+
+Nora was announced, brilliant and gracious in a new dinner gown which
+she frankly confessed had ruined her, and close behind her Miller, a
+little ungainly in his overlong dress coat and badly arranged white tie.
+It struck Tallente that he was aware of the object of the meeting and
+his manner, obviously intended to be ingratiating, had still a touch of
+self-conscious truculence.
+
+They went into dinner, a few minutes later, and their host's tact in
+including Nora in the party was at once apparent. She talked brightly
+of the small happenings of their day-by-day political life and bridged
+over the moments of awkwardness before general conversation assumed its
+normal swing. Dartrey encouraged Miller to talk and they all listened
+while he spoke of the mammoth trades unions of the north, where his hold
+upon the people was greatest. He spoke still bitterly of the war, from
+the moral effect of which, he argued, the working man had never wholly
+recovered. Tallente listened a little grimly.
+
+"The fervour of self-sacrifice and so-called patriotism which some of
+the proletariat undoubtedly felt at the outbreak of the war," Miller
+argued, "was only an incidental, a purely passing sensation compared to
+the idle and greedy inertia which followed it. The war lost," he went
+on, "might have acted as a lash upon the torpor of many of these men.
+Won, it created a wave of immorality and extravagance from which they
+had never recovered. They spent more than they had and they earned more
+than they were worth. That is to say, they lived an unnatural life."
+
+"It is fortunate, then," Tallente remarked, "that the new generation is
+almost here."
+
+"They, too, carry the taint," Miller insisted. Tallente looked
+thoughtfully across towards his host.
+
+"It seems to me that this is a little disheartening," he said. "It is
+exactly what one might have expected from Horlock or even Lethbridge.
+Miller, who is nearer to the proletariat than any of us, would have us
+believe that the people who should be the bulwark of the State are not
+fit for their position."
+
+"I fancy," Dartrey said soothingly, "that Miller was talking more as a
+philosopher than a practical man."
+
+"I speak according to my experience," the latter insisted, a little
+doggedly.
+
+"Amongst your own constituents?" Tallente asked, with a faint smile,
+reminiscent of a recent unexpected defeat of one of Miller's partisans
+in a large constituency.
+
+"Amongst them and others," was the somewhat acid reply. "Sands lost his
+seat at Tenchester through the apathy of the very class for whom we
+fight."
+
+"Tenchester is a wonderful place," Nora intervened. "I went down there
+lately to study certain phases of women's labour. Their factories are
+models and I found all the people with whom I came in contact
+exceptionally keen and well-informed."
+
+Miller gnawed his moustache for a moment.
+
+"Then I was probably unpopular there," he said. "I have to tell the
+truth. Sometimes people do not like it."
+
+The dinner was simply but daintily served. There were wines of
+well-known vintages and as the meal progressed Dartrey unbent. Eating
+scarcely anything and drinking less, the purely intellectual stimulus of
+conversation seemed to unloose his tongue and give to his pronouncements
+a more pungent tone. Naturally, politics remained the subject of
+discussion and Dartrey disclosed a little the reason for the meeting
+which he had arranged.
+
+"The craft of politics," he pointed out, "makes but one inexorable
+demand upon her followers--the demand for unity. The amazing thing is
+that this is not generally realised. It seems the fashion, nowadays, to
+dissent from everything, to cultivate the ego in its narrowest sense
+rather than to try and reach out and grasp the hands of those around.
+The fault, I think, is in an over-developed theatrical sense, the desire
+which so many clever men have for individual notoriety. We Democrats
+have prospered because we have been free from it. We have been able to
+sink our individual prejudices in our cause. That is because our cause
+has been great enough. We aim so high, we see so clearly, that it is
+rare indeed to find amongst us those individual differences which have
+been the ruin of every political party up to to-day. We have no Brown
+who will not serve with Smith, no Robinson who declines to be associated
+with Jones. We forget the small things which are repugnant to us in a
+fellowman, because of the great things which bind us together."
+
+"To a certain extent, yes," Tallente agreed, with some reserve in his
+tone, "yet we are all human. There are some prejudices which no man may
+conquer. If he pretends he does, he only lives in an atmosphere of
+falsehood. The strong man loves or hates."
+
+They took their coffee in their host's very fascinating study. There
+was little room here for decoration. The walls were lined with books,
+there were a few choice bronzes here and there, a statue of wonderful
+beauty upon the writing table, and a figure of Justice leaning with
+outstretched arms over the world, presented to Dartrey by a great French
+artist. For the rest, there were comfortable chairs, an ample fire, and
+a round table on which were set out coffee and liqueurs of many sorts.
+
+"You will find that I am not altogether an anchorite," Dartrey observed,
+as they settled into their places.
+
+"I am a lover of old brandy. The '68 I recommend especially, Tallente,
+and bring your chair round to the fire. There are cigars and cigarettes
+at your elbow. Miller, I think I know your taste. Help yourself, won't
+you?"
+
+Miller drank crème de menthe and smoked homemade Virginia cigarettes.
+Tallente watched him and sighed. Then, suddenly conscious of his host's
+critical scrutiny, he felt an impulse of shame, felt that his contempt
+for the man had in it something almost snobbish. He leaned forward and
+did his best. Miller had been a school-board teacher, an exhibitioner
+at college, and was possessed of a singular though limited intelligence.
+He could deal adequately with any one problem presented by itself and
+affected only by local conditions, yet the more Tallente talked with
+him, the more he realised his lack of breadth, his curious weakness of
+judgment when called upon to consider questions dependent upon varying
+considerations. As to the right or wrong wording of a clause in the
+Factory Amendment Act, he could be lucid, explanatory and convincing; as
+to the justice of the same clause when compared with other forms of
+legislation, he was vague and unconvincing, didactic and prejudiced. If
+Dartrey's object had been to bring these two men into closer
+understanding of each other, he was certainly succeeding. It is
+doubtful, however, whether the understanding progressed entirely in the
+fashion he had desired. Nora, curled up in an easy-chair, affecting to
+be sleepy, but still listening earnestly, felt at last that intervention
+was necessary. The self-revelation of Miller under Tallente's surgical
+questioning was beginning to disturb even their host.
+
+"I am being neglected," she complained. "If no one talks to me, I shall
+go home."
+
+Tallente rose at once and sat on the lounge by her side. Dartrey stood
+on the hearth rug and plunged into an ingenious effort to reconcile
+various points of difference which had arisen between his two guests.
+Tallente all the time was politely acquiescent, Miller a little sullen.
+Like all men with brains acute enough to deal logically with a
+procession of single problems, he resented because he failed altogether
+to understand that a wider field of circumstances could possibly alter
+human vision.
+
+Tallente walked home with Nora. They chose the longer way, by the
+Embankment.
+
+"This is the Cockney's antithesis to the moonlight and hills of you
+country folk," Nora observed, as she pointed to the yellow lights
+gashing across the black water.
+
+Tallente drew a long breath of content.
+
+"It's good to be here, anyway. I am glad to be out of that house," he
+confessed.
+
+"I'm afraid," she sighed, "that our dear host's party was a failure.
+You and Miller were born in different camps of life. It doesn't seem to
+me that anything will ever bring you together."
+
+"For this reason," Tallente explained eagerly. "Miller's outlook is
+narrow and egotistical. He may be a shrewd politician, but there isn't
+a grain of statesmanship in him. He might make an excellent chairman of
+a parish council. As a Cabinet Minister he would be impossible."
+
+"He will demand office, I am afraid," Nora remarked.
+
+Tallente took off his hat. He was watching the lights from the two
+great hotels, the red fires from the funnel of a little tug, Mack and
+mysterious in the windy darkness.
+
+"I am sick of politics," he declared suddenly. "We are a parcel of
+fools. Our feet move day and night to the solemn music."
+
+"You, of all men," she protested, "to be talking like this!"
+
+"I mean it," he insisted, a little doggedly. "I have spent too many of
+my years on the treadmill. A man was born to be either an egoist and
+parcel out the earth according to his tastes, or to develop like Dartrey
+into a dreamer.--Curse you!" he added, suddenly shaking his fist at the
+tall towers of the Houses of Parliament. "You're like an infernal
+boarding-school, with your detentions and impositions and castigations.
+There must be something beyond."
+
+"A Cabinet Minister--" she began.
+
+"The sixth form," he interrupted. "There's just one aspiration of life
+to be granted under that roof and to win it you are asked to stifle all
+the rest. It isn't worth it."
+
+"It's the greatest game at which men can play," she declared.
+
+"And also the narrowest because it is the most absorbing," he answered.
+"We have our triumphs there and they end in a chuckle. Don't you love
+sunshine in winter, strange cities, pictures, pictures of another age,
+pictures which take your thoughts back into another world, architecture
+that is not utilitarian, the faces of human beings on whom the strain of
+life has never fallen? And women--women whose eyes will laugh into
+yours, who haven't a single view in life, who don't care a fig about
+improving their race, who want just love, to give and to take?"
+
+She gazed at him in astonishment, a little carried away, her eyes soft,
+her lips parted.
+
+"But you have turned pagan!" she cried.
+
+"An instant's revolt against the methodism of life," he replied, his
+feet once more upon the earth. "But the feeling's there, all the same,"
+he went on doggedly. "I want to leave school. I have been there so
+long. It seems to me my holiday is overdue."
+
+She passed her arm through his. She was a very clever and a very
+understanding woman.
+
+"That comes of your having ignored us," she murmured.
+
+"It isn't my fault if I have," he reminded her.
+
+"In a sense it is," she insisted. "The woman in your life should be the
+most beautiful part of it. You chose to make her the stepping-stone to
+your ambition. Consequently you go through life hungry, you wait till
+you almost starve, and then suddenly the greatest things in the world
+which lie to your hand seem like baubles."
+
+"You are hideously logical," he grumbled.
+
+They were walking slower now, within a few yards of the entrance to her
+flat. Both of them were a little disturbed,--she, full as she was with
+all the generous impulses of sensuous humanity, intensely awakened,
+intensely sympathetic.
+
+"Tell me, where is your wife?" she asked.
+
+"In America."
+
+"It is hopeless with her?"
+
+"Utterly and irretrievably hopeless."
+
+"It has been for long?"
+
+"For years."
+
+"And for the sake of your principles," she went on, almost angrily,
+"your stupid, canonical and dry-as-dust little principles, you've let
+your life shrivel up."
+
+"I can't help it," he answered. "What would you have me do? Stand in
+the market place and shout my needs?"
+
+She clung to his arm. "You dear thing!" she said. "You're a great
+baby!"
+
+They were in the shadow of the entrance to the flats. He suddenly bent
+over her; his lips were almost on hers. There was a frightened gleam in
+her eyes, but she made no movement of retreat. Suddenly he drew himself
+upright.
+
+"That wouldn't help, would it?" he said simply. "Thank you, all the
+same, Nora. Good-by!"
+
+On his table, when he entered his rooms that night, lay the letter for
+which he had craved. He opened it almost fiercely. The few lines
+seemed like a message of hope:
+
+"Don't laugh at me, dear friend, but I am coming to London for a week or
+two, to my little house in Charles Street. I don't know exactly when.
+You will find time to come and see me?"
+
+Here the mists seem to have fallen upon us like a shroud, and we can't
+escape. I galloped many miles this morning, but it was like trying to
+find the edge of the world.
+
+Please call on my sister at 17 Mount Street. She likes you and wants to
+see more of you.
+
+JANE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+For some weeks after his chief's dinner party, Tallente slackened a
+little in his grim devotion to work. A strangely quiescent period of
+day-by-day political history enabled him to be absent from his place in
+the House for several evenings during the week, and although he spent a
+good many hours with Dartrey at Demos House, carefully discussing and
+elaborating next season's programme, he still found himself with time to
+spare, and with Jane's note buttoned up in his pocket, he deliberately
+turned his face towards life in its more genial and human aspect.
+
+He dined one night at the club to which he had belonged for many years,
+a club frequented chiefly by distinguished literary men, successful
+barristers, and a sprinkling of actors. His arrival created at first
+almost a sensation, a slight feeling of constraint even, amongst the
+little gathering of men drinking their apéritifs in the lounge under the
+stairs. Somehow or other, there was a feeling that many of the old ties
+had been broken. Tallente stood for new and menacing things in
+politics. He had to a certain extent cut himself adrift from the world
+which starts at Eton and Oxford and ends by making mild puns on the
+judicial bench, or uttering sonorous platitudes from a properly
+accredited seat in the House.
+
+Tallente, fully appreciating the atmosphere, nevertheless made strenuous
+and not unsuccessful efforts to pick up the old threads. He abandoned
+even the moderation of his daily life. He drank cocktails, champagne
+and port, laughed heartily at the stories of the day and ransacked his
+brain to cap them. Of bridge, unfortunately, he knew nothing, but he
+played pool with some success, and left the club late, leaving behind
+him curiously mingled opinions as to the cause for this sudden return to
+his old haunts.
+
+He himself walked through the streets, on his way homeward, conscious of
+at least partial success, feeling the pleasurable warmth of the wine he
+had drunk and the companionship for which he had so strenuously sought.
+He found himself thinking almost enviously of the men with whom he had
+associated,--Philipson, with whom he had been at college, with three
+plays running at different theatres, interested, even fascinated by his
+work, chaffing gaily with his principal actor as to the rendering of
+some of his lines. Then there was Fardell, also a schoolfellow, now a
+police magistrate, full of dry and pleasant humour, called by his
+intimates "The Beak "; Amberson, poseur and dilettante thirty years ago,
+but always a good fellow, now an acknowledged master of English prose
+and a critic whose word was unquestioned. These men, one and all,
+seemed to be up to the neck in life, kept young and human by the taste
+of it upon their palate. The contemplation of their whole-sided
+existence, their sound combination of work and play, produced in him a
+sort of jealousy, for he knew that there was something behind it, which
+he lacked.
+
+The night was bright and dry and there were still crowds about Leicester
+Square, Piccadilly Circle and Piccadilly itself. As he walked, he
+looked into the faces of the women who passed him by, struggling against
+his old abhorrence as against one of the sickly offshoots of an
+over-eclectic epicureanism. They typified not vice but weakness, the
+unhappy result of man's inevitable revolt against unnatural laws. Yet
+even then the mingled purity and priggishness encouraged by years of
+repression forbade any vital change in his sentiments. The toleration
+for which he sought, when it made its grudging appearance, was mingled
+with dislike and distrust. He breathed more freely as he turned into
+the quieter street in which his rooms were situated, passing them by,
+however, crossing Curzon Street and embarking upon a brief pilgrimage
+which had become almost a nightly one. Within a very few minutes he
+paused before a certain number in a street even more secluded than his
+own. At last the thing which he had so greatly anticipated had
+happened. There were lights in the house from top to bottom. Jane had
+arrived!
+
+He walked slowly back and forth several times. The music in his blood,
+stirred already by the wine he had drunk and the revival of old
+memories, moved to a new and more wonderful tune. He knew now, without
+any possibility of self-deception, exactly what he had been waiting for,
+exactly where all his thoughts and hopes for the future were centered.
+Was she there now, he wondered, gazing at the windows like a moon-struck
+boy. He lingered about and fate was kind to him.
+
+A limousine swung around the corner and pulled up in front of the door,
+a few minutes later. The footman on the box sprang down. He heard her
+voice as she said "Good-by" to some one. The car rolled smoothly away.
+She crossed the pavement with an involuntary glance at the tall,
+approaching figure.
+
+"Jane!" he exclaimed.
+
+She stood quite still, with the latch-key in her hand. The car was out
+of sight now and they seemed to be almost alone in the street. At first
+there was something almost unfamiliar in her rather startled face, her
+coiffured hair, her bare neck with its collar of diamonds. There was a
+moment of suspense. Then he saw something flash into her eyes and he
+was glad to be there.
+
+"You?" she exclaimed, a little breathlessly. He plunged into
+explanations.
+
+"My rooms are close by here in Charges Street," he told her. "I was
+walking home from the club and saw you step out of the car."
+
+"How could you know that I was coming to-day?" she asked. "I only
+telephoned Alice after I arrived."
+
+"To tell you the truth," he confessed, "I have got into the habit of
+walking this way home, in case--well, to-night I have my reward."
+
+She turned the key in the latch and pushed the door open.
+
+"You must come in," she invited.
+
+"Isn't it too late?"
+
+"What does that matter so long as I ask you?"
+
+He followed her gladly into the hall, closing the door behind him.
+
+"That wretched switch is somewhere near here," she said, feeling along
+the wall.
+
+Her fingers suddenly met his and stayed passive in his grasp. She
+turned a little around as she realised the nearness of him.
+
+"Jane," he whispered, "I have wanted you so much."
+
+For a single moment she rested in his arms,--a wonderful moment,
+inexplicable, voluptuous, stirring him to the very depths. Then she
+slipped away. Her fingers sought the wall once more and the place was
+flooded with light.
+
+"You must come in here for a moment," she said, opening the nearest
+door. "I shall not ask you to share my milk, and I am afraid I don't
+know where to get you a whisky and soda, but you can light a cigarette
+and just tell me how things are and when you are coming to see me."
+
+He followed her into a comfortable little apartment, furnished in
+mid-Victorian fashion, but with an easy-chair drawn up to the brightly
+burning fire. On a table near was a glass of milk and some biscuits.
+The ermine cloak slipped from her shoulders. She stood with one foot
+upon the fender, half turned towards him. His eyes rested upon her,
+filled with a great hunger.
+
+"Well?" she queried.
+
+"You are wonderful," he murmured.
+
+She laughed and for a moment her eyes fell.
+
+"But, my dear man," she said, "I don't want compliments. I want to know
+the news."
+
+"There is none," he answered. "We are marking time while Horlock digs
+his own grave."
+
+"You have been amusing yourself?"
+
+"Indifferently. I dined the other night with Dartrey, to-night at the
+Sheridan Club. The most exciting thing in the twenty-four hours has
+been my nightly pilgrimage round here."
+
+"How idiotic!" she laughed. "Supposing you had not happened to meet me?
+You could scarcely have rung my bell at this hour of the night."
+
+"I should have been content to have seen the lights and to have known
+that you had arrived."
+
+"You dear man!" she exclaimed, with a sudden smile, a smile of entire
+and sweet friendliness. "I like the thought of your doing that. It is
+something to know that one is welcome, when one breaks away from the
+routine of one's life, as I have."
+
+"Tell me why you have done it?" he asked.
+
+She looked back into the fire.
+
+"Everything was going a little wrong," she explained. "One of my
+farmers was troublesome, and the snow has stopped work and hunting. We
+lost thirty of our best ewes last week. I found I was getting out of
+temper with everybody and everything, so I suddenly remembered that I
+had an empty house here and came up."
+
+"To the city of adventures," he murmured.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"London has never seemed like that to me. I find it generally a very
+ugly and a very sordid place, where I am hedged in with relatives,
+generally wanting me to do the thing I loathe.--You have really no news
+for me, then?"
+
+"None, except that I am glad to see you."
+
+"When will you come and have a long talk?"
+
+"Will you dine with me to-morrow night?" he begged eagerly. "In the
+afternoon I have committee meetings. Thursday afternoon you could come
+down to the House, if you cared to."
+
+"Of course I should, but hadn't you better dine here?" she suggested.
+"I can ask Alice and another man."
+
+"I want to see you alone," he insisted, "for the first time, at any
+rate."
+
+"Then will you take me to that little place you told me of in Soho?" she
+suggested. "I don't want a whole crowd to know that I am in town just
+yet. Don't think that it sounds vain, but people have such a habit of
+almost carrying one off one's feet. I want to prowl about London and do
+ordinary things. One or two theatres, perhaps, but no dinner parties.
+I shan't stay long, I don't suppose. As soon as I hear from Mr.
+Segerson that the snow has gone and that terrible north wind has died
+away, I know I shall be wanting to get back."
+
+"You are very conscientious about your work there," he complained.
+"Don't you ever realise that you may have an even more important mission
+here?"
+
+For a single moment she seemed troubled. Her manner, when she spoke,
+had lost something of its calm graciousness.
+
+"Really?" she said. "Well, you must tell me all about it to-morrow
+night. I shall wear a hat and you must not order the dinner beforehand.
+I don't mind your ordering the table, because I like a corner, but we
+must sail into the place just like any other two wanderers. It is
+agreed?"
+
+He bent over her fingers. His good angel and his instinct of
+sensibility, which was always appraising her attitude towards him,
+prompted his studied farewell.
+
+"You will let yourself out?" she begged. "I have taken off my cloak and
+I could not face that wind."
+
+"Of course," he answered. "I shall call for you at a quarter to eight
+to-morrow night. I only wish I could make you understand what it means
+to have that to look forward to."
+
+"If you can make me believe that," she answered gravely, "perhaps I
+shall be glad that I have come."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Whilst Tallente, rejuvenated, and with a wonderful sense of well-being
+at the back of his mind, was on his feet in the House of Commons on the
+following afternoon, leading an unexpected attack against the
+unfortunate Government, Dartrey sat at tea in Nora's study. Nora, who
+had had a very busy day, was leaning back in her chair, well content
+though a little fatigued. Dartrey, who had forgotten his lunch in the
+stress of work, was devoting himself to the muffins.
+
+"While I think of it," he said, "let me thank you for playing hostess so
+charmingly the other night."
+
+She made him a little bow.
+
+"Your dinner party was a great success."
+
+"Was it?" he murmured, a little doubtfully. "I am not quite so sure. I
+can't seem to get at Tallente, somehow."
+
+"He is doing his work well, isn't he?"
+
+"The mechanical side of it is most satisfactory," Dartrey confessed.
+"He is the most perfect Parliamentary machine that was ever evolved."
+
+"Surely that is exactly what you want? You were always complaining that
+there was no one to bring the stragglers into line."
+
+"For the present," Dartrey admitted, "Tallente is doing excellently. I
+wish, though, that I could see a little farther into the future."
+
+"Tell me exactly what fault you find with him?" Nora persisted.
+
+"He lacks enthusiasm already. He makes none of the mistakes which are
+coincident with genius and he is a little intolerant. He takes no
+trouble to adapt himself to varying views, he has a fine, broad outlook,
+but no man can see into every corner of the earth, and what is outside
+his outlook does not exist."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"He is not happy in his work. There is something wanting in his scheme
+of life. I have built a ladder for him to climb. I have given him the
+chance of becoming the greatest statesman of to-day. One would think
+that he had some other ambition."
+
+Nora sighed. She looked across at her visitor a little diffidently.
+
+"I can help you to understand Andrew Tallente," she declared. "His
+condition is the greatest of all tributes to my sex. He has had an
+unhappy married life. From forty to fifty he has borne it
+philosophically as a man may. Now the reaction has come. With the
+first dim approach of age, he becomes suddenly terrified for the things
+he is missing."
+
+Dartrey was thoughtful.
+
+"I dare say you are right," he admitted, "but if he needs an Aspasia,
+surely she could be found?"
+
+Nora rested her head upon her fingers. She seemed to be watching
+intently the dancing flames. Her broad, womanly forehead was troubled,
+her soft brown eyes pensive.
+
+"He is fifty years old," she said. "It is rather an anomalous age. At
+fifty a man's taste is almost hypercritical and his attraction to my sex
+is on the wane. No, the problem isn't so easy."
+
+Dartrey had finished tea and was feeling for his cigarette case.
+
+"I rather fancied, Nora, that he was attracted by you."
+
+"Well, he isn't, then," she replied, with a smile.
+
+"He was rather by way of thinking that he was, the other night, but that
+was simply because he was in a curiously unsettled state and he felt
+that I was sympathetic."
+
+"You are a very clever woman, Nora," he said, looking across at her.
+"You could make him care for you if you chose."
+
+"Is that to be my sacrifice to the cause?" she asked. "Am I to give my
+soul to its wrong keeper, that our party may flourish?"
+
+"You don't like Tallente?"
+
+"I like him immensely," she contradicted vigorously. "If I weren't
+hopelessly in love with some one else, I could find it perfectly easy to
+try and make life a different place for him."
+
+He looked at her with trouble in his kind eyes. It was as though he had
+suddenly stumbled upon a tragedy.
+
+"I have never guessed this about you, Nora," he murmured.
+
+"You are not observant of small things," she answered, a little
+bitterly.
+
+"Who is the man?"
+
+"That I shall not tell you."
+
+"Do I know him?"
+
+"Less, I should say, than any one of your acquaintance."
+
+He was silent for a moment or two. Then it chanced that the telephone
+rang for him, with a message from the House of Commons. He gave some
+instructions to his secretary.
+
+"It is a queer thing," he remarked, as he replaced the receiver, "how
+far our daily work and our ambitions take us out of our immediate
+environment. I see you day by day, Nora, I have known you intimately
+since your school days--and I never guessed."
+
+"You never guessed and I have no time to suffer," she answered. "So we
+go on until the breaking time comes, until one part of ourselves
+conquers and the other loses. It is rather like that just now with
+Andrew Tallente. A few more years and it will probably be like that
+with me."
+
+He threw his cigarette away as though the flavour had suddenly become
+distasteful and sat drumming with his fingers upon the table, his eyes
+fixed upon Nora.
+
+"Tallente's position," he said thoughtfully, "one can understand. He is
+married, isn't he, and with all the splendid breadth of his intellectual
+outlook he is still harassed by the social fetters of his birth and
+bringing up. I can conceive Tallente as a person too highminded to seek
+to evade the law and too scornful for intrigue. But you, Nora, how is
+it that your love brings you unhappiness? You are young and free, and
+surely," he concluded, with a little sigh, "when you choose you can make
+yourself irresistible."
+
+She looked at him with a peculiar light in her eyes.
+
+"I have proved myself very far from being irresistible," she declared.
+"The man for whose love my whole being is aching to-day is absolutely
+unawakened as to my desirability. I enjoy with him the most impersonal
+friendship in which two people of opposite sexes ever indulged."
+
+"I thought that I was acquainted with all your intimates," Dartrey
+observed, in a puzzled tone. "Let me meet this man and judge for
+myself, Nora."
+
+"Do you mean that?" she asked.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Very well, then," she acquiesced, "I'll ask him to dinner here. When
+are you free?"
+
+He glanced through a thin memorandum book.
+
+"On Sunday night?"
+
+"At eight o'clock," she said. "You won't mind a simple dinner, I know.
+I can promise you that you will be interested. My friend is worth
+knowing."
+
+Dartrey took his departure a little hurriedly. He had suddenly
+remembered an appointment at his committee rooms and went off with his
+mind full of the troubles of a northern constituency. On his way up
+Parliament Street he met Miller, who turned and walked by his side.
+
+"Heard the news?" the latter asked curtly. "No. Is there any?" was the
+quick reply.
+
+"Tallente's broken the truce," Miller announced. "There was rather an
+acid debate on the Compensation Clauses of Hensham's Allotment Bill.
+Tallente pulled them to pieces and then challenged a division. The
+Government Whips were fairly caught napping and were beaten by twelve
+votes." Dartrey's eyes flashed.
+
+"Tallente is a most wonderful tactician," he said. "This is the second
+time he's forced the Government into a hole. Horlock will never last
+the session, at this rate."
+
+"There are rumours of a resignation, of course," Miller went on, "but
+they aren't likely to go out on a snatched division like this."
+
+"We don't want them to," Dartrey agreed. "All the time, though, this
+sort of thing is weakening their prestige. We shall be ready to give
+them their coup de grace in about four months."
+
+The two men were silent for a moment. Then Miller spoke again a little
+abruptly.
+
+"I can't seem to get on with Tallente," he confessed.
+
+"I am sorry," Dartrey regretted. "You'll have to try, Miller. We can't
+do without him."
+
+"Try? I have tried," was the impatient rejoinder. "Tallente may have
+his points but nature never meant him to be a people's man. He's too
+hidebound in convention and tradition. Upon my soul, Dartrey, he makes
+me feel like a republican of the bloodthirsty age, he's so blasted
+superior!"
+
+"You're going back to the smaller outlook, Miller," his chief
+expostulated. "These personal prejudices should be entirely negligible.
+I am perfectly certain that Tallente himself would lay no stress upon
+them."
+
+"Stress upon them? Damn it, I'm as good as he is!" Miller exclaimed
+irritably. "There's no harm in Tallente's ratting, quitting his order
+and coming amongst us Democrats, but what I do object to is his bringing
+the mannerisms and outlook of Eton and Oxford amongst us. When I am
+with him, he always makes me feel that I am doing the wrong thing and
+that he knows it."
+
+Dartrey frowned a little impatiently.
+
+"This is rubbish, Miller," he pronounced. "It is you who are to blame
+for attaching the slightest importance to these trifles."
+
+"Trifles!" Miller growled. "Within a very short time, Dartrey, this
+question will have to be settled. Does Tallente know that I am promised
+a seat in his Cabinet?"
+
+"I think that he must surmise it."
+
+"The sooner he knows, the better," Miller declared acidly. "Tallente
+can unbend all right when he likes. He was dining at the Trocadero the
+other night with Brooks and Ainley and Parker and Saunderson--the most
+cheerful party in the place. Tallente seemed to have slipped out of
+himself, and yet there isn't one of those men who has ever had a day's
+schooling or has ever worn anything but ready-made clothes. He leaves
+his starch off when he's with them. What's the matter with me, I should
+like to know? I'm a college man, even though I did go as an
+exhibitioner. I was a school teacher when those fellows were wielding
+pick-axes."
+
+Dartrey looked at his companion thoughtfully. For a single moment the
+words trembled upon his lips which would have brought things to an
+instant and profitless climax. Then he remembered the million or so of
+people of Miller's own class and way of thinking, to whom he was a
+leading light, and he choked back the words.
+
+"I find this sort of conversation a little peevish, Miller," he said.
+"As soon as any definite difference of opinion arises between you and
+Tallente, I will intervene. At present you are both doing good work.
+Our cause needs you both."
+
+"You won't forget how I stand?" Miller persisted, as they reached their
+destination.
+
+"No one has ever yet accused me of breaking my word," was the somewhat
+chilly rejoinder. "You shall have your pound of flesh."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Jane leaned back in her chair, drew off her gloves and looked around her
+with an appreciative smile. She had somehow the subtle air of being
+even more pleased with herself and her surroundings than she was willing
+to admit. Every table in the restaurant was occupied. The waiters were
+busy: there was an air of gaiety. A faint smell of cookery hung about
+the place and its clients were undeniably a curious mixture of the
+bourgeois and theatrical. Nevertheless, she was perfectly content and
+smiled her greetings to the great Monsieur George, who himself brought
+their menu.
+
+"We want the best of your ordinary dishes," Tallente told him, "and
+remember that we do not come here expecting Ritz specialities or a Savoy
+_chef d'oeuvre_. We want those special _hors d'oeuvres_ which you know
+all about, a sole grilled _a la maison_, a plainly roasted chicken with
+an endive salad. The sweets are your affair. The savoury must be a
+cheese soufflé. And for wine--"
+
+He broke off and looked across the table. Jane smiled apologetically.
+
+"You will never bring me out again," she declared. "I want some
+champagne."
+
+"I never felt more like it myself," he agreed. "The _Pommery_, George,
+slightly iced, an aperitif now, and the dinner can take its course. We
+will linger over the _hors d'oeuvres_ and we are in no hurry."
+
+George departed and Tallente smiled across at his companion. It was a
+wonderful moment, this. His steady success of the last few months, the
+triumph of the afternoon had never brought him one of the thrills which
+were in his pulses at that moment, not one iota of the pleasurable sense
+of well-being which was warming his veins. The new menace which had
+suddenly thrown its shadow across his path was forgotten. Governments
+might come or go, a career be made or broken upon the wheel. He was
+alone with Jane.
+
+"Now tell me all the news at Woolhanger?" he asked.
+
+"Woolhanger lies under a mantle of snow," she told him. "There is a
+wind blowing there which seems to have come straight from the ice of the
+North Pole and sounds like the devil playing bowls amongst the hills."
+
+"The hunting?"
+
+"All stopped, of course. A few nights ago, two stags came right up to
+the house and quite a troop of the really wild ponies from over
+Hawkbridge way. We've never had such a spell of cold in my memory. It
+reminded one of the snowstorm in 'Lorna Doone.'--But after all, I told
+you all about Woolhanger last night. I want your news."
+
+"I seem to have settled down with the Democrats," he told her. "I do my
+best to keep the party in line. The great trades unions are, of course,
+our chief difficulty, but I think we are making progress even with them.
+Some of the miners' representatives dined with me at the Trocadero the
+other night. Good fellows they are, too. There is only one great
+difficulty," he went on, "in the consolidation of my party, and that is
+to get a little more breadth into the views of these men who represent
+the leading industries. They are obsessed with the duties that they owe
+to their own artificers and the labour connected with the particular
+industry they represent. It is hard to make them see the importance of
+any other subject. Yet we need these very men as lawmakers. I want
+them to study production and the laws of production from a universal
+point of view."
+
+"I can quite understand," she acquiesced sympathetically, "that you have
+a difficult class of men to deal with. Tell me what the evening papers
+mean by their placards?"
+
+"We had a small tactical success against the Government this afternoon,"
+he explained. "It doesn't really amount to anything. We are not ready
+for their resignation at the moment, any more than they are ready to
+resign."
+
+"You are an object of terror to all my people," she confided smilingly.
+"They say that Horlock dare not go to the country and that you could
+turn him out to-morrow if you cared to."
+
+"So much for politics," he remarked drily.
+
+"So much for politics," she assented. "And now about yourself?"
+
+"A little finger of flame burning in an empty place," he sighed. "That
+is how life seems to me when I take my hand off the plough."
+
+She answered him lightly, but her face softened and her eyes shone with
+sympathy.
+
+"Aren't you by way of being just a little sentimental?"
+
+"Perhaps," he admitted. "If I am, let me feel the luxury of it."
+
+"One reads different things of you."
+
+"For instance?"
+
+"Town Topics says that you have become an interesting figure at many
+social functions. You must meet attractive people there."
+
+"I only wish that I could find them so," he answered. "London has been
+almost feverishly gay lately and every one seems to have discovered a
+vogue for entertaining politicians. There seems to be a sort of idea
+that dangerous corners may be rubbed off us by a judicious application
+of turtle soup and champagne."
+
+"Cynic!" she scoffed pleasantly.
+
+"Well, I don't know," he went on. "From any other point of view, some
+of the entertainments to which I have been bidden appear utterly without
+meaning. However, it is part of my programme to prove to the world that
+we Democrats can open our arms wide enough to include every class in
+life. Therefore, I go to many places I should otherwise avoid. I have
+studied the attitude of the younger women whom I have approached, purely
+impersonally and without the slightest hypersensitiveness. They have
+all been perfectly pleasant, perfectly disposed for conversation or any
+of the usual social amenities. But they know that I have in the
+background a wife. To flirt with a married man of fifty isn't worth
+while."
+
+"It appears to me," she said, with a slight note of severity in her
+tone, "that you have set your mind upon having a perfectly frivolous
+time."
+
+"Not at all," he objected. "I have simply been experimenting."
+
+The service of dinner had now commenced, and with George in the
+background, a haughty head waiter a few yards off, and a myrmidon
+handing them their dishes with a beatific smile, the conversation
+drifted naturally into generalities. When they resumed their more
+intimate talk, Tallente felt himself inspired by an ever-increasing
+admiration for his companion and her adaptability. During this brief
+interval he had seen many admiring and some wondering glances directed
+towards Jane and he realised that she was somehow a person entirely
+apart from any of the others, more beautiful, more distinguished, more
+desirable. Of the Lady Jane ruling at Woolhanger with a high hand,
+there was no trace. She looked out upon the gay room with its
+voluptuous air, its many couples and little parties carrées, with the
+friendly and sympathetic interest of one who finds herself in agreeable
+surroundings and whose only desire is to come into touch with them. Her
+plain black gown, her simple hat with its single quill, the pearls which
+were her sole adornment, all seemed part of her. She appeared wholly
+unconscious of the admiration she excited. She who was sometimes
+inclined, perhaps, to carry herself a little haughtily in her mother's
+drawing-room, was here only anxious to share in the genial atmosphere of
+friendliness which the general tone of her surroundings seemed to
+demand.
+
+"Well, what was the final result of your efforts towards companionship?"
+she enquired, after they had praised the chicken enthusiastically and
+the wave of service had momentarily ebbed kitchenwards.
+
+"They have led me to only one conclusion," he answered swiftly.
+
+"Which is?"
+
+"That if you remain on Exmoor and I in Westminster, the affairs of this
+country are not likely to prosper."
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+"As though I made any real' difference!"
+
+Then she saw a transformed man. The firm mouth suddenly softened, the
+keen bright eyes glowed. A light shone out of his worn face which few
+had ever seen there.
+
+"You make all the difference," he whispered. "You of your mercy can
+save me from the rocks. I have discovered very late in life, too late,
+many would say, that I cannot build the temples of life with hands and
+brain alone. Even though the time be short and I have so little to
+offer, I am your greedy suitor. I want help, I want sympathy, I want
+love."
+
+There was nothing whatever left now of Lady Jane of Woolhanger.
+Segerson would probably not have recognised his autocratic mistress.
+The most timid of her tenant farmers would have adopted a bold front
+with her. She was simply a very beautiful woman, trembling a little,
+unsteady, nervous and unsure of herself.
+
+"Oh, I wish you hadn't said that!" she faltered.
+
+"But I must say it," he insisted, with that alien note of tenderness
+still throbbing in his tone. "You are not a dabbler in life. You have
+never been afraid to stand on your feet, to look at it whole. There is
+the solid, undeniable truth. It is a woman's glory to help men on to
+the great places, and the strangest thing in all the world is that there
+is only one woman for any one man, and for me--you are the only one
+woman."
+
+Around them conversation had grown louder, the blue cloud of tobacco
+smoke more dense, the odour of cigarettes and coffee more pungent. Down
+in the street a wandering musician was singing a little Neapolitan love
+song. They heard snatches of it as the door downstairs was opened.
+
+"You have known me for so short a time," she argued. "How can you
+possibly be sure that I could give you what you want? And in any case,
+how could I give anything except my eager wishes, my friendship--perhaps,
+if you will, my affection? But would that bring you content?"
+
+"No!" he answered unhesitatingly. "I want your love, I want you
+yourself. You have played a woman's part in life. You haven't been
+content to sit down and wait for what fate might bring you. You have
+worked out your own destiny and you have shown that you have courage.
+Don't disprove it."
+
+She looked him in the eyes, very sweetly, but with the shadow of a great
+disturbance in her face.
+
+"I want to help you," she said. "Indeed, I feel more than you can
+believe--more than I could have believed possible--the desire, the
+longing to help. But what is there you can ask of me beyond my hand in
+yours, beyond all the comradeship which a woman who has more in her
+heart than she dare own, can give?"
+
+Once more the door was opened below. The voice of the singer came
+floating up. Then it was closed again and the little passionate cry
+blotted out. His lips moved but he said nothing. It seemed suddenly,
+from the light in his face, that he might have been echoing those words
+which rang in her ears. She trembled and suddenly held her hand across
+the table.
+
+"Hold my fingers," she begged. "These others will think that we have
+made a bet or a compact. What does it matter? I want to give you all
+that I can. Will you be patient? Will you remember that you have found
+your way along a very difficult path to a goal which no one yet has ever
+reached? I could tell you more but may not that be enough? I want you
+to have something to carry away with you, something not too cold,
+something that burns a little with the beginnings of life and love, and,
+if you will, perhaps hope. May that content you for a little while, for
+you see, although I am not a girl, these things, and thoughts of these
+things, are new to me?"
+
+He drew a little breath. It seemed to him that there was no more
+beautiful place on earth than this little smoke-hung corner of the
+restaurant. The words which escaped from his lips were vibrant,
+tremulous.
+
+"I am your slave. I will wait. There is no one like you in the world."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Tallente found a distant connection of his waiting for him in his
+rooms, on his return from the House at about half-past six,--Spencer
+Williams, a young man who, after a brilliant career at Oxford, had
+become one of the junior secretaries to the Prime Minister. The young
+man rose to his feet at Tallente's entrance and hastened to explain his
+visit.
+
+"You'll forgive my waiting, sir," he begged. "Your servant told me that
+you were dining out and would be home before seven o'clock to change."
+
+"Quite right, Spencer," Tallente replied. "Glad to see you. Whisky and
+soda or cocktail?"
+
+The young man chose a whisky and soda, and Tallente followed suit,
+waving his visitor back into his chair and seating himself opposite.
+
+"Get right into the middle of it, please," he enjoined.
+
+"To begin with, then, can you break your engagement and come and dine
+with the Chief?"
+
+"Out of the question, even if it were a royal command," was the firm
+reply. "My engagement is unbreakable."
+
+"The Chief will be sorry," Williams said. "So am I. Will you go round
+to Downing Street and see him afterwards?"
+
+"I could," Tallente admitted, "but why? I have nothing to say to him.
+I can't conceive what he could have to say to me. There are always
+pressmen loitering about Downing Street, who would place the wrong
+construction on my visit. You saw all the rubbish they wrote because he
+and I talked together for a quarter of an hour at Mrs. Van Fosdyke's?"
+
+"I know all about that," Williams assented, "but this time, Tallente,
+there's something in it. The Chief quarrelled with you for the sake of
+the old gang. Well, he made a bloomer. The old gang aren't worth
+six-pence. They're rather a hindrance than help to legislation, and
+when they're wanted they're wobbly, as you saw this afternoon.
+Lethbridge went into the lobby with you."
+
+Tallente smiled a little grimly.
+
+"He took particularly good care that I should know that."
+
+"Well, there you are," Williams went on. "The Chief's fed up. I can
+talk to you here freely because I'm not an official person. Can you
+discuss terms at all for a rapprochement?"
+
+"Out of the question!"
+
+"You mean that you are too much committed to Dartrey and the Democrats?"
+
+"'Committed' to them is scarcely the correct way of putting it,"
+Tallente objected. "Their principles are in the main my principles.
+They stand for the cause I have championed all my life. Our alliance is
+a natural, almost an automatic one."
+
+"It's all very well, sir," Williams argued, "but Dartrey stands for a
+Labour Party, pure and simple. You can't govern an Empire by parish
+council methods."
+
+ "That is where the Democrats come in," Tallente pointed out. "They
+have none of the narrower outlook of the Labour Party as you understand
+it--of any of the late factions of the Labour Party, perhaps I should
+say. The Democrats possess an international outlook. When they
+legislate, every class will receive its proper consideration. No class
+will be privileged. A man will be ranked according to his production."
+
+Williams smiled with the faint cynicism of clairvoyant youth.
+
+"Sounds a little Utopian, sir," he ventured. "What about Miller?"
+
+"Well, what about him?"
+
+"Are you going to serve with him?"
+
+"Really," Tallente protested, "for a political opponent, or the
+representative of a political opponent, you're a trifle on the
+inquisitive side."
+
+"It's a matter that you'll have to face sometime or other," the young
+man asserted. "I happen to know that Dartrey is committed to Miller."
+
+"I don't see how you can happen to know anything of the sort," Tallente
+declared, a little bluntly. "In any case, Spencer, my political
+association or nonassociation with Miller is entirely my own affair, and
+you can hook it. Remember me to all your people, and give my love to
+Muriel."
+
+"Nothing doing, eh?" Williams observed, rising reluctantly to his feet.
+
+"You have perception," Tallente replied.
+
+"The Chief was afraid you might be a little difficult about an
+interview. Those pressmen are an infernal nuisance, anyway. What about
+sneaking into Downing Street at about midnight, in a cloak and slouch
+hat, eh?"
+
+"Too much of the cinema about you, young fellow," Tallente scoffed.
+"Run along now. I have to dress."
+
+Tallente held out his hand good-humouredly. His visitor made no
+immediate motion to take it.
+
+"There was just one thing more I was asked to mention, sir," he said.
+"I will be quite frank if I may. My instructions were not to allude to
+it if your attitude were in the least conciliatory."
+
+"Go on," Tallente bade him curtly.
+
+"There has been a rumour going about that some years ago--while the war
+was on, in fact--you wrote a very wonderful attack upon the trades
+unions. This attack was so bitter in tone, so damning in some of its
+facts, and, in short, such a wonderful production, that at the last
+moment the late Prime Minister used his influence with you to suspend
+its publication. It was held over, and in the meantime the attitude of
+the trades unions towards certain phases of the war was modified, and
+the collapse of Germany followed soon afterwards. Consequently, that
+article was never published."
+
+"You are exceedingly well informed," Tallente admitted. "Pray proceed."
+
+"There is in existence," the young man continued, "a signed copy of that
+article. Its publication at the present moment would probably make your
+position with the Democratic Party untenable."
+
+"Is this a matter of blackmail?" Tallente asked.
+
+The young man stiffened.
+
+"I am speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister, sir. He desired me to
+inform you that the signed copy of that article has been offered to him
+within the last few days."
+
+Tallente was silent for several moments. The young man's subtle
+intimation was a shock in more ways than one.
+
+"The manuscript to which you refer," he said at last, "was stolen from
+my study at Martinhoe under somewhat peculiar conditions."
+
+"Perhaps you would like to explain those conditions to Mr. Horlock,"
+Williams suggested.
+
+Tallente held open the door.
+
+"I shall not seek out your Chief," he said, "but I will tell him the
+truth about that manuscript if at any time we should come together. In
+the meantime, I am perfectly in accord with the view which your Chief no
+doubt holds concerning it. The publication of that article at the
+present moment would inevitably end my connection with the Democratic
+Party and probably close my political career. This is a position which
+I should court rather than submit to blackmail direct or indirect."
+
+"My Chief will resent your using such a word, sir," Williams declared.
+
+"Your Chief could have avoided it by a judicious use of the waste-paper
+basket and an exercise of the gift of silence." Tallente retorted, as
+the young man took his departure.
+
+Horlock came face to face with Tallente the following afternoon, in one
+of the corridors of the House and, scarcely troubling about an
+invitation, led him forcibly into his private room. He turned his
+secretary out and locked the door.
+
+"A cigar?" he suggested.
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I want to see what's doing, in a few minutes," he said.
+
+"I can tell you that," Horlock declared. "Nothing at all! I was just
+off when I happened to see you. You're looking very fit and pleased
+with yourself. Is it because of that rotten trick you played on us the
+other day?"
+
+"Rotten? I thought it was rather clever of me," Tallente objected.
+
+"Perfectly legitimate, I suppose," the other assented grudgingly.
+"That's the worst of having a tactician in opposition."
+
+"You shouldn't have let me get there," was the quick retort.
+
+Horlock drew a paper knife slowly down between his fingers.
+
+"I sent Williams to you yesterday."
+
+"You did. A nice errand for a respectably brought-up young man!"
+
+"Chuck that, Tallente."
+
+"Why? I didn't misunderstand him, did I?"
+
+"Apparently. He told me that you used the word 'blackmail.'"
+
+"I don't think the dictionary supplies a milder equivalent."
+
+"Tallente," said Horlock with a frown, "we'll finish with this once and
+for ever. I refused the offer of the manuscript in question."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," was the laconic reply.
+
+"Leaving that out of the question, then, I suppose there's no chance of
+your ratting?"
+
+"Not the faintest. I rather fancy I've settled down for good."
+
+Horlock lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
+
+"No good looking impatient, Tallente," he said. "The door's locked and
+you know it. You'll have to listen to what I want to say. A few
+minutes of your time aren't much to ask for."
+
+"Go ahead," Tallente acquiesced.
+
+"There is only one ambition," Horlock continued, "for an earnest
+politician. You know what that is as well as I do. Wouldn't you sooner
+be Prime Minister, supported by a recognised and reputable political
+party, than try to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for your friends
+Dartrey, Miller and company?"
+
+"So this is the last bid, eh?" Tallente observed.
+
+"It's the last bid of all," was the grave answer. "There is nothing
+more."
+
+"And what becomes of you?"
+
+"One section of the Press will say that I have shown self-denial and
+patriotism greater than any man of my generation and that my name will
+be handed down to history as one of the most single-minded statesmen of
+the day. Another section will say that I have been forced into a
+well-deserved retirement and that it will remain a monument to my
+everlasting disgrace that I brought my party to such straits that it was
+obliged to compromise with the representative of an untried and unproven
+conglomeration of fanatics. A third section--"
+
+"Oh, chuck it!" Tallente interrupted. "Horlock, I appreciate your offer
+because I know that there is a large amount of self-denial in it, but I
+am glad of an opportunity to end all these discussions. My word is
+passed to Dartrey."
+
+"And Miller?" the Prime Minister asked, with calm irony.
+
+Tallente felt the sting and frowned irritably.
+
+"I have had no discussions of any sort with Miller," he answered. "He
+has never been represented to me as holding an official position in the
+party."
+
+"If you ever succeed in forming a Democratic Government," Horlock said,
+"mark my words, you will have to include him."
+
+"If ever I accept any one's offer to form a Government," Tallente
+replied, "it will be on one condition and one condition only, which is
+that I choose my own Ministers."
+
+"If you become the head of the Democratic Party," Horlock pointed out,
+"you will have to take over their pledges."
+
+"I do not agree with you," was the firm reply, "and further, I suggest
+most respectfully that this discussion is not agreeable to me."
+
+An expression of hopelessness crept into Horlock's face.
+
+"You're a good fellow, Tallente," he sighed, "and I made a big mistake
+when I let you go. I did it to please the moderates and you know how
+they've turned out. There isn't one of them worth a row of pins. If
+any one ever writes my political biography, they will probably decide
+that the parting with you was the greatest of my blunders."
+
+He rose to his feet, swinging the key upon his finger.
+
+"One more word, Tallente," he added. "I want to warn you that so far as
+your further progress is concerned, there is a snake in the grass
+somewhere. The manuscript of which Williams spoke to you, and which
+would of course damn you forever with any party which depended for its
+existence even indirectly upon the trades unions, was offered to me,
+without any hint at financial return, on the sole condition that I
+guaranteed its public production. It is perfectly obvious, therefore,
+that there is some one stirring who means harm. I speak to you now only
+as a friend and as a well-wisher. Did I understand Williams to say that
+the document was stolen from your study at Martinhoe?"
+
+"It was stolen," Tallente replied, "by my secretary, Anthony Palliser,
+who disappeared with it one night in August."
+
+"'Disappeared' seems rather a vague term," Horlock remarked.
+
+"A trifle melodramatic, I admit," Tallente assented. "So were the
+circumstances of his--disappearance. I can assure you that I have had
+the police inspector of fiction asking me curious questions and I am
+convinced that down in Devonshire I am still an object of suspicion to
+the local gossips."
+
+"I remember reading about the affair at the time," Horlock remarked, as
+he unlocked the door. "It never occurred to me, though, to connect it
+with anything of this sort. Surely Palliser was a cut above the
+ordinary blackmailer?"
+
+Tallente shrugged his shoulders. "A confusion of ethics," he said. "I
+dare say you remember that the young man conspired with my wife to boost
+me into a peerage behind my back However!--"
+
+"One last word, Tallente," Horlock interrupted. "I am not at liberty to
+tell you from what source the offer as to your article came, but I can
+tell you this--Palliser was not or did not appear to be connected with
+it in any way."
+
+"But I know who was," Tallente exclaimed, with a sudden lightning-like
+recollection of that meeting on the railway platform at Woody
+Bay.--"Miller!"
+
+Horlock made no answer. To his visitor, however, the whole affair was
+now clear.
+
+"Miller must have bought the manuscript from Palliser," he said, "when
+he knew what sort of an offer Dartrey was going to make to me and
+realised how it would affect him. Horlock, I am not sure, after all,
+that I don't rather envy you if you decide to drop out of politics. The
+main road is well enough, but the by-ways are pretty filthy."
+
+Horlock remained gravely silent and Tallente passed out of the room,
+realising that he had finally severed his connection with orthodox
+English politics. The realisation, however, was rather more of a relief
+than otherwise. For fifteen years he had been cumbered with precedent
+in helping to govern by compromise. Now he was for the clean sweep or
+nothing. He strolled into the House and back into his own committee
+room, read through the orders of the day and spoke to the Government
+Whip. It was, as Horlock had assured him, a dead afternoon. There were
+a sheaf of questions being asked, none of which were of the slightest
+interest to any one. With a little smile of anticipation upon his lips,
+he hurried to the telephone. In a few moments he was speaking to Annie,
+Lady Jane's maid.
+
+"Will you give her ladyship a message?" he asked. "Tell her that I am
+unexpectedly free for an hour or so, and ask if I may come around and
+see her?" The maid was absent from the telephone for less than a minute.
+When she returned, her message was brief but satisfactory. Her ladyship
+would be exceedingly pleased to see Mr. Tallente.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Tallente found a taxi on the stand and drove at once to Charles Street.
+The butler took his hat and stick and conducted him into the spacious
+drawing-room upon the first floor. Here he received a shock. The most
+natural thing in the world had happened, but an event which he had never
+even taken into his calculation. There were half a dozen other callers,
+all, save one, women. Jane saw his momentary look of consternation, but
+was powerless to send him even an answering message of sympathy. She
+held out her hand and welcomed him with a smile.
+
+"This is perfectly charming of you, Mr. Tallente," she said. "I know
+how busy you must be in the afternoons, but I am afraid I am
+old-fashioned enough to like my men friends to sometimes forget even the
+affairs of the nation. You know my sister, I think--Lady Alice
+Mountgarron? Aunt, may I present Mr. Tallente--the Countess of
+Somerham. Mrs. Ward Levitte--Lady English--oh! and Colonel Fosbrook."
+
+Tallente made the best of a very disappointing situation. He exchanged
+bows with his new acquaintances, declined tea and was at once taken
+possession of by Lady Somerham, a formidable-looking person in
+tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles, with a rasping voice and a judicial
+air.
+
+"So you are the Mr. Tallente," she began, "who Somerham tells me has
+achieved the impossible!"
+
+"Upon the face of it," Tallente rejoined, with a smile, "your husband is
+proved guilty of an exaggeration."
+
+"Poor Henry!" his wife sighed. "He does get a little hysterical about
+politics nowadays. What he says is that you are in a fair way to form a
+coherent and united political party out of the various factions of
+Labour, a thing which a little time ago no one thought possible."
+
+Tallente promptly disclaimed the achievement.
+
+"Stephen Dartrey is the man who did that," he declared. "I only joined
+the Democrats a few months ago."
+
+"But you are their leader," Lady Alice put in.
+
+"Only in the House of Commons," Tallente replied.
+
+"Dartrey is the leader of the party."
+
+"Somerham says that Dartrey is a dreamer," the Countess went on, "that
+you are the man of affairs and the actual head of them all."
+
+"Your husband magnifies my position," Tallente assured her.
+
+Mrs. Ward Levitte, the wife of a millionaire and a woman of vogue,
+leaned forward and addressed him.
+
+"Do set my mind at rest, Mr. Tallente," she begged. "Are you going to
+break up our homes and divide our estates amongst the poor?"
+
+"Is there going to be a revolution?" Lady English asked eagerly. "And
+is it true that you are in league with all the Bolshevists on the
+continent?"
+
+Tallente masked his irritation and answered with a smile.
+
+"Civil war," he declared, "commences to-morrow. Every one with a title
+is to be interned in an asylum, all country houses are to be turned into
+sanatoriums and all estates will be confiscated."
+
+"The tiresome man won't tell us anything," Lady Alice sighed.
+
+"Of course, he won't," Mrs. Ward Levitte observed. "You can't announce
+a revolution beforehand truthfully."
+
+"If there is a revolution within the next fifteen years," Tallente said,
+"I think it will probably be on behalf of the disenfranchised
+aristocracy, who want the vote back again."
+
+Lady English and Mrs. Levitte found something else to talk about
+between themselves. Lady Somerham, however, had no intention of letting
+Tallente escape.
+
+"You are a neighbour of my niece in Devonshire, I believe?" she asked.
+
+He admitted the fact monosyllabically. He was supremely uncomfortable,
+and it seemed to him that Jane, who was conducting an apparently
+entertaining conversation with Colonel Fosbrook, might have done
+something to rescue him.
+
+"My niece has very broad ideas," Lady Somerham went on. "Some of her
+fellow landowners in Devonshire are very much annoyed with the way she
+has been getting rid of her property."
+
+"Lady Jane," he pronounced drily, "is in my opinion very wise. She is
+anticipating the legislation to come, which will inevitably restore the
+land to the people, from whom, in most cases, it was stolen."
+
+"Well, my husband gave two hundred thousand pounds of good, hard-earned
+money for Stoughton, where we live," Mrs. Ward Levitte intervened. "So
+far as I know, the money wasn't stolen from anybody, and I should say
+that the robbery would begin if the Socialists, or whatever they call
+themselves, tried to take it away from us to distribute amongst their
+followers. What do you think, Mr. Tallente? My husband, as I dare say
+you know, is a banker and a very hard-working man."
+
+"I agree with you," he replied. "One of the pleasing features of the
+axioms of Socialism adopted by the Democratic Party is that it respects
+the rights of the wealthy as well as the rights of the poor man. The
+Democrats may--in fact, they most certainly will--legislate to prevent
+the hoarding of wealth or to have it handed down to unborn generations,
+but I can assure you that it does not propose to interfere with the
+ethics of _meum_ and _tuum_."
+
+"I wish I could make out what it's all about," Lady Alice murmured.
+
+"Couldn't you give a drawing-room lecture, Mr. Tallente, and tell us?"
+the banker's wife suggested.
+
+"I am unfortunately a little short of time for such missionary
+enterprise," Tallente replied, with unappreciated sarcasm. "Dartrey's
+volume on 'Socialism in Our Daily Life' will tell you all about it."
+"Far too dry," she sighed. "I tried to read it but I never got past the
+first half-dozen pages."
+
+"Some day," Tallente observed coolly, "it may be worth your while, all
+of you, to try and master the mental inertia which makes thought a
+labour; the application which makes a moderately good bridge player
+should be sufficient. Otherwise, you may find yourselves living in an
+altered state of Society, without any reasonable idea as to how you got
+there." Mrs. Ward Levitte turned to her hostess.
+
+"Lady Jane," she begged, "come and rescue us, please. We are being
+scolded. Colonel Fosbrook, we need a man to protect us. Mr. Tallente
+is threatening us with terrible things."
+
+"We're getting what we asked for," Lady Alice put in quickly.
+
+Colonel Fosbrook caressed for a moment a somewhat scanty moustache. He
+was a man of early middle-age, with a high forehead, an aquiline nose
+and a somewhat vague expression.
+
+"I'm afraid my protection wouldn't be much use to you," he said,
+regarding Tallente with mild interest. "I happen to be one of the few
+surviving Tories. I imagine that Mr. Tallente's opinions and mine are
+so far apart that even argument would be impossible."
+
+Tallente acquiesced, smiling.
+
+"Besides which, I never argue, outside the House," he added. "You
+should stand for Parliament, Colonel Fosbrook, and let us hear once more
+the Athanasian Creed of politics. All opposition is wholesome."
+
+Colonel Fosbrook glared. The fact that he had three times stood for
+Parliament and three times been defeated was one of the mortifications
+of his life. He made his adieux to Jane and departed, and to Tallente's
+joy a break-up of the party seemed imminent. Mrs. Ward Levitte drifted
+out and Lady English followed suit. Lady Somerham also rose to her
+feet, but after a glance at Tallente sat down again.
+
+"My dear Jane," she insisted, "you must dine with us to-night. You
+haven't been here long enough to have any engagements, and it always
+puts your uncle in such a good temper to hear that you are coming."
+
+Jane shook her head.
+
+"Sorry, aunt," she regretted, "but I am dining with the Temperleys. I
+met Diana in Bond Street this morning."
+
+"Thursday, then."
+
+"I am keeping Thursday for--a friend. Saturday I am free."
+
+"Saturday we are going into the country," her aunt said, a little
+ungraciously. "Heaven knows what for! Your uncle hates shooting and
+always catches cold if he gets his feet wet."
+
+Tallente unwillingly held out his hand to his hostess. He seemed to
+have no alternative but to make his adieux. Jane walked with him
+towards the door.
+
+"I am horribly disappointed," he confessed, under his breath.
+
+She smiled a little deprecatingly.
+
+"I couldn't help having people here, could I?"
+
+"I suppose not," he answered, with masculine unreasonableness. "I only
+know that I wanted to see you alone."
+
+"Men are such schoolboys," she murmured tolerantly. "Even you! I must
+see my friends, mustn't I, when they know that I am here and call?"
+
+"About that friend on Thursday night?" he went on.
+
+"I am waiting to hear from him," she answered, "whether he prefers to
+dine here or to take me out."
+
+His ill-humour vanished, and with it some of his stiffness of bearing.
+His farewell bow from the door to Lady Somerham was distinguished with a
+new affability.
+
+"If we may be alone," he said softly, "I should like to come here."
+
+Nevertheless, his visit left him a little disturbed, perhaps a little
+irritable. With all the dominant selfishness which is part of a man's
+love, he had spent every waking leisure moment since their last meeting
+in a world peopled by Jane and himself alone, a world in which any other
+would have been an intruder. His eagerly anticipated visit to her had
+brought him sharply up against the commonplace facts of their day-by-day
+existence. He began to realise that she was without the liberty
+accorded to his sex, or to such women as Nora Miall, whose emancipation
+was complete. Jane's way through life was guarded by a hundred
+irritating conventions. He began to doubt even whether she realised the
+full import of what had happened between them. There was nothing gross
+about his love, not even a speculation in his mind as to its ultimate
+conclusion. He was immersed in a wave of sentimentality. He wanted her
+by his side, free from any restraint. He wanted the joy of her
+presence, more of those soft, almost reluctant kisses, the mute
+obedience of her nature to the sweet and natural impulse of her love.
+Of the inevitable end of these things he never thought. He was like a
+schoolboy in love for the first time. His desires led him no further
+than the mystic joy of her presence, the sweet, passionless content of
+propinquity. For the time the rest lay somewhere in a world of golden
+promise. The sole right that he burned to claim was the right to have
+her continually by his side in the moments when he was freed from his
+work, and even with the prospect of the following night before him, he
+chafed a little as he reflected that until then he must stand aside and
+let others claim her. In a fit of restlessness he abandoned his usual
+table in the House of Commons grillroom, and dined instead at the
+Sheridan Club, where he drank a great deal of champagne and absorbed
+with ready appreciation and amusement the philosophy of the man of
+pleasure. This was one of the impulses which kept his nature pliant
+even in the midst of these days of crisis.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Whilst Tallente was trying to make up for the years of pleasant
+good-fellowship which his overstudious life had cost him and to recover
+touch with the friends of his earlier days, Stephen Dartrey, filled with
+a queer sense of impending disaster, was climbing the steps to Nora's
+flat. On the last landing he lingered for a moment and clenched his
+fingers.
+
+"I am a coward," he reflected sadly. "I have asked for this and it has
+come."
+
+He stood for a moment perfectly still, with half-closed eyes, seeking
+for self-control very much in the fashion of a man who says a prayer to
+himself. Then he climbed the last few stairs, rang the bell and held
+out both his hands to Nora, who answered it herself.
+
+"Commend my punctuality," he began.
+
+"Why call attention to the one and only masculine virtue?" she replied.
+"Let me take your coat."
+
+He straightened his tie in front of the looking-glass and turned to look
+at her with something like wonder in his eyes.
+
+"Dear hostess," he exclaimed, "what has come to you?"
+
+"An epoch of vanity," she declared, turning slowly around that he might
+appreciate better the clinging folds of her new black gown. "Don't dare
+to say that you don't like it, for heaven only knows what it cost me!"
+
+"It isn't only your gown--it's your hair."
+
+"Coiffured," she confided, "by an artist. Not an ordinary hairdresser
+at all. He only works for a few of our aristocracy and one or two
+leading ladies on the stage. I pulled it half down and built it up
+again, but it's an improvement, isn't it?"
+
+"It suits you," he admitted. "But--but your colour!"
+
+"Natural--absolutely natural," she insisted. "You can wet your finger
+and try if you like. It's excitement. If you look into the depths of
+my wonderful eyes--I have got wonderful eyes, haven't I?"
+
+"Marvellous."
+
+"You will see that I am suffering from suppressed excitement. To-night
+is quite an epoch. To tell you the truth, I am rather nervous about
+it."
+
+"Is he here?"
+
+"You shall see him presently," she promised. "Come along."
+
+"Where is Susan?" he asked, as he followed her.
+
+"Gone out. So has my maid. I had a fancy to turn every one else out of
+the flat. Your only hot course will be from a chafing-dish. You see, I
+am anxious to impress--him--with my culinary skill. I hope you will
+like your dinner, but it will be rather a picnic."
+
+Dartrey glanced back at the hall stand. There was no hat or coat there
+except his own. He followed Nora into the little study, which was
+separated only by a curtain from the dining room.
+
+"I think your idea is excellent," he pronounced. "And you will forgive
+me," he added, producing the parcel which he had been carrying under his
+arm. "See what I have brought to drink your health and his, even if he
+does not know yet the good fortune in store for him."
+
+He set down a bottle of champagne upon the table. She laughed softly.
+
+"You dear man!" she exclaimed. "Fancy your thinking of it! I thought
+you scarcely ever touched wine?"
+
+"I am not a crank," he replied. "Sometimes my guests have told me that
+I have quite a reasonably good cellar for a man who takes so little
+himself. To-night I am going to drink a glass of champagne."
+
+"Pommery!" she exclaimed. "I hope you'll be able to open it."
+
+"That shall be my task," he promised. "You needn't worry about
+flippers. I have some in my pocket. And by the by," he added, glancing
+at the clock, "where is your other guest? It is ten minutes past eight,
+and I can hear your chafing-dish sizzling."
+
+She threw back the curtain and took his arm. The table was laid for
+two. He looked at it in bewilderment and then back at her.
+
+"He has disappointed you?"
+
+She smiled up at him.
+
+"He has disappointed me many, many times," she said, "but not to-night."
+
+"I don't--understand," he faltered.
+
+"I think you do," she answered.
+
+He took the chair opposite to hers. The chafing-dish was between them.
+He was filled with a curious sense of unreality. It was a little scene,
+this, out of a story or a play. It didn't actually concern him. It
+wasn't Nora who sat within a few feet of him, bending down over the
+chafing-dish and stirring its contents vigorously.
+
+"Of course," she said, "I am perfectly well aware that this is an
+anti-climax. I am perfectly well aware, too, that you will have a most
+uncomfortable dinner. You won't know what to say to me and you'll be
+dying all the time to look in your calendar and see if this is leap
+year. But even we working women sometimes," she went on, smiling
+bravely up at him, "have whims. I had a whim, Stephen, to let you know
+that I am very stupidly fond of you, and although it isn't your fault
+and I expect nothing from you except that you do not alter our
+friendship, you just stand in the way whenever I think of marrying any
+one."
+
+Perhaps because speech seemed so inadequate, Dartrey said nothing. He
+sat looking at her with a queer emotion in his soft, studious eyes,
+drumming a little on the table with his finger tips, not quite sure what
+it meant that his heart was beating like a young man's and a queer
+sensation of happiness was stealing through his whole being.
+
+"Nothing in the world," he murmured, "could alter our friendship."
+
+"What you see before you," she went on, "is an oyster stew. The true
+hostess, you see, studying her guest's special tastes. It is very
+nearly cooked and if you do not pronounce it the most delicious thing
+you ever ate in your life, I shall be terribly disappointed."
+
+Dartrey sat as still as a man upon whom some narcotic influence rested,
+and his words sounded almost unnatural.
+
+"I am convinced," he assured her, "that I shall be able to gratify you."
+
+"What you get afterwards you see upon the sideboard: cold
+partridges--both young birds though--ham, salad of my own mixing, and,
+behold! my one outburst of extravagance--strawberries. There is also a
+camembert cheese lying in ambush outside because of its strength. I
+would suggest that during the three minutes which will ensue before I
+serve you with the stew, you open the champagne. You are so dumbfounded
+at my audacity that perhaps a little exercise will be good for you."
+
+Dartrey rose to his feet, produced the corkscrew and found the cork
+amenable. He filled Nora's glass and his own. Then he leaned over her
+and took her hand for a moment. His face was full of kindness and he
+was curiously disturbed.
+
+"You are the dearest child on earth, Nora," he said. "I find myself
+wishing from the bottom of my heart that it were possible that you could
+be--something nearer and dearer to me."
+
+She looked feverishly into his face and pushed him away.
+
+"Go and sit down and don't be absurd," she enjoined. "Try and forget
+everything else except that you are going to eat an oyster stew. That
+is really the way to take life, isn't it--in cycles--and it doesn't
+matter then whether one's happy times are bounded by the coming night or
+the coming years. For five minutes, then, a paradise--of oyster stew."
+
+"It is distinctly the best oyster stew I have ever tasted in my life,"
+he pronounced a few minutes later.
+
+"It is very good indeed," she assented. "Now your turn comes. Go to
+the sideboard and bring me something. Remember that I am hungry and
+don't forget the salad. And tell me, incidentally, whether you have
+heard anything of a rumour going around about Andrew Tallente?"
+
+He served her and himself and resumed his seat.
+
+"A rumour?" he repeated. "No, I have heard nothing. What sort of a
+rumour?"
+
+"A vague but rather persistent one," she replied. "They say that it is
+in the power of certain people--to drive him out of political life at
+any moment."
+
+Dartrey's smile was sufficiently contemptuous but there was a note of
+anxiety in his tone which he could not altogether conceal.
+
+"These canards are very absurd, Nora," he declared. "The politician is
+the natural quarry of the blackmailer, but I should think no man of my
+acquaintance has lived a more blameless life than Andrew Tallente."
+
+"I will tell you in what form the story came to me," she said. "It was
+from a journalist on the staff of one of our great London dailies. The
+rumour was that they had been indirectly approached to know if they
+would pay a large sum for a story, perfectly printable, but which would
+drive Tallente out of political life."
+
+"Do you know the name of the newspaper?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"I was told," Nora answered, "but under the most solemn abjuration of
+secrecy. You ought to be able to guess it, though. Then a woman whom I
+met in the Lyceum Chub this afternoon asked me outright if there was any
+truth in certain rumours about Tallente, so people must be talking about
+it."
+
+The cloud lingered on Dartrey's face. He ate and drank in his usual
+sparing fashion, silently and apparently wrapped in thought. From the
+other side of the pink-shaded lamp which stood in the middle of the
+table, Nora watched him with a curious, almost a sardonic sadness in her
+clear eyes. An hour ago she had looked at herself in the mirror and had
+been startled at what she saw. The lines of her black gown, the most
+extravagant purchase of her life, had revealed the beauty of her soft
+and shapely figure. Her throat and bosom had seemed so dazzlingly
+white, her hair so rich and glossy, her eyes full of the hope, the
+softness, almost the anticipatory joy of the woman who has everything to
+offer to the one man in her life. She had felt as she had looked:
+almost a girl, with music on her lips and joyous things in her heart,
+nursing that wonderful gift to her sex,--the hopeless optimism begotten
+of love. And her little house of cards had tumbled so quickly to the
+ground, the little denouement on which she had counted had fallen so
+flat. They two were there alone. The little dinner which she had
+planned was as near perfection as possible. The champagne bubbled in
+their glasses. The soft light, the solitude, the stillness,--nothing
+had failed her, except the man. Stephen sat within a few feet of her,
+with furrowed brow and mind absorbed by a possible political problem.
+
+Nora made coffee at the table, but they drank it seated in great easy
+chairs drawn up to the fire. She passed him silently a box of his
+favourite brand of cigarettes. Perhaps that evidence of her
+forethought, the mute resignation of her restrained conversation with
+its attempted note of cheerfulness forced its way through the chinks of
+his unnatural armour. His whole face suddenly softened. He leaned
+across and took her fingers into his.
+
+"Dear Nora," he sighed, "what a brute I must seem to you and how
+difficult it is for me to try and tell you all that is in my heart!"
+
+"All tasks that are worth attempting are difficult," she murmured.
+"Please go on."
+
+"They are such simple things that I feel," he began, "simple and yet
+contradictory. I should miss you more out of my life than any other
+person. I shall resent from my very soul the man who takes you from me.
+And yet I know what life is, dear. I know how inexorable are its
+decrees. You have a fancy for me, born of kindness and sympathy,
+because you know that I am a little lonely. In our thoughts, too, we
+live so much in the same world. That is just one of the ironies of
+life, Nora. Our thoughts can move linked together through all the
+flowery and beautiful places of the world, but our bodies--alas, dear!
+Do you know how old I really am?"
+
+"I know how young you are," she answered, with a little choke in her
+throat.
+
+"I am fifty-four years old," he went on. "I am in the last lap of
+physical well-being, even though my mind should continue to flourish.
+And you are--how much younger! I dare not think."
+
+"Idiot!" she exclaimed. "At fifty-four you are better and stronger than
+half the men of forty."
+
+"I have good health," he admitted, "but no constitution or manner of
+living is of any account against the years. In six years' time I shall
+be sixty years old."
+
+She leaned a little towards him. Now once more the light was coming
+back into her eyes. If that was the only thing with him!
+
+"In twelve years' time from now," she said, "I, too, shall turn over a
+chapter, the chapter of my youth. What is time but a relative thing?
+Who shall measure your six years against my twelve? The years that
+count in the life of a man or a woman are the measure of their
+happiness."
+
+She glided from her chair and sank on her knees beside him. Her lips
+pleaded. He took her gently, far too gently, into his arms.
+
+"Dear Nora," he begged, "be kind to me. It is for your sake. I know
+what love should mean for you, what it must mean for every sweet woman.
+You see only the present. It is my hard task to look into the future
+for you."
+
+"Can't you understand," she whispered feverishly, "that I would rather
+have that six years of your life, and its aftermath, than an eternity
+with any other man? Bend down your head, Stephen."
+
+Her hands were clasped around his neck, her lips forced his. For a
+moment they remained so, while the room swam around her and her heart
+throbbed like a mad thing. Then she slowly unlocked her arms and drew
+away. As though unconscious of what she was doing, she found herself
+rubbing her lips softly with her handkerchief. She threw herself back
+in her chair a little recklessly.
+
+"Very well, Stephen," she said, "you know your heart best. Drink your
+coffee and I'll be sensible again directly."
+
+To his horror she was shaken with sobs. He would have consoled her, but
+she motioned him away.
+
+"Dear Stephen," she pleaded, "I am sorry--to be such a fool--but this
+thing has lived with me a long time, and--would you go away? It would
+be kindest."
+
+He rose to his feet, hesitated for one moment of agony, then crossed the
+room with a farewell glance at the sad little feast. He closed the door
+softly behind him, descended the stairs and stood for a moment in the
+entrance hall, looking out upon the street. A cheerless, drizzling rain
+was falling. The streets were wet and swept with a cold wind. He
+looked up and down, thought out the way to his club and shivered,
+thought out in misery the way back to Chelsea, the turning of his
+latch-key, the darkened rooms. The house opposite was brilliantly lit
+up. They seemed to be dancing there and the music of violins floated
+out into the darkness. Even as he stood there, he felt the bands of
+self-control weaken about him. A vision of the cold, grey days ahead
+terrified him. He was pitting his brain against his heart. Lives had
+been wrecked in that fashion. Philosophy, as the years creep on, is but
+a dour consolation. He saw himself with the jewel of life in his hand,
+prepared to cast it away. He turned around and ran up the stone steps,
+light-hearted and eager as a boy. Nora heard the door open and raised
+her head. On the threshold stood Stephen, transformed, rejuvenated, the
+lover shining out of his eyes, the look in his face for which she had
+prayed. He came towards her, speechless save for one little cry that
+ended like a sob in his throat, took her into his arms tenderly but
+fiercely, held her to him while the unsuspected passion of his lips
+brought paradise into the room.
+
+"You care?" she faltered. "This is not pity?"
+
+He held her to him till she almost swooned. The restraint of so many
+years was broken down.
+
+"Must I, after all, be the teacher?" he asked passionately, as their
+lips met again. "Must I show you what love is?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Tallente was seated at breakfast a few mornings later when his wife paid
+him an unexpected visit. She responded to his greeting with a cold nod,
+refused the coffee which he offered her and the easy-chair which he
+pushed forward to the fire.
+
+"I got your letter, Andrew," she said, "in which you proposed to call
+upon me this afternoon. I am leaving town. I am on my way back to New
+York, as a matter of fact, and I shall have left the hotel by midday, so
+you see I have come to visit you instead."
+
+"It is very kind," he answered.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and looked disparagingly around the plainly
+furnished man's sitting room.
+
+"Not much altered here," she remarked. "It looks just as it did when I
+used to come to tea with you before we were married."
+
+"The neighbourhood is a conservative one," he replied. "Still, I must
+confess that I am glad I never gave the rooms up. I don't think that
+nature intended me to dwell in palaces."
+
+"Perhaps not," she agreed, a little insolently. "It is a habit of yours
+to think and live parochially. Now what did you want of me, please?"
+
+"There is a scheme on foot," he began, "to bring about my political
+ruin."
+
+"You don't mean to tell me," she exclaimed, with a sudden light in her
+eyes, "that you, my well-behaved Andrew, have been playing around? You
+are not going to be a corespondent or any-thing of that sort?"
+
+"I used the word 'political,'" he reminded her coldly. "You would not
+understand the situation, but its interest and my danger centres round a
+certain document which was stolen from my study at Martinhoe on or just
+before the day of my arrival from London last August."
+
+"How dull!" she murmured.
+
+"That document," he went on, "was purloined by Anthony Palliser from the
+safe in my study. It was either upon him when he disappeared, or he
+disposed of it on the afternoon of my arrival to a political opponent of
+mine--James Miller."
+
+"I had so hoped there was a lady in the case," she yawned.
+
+"If you will give me your attention for one moment longer," he begged,
+"it will be all I ask. I want you to tell me, first of all, whether
+James Miller called at the Manor that afternoon and saw Palliser,
+whether any one called who might have been helping him, or--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Whether you have heard anything of Palliser since his disappearance?"
+
+She looked at him hardly.
+
+"You have brought me here to answer these questions?"
+
+"Pardon me," he reminded her, "your coming was entirely your own idea."
+
+"But why should you expect that I should give you information?" she
+demanded. "You refused to give me the thing I wanted more than anything
+in life and you have thrown me off like an old glove. If you are
+threatened with what you call political ruin, why on earth should I
+intervene to prevent it?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You take a severe and I venture to believe a prejudiced view of the
+situation between us," he replied. "I never promised you that I would
+make you a peeress. Such a thing never entered into my head. Every
+pledge I made to you when we were married, I kept. You cannot say the
+same."
+
+"The man's point of view, I suppose," she scoffed. "Well, I'll tell you
+what I know, in exchange for a little piece of information from you,
+which is--what do you know about Anthony Palliser's disappearance?"
+
+He was silent for several moments. The frown on his forehead deepened.
+
+"Your very question," he observed, "answers one of the queries which
+have been troubling me."
+
+"I have no objection to telling you," she said, "that since that night I
+have neither seen nor heard of Palliser."
+
+"What happened that night was simple," Tallente explained calmly;
+"perhaps you would call it primitive. You left the room. I beckoned
+Palliser to follow me outside. The car was still in the avenue and the
+servants were taking my luggage in. The spot where we stood on the
+terrace, too, was exactly underneath your window. I took him by the arm
+and I led him along the little path towards the cliff. When we came to
+the open space by the wall, I let him go. I asked him if he had
+anything to say. He had nothing. I thrashed him."
+
+"You bully!"
+
+Tallente raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Palliser was twenty years younger than I and of at least equal build
+and strength," he said. "It was not my fault that he seemed unable to
+defend himself."
+
+"But his disappearance--tell me about that?"
+
+"We were within a few feet of the edge of the cliff. I struck him
+harder, Perhaps, than I had intended, and he went over. I stood there
+and hooked down, but I could see nothing. I heard the crashing of some
+bushes, and after that--silence. I even called out to him, but there
+was no reply. Some time later, Robert and I searched the cliff and the
+bay below for his body. We discovered nothing."
+
+"It was high tide that night!" she cried. "You know very well that he
+must have been drowned!"
+
+"I have answered your question," Tallente replied quietly.
+
+There was a cold fury in her eyes. The veins seemed to stand out on her
+clenched, worn hands. She looked at him with all the suppressed passion
+of a creature impotent yet fiercely anxious to strike.
+
+"I shall give information," she cried. "You shall be charged with his
+murder!"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"You will waste your time, Stella," he said. "For one thing, a woman
+may not give evidence against her husband. Another thing, there cannot
+very well be a charge for murder unsupported by the production of the
+body. And for a third thing, I should deny the whole story."
+
+Her fury abated, though the hate in her eyes remained.
+
+"I think," she declared, "that you are the most coldblooded creature I
+ever knew."
+
+The irony of the situation gripped at him. He rose suddenly to his
+feet, filled with an overwhelming desire to end it.
+
+"Stella," he said, "to me you always seemed, especially during our last
+few years together, cold and utterly indifferent. I know now that I was
+mistaken. In your way you cared for Palliser. You starved me. My own
+fault, you would say? Perhaps. But listen. There is a way into every
+man's heart and a way into every woman's, but sometimes that way lies
+hidden except to the one right person, and you weren't the right person
+for me, and I wasn't the right person for you. Now answer the rest of
+my question and let us part."
+
+"Tell me," she asked, with almost insolent irony, "do you believe that
+there could ever have been a right person for you?"
+
+"My God, yes!" he answered, with a sudden fire. "I suffer the tortures
+of the damned sometimes because I missed my chance! There! I'm telling
+you this just so that you shall think a little differently, if you can.
+You and I between us have made an infernal mess of things. It was
+chiefly my fault. And as regards Palliser--well, I am sorry. Only the
+fellow--he may have been lovable to you, but he was a coward and a sneak
+to me--and he paid. I am sorry."
+
+She seemed a little dazed.
+
+"You mean to tell me, Andrew," she persisted, "that there is really some
+one you care for, care for in the big way--a woman who means as much to
+you as your place in Parliament--your ambition?"
+
+"More," he declared vigorously. "There isn't a single thing I have or
+ever have had in life which I wouldn't give for the chance--just a
+chance--"
+
+"And she cares for you?"
+
+"I think that she would," he answered. "She has been brought up in a
+very old-fashioned school. She knows of you."
+
+Stella smiled a little bitterly.
+
+"Well," she said, "I suppose I am a brute, but I am glad to know that
+you can suffer. I hope you will suffer; it makes you seem more human
+anyhow. But in return for your confidence I will answer the other part
+of your question. The man Miller was at the Manor that afternoon.
+Palliser confessed to me that he had given him some important document."
+
+"Given him!"
+
+"Well, sold him, then. Tony hadn't got a shilling in the world and he
+would never take a halfpenny from me. He had to have money. He told me
+about it that night before you came. Miller gave him five thousand
+pounds for it--secret service money from one of the branches of his
+party. Now you know all about it."
+
+"Yes, I know all about it," Tallente assented, a little bitterly. "You
+can take your trip to America without a single regret, Stella. I shall
+certainly never be a Cabinet Minister again, much less Prime Minister of
+England. Miller can use those papers to my undoing."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders as she turned towards the door.
+
+"You are like the fool," she said, "who tried to build the tower of his
+life without cement. All very well for experiments, Andrew, when one is
+young and one can rebuild, but you are a little old for that now, aren't
+you, and all your brain and all your efforts, and every thought you have
+been capable of since the day I met you have been given to that one
+thing. You'll find it a little difficult to start all over
+again.--Don't--trouble. I know the way down and I have a car waiting.
+You must take up golf and make a water garden at Martinhoe. I don't
+know whether you deserve that I should wish you good fortune. I can't
+make up my mind. But I will--and good-by!"
+
+She left him in the end quite suddenly. He had not even time to open
+the door for her. Tallente looked out of the window and watched her
+drive away. His feelings were in a curiously numb state. For Stella he
+had no feeling whatever. Her confirmation of Palliser's perfidy had
+awakened in him no new resentment. Only in a vague way he began to
+realise that his forebodings of the last few days were founded upon a
+reality. Whether Palliser lived or was dead, it was too late for him to
+undo the mischief he had done.
+
+Tallente took up the receiver and asked for Dartrey's number. In half
+an hour he was on his way to see him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Tallente had the surprise of his life when he was shown into Dartrey's
+little dining room. A late breakfast was still upon the table and Nora
+was seated behind the coffee pot. She took prompt pity upon his
+embarrassment.
+
+"You've surprised our secret," she exclaimed, "but anyhow, Stephen was
+going to tell you to-day. We were married the day before yesterday."
+
+"That is why I played truant," Dartrey put in, "although we only went as
+far as Tunbridge Wells."
+
+Tallente held out a hand to each. For a moment the tragedy in his own
+life was forgotten.
+
+"I can't wish you happiness, because you have found it," he said. "Wise
+and wonderful people! Let me see if your coffee is what I should
+expect, Nora," he went on. "To tell you the truth, I have had rather a
+disturbed breakfast."
+
+"So have we," Dartrey observed. "You mean the Leeds figures, of
+course?"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I haven't even opened a newspaper."
+
+"Horlock went down himself yesterday to speak for his candidate. Our
+man is in by five thousand, seven hundred votes."
+
+"Amazing!" Tallente murmured.
+
+"It is the greatest reversal of figures in political history," Dartrey
+declared. "Listen, Tallente. I was quite prepared to go the Session,
+as you know, but Horlock's had enough. He is asking for a vote of
+confidence on Tuesday. He'll lose by at least sixty votes."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"We can't put it off any longer. We shall have to take office. I shall
+be sent for as the nominal leader of the party and I shall pass the
+summons on to you. Here is a list of names. Some of them we ought to
+see unofficially at once."
+
+Tallente looked down the slip of paper. He came to a dead stop with his
+finger upon Miller's name.
+
+"I know," Dartrey said sympathetically, "but, Tallente, you must
+remember that men are not made all in the same mould, and Miller is the
+link between us and a great many of the most earnest disciples of our
+faith. In politics a man has sometimes to be accepted not so much for
+what he is as for the power which he represents."
+
+"Has he agreed to serve under me?" Tallente inquired.
+
+"We have never directly discussed the subject," Dartrey replied. "He
+posed rather as the ambassador when we came to you at Martinhoe, but as
+a matter of fact, if it interests you to know it, he was strongly
+opposed to my invitation to you. I am expecting him here every
+moment--in fact, he telephoned that he was on the way an hour ago."
+
+Miller arrived, a few minutes later, with the air of one already
+cultivating an official gravity. He was dressed in his own conception
+of morning clothes, which fitted him nowhere, linen which confessed to a
+former day's service and a brown Homburg hat. It was noticeable that
+whilst he was almost fulsome in his congratulations to Nora and
+overcordial to Dartrey, he scarcely glanced at Tallente and confined
+himself to a nod by way of greeting.
+
+"Couldn't believe it when you told me over the telephone," he said. "I
+congratulate you both heartily. What about Leeds, Dartrey?"
+
+"Splendid!"
+
+"It's the end, I suppose?"
+
+"Absolutely! That is why I telephoned for you. Horlock is quite
+resigned. I understand that they will send for me, but I wish to tell
+you, Miller, as I have just told Tallente, that I have finally made up
+my mind that it would not be in the best interests of our party for me
+to attempt to form a Ministry myself. I am therefore passing the task
+on to Tallente. Here is a list of what we propose."
+
+Miller clenched the sheet of paper in his hand without glancing at it.
+His tone was bellicose.
+
+"Do I understand that Tallente is to be Prime Minister?"
+
+"Certainly! You see I have put you down for the Home Office, Sargent as
+Chancellor of the Exchequer, Saunderson--"
+
+"I don't want to hear any more," Miller interrupted. "It's time we had
+this out. I object to Tallente being placed at the head of the party."
+
+"And why?" Dartrey asked coldly.
+
+"Because he is a newcomer and has done nothing to earn such a position,"
+Miller declared; "because he has come to us as an opportunist, because
+there are others who have served the cause of the people for all the
+years of their life, who have a better claim; and because at heart, mind
+you, Dartrey, he isn't a people's man."
+
+"What do you mean by saying that I am not a people's man?" Tallente
+demanded.
+
+"Just what the words indicate," was the almost fierce reply. "You're
+Eton and Oxford, not board-school and apprentice. Your brain brings you
+to the cause of the people, not your heart. You aren't one of us and
+never could be. You're an aristocrat, and before we knew where we were,
+you'd be legislating for aristocrats. You'd try and sneak them into
+your Cabinet. It's their atmosphere you've been brought up in. It's
+with them you want to live. That's what I mean when I say that you're
+not a people's man, Tallente, and I defy any one to say that you are."
+
+"Miller," Dartrey intervened earnestly, "you are expounding a case from
+the narrowest point of view. You say that Tallente was born an
+aristocrat. That may or may not be true, but surely it makes his
+espousal of the people's cause all the more honest and convincing? For
+you to say that he is not a people's man, you who have heard his
+speeches in the house, who have read his pamphlets, who have followed,
+as you must have followed, his political career is sheer folly."
+
+"Then I am content to remain a fool," Miller rejoined. "Once and for
+all, I decline to serve under Tallente, and I warn you that if you put
+him forward, if you go so far, even, as to give him a seat in the
+Cabinet of the Government it is your job to form, you will disunite the
+party and bring calamity upon us."
+
+"Have you any further reason for your attitude," Tallente asked
+pointedly, "except those you have put forward?"
+
+Miller met his questioner's earnest gaze defiantly.
+
+"I have," he admitted.
+
+"State it now, then, please."
+
+Miller rose to his feet. He became a little oratorical, more than
+usually artificial.
+
+"I make my appeal to you, Dartrey," he said. "You have put forward this
+man as your choice of a leader of the great Democratic Party, the party
+which is to combine all branches of Labour, the party which is to stand
+for the people. I charge him with having written in the last year of
+the war a scathing attack upon the greatest of British institutions, the
+trades unions, an article written from the extreme aristocratic
+standpoint, an article which, if published to-day and distributed
+broadcast amongst the miners and operatives of the north, would result
+in a revolution if his name were persisted in."
+
+"I have read everything Tallente has ever written, and I have never come
+across any such article," Dartrey declared promptly.
+
+"You have never come across it because it was never published," Miller
+continued, "and yet the fact remains that it was written and offered to
+the Universal Review. It was actually in type and was only held back at
+the earnest request of the Government, because on the very day that it
+should have appeared, an armistice was concluded between the railway
+men, the miners and the War Council, and the Government was terrified
+lest anything should happen to upset that armistice."
+
+"Is this true, Tallente?" Dartrey asked anxiously.
+
+"Perfectly. I admit the existence of the article and I admit that it
+was written with all the vigour I could command, on the lines quoted by
+Miller. Since, however, it was never published, it can surely be
+treated as nonexistent?"
+
+"That is just what it cannot be," Miller declared. "The signed
+manuscript of that article is in the hands of those who would rather see
+it published than have Tallente Prime Minister."
+
+"Blackmail," the latter remarked quietly.
+
+"You can call it what you please," was the sneering reply. "The facts
+are as I have stated them."
+
+"But what in the world could have induced you to write such an article,
+Tallente?" Dartrey demanded. "Your attitude towards Labour, even when
+you were in the Coalition Cabinet, was perfectly sound."
+
+"It was more than sound, it was sympathetic," Tallente insisted. "That
+is why I worked myself into the state of indignation which induced me to
+write it. I will not defend it. It is sufficient to remind you both
+that when we were hard pressed, when England really had her back to the
+wall, when coal was the very blood of life to her, a strike was declared
+in South Wales and received the open sympathy of the faction with which
+this man Miller here is associated. Miller has spoken plainly about me.
+Let him hear what I have to say about him. He went down to South Wales
+to visit these miners and he encouraged them in a course of action
+which, if other industries had followed suit, would have brought this
+country into slavery and disgrace. And furthermore, let me remind you
+of this, Dartrey. It was Miller's branch of the Labour Party who sent
+him to Switzerland to confer with enemy Socialists and for the last
+eighteen months of the war he practically lived under the espionage of
+our secret service--a suspected traitor."
+
+"It's a lie!" Miller fumed.
+
+"It is the truth and easily proved," Tallente retorted. "When peace
+came, however, Miller's party altered their tactics and the hatchet was
+to have been buried. My article was directed against the trades unions
+as they were at that time, not as they are to-day, and I still claim
+that if public opinion had not driven them into an arrangement with the
+Government, my article would have been published and would have done
+good. To publish it now could answer no useful purpose. Its
+application is gone and the conditions which prompted its tone
+disappeared."
+
+"I am beginning to understand," Dartrey admitted. "Tell me, how did the
+manuscript ever leave your possession, Tallente?"
+
+"I will tell you," Tallente replied, pointing over at Miller. "Because
+that man paid Palliser, my secretary, five thousand pounds out of his
+secret service money to obtain possession of it."
+
+Miller was plainly discomfited.
+
+"Who told you that lie?" he faltered.
+
+"It's no lie--it's the truth," Tallente rejoined. "You used five
+thousand pounds of secret service money to gratify a private spite."
+
+"That's false, anyhow," Miller retorted. "I have no personal spite
+against you, Tallente. I look upon you as a dangerous man in our party,
+and if I have sought for means to remove you from it, it has been not
+from personal feeling, but for the good of the cause."
+
+"There stands your leader," Tallente continued. "Did you consult him
+before you bribed my secretary and hawked about that article, first to
+Horlock and now to heaven knows whom?"
+
+"It is the first I have heard of it," Dartrey said sternly.
+
+"Just so. It goes to prove what I have declared before--that Miller's
+attack upon me is a personal one."
+
+"And I deny it," Miller exclaimed fiercely. "I don't like you,
+Tallente, I hate your class and I distrust your presence in the ranks of
+the Democratic Party. Against your leadership I shall fight tooth and
+nail. Dartrey," he went on, "you cannot give Tallente supreme control
+over us. You will only court disaster, because that article will surely
+appear and the whole position will be made ridiculous. I am strong
+enough--that is to say, those who are behind me will take my word on
+trust--to wreck the position on Thursday. I can keep ninety Labour men
+out of the Lobby and the Government will carry their vote of confidence.
+In that case, our coming into power may be delayed for years. We shall
+lose the great opportunity of this century. Tallente is your friend,
+Dartrey, but the cause comes first. I shall leave the decision with
+you."
+
+Miller took his departure with a smile of evil triumph upon his thin
+lips. He had his moment of discomfiture, however, when Dartrey coldly
+ignored his extended hand. The two men left behind heard the door slam.
+
+"This is the devil of a business, Tallente!" Dartrey said grimly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Nora returned to the room as Miller left.
+
+"I don't know whether you wanted me to go," she said to Dartrey, "but I
+cannot sit and listen to that man talk. I try to keep myself free from
+prejudices, but there are exceptions. Miller is my pet one. Tell me
+exactly what he came about? Something disagreeable, I am sure?"
+
+They told her, but she declined to take the matter seriously.
+
+"A position like this is necessarily disagreeable," she argued, "but I
+have confidence in Mr. Tallente. Remember, this article was written
+nine years ago, Stephen, and though for twenty-four hours it may make
+things unpleasant, I feel sure that it won't do nearly the harm you
+imagine. And think what a confession to make! That man, who aims at
+being a Cabinet Minister, sits here in this room and admits that he
+bribed Mr. Tallente's secretary with five thousand pounds to steal the
+manuscript out of his safe. How do you think that will go down with the
+public?"
+
+"A certain portion of the public, I am afraid," Tallente said gravely,
+"will say that I discovered the theft--and killed Palliser."
+
+"Killed Palliser!" Nora repeated incredulously. "I never heard such
+rubbish!"
+
+"Palliser certainly disappeared on the evening of the day when he parted
+with the manuscript to Miller," Tallente went on, "and has never been
+seen or heard of since."
+
+"But there must be some explanation of that," Dartrey observed.
+
+There was a short silence, significant of a curious change in the
+atmosphere. Tallente's silence grew to possess a queer significance.
+The ghost of rumours to which neither had ever listened suddenly forced
+its way back into the minds of the other two. Dartrey was the first to
+collect himself.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "as a private person I have no desire to ask you a
+single question concerned with your private life, but we have come to
+something of a crisis. It is necessary that I should know the worst.
+Is there anything else Miller could bring up against you?"
+
+"To the best of my belief, nothing," Tallente replied calmly
+
+"That is not sufficient," Dartrey persisted. "Have you any knowledge,
+Tallente, which the world does not share, of the disappearance of this
+man Palliser? It is inevitable that if you discovered his treachery
+there should have been hard words. Did you have any scene with him? Do
+you know more of his disappearance than the world knows?"
+
+"I do," Tallente replied. "You shall share that knowledge with me to a
+certain extent. I had another cause for quarrel with Palliser to which
+I do not choose to refer, but on my arrival home that night I summoned
+him from the house and led him to an open space. I admit that I chose a
+primitive method of inflicting punishment upon a traitor. I intended to
+thrash Palliser, a course of action in which I ask you, Dartrey, to
+believe, as a man of honour, I was justified. I struck too hard and
+Palliser went over the cliff."
+
+Neither Nora nor Dartrey seemed capable of speech. Tallente's cool,
+precise manner of telling his story seemed to have an almost paralysing
+effect upon them.
+
+"Afterwards," Tallente continued, "I discovered the theft of that
+document. A faithful servant of mine, and I, searched for Palliser's
+body, risking our lives in vain, as it turns out, in the hope of
+recovering the manuscript. The body was neither in the bay below nor
+hung up anywhere on the cliff. One of two things, then, must have
+happened. Either Palliser's body must have been taken out by the tide,
+which flows down the Bristol Channel in a curious way, and will never
+now be recovered, or he made a remarkable escape and decided, under all
+the circumstances, to make a fresh start in life."
+
+Nora came suddenly over to Tallente's side. She took his arm and
+somehow or other the strained look seemed to pass from his face.
+
+"Dear friend," she said, "this is very painful for you, I know, but your
+other cause of quarrel with Palliser--you will forgive me if I ask--was
+it about your wife?"
+
+"It was," Tallente replied. "You are just the one person in the world,
+Nora, in whom I am glad to confide to that extent."
+
+She turned to Dartrey.
+
+"Stephen," she said, "either Palliser is dead and his death can be
+brought to no one's door, or he is lying hidden and there is no one to
+blame. You can wipe that out of your mind, can you not? All that we
+shall have to consider now is the real effect upon the members of our
+party as a whole, if this article is published."
+
+"Have you a copy of it?" Dartrey asked.
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I haven't, but if a certain suspicion I have formed is true, I might be
+able to get you one. In any case, Dartrey, don't come to any decision
+for a day or two. If it is for the good of the party for you to throw
+me overboard, you must do it, and I can assure you I'll take the plunge
+willingly. On the other hand, if you want me to fight, I'll fight."
+
+Dartrey smiled.
+
+"It is extraordinary," he said, "how one realises more and more, as time
+goes on, how inhuman politics really are. The greatest principle in
+life, the principle of sticking to one's friends, has to be discarded.
+I shall take you at your word, Tallente. I am going to consider only
+what I think would be best for the welfare of the Democratic Party and
+in the meantime we'll just go on as though nothing had happened."
+
+"If Horlock approaches me," Tallente began--
+
+"He can go out either on a vote of confidence or on an adverse vote on
+any of the three Bills next week," Dartrey said. "We don't want to
+drive them out like a flock of sheep. They can go out waving banners
+and blowing tin horns, if they like, but they're going. It's time the
+country was governed, and the country, after all, is the only thing that
+counts.--I am sorry to send you back to work, Tallente, in such a state
+of uncertainty, but I know it will make no difference to you. Strike
+where you can and strike hard. Our day is coming and I tell you
+honestly I can't believe--nothing would make me believe--that you won't
+be in at the death."
+
+"Don't forget that we meet to-night in Charles Street," Tallente
+reminded them, as he shook hands.
+
+"Trust Nora," Dartrey replied. "She has been looking forward to it
+every day."
+
+"I now," Tallente said, as he took up his hat and stick, "am going to
+confront an editor."
+
+"You are going to try and get me a copy of the article?"
+
+Tallente nodded.
+
+"I am going to try. If my suspicions are correct, you shall have it in
+twenty-four hours."
+
+Tallente, however, spent a somewhat profitless morning, and it was only
+by chance in the end that he succeeded in his quest. He strolled into
+the lounge at the Sheridan Club to find the man he sought the centre of
+a little group. Greetings were exchanged, cocktails drunk, and as soon
+as an opportunity occurred Tallente drew his quarry on one side.
+
+"Greening," he said, "if you are not in a hurry, could I have a word
+with you before lunch?"
+
+"By all means," the other replied. "We'll go into the smoking room."
+
+They strolled off together, followed by more than one pair of curious
+eyes. An interview between the editor of the daily journal having the
+largest circulation in Great Britain and Tallente, possible dictator of
+a new party in politics, was not without its dramatic interest.
+Tallente wasted no words as soon as they had entered the smoking room
+and found it empty.
+
+"Do you mind talking shop, Greening?" he asked. "I've been down to your
+place twice this morning, but couldn't find you."
+
+"Go ahead," the other invited. "I had to go round to Downing Street and
+then on to see the chief. Sorry you had a fruitless journey."
+
+"I will be quite frank with you," Tallente went on. "What I am going to
+suggest to you is pure guesswork. A political opponent, if I can
+dignify the fellow with such a term, has in his possession an article of
+mine which I wrote some years ago, during the war. I have been given to
+understand that he means to obtain publication of it for the purpose of
+undermining my position with the Labour Party. Has he brought it to
+you?"
+
+"He has," Greening answered briefly.
+
+"Are you going to use it?"
+
+"We are. The article is in type now. It won't be out for a day or two.
+When it does, we look upon it as the biggest political scoop of this
+decade."
+
+"I protest to you formally," Tallente said, "against the publication by
+a respectable journal of a stolen document."
+
+Greening shook his head.
+
+"Won't do, Tallente," he replied. "We have had a meeting and decided to
+publish. The best I can do for you is to promise that we will publish
+unabridged any comments you may have to make upon the matter, on the
+following day."
+
+"I have always understood that there is such a thing as a journalistic
+conscience," Tallente persisted. "Can you tell me what possible
+justification you can find for making use of stolen material?"
+
+"The journalistic conscience is permitted some latitude in these
+matters," Greening answered drily. "We are not publishing for the sake
+of any pecuniary benefit or even for the kudos of a scoop. We are
+publishing because we want to do our best to drive you out from amongst
+the Democrats."
+
+"Did Horlock send Miller to you?" Tallente enquired.
+
+Greening shook his head once more.
+
+"I cannot answer that sort of question. I will say as much as this in
+our justification. We stand for sane politics and your defection from
+the ranks of sane politicians has been very seriously felt. We look
+upon this opportunity of weakening your present position with the
+Democratic Party as a matter of political necessity. Personally, I am
+very sorry, Tallente, to do an unfriendly action, but I can only say,
+like the school-master before he canes a refractory pupil, that it is
+for your own good."
+
+"I should prefer to remain the arbiter of my own destiny," Tallente
+observed drily. "I suppose you fully understand that that noxious
+person, Miller, paid my defaulting secretary five thousand pounds for
+that manuscript?"
+
+"My dear fellow, if your pocket had been picked in the street of that
+manuscript and it had been brought to us, we should still have used it,"
+was the frank reply.
+
+Tallente stared gloomily out of the window.
+
+"Then I suppose there is nothing more to be said," he wound up.
+
+"Nothing! Sorry, Tallente, but the chief is absolutely firm. He looks
+upon you as the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for the
+Labour Party and he has made up his mind to singe your paws."
+
+"The Democrats will rule this country before many years have passed,"
+Tallente said earnestly, "whether your chief likes it or not. Isn't it
+better to have a reasonable and moderate man like myself of influence in
+their councils than to have to deal with Miller and his lot?"
+
+Greening shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the clock.
+
+"Orders are orders," he declared, "and even if I disbelieved in the
+policy of the paper, I couldn't afford to disobey. Come and lunch,
+Tallente."
+
+"Can I have a proof of the article?"
+
+"By all means," was the prompt reply. "Shall I send it to your rooms or
+here?"
+
+"Send it direct to Stephen Dartrey at the House of Commons."
+
+"I see," Greening murmured thoughtfully, "and then a council of war, eh?
+Don't forget our promise, Tallente. We'll publish your counterblast,
+whatever the consequences."
+
+Tallente sighed.
+
+"It isn't decided yet," he said, as they made their way towards the
+luncheon room, "whether there is to be a counterblast."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"We have achieved a triumph," Jane declared, when the last of the
+servants had disappeared and the little party of four were left to their
+own devices. "We have sat through the whole of dinner and not once
+mentioned politics."
+
+"You made us forget them," Tallente murmured.
+
+"A left-handed compliment," Jane laughed. "You should pay your tribute
+to my cook. Mr. Dartrey, I have told you all about my farms and your
+wife has explained all that I could not understand of her last article
+in the National. Now I am going to seek for further enlightenment.
+Tell my why the publication of an article written years ago is likely to
+affect Mr. Tallente's present position so much?"
+
+"Because," Dartrey explained, "it is an attack upon the most sensitive,
+the most difficult, and the section of our party furthest removed from
+us--the great trades unions. Some years ago, Lady Jane, since the war,
+one of our shrewdest thinkers declared that the greatest danger
+overshadowing this country was the power wielded by the representatives
+of these various unions, a power which amounted almost to a
+dictatorship. We have drawn them into our party through detaching the
+units. We have never been able to capture them as a whole. Even to-day
+their leaders are in a curiously anomalous position. They see their
+power going in the dawn of a more socialistic age. They cannot refuse
+to accept our principles but in their hearts they know that our triumph
+sounds the death knell to their power. This article of Tallente's would
+give them a wonderful chance. Out of very desperation they will seize
+upon it."
+
+"Have you read the article?" Jane enquired.
+
+"This evening, just before I came," Dartrey replied gravely.
+
+"I can understand," Tallente intervened, "that you feel bound to take
+this seriously, Dartrey, but after all there is nothing traitorous to
+our cause in what I wrote. I attacked the trades unions for their
+colossal and fiendish selfishness when the Empire was tottering. I
+would do it again under the same circumstances. Remember I was fresh
+from Ypres. I had seen Englishmen, not soldiers but just hastily
+trained citizens--bakers, commercial travellers, clerks, small
+tradesmen--butchered like rabbits but fighting for their country, dying
+for it--and all the time those blackguardly stump orators at home turned
+their backs to France and thought the time opportune to wrangle for a
+rise in wages and bring the country to the very verge of a universal
+strike. It didn't come off, I know, but there were very few people who
+really understood how near we were to it. Dartrey, we sacrifice too
+much of our real feelings to political necessity. I won't apologize for
+my article; I'll defend it."
+
+Dartrey sighed.
+
+"It will be a difficult task, Tallente. The spirit has gone. People
+have forgotten already the danger which we so narrowly escaped--forgotten
+before the grass has grown on the graves of our saviours."
+
+"Still, you wouldn't have Mr. Tallente give in without a struggle?"
+Jane asked.
+
+"I hope that Tallente will fight," Dartrey replied, "but I must warn
+you, Lady Jane, that I am the guardian of a cause, and for that reason
+I am an opportunist. If the division of our party which consists of the
+trades unionists refuses to listen to any explanation and threatens
+severance if Tallente remains, then he will have to go."
+
+"So far as your personal view is concerned," Tallente asked, "you could
+do without Miller, couldn't you?"
+
+"I could thrive without him," Dartrey declared heartily.
+
+"Then you shall," Tallente asserted. "We'll show the world what his
+local trades unionism stands for. He has belittled the whole principle
+of cooperation. He twangs all the time one brazen chord instead of
+seeking to give expression to the clear voices of the millions. Miller
+would impoverish the country with his accursed limited production, his
+threatened strikes, his parochial outlook. Englishmen are brimful of
+common sense, Dartrey, if you know where to dig for it. We'll
+materialise your own dream. We'll bring the principles of socialism
+into our human and daily life and those octopus trades unions shall feel
+the knife."
+
+Jane laid her hand for a moment upon his arm.
+
+"Why aren't you oftener enthusiastic?"
+
+He glanced at her swiftly. Their eyes met. Fearlessly she held his
+fingers for a moment,--a long, wonderful moment.
+
+"I was getting past enthusiasms," he said; "I was dropping into the
+dry-as-dust school--the argumentative, logical, cold, ineffectual
+school. The last few months have changed that. I feel young again. If
+Dartrey will give me a free hand, I'll deliver up to him Miller's
+bones."
+
+Dartrey had come to the dinner in an uncertain frame of mind. No one
+knew better than he the sinister power behind Miller. Yet before
+Tallente had finished speaking he had made up his mind.
+
+"I'll stand by you, Tallente," he declared, "even if it puts us back a
+year or so. Miller carries with him always an atmosphere of unwholesome
+things. He has got the Bolshevist filth in his blood and I don't trust
+him. No one trusts him. He shall take his following where he will, and
+if we are not strong enough to rule without them, we'll wait."
+
+It was a compact of curious importance which the two men sealed
+impulsively with a grip of the hands across the table, and down at
+Woolhanger, through some dreary months, it was Jane's greatest pleasure
+to remember that it was at her table it had been made.
+
+
+Tallente, seeking about for some excuse to remain for a few moments
+after the departure of the Dartreys, was relieved of all anxiety by
+Jane's calm and dignified remark.
+
+"I can't part with you just yet, Mr. Tallente," she said. "You are not
+in a hurry, I hope, and you are so close to your rooms that the matter
+of taxies need not worry you. And, Mr. Dartrey, next time you come
+down to my county you must bring your wife over to see me. Woolhanger
+is so typically Devonshire, I really think you would be interested."
+
+"I shall make Stephen bring me in the spring," Nora promised. "I shall
+never forget how fascinated we were with the whole place this last
+summer. Don't forget that you are coming to the House with me tomorrow
+afternoon."
+
+Jane smiled.
+
+"I am looking forward to it," she declared. "The only annoying part is
+that that stupid man won't promise to speak."
+
+"I shall have so much to say within the next week or so," Tallente
+observed, a little grimly, "that I think I had better keep quiet as long
+as I can."
+
+The moment for which Tallente had been longing came then. The front
+door closed behind the departing guests. Jane motioned to him to come
+and sit by her side on the couch.
+
+"I love your friends," she said. "I think Mrs. Dartrey is perfectly
+sweet and Dartrey is just as wonderful as I had pictured him. They are
+so strangely unusual," she went on. "I can scarcely believe, even now,
+that our dinner actually took place in my little room here--Stephen
+Dartrey, the man I have read about all my life, and this brilliant young
+wife of his. Thank you so much, dear friend, for bringing them."
+
+"And thank you, dear perfect hostess," he answered. "Do you know what
+you did? You created an atmosphere in which it was possible to think
+and talk and see things clearly. Do you realise what has happened?
+Dartrey has done a great thing. He has thrown over the one menacing
+power in the advancing cause of the people. He is going to back me
+against Miller."
+
+"What exactly is Miller's position?" she asked.
+
+"Let me tell you another time," he begged. "I have looked forward so to
+these few minutes with you. Tell me how much time you are going to
+spare me this next week?"
+
+She looked at him with the slight, indulgent smile of a woman realising
+and glad to realise her power. To Tallente she had never seemed more
+utterly and entirely desirable. It was not for him to know that a
+French modiste had woven all the cunning and diablerie of the sex lure
+into the elegant shape, the apparent simplicity of the black velvet
+which draped her limbs. In some mysterious way, the same spirit seemed
+to have entered into Jane herself. The evening had been one of
+unalloyed pleasure. She felt the charm of her companion more than ever
+before. The pleasant light in her eyes, the courteous, half-mocking
+phrases with which, as a rule, she fenced herself about in those moments
+when he sought to draw her closer to him, were gone. Her eyes were as
+bright as ever, but softer. Her mouth was firm, yet somehow with a
+faint, womanly voluptuousness in its sweet curves. The fingers which
+lay unresistingly in his hand were soft and warm.
+
+"As much time as you can spare," she promised him. "I thought, though,
+that you would be busy tearing Miller bone from bone."
+
+"The game of politics is played slowly," he answered, "sometimes so
+slowly that one chafes. Dear Jane, I want to see you all the time. So
+much of what is best in me, best and most effective, comes from you."
+
+"If I can help, I am proud," she whispered.
+
+"You help more than you will ever know, more than my lips can tell you.
+It is you who have lit the lamp again in my life, you from whom come the
+fire and strength which make me feel that I shall triumph, that I shall
+achieve the one thing I have set my heart upon."
+
+"The one thing?" she murmured rashly.
+
+"The one thing outside," he answered, "the desire of my brain. The
+desire of my heart is here."
+
+She lay in his arms, her lips moved to his and the moments passed
+uncounted. Then, with a queer little cry, she stood up, covered her
+face for a moment with her hands and then held them both out to him.
+
+"Dear man," she begged, "dearest of all men--will you go now?
+To-morrow--whenever you have time--let your servant ring up. I will
+free myself from any engagement--but please!"
+
+He kissed her fingers and passed out with a murmured word. He knew so
+little of women and yet some wonderful instinct kept him always in the
+right path. Perhaps, too, he feared speech himself, lest the ecstasy of
+those few moments might be broken.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+This is how a weekly paper of indifferent reputation but immense
+circulation brought Tallente's love affair to a crisis. In a column
+purporting to set out the editor's curiosity upon certain subjects, the
+following paragraphs appeared:
+
+
+Whether a distinguished member of the Democratic Party is not considered
+just now the luckiest man in the world of politics and love.
+
+
+Whether the young lady really enjoys playing the prodigal daughter at
+home and in the country, and what her noble relatives have to say about
+it.
+
+
+Whether there are not some sinister rumours going about concerning the
+politician in question.
+
+
+Jane's mother, who had arrived in London only the day before, was in
+Charles Street before her prodigal daughter had finished breakfast. She
+brandished a copy of the paper in her hand. Jane read the three
+paragraphs and let the paper slip from her fingers as though she had
+been handling an unclean thing. She rang the bell and pointed to where
+it lay upon the floor.
+
+"Take that into the servants' hall and let it be destroyed, Parkins,"
+she ordered.
+
+The Duchess held her peace until the man had left the room. Then she
+turned resolutely to Jane.
+
+"My dear," she said, "that's posing. Besides, it's indiscreet. Parkins
+will read it, of course, and it's what that sort of person reads,
+nowadays, that counts. We can't afford it. The aristocracy has had its
+fling. To-day we are on our good behaviour."
+
+"I should have thought," Jane declared, "that in these democratic days
+the best thing we could do would be to prove ourselves human like other
+people."
+
+"And people call you clever!" her mother scoffed. "Why, my dear child,
+any slight respect which we still receive from the lower orders is based
+upon their conviction that somehow or other we are, after all, made
+differently from them. Sometimes they hate us for it and sometimes they
+love us for it. The great thing, nowadays, however, is to cultivate and
+try and strengthen that belief of theirs."
+
+"How did you come to see this rag?" Jane enquired mildly.
+
+"Your Aunt Somerham brought it round this morning while I was in bed,"
+her mother replied. "It was a great shock to me. Also to your father.
+He was anxious to come with me but is threatened with an attack of
+gout."
+
+"And what do you want to say to me about it? Just why did you bring me
+that rag and show me those paragraphs?"
+
+"My dear, I must know how much truth there is in them. Have you been
+going about with this man Tallente?"
+
+"To a certain extent, yes," Jane admitted, after a moment's hesitation.
+
+"Chaperoned?"
+
+"Pooh! You know I finished with all that sort of rubbish years ago,
+mother."
+
+"I am informed that Mr. Tallente is a married man."
+
+Jane flinched a little for the first time.
+
+"All the world knows that," she answered. "He married an American, one
+of William Hunter's daughters."
+
+"Who has now, I understand, left him?" Lady Jane shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I do not discuss Mr. Tallente's matrimonial affairs with him."
+
+
+"Surely," her mother remarked acidly, "in view of your growing intimacy
+they are of some interest to you both?"
+
+Jane was silent for a moment.
+
+"Just what have you come to say, mother?" she asked, looking up at her,
+clear-eyed and composed. "Better let's get it over."
+
+The Duchess cleared her throat.
+
+"Jane," she said, "we have become reconciled, your father and I, against
+our wills, to your strange political views and the isolation in which
+you choose to live, but when your eccentricities lead you to a course of
+action which makes you the target for scandal, your family protests. I
+have come to beg that this intimacy of yours with Mr. Tallente should
+cease."
+
+"Mother," Jane replied, "for years after I left the schoolroom I
+subjected myself to your guidance in these matters. I went through
+three London seasons and made myself as agreeable as possible to
+whatever you brought along and called a man. At the end of that time I
+revolted. I am still in revolt. Mr. Tallente interests me more than
+any man I know and I shall not give up my friendship with him."
+
+"Your aunt tells me that Colonel Fosbrook wants to marry you."
+
+"He has mentioned the fact continually," Jane assented. "Colonel
+Fosbrook is a very pleasant person who does not appeal to me in the
+slightest as a husband."
+
+"The Fosbrooks are one of our oldest families," the Duchess said
+severely. "Arnold Fosbrook is very wealthy and the connection would be
+most desirable. You are twenty-nine years old, Jane, and you ought to
+marry. You ought to have children and bring them up to defend the order
+in which you were born."
+
+"Mother dear," Jane declared, smiling, "this conversation had better
+cease. Thanks to dear Aunt Jane, I have an independent fortune,
+Woolhanger, and my little house here. I have adopted an independent
+manner of life and I have not the least idea of changing it. You have
+three other daughters and they have all married to your complete
+satisfaction. I don't think that I shall ever be a very black sheep but
+you must look upon me as outside the fold.--I hope you will stay to
+lunch. Colonel Fosbrook is bringing his sister and the Princess is
+coming."
+
+The Duchess rose to her feet. The family dignity justified itself in
+her cold withdrawal.
+
+"Thank you, Jane," she said, "I am engaged. I am glad to know, however,
+that you still have one or two respectable friends."
+
+The setting was the same only the atmosphere seemed somehow changed when
+Jane received her second visitor that day. She was waiting for him in
+the small sitting room into which no other visitor save members of the
+family were ever invited. There was a comfortable fire burning, the
+roses which had come from him a few hours before were everywhere
+displayed, and Jane herself, in a soft brown velvet gown, rose to her
+feet, comely and graceful, to welcome him.
+
+"So we are immortalised!" she exclaimed, smiling.
+
+"That wretched rag!" he replied. "I was hoping you wouldn't see it."
+
+"Mother was here with a copy before eleven o'clock."
+
+Tallente made a grimace.
+
+"Have you sworn to abjure me and all my works?"
+
+"So much so," she told him, "that I have been here waiting for you for
+at least half an hour and I have put on the gown you said you liked
+best. Some one said in a book I was reading last week that affection
+was proved only by trifles. I have certainly never before in my life
+altered my scheme of clothes to please any man."
+
+He raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+"You are exercising," he said, "the most wonderful gift of your sex.
+You are providing an oasis--more than that, a paradise--for a
+disheartened toiler. It seems that I have enemies whose very existence
+I never guessed at."
+
+"Well, does that matter very much?" she asked cheerfully. "It was one
+of your late party, wasn't it, who said that the making of enemies was
+the only reward of political success?"
+
+"A cheap enough saying," Tallente sighed, "yet with the germs of truth
+in it. I don't mind the allusion to a sinister rumour. The air will be
+thick with them before long. The other--well, it's beneath criticism
+but it hurts."
+
+She laughed whole-heartedly.
+
+"Andrew," she said, "for the first time in my life I am ashamed of you.
+Here am I, hidebound in conventions, and I could just summon indignation
+enough to send the paper down to the kitchen to be burnt. Since then I
+have not even thought of it. I was far more angry that any one should
+anticipate the troubles which you have to face. Come and sit down."
+
+She led him to the couch and held his fingers in hers as she leaned back
+in a corner.
+
+"I honestly believe," she went on gently, "that the world is not
+sufficiently grateful to those who toil for her. Criticism has become a
+habit of life. Nobody believes or wants to believe in the altruist any
+longer. I believe that if to-day a rich man stripped himself of all his
+possessions and obeyed the doctrines of the Bible by giving them to the
+poor, the Daily something or other would worry around until they found
+some interested motive, and the Daily something or other else would
+succeed in proving the man a hypocrite."
+
+He smiled and in the lightening of his face she appreciated for the
+first time a certain strained look about his eyes and the drawn look
+about the mouth.
+
+"You are worrying about all this!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, in a way I am worrying," he confessed simply. "Not about the
+storm itself. I am ready to face that and I think I shall be a stronger
+and a saner man when the battle has started. In the meantime, I think
+that what has happened to me is this. I have arrived just at that time
+of life when a man takes stock of himself and his doings, criticises his
+own past and wonders whether the things he has proposed doing in the
+future are worth while."
+
+"You of all men in the world need never ask yourself that," she declared
+warmly. "Think of your lifelong devotion to your work. Think of the
+idlers by whom you are surrounded."
+
+"I work," he admitted, "but I sometimes ask myself whether I work with
+the same motives as I did when I was young. I started life as an
+altruist. I am not sure now whether I am not working in self-defence,
+from habit, because I am afraid of falling behind."
+
+"You mean that you have lost your ideals?"
+
+"I wonder," he speculated, "whether any man can carry them through to my
+age and not be afflicted with doubts as to whether, after all, he has
+been on the right path, whether he may not have been worshipping false
+gods."
+
+"Tell me exactly how you started life," she begged.
+
+"Like any other third or fourth son of a bankrupt baronet," he replied.
+"I went to Eaton and Oxford with the knowledge that I had to carve out
+my own career and my ambitions when I left the University were entirely
+personal. I chose diplomacy. I did moderately well, I believe. I remember
+my first really confidential mission," he went on, with a faint smile,
+"brought me to Paris, where we met.--Then came Parliament--afterwards
+the war and a revolution in all my ideas. I suddenly saw the strength
+and power of England and realised whence it came. I realised that it
+was our democracy which was the backbone of the country. I realised the
+injustice of those centuries of class government. I plunged into my old
+socialistic studies, which I had taken up at Oxford more out of caprice
+than anything, and I began to have a vision of what I have always since
+looked upon as the truth. I began to realise that there was some
+super-divine truth in the equality of all humans, notwithstanding the
+cheap arguments against it; that by steady and broad-minded government
+for a generation or so, human beings would be born into the world under
+more level conditions; and with the fading away of class would be born
+or rather generated the real and wonderful spirit of freedom. My
+parliamentary career progressed by leaps and bounds, but when in '15 the
+war began to go against us, I turned soldier."
+
+"You don't need to tell me anything about that part of your career," she
+interrupted, with a little smile almost of proprietory pride. "I never
+forget it."
+
+"When I came back," he continued, "I was almost a fanatic. I worked not
+from the ranks of the Labour Party itself, because I flatter myself that
+I was clear-sighted enough to see that the Labour Party as it existed
+after the war, split up by factions, devoted to the selfish interests of
+the great trades unions and with the taint of Miller retarding all
+progress, had nothing in it of the real spirit of freedom. It was every
+man for his own betterment and the world in which he lived might go
+hang. I stayed with the Coalitionists, though I was often a thorn in
+their side, but because I was also useful to them I bent them often
+towards the light. Then they began to fear me, or rather my principles.
+It was out of my principles, although I was not nominally one of them,
+that Dartrey admits freely to-day he built up the Democratic Party. He
+had been working on the same lines for years, a little too much from the
+idealistic point of view. He needed the formula. I gave it to him.
+Horlock came into office again and I worked with him for a time.
+Gradually, however, my position became more and more difficult. In the
+end he offered me a post in the Cabinet, induced me to resign my own
+seat, which I admit was a doubtful one, and sent me to fight
+Hellesfield, which it was never intended that I should win. Then Miller
+dug his own grave. He opposed me there and I lost the seat. Horlock
+was politely regretful, scarcely saw what could be done for me at the
+moment, was disposed to join in a paltry little domestic plot to send
+me to the Lords. This was at the time I came down to Martinhoe, the
+time, except for those brief moments in Paris, when I first met you."
+
+"Pruning roses in a shockingly bad suit of clothes," she murmured.
+
+"And taken for my own gardener! Well, then came Dartrey's visit. He
+laid his programme before me, offered me a seat and I agreed to lead the
+Democrats in the House. There I think I have been useful. I knew the
+game, which Dartrey didn't. Whilst he has achieved almost the
+impossible, has, except so far as regards Miller's influence amongst the
+trades unions, brought the great army of the people into line, I
+accomplished the smaller task of giving them their due weight in the
+House."
+
+"Very well, then," Jane declared, looking at him with glowing eyes,
+"there is your stocktaking, taken from your own, the most modest point
+of view. With your own lips you confess to what you have achieved, to
+where you stand. What doubts should any sane man have? How can you say
+that the lamp of your life has burned dull?"
+
+"Insight," he answered promptly. "Don't think that I fear the big
+fight. I don't. With Dartrey on my side we shall wipe Miller into
+oblivion. It isn't true to-day to say that he represents the trades
+unions, for the very reason that the trades unions as solid bodies don't
+exist any longer. The men have learnt to think for themselves. Many of
+them are earnest members of the Democratic Party. They have learnt to
+look outside the interests of the little trade in which they earn their
+weekly wage. No, it isn't Miller that I am afraid of."
+
+"Then what is it?" she demanded.
+
+"How can I put it?" he went on thoughtfully. "Well, first of all, then,
+I feel that the Democrats, when they come into power, are going to
+develop as swiftly as may be all the fevers, the sore places, the
+jealousies and the pettiness of every other political party which has
+ever tried to rule the State. I see the symptoms already and that is
+what I think makes my heart grow faint. I have given the best years of
+my life to toiling for others. Who believes it? Who is grateful? Who
+would not say that because I lead a great party in the House of Commons,
+I have all that I have worked for, that my reward is at hand? And it
+isn't. If I am Prime Minister in three months' time, there will still
+be something left of the feeling of weariness I carry with me to-day."
+
+It was a new phase of the man who unconsciously had grown so dominant in
+her life. She felt the pull at her heartstrings. Her eyes were soft
+with unshed tears as her arm stole through his.
+
+"Please go on," she whispered.
+
+"There is the ego," he confessed, his voice shaking. "Why it has come
+to me just at this period of life--but there it is. I have neglected
+human society, human intercourse, sport, pleasures, the joys of a man
+who was born to be a man. I am philosopher enough not to ask myself
+whether it has been worth while, but I do ask myself--what of the next
+ten years?"
+
+"Who am I to give you counsel?" she asked, trembling.
+
+"The only person who can."
+
+"Then I advise you to go on. This is just a mood. There are muddy
+places through which one must pass, even in the paths that lead to the
+mountain tops, muddy and ugly and depressing places. As one climbs, one
+loses the memory of them."
+
+"But I climb always alone," he answered, with a sudden fierceness. "I
+walk alone in life. I have been strong enough to do it and I am strong
+enough no longer.--Jane," he went on, his voice a little unsteady, his
+hands almost clutching hers, "it is only since I have known you that I
+have realised from what source upon this earth a man may draw his
+inspiration, his courage, the strength to face the moving of mountains,
+day by day. My heart has been as dry as a seed plot. You have brought
+new things to me, the soft, humanising stimulus of a new hope, a new
+joy. If I am to fight on to the end, I must have you and your love."
+
+She was trembling and half afraid, but her hands yielded their pressure
+to his. Her lips and her eyes, the little quivering of her body, all
+spoke of yielding.
+
+"I have done foolish things in my life," he went on, drawing her nearer
+to him. "When I was young, I felt that I had the strength of a
+superman, and that all I needed in life was food for the brain. I
+placed woman in her wrong place. I sold myself and my chance of
+happiness that I might gain more power, a wider influence. It was a sin
+against life. It was a greater crime against myself. Now that the
+thunder is muttering and the time is coming for the last test, I see the
+truth as I have never seen it before. Nature has taken me by the
+hand--shows it me.--Tell me it isn't too late, Jane? Tell me you care?
+Help me. I have never pleaded for help before. I plead to you."
+
+Her eyes were wet and beautiful with the shine of tears. It seemed to
+him in that moment of intense emotion that he could read there
+everything he desired in life. Her lips met his almost eagerly, met his
+and gave of their own free will.
+
+"Andrew," she murmured, "you see, you are the only man except those of
+my family whom I have ever kissed, and I kiss you now--again--and
+again--because I love you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Tallente, notwithstanding the glow of happiness which had taken him down
+to Westminster with the bearing of a young man, felt occasional little
+shivers of doubt as he leaned back in his seat during the intervals of a
+brief but portentous debate and let his mind wander back to that short
+hour when he seemed to have emptied out all the hidden yearnings which
+had been lurking in the dark corners of his heart and soul. His love
+for Jane had no longer the boyish characteristics of a vague worship.
+He made no further pretences to himself. It was Jane herself, and not
+the spirit of her sex dwelling in her body, which he desired. A tardy
+heritage of passion at times rejuvenated him and at others stretched him
+upon the rack.
+
+He walked home later with Dartrey, clinging to the man with a new
+sympathy and drinking in with queer content some measure of his
+happiness. Dartrey himself seemed a little ashamed of its exuberance.
+
+"If it weren't that Nora is so entirely a disciple of our cause,
+Tallente," he said, "I think I should feel a little like the man in the
+'Pilgrim's Progress,' who stopped to pick flowers by the way. She is
+such a help, though. It was she who pointed out the flaw in that second
+amendment of Saunderson's, which I had very nearly passed. Did you read
+her article in the National, too?"
+
+"Wonderful!" Tallente murmured. "There is no living woman who writes
+such vivid and convincing prose."
+
+"And the amazing part of it all is," Dartrey went on, "that she seeks no
+reward except just to see the cause prosper. She hasn't the faintest
+ambition to fill any post in life which could be filled by a man. She
+would write anonymously if it were possible. She has insight which
+amounts to inspiration, yet whenever I am with her she makes me feel
+that her greatest gift is her femininity."
+
+"It must be the most wonderful thing in life to have the help of any one
+like Nora," Tallente said dreamily.
+
+"My friend," the other rejoined, "I wish I could make you believe this.
+There is room in the life of the busiest man in the world for an
+understanding woman. I'll go further. No man can do his best work
+without her."
+
+"I believe you are right," Tallente assented.
+
+His friend pressed his arm kindly.
+
+"You've ploughed a lonely furrow for a good many years, Tallente," he
+said. "Nora talks of you so often and so wistfully. She is such an
+understanding creature.--No, don't go. Just one whisky and soda. It
+used to be chocolate, but Nora insists upon making a man of me."
+
+Tallente was a little in the shadow of the hall and he witnessed the
+greeting between Nora and her husband: saw her come out of the study,--a
+soft, entrancing figure in the little circle of firelight gleaming
+through the open door. She threw her arms around Dartrey's neck and
+kissed him.
+
+"Dear," she exclaimed, "how early you are! Come and have an easy-chair
+by the fire and tell me how every one's been behaving."
+
+Dartrey, with his arm around her waist, turned to Tallente.
+
+"An entirely unrehearsed exhibition, I can assure you, Tallente," he
+declared.
+
+Nora pouted and passed her other arm through Tallente's.
+
+"That's just like Stephen," she complained, "advertising his domestic
+bliss. Never mind, there is room for an easy-chair for you."
+
+Tallente took a whisky and soda but declined to sit down.
+
+"I walked home with Stephen," he said, "and then I felt I couldn't go
+away without seeing you just for a moment, Nora."
+
+"Dear man," she answered, "I should have been terribly hurt if you had.
+Do make yourself comfortable by the fire. You will be able to check all
+that Stephen tells me about the debate to-night. He is so inexact."
+
+Tallente shook his head. "I am restless to-night, Nora," he said
+simply. "I shall walk up to the club."
+
+She let him out herself, holding his hand almost tenderly. "Oh, you
+poor dear thing!" she said. "I do wish I knew--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"What to wish you--what to hope for you."
+
+He walked away in silence. They both understood so well.--He found his
+way to the club and ate sandwiches with one or two other men, also just
+released from the House, but the more he tried to compose himself, the
+more he was conscious of a sort of fierce restlessness that drove the
+blood through his veins at feverish pace. He wandered from room to
+room, played a game of billiards, chafing all the time at the necessity
+of finishing the game. He hurried away, pleading an appointment. In
+the hall he met Greening, who led him at once to a secluded corner.
+
+"Prepared with your apologia, Tallente?" he enquired.
+
+"It's in your office at the present moment," Tallente replied, "finished
+this morning."
+
+Greening stroked his beard. He was a lank, rather cadaverous man, with
+a face like granite and eyes like polished steel. Few men had anything
+to say against him. No one liked him.
+
+"How are you regarding the appearance of these outpourings of yours,
+Tallente?" he asked.
+
+"With equanimity," was the calm rejoinder. "I think I told you what I
+thought of you and your journalism for having any dealings with a thief
+and for making yourself a receiver of stolen property. I have nothing
+to add to that. I am ready to face the worst now and you may find the
+thunders recoil on your own head."
+
+"No one will ever be able to blame us," Greening replied, "for
+publishing material of such deep interest to every one, even though it
+should incidentally be your political death warrant. As a matter of
+fact, Tallente, I was rather hoping that I might meet you here to-night.
+The chief and Horlock appear to have had a breeze."
+
+"How does that concern me?" Tallente asked bluntly.
+
+"It may concern you very much indeed. A few days ago I should have told
+you, as I did, that nothing in the world could stop the publication of
+that article. To-day I am not so sure. At any rate, I believe there is
+a chance. Would you care to see the chief?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest desire to," Tallente replied. "I have made my
+protest. Nothing in the world can affect the morality of your action.
+At the same time, I have got over my first dread of it. I am prepared
+with my defence, and perhaps a little in the way of a counterattack.
+No, I am not going hat in hand to your chief, Greening. He must do as
+he thinks well."
+
+"If that is your attitude," Greening observed, "things will probably
+take their course. On the other hand, if you were inclined to have a
+heart-to-heart talk with the chief and our other editors, I believe that
+something might come of it."
+
+"In other words," Tallente said coldly, "your chief, who is one of the
+most magnificent opportunists I ever knew, has suddenly begun to wonder
+whether he is backing the right horse."
+
+"Something like it, perhaps," Greening admitted. "Look here, Tallente,"
+he went on, "you're a big man in your way and I know perfectly well that
+you wouldn't throw away a real advantage out of pique. Consider this
+matter. I can't pledge the paper or the chief. I simply say--see him
+and talk it over."
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I am much obliged, Greening," he said, "but I don't want to go through
+life with this thing hanging over me. Miller has a copy of the
+article, without a doubt. If you turn him down, he'll find some one
+else to publish it. I should never know when the thunderbolt was going
+to fail. I am prepared now and I would rather get it over."
+
+"Is Dartrey going to back you?" Greening asked.
+
+Tallente smiled.
+
+"I can't give away secrets."
+
+Greening turned slowly away.
+
+"I am off for a rubber of bridge," he said. "I am sorry, Tallente.
+Better dismiss this interview from your mind altogether. It very likely
+wouldn't have led to anything. All the same, I envy you your
+confidence. If I could only guess at its source, I'd have a leader for
+to-morrow morning."
+
+Tallente walked down the stairs with a smile upon his lips. He put on
+his hat and coat and hesitated for a moment on the broad steps. Then a
+sudden wonderful thought came to him, an impulse entirely irresistible.
+He started off westward, walking with feverish haste.
+
+The spirit of adventure sat in his heart as he passed through the
+crowded streets. The night was wonderfully clear, the stars were
+brilliant overhead and from behind the Colliseum dome a corner of the
+yellow moon was showing. He was conscious of a sudden new feeling of
+kinship with these pleasure-seeking crowds who jostled him here and
+there upon the pavement. He was glad to find himself amongst them and
+of them. He felt that he had come down from the chilly heights to walk
+the lighted highways of the world. The keen air with its touch of frost
+invigorated him. There was a new suppleness in his pulses, a queer
+excitement in his whole being, which he scarcely understood until his
+long walk came to an end and he found himself at a standstill in front
+of the house in Charles Street, his unadmitted destination.
+
+He glanced at his watch and found that it was half an hour after
+midnight. There was a light in the lower room into which Jane had taken
+him on the night of her arrival in town. Above, the whole of the house
+seemed in darkness. He walked a little way down the street and back
+again. Jane was dining, he knew, with the Princess de Fénaples, her
+godmother, and had spoken of going on to a ball with her afterwards. In
+that case she could scarcely be home for hours. Yet somehow he had a
+joyful conviction that history would repeat itself, that he would find
+her, as he had once before, entering the house. His fortune was in the
+ascendant. Not even the emptiness of the street discouraged him. He
+strolled a little way along and back again. As he passed the door once
+more, something bright lying underneath the scraper attracted his
+notice. He paused and stooped down. Almost before he had realised what
+he was doing, he had picked up a small key, her latch-key, and was
+holding it in his hand.
+
+He passed down the street again and there seemed something unreal in the
+broad pavement, the frowning houses, the glow of the gas lamps. The
+harmless little key burned his flesh. All the passionate acuteness of
+life seemed throbbing again in his veins. He retraced his steps, making
+no plans, obeying only an ungovernable instinct. The street was empty.
+He thrust the key into the lock, opened the door, replaced the key under
+the scraper, entered the house and made his way into the room on the
+right.
+
+Tallente stood there for a few minutes with fast-beating heart. He had
+the feeling that he had burned his boats. He was face to face now with
+realities. There was no sound from anywhere. A bright fire was burning
+in the grate. An easy-chair was drawn up to the side of a small table,
+on which was placed a tumbler, some biscuits, a box of cigarettes and
+some matches. A copper saucepan full of milk stood in the hearth, side
+by side with some slippers,--dainty, fur-topped slippers. Even these
+slight evidences of her coming presence seemed to thrill him. Time
+dissolved away into a dream of anticipation. Minutes or hours might
+have passed before he heard the motor stop outside, her voice bidding
+some friend a cheerful good night, the turning of the key in the door,
+the drawing of a bolt, a light step in the hall, and then--Jane.
+
+She was wrapped from head to foot in white furs, a small tiara of
+emeralds and diamonds on her head. She entered, humming a tune to
+herself, serene, desirable.
+
+"Andrew!"
+
+Her exclamation, the light in her eyes, the pleasure which swiftly took
+the place of her first amazement, intoxicated him. He drew her into his
+arms and his voice shook.
+
+"Jane," he confessed, "I tried to keep away and I couldn't. I stole in
+here to wait for you. And you're glad--thank heavens you're glad!"
+
+"But how long have you been here?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I don't know. I walked down the street, hoping for a miracle. Then I
+saw your key under the scraper. I let myself in and waited.--Jane, how
+wonderful you are!"
+
+Unconsciously she had unfastened and thrown aside her furs. Her arms
+and neck shone like alabaster in the shaded light. She looked into his
+face and began to tremble a little.
+
+"You ought not to have done this," she said.
+
+"Why not?" he pleaded.
+
+"If any one had seen you--if the servants knew!"
+
+He laughed and stopped her mouth with a kiss.
+
+"Dear, these things are trifles. The things that count lie between us
+two only. Do you know that you have been in my blood like a fever all
+day? You were there in the House this afternoon, you walked the streets
+with me, you drew me here.--Jane, I haven't felt like this since I was a
+boy. You have brought me back my youth. I adore you!"
+
+Again she rested willingly enough in his arms, smiling at him, as he
+drew near to her, with wonderful kindness. The fire of his lips,
+however, seemed to disturb her. She felt the enveloping turmoil of his
+passion, now become almost ungovernable, and extricated herself gently
+from his arms.
+
+"Put my saucepan on the fire, please," she begged. "You will find some
+whisky and soda on the sideboard there. Parkins evidently thinks that I
+ought to have a male escort when I come home late."
+
+"I don't want whisky and soda, Jane," he cried passionately. "I want
+you!"
+
+She rested her hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"And am I not yours, dear," she asked,--"foolishly, unwisely perhaps,
+but certainly yours?--They were all talking about you to-night at dinner
+and I was so proud," she went on, a little feverishly. "Our host was
+almost eloquent. He said that Democracy led by you, instead of proving
+a curse, might be the salvation of the country, because you have
+political insight and imperialistic ideas. It is those terrible people
+who would make a parish council of Parliament from whom one has most to
+fear."
+
+Tallente made no reply. He was standing on the hearth rug, a few feet
+away from her, watching as she stirred her milk, watching the curve of
+her body, the grace of her long, smoothly shining arms. And beyond
+these things he strove to read what was at the back of her mind.
+
+"We must talk almost in whispers," she went on. "And do have your
+whisky and soda, Andrew, because you must go very soon."
+
+"It would disturb you very much if your servants were to know of my
+presence here?" he asked, in a queer, even tone.
+
+"Of course it would," she answered, without looking at him. "As you
+know, I have lived, from my standpoints, an extraordinarily
+unconventional life, but that was because I knew myself and was safe.
+But--I have never done anything like this before in my life."
+
+"You have never been in the same position," he reminded her. "There has
+never been any one else to consider except yourself."
+
+"True enough," she admitted, "but oughtn't that to make one all the more
+careful? I loved seeing you when I came in, and I have loved our few
+minutes together, but I am getting a little nervous. Do you see that it
+is past two o'clock?"
+
+"There is no one to whom you are accountable for anything in life except
+to me," he told her passionately.
+
+She laughed softly but a little uneasily.
+
+"Dear Andrew," she said, "there is my own sense of what is seemly
+and--must I use the horrid word?--my reputation to be considered. As it
+is, you may be seen leaving the house in the small hours of the
+morning."
+
+A little shiver passed through him. All the splendid warmth of living
+seemed to be fading away from his heart and thoughts. He was back again
+in that empty world of unreal persons. Jane had been a dream. This
+kindly faced, beautiful but anxious girl was not the Jane to whose arms
+he had come hotfoot through the streets.
+
+"I ought not to have come," he muttered.
+
+"Dear, I don't blame you in the least," she answered, "only be very
+careful as you go out. If there is any one passing in the street, wait
+for a moment."
+
+"I understand," he promised. "I will take the greatest care."
+
+He took up his hat and coat mechanically. She thrust her arm through
+his and led him to the door, looking furtively into his face as though
+afraid of what she might find there. Her own heart was beginning to
+beat faster. She was filled with a queer sense of failure.
+
+"You are not angry with me, Andrew? You know that I have been happy to
+see you?"
+
+"I am not angry," he answered.
+
+There was a little choking in her throat. She felt the rush of strange
+things. Her eyes sought his, filled with almost terrified anticipation.
+It chanced that he was looking away. She clenched her hands. His
+moment had passed.
+
+"There is something else on your mind, Andrew, I know, but to-night we
+cannot talk any longer," she said, in something resembling her old tone.
+"Be very careful, dear. To-morrow--you will come to-morrow."
+
+He walked down the hall with the footsteps of a cat, let himself out
+silently into the empty street and walked with leaden footsteps to his
+rooms. It was not until he had reached the seclusion of his study that
+the change came. A sudden dull fury burned in his heart. He poured
+himself out whisky and drank it neat. Then he seated himself before his
+desk and wrote. He did not once hesitate. He did not reread a single
+sentence. He dug up the anger and the bitterness from his heart and set
+them out in flaming phrases. A sort of lunacy drove him into the
+bitterest of extremes. His brain seemed fed with the inspiration of his
+suffering, fed with cruel epigrams and biting words. He dragged his
+idol down into the dust, scoffed at the piecemeal passion which measures
+its gifts, the complacency of an analysed virtue, the sense of
+well-living and self-contentment achieved in the rubric of a dry-as-dust
+morality. She had failed him, offered him stones instead of bread.--He
+signed the letter, blotted it with firm fingers, addressed the envelope,
+stamped it and dropped it himself into the pillar box at the corner of
+the street. Then he turned wearily homeward, filled with the strange,
+almost maniacal satisfaction of the man who has killed the thing he
+loves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+There followed days of sullen battle for Tallente, a battle with luck
+against him, with his back to the wall, with despair more than once
+yawning at his feet. The house in Charles Street was closed. There had
+come no word to him from Jane, no news even of her departure except the
+somewhat surprised reply of Parkins, when he had called on the following
+afternoon.
+
+"Her ladyship left for Devonshire, sir, by the ten-fifty train."
+
+Tallente went back to the fight with those words ringing in his ears.
+He had deliberately torn to pieces his house of refuge. Success or
+failure, what did it matter now? Yet with the dogged courage of one
+loathing failure for failure's own sake, he flung himself into the
+struggle.
+
+On the fifth day after Jane's departure, the thunderbolt fell.
+Tallente's article was printed in full and the weaker members of the
+Democratic Party shouted at once for his resignation. At a question
+cunningly framed by Dartrey, Tallente rose in the House to defend his
+position, and acting on the soundest axiom of military tactics, that the
+best defence is attack, he turned upon Miller, and with caustic
+deliberation exposed the plot framed for his undoing. He threw caution
+to the winds, and though repeatedly and gravely called to order, he
+poured out his scorn upon his enemy till the latter, white as a sheet,
+rose to demand the protection of the Speaker. There were very few in
+the House that day who ever forgot the almost terrifying spectacle of
+Miller's collapse under his adversary's hurricane assault, or the proud
+and dignified manner in which Tallente concluded his own defence. But
+this was only the first step. The Labour Press throughout the country
+took serious alarm at an attack which, though out of date and influenced
+by conditions no longer predominant, yet struck a very lusty blow at the
+very existence of their great nervous centres. Miller, as Chairman of
+the Associated Trades Unions, issued a manifesto which, notwithstanding
+his declining influence, exercised considerable effect. It seemed clear
+that he could rely still upon a good ninety votes in the House of
+Commons. Horlock became more cheerful. He met Tallente leaving the
+House one windy March evening and the two men shared a taxi together,
+westwards.
+
+"Looks to me like another year of office, thanks to you," the Prime
+Minister observed. "Lenton tells me that we shall have a majority of
+forty on Thursday week. It is Thursday week you're going for us again,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Many things may happen before then," Tallente replied, with a little
+affirmative nod. "Dartrey may decide that I am too expensive a luxury
+and make friends with Miller."
+
+"I don't think that's likely," Horlock pronounced. "Dartrey is a fine
+fellow, although he is not a great politician. He is out to make a
+radical and solid change in the government of this country and he knows
+very well that Miller's gang will only be a dead weight around his neck.
+He'd rather wait until he has weaned away a few more votes--even get rid
+of Miller if he can--and stick to you."
+
+"I think you are right," Tallente said. "I am keeping the Democrats
+from a present triumph, but if through me they shake themselves free
+from what I call the little Labourites, I think things will pan out
+better for them in the long run."
+
+"And in the meantime," Horlock went on, lighting a cigar and passing his
+case to Tallente, "I must give you the credit of playing a magnificent
+lone hand. I expected to see Miller fall down in a fit when you went
+for him in the House. If only his army of adherents could have heard
+that little duel, I think you'd have won straight through!"
+
+"Unfortunately they couldn't," Tallente sighed, "and it's so hard to
+capture the attention, to reach the inner understanding, of a great
+mixed community."
+
+"It's a curious thing about Englishmen," Horlock reflected, "especially
+the Englishman who has to vote. The most eloquent appeals on paper
+often leave him unmoved. A perfectly convincing pamphlet he lays down
+with the feeling that no doubt it's all right but there must be another
+side. It's the spoken words that tell, every time. What about Miller's
+election next week?"
+
+"A great deal depends upon that," Tallente replied. "Miller himself
+says that it is a certainty. On the other hand, Saunderson is going to
+be proposed, and, with Dartrey's influence, should have a pretty good
+backing."
+
+They travelled on in silence for a short time. Tallente looked idly
+through the rain-streaming window at the block of traffic, the hurrying
+passers-by, the cheerful warmth of the shops and restaurants.
+
+"You take life too seriously, Tallente," his companion said, a little
+abruptly.
+
+"Do I?" Tallente answered, with a thin smile.
+
+"You do indeed. Look at me. I haven't a line on my face as compared
+with yours and I've held together a patchwork Government for five years.
+I don't know when I may be kicked out and I know perfectly well that the
+Government which succeeds mine is going to undo all I have done and is
+going to establish a state of things in this country which I consider
+nothing short of revolutionary. I am not worrying about it, Tallente.
+The fog of Downing Street stinks sometimes in my nostrils, but I have a
+little country house--you must come and see me there some day--down in
+Buckinghamshire, one of these long, low bungalow types, you know, with
+big gardens, two tennis courts, and a golf course just across the river.
+My wife spends most of her time there now and every week-end, when I go
+down, I think what a fool I am to waste my time trying to hold a
+reluctant nation to principles they are thoroughly sick of. Tallente,
+you can turn me out whenever you like. The day I settle down for two or
+three months' rest is going to be one of the happiest of my life."
+
+"You have a wonderful temperament," Tallente remarked, a little sadly.
+
+"Temperament be damned!" was the forcible reply. "I have done my best.
+When you've said those four words, Tallente, any man ought to have
+philosophy enough to add, 'Whatever the result may be, it isn't going to
+be my funeral.' Look at you--haggard, losing weight every day, poring
+over papers, scheming, planning, writing articles, pouring out the great
+gift of your life twice as fast as you need. No one will thank you for
+it. It's quite enough to give half your soul and the joy of living to
+work for others. Keep something up your sleeve for yourself, Tallente.
+Mark you, that's the soundest thing in twentieth century philosophy
+you'll ever hear of.--Corner of Clarges Street right for you, eh?"
+
+Tallente held out his hand.
+
+"Horlock," he said, "thank you. I know you're right but unfortunately I
+am not like you. I haven't an idyllic retreat, a charming companion
+waiting for me there, a life outside that's so wonderful. I am driven
+on because there's nothing else."
+
+Horlock laid his hand upon his companion's shoulder. His tone was
+suddenly grave--amply sympathetic.
+
+"My friend--and enemy," he said. "If that is so--I'm sorry for you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+There was a tense air of expectation amongst the little company of men
+who filed into one of the smaller lecture rooms attached to Demos House
+a few afternoons later. Two long tables were arranged with sixty or
+seventy chairs and a great ballot box was placed in front of the
+chairman. A little round of subdued cheers greeted the latter as he
+entered the room and took his place,--the Right Honourable John Weavel,
+a Privy Councillor, Member for Sheffield and Chairman of the
+Ironmaster's Union. Dartrey and Tallente appeared together at the tail
+end of the procession. Miller sprang at once to his feet and addressed
+the chairman.
+
+"Mr. Chairman," he said, "I call attention to the fact that two
+honorary members of this company are present. I submit that as these
+honorary members have no vote and the present meeting is called with the
+sole object of voting a chairman for the year, honorary members be not
+admitted."
+
+Mr. Weavel shook his head.
+
+"Honorary members have the right to attend all meetings of our society,"
+he pronounced. "They can even speak, if invited to do so by the
+chairman for the day. I am sure that we are all of us very pleased
+indeed to welcome Mr. Dartrey and Mr. Tallente."
+
+There was a murmur of approval, in one or two cases a little dubious.
+Dartrey smiled a greeting at Weavel.
+
+"I have asked Mr. Tallente to accompany me," he explained, "because, in
+face of the great issues by which the party to which we all belong is
+confronted, some question might arise on to-day's proceedings which
+would render his presence advisable. He does not wish to address you.
+I, however, with the chairman's permission, before you go to the vote
+would like to say a few words."
+
+Miller again arose to his feet.
+
+"I submit, Mr. Chairman," he said arrogantly, "that when I had the
+privilege of being elected last April, no honorary member was present or
+allowed to speak."
+
+Mr. Weavel rose to his feet.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "you know what this meeting is. It is a meeting
+of fifty-seven representatives of the various trades unions of the
+country, to elect a single representative to take the chair whenever
+meetings of this company shall be necessary. This gathering does not
+exist as a society in any shape or form and we have therefore neither
+rules nor usages. Mr. Dartrey and Mr. Tallente, although they are
+honorary members, are, I am sure, welcome guests, and whatever either of
+them wishes to say to us will, I am sure, be listened to. There is no
+business. All that we have to do is to vote, to choose our leader for
+the next twelve months. There are two names put forward--Saunderson and
+Miller. It is my business only to count the votes you may record.
+Presuming that no one else wishes to speak, I shall ask Mr. Dartrey to
+say those few words."
+
+Miller sat frowning and biting his nails. Dartrey moved to the farther
+end of the room and looked down the long line of attentive faces.
+
+"Weavel," he said, "and you, my friends, I am not here to say a word in
+favour of either of the two candidates between whom you have to choose
+to-day. I am here just because you are valued members of the great
+party which before very long will be carrying upon its shoulders the
+burden of this country's government, to tell you of one measure which
+some of you know of already, which may help you to realise how important
+your to-day's choice will be. You know quite as much about politics as
+I do. You know very well that the present Government is doomed. But
+for an unfortunate difference of opinion between two of our supporters
+who are present to-day, there is not the slightest doubt that the
+Government would lose their vote of confidence to-morrow, and that in
+that case, if I still remained your chief, I should be asked to form a
+Democratic Government, a task which, when the time comes, it is my
+intention to pass on to one more skilled in Parliamentary routine. I
+want to explain to you that we consider the representative you elect
+to-day to be one of the most important personages in that Government.
+We have not issued our programme yet. When we do, we are going to make
+the country a wonderful promise. We are going to promise that there
+shall be no more strikes. That sounds a large order, perhaps, but we
+shall keep our word and we are going to end for ever this bitter
+struggle between capital and labour by welding the two into one and by
+making the interests of one the interests of the other. Our scheme is
+that the person whom you elect to-day will be chairman of an inner
+conference of twelve. We shall ask you to elect a further three from
+amongst yourselves, which will give the trades unions four
+representatives upon this inner council. Four representative Cabinet
+Ministers will be chosen by ballot to add to their number. Four
+employers of labour, elected by the Employers' Association, will also
+join the council and the whole will be presided over by the person whom
+you elect to-day. There will be a select committee, or rather
+fifty-seven select committees, of each industry always at hand, and we
+consider that we shall frame in that manner a body of men competent to
+deal with the inner workings of every industry. They will decide what
+proportion of the earnings of each industry shall be allocated to labour
+and what to capital. In other words, they will fix or approve of or
+revise the wages of the country. They will settle every dispute and
+their decision will be final. The funds held by the various trades
+unions will form charitable funds or be returned as bonuses to the
+contributors. I have given you the barest outline of the scheme which
+has been drawn up to form a part of our programme when the time comes
+for us to present one. To-day you are only concerned to elect the one
+representative. I am here to beg, gentlemen, that you elect one whose
+theories, whose principles, whose antecedents and whose general attitude
+towards labour problems will fit him to take a very important place in
+the future government of the country."
+
+There was a little murmur of applause. Miller was once more on his
+feet.
+
+"I claim," he said, "that this is neither the time nor the place to
+spring upon us an utterly new method of dealing with Labour questions.
+What you propose seems to me a subtle attack upon the trades unions
+themselves. They have been the guardians of the people for the last
+fifteen years, and even though some strikes have been necessary and
+although all strikes may not have been successful, yet on the whole the
+trades unions have done their work well. I shall not accept, in the
+event of my election, the programme which Mr. Dartrey has laid down,
+unless I am elected with a special mandate to do so."
+
+Saunderson rose to his feet, a man of different type, blunt of speech,
+rugged, the typical working-man's champion except for his voice, which
+was of unexpected tone and quality.
+
+"Mr. Weavel and the rest of you," he said, "I differ from Miller.
+That's lucky, because you can vote now not only for the man but the
+principle. I have loathed strikes all my life, just because I am
+political economist enough to loathe waste and to hate to see production
+fettered,--that is, where the fruits of the production are shared fairly
+with Labour. I like Dartrey's scheme and I am prepared to stand by it."
+
+Saunderson sat down. Dartrey and Tallente left the room while the
+business of voting went on. Dartrey had a private room of his own in
+the rear of the building and he and Tallente made their way there.
+
+"Those men have a good deal to decide," Tallente reflected. "It's queer
+how the balance of things has changed. I don't suppose any Cabinet
+Council for years has had to tackle a more important problem."
+
+"I wonder how they'll vote," Dartrey speculated. "Weavel's our man."
+
+"You can't tell," Tallente replied. "You've given them something fresh
+to think about. They may even decide not to vote to-day at all. Miller
+has some strong supporters. He appeals tremendously to a certain class
+of labour--and that class exists, you know, Dartrey--which loves the
+excitement and the loafing of a strike, which feels somehow or other
+that benefits got in any other way than by force are less than they
+ought to have been."
+
+There was a knock at the door. Northern put in his head. He was the
+Boot and Shoe representative.
+
+"Thought I'd let you know how the thing's gone," he said. "There's an
+unholy row there. They've chucked Miller. Saunderson's in by five
+votes. I'm off back again. Miller's up speaking, tearing mad."
+
+He nodded and disappeared. Dartrey held out his hand.
+
+"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "Let's clear cut, Tallente. Nora must know
+about this at once. We'll call at the House and enter your amendment
+against the vote of confidence. And then--Nora. I am not sure,
+Tallente--the man's a subtle fellow--but I rather think we've driven
+the final nail into Miller's coffin."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The great night came and passed with fewer thrills than any one had
+imagined possible. Horlock himself undertook the defence of his once
+more bitterly assailed Government and from the first it was obvious what
+the end must be. He spoke with the resigned cynicism of one who knows
+that words are fruitless, that the die is already cast and that his
+little froth of words, valedictory in their tone from the first, was
+only a tribute to exacting convention. Tallente had never been more
+restrained, although his merciless logic reduced the issues upon which
+the vote was to be taken to the plainest and clearest elements. He
+remained studiously unemotional and nothing which he said indicated in
+any way his personal interest in the sweeping away of the Horlock
+regime. He was the impersonal but scathing critic, paving the way for
+his chief. It was Dartrey himself who overshadowed every one that
+night. He spoke so seldom in the House that many of the members had
+forgotten that he was an orator of rare quality. That night he lifted
+the debate from the level of ordinary politics to the idyllic realms
+where alone the lasting good of the world is fashioned. He pointed out
+what government might and should be, taking almost a Roman view of the
+care of the citizen, his early and late education, his shouldering of
+the responsibilities which belong to one of a great community. From the
+individual he passed to the nation, sketching in a few nervous but
+brilliant phrases the exact possibilities of socialistic legislation;
+and he wound up with a parodied epigram: Government, he declared, was
+philosophy teaching by failures. In the end, Miller led fourteen of his
+once numerous followers into the Government lobby to find himself by
+forty votes upon the losing side.
+
+Horlock found Tallente once more slipping quietly away from the House
+and bundled him into his car. They drove off rapidly. "So it's
+Buckinghamshire for me," the former observed, not without jubilation.
+"After all, it has been rather a tame finale. We were beaten before we
+opened our mouths."
+
+"Even your new adherent," Tallente said, smiling, "could not save you."
+
+Horlock made a grimace.
+
+"You can have Miller and his faithful fourteen," he declared. "We don't
+want him. The man was a Little Englander, he has become a Little
+Labourite. Heaven knows where he'll end! Are you going to be Prime
+Minister, Tallente?"
+
+"I don't know," was the quiet reply. "Just for the moment I am weary of
+it all. Day after day, fighting and scheming, speaking and writing,
+just to get you fellows out. And now we've got you out, well, I don't
+know that we are going to do any better. We've got the principles,
+we've got some of the men, but is the country ready for our programme!"
+
+"If you ask me, I think the country's ready for anything in the way of a
+change," Horlock replied. "I am sure I am. I have been Prime Minister
+before, but I've never in my life had such an army of incompetents at
+the back of me. Take my tip, Tallente. Don't you have a Chancellor of
+the Exchequer who refuses to take a bit off the income tax every year."
+
+"We shall abolish the income tax before long," Tallente declared.
+
+"I shall invest my money in America," Horlock observed, "my savings,
+that is. Where shall I put you down?"
+
+"In Chelsea, if you would," Tallente begged. "We are only just turning
+off the Embankment. I want to see Mrs. Dartrey."
+
+Horlock gave an order through the tube.
+
+"I am going down to Belgrave Square," he said, "then I am going back to
+Downing Street for to-night. To-morrow a dutiful journey to Buckingham
+Palace, Saturday a long week-end. I shall take out a season ticket to
+Buckinghamshire now. You're not going to nationalise the railways--or
+are you, Tallente; what about season tickets then?"
+
+"Nationalisation is badly defined," Tallente replied. "The Government
+will certainly aim at regulating the profits of all public companies and
+applying a portion of them to the reduction of taxation."
+
+"Well, good luck to you!" Horlock said heartily, as the car pulled up
+outside Dartrey's little house. "Here's just a word of advice from an
+old campaigner. You're going to tap the people's pockets, that's what
+you are going to do, Tallente, and I tell you this, and you'll find it's
+the truth--principles or no principles, your own party or any one
+else's--the moment you touch the pockets of any class of the community,
+from the aristocrat to the stone-breaker, they'll be up against you like
+a hurricane. Every one in the world hugs their principles, but there
+isn't any one who'd hold on to them if they found it was costing them
+money.--So long, and the best of luck to you, Tallente. We may meet in
+high circles before long."
+
+Horlock drove away, a discomfited man, jubilant in his thoughts of
+freedom. Tallente was met by Nora in the little hall--Nora, who had
+kept away from the house at Stephen's earnest request.
+
+"Stephen has done it," Tallente announced triumphantly. "He made the
+only speech worth listening to. Horlock crumbled to pieces. Miller
+only got fourteen of the ragtail end of his lot to vote with him. We
+won by forty votes. Horlock brought me here. He is to have a formal
+meeting of the party. He'll offer his resignation on Thursday."
+
+"It's wonderful!" Nora exclaimed.
+
+"Stephen will be sent for," Tallente went on. "That, of course, is a
+foregone conclusion. Nora, I wish you'd make him see that it's his duty
+to form a Government. There isn't any reason why he should pass it on
+to me. I can lead in the Commons if he wants me to, so far as the
+debates are concerned. We are altering the procedure, as I dare say you
+know. Half the government of the country will be done by committees."
+
+"It's no use," Nora replied. "Stephen simply wouldn't do it. You must
+remember what you yourself said--procedure will be altered. So much of
+the government of the country will be done outside the House. Stephen
+has everything mapped out. You are going to be Prime Minister."
+
+Tallente left early and walked homeward by the least frequented ways. A
+soft rain was falling, but the night was warm and a misty moon made
+fitful appearances. The rain fell like little drops of silver around
+the lampposts. There was scarcely a breath of wind and in Curzon Street
+the air was almost faint with the odour of spring bulbs from the window
+boxes. Tallente yielded to an uncontrollable impulse. He walked rather
+abruptly up Clarges Street, past his rooms, and paid a curious little
+visit, almost a pilgrimage, to the closed house in Charles Street. It
+seemed to him that those drawn blinds, the dead-looking windows, the
+smokeless chimneys typified in melancholy fashion the empty chambers in
+his own heart. Weeks had passed now and no word had come from Jane. He
+pictured her still smarting under the sting of his brutal words. Some
+of his phrases came back to his mind and he shivered with remorse. If
+only--He started. It seemed for a moment as though history were about
+to repeat itself. A great limousine had stolen up to the kerbstone and
+a woman in evening dress was leaning out.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she called out, "do come and speak to me, please."
+
+Tallente approached at once. In the dim light his heart gave a little
+throb. He peered forward. The woman laughed musically. "I do believe
+that you have forgotten me," she said, "I am Alice Mountgarron--Jane's
+sister. I saw you there and I couldn't help stopping for a moment. Can
+I drop you anywhere?"
+
+"Thank you so much," he answered. "My rooms are quite close by here in
+Clarges Street."
+
+"Get in, please, and I will take you there," she ordered. "Tell the man
+the number. I want just one word with you."
+
+The car started off. Lady Alice looked at her companion and shook her
+head.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she said, "I am very much a woman of the world and Jane
+is a very much stronger person than I am, in some things, and a great
+baby in others. You and she were such friends and I have an idea that
+there was a misunderstanding."
+
+"There was," he groaned. "It was my fault."
+
+"Never mind whose fault it was," she went on. "You two were made for
+each other. You have so much in common. Don't drift apart altogether,
+just because one has expected too much, or the other been content to
+give too little. Jane has a great soul and a great heart. She wants to
+give but she doesn't quite know how. And perhaps there isn't any way.
+But two people whose lives seem to radiate towards each other, as yours
+and hers, shouldn't remain wholly apart. Take a day or two's holiday
+soon, even from this great work of yours, and go down to Devonshire. It
+would be very dangerous advice," she went on, smiling, "to a different
+sort of man, but I have a fancy that to you it may mean something, and I
+happen to know--that Jane is miserable."
+
+The car stopped. Tallente held Lady Alice's hand as he had seldom held
+the hand of a woman in his life. A curious incapacity for speech
+checked the words even upon his lips.
+
+"Thank you," he faltered.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Upon the moor above Martinhoe and the farm lands adjoining, spring had
+fallen that year as gently as the warm rain of April. Tallente,
+conscious of an unexpected lassitude, paused as he reached the top of
+the zigzag climb from the Manor and rested for a moment upon a block of
+stone. Below him, the forests of dwarf oaks which stretched down to the
+sea were tipped with delicate green. The meadows were like deep soft
+patches of emerald verdure; the fruit trees in his small walled garden
+were pink and white with blossoms. The sea was peaceful as an azure
+lake into which the hulls of the passing steamers cut like knives,
+leaving behind a long line of lazy foam. Little fleecy balls of cloud
+were dotted across the sky, puffs of soft wind cooled his cheeks when he
+rose to his feet and faced inland.
+
+Soon he left the stony road and walked upon the springy turf bordering
+the moorland. Little curled-up shoots of light green were springing
+from the bracken. Here and there, a flame of gorse filled the air with
+its faint, almond-like blossom. And the birds! Farmlands stretched
+away on his left-hand side, and above the tender growth of corn, larks
+invisible but multifarious filled the air with little quiverings of
+melody. Bleatng lambs, ridiculously young, tottered around on this
+new-found, wonderful earth. A pair of partridges scurried away from his
+feet; the end of a drooping cloud splashed his face with a few warm
+raindrops.
+
+Tallente, as he swung onwards, carrying his cap in his hand, felt a
+great glow of thankfulness for the impulse which had brought him here.
+Already he was finding himself. The tangled emotions of the last week
+were loosening their grip upon his brain and consciousness. Behind him
+London was in an uproar, his name and future the theme of every journal.
+Journalists were besieging his rooms. Embryo statesmen were telephoning
+for appointments. Great men sent their secretaries to suggest a
+meeting. And in the midst of it all he had disappeared. The truth as
+to his sudden absence from town was unknown even to Dartrey. At the
+very moment when his figure loomed large and triumphant upon one of the
+great canvasses in history, he had simply slipped away, a disappearance
+as dramatic as it was opportune. And all because he had a fancy to see
+how spring sat upon the moors,--and because he had walked back to his
+rooms by way of Charles Street and because he had met Lady Alice.
+
+The last ascent was finished and below him lay the house and climbing
+woods,--woods that crept into the bosom of the hills, the closely
+growing trees tipped with tender greens melting into the softest of
+indeterminate greys as the breeze rippled through their tops like
+fingers across a harp. The darker line of moorland in the background,
+scant as ever of herbiage, had yet lost its menacing bareness and seemed
+touched with the faint colour of the earth beneath, almost pink in the
+generous sunshine. The avenue into which he presently turned was
+starred on either side with a riot of primroses, running wild into the
+brambles, with here and there a belt of bluebells. The atmosphere
+beneath the closely growing trees--limes, with great waxy buds--became
+enervating with spring odours and a momentary breathlessness came to
+Tallente, fresh from his crowded days and nights of battle. The
+sun-warmed wave of perfume from the trim beds of hyacinths in the
+suddenly disclosed garden was almost overpowering and he passed like a
+man in a dream through their sweetness to the front door. The butler
+who admitted him conducted him at once to Jane's sanctum. Without any
+warning he was ushered in.
+
+"Mr. Tallente, your ladyship."
+
+He had a strange impression of her as she rose from a very sea of
+newspapers. She was thinner--he was sure of that--dressed in indoor
+clothes although it was the middle of the morning, a suggestion of the
+invalid about her easy-chair and her tired eyes. It seemed to him that
+for a moment they were lit with a gleam of fear which passed almost
+instantaneously. She had recovered herself even before the door was
+closed behind the departing servant.
+
+"Mr. Tallente!" she repeated. "You! But how is this possible?"
+
+"Everything is possible," he answered. "I have come to see you, Jane."
+
+She was glad but amazed. Even when he had obeyed her involuntary
+gesture and seated himself by her side, there was something incredulous
+about her expression.
+
+"But what does it mean that you are here just now?" she persisted.
+"According to the newspapers you should be at Buckingham Palace to-day."
+
+"To-morrow," he corrected her. "I hired a very powerful car and motored
+down yesterday afternoon. I am starting back when the moon rises
+to-night. For these few hours I am better out of London."
+
+"But why--" she faltered.
+
+He was slowly finding himself.
+
+"I came for you, Jane," he said, "on any terms--anyhow. I came to beg
+for your sympathy, for some measure of your affection, to beg you to
+come back to Charles Street. Is it too late for me to abase myself?"
+
+Her eyes glowed across at him. She suddenly rose, came over and knelt
+by the side of his chair. Her arms went around his neck.
+
+"Andrew," she whispered, "I have been ashamed. I was wrong. That
+night--the thought of my pettiness--my foolish, selfish fears.--Oh, I
+was wrong! I have prayed that the time might come when I could tell
+you. And if you hadn't come, I never could have told you. I couldn't
+have written. I couldn't have come to London. But I wanted you to
+know."
+
+She drew his head down and kissed him upon the lips. Tallente knew then
+why he had come. The whole orchestra of life was playing again. He was
+strong enough to overcome mountains.
+
+"Andrew," she faltered, "you really--"
+
+He stopped her.
+
+"Jane," he said, "I have some stupid news. It seems to me incredibly
+stupid. Let me pass it on to you quickly. You knew, didn't you, that I
+was married in America? Well, my wife has divorced me there. We
+married in a State where such things are possible."
+
+"Divorced you?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Quite legally," he went on. "I saw a lawyer before I started yesterday
+morning. But listen to the rest of it. Stella is married--married to
+the man I thought I had thrown over the cliff. She is married to
+Anthony Palliser."
+
+"Then you are free?" Jane murmured, drawing a little away. "Not in the
+least," he replied. "I am engaged to marry you."
+
+At luncheon, with Parkins in attendance, it became possible for them to
+converse coherently.
+
+"When I found you at home in the middle of the morning," he said, "I was
+afraid that you were Ill."
+
+"I haven't been well," she admitted. "I rode some distance yesterday
+and it fatigued me. Somehow or other, I think I have had the feeling,
+the last few weeks, that my work here is over. All my farms are sold.
+I have really now no means of occupying my time."
+
+"It is fortunate," he told her, with a smile, "that I am able to point
+out to you a new sphere of usefulness."
+
+She made a little grimace at him behind Parkins' august back.
+
+"Tell me," she asked, "how did you ever make your peace with the trades
+unions after that terrible article of yours?"
+
+"Because," he replied, "except for Miller, their late chief, there are a
+great many highly intelligent men connected with the administration of
+the trades unions. They realised the spirit in which I wrote that
+article and the condition of the country at the time I wrote it. My
+apologia was accepted by every one who counted. The publication of that
+article," he went on, "was Miller's scheme to drive me out of politics.
+It has turned out to be the greatest godsend ever vouchsafed to our
+cause, for it is going to put Mr. Miller out of the power of doing
+mischief for a--many years to come."
+
+"How I hated him when he called here that day! Jane murmured
+reminiscently."
+
+"Miller is the type of man," Tallente declared, "who was always putting
+the Labour Party in a false position. He was born and he has lived and
+he has thought parochially. He is all the time lashing himself into a
+fury over imagined wrongs and wanting to play the little tin god on
+Olympus with his threatened strikes. Now there will be no more
+strikes."
+
+"I was reading about that," she reflected. "How wonderful it sounds!"
+
+"The greatest power in the country," Tallente explained, "is that
+wielded by these trades unions. There will be no more fights between
+the Government and them, because they are coaling into the Government.
+I am afraid you will think our programme revolutionary. On the other
+hand, it is going to be a Government of justice. We want to give the
+people their due, each man according to his worth. By that means we
+wipe out all fear forever of the scourge of eastern and mid-Europe, the
+bolshevism and anarchy which have laid great empires bare. We are not
+going to make the poor add to the riches of the rich, but on the other
+hand we are not going to take from the rich to give to the poor. The
+sociological scheme upon which our plan of government will be based is
+to open every avenue to success equally to rich and poor. The human
+being must sink or swim, according to his capacity. Ours will never be
+a State-aided socialism."
+
+Parkins had left the room. She held out her hand.
+
+"How horrid of you!" she murmured. "You are gibing at me because I lent
+my farmers a little money." He laughed softly.
+
+"You dear!" he exclaimed. "On my honour, it never entered into my head.
+Only I want to bring you gradually into the new way of thinking, because
+I want so much from you so much help and sympathy."
+
+"And?" she pleaded.
+
+He looked around to be sure that Parkins was gone and, leaning from his
+place, kissed her.
+
+"If you care for moonlight motoring," he whispered, "I think I can give
+you quite a clear outline of all that I expect from you."
+
+She drew a little sigh of relief.
+
+"If you had left me behind," she murmured, "I should have sat here and
+imagined that it was all a dream. And I am just a little weary of
+dreams."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOBODY'S MAN***
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Nobody's Man, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Nobody's Man
+
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 19, 2005  [eBook #17356]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOBODY'S MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by MRK
+
+
+
+NOBODY'S MAN
+
+by
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+1921
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOBODY'S MAN
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Andrew Tallente stepped out of the quaint little train on to the
+flower-bedecked platform of this Devonshire hamlet amongst the hills, to
+receive a surprise so immeasurable that for a moment he could do nothing
+but gaze silently at the tall, ungainly figure whose unpleasant smile
+betrayed the fact that this meeting was not altogether accidental so far
+as he was concerned.
+
+"Miller!" he exclaimed, a little aimlessly.
+
+"Why not?" was the almost challenging reply. "You are not the only
+great statesman who needs to step off the treadmill now and then."
+
+There was a certain quiet contempt in Tallente's uplifted eyebrows. The
+contrast between the two men, momentarily isolated on the little
+platform, was striking and extreme. Tallente had the bearing, the voice
+and the manner which were his by heritage, education and natural
+culture. Miller, who was the son of a postman in a small Scotch town,
+an exhibitioner so far as regards his education, and a mimic where
+social gifts were concerned, had all the aggressive bumptiousness of the
+successful man who has wit enough to perceive his shortcomings. In his
+ill-chosen tourist clothes, untidy collar and badly arranged tie, he
+presented a contrast to his companion of which he seemed, in a way,
+bitterly conscious.
+
+"You are staying near here?" Tallente enquired civilly.
+
+"Over near Lynton. Dartrey has a cottage there. I came down
+yesterday."
+
+"Surely you were in Hellesfield the day before yesterday?"
+
+Miller smiled ill-naturedly.
+
+"I was," he admitted, "and I flatter myself that I was able to make the
+speech which settled your chances in that direction."
+
+Tallente permitted a slight note of scorn to creep into his tone.
+
+"It was not your eloquence," he said, "or your arguments, which brought
+failure upon me. It was partly your lies and partly your tactics."
+
+An unwholesome flush rose in the other's face.
+
+"Lies?" he repeated, a little truculently.
+
+Tallente looked him up and down. The station master was approaching
+now, the whistle had blown, their conversation was at an end.
+
+"I said lies," Tallente observed, "most advisedly." The train was
+already on the move, and the departing passenger was compelled to step
+hurriedly into a carriage. Tallente, waited upon by the obsequious
+station master, strolled across the line to where his car was waiting.
+It was not until his arrival there that he realised that Miller had
+offered him no explanation as to his presence on the platform of this
+tiny wayside station.
+
+"Did you notice the person with whom I was talking?" he asked the
+station master.
+
+"A tall, thin gentleman in knickerbockers? Yes, sir," the man replied.
+
+"Part of your description is correct," Tallente remarked drily. "Do you
+know what he was doing here?"
+
+"Been down to your house, I believe, sir. He arrived by the early train
+this morning and asked the way to the Manor."
+
+"To my house?" Tallente repeated incredulously.
+
+"It was the Manor he asked for, sir," the station master assured his
+questioner. "Begging your pardon, sir, is it true that he was Miller,
+the Socialist M.P.?"
+
+"True enough," was the brief reply. "What of it?"
+
+The man coughed as he deposited the dispatch box which he had been
+carrying on the seat of the waiting car.
+
+"They think a lot of him down in these parts, sir," he observed, a
+little apologetically.
+
+Tallente made no answer to the station master's last speech and merely
+waved his hand a little mechanically as the car drove off. His mind was
+already busy with the problem suggested by Miller's appearance in these
+parts. For the first few minutes of his drive he was back again in the
+turmoil which he had left. Then with a little shrug of the shoulders he
+abandoned this new enigma. Its solution must be close at hand.
+
+Arrived at the edge of the dusty, white strip of road along which he had
+travelled over the moors from the station, Tallente leaned forward and
+watched the unfolding panorama below with a little start of surprise.
+He had passed through acres of yellowing gorse, of purple heather and
+mossy turf, fragrant with the aromatic perfume of sun-baked herbiage.
+In the distance, the moorland reared itself into strange promontories,
+out-flung to the sea. On his right, a little farm, with its cluster of
+out-buildings, nestled in the bosom of the hills. On either side, the
+fields still stretched upward like patchwork to a clear sky, but below,
+down into the hollow, blotting out all that might lie beneath, was a
+curious sea of rolling white mist, soft and fleecy yet impenetrable.
+Tallente, who had seen very little of this newly chosen country home of
+his, had the feeling, as the car crept slowly downward, of one about to
+plunge into a new life, to penetrate into an unknown world. A man of
+extraordinarily sensitive perceptions, leading him often outside the
+political world in which he fought the battle of life, he was conscious
+of a curious and grim premonition as the car, crawling down the
+precipitous hillside, approached and was enveloped in the grey shroud.
+The world which a few moments before had seemed so wonderful, the
+sunlight, the distant view of the sea, the perfumes of flowers and
+shrubs, had all gone. The car was crawling along a rough and stony
+road, between hedges dripping with moisture and trees dimly seen like
+spectres. At last, about three-quarters of the way down to the sea,
+after an abrupt turn, they entered a winding avenue and emerged on to a
+terrace. The chauffeur, who had felt the strain of the drive, ran a
+little past the front door and pulled up in front of an uncurtained
+window. Tallente glanced in, dazzled a little at first by the
+unexpected lamplight. Then he understood the premonition which had sat
+shivering in his heart during the long descent.
+
+
+The mist, which had hung like a spectral curtain over the little demesne
+of Martinhoe Manor, had almost entirely disappeared when, at a few
+minutes before eight, with all traces of his long journey obliterated,
+Andrew Tallente stepped out on to the stone-flagged terrace and looked
+out across the little bay below. The top of the red sandstone cliff
+opposite was still wreathed with mists, but the sunlight lay upon the
+tennis lawn, the flower gardens below, and the rocks almost covered by
+the full, swelling tide. Tall, and looking slimmer than ever in his
+plain dinner garb, there were some indications of an hour of strange and
+unexpected suffering in the tired face of the man who gazed out in
+somewhat dazed fashion at the little panorama which he had been looking
+forward so eagerly to seeing again. Throughout the long journey down
+from town, he had felt an unusual and almost boyish enthusiasm for his
+coming holiday. He had thought of his tennis racquet and fishing rods,
+wondered about his golf clubs and his guns. Even the unexpected
+encounter with Miller had done little more than leave an unpleasant
+taste in his mouth. And then, on his way down from "up over," as the
+natives called that little strip of moorland overhead, he had vanished
+into the mist and had come out into another world.
+
+"Andrew! So you are out here? Why did you not come to my room? Surely
+your train was very punctual?"
+
+Tallente remained for a moment tense and motionless. Then he turned
+around. The woman who stood upon the threshold of the house, framed
+with a little cascade of drooping roses, sought for his eyes almost
+hungrily. He realised how she must be feeling. A dormant vein of
+cynicism parted his lips as he held her fingers for a moment. His tone
+and his manner were quite natural.
+
+"We were, I believe, unusually punctual," he admitted. "What an
+extraordinary mist! Up over there was no sign of it at all."
+
+She shivered. Her eyes were still watching his face, seeking for an
+answer to her unasked question. Blue eyes they were, which had been
+beautiful in their day, a little hard and anxious now. She wore a white
+dress, simple with the simplicity of supreme and expensive art. A rope
+of pearls was her only ornament. Her hair was somewhat elaborately
+coiffured, there was a touch of rouge upon her cheeks, and the
+unscreened evening sunlight was scarcely kind to her rather wan features
+and carefully arranged complexion. She still had her claims to beauty,
+however. Tallente admitted that to himself as he stood there appraising
+her, with a strange and almost impersonal regard,--his wife of thirteen
+years. She was beautiful, notwithstanding the strained look of anxiety
+which at that moment disfigured her face, the lurking fear which made
+her voice sound artificial, the nervousness which every moment made
+fresh demands upon her self-restraint.
+
+"It came up from the sea," she said. "One moment Tony and I were
+sitting out under the trees to keep away from the sun, and the next we
+were driven shivering indoors; It was just like running into a fog bank
+in the middle of the Atlantic on a hot summer's day."
+
+"I found the difference in temperature amazing," he observed. "I, too,
+dropped from the sunshine into a strange chill."
+
+She tried to get rid of the subject.
+
+"So you lost your seat," she said. "I am very sorry. Tell me how it
+happened?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"The Democratic Party made up their mind, for some reason or other, that
+I shouldn't sit. The Labour Party generally were not thinking of
+running a candidate. I was to have been returned unopposed, in
+acknowledgment of my work on the Nationalisation Bill. The Democrats,
+however, ratted. They put up a man at the last moment, and--well, you
+know the result--I lost."
+
+"I don't understand English politics," she confessed, "but I thought you
+were almost a Labour man yourself."
+
+"I am practically," he replied. "I don't know, even now, what made them
+oppose me."
+
+"What about the future?"
+
+"My plans are not wholly made."
+
+For the first time, an old and passionate ambition prevailed against the
+thrall of the moment.
+
+"One of the papers this morning," she said eagerly, "suggested that you
+might be offered a peerage."
+
+"I saw it," he acknowledged. "It was in the Sun. I was once
+unfortunate enough to be on the committee of a club which blackballed
+the editor."
+
+Her mouth hardened a little.
+
+"But you haven't forgotten your promise?"
+
+"'Bargain' shall we call it?" he replied. "No, I have not forgotten."
+
+"Tony says you could have a peerage whenever you liked."
+
+"Then I suppose it must be so. Just at present I am not prepared to
+write 'finis' to my political career."
+
+The butler announced dinner. Tallente offered his arm and they passed
+through the homely little hall into the dining room beyond. Stella came
+to a sudden standstill as they crossed the threshold.
+
+"Why is the table laid for two only?" she demanded. "Mr. Palliser is
+here."
+
+"I was obliged to send Tony away--on important business," Tallente
+intervened. "He left about an hour ago."
+
+Once more the terror was upon her. The fingers which gripped her napkin
+trembled. Her eyes, filled with fierce enquiry, were fixed upon her
+husband's as he took his place in leisurely fashion and glanced at the
+menu.
+
+"Obliged to send Tony away?" she repeated. "I don't understand. He
+told me that he had several days' work here with you."
+
+"Something intervened," he murmured.
+
+"Why didn't you wire?" she faltered, almost under her breath. "He
+couldn't have had any time to get ready."
+
+Andrew Tallente looked at his wife across the bowl of floating flowers.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed. "I didn't think of that. But in any case I did not
+make up my mind until I arrived that it was necessary for him to go."
+
+There was silence for a time, an unsatisfactory and in some respects an
+unnatural silence. Tallente trifled with his _hors d'oeuvres_ and was
+inquisitive about the sauce with which his fish was flavoured. Stella
+sent away her plate untouched, but drank two glasses of champagne. The
+light came back to her eyes, she found courage again. After all, she
+was independent of this man, independent even of his name. She looked
+across the table at him appraisingly. He was still sufficiently
+good-looking, lithe of frame and muscular, with features well-cut
+although a little irregular in outline. Time, however, and anxious work
+were beginning to leave their marks. His hair was grey at the sides,
+there were deep lines in his face, he seemed to her fancy to have
+shrunken a little during the last few years. He had still the languid,
+high-bred voice which she had always admired so munch, the same coolness
+of manner and quiet dignity. He was a personable man, but after all he
+was a failure. His career, so far as she could judge it, was at an end.
+She was a fool to imagine, even for a moment, that her whole future lay
+in his keeping.
+
+"Have you any plans?" she asked him presently. "Another constituency?"
+
+He smiled a little wearily. For once he spoke quite naturally.
+
+"The only plan I have formulated at present is to rest for a time," he
+admitted.
+
+She drank another glass of champagne and felt almost confident. She
+told him the small events of the sparsely populated neighbourhood, spoke
+of the lack of water in the trout stream, the improvement in the golf
+links, the pheasants which a near-by landowner was turning down. They
+were comparative newcomers and had seen as yet little of their
+neighbours.
+
+"I was told," she concluded, "that the great lady of the neighbourhood
+was to have called upon me this afternoon. I waited in but she didn't
+come."
+
+"And who is that?" he enquired.
+
+"Lady Jane Partington of Woolhanger--a daughter of the Duke of
+Barminster. Woolhanger was left to her by an old aunt, and they say
+that she never leaves the place."
+
+"An elderly lady?" he asked, merely with an intent of prolonging a
+harmless subject of conversation.
+
+"On the contrary, quite young," his wife replied. "She seems to be a
+sort of bachelor-spinster, who lives out in that lonely place without a
+chaperon and rules the neighborhood. You ought to make friends with
+her, Andrew. They say that she is half a Socialist.--By the by, how
+long are we going to stay down here?"
+
+"We will discuss that presently," he answered.
+
+The service of dinner came to its appointed end. Tallente drank one
+glass of port alone. Then he rose, left the room by the French windows,
+passed along the terrace and looked in at the drawing-room, where Stella
+was lingering over her coffee.
+
+"Will you walk with me as far as the lookout?" he invited. "Your maid
+can bring you a cloak if you are likely to be cold."
+
+She responded a little ungraciously, but appeared a few minutes later, a
+filmy shawl of lace covering her bare shoulders. She walked by his side
+to the end of the terrace, along the curving walk through the
+plantation, and by the sea wall to the flagged space where some seats
+and a table had been fixed. Four hundred feet below, the sea was
+beating against jagged rocks. The moon was late and it was almost dark.
+She leaned over and he stood by her side.
+
+"Stella," he said, "you asked me at dinner when we were leaving here.
+You are leaving to-morrow morning by the twelve-thirty train."
+
+"What do you mean?" she demanded, with a sudden sinking of the heart.
+
+"Please do not ask," he replied. "You know and I know. It is not my
+wish to make public the story of our--disagreement."
+
+She was silent for several moments, looking over into the black gulf
+below, watching the swirl of the sea, listening to its dull booming
+against the distant rocks, the shriek of the backward-dragged pebbles.
+An owl flew out from some secret place in the cliffs and wheeled across
+the bay. She drew her shawl around her with a little shiver.
+
+"So this is the end," she answered.
+
+"No doubt, in my way," he reflected, "I have been as great a
+disappointment to you as you to me. You brought me your great wealth,
+believing that I could use it towards securing just what you desired in
+the way of social position. Perhaps that might have come but for the
+war. Now I have become rather a failure."
+
+"There was no necessity for you ever to have gone soldiering," she
+reminded him a little hardly.
+
+"As you say," he acquiesced. "Still, I went and I do not regret it. I
+might even remind you that I met with some success."
+
+"Pooh!" she scoffed. "What is the use of a few military distinctions?
+What are an M.C. and a D.S.O. and a few French and Belgian orders going
+to do for me? You know I want other things. They told me when I
+married you," she went on, warming with her own sense of injury, "that
+you were certain to be Prime Minister. They told me that the Coalition
+Party couldn't do without you, that you were the only effective link
+between them and Labour. You had only to play your cards properly and
+you could have pushed out Horlock whenever you liked. And now see what
+a mess you have made of things! You have built up Horlock's party for
+him, he offers you an insignificant post in the Cabinet, and you can't
+even win your seat in Parliament."
+
+"Your epitome of my later political career has its weak points, but I
+dare say, from your point of view, you have every reason for complaint,"
+he observed. "Since I have failed to procure for you the position you
+desire, our parting will have a perfectly natural appearance. Your
+fortune is unimpaired--you cannot say that I have been extravagant--and
+I assure you that I shall not regret my return to poverty."
+
+"But you won't be able to live," she said bluntly. "You haven't any
+income at all."
+
+"Believe me," he answered quietly, "you exaggerate my poverty. In any
+case, it is not your concern."
+
+"You wouldn't--"
+
+She paused. She was a woman of not very keen perceptions, but she
+realised that if she were to proceed with the offer which was half
+framed in her mind, the man by her side, with his, to her outlook,
+distorted sense of honour, would become her enemy. She shrugged her
+shoulders, and turning towards him, held out her hand.
+
+"It is the end, then," she said. "Well, Andrew, I did my best according
+to my lights, and I failed. Will you shake hands?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I cannot, Stella. Let us agree to part here. We know all there is to
+be known of one another, and we shall be able to say good-by without
+regret."
+
+She drifted slowly away from him. He watched her figure pass in and out
+among the trees. She was unashamed, perhaps relieved,--probably, he
+reflected, as he watched her enter the house, already making her plans
+for a more successful future. He turned away and looked downwards. The
+darkness seemed, if possible, to have become a little more intense, the
+moaning of the sea more insistent. Little showers of white spray
+enlaced the sombre rocks. The owl came back from his mysterious
+journey, hovered for a moment over the cliff and entered his secret
+home. Behind him, the lights in the house went out, one by one.
+Suddenly he felt a grip upon his shoulder, a hot breath upon his cheek.
+It was Stella, returned dishevelled, her lace scarf streaming behind,
+her eyes lit with horror. "Andrew!" she cried. "It came over me--just
+as I entered the house! What have you done with Anthony?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Tallente's first impressions of Jane Partington were that an exceedingly
+attractive but somewhat imperious young woman had surprised him in a
+most undignified position. She had come cantering down the drive on a
+horse which, by comparison with the Exmoor ponies which every one rode
+in those parts, had seemed gigantic, and, finding a difficulty in making
+her presence known, had motioned to him with her whip. He climbed down
+from the steps where he had been busy fastening up some roses, removed a
+nail from his mouth and came towards her.
+
+"How is it that I can make no one hear?" she asked. "Do you know if
+Mrs. Tallente is at home?"
+
+Tallente was in no hurry to reply. He was busy taking in a variety of
+pleasant impressions. Notwithstanding the severely cut riding habit and
+the hard little hat, he decided that he had never looked into a more
+attractively feminine face. For some occult reason, unconnected, he was
+sure, with the use of any skin food or face cream, this young woman who
+had the reputation of living out of doors, winter and summer, had a
+complexion which, notwithstanding its faint shade of tan, would have
+passed muster for delicacy and clearness in any Mayfair drawing-room.
+Her eyes were soft and brown, her hair a darker shade of the same
+colour. Her mouth, for all its firmness, was soft and pleasantly
+curved. Her tone, though a trifle imperative, was kindly, gracious and
+full of musical quality. Her figure was moderately slim, but
+indistinguishable at that moment under her long coat. She possessed a
+curious air of physical well-being, the well-being of a woman who has
+found and is enjoying what she seeks in life.
+
+"Won't you tell me why I can make no one hear?" she repeated, still
+good-naturedly but frowning slightly at his silence.
+
+"Mrs. Tallente is in London," he announced. "She has taken most of the
+establishment with her."
+
+The visitor fumbled in her side pocket and produced a diminutive ivory
+case. She withdrew a card and handed it to Tallente, with a glance at
+his gloved hands.
+
+"Will you give this to the butler?" she begged. "Tell him to tell his
+mistress that I was sorry not to find her at home."
+
+"The butler," Tallente explained, "has gone for the milk. He shall have
+the card immediately on his return."
+
+She looked at him for a moment and then smiled.
+
+"Do forgive me," she said. "I believe you are Mr. Tallente?"
+
+He drew off his gloves and shook hands.
+
+"How did you guess that?" he asked.
+
+"From the illustrated papers, of course," she answered. "I have come to
+the conclusion that you must be a very vain man, I have seen so many
+pictures of you lately."
+
+"A matter of snapshots," he replied, "for which, as a rule, the victim
+is not responsible. You should abjure such a journalistic vice as
+picture papers."
+
+"Why?" she laughed. "They lead to such pleasant surprises. I had been
+led to believe, for instance, by studying the Daily Mirror, that you
+were quite an elderly person with a squint."
+
+"I am becoming self-conscious," he confessed. "Won't you come in?
+There is a boy somewhere about the premises who can look after your
+horse, and I shall be able to give you some tea as soon as Robert gets
+back with the milk."
+
+He cooeed to the boy, who came up from one of the lower shelves of
+garden, and she followed him into the hall. He looked around him for a
+moment in some perplexity.
+
+"I wonder whether you would mind coming into my study?" he suggested.
+"I am here quite alone for the present, and it is the only room I use."
+
+She followed him down a long passage into a small apartment at the
+extreme end of the house.
+
+"You are like me," she said. "I keep most of my rooms shut up and live
+in my den. A lonely person needs so much atmosphere."
+
+"Rather a pigsty, isn't it?" he remarked, sweeping a heap of books from
+a chair. "I am without a secretary just now--in fact," he went on, with
+a little burst of confidence engendered by her friendly attitude, "we
+are in a mess altogether."
+
+She laughed softly, leaning back amongst the cushions of the chair and
+looking around the room, her kindly eyes filled with interest.
+
+"It is a most characteristic mess," she declared. "I am sure an
+interviewer would give anything for this glimpse into your tastes and
+habits. Golf clubs, all cleaned up and ready for action; trout rod,
+newly-waxed at the joints--you must try my stream, there is no water in
+yours; tennis racquets in a very excellent press--I wonder whether
+you're too good for a single with me some day? Typewriter--rather
+dusty. I don't believe that you can use it."
+
+"I can't," he admitted. "I have been writing my letters by hand for the
+last two days."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"Men are helpless creatures! Fancy a great politician unable to write
+his own letters! What has become of your secretary?"
+
+Tallente threw some books to the floor and seated himself in the vacant
+easy-chair.
+
+"I shall begin to think," he said, a little querulously, "that you don't
+read the newspapers. My secretary, according to that portion of the
+Press which guarantees to provide full value for the smallest copper
+coin, has 'disappeared'."
+
+"Really?" she exclaimed. "He or she?"
+
+"He--the Honourable Anthony Palliser by name, son of Stobart Palliser,
+who was at Eton with me."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I expect I know his mother. What exactly do you mean by
+'disappeared'?"
+
+Tallente was looking out of the window. A slight hardness had crept
+into his tone and manner. He had the air of one reciting a story.
+
+"The young man and I differed last Tuesday night," he said. "In the
+language of the novelists, he walked out into the night and disappeared.
+Only an hour before dinner, too. Nothing has been heard of him since."
+
+"What a fatuous thing to do!" she remarked. "Shall you have to get
+another secretary?"
+
+"Presently," he assented. "Just for the moment I am rather enjoying
+doing nothing."
+
+She leaned back amongst the cushions of her chair and looked across at
+him with interest, an interest which presently drifted into sympathy.
+Even the lightness of his tone could not mask the inwritten weariness of
+the man, the tired droop of the mouth, and the lacklustre eyes.
+
+"Do you know," she said, "I have never been more intrigued than when I
+heard you were really coming down here. Last summer I was in
+Scotland--in fact I have been away every time the Manor has been open.
+I am so anxious to know whether you like this part of the world."
+
+"I like it so much," he replied, "that I feel like settling here for the
+rest of my life."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You will never be able to do that," she said, "at least not for many
+years. The country will need so much of your time. But it is
+delightful to think that you may come here for your holidays."
+
+"If you read the newspapers," he remarked, a little grimly, "you might
+not be so sure that the country is clamouring for my services."
+
+She waved away his speech with a little gesture of contempt.
+
+"Rubbish! Your defeat at Hellesfield was a matter of political jobbery.
+Any one could see through that. Horlock ought never to have sent you
+there. He ought to have found you a perfectly safe seat, and of course
+he will have to do it."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I am not so sure. Horlock resents my defeat almost as though it were a
+personal matter. Besides, it is an age of young men, Lady Jane."
+
+"Young men!" she scoffed. "But you are young."
+
+"Am I?" he answered, a little sadly. "I am not feeling it just now.
+Besides, there is something wrong about my enthusiasms. They are
+becoming altogether too pastoral. I am rather thinking of taking up the
+cultivation of roses and of making a terraced garden down to the sea.
+Do you know anything about gardening, Lady Jane?"
+
+"Of course I do," she answered, a little impatiently. "A very excellent
+hobby it is for women and dreamers and elderly men. There is plenty of
+time for you to take up such a pursuit when you have finished your
+work."
+
+"Fifteen thousand intelligent voters have just done their best to tell
+me that it is already finished," he sighed.
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"Am I going to be disappointed in you, I wonder?" she asked. "I don't
+think so. You surely wouldn't let a little affair like one election
+drive you out of public life? It was so obvious that you were made the
+victim for Horlock's growing unpopularity in the country. Haven't you
+realised that yourself--or perhaps you don't care to talk about these
+things to an ignoramus such as I am?"
+
+"Please don't believe that," he begged hastily. "I think yours is
+really the common-sense view of the matter. Only," he went on, "I have
+always represented, amongst the coalitionists, the moderate Socialist,
+the views of those men who recognise the power and force of the coming
+democracy, and desire to have legislation attuned to it. Yet it was the
+Democratic vote which upset me at Hellesfield."
+
+"That was entirely a matter of faction," she persisted. "That horrible
+person Miller was sent down there, for some reason or other, to make
+trouble. I believe if the election had been delayed another week, and
+you had been able to make two more speeches like you did at the Corn
+Exchange, you would have got in."
+
+He looked at her in some surprise.
+
+"That is exactly what I thought myself," he agreed. "How on earth do
+you come to know all these things?"
+
+"I take an interest in your career," she said, smiling at him, "and I
+hate to see you so dejected without cause."
+
+He felt a little thrill at her words. A queer new sense of
+companionship stirred in his pulses. The bitterness of his suppressed
+disappointment was suddenly soothed. There was something of the
+excitement of the discoverer, too, in these new sensations. It seemed
+to him that he was finding something which had been choked out of his
+life and which was yet a real and natural part of it.
+
+"You will make an awful nuisance of me if you don't mind," he warned
+her. "If you encourage me like this, you will develop the most juvenile
+of all failings--you will make me want to talk about myself. I am
+beginning to feel terribly egotistical already."
+
+She leaned a little towards him. Her mouth was soft with sweet and
+feminine tenderness, her eyes warm with kindness.
+
+"That is just what I hoped I might succeed in doing," she declared. "I
+have been interested in your career ever since I had the faintest idea
+of what politics meant. You could not give me a greater happiness than
+to talk to me--about yourself."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Very soon tea was brought in. The homely service of the meal, and
+Robert's plain clothes, seemed to demand some sort of explanation. It
+was she who provided the opening.
+
+"Will your wife be long away?" she enquired.
+
+Tallente looked at his guest thoughtfully. She was pouring out tea from
+an ordinary brown earthenware pot with an air of complete absorption in
+her task. The friendliness of her seemed somehow to warm the atmosphere
+of the room, even as her sympathy had stolen into the frozen places of
+his life. For the moment he ignored her question. His eyes appraised
+her critically, reminiscently. There was something vaguely familiar in
+the frank sweetness of her tone and manner.
+
+"I am going to make the most idiotically commonplace remark," he said.
+"I cannot believe that this is the first time we have met."
+
+"It isn't," she replied, helping herself to strawberry
+
+"Are you in earnest?" he asked, puzzled.
+
+"Do you mean that I have spoken to you?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Not only that but you have made me a present."
+
+He searched the recesses of his memory in vain. She smiled at his
+perplexity and began to count on her fingers.
+
+"Let me see," she said, "exactly fourteen years ago you arrived in Paris
+from London on a confidential mission to a certain person."
+
+"To Lord Peters!" he exclaimed.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"You had half an hour to spare after you had finished your business, and
+you begged to see the young people. Maggie Peters was always a friend
+of yours. You came into the morning-room and I was there."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes! I was at school in Paris, and I was spending my half-holiday with
+Maggie."
+
+"The little brown girl!" he murmured. "I never heard your name, and
+when I sent the chocolates I had to send them to 'the young lady in
+brown.' Of course I remember! But your hair was down your back, you had
+freckles, and you were as silent as a mouse."
+
+"You see how much better my memory is than yours," she laughed.
+
+"I am not so sure," he objected. "You took me for the gardener just
+now."
+
+"Not when you came down the steps," she protested, "and besides, it is
+your own fault for wearing such atrociously old clothes."
+
+"They shall be given away to-morrow," he promised.
+
+"I should think so," she replied. "And you might part with the battered
+straw hat you were wearing, at the same time."
+
+"It shall be done," he promised meekly.
+
+She became reminiscent.
+
+"We were all so interested in you in those days. Lord Peters told us,
+after you were gone, that some day you would be Prime Minister."
+
+"I am afraid," he sighed, "that I have disappointed most of my friends."
+
+"You have disappointed no one," she assured him firmly. "You will
+disappoint no one. You are the one person in politics who has kept a
+steadfast course, and if you have lost ground a little in the country,
+and slipped out of people's political appreciation during the last
+decade, don't we all know why? Every one of your friends--and your
+wife, of course," she put in hastily, "must be proud that you have lost
+ground. There isn't another man in the country who gave up a great
+political career to learn his drill in a cadet corps, who actually
+served in the trenches through the most terrible battles of the war, and
+came out of it a Brigadier-General with all your distinctions."
+
+He felt his heart suddenly swell. No one had ever spoken to him like
+this. The newspapers had been complimentary for a day and had accepted
+the verdict of circumstances the next. His wife had simply been the
+reflex of other people's opinion and the trend of events.
+
+"You make me feel," he told her earnestly, "almost for the first time,
+that after all it was worth while."
+
+The slight unsteadiness of his tone at first surprised, then brought her
+almost to the point of confusion. Their eyes met--a startled glance on
+her part, merely to assure herself that he was in earnest--and
+afterwards there was a moment's embarrassment. She accepted a cigarette
+and went back to her easy-chair.
+
+"You did not answer the question I asked you a few minutes ago," she
+reminded him. "When is your wife returning?"
+
+The shadow was back on his face.
+
+"Lady Jane," he said, "if it were not that we are old friends, dating
+from that box of chocolates, remember, I might have felt that I must
+make you some sort of a formal reply. But as it is, I shall tell you
+the truth. My wife is not coming hack."
+
+"Not at all?" she exclaimed.
+
+"To me, never," he answered. "We have separated."
+
+"I am so very sorry," she said, after a moment's startled silence. "I
+am afraid that I asked a tactless question, but how could I know?"
+
+"There was nothing tactless about it," he assured her. "It makes it
+much easier for me to tell you. I married my wife thirteen years ago
+because I believed that her wealth would help me in my career. She
+married me because she was an American with ambitions, anxious to find a
+definite place in English society. She has been disappointed in me.
+Other circumstances have now presented themselves. I have discovered
+that my wife's affections are bestowed elsewhere. To be perfectly
+honest, the discovery was a relief to me."
+
+"So that is why you are living down here like this?" she murmured.
+
+"Precisely! The one thing for which I am grateful," he went on, "is
+that I always refused to let my wife take a big country house. I
+insisted upon an unpretentious place for the times when I could rest. I
+think that I shall settle down here altogether. I can just afford to
+live here if I shoot plenty of rabbits, and if Robert's rheumatism is
+not too bad for him to look after the vegetable garden."
+
+"Of course you are talking nonsense," she pronounced, a little curtly.
+
+"Why nonsense?"
+
+"You must go back to your work," she insisted.
+
+"Keep this place for your holiday moments, certainly, but for the rest,
+to talk of settling down here is simply wicked."
+
+"What is my work?" he asked. "I tell you frankly that I do not know
+where I belong. A very intelligent constituency, stuffed up to the
+throat with schoolboard education, has determined that it would prefer a
+representative who has changed his politics already four times. I seem
+to be nobody's man. Horlock at heart is frightened of me, because he is
+convinced that I am not sound, and he has only tried to make use of me
+as a sop to democracy. The Whigs hate me like poison, hate me even
+worse than Horlock. If I were in Parliament, I should not know which
+Party to support. I think I shall devote my time to roses."
+
+"And between September and May?"
+
+"I shall hibernate and think about them."
+
+"Of course," she said, with the air of one humoring a child, "you are
+not in earnest. You have just been through a very painful experience
+and you are suffering from it. As for the rest, you are talking
+nonsense."
+
+"Explain, please," he begged.
+
+"You said just now that you did not know where your place was," she
+continued. "You called yourself nobody's man. Why, the most ignorant
+person who thinks about things could tell you where you belong. Even I
+could tell you."
+
+"Please do," he invited.
+
+She rose to her feet.
+
+"Walk round the garden with me," she begged, brushing the cigarette ash
+from her skirt. "You know what a terrible out-of-door person I am.
+This room seems to me close. I want to smell the sea from one of those
+wonderful lookouts of yours."
+
+He walked with her along one of the lower paths, deliberately avoiding
+the upper lookouts. They came presently to a grass-grown pier. She
+stood at the end, her firm, capable fingers clenching the stone wall,
+her eyes looking seaward.
+
+"I will tell you where you belong," she said. "In your heart you must
+know it, but you are suffering from that reaction which comes from
+failure to those people who are not used to failure. You belong to the
+head of things. You should hold up your right, hand, and the party you
+should lead should form itself about you. No, don't interrupt me," she
+went on. "You and all of us know that the country is in a bad way. She
+is feeling all the evils of a too-great prosperity, thrust upon her
+after a period of suffering. You can see the dangers ahead--I learnt
+them first from you in the pages of the reviews, when after the war you
+foretold the exact position in which we find ourselves to-day.
+Industrial wealth means the building up of a new democracy. The
+democracy already exists but it is unrepresented, because those people
+who should form its bulwark and its strength are attached to various
+factions of what is called the Labour Party. They don't know themselves
+yet. No Rienzi has arisen to hold up the looking-glass. If some one
+does not teach them to find themselves, there will be trouble. Mind, I
+am only repeating what you have told others."
+
+"It is all true," he agreed.
+
+"Then can't you see," she continued eagerly, "what party it is to which
+you ought to attach yourself--the party which has broken up now into
+half a dozen factions? They are all misnamed but that is no matter.
+You should stand for Parliament as a Labour or a Socialist candidate,
+because you understand what the people want and what they ought to have.
+You should draw up a new and final programme."
+
+"You are a wonderful person," he said with conviction, "but like all
+people who are clear-sighted and who have imagination, you are also a
+theorist. I believe your idea is the true one, but to stand for
+Parliament as a Labour member you have to belong to one of the
+acknowledged factions to be sure of any support at all. An independent
+member can count his votes by the capful."
+
+"That is the old system," she pointed out firmly. "It is for you to
+introduce a new one. If necessary, you must stoop to political cunning.
+You should make use of those very factions until you are strong enough
+to stand by yourself. Through their enmity amongst themselves, one of
+them would come to your side, anyway. But I should like to see you
+discard all old parliamentary methods. I should like to see you speak
+to the heart of the man who is going to record his vote."
+
+"It is a slow matter to win votes in units," he reminded her.
+
+"But it is the real way," she insisted. "Voting by party and government
+by party will soon come to an end. It must. All that it needs is a
+strong man with a definite programme of his own, to attack the whole
+principle."
+
+He looked away from the sea towards the woman by his side. The wind was
+blowing in her face, blowing back little strands of her tightly coiled
+hair, blowing back her coat and skirt, outlining her figure with soft
+and graceful distinction. She was young, healthy and splendid, full of
+all the enthusiasm of her age. He sighed a little bitterly.
+
+"All that you say," he reminded her, "should have been said to me by the
+little brown girl in Paris, years ago. I am too old now for great
+tasks."
+
+She turned towards him with the pitying yet pleasant air of one who
+would correct a child.
+
+"You are forty-nine years old and three months," she said.
+
+"How on earth did you know that?" he demanded.
+
+She smiled.
+
+"A valuable little red book called 'Who's Who.' You see, it is no use
+your trying to pose as a Methuselah. For a politician you are a young
+man. You have time and strength for the greatest of all tasks. Find
+some other excuse, sir, if you talk of laying down the sword and picking
+up the shuttle."
+
+He looked back seawards. His eyes were following the flight of a
+seagull, wheeling in the sunlight.
+
+"I suppose you are right," he acknowledged. "No man is too old for
+work."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir."
+
+They turned abruptly around. They had been so engrossed that they had
+not noticed the sound of footsteps. Robert, a little out of breath, was
+standing at attention. There was a disturbed look in his face, a tremor
+in his voice.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," he repeated, "there is--some one here to see
+you."
+
+"Some one?" Tallente repeated impatiently.
+
+Robert leaned a little forward. The effort at lowering his voice only
+made his hoarse whisper sound more agitated.
+
+"A police inspector, sir, from Barnstaple, is waiting in the study."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Mr Inspector Gillian of Barnstaple had no idea of denying his
+profession. He had travelled over in a specially hired motor-car, and
+he was wearing his best uniform. He rose to his feet at Tallente's
+entrance and saluted a little ponderously.
+
+"Mr. Andrew Tallente, sir?" he enquired.
+
+Tallente silently admitted his identity, waved the inspector back to his
+seat--the one high-backed and uncomfortable chair in the room--and took
+an easy-chair himself.
+
+"I have come over, sir," the man continued, "according to instructions
+received by telephone from Scotland Yard. My business is to ask you a
+few questions concerning the disappearance of the Honourable Anthony
+Palliser, who was, I am given to understand, your secretary."
+
+"Dear me!" Tallente exclaimed. "I had no idea that the young man's
+temporary absence from polite society would be turned into a
+melodramatic disappearance."
+
+The inspector took mental note of the levity in Tallente's tone, and
+disapproved.
+
+"The Honourable Anthony Palliser disappeared from here, sir, on Tuesday
+night last, the night of your return from London," he said. "I have
+come to ask you certain questions with reference to that disappearance."
+
+"Go ahead," Tallente begged. "Care to smoke a cigar?"
+
+"Not whilst on duty, thank you, sir," was the dignified reply.
+
+"You will forgive my cigarette," Tallente observed, lighting one. "Now
+you can go ahead as fast as you like."
+
+"Question number one is this, sir. I wish to know whether Mr.
+Palliser's abrupt departure from the Manor was due to any disagreement
+with you?"
+
+"In a sense I suppose it was," the other acknowledged. "I turned him
+out of the house."
+
+The inspector did not attempt to conceal his gratification. He made a
+voluminous note in his pocketbook.
+
+"Am I to conclude, then, that there was a quarrel?" he enquired.
+
+"I do not quarrel with people to whom I pay a salary," Tallente replied.
+
+"When you say that you turned him out of the house, that rather implies
+a quarrel, doesn't it? It might even imply--blows."
+
+"You can put your own construction upon it," was the cool reply.
+
+"Had you any idea where the honourable Anthony Palliser was going to?"
+
+"I suggested the devil," Tallente confided blandly. "I expect he will
+get there some time. I put up with him because I knew his father, but
+he is not a young man to make a fuss about."
+
+The inspector was a little staggered.
+
+"I am to conclude, then," he said, "that you were dissatisfied with his
+work as your secretary?"
+
+"Absolutely," was the firm reply. "You have no idea what a mess he was
+liable to make of things if he was left alone."
+
+The inspector coughed.
+
+"Mr. Tallente, sir," he said, "my instructions are to ask you to
+disclose the nature of your displeasure, if any, with the Honourable Mr.
+Anthony Palliser. In plain words, Scotland Yard desires to know why he
+was turned away from his place at a moment's notice."
+
+"I suppose it is the duty of Scotland Yard to be inquisitive in cases of
+this sort," Tallente observed. "You can report to them the whole of the
+valuable information with which I have already furnished you, and you
+can add that I absolutely refuse to give any information respecting
+the--er--difference of opinion between the young man and myself."
+
+The inspector did not conceal his dissatisfaction.
+
+"I shall ask, you, sir," he said with dignity, "to reconsider that
+decision. Remember that it is the police who ask, and in cases of this
+sort they have special privileges."
+
+"As soon as any criminal case arises from Anthony Palliser's
+disappearance," Tallente pointed out, "you will be in a position to ask
+me questions from a different standpoint. For the present I have given
+you just as much information as I feel inclined to. Shall we leave it
+at that?"
+
+The inspector appeared to have become hard of hearing. He did not
+attempt to rise from his chair.
+
+"Being your private secretary, sir," he said, "the Honourable Anthony
+Palliser would no doubt have access to your private papers?"
+
+"Naturally," Tallente conceded.
+
+"There might be amongst them papers of importance, papers whose
+possession by parties in the other camp of politics--"
+
+"Stop!" Tallente interrupted. "Inspector Gillan, you are an astute man.
+Excuse me."
+
+He crossed the room and, with a key which he took from a chain attached
+to his trouser button, opened a small but powerful safe fitted into the
+wall. He opened it confidently enough, gazed inside and remained for a
+moment transfixed. Then he took up a few little packets of papers,
+glanced them through and replaced them. He still stood there, dangling
+the key in his hard. The inspector watched him curiously.
+
+"Anything missing, sir?" he asked.
+
+Tallente swung the door to and came back to his chair.
+
+"Yes!" he admitted.
+
+"Can I make a note of the nature of the loss, sir?" the man asked,
+moistening his pencil.
+
+"A political paper of some personal consequence," Tallente replied.
+"Its absence disquiets me. It also confirms my belief that Palliser is
+lying doggo for a time."
+
+"A hint as to the contents of the missing paper would be very
+acceptable, sir," Inspector Gillian begged.
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"For the present," he decided, "I can only repeat what I said a few
+moments ago--I have given you just as much information as I feel
+inclined to."
+
+The inspector rose to his feet.
+
+"My report will not be wholly satisfactory to Scotland Yard, sir," he
+declared.
+
+"My experience of the estimable body is that they take a lot of
+satisfying," Tallente replied. "Will you take anything before you go,
+Inspector?"
+
+"Nothing whatever, thank you, sir. At the risk of annoying you, I am
+bound to ask this question. Will you tell me whether anything in the
+nature of blows passed between you and the Honourable Anthony Palliser,
+previous to his leaving your house?"
+
+"I will not even satisfy your curiosity to that extent," Tallente
+answered.
+
+"It will be my duty, sir," the inspector said ponderously, "to examine
+some of your servants."
+
+"Scotland Yard can do that for themselves," Tallente observed. "My wife
+and the greater part of the domestic staff left here for London a week
+ago."
+
+The representative of the law saluted solemnly.
+
+"I am sorry that you have not felt inclined to treat me with more
+confidence in this matter, Mr. Tallente," he said.
+
+He took his leave then. Tallente heard him conversing for some time
+with Robert and saw him in the garden, interviewing the small boy.
+Afterwards, he climbed into his car and drove away. Tallente opened his
+safe and once more let the little array of folded papers slip through
+his hands. Then he rang the bell for Robert, who presently appeared.
+
+"The inspector has quite finished with you?" his master asked.
+
+Robert was a portly man, a little unhealthy in colour and a little short
+of breath. He had been gassed in the war and his nerves were not what
+they had been. It was obvious, as he stood on the other side of the
+table, that he was trembling.
+
+"Quite, sir. He was enquiring about Mr. Palliser."
+
+His master nodded.
+
+"I am afraid he will find it a little difficult to obtain any
+information round here," he remarked. "There are certain things
+connected with that young man which may throw a new light upon his
+disappearance."
+
+"Indeed, sir?" Robert murmured.
+
+Tallente glanced towards the safe.
+
+"Robert," he confided, "I have been robbed."
+
+The man started a little.
+
+"Indeed, sir?" he replied. "Nothing very valuable, I hope?"
+
+"I have been robbed of papers," Tallente said quietly, "which in the
+wrong hands might ruin me. Mr. Palliser had a key to that safe. Have
+you ever seen it open?"
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"When did Mr. Palliser arrive here?"
+
+"On the evening train of the Monday, sir, that you arrived by on the
+Tuesday."
+
+"Tell me, did he receive any visitors at all on the Tuesday?"
+
+"There was a man came over from a house near Lynton, sir, said his name
+was Miller."
+
+"Have you any idea what he wanted?"
+
+"No certain idea, sir," Robert replied doubtfully. "Now I come to think
+of it, though, it seemed as though he had come to make Mr. Palliser
+some sort of an offer. After I had let him out, he came back and said
+something to Mr. Palliser about three thousand pounds, and Mr.
+Palliser said he would let him know. I got the idea, somehow or other,
+that the transaction, whatever it might have been, was to be concluded
+on Tuesday night."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me this before, Robert?" his master enquired.
+
+"Other things drove it out of my mind, sir," the man confessed. "I
+didn't look upon it as of much consequence. I thought it was something
+to do with Mr. Palliser's private affairs."
+
+Tallente glanced at the safe.
+
+"I saw this man Miller at the station," he said, "when I arrived."
+
+"That would be on his way back from here, sir," Robert acquiesced. "I
+gathered that he was coming back again after dinner in a car."
+
+"Did you hear a car at all that night?"
+
+"I rather fancied I did," the man asserted. "I didn't take particular
+notice, though."
+
+Tallente frowned.
+
+"I am very much afraid, Robert," he said, "that wherever Mr. Palliser
+is, those papers are."
+
+Robert shivered.
+
+"Very good, sir," he said, in a low tone.
+
+"Any speculations as to that young man's whereabouts," Tallente
+continued thoughtfully, "must necessarily be a matter of pure guesswork,
+but supposing, Robert, he should have wandered in that mist the wrong
+way--turned to the left, for instance, outside this window, instead of
+to the right--he might very easily have fallen over the cliff."
+
+"The walk is very unsafe in the dark, sir," Robert acquiesced, looking
+down at the carpet.
+
+"It was not my intention," Tallente remarked thoughtfully, "to kill the
+young man. A brawl in front of the windows was impossible, so I took
+him with me to the lookout. I suppose he was tactless and I lost my
+temper. I struck him on the chin and he went backwards, through that
+piece of rotten paling, you know, Robert--"
+
+"I know, sir," the man interrupted, with a little moan. "Please don't!"
+
+Tallente shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I took him at no disadvantage," he said coolly. "He knew how to use
+the gloves and he was twenty years younger than I. However, there it is.
+Backwards he went, all legs and arms and shrieks. And with him went the
+papers he had stolen.--At twelve o'clock to-night, Robert, I must go
+down after him."
+
+"It's impossible, sir! It's a sheer precipice for four hundred feet!"
+
+"Nothing of the sort," was the cool reply. "There are heaps of ledges
+and little clumps of pines and yews. All that you will have to do is to
+pull up the rope when I am ready. You can fasten it to a tree when I go
+down."
+
+"It's not worth it, sir," the man protested anxiously. "No one will
+ever find the body down there."
+
+"Send the boy home to stay with his parents to-night," Tallente
+continued. "Your wife, I suppose, can be trusted?"
+
+"She is living up at the garage, sir," Robert answered. "Besides, she
+is deaf. I'll tell her that I am sleeping in the house to-night as you
+are not very well. And forgive me, sir--her ladyship left a message.
+She hoped you would lunch with her to-morrow."
+
+Tallente strolled out again in a few minutes, curiously impatient of the
+restraint of walls, and clambered up the precipitous field at the back
+of the Manor. Far up the winding road which led back into the world, a
+motor-car was crawling on its way up over. He watched it through a pair
+of field glasses. Leaning back in the tonneau with folded arms, as
+though solemnly digesting a problem, was Inspector Gillian. Tallente
+closed the glasses with a little snap and smiled.
+
+"The Bucket type," he murmured to himself, "very much the Bucket type."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The moon that night seemed to be indulging in strange vagaries, now
+dimly visible behind a mist of thin grey vapour, now wholly obscured
+behind jagged masses of black cloud, and occasionally shining
+brilliantly from a little patch of clear sky. Tallente waited for one
+of the latter moments before he finally tested the rope which was wound
+around the strongest of the young pine trees and stepped over the rustic
+wooden paling at the edge of the lookout He stood there balanced between
+earth and sky, until Robert, who watched him, shivered. "There is
+nothing to fear," his master said coolly. "Remember, I am an old hand
+at mountain climbing, Robert. All the same, if anything should happen,
+you'd better say that we fancied we heard a cry from down below and I
+went to see what it was. You understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir!"
+
+Tallente took a step into what seemed to be Eternity. The rope cut into
+his hands for the first three or four yards, as the red sand crumbled
+away beneath his feet, and he was obliged to grip for his life.
+Presently he gained a little ledge, from which a single yew tree was
+growing, and paused for breath.
+
+"Are you all right, sir?" Robert called out from above.
+
+"Quite," was the confident answer. "I shall be off again in a minute."
+
+Tallente's head had been the wonder even of members of the Alpine Club,
+years ago in Switzerland. He found himself now in this strangest of all
+positions, absolutely steady and unmoved. Sheer below him, dark,
+rushing waves broke upon the rocks, sending showers of glittering spray
+upwards. Above, the little lookout with its rustic paling seemed almost
+more than directly overhead. The few stars and the fugitive moon seemed
+somehow set in a different sky. He felt a new kinship with a great gull
+who came floating by. He had become himself a creature of the wild
+places. Presently he began once more to let himself down, hand over
+hand, to where the next little clump of trees showed a chance of a
+precarious foothold. The rope chafed his fingers but he remained
+absolutely steady. Once he trusted for a moment to a yew tree, growing
+out of a fissure in the rock, which came out by the roots and went
+hurtling down into space. From overhead he heard Robert's terrified
+cry. The rope stood the strain of his sudden clutch, however, and all
+was well. A little lower down, holding on with one hand, he took his
+torch from his pocket and examined the surface of the cliff. Nothing
+apparently had been disturbed, nor was there any sign of any heavy body
+having been dashed through the undergrowth. Soon he went on again,
+and, working a little to the left, stood for a moment upon a green,
+turf-covered crag, a tiny plateau covered with the refuse of seagulls
+and a few stunted trees, from amongst which a startled hawk rose with a
+wild cry. He waited here until the moon shone once more and he could
+see the little strip of shingle below. Nowhere could he find any trace
+of the thing he sought.
+
+At the end of half an hour's climbing, he reached the end of the rope.
+The little cove, filled with tumbled rocks and a narrow strip of beach,
+was still about eighty feet below. The slope here was far less
+precipitous and there was a foothold in many places amongst the thinly
+growing firs and dwarfed oaks. Calmly he let go the rope and commenced
+to scramble. More than once his foot slipped, but he was always in a
+position to save himself. The time came at last when he stood upon the
+pebbly beach, surprised to find that his knees were shaking and his
+breath coming fast. The little place was so enclosed that when he
+looked upwards it seemed as though he were at the bottom of a pit, as
+though the stars and the doubtful moon had receded and he was somehow in
+the bowels of the earth instead of being on the sea level. There were
+only a few feet of the shingle dry, and a great wave, breaking amongst
+the huge rocks, drenched him with spray. He proceeded with his task,
+however, searching methodically amongst the rocks, scanning the pebbly
+beach with his torch, always amazed that nowhere could he find the
+slightest trace of what he sought. Finally, drenched to the skin and
+utterly exhausted, he commenced once more the upward climb. He was an
+hour reaching the end of the rope. Then he blew the whistle and the
+rest was easy. Nevertheless, when the paling came into sight and he
+felt Robert's arms under his shoulders, he reeled over towards the seat
+and lay there, his clothes caked in red mud, the knees of his
+knickerbockers cut, blood on his hands and forehead, breathless. Robert
+forced brandy down his throat, however, and in a moment or two he was
+himself again.
+
+"A miracle!" he gasped. "There is nothing there."
+
+"There was something dark, I fancied, upon the strip of beach, sir,"
+Robert ventured.
+
+"I thought so too. It was a tarred plank of timber."
+
+"Then the tide must have reached him."
+
+Tallente rose to his feet and looked over.
+
+"The sea alone knows," he said. "For the first time, though, Robert, I
+feel inclined to agree with the newspapers, who speak of the strange
+disappearance of the Honourable Antimony Palliser. Could any man go
+backwards over that palisading, do you think, and save his life?"
+
+Robert shook his head.
+
+"Miracles can't happen, sir," he muttered.
+
+"Nevertheless," Tallente said, a little gloomily, "the sea never keeps
+what the land gives it. My fate will rest with the tides."
+
+Robert suddenly gripped his master's arm. The moon had disappeared
+underneath a fragment of cloud and they stood in complete darkness.
+Both men listened. From one of the paths which led through the grounds
+from the beach, came the sound of muffled footsteps. A startled owl
+flew out and wheeled over their heads with a queer little cry.
+
+"Who's that in the grounds, Robert?" Tallente demanded.
+
+"I've no idea, sir," the latter replied, his voice shaking. "The
+cottage is empty. The boy went home--I saw him start off. There is no
+one else about the place."
+
+Nevertheless, the footsteps came nearer. By and by, through the trees,
+came the occasional flash of an electric torch. Robert turned towards
+the house but Tallente gripped him by the arm.
+
+"Stop here," he muttered. "We couldn't get away. Any one would hear
+our footsteps along this flinty path. Besides, there is the rope."
+
+"It's someone else searching!" Robert whispered hoarsely.
+
+The light grew nearer and nearer. A little way below, the path branched
+to the right and the left. To the left it encircled the tennis lawn and
+led to the Manor or back to the road. The path to the right led to the
+little lookout upon which the two men were standing. The footsteps for
+a moment hesitated. Then the light flashed out and approached. Whoever
+the intruder might be, he was making his way directly towards them.
+Tallente shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"We must see this through, Robert," he said. "We were in a tighter
+corner at Ypres, remember. Keep as quiet as you can. Now, then."
+
+Tallente flashed on his own torch.
+
+"Who's there?" he asked sternly.
+
+There was no answer. The torch for a moment remained stationary, then
+it began again to advance.
+
+"What are you doing in my grounds?" Tallente demanded. "Who are you?"
+
+A shape loomed into distinctness. A bulky man in dark clothes came into
+sight.
+
+"I am Gillian--Inspector Gillian. What are you doing out here, Mr.
+Tallente?"
+
+Tallente laughed a little scornfully.
+
+"It seems to me that the boot is on the other leg," he said. "I should
+like to know what the mischief you mean by wandering around my grounds
+at this hour of the night without my permission?"
+
+The inspector completed his climb and stood in the little circle of
+light. He took note of the rope and of Tallente's condition.
+
+"My presence here, sir," the inspector announced, "is connected with the
+disappearance of the Honourable Anthony Palliser."
+
+"Confidence for confidence," Tallente replied. "So is mine."
+
+The inspector moved to the palisading. The top rail had been broken, as
+though it had given under the weight of some heavy body. He held up the
+loose fragment, glanced downwards into the dark gulf and back again to
+Tallente. "You've been over there," he said. "I have," Tallente
+admitted. "I've made a search that I don't fancy you'd have tackled
+yourself. I've been down the cliff to the beach."
+
+"What reason had you for supposing that you might discover Mr.
+Palliser's body there?" the other asked bluntly.
+
+Tallente sat on the stone seat and lit a cigarette.
+
+"I will take you into my confidence, Mr. Inspector," he said. "This
+afternoon I strolled round here with a lady caller, just before you
+came, and I fancied that I heard a faint cry. I took no notice of it at
+the time, but to-night, after dinner, I wandered out here again, and
+again I fancied I heard it. It got on my nerves to such an extent that
+I fetched Robert here, a coil of rope, put on some shoes with spikes and
+tried to remember that I was an Alpine climber."
+
+"You've been down to the beach and back, sir?" the inspector asked,
+looking over a little wonderingly.
+
+"Every inch of the way. The last eighty feet or so I had to scramble."
+
+"Did you discover anything, sir?"
+
+"Not a thing. I couldn't even find a broken twig in any of the little
+clumps of outgrowing trees. There wasn't a sign of the sand having been
+disturbed anywhere down the face of the cliff, and I shouldn't think a
+human being had been on that beach during our lifetimes. I have had my
+night's work for nothing."
+
+"It was just the cry you fancied you heard which made you undertake this
+expedition?"
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+The inspector held up the broken rail.
+
+"When was this smashed?" he enquired.
+
+"I have no idea," Tallente answered. "All the woodwork about the place
+is rotten."
+
+"Doesn't it occur to you, sir, as being an extraordinarily dangerous
+thing to put it back in exactly the same position as though it were
+sound?"
+
+"Iniquitous," Tallente agreed.
+
+The inspector made a mental note. Tallente threw the remains of his
+cigarette into the sea. "I am going to bed now." he said. "Can I offer
+you any refreshment, Mr. Inspector, or are your investigations not yet
+complete?"
+
+"I thank you, sir, but I require nothing. I have some men up in the
+wood there and I shall join them presently. I am staying in the
+neighborhood."
+
+Tallente pointed to the rope.
+
+"If you would care to search for yourself, Mr. Inspector, we'll help
+you down."
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Scarcely a job for a man of my build, sir. I have a professional
+climber coming to-morrow. I wish you had informed me of your intention
+to go down to-night."
+
+"If you had informed me of your intention to remain in the neighborhood,
+that might have been possible," was the cool reply. The man took the
+loose wooden rail from its place and held it under his arm. "Walking
+off with a portion of my fence, eh?" Tallente asked.
+
+The inspector made no direct reply. He turned his torch on to the
+broken end.
+
+"A clue?" Tallente asked him lightly. The other turned away. "It is
+not my place, sir," he announced, "to share any discovery I might make
+with a person who has deliberately refused to assist the law."
+
+"No one has convinced me yet," Tallente replied, "that Palliser's
+disappearance is a matter in which the law need concern itself." The
+inspector coughed. "I wish you good night, sir." He disappeared along
+the narrow path. They listened to his retreating footsteps. Tallente
+picked up his end of the rope. "I was right," he said, as he led the
+way back to the house. "Quite the Inspector Bucket type."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+At noon the next day, Tallente, nervously as well as physically
+exhausted with the long climb from the Manor, turned aside from the
+straight, dusty road and seated himself upon a lichen-covered boulder.
+He threw his cap on the ground, filled and lighted an old briar pipe,
+and gazed with a queer mixture of feelings across the moorland to where
+Woolhanger spread itself, a queer medley of dwelling house and farm
+buildings, strangely situated at the far end of the table-land he was
+crossing, where the moor leaned down to a great hollow in the hills.
+The open stretch of common which lay between him and his destination had
+none of the charm of the surrounding country. It was like a dark spot
+set in the midst of the rolling splendours of the moorland proper.
+There were boulders of rock of unknown age, dark patches of peat land,
+where even in midsummer the mud oozed up at the lightest footfall, pools
+and sedgy places, the home and sometimes the breeding place of the
+melancholy snipe. Of colour there was singularly little. The heather
+bushes were stunted, their roots blackened as though with fire, and even
+the yellow of the gorse shone with a dimmer lustre. But in the
+distance, a flaming carpet of orange and purple stretched almost to the
+summit of the brown hills of kindlier soil, and farther round,
+westwards, richly cultivated fields, from which the labourers seemed to
+hang like insects in the air, rolled away almost to the clouds.
+
+Tallente looked at them a little wearily, impressed with the allegorical
+significance of his position. It seemed to him that he was in the land
+to which he belonged, the barren land of desolation and failure. The
+triumphs of the past failed for a moment to thrill his pulses. The
+memory of his well-lived and successful life brought him not an atom of
+consolation. The present was all that mattered, and the present had
+brought him to the gates of failure.--After all, what did a man work
+for, he wondered? What was the end and aim of it all? Life at
+Martinhoe Manor, with a faithful but terrified manservant, bookshelves
+ready to afford him the phantasmal satisfaction of another man's
+thoughts, sea and winds, beauties of landscape and colour, to bring him
+to the threshold of an epicurean pleasure which needed yet that one
+pulsating link with humanity to yield the full meed of joy and content.
+It all came back to the old story of man's weakness, he thought, as he
+rose to his feet, his teeth almost savagely clenching his pipe. He had
+become a conqueror of circumstances only to become a victim of the
+primitive needs of life.
+
+At about a quarter of a mile from the house, the road branched away to
+the left to disappear suddenly over the edge of a drop of many hundreds
+of feet. Tallente passed through a plain white gate, down an avenue of
+dwarfed oaks, to emerge into an unexpectedly green meadow, cloven
+through the middle with a straight white avenue. Through another gate
+he passed into a drive which led through flaming banks of rhododendrons,
+now a little past their full glory, to the front of the house, a long
+and amplified building which, by reason of many additions, had become an
+abode of some pretensions. A manservant answered his ring at once and
+led him into a cool, white stone hall, the walls of which were hung from
+floor to ceiling with hunting and sporting trophies.
+
+"Her ladyship is still at the farm, sir," the man announced. "She said
+if you came before she returned would you care to step round?"
+
+Tallente signified his assent and was led through the house, across a
+more extensive garden, from which a marvellous view of the valley and
+the climbing slopes behind held him spellbound, by the side of a small,
+quaintly shaped church, to a circular group of buildings of considerable
+extent. The man conducted him to the front of a white-plastered cottage
+covered with roses, and knocked at the door.
+
+"This is her ladyship's office, sir," he announced.
+
+Lady Jane's invitation to enter was clear and friendly. Tallente found
+her seated behind a desk, talking to a tall man in riding clothes, who
+swung around to eye the newcomer with a curiosity which seemed somehow
+not altogether friendly. Lady Jane held out her hand and smiled
+delightfully.
+
+"Do come in, Mr. Tallente," she begged. "I can't tell you how glad I
+am to see you. Now you will believe, won't you, that I am not
+altogether an idler in life? This is my agent, Mr. Segerson--Mr.
+Tallente."
+
+Lionel Segerson held out his hand. He was a tall, well-built young
+Devonian, sunburnt, with fair curly hair, a somewhat obstinate type of
+countenance, and dressed in the dandified fashion of the sporting
+farmer.
+
+"Glad to know you, Mr. Tallente," he said, in a tone which lacked
+enthusiasm. "I hope you're going to stay down in these parts for a
+time?"
+
+Tallente made only a monosyllabic reply, and Lady Jane, with a little
+gesture of apology, continued her conversation with Segerson.
+
+"I should like you," she directed, "to see James Crockford for yourself.
+Try and explain my views to him--you know them quite well. I want him
+to own his land. You can tell him that within the last two years I have
+sold eleven farms to their tenants, and no one could say that I have not
+done so on easy terms. But I need further convincing that Crocker is in
+earnest about the matter, and that he will really work to make his farm
+a success. In five good years he has only saved a matter of four
+hundred pounds, although his rental has been almost insignificant. That
+is the worst showing of any of the tenants on the estate, and though if
+I had more confidence in him I would sell on a mortgage, I don't feel
+inclined to until he has shown that he can do better. Tell him that he
+can have the farm for two thousand pounds, but he must bring me eight
+hundred in cash and it must not be borrowed money. That ought to
+satisfy him. He must know quite well that I could get three thousand
+pounds for it in the open market."
+
+"These fellows never take any notice of that," Segerson remarked.
+"Ungrateful beggars, all of them. I'll tell him what you say, Lady
+Jane."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Anything else?" the young man asked, showing a disposition to linger.
+
+"Nothing, thanks, until to-morrow morning." There was even then a slight
+unwillingness in his departure, which provoked a smile from Lady Jane as
+the door closed.
+
+"The young men of to-day are terribly spoilt," she said. "He expected
+to be asked to lunch."
+
+"I am glad he wasn't," Tallente observed.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Why not? He is quite a nice young man."
+
+"No doubt," Tallente agreed, without conviction. "However, I hate young
+men and I want to talk to you."
+
+"Young men are tiresome sometimes," she agreed, rising from her chair.
+
+"And older ones too, I am afraid!"
+
+She closed her desk and he stood watching her. She was wearing an
+extraordinarily masculine garb--a covert-coating riding costume, with
+breeches and riding boots concealed under a long coat--but she
+contrived, somehow, to remain altogether feminine. She stood for a
+moment looking about her, as though wondering whether there were
+anything else to be done, a capable figure, attractive because of her
+earnest self-possession.
+
+"Sarah," she called out.
+
+The sound of a typewriter in an inner room ceased. The door was opened
+and a girl appeared on the threshold.
+
+"You won't see me again to-day unless you send up for me," her mistress
+announced. "Let me have the letters to sign before five. Try and get
+away early, if you can. The car is going in to Lynton. Perhaps you
+would like the ride?"
+
+"I should enjoy it very much, your ladyship," the girl replied
+gratefully. "There is really very little to do this afternoon."
+
+"You can bring the letters whenever you like, then," Lady Jane told her,
+"and let Martin know that you are going in with him."
+
+"You study your people, I see," Tallente remarked, as they strolled
+together back to the house.
+
+"I try," she assented. "I try to do what I can in my little community
+here, very much as you, in a far greater way, try to study the people in
+your political programme. Of course," she went on, "it is far easier
+for me. The one thing I try to develop amongst them is a genuine, not
+a false spirit of independence. I want them to lean upon no one. I
+have no charities in connection with the estate, no soup kitchens or
+coal at Christmas, or anything of that sort. My theory is that every
+person is the better for being able to look after himself, and my idea
+of charity is placing him in a position to be able to do it. I don't
+want to be their Lady of the Manor and accept their rents and give them
+a dinner. I try to encourage them to save money and to buy their own
+farms. The man here who owns his own farm and makes it pay is in a
+position to lead a thoroughly self-respecting and honourable life. He
+ought to get what there is to be got out of life, and his children
+should be yeomen citizens of the best possible type. Of course, all
+this sort of thing is so much easier in the country. Very often, in the
+winter nights here, I waste my time trying to think out your greater
+problems."
+
+"Problems," he observed, "which the good people of Hellesfield have just
+decided that I am not the man to solve."
+
+"An election counts for nothing," she declared. "The merest whim will
+lead thousands of voters into the wrong polling booth. Besides, nearly
+all the papers admit that your defeat was owing to a political intrigue.
+The very men who should have supported you--who had promised to support
+you, in fact--went against you at the last moment. That was entirely
+due to Miller, wasn't it?"
+
+"Miller has been my political bete noir for years," he confessed. "To
+me he represents the ignominious pacifist, whereas to him I represent
+the sabre-rattling jingo. I got the best of it while the war was on.
+To-day it seems to me that he has an undue share of influence in the
+country."
+
+"Who are the men who really represent what you and I would understand as
+Labour?" she asked.
+
+"That is too difficult a question to answer offhand," he replied.
+"Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Labour is
+unrepresentable--Labour as a cause. There are too many of the people
+yet who haven't vision."
+
+They passed into the cool, geranium-scented hall. She pointed to an
+easy-chair by the side of which was set, on a small mahogany table, a
+silver cocktail shaker and two glasses.
+
+"Please be as comfortable as you can," she begged, "for a quarter of an
+hour. If you like to wash, a touch of the bell there will bring Morton.
+I must change my clothes. I had to ride out to one of the outlying
+farms this morning, and we came back rather quickly."
+
+She moved about the hall as she spoke, putting little things to rights.
+Then she passed up the circular staircase. At the bend she looked back
+and caught him watching her. She waved her hand with a little less than
+her usual frankness. Tallente had forgotten for a moment his
+whereabouts, his fatigue, his general weariness. He had turned around
+in his chair and was watching her. She found something in the very
+intensity of his gaze disturbing, vaguely analogous to certain
+half-formed thoughts of her own. She called out some light remark,
+scoffed at herself, and ran lightly out of sight, calling to her maid as
+she went.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Luncheon was served in a small room at the back of the house. Through
+the wide-flung French windows was a vista of terraced walks, the two
+sunken tennis lawns, a walled garden leading into an orchard, and
+beyond, the great wood-hung cleft in the hills, on either side of which
+the pastoral fields, like little squares, stretched away upwards. From
+here there was no trace of the more barren, unkinder side of the
+moorland. The succession of rich colours merged at last into the dim,
+pearly hue where sky and cloud met, in the golden haze of the August
+heat, a haze more like a sort of transparent filminess than anything
+which really obscured.
+
+Lady Jane, whose gift of femininity had triumphed even over her farm
+clothes, seemed to Tallente to convey a curiously mingled impression of
+restfulness and delicate charm in her cool, white muslin dress, low at
+the neck, the Paquin-made garment of an Aphrodite. She talked to him
+with all the charm of an accomplished hostess, and yet with the
+occasional fascinating reserve of the woman who finds her companion
+something more than ordinarily sympathetic. The butler served them
+unattended from the sideboard, but before luncheon was half way through
+they dispensed with his services.
+
+"I suppose it has occurred to you by this time, Mr. Tallente," she
+said, as she watched the coffee in a glass machine by her side, "that I
+am a very unconventional person."
+
+"Whatever you are," he replied, "I am grateful for."
+
+"Cryptic, but with quite a nice sort of sound about it," she observed,
+smiling. "Tell me honestly, though, aren't you surprised to find me
+living here quite alone?"
+
+"It seems to me perfectly natural," he answered.
+
+"I live without a chaperon," she went on, "because a chaperon called by
+that name would bore me terribly. As a matter of fact, though, there is
+generally some one staying here. I find it easy enough to persuade my
+friends and some of my relatives that a corner of Exmoor is not half a
+bad place in the spring and summer. It is through the winter that I am
+generally avoided."
+
+"I have always had a fancy to spend a winter on Exmoor," he confided.
+
+"It has its compensations," she agreed, "apart, of course, from the
+hunting."
+
+He felt the desire to speak of more vital things. What did hunting or
+chaperons more or less matter to the Lady Janes of the world! Already
+he knew enough of her to be sure that she would have her way in any
+crisis that might arise. "How much of the year," he asked, "do you
+actually spend here?"
+
+"As much as I can."
+
+"You are content to be here alone, even in the winter?"
+
+"More contented than I should be anywhere else," she assured him.
+"There is always plenty to do, useful work, too--things that count."
+
+"London?"
+
+"Bores me terribly," she confessed.
+
+"Foreign travel?"
+
+She nodded more tolerantly.
+
+"I have done a little of it," she said. "I should love to do more, but
+travel as travel is such an unsatisfying thing. If a place attracts
+you, you want to imbibe it. Travel leaves you no time to do anything
+but sniff. Life is so short. One must concentrate or one achieves
+nothing. I know what the general idea of a stay-at-home is," she went
+on. "Many of my friends consider me narrow. Perhaps I am. Anyhow, I
+prefer to lead a complete and, I believe, useful life here, to looking
+back in later years upon that hotchpotch of lurid sensations, tangled
+impressions and restless moments that most of them call life."
+
+"You display an amazing amount of philosophy for your years," he
+ventured, after a little hesitation. "There is one instinct, however,
+which you seem to ignore."
+
+"What is it, please?"
+
+"Shall I call it the gregarious one, the desire for companionship of
+young people of your own age?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. She had the air of one faintly amused by
+his diffidence.
+
+"You mean that I ought to be husband hunting," she said. "I quite admit
+that a husband would be a very wonderful addition to life. I have none
+of the sentiments of the old maid. On the other hand, I am rather a
+fatalist. If any man is likely to come my way whom I should care to
+marry, he is just as likely to find me here as though I tramped the
+thoroughfares of the world, searching for him. At last!" she went on,
+in a changed tone, as she poured out his coffee. "I do hope you will
+find it good. The cigarettes are at your elbow. This is quite one of
+the moments of life, isn't it?"
+
+He agreed with her emphatically.
+
+"A counsel of perfection," he murmured, as he sniffed the delicate
+Turkish tobacco. "Tell me some more about yourself?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I am much too selfish a person," she declared, "and nothing that I do
+or say or am amounts to very much. I want you to let me a little way
+into your life. Talk either about your soldiering or your politics.
+You have been a Cabinet Minister and you will be again. Tell me what it
+feels like to be one of the world's governors?"
+
+"Let us finish talking about you first," he begged. "You spoke quite
+frankly of a husband. Tell me, have you made up your mind what manner
+of man he must be?"
+
+"Not in the least. I am content to leave that entirely to fate."
+
+"Bucolic? Intellectual? An artist? A man of affairs?"
+
+She made a little grimace.
+
+"How can I tell? I cannot conceive caring for an ordinary person, but
+then every woman feels like that. And, you see, if I did care, he
+wouldn't be ordinary--to me. And so far as I am concerned," she
+insisted, with a shade of restlessness in her manner, "that finishes the
+subject. You must please devote yourself to telling me at least some
+of the things I want to know. What is the use of having one of the
+world's successful men tete-a-tete, a prisoner to my hospitality, unless
+I can make him gratify my curiosity?"
+
+The thought created by her words burned through his mind like a flash of
+destroying lightning.
+
+"One of the world's successful men," he repeated. "Is that how I seem
+to you?"
+
+"And to the world," she asserted.
+
+He shook his head sadly.
+
+"I have worked very hard," he said. "I have been very ambitious. A few
+of my ambitions have been gratified, but the glory of them has passed
+with attainment. Now I enter upon the last lap and I possess none of
+the things I started out in life to achieve."
+
+"But how absurd!" she exclaimed. "You are one of our great politicians.
+You would have to be reckoned with in any regrouping of parties."
+
+"Without even a seat in the House of Commons," he reminded her bitterly.
+"And again, how can a man be a great politician when there are no
+politics? The confusion amongst the parties has become chaos, and I for
+one have not been clear-sighted enough to see my way through."
+
+"Of course, I know vaguely what you mean," she said, "but remember that
+I am only a newspaper-educated politician. Can't you be a little more
+explicit?"
+
+He lit another cigarette and smoked restlessly for a moment.
+
+"I'll try and explain, if I can," he went on. "To be a successful
+politician, from the standard which you or I would aim at, a man needs
+not only political insight, but he needs to be able to adopt his views
+to the practical programme of one of the existing parties, or else to be
+strong enough to form a party of his own. That is where I have come to
+the cul-de-sac in my career. It was my ambition to guide the working
+classes of the country into their rightful place in our social scheme,
+but I have also always been an intensely keen Imperialist, and therefore
+at daggers drawn with many of the so-called Labour leaders. The
+consequence has been that for ten years I have been hanging on to the
+thin edge of nothing, a member of the Coalition Government, a member by
+sufferance of a hotchpotch party which was created by the combination of
+the Radicals and the Unionists with the sole idea of seeing the country
+through its great crisis. All legislation, in the wider sense of the
+term, had to be shelved while the country was in danger and while it was
+recovering itself. That time I spent striving to educate the people I
+wanted to represent, striving to make them see reason, to combat the two
+elements in their outlook which have been their eternal drawback, the
+elements of blatant selfishness and greedy ignorance. Well, I failed.
+That is all there is about it--I failed. No party claims me. I haven't
+even a seat in the House of Commons. I am nearly fifty years old and I
+am tired."
+
+"Nearly fifty years old!" she repeated. "But what is that? You
+have--health, you are strong and well, there is nothing a younger man
+can do that you cannot. Why do you worry about your age?"
+
+"Perhaps," he admitted, with a faint smile, and an innate compulsion to
+tell her of the thought which had lurked behind, "because you are so
+marvelously young."
+
+"Absurd!" she scoffed. "I am twenty-nine years old--practically thirty.
+That is to say, with the usual twenty years' allowance, you and I are of
+the same age."
+
+He looked across at her, across the lace-draped table with its bowls of
+fruit, its richly-cut decanter of wine, its low bowl of roses, its haze
+of cigarette smoke. She was leaning back in her chair, her head resting
+upon the fingers of one hand. Her face seemed alive with so many
+emotions. She was so anxious to console, so interested in her
+companion, herself, and the moment. He felt something unexpected and
+irresistible.
+
+"I would to God I could look at it like that!" he exclaimed suddenly.
+
+The words had left his lips before he was conscious that the thought
+which had lain at the back of them had found expression in his tone and
+glance. Just at first they produced no other effect in her save that
+evidenced by the gently upraised eyebrows, the sweetly tolerant smile.
+And then a sudden cloud, scarcely of discomfiture, certainly not of
+displeasure, more of unrest, swept across her face. Her eyes no longer
+met his so clearly and frankly. There was a little mist there and a
+silence. She was looking away through the windows to the dim, pearly
+line of blue, the actual horizon of things present. Her pulses were
+scarcely steady. She was possessed to a full extent of the her
+qualities of courage, physical and spiritual, yet at that moment she
+felt a wave of curious fear, the fear of the idealist that she may not
+be true to herself.
+
+The moment passed and she looked at him with a smile. An innate gift of
+concealment, the heritage of her sex, came to her rescue, but she felt,
+somehow or other, as though she had passed through one of the crises of
+her life--that she could never be quite the same again. She had ceased
+for those few seconds to be natural.
+
+"What does that wish mean?" she asked. "Do you mean that you would like
+to agree with me, or would you like to be twenty-nine?"
+
+He too turned his back upon that little pool of emotion, did his best to
+be natural and easy, to shut out the memory of that flaming moment.
+
+"At twenty-nine," he told her, "I was First Secretary at St.
+Petersburg. I am afraid that I was rather a dull dog, too. All Russia,
+even then, was seething, and I was trying to understand. I never did.
+No one ever understood Russia. The explanation of all that has happened
+there is simply the eternal duplication of history--a huge class of
+people, physically omnipotent, conscious of wrongs, unintelligent, and
+led by false prophets. All revolutions are the same. The purging is
+too severe, so the good remains undone."
+
+There followed a silence, purposeful on her port, scarcely realised by
+him. She sought for means of escape, to bring their conversation down
+to the level where alone safety lay. She moved her chair a little
+farther back into the scented chamber, as though she found the sunlight
+too dazzling.
+
+"You are like so many of the men who work for us," she said. "You are
+just a little tired, aren't you? You come down here to rest, and I dig
+up all the old problems and ask you to vex yourself with them. We must
+talk about slighter things. You are going to shoot here this
+season--perhaps hunt, later on?"
+
+"I do not think so," he answered. "I have forgotten what sports mean.
+I may take a gun out sometimes. There is a little shooting that goes
+with the Manor, but very few birds, I believe. The last ten years seem
+to have driven all those things out of one's mind."
+
+"Don't you think that you are inclined to take life a little too
+earnestly?" she asked. "One should have amusements."
+
+"I may feel the necessity," he replied, "but it is not easy to take up
+one's earlier pleasures at my time of life."
+
+"Don't think me inquisitive," she went on, "but, as I told you, I have
+looked you up in one of those wonderful books which tell us everything
+about everybody. You were a Double Blue at Oxford."
+
+"Racquets and cricket," he assented. "Neither of them much use to me
+now."
+
+"Racquets would help you with lawn tennis," she said, "but beyond that I
+find that not a dozen years ago you were a scratch golfer, and you
+certainly won the amateur championship of Italy."
+
+"It is eleven years since I touched a club," he told her.
+
+"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself," she declared. "Games are
+part of an Englishman's life, and when he neglects them altogether there
+is something wrong. I shall insist upon your taking up lawn tennis
+again. I have two beautiful courts there, and very seldom any one to
+play with who has the least idea of the game."
+
+His eyes rested for a moment upon the smoothly shaven lawns.
+
+"So you think that regeneration may come to me through lawn tennis?" he
+murmured.
+
+"And why not? You are taking yourself far too seriously, you know. How
+do you expect regeneration to come?"
+
+"Shall I tell you what it is I lack?" he answered suddenly. "Incentive.
+I think my will has suddenly grown flabby, the ego in me unresponsive.
+You know the moods in which one asks oneself whether it is worth while,
+whether anything is worth while. Well, I am there at the crossroads. I
+think I feel more inclined to look for a seat than to go on."
+
+"The strongest of us need to rest sometimes," she agreed quietly.
+
+He relapsed into a silence so apparently deliberate that she accepted it
+as a respite for herself also. From the greater seclusion of her
+shadowy seat, she found herself presently able to watch him
+unnoticed,--the brooding melancholy of his face, the nervous,
+unsatisfied mouth, the discontent of his sombre brows. Then, even as
+she watched, the change in his expression startled her. His eyes were
+fixed upon the narrow ribbon of road which twisted around the other side
+of the house and led over the bleaker moors, seawards. The look puzzled
+her, gave her an uncomfortable feeling. Its note of appreciation seemed
+to her inexplicable. With a quaint, electrical sympathy, he caught the
+unspoken question in her eyes and translated it.
+
+"You are beginning to doubt me," he said. "You are wondering if the
+shadow I carry with me is not something more than the mere depression of
+a man who has failed."
+
+"You have not failed," she declared, "and I never doubt you, but there
+was something in your face just then which was strange, something alien
+to our talk. It was as though you saw something ominous in the
+distance."
+
+"It is true," he admitted. "In the distance I can see the car I ordered
+to come and fetch me. There is a passenger--a man in the tonneau. I am
+wondering who he is."
+
+"Some one to whom your man has given a lift, perhaps," she suggested.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I have another feeling--perhaps I should say an apprehension. It is
+some one who brings news."
+
+"Political or--domestic?"
+
+"Neither," he answered. "I thought that Fate had dealt me out most of
+her evil tricks when I came down here, a political outcast. She had
+another one up her sleeve, however. Do you read your morning papers?"
+
+"Every day," she confessed. "Is it a weakness?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"You read of the disappearance of the Honourable Anthony Palliser?"
+
+"Of course," she answered. "Besides, you told me about it, did you
+not, yesterday afternoon? I know one of his sisters quite well, and I
+was looking forward to seeing something of him down here."
+
+"I was obliged to dismiss him at a moment's notice," Tallente went on.
+"He betrayed his trust and he has disappeared. That very imposing
+police inspector who broke up our tete-a-tete yesterday afternoon and I
+fear shortened your visit came on his account. He was the spokesman for
+a superior authority in London. They have come to the conclusion that I
+could, if I chose, throw some light upon his disappearance."
+
+"And could you?"
+
+He rose to his feet.
+
+"You are the one person in the world," he said, "to whom I could tell
+nothing but the truth. I could."
+
+They both heard the sound of footsteps in the hall. Lady Jane,
+disturbed by the ominous note in Tallente's voice, rose also to her
+feet, glancing from him towards the door, filled with some vague,
+inexplicable apprehension. Tallente showed no fear, but it was plain
+that he had nerved himself to face evil things. There was something
+almost ludicrous in this denouement to a situation which to both had
+seemed filled with almost dramatic possibilities. The door was opened
+by Parkins, the stout, discreet man servant, ushering in the unkempt,
+ill-tailored, ungainly figure of James Miller.
+
+"This gentleman," Parkins announced, "wishes to see Mr. Tallente on
+urgent business."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The newcomer had distinctly the best of the situation. Tallente, who
+had expected a very different visitor, was for the moment bereft of
+words. Lady Jane, who, among her minor faults, was inclined to be a
+supercilious person, with too great a regard for externals, gazed upon
+this strange figure which had found its way into her sanctum with an
+astonishment which kept her also silent.
+
+"Sorry to intrude," Mr. Miller began, with an affability which he meant
+to be reassuring. "Mr. Tallente, will you introduce me to the lady?"
+
+Tallente acquiesced unwillingly.
+
+"Lady Jane," he said, "this is Mr. James Miller--Lady Jane Partington."
+
+Mr. Miller was impressed, held out his hand and withdrew it.
+
+"I must apologize for this intrusion, Lady Jane, and to you, Tallente,
+of course. Mr. Tallente is naturally surprised to see me. He and I
+are political opponents," he confided, turning to Jane.
+
+Her surprise increased, if possible.
+
+"Are you Mr. Miller, the Democrat M.P.?" she asked,--"the Mr. Miller
+who was making those speeches at Hellesfield last week?"
+
+"At your ladyship's service," he replied, with a low bow. "I am afraid
+if you are a friend of Mr. Tallente's you must look upon me as a very
+disagreeable person."
+
+"If the newspapers are to be believed, your strategies up at Hellesfield
+scarcely give one an exalted idea of your tactics," she replied coldly.
+"They all seem to agree that Mr. Tallente was cheated out of his seat."
+
+The intruder smiled tolerantly. He glanced around the room as though
+expecting to be asked to seat himself. No invitation of the sort,
+however, was accorded him. "All's fair in love and politics, Lady
+Jane," he declared. "We Democrats have our programme, and our motto is
+that those who are not with us are against us. Mr. Tallente here knew
+pretty well what he was up against."
+
+"On the contrary," Tallente interrupted, "one never knows what one is up
+against when you are in the opposite camp, Miller. Would you mind
+explaining why you have sought me out in this singular fashion?"
+
+"Certainly," was the gracious reply. "You have a very distinguished
+visitor over at the Manor, waiting there to see you. I came over with
+him and found your car on the point of starting. I took the liberty of
+hunting you up so that there should be no delay in your return."
+
+"And who may this distinguished visitor he?" Tallente enquired, with
+unconscious sarcasm. "Stephen Dartrey," Miller answered. "He and Miss
+Miall and I are staying not far from you."
+
+"Stephen Dartrey?" Lady Jane murmured. "Dartrey?" Tallente echoed. "Do
+you mean to say that he is over at the Manor now?"
+
+"Waiting to see you," Miller announced, and for a moment there was a
+little gleam of displeasure in his eyes. Lady Jane sighed. "Now, if
+only you'd brought him over with you, Mr. Miller," she said, a shade
+more amiably, "you would have given me real pleasure. There is no man
+whom I am more anxious to meet." Miller smiled tolerantly. "Dartrey is
+a very difficult person," he declared. "Although he is the leader of
+our party, and before very long will be the leader of the whole Labour
+Party, although he could be Prime Minister to-morrow if he cared about
+it; he is one of the most retiring men whom I ever knew. At the present
+moment I believe that he would have preferred to have remained living
+his hermit's life, a writer and a dilettante, if circumstances had not
+dragged him into politics. He lives in the simplest way and hates all
+society save the company of a few old cronies."
+
+"What does Dartrey want with me?" Tallente interrupted, a little
+brusquely. "It is no part of my mission to explain," Miller replied.
+"I undertook to come here and beg you to return at once." Tallente
+turned to Lady Jane. "You will forgive me?" he begged. "In any case, I
+must have been going in a few minutes."
+
+"I should forgive you even if you went without saying good-by," she
+replied, "and I can assure you that I shall envy you. I do not want to
+turn your head," she went on pleasantly, as she walked by his side
+towards the door and across the hall, rather ignoring Miller, who
+followed behind, "but for the last two or three years the only political
+figures who have interested me at all have been Dartrey and
+yourself--you as the man of action, and Dartrey as the most wonderful
+exponent of the real, higher Socialism. I had a shelf made for his
+three books alone. They hang in my bedroom and I look upon them as my
+textbooks."
+
+"I must tell Dartrey this," Miller remarked from behind. "I am sure
+he'll be flattered."
+
+"What can he want with you?" Lady Jane asked, dropping her voice a
+little.
+
+"I can't tell," Tallente confessed. "His visit puzzles me. He is the
+hermit of politics. He seldom makes advances and has few friends. He
+is, I believe, a man with the highest sense of honour. Perhaps he has
+come to explain to me why they threw me out at Hellesfield."
+
+"In any case," she said, as they stood for a moment on the step, "I feel
+that something exciting is going to happen."
+
+Miller, carrying his tweed cap in his hand, insisted upon a farewell.
+
+"Sorry to have taken your guest away, Lady Jane," he said. "It's an
+important occasion, however. Would you like me to bring Dartrey over,
+if we are out this way before we go back?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, I don't think so," she answered quietly. "I might have an illusion
+dispelled. Thank you very much, all the same."
+
+Mr. Miller stepped into the car, a little discomfited. Tallente
+lingered on the step.
+
+"You will let me know?" she begged.
+
+"I will," he promised. "It is probably just a visit of courtesy.
+Dartrey must feel that he has something to explain about Hellesfield."
+
+There was a moment's curious lingering. Each seemed to seek in vain for
+a last word. They parted with a silent handshake. Tallente looked
+around at the corner of the avenue. She was still standing there,
+gazing after the car, slim, cool and stately. Miller waved his cap and
+she disappeared.
+
+The car sped over the moorland. Miller, with his cap tucked into his
+pocket, leaned forward, taking deep gulps of the wonderful air.
+
+"Marvellous!" he exclaimed. "Tallente, you ought to live for ever in
+such a spot!"
+
+"What does Dartrey want to see me about?" his companion asked, a little
+abruptly.
+
+Miller coughed, leaned back in his place and became impressive.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "I don't know exactly what Dartrey is going to say
+to you. I only know this, that it is very possible he may make you, on
+behalf of all of us--the Democratic Party, that is to say--an offer
+which you will do well to consider seriously."
+
+"To join your ranks, I suppose?"
+
+"I must not betray a confidence," Miller continued cautiously. "At the
+same time, you know our power, you have insight enough to guess at our
+destiny. It is an absolute certainty that Dartrey, if he chooses, may
+be the next Prime Minister. You might have been in Horlock's Cabinet
+but for an accident. It may be that you are destined to be in
+Dartrey's."
+
+Tallente found his thoughts playing strange pranks with him. No man
+appreciated the greatness of Dartrey more than he. No man, perhaps, had
+a more profound conviction as to the truth and future of the principles
+of which he had become the spokesman. He realised the irresistible
+power of the new democracy. He was perfectly well aware that it was
+within Dartrey's power to rule the country whenever he chose. Yet there
+seemed something shadowy about these things, something unpleasantly real
+and repulsive in the familiarity of his companion, in the thought of
+association with him, He battled with the idea, treated it as a
+prejudice, analysed it. From head to foot the man wore the wrong
+clothes in the wrong manner,--boots of a vivid shade of brown, thick
+socks without garters, an obviously ready-made suit of grey flannel, a
+hopeless tie, an unimaginable collar. Even his ready flow of speech
+suggested the gifts of the tubthumpers his indomitable persistence, a
+lack of sensibility. He knew his facts, knew all the stock arguments,
+was brimful of statistics, was argumentative, convincing, in his way
+sincere. Tallente acknowledged all these things and yet found himself
+wondering, with a grim sense of irony, how he could call a man "Comrade"
+with such finger nails!
+
+"It's given you something to think about, eh?" Miller remarked affably.
+
+Tallente came to himself with a little start.
+
+"I'm afraid my mind was wandering," he confessed.
+
+His companion smiled knowingly. He was conscious of Tallente's
+aloofness, but determined to break through it if he could. After all,
+this caste feeling was absurd. He was, in his way, a well-known man, a
+Member of Parliament, a future Cabinet Minister. He was the equal of
+anybody.
+
+"Don't wonder at it! Pleasant neighbours hereabouts, eh?"
+
+Tallente affected to misunderstand. He glanced around at the few
+farmhouses dotted in sheltered places amongst the hills.
+
+"There are very few of them," he answered. "That makes this place all
+the more enjoyable for any one who comes for a real rest."
+
+Miller felt that he was suffering defeat. He opened his lips and closed
+them again. The jocular reference to Lady Jane remained unspoken.
+There was something in the calm aloofness of the man by his side which
+intimidated even while it annoyed him. Soon they commenced the drop
+from the moorland to where, far away below, the Manor with its lawn and
+gardens and outbuildings seemed like a child's pleasure palace. Miller
+leaned forward and pointed downwards.
+
+"There's Dartrey sitting on the terrace," he pointed out. "Dartrey and
+Nora Miall. You've heard of her, I expect?"
+
+"I know her by repute, of course," Tallente admitted. "She is a very
+brilliant young woman. It will give me great pleasure to meet her."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Tallente took tea that afternoon with his three guests upon the terrace.
+Before them towered the wood-embosomed cliffs, with here and there great
+red gashes of scarred sandstone. Beyond lay the sloping meadow, with
+its clumps of bracken and grey stone walls, and in the background a more
+rugged line of rocky cliffs. The sea in the bay flashed and glittered
+in the long rays of the afternoon sunshine. The scene was
+extraordinarily peaceful. Stephen Dartrey for the first few minutes
+certainly justified his reputation for taciturnity. He leaned back in a
+long wicker chair, his head resting upon his hand, his thoughtful eyes
+fixed upon vacancy. No man in those days could have resembled less a
+popular leader of the people. In appearance he was a typical
+aristocrat, and his expression, notwithstanding his fine forehead and
+thoughtful eyes, was marked with a certain simplicity which in his
+younger days had lured many an inexperienced debater on to ridicule and
+extinction. In an intensely curious age, Dartrey was still a man over
+whose personality controversy raged fiercely. He was a poet, a dreamer,
+a writer of elegant prose, an orator, an artist. And behind all these
+things there was a flame in the man, a perfect passion for justice, for
+seeing people in their right places, which had led him from the more
+flowery ways into the world of politics. His enemies called him a
+dilettante and a poseur. His friends were led into rhapsodies through
+sheer affection. His supporters hailed him as the one man of genius who
+held out the scales of justice before the world.
+
+"Of course," Nora Miall observed, looking up at her host pleasantly, "I
+can see what is going to happen. Mr. Dartrey came out here to talk to
+you upon most important matters. This place, the beauty of it all, is
+acting upon him like a soporific. If we don't shake him up presently,
+he will go away with wonderful mind pictures of your cliffs and sea, and
+his whole mission unfulfilled."
+
+"Libellous as usual, Nora," Dartrey murmured, without turning his head.
+"Mr. Tallente is providing me with a few minutes of intense enjoyment.
+He has assured me that his time is ours. Soon I shall finish my tea,
+light a cigarette and talk. Just now you may exercise the privilege of
+your sex unhindered and better your own acquaintance with our host."
+
+The girl laughed up into Tallente's face.
+
+"Very likely Mr. Tallente doesn't wish to improve his acquaintance with
+me," she said.
+
+Tallente hastened to reassure her. Somehow, the presence of these two
+did much to soothe the mental irritation which Miller had set up in him.
+They at least were of the world of understandable things. Miller,
+slouching in his chair, with a cheap tie-clip showing underneath his
+waistcoat, a bulging mass of sock descending over the top of his boot,
+rolling a cigarette with yellow-stained, objectionable fingers, still
+involved him in introspective speculation as to real values in life.
+
+"I have often felt myself unfortunate in not having met you before, Miss
+Miall," he said. "Some of your writings have interested me immensely."
+
+"Some of them?" she queried, with a smile.
+
+"Absolute agreement would deny us even the stimulus of an argument," he
+observed. "Besides, after all, men find it more difficult to get rid of
+prejudices than women."
+
+She leaned forward to help herself to a cigarette and he studied her for
+a moment. She was a little under medium height, trimly yet almost
+squarely built. Her mouth was delightful, humourous and attractive, and
+her eyes were of the deepest shade of violet, with black, silken
+eyelashes. Her voice was the voice of a cultivated woman, and Tallente,
+as he mostly listened to her light ripple of conversation, realised that
+the charm which was hers by reputation was by no means undeserved. In
+many ways she astonished him. The stories which had been told of her,
+even written, were incredible, yet her manners were entirely the manners
+of one of his own world. The trio--Dartrey, with his silence and
+occasional monosyllabic remarks--seemed to draw closer together at every
+moment until Miller, obviously chafing at his isolation, thrust himself
+into the conversation.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," he said, taking advantage of a moment's pause to direct
+the conversation into a different channel, "we kept our word at
+Hellesfield."
+
+"You did," his host acknowledged drily. "You succeeded in cheating me
+out of the seat. I still don't know why."
+
+He turned as though appealing to Dartrey, and Dartrey accepted the
+challenge, swinging a little around in his chair and tapping his
+cigarette against the table, preparatory to lighting it.
+
+"You lost Hellesfield, Mr. Tallente, as you would have lost any seat
+north of Bedford," he declared.
+
+"Owing to the influence of the Democrats?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"But why is that influence exercised against me?" Tallente demanded. "I
+am thankful to have an opportunity of asking you that question, Dartrey.
+Surely you would reckon me more of a people's man than these Whigs and
+Coalitionists?"
+
+"Very much more," Dartrey agreed. "So much more, Mr. Tallente, that we
+don't wish to see you dancing any longer between two stools. We want
+you in our camp. You are the first man, Tallente, whom we have sought
+out in this way. We have come at a busy time, under pretext of a
+holiday, some two hundred miles from London to suggest to you,
+temporarily deprived of political standing, that you join us."
+
+"That temporary deprivation," Tallente murmured, "being due to your
+efforts."
+
+"Precisely!"
+
+"And the alternative?"
+
+"Those who are not with us are against us," Dartrey declared. "If you
+persist in remaining the doubtful factor in politics, it is our business
+to see that you have no definite status there."
+
+Tallente laughed a little cynically.
+
+"Your methods are at least modern," he observed. "You invite a man to
+join your party, and if he refuses you threaten him with political
+extinction."
+
+"Why not?" Dartrey asked wonderingly. "You do not pause to consider the
+matter. Government is meant for the million. Where the individual
+might impede good government, common sense calls for his ostracism. No
+nation has been more slow to realise this than England. A code of order
+and morals established two thousand years ago has been accepted by them
+as incapable of modification or improvement. To take a single instance.
+Supposing De Valera had been shot the first day he talked treason
+against the Empire, your troubles with Ireland would have been immensely
+minimised. And mark this, for it is the crux of the whole matter, the
+people of Ireland would have attained what they wanted much sooner. You
+are not one of those, Andrew Tallente, who refuse to see the writing on
+the wall. You know that in one form or another in this country the
+democracy must rule. They felt the flame of inspiration when war came
+and they helped to win the war. What was their reward? The opulent
+portion of them were saddled with an enormous income tax and high prices
+of living through bad legislation, which made life a burden. The more
+poverty-stricken suffered sympathetically in exactly the same way. We
+won the war and we lost the peace. We fastened upon the shoulders of
+the deserving, the wage-earning portion of the community, a burden
+which their shoulders could never carry a burden which, had we lost the
+war instead of winning it, would have led promptly to a revolution and a
+measure at least of freedom."
+
+"There is so much of truth in what you say," Tallente declared, "that I
+am going to speak to you frankly, even though my frankness seems brutal.
+I am going to speak about your friend Miller here. Throughout the war,
+Miller was a pacifist. He was dead against killing Germans. He was all
+for a peace at any price."
+
+"Steady on," Miller interrupted, suddenly sitting up in his chair.
+"Look here, Tallente--"
+
+"Be quiet until I have finished," Tallente went on. "He was concerned
+in no end of intrigue with Austrian and German Socialists for
+embarrassing the Government and bringing the war to an end. I should
+say that but for the fact that our Government at the time was wholly one
+of compromise, and was leaning largely upon the Labour vote, he would
+have been impeached for high treason."
+
+Miller, who had been busy rolling a cigarette, lit it with ostentatious
+carelessness.
+
+"And what of all this?" he demanded.
+
+"Nothing," Tallente replied, "except that it seems a strange thing to
+find you now associated with a party who threaten me openly with
+political extinction unless I choose to join them. I call this
+junkerdom, not socialism."
+
+"No man's principles can remain stable in an unstable world," Miller
+pronounced. "I still detest force and compulsion of every sort, but I
+recognise its necessity in our present civil life far more than I did in
+a war which was, after all, a war of politicians."
+
+Nora Miall leaned over from her chair and laid her hand on Tallente's
+arm. After Miller's raucous tones, her voice sounded almost like music.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she said, "I can understand your feeling aggrieved.
+You are not a man whom it is easy to threaten, but remember that after
+all we must go on our fixed way towards the appointed goal.
+And--consider--isn't the upraised rod for your good? Your place is with
+us--indeed it is. I fancy that Stephen here forgets that you are not
+yet fully acquainted with our real principles and aims. A political
+party cannot be judged from the platform. The views expressed there
+have to be largely governed by the character of the audience. It is to
+the textbooks of our creed, Dartrey's textbooks, that you should turn."
+
+"I have read your views on certain social matters, Miss Miall," Tallente
+observed, turning towards her.
+
+She laughed understandingly. Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him.
+
+"And thoroughly disapproved them, of course! But you know, Mr.
+Tallente, we are out not to reconstruct Society but to lay the stepping
+stones for a reconstruction. That is all, I suppose, that any single
+generation could accomplish. The views which I have advocated in the
+_Universal Review_ are the views which will be accepted as a matter of
+course in fifty years' time. To-day they seem crude and unmoral,
+chiefly because the casual reader, especially the British reader, dwells
+so much upon external effects and thinks so little of the soul that lies
+below. Even you, Mr. Tallente, with your passion for order and your
+distrust of all change in established things, can scarcely consider our
+marriage laws an entire success?"
+
+Tallente winced a little and Dartrey hastily intervened.
+
+"We want you to remember this," he said. "The principles which we
+advocate are condemned before they are considered by men of inherited
+principles and academic education such as yourself, because you have
+associated them always with the disciples of anarchy, bolshevism, and
+other diseased rituals. You have never stooped to separate the good
+from the bad. The person who dares to tamper with the laws of King
+Alfred stands before you prejudged. Granted that our doctrines are
+extreme, are we--let me be personal and say am I--the class of man whom
+you have associated with these doctrines? We Democrats have gained
+great power during the last ten years. We have thrust our influence
+deep into the hearts of those great, sinister bodies, the trades unions.
+There is no one except ourselves who realises our numerical and
+potential strength. We could have created a revolution in this country
+at any time since the Premier's first gloomy speech in the House of
+Commons after the signing of peace, had we chosen. I can assure you
+that we haven't the least fancy for marching through the streets with
+red flags and letting loose the diseased end of our community upon the
+palaces and public buildings of London. We are Democrats or
+Republicans, whichever you choose to call us, who desire to conquer with
+the brain, as we shall conquer, and where we recognise a man of genius
+like yourself, who must be for us or against us, if we cannot convert
+him then we must see that politically he ceases to count."
+
+Robert came out and whispered in his master's ear. Tallente turned to
+his guests.
+
+"I cannot offer you dinner," he said, "but my servant assures me that he
+can provide a cold supper. Will you stay? I think that you, Dartrey,
+would enjoy the view from some of my lookouts."
+
+"I accept your invitation," Dartrey replied eagerly. "I have been
+sitting here, longing for the chance to watch the sunset from behind
+your wood."
+
+"It will be delightful," Nora murmured. "I want to go down to the grass
+pier."
+
+Miller too accepted, a little ungraciously. The little party wandered
+off down the path which led to the seashore. Miller detained his host
+for a moment at one of the corners.
+
+"By the by, Tallente," he asked, "what about the disappearance of
+Palliser?"
+
+"He has disappeared," Tallente answered calmly. "That is all I know
+about it."
+
+Miller stood with his hands in his pockets, gnawing the end of his
+moustache, gazing covertly at the man who stood waiting for him to pass
+on. Tallente's face was immovable.
+
+"Disappeared? Do you mean to say that you don't know where he is?"
+
+"I have no idea."
+
+Again there was a moment's silence. Then Miller leaned a little
+forward. "Look here, Tallente," he began--Nora turned round and
+suddenly beckoned her host to her.
+
+"Come quickly," she begged. "I can do nothing with Mr. Dartrey. He
+has just decided that our whole scheme of life is absurd, that politics
+and power are shadows, and that work for others is lunacy. All that he
+wants is your cottage, a fishing rod and a few books."
+
+"Nothing else?" Tallente asked, smiling.
+
+There was a momentary cloud upon her face.
+
+"Nothing else in the world," she answered, her eyes fixed upon the
+figure of the man who was leaning now over the grey stone wall, gazing
+seaward.
+
+
+During the service of the meal, on the terrace afterwards, and even when
+they strolled down to the edge of the cliff to see the great yellow moon
+come up from behind the hills, scarcely a word was spoken on political
+subjects. Dartrey was an Oxford man of Tallente's own college, and,
+although several years his senior, they discovered many mutual
+acquaintances and indulged in reminiscences which seemed to afford
+pleasure to both. Then they drifted into literature, and Tallente found
+himself amazed at the knowledge of the man whose whole life was supposed
+to have been given to his labours for the people. Dartrey explained his
+intimate acquaintance with certain modern writings and his marvellous
+familiarity with many of the classics, as he and his host walked down
+together along one of the narrow paths. "You see, Tallente," he said,
+"I have never been a practical politician. I dare say that accounts for
+my rather peculiar position to-day. I have evolved a whole series of
+social laws by which I maintain that the people should be governed, and
+those laws have been accepted wherever socialism flourishes. They took
+me some years of my earlier life to elaborate, some years of study
+before I set pen to paper, some years of my later life to place before
+the world, and there my task practically ended. There is nothing fresh
+to say about these great human problems. They are there for any man to
+whom daylight comes, to see. They are all inevitably bound up with the
+future of our race, but there is no need to dig further. My work is
+done."
+
+"How can you say that," Tallente argued, "when day by day your power in
+the country grows, when everything points to you as the next Premier?"
+
+"Precisely," Dartrey replied quietly. "That is why I am here. The head
+of the Democratic Party has a right to the government of this country,
+but you know, at this point I have a very sad confession to make. I am
+the worst politician who ever sat in the House. I am a poor debater, a
+worse strategist. Again, Tallente, that is why you and I at this moment
+walk together through your beautiful grounds and watch the rim of that
+yellow moon. It is yourself we want."
+
+Tallente felt the thrill of the moment, felt the sincerity of the man
+whose hand pressed gently upon his arm.
+
+"If you are our man, Tallente," his visitor continued, "if you see eye
+to eye with us as to the great Things, if you can cast away what remains
+to you of class and hereditary prejudice and throw in your lot with
+ours, there is no office of the State which you may not hope to occupy.
+I had not meant to appeal to your ambitions. I do so now only
+generally. As a rule, every man connected with a revolution thinks
+himself able to govern the State. That is not so with us. A man may
+have the genius for seeing the truth, the genius even for engraving the
+laws which should govern the world upon tablets of stone, without having
+the capacity for government."
+
+"But do you mean to say," Tallente asked, "that when Horlock goes down,
+as go down he must within the next few months, you are not prepared to
+take his place?"
+
+"I should never accept the task of forming a government," Dartrey said
+quietly, "unless I am absolutely driven to do so. I have shown the
+truth to the world. I have shown to the people whom I love their
+destiny, but I have not the gifts to lead them. I am asking you,
+Tallente, to join us, to enter Parliament as one of our party and to
+lead for us in the House of Commons."
+
+"Yours is the offer of a prince," Tallente replied, after a brief,
+nervous pause. "If I hesitate, you must remember all that it means for
+me."
+
+Dartrey smiled.
+
+"Now, my friend," he said, "look me in the face and answer me this
+question. You know little of us Democrats as a party. You see nothing
+but a hotchpotch of strange people, struggling and striving to attain
+definite form. Naturally you are full of prejudices. Yet consider your
+own political position. I am not here to make capital out of a man's
+disappointment in his friends, but has your great patron used you well?
+Horlock offers you a grudging and belated place in his Cabinet. What
+did he say to you when you came hack from Hellesfield?" Tallente was
+silent. There was, in fact, no answer which he could make. "I do not
+wish to dwell on that," Dartrey went on. "Ingratitude is the natural
+sequence of the distorted political ideals which we are out to destroy.
+You should be in the frame of mind, Tallente, to see things clearly.
+You must realise the rotten condition of the political party to which
+Horlock belongs--the Coalitionists, the Whip, or whatever they like to
+call themselves. The government of this country since the war has been
+a farce and a mockery. We are dropping behind in the world's race.
+Labour fattens with sops, develops a spirit of greed and production
+languishes. You know why. Labour would toil for its country, Labour
+can feel patriotism with the best, but Labour hates to toil under the
+earth, upon the earth, and in the factories of the world for the sake of
+the profiteer. This is the national spirit, that jealousy, that
+slackness, which the last ten years has developed. There is a new
+Little Englander abroad and he speaks with the voice of Labour. It is
+our task to find the soul of the people. And I have come to you for
+your aid."
+
+Tallente looked for a moment down to the bay and listened to the sound
+of the incoming tide breaking upon the rocks. Dimmer now, but even more
+majestic in the twilight, the great, immovable cliffs towered up to the
+sky. An owl floated up from the grove of trees beneath and with a
+strange cry circled round for a moment to drop on to the lawn, a
+shapeless, solemn mass of feathers. At the back of the hills a little
+rim of gold, no wider than a wedding ring, announced the rising of the
+moon. He felt a touch upon his sleeve, a very sweet, persuasive voice
+in his ear. Nora had left Miller in the background and was standing by
+his side.
+
+"I heard Mr. Dartrey's last words," she said. "Can you refuse such an
+appeal in such a spot? You turn away to think, turn to the quietness of
+all these dreaming voices. Believe me, if there is a soul beneath them,
+it is the same soul which has inspired our creed. You yourself have
+come here full of bitterness, Andrew Tallente, because it seemed to you
+that there was no place for you amongst the prophets of democracy. It
+was you yourself, in a moment of passion, perhaps, who said that
+democracy, as typified in existing political parties, was soulless. You
+were right. Hasn't Mr. Dartrey just told you so and doesn't that make
+our task the clearer? It brings before us those wonderful days written
+about in the Old Testament--the people must be led into the light."
+
+Her voice had become almost part of the music of the evening. She was
+looking up at him, her beautiful eyes aglow. Dartrey, a yard or two
+off, his thoughtful face paler than ever in the faint light, was
+listening with joyous approval. In the background, Miller, with his
+hands in his pockets, was smoking mechanically the cigarette which he
+had just rolled and lit. The thrill of a great moment brought to
+Tallente a feeling of almost strange exaltation.
+
+"I am your man, Dartrey," he promised. "I will do what I can."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The Right Honourable John Augustus Horlock, Prime Minister of England
+through a most amazing fluke, received Tallente, a few days later, with
+the air of one desiring to show as much graciousness as possible to a
+discomfited follower. He extended two fingers and indicated an
+uncomfortable chair.
+
+"Well, well, Tallente," he said, "sorry I wasn't in town when you passed
+through from the north. Bad business, that Hellesfield affair."
+
+"It was a very bad business indeed," Tallente agreed, "chiefly because
+it shows that our agents there must be utterly incapable."
+
+The Prime Minister coughed.
+
+"You think so, Tallente, eh? Now their point of view is that you let
+Miller make all the running, let him make his points and never got an
+answer in--never got a grip on the people, eh?"
+
+"That may do for the official explanation," Tallente replied coldly,
+"but as a plain statement of facts it is entirely beside the mark. If
+you will forgive my saying so, sir, it has been one of your
+characteristics in life, born, without doubt," he added, with a little
+bow, "of your indomitable courage, to minimise difficulties and dangers
+of a certain type. You did not sympathise with me in my defeat at
+Hellesfield because you underrated, as you always have underrated, the
+vastly growing strength and dangerous popularity of the party into whose
+hands the government of this country will shortly pass."
+
+Mr. Horlock frowned portentously. This was not at all the way in which
+he should have been addressed by an unsuccessful follower. But
+underneath that frown was anxiety.
+
+"You refer to the Democrats?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Do I understand you to attribute your defeat, then, to the tactics of
+the Democratic Party?"
+
+"It is no question of supposition," Tallente replied. "It is a
+certainty."
+
+"You believe that they have a greater hold upon the country than we
+imagine, then?"
+
+"I am sure of it," was the confident answer. "They occupy a position no
+other political party has aimed at occupying in the history of this
+country. They aid and support themselves by means of direct and logical
+propaganda, carried to the very heart and understanding of their
+possible supporters. Their methods are absolutely unique and personally
+I am convinced that it is their destiny to bring into one composite body
+what has been erroneously termed the Labour vote."
+
+Horlock smiled indulgently. He preferred to assume a confidence which
+he could not wholly feel.
+
+"I am glad to hear your opinion, Tallente," he said. "I have to
+remember, however, that you are still smarting under a defeat inflicted
+by these people. What I cannot altogether understand is this: How was
+it that you were entirely deprived of their support at Hellesfield. You
+yourself are supposed to be practically a Socialist, at any rate from
+the point of view of the staider of my party. Yet these fellows down at
+Hellesfield preferred to support Bloxham, who twenty years ago would
+have been called a Tory."
+
+"I can quite understand your being puzzled at that," Tallente
+acknowledged. "I was myself at first. Since then I have received an
+explanation."
+
+"Well, well," Mr. Horlock interjected, with a return of his official
+genial manner, "we'll let sleeping dogs lie. Have you made any plans,
+Tallente?"
+
+"A week ago I thought of going to Samoa," was the grim reply. "You
+don't want me, the country didn't seem to want me. I have worked for
+other people for thirty years. I rather thought of resting, living the
+life of a lotus eater for a time."
+
+"An extremist as ever," the Prime Minister remarked tolerantly. "Even a
+politician who has worked as hard as you have can find many pleasurable
+paths in life open to him in this country. However, the necessity for
+such an extreme course of action on your part is done away with. I am
+very pleased to be able to tell you that the affair concerning which I
+have been in communication with your secretary for the last two months
+has taken an unexpectedly favourable turn."
+
+"What the mischief do you mean?" Tallente enquired, puzzled.
+
+"I mean," Mr. Horlock announced, with a friendly smile, "that sooner
+than be deprived of your valuable services, His Majesty has consented
+that you should go to the Upper House. You will be offered a peerage
+within the next fortnight."
+
+Tallente stared at the speaker as though he had suddenly been bereft of
+his senses.
+
+"What on earth are you talking about, sir?" he demanded.
+
+Mr. Horlock somewhat resented his visitor's tone.
+
+"Surely my statement was sufficiently explicit?" he said, a little
+stiffly. "The peerage concerning which at first, I admit, I saw
+difficulties, is yours. You can, without doubt, be of great service to
+us in the Upper House and--"
+
+"But I'd sooner turn shopkeeper!" Tallente interrupted. "If I
+understand that it is your intention to offer me a peerage, let us have
+no misunderstanding about the matter. It is refused, absolutely and
+finally."
+
+The Prime Minister stared at his visitor for a moment in amazement.
+Then he unlocked a drawer in his desk, drew out several letters and
+threw them over to Tallente.
+
+"And will you tell me what the devil you mean by authorising your
+secretary to write these letters?" he demanded.
+
+Tallente picked them up, read them through and gasped.
+
+"Written by Palliser, aren't they?" Mr. Horlock demanded.
+
+"Without a doubt," Tallente acknowledged. "The amazing thing, however,
+is that they are entirely unauthorised. The subject has never even been
+discussed between Palliser and myself. I am exceedingly sorry, sir," he
+went on, "that you should have been misled in this fashion, but I can
+only give you my word of honour that these letters are entirely and
+absolutely unauthorised."
+
+"God bless my soul!" the Prime Minister exclaimed. "Where is Palliser?
+Better telephone."
+
+"Palliser left my service a week or more ago," Tallente replied. "He
+left it at a moment's notice, in consequence of a personal disagreement
+concerning which I beg that you will ask no questions I can only assure
+you that it was not political. Since he left no word has been heard of
+him. The papers, even, have been making capital of his disappearance."
+
+"It is the most extraordinary thing I ever heard in my life," Horlock
+declared, a little irritably. "Why, I've spent hours of my time trying
+to get this matter through."
+
+"Dealing seriously with Palliser, thinking that he represented me in
+this matter?"
+
+"Without a doubt."
+
+"Will you lend me the letters?" Tallente asked.
+
+Mr. Horlock threw them across the table.
+
+"Here they are. My secretary wrote twice to Palliser last week and
+received no reply. That is why I sent you a telegram."
+
+"I was on my way to see you, anyway," Tallente observed. "I thought
+that you were going to offer me a seat."
+
+Mr. Horlock shook his head.
+
+"We simply haven't a safe one," he confided, "and there isn't a soul I
+could ask to give up, especially, to speak plainly, for you, Tallente.
+They look upon you as dangerous, and although it would have been a nine
+days' wonder, most of my people would have been relieved to have heard
+of your going to the Upper House."
+
+"I see," Tallente murmured. "In plain words, you've no use for me in
+the Cabinet?"
+
+"My dear fellow," the Prime Minister expostulated, "you have no right to
+talk like that. I offered you a post of great responsibility and a seat
+which we believed to be perfectly safe. You lost the election, bringing
+a considerable amount of discredit, if you will forgive my saying so,
+upon the Government. What more can I do?"
+
+Tallente was watching the speaker curiously. He had thought over this
+interview all the way up on the train, thought it out on very different
+lines.
+
+"Nothing, I suppose," he admitted, "yet there's a certain risk about
+dropping me, isn't there? You might drive me into the arms of the
+enemy."
+
+"What, the old Whig lot? Not a chance! I know you too well for that."
+
+"No, the Democrats."
+
+Horlock moved restlessly in his chair. He was eyeing his visitor
+steadfastly.
+
+"What, the people who have just voted solidly against you?"
+
+"Hasn't it occurred to you that that might have been political
+strategy?" Tallente suggested. "They might have maneuvered for the very
+situation which has arisen--that is, if I am really worth anything to
+anybody."
+
+Horlock shook his head.
+
+"Oil and water won't mix, Tallente, and you don't belong to that crowd.
+All the same," he confessed, "I shouldn't like you with them. I cannot
+believe that such a thing would ever come to pass, but the thought isn't
+a pleasant one."
+
+"Now that you have made up your mind that I don't want to go to the
+House of Lords and wouldn't under any possible consideration," Tallente
+asked, "have you anything else to suggest?"
+
+Mr. Horlock was a little annoyed. He considered that he had shown
+remarkable patience with a somewhat troublesome visitor.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "it is of no use your being unreasonable. You had
+your chance at Hellesfield and you lost it; your chance in my Cabinet
+and lost that too. You know for yourself how many rising politicians I
+have to satisfy. You'll be back again with us before long, of course,
+but for the present you must be content to take a rest. We can make use
+of you on the platform and there are always the reviews."
+
+"I see," Tallente murmured.
+
+"The fact is," his host concluded, as his fingers strayed towards the
+dismissal bell, "you made rather a mistake, Tallente, years ago, in
+dabbling at all with the Labour Party. At first, I must admit that I
+was glad. I felt that you created, as it were, a link between my
+Government and a very troublesome Opposition. To-day things have
+altered. Labour has shown its hand and it demands what no sane man
+could give. We've finished with compromise. We have to fight Socialism
+or go under."
+
+Tallente nodded.
+
+"One moment," he begged, as the Prime Minister's forefinger rested upon
+the button of the bell. "Now may I tell you just why I came to pay you
+this visit?"
+
+"If there is anything more left to be said," Mr. Horlock conceded, with
+an air of exaggerated patience.
+
+"There is just this," Tallente declared. "If you had had a seat to
+offer me or a post in your Cabinet, I should have been compelled to
+decline it, just as I have declined that ridiculous offer of a peerage.
+I have consented to lead the Democratic Party in the House of Commons."
+
+The Prime Minister's fingers slipped slowly from the knob of the bell.
+He was a person of studied deportment. A journalist who had once
+written of his courtly manners had found himself before long the
+sub-editor of a Government journal. At that moment he was possessed of
+neither manners nor presence. He sat gazing at Tallente with his mouth
+open. The latter rose to his feet.
+
+"I ask you to believe, sir," he said, "that the step which I am taking
+is in no way due to my feeling of pique or dissatisfaction with your
+treatment. I go where I think I can do the best work for my country and
+employ such gifts as I have to their best advantage."
+
+"But you are out to ruin the country!" Horlock faltered. "The Democrats
+are Socialists."
+
+"From one point of view," Tallente rejoined, "every Christian is a
+Socialist. The term means nothing. The programme of my new party aims
+at the destruction of all artificial barriers which make prosperity easy
+to one and difficult to another. It aims not only at the abolition of
+great fortunes and trusts, but at the abolition of the conditions which
+make them possible. It embraces a scheme for national service and a
+reasonable imperialism. It has a sane programme, and that is more than
+any Government which has been in office since the war has had."
+
+Mr. Horlock rose to his feet.
+
+"Tallente," he pronounced, "you are a traitor to your class and to your
+country."
+
+He struck the bell viciously. His visitor turned away with a faint
+smile.
+
+"Don't annoy me," he begged, "or I may some day have to send you to the
+House of Lords!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Tallente, obeying an urgent telephone message, made his way to
+Claridge's and sent his card up to his wife. Her maid came down and
+invited him to her suite, an invitation which he promptly declined. In
+about a quarter of an hour she descended to the lounge, dressed for the
+street. She showed no signs of confusion or nervousness at his visit.
+She was hard and cold and fair, with a fraudulent smile upon her lips,
+dressed to perfection, her maid hovering in the background with a
+Pekinese under one arm and a jewel case in her other hand.
+
+"Thank goodness," she said, as she fluttered into a chair by his side,
+"that you hate scenes even more than I do! You have the air of a man
+who has found out no end of disagreeable things!"
+
+"You are observant," he answered drily. "I have just come from the
+Prime Minister."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I find that Palliser has been conducting a regular conspiracy behind my
+back, with reference to this wretched peerage. He has practically
+forged my name and has placed me in a most humiliating position. You, I
+suppose, were his instigator in this matter?"
+
+"I suppose I was," she admitted.
+
+"What was to be his reward--his ulterior reward, I mean?"
+
+"I promised him twenty thousand pounds," she answered, with cold fury.
+"It appears that I overvalued your importance to your party. Tony
+apparently did the same. He thought that you had only to intimate your
+readiness to accept a peerage and the thing would be arranged. It seems
+that we were wrong."
+
+"You were doubly wrong," he replied. "In the first place, there were
+difficulties, and in the second, nothing would have induced me to accept
+such a humiliating offer."
+
+"How did you find this out?" she enquired.
+
+"The Prime Minister offered me the peerage less than an hour ago," he
+answered. "I need not say that I unhesitatingly refused it."
+
+Stella ceased buttoning her gloves. There was a cold glitter in her
+eyes.
+
+"You refused it?"
+
+"Of course!"
+
+She was silent for a moment.
+
+"Andrew," she said, "you have scarcely kept your bargain with me."
+
+"I am not prepared to admit that," he replied. "You had a very
+considerable social position at the time when I was in office. It was
+up to you to make that good."
+
+"I am tired of political society," she answered. "It isn't the real
+thing. Now you are out of Parliament, though, even that has vanished.
+Andrew!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+She leaned a little towards him. She began to regret that he had not
+accepted her invitation to visit her in her suite. Years ago she had
+been able to bend him sometimes to her will. Why should she take it for
+granted that she had lost her power? Here, however, even persuasions
+were difficult. He sat upon a straight, high-backed chair by her side
+and his face seemed as though it were carved out of stone.
+
+"You have always declined, Andrew, to make very much use of my money,"
+she said. "Could we not make a bargain now? I will give you a hundred
+thousand pounds and settle five million dollars on the holder of the
+title forever, if you will accept this peerage. I wouldn't mind a
+present to the party funds, either, if that helped matters."
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I am sorry for your disappointment," he said, "but nothing would induce
+me to accept a seat in the Upper House. I have other plans."
+
+"They could be changed."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You might be forced to change them."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+The smile maddened her. She had meant to be subtle. She became
+flamboyant. She leaned forward in her chair.
+
+"What have you done with Tony Palliser?" she demanded.
+
+Tallente remained absolutely unruffled. He had been expecting something
+of this sort. The only wonder was that it had been delayed so long.
+
+"A threat?" he asked pleasantly.
+
+"Call it what you like. Men don't disappear like that. What did you do
+with him?"
+
+"What do you think he deserved?"
+
+She bit her lip.
+
+"I think you are the most detestable human being who ever breathed," she
+faltered. "Supposing I go to the police?"
+
+"Don't be melodramatic," he begged. "In the first place, what have you
+to tell? In the second place, in this country, at any rate, a wife
+cannot give evidence against her husband."
+
+"You admit that something has happened?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"I admit nothing," he replied, "except that Anthony Palliser has
+disappeared under circumstances which you and I know about, that he has
+forged my name and entered into a disgraceful conspiracy with you, and
+that he has stolen from my wife a political document of great importance
+to me."
+
+"I knew nothing about the political document," she said quickly.
+
+"Possibly not," he agreed. "Still, the fact remains that Tony was a
+thoroughly bad lot. I find myself able to regard the possibility of an
+accident having happened to him with equanimity. Have you anything
+further to say?"
+
+She sat looking down on the floor for several minutes. She had
+probably, Tallente decided as he watched her, some way of suffering in
+secret, all the more terrible because of its repression. When she
+looked up, her face seemed pinched and older. Her voice, however, was
+steady.
+
+"Let us have an understanding," she said. "You do not desire my return
+to Martinhoe?"
+
+"I do not," he agreed.
+
+"And what about Cheverton House here?"
+
+"I have nothing to do with it," he replied. "You persuaded me to allow
+you to take it and I have lived with you there. I never pretended,
+however, to be able to contribute to its upkeep. You can live there, if
+you choose, or wherever else you please."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"It would be more reputable."
+
+"You mean that you will not return there?"
+
+"I do mean that."
+
+His cold firmness daunted her. She was, besides, at a disadvantage; she
+had no idea how much he knew.
+
+"I can make you come back to me if I choose," she threatened.
+
+"The attempt would cost you a great deal of money," he told her, "and
+the result would be the same. Frankly, Stella," he went on, striving to
+impart a note of friendliness into his tone, "we made a bad bargain and
+it is no use clinging to the impossible. I have tried to keep my end of
+it. Technically I have kept it. If I have failed in other ways, I am
+very sorry. The whole thing was a mistake. We have been frank about
+it more than once, so we may just as well be frank about it now. I
+married for money and you for position. I have not found your money any
+particular advantage, and I have realised that as a man gets on in life
+there are other and more vital things which he misses though making such
+a bargain. You are not satisfied with your position, and perhaps you,
+too, have something of the same feeling that I have. You are your own
+mistress and you are a very rich woman, and in whichever direction you
+may decide to seek for a larger measure of content, you will not find
+me in the Way."
+
+
+"I am not sentimental," she said coldly. "I know what I want and I am
+not afraid to own it. I want to be a Peeress."
+
+"In that respect I am unable to help you," he replied. "And in case I
+have not made myself sufficiently clear upon the subject, let me tell
+you that I deeply resent the plot by which you endeavoured to foist such
+an indignity upon me."
+
+"This is your last word?" she demanded.
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Then I demand that you set me free."
+
+He was a little staggered.
+
+"How on earth can I do that?"
+
+"You can allow me to divorce you."
+
+"And spoil any chance I might have of reentering political life," he
+remarked quietly.
+
+"I have no further interest in your political life," she retorted.
+
+He looked at her steadfastly.
+
+"There is another way," he suggested. "I might divorce you."
+
+Her eyes fell before the steely light in his. She did her best,
+however, to keep her voice steady.
+
+"That would not suit me," she admitted. "I could not be received at
+Court, and there are other social penalties which I am not inclined to
+face. In the case of a disagreement like ours, if the man realises his
+duty, it is he who is willing to bear the sacrifice."
+
+"Under some circumstances, yes," he agreed. "In our case, however,
+there is a certain consideration upon which I have forborne to touch--"
+
+It was as much her anger as anything else which induced her lack of
+self-control. She gave a little cry.
+
+"Andrew, you are detestable!" she exclaimed. "Let us end this
+conversation. You have said all that you wish to say?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"Please go away, then," she begged. "I am expecting visitors. I think
+that we understand each other."
+
+He rose to his feet.
+
+"I am sorry for our failure, Stella," he said. "Pray do not hesitate to
+write to me at any time if my advice or assistance can be of service."
+
+He passed down the lounge, more crowded now than when he had entered. A
+very fashionably dressed young woman, one of a smart tea party, leaned
+back in her chair as he passed and held out her hand.
+
+"And how does town seem, Mr. Tallente, after your sylvan solitude?" she
+asked.
+
+Tallente for a moment was almost at a loss. Then a glance into her
+really very wonderful eyes, and the curve of her lips as she smiled
+convinced him of the truth which he had at first discarded.
+
+"Miss Miall!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Please don't look so surprised," she laughed. "I suppose you think I
+have no right to be frivolling in these very serious times, but I am
+afraid I am rather an offender when the humour takes me. You kept your
+word to Mr. Dartrey, I see?"
+
+Tallente nodded.
+
+"I came to town yesterday."
+
+"I must hear all the news, please," she insisted. "Will you come and
+see me to-morrow afternoon? I share a flat with another girl in
+Westminster--Number 13, Brown Square."
+
+"I shall be delighted," he answered. "I think your hostess wants to
+speak to me. She is an old friend of my aunt."
+
+He moved on a few steps and bowed over the thin, over-bejewelled fingers
+of the Countess of Clanarton, an old lady whose vogue still remained
+unchallenged, although the publication of her memoirs had very nearly
+sent a highly respected publisher into prison.
+
+"Andrew," she exclaimed, "we are all so distressed about you! How dared
+you lose your election! You know my little fire-eating friend, I see.
+I keep in with her because when the revolution comes she is going to
+save me from the guillotine, aren't you, Nora?"
+
+"My revolution won't have anything to do with guillotines," the girl
+laughed back, "and if you really want to have a powerful friend at
+court, pin your faith on Mr. Tallente."
+
+Lady Clanarton shook her head.
+
+"I have known Andrew, my dear, since he was in his cradle," she said.
+"I have heard him spout Socialism, and I know he has written about
+revolutions, but, believe me, he's a good old-fashioned Whig at heart.
+He'll never carry the red flag. I see your wife has bought the
+Maharajaim of Sapong's pearls, Andrew. Do you think she'd leave them to
+me if I were to call on her?"
+
+"Why not ask her?" Tallente suggested. "She is over there."
+
+"Dear me, so she is!" she exclaimed. "How smart, too! I thought when
+she came in she must be some one not quite respectable, she was so
+well-dressed. Going, Andrew? Well, come and see me before you return
+to the country. And I wouldn't go and have tea with that little hussy,
+if I were you. She'll burn the good old-fashioned principles out of
+you, if anything could."
+
+"Not later than five, please," Nora called out. "You shall have
+muffins, if I can get them."
+
+"She's got her eye on you," the old lady chuckled. "Most dangerous
+child in London, they all tell me. You're warned, Andrew."
+
+He smiled as he raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+"Is my danger political or otherwise?" he whispered.
+
+"Otherwise, I should think," was the prompt retort. "You are too
+British to change our politics, but thank goodness infidelity is one of
+the cosmopolitan virtues. You were never the man to marry a
+plaster-cast type of wife, Andrew, for all her millions. I could have
+done better for you than that. What's this they are telling me about
+Tony Palliser?"
+
+Tallente stiffened a little.
+
+"A good many people seem to be talking about Tony Palliser," he
+observed.
+
+"You shouldn't have let your wife make such an idiot of herself with
+him--lunching and dining and theatring all the time. And now they say
+he has disappeared. Poor little man! What have you done to him,
+Andrew?"
+
+Tallente sighed.
+
+"I can see that I shall have to take you into my confidence," he
+murmured.
+
+"You needn't tell me a single word, because I shouldn't believe you if
+you did. Are you staying here with your wife?"
+
+"No," Tallente answered. "I am back at my old rooms in Charges Street."
+
+The old lady patted him on the arm and dismissed him.
+
+"You see, I've found out all I wanted to know!" she chuckled.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Dartrey had been called unexpectedly to the north, to a great Labour
+conference, and Tallente, waiting for his return, promised within the
+next forty-eight hours, found himself rather at a loose end. He avoided
+the club, where he would have been likely to meet his late political
+associates, and spent the morning after his visit to the Prime Minister
+strolling around the Park, paying visits to his tailor and hosier, and
+lunched by himself a little sadly in a fashionable restaurant. At five
+o'clock he found his way to Westminster and discovered Nora Miall's
+flat. A busy young person in pince-nez and a long overall, who
+announced herself as Miss Miall's secretary, was in the act of showing
+out James Miller as he rang the bell. "Any news?" the latter asked,
+after Tallente had found it impossible to avoid shaking hands. "I am
+waiting for Mr. Dartrey's return. No, there is no particular news that I
+know of."
+
+"Dartrey's had to go north for a few days," Miller confided officiously.
+"I ought to have gone too, but some one had to stay and look after
+things in the House. Rather a nuisance his being called away just now."
+
+Tallente preserved a noncommittal silence. Miller rolled a cigarette
+hastily, took up his unwrapped umbrella and an ill-brushed bowler hat.
+
+"Well, I must be going," he concluded. "If there is anything I can do
+for you during the chief's absence, look me up, Mr. Tallente. It's all
+the same, you know--Dartrey or me--Demos House in Parliament Street, or
+the House. You haven't forgotten your way there yet, I expect?"
+
+With which parting shaft Mr. James Miller departed, and the secretary,
+Opening the door of Nora's sitting room, ushered Tallente in.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she announced, with a subdued smile, "fresh from a most
+engaging but rather one-sided conversation with Mr. Miller."
+
+Nora was evidently neither attired nor equipped this afternoon for a tea
+party at Claridge's. She wore a dark blue princess frock, buttoned
+right up to the throat. Her hair was brushed straight back from her
+head, revealing a little more completely her finely shaped forehead.
+She was seated before a round table covered with papers, and Tallente
+fancied, even as he crossed the threshold, that there was an electric
+atmosphere in the little apartment, an impression which the smouldering
+fire in her eyes, as she glanced up, confirmed. The change in her
+expression, however, as she recognised her visitor, was instantaneous.
+A delightful smile of welcome chased away the sombreness of her face.
+
+"My dear man," she exclaimed, "come and sit down and help me to forget
+that annoying person who has just gone out!"
+
+Tallente smiled.
+
+"Miller is not one of your favorites, then?"
+
+"Isn't he the most impossible person who ever breathed." she replied.
+"He was a conscientious objector during the war, a sex fanatic
+since--Mr. Dartrey had to use all his influence to keep him out of
+prison for writing those scurrulous articles in the Comet--and I think
+he is one of the smallest-minded, most untrustworthy persons I ever met.
+For some reason or other, Stephen Dartrey believes in him. He has a
+wonderful talent for organization and a good deal of influence with the
+trades unions.--By the by, it's all right about the muffins."
+
+She rang the bell and ordered tea. Tallente glanced for a moment about
+the room. The four walls were lined with well-filled bookcases, but the
+mural decorations consisted--except for one wonderful nude figure, copy
+of a well-known Rodin--of statistical charts and shaded maps. There
+were only two signs of feminine occupation: an immense bowl of red
+roses, rising with strange effect from the sea of manuscript, pamphlets,
+and volumes of reference, and a wide, luxurious couch, drawn up to the
+window, through which the tops of a little clump of lime trees were just
+visible. As she turned back to him, he noticed with more complete
+appreciation the lines of her ample but graceful figure, the more
+remarkable because she was neither tall nor slim.
+
+"So that was your wife at Claridge's yesterday afternoon?" she remarked,
+a little abruptly.
+
+He assented in silence. Her eyes sought his speculatively.
+
+"I know that Lady Clanarton is a terrible gossip," she went on. "Was
+she telling me the truth when she said that your married life was not an
+entire success?"
+
+"She was telling you the truth," Tallente admitted.
+
+"I like to know everything," she suggested quietly. "You must remember
+that we shall probably become intimates."
+
+"I did my wife the injustice of marrying her for money," Tallente
+explained. "She married me because she thought that I could provide her
+with a social position such as she desired. Our marriage was a double
+failure. I found no opportunity of making use of her money, and she was
+discontented with the value she received for it. We have within the
+last few days agreed to separate. Now you know everything," he added,
+with a little smile, "and curiously enough, considering the brevity of
+our acquaintance, you know it before anybody else in the world except
+one person."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"I like to know everything about the people I am interested in," she
+admitted. "Besides, your story sounds so quaint. It seems to belong,
+somehow or other, to the days of Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen. I
+suppose that is because I always feel that I am living a little way in
+the future."
+
+Tea was brought in, and a place cleared for the tray upon a crowded
+table. Afterwards she lit a cigarette and threw herself upon the
+lounge.
+
+"Turn your chair around towards me," she invited. "This is the hour I
+like best of any during the day. Do you see what a beautiful view I
+have of the Houses of Parliament? And there across the river, behind
+that mist, the cesspool begins. Sometimes I lie here and think. I see
+right into Bermondsey and Rotherhithe and all those places and think out
+the lives of the people as they are being lived. Then I look through
+those wonderful windows there--how they glitter in the sunshine, don't
+they!--and I think I hear the men speak whom they have sent to plead
+their cause. Some Demosthenes from Tower Hill exhausts himself with
+phrase-making, shouts himself into a perspiration, drawing lurid,
+pictures of hideous and apparent wrongs, and a hundred or so
+well-dressed legislators whisper behind the palms of their hands, make
+their plans for the evening and trot into their appointed lobbies like
+sheep when the division bell rings. It is the most tragical epitome of
+inadequacy the world has ever known."
+
+"Have you Democrats any fresh inspiration, then?" he asked.
+
+"Of course we have," she rapped out sharply. "It isn't like you to ask
+such a question. The principles for which we stand never existed
+before, except academically. No party has ever been able to preach them
+within the realm of practical politics, because no party has been
+comprehensive enough. The Labour Party, as it was understood ten years
+ago, was a pitiful conglomeration of selfish atoms without the faintest
+idea of coordination. It is for the souls of the people we stand, we
+Democrats, whether they belong to trades unions or not, whether they
+till the fields or sweat in the factories, whether they bend over a desk
+or go back and forth across the sea, whether they live in small houses
+or large, whether they belong to the respectable middle classes whom the
+after-the-war legislation did its best to break, or to the class of
+actual manual laborers."
+
+"I don't see what place a man like Miller has in your scheme of things,"
+he observed, a little restlessly.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Miller is a limpet," she said. "He has posed as a man of brains for
+half a generation. His only real cleverness is an unerring but selfish
+capacity for attaching himself to the right cause. We can't ignore him.
+He has a following. On the other hand, he does not represent our
+principles any more than Pitt would if he were still alive."
+
+"What will be your position really as regards the two main sections of
+the Labour Party?" he asked. "We are absorbing the best of them, day by
+day," she answered quickly. "What is left of either will be merely the
+scum. The people will come to us. Their discarded leaders can crawl
+back to obscurity. The people may follow false gods for a very long
+time, but they have the knack of recognising the truth when it is shown
+them."
+
+"You have the gift of conviction," he said thoughtfully.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Our cause speaks, not I," she declared. "Every word I utter is a waste
+of breath, a task of supererogation. You can't associate with Stephen
+Dartrey for a month without realising for yourself what our party means
+and stands for. So--enough. I didn't ask you here to undertake any
+missionary work. I asked you, as a matter of fact, for my own pleasure.
+Take another cigarette and pass me one, please. And here's another
+cushion," she added, throwing it to him. "You look as though you needed
+it." He settled down more comfortably. He had the pleasant feeling of
+being completely at his ease.
+
+"So far as entertaining you is concerned," he confessed, "I fear I am
+likely to be a failure. I am beginning to feel like a constant note of
+interrogation. There is so much I want to know."
+
+"Proceed, then. I am resigned," she said with a smile. "About
+yourself. I just knew of you as the writer of one or two articles in
+the reviews. Why have I never heard more of you?"
+
+"One reason," she confided, "is because I am so painfully young. I
+haven't had time yet to become a wonderful woman. You see, I have the
+tremendous advantage of not having known the world except from
+underneath a pigtail, while the war was on. I was able to bring to
+these new conditions an absolutely unbiassed understanding."
+
+"But what was your upbringing?" he asked. "Your father, for instance?"
+
+"Is this going to be a pill for you?" she enquired, with slightly
+wrinkled forehead. "He was professor of English at Dresden University.
+We were all living there when the war broke out, but he was such a
+favourite that they let us go to Paris. He died there, the week after
+peace was declared. My mother still lives at Versailles. She was
+governess to Lady Clanarton's grandchildren, hence my presence yesterday
+in those aristocratic circles."
+
+"And you live here alone?"
+
+"With my secretary--the fuzzyhaired young person who was just getting
+rid of Mr. Miller for me when you arrived. We are a terribly advanced
+couple, in our ideas, but we lead a thoroughly reputable life. I
+sometimes think," she went on, with a sigh, "that all one's tendencies
+towards the unusual can be got rid of in opinions. Susan, for
+instance--that is my secretary's name--pronounces herself unblushingly
+in favour of free love, but I don't think she has ever allowed a man to
+kiss her in her life."
+
+"Your own opinions?" he asked curiously. "I suppose they, too, are a
+little revolutionary, so far as regards our social laws?"
+
+"I dare not even define them," she acknowledged, "they are so entirely
+negative. Somehow or other, I can't help thinking that the present
+system will die out through the sheer absurdity of it. We really shan't
+need a crusade against the marriage laws. The whole system is
+committing suicide as fast as it can."
+
+"How old are you?" he asked.
+
+"Twenty-four," she answered promptly.
+
+"And supposing you fell in love--taking it for granted that you have not
+done so already--should you marry?"
+
+Her eyes rested upon his, a little narrowed, curiously and pleasantly
+reflective. All the time the corners of her sensitive mouth twitched a
+little.
+
+"To tell you the truth," she confided, with a somewhat evasive air, "I
+have been so busy thinking out life for other people that I have never
+stopped to apply its general principles to myself."
+
+"You are a sophist," he declared.
+
+"I have not your remarkable insight," she laughed mockingly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"How this came about I don't even quite know," Tallente remarked, an
+hour or so later, as he laid down the menu and smiled across the corner
+table in the little Soho restaurant at his two companions.
+
+"I can tell you exactly," Nora declared. "You are in town for a few
+days only, and I want to see as much of you as I can; Susan here is
+deserting me at nine o'clock to go to a musical comedy; I particularly
+wanted a sole Georges, and I knew, if Susan and I came here alone, a
+person whom we neither of us like would come and share our table.
+Therefore, I made artless enquiries as to your engagements for the
+evening. When I found that you proposed to dine alone in some hidden
+place rather than run the risk of meeting any of your political
+acquaintances at the club, I went in for a little mental suggestion."
+
+"I see," he murmured. "Then my invitation wasn't a spontaneous one?"
+
+"Not at all," she agreed. "I put the idea into your head."
+
+"And now that we are here, are you going to stretch me on the rack and
+delve for my opinions on all sorts of subjects? is Miss Susan there
+going to take them down in shorthand on her cuff and you make a report
+to Dartrey when he comes back to-morrow?"
+
+She laughed at him from underneath her close-fitting, becoming little
+hat. She was biting an olive with firm white teeth.
+
+"After hours," she reassured him. "Susan and I are going to talk a
+little nonsense after the day's work. You may join in if you can unbend
+so far. We shall probably eat more than is good for us--I had a cup of
+coffee for lunch--and if you decide to be magnificent and offer us wine,
+we shall drink it and talk more nonsense than ever."
+
+He called for the wine list.
+
+"I thought we were going to discuss the effect of Grecian philosophy
+upon the Roman system of government."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"You're a long way out," she declared, "Our conversation will skirt the
+edges of many subjects. We shall speak of the Russian Ballet, Susan and
+I will exchange a few whispered confidences about our admirers, we shall
+discuss even one who comes in and goes out, with subtle references to
+their clothes and morals, and when you and I are left alone we may even
+indulge in the wholesome, sentimental exercise of a little flirtation."
+
+"There you have me," he confessed. "I know a little about everything
+else you have mentioned."
+
+"A very good opening." she approved. "Keep it till Susan has gone and
+then propose yourself as a disciple. There is only one drawback about
+this place," she went on, nodding curtly across the room to Miller. "So
+many of our own people come here. Mr. Miller must be pleased to see us
+together."
+
+"Why?" Tallente asked. "Is he an admirer?"
+
+Nora's face was almost ludicrously expressive.
+
+"He would like to he," she admitted, "but, thick-skinned though he is, I
+have managed to make him understand pretty well how I feel about him.
+You'll find him a thorn in your side," she went on reflectively.
+
+"You see, if our party has a fault, it is in a certain lack of system.
+We have only a titular chief and no real leader. Miller thinks that
+post is his by predestination. Your coming is beginning to worry him
+already. It was entirely on your account he paid me that visit this
+afternoon."
+
+"To be perfectly frank with you," Tallente sighed, "I should find Miller
+a loathsome coadjutor."
+
+"There are drawbacks to everything in life," Nora replied. "Long before
+Miller has become anything except a nuisance to you, you will have
+realised that the only political party worth considering, during the
+next fifty years, at any rate, will be the Democrats. After that, I
+shouldn't be at all surprised if the aristocrats didn't engineer a
+revolution, especially if we disenfranchise them.--Susan, you have a new
+hat on. Tell me at once with whom you are going to Daly's?"
+
+"No one who counts," the girl declared, with a little grimace. "I am
+going with my brother and a very sober married friend of his."
+
+"After working hours," Nora confessed, glancing critically at the sole
+which had just been tendered for Tallente's examination, "the chief
+interest of Susan and myself, as you may have observed, lies in food and
+in your sex. I think we must have what some nasty German woman once
+called the man-hunger."
+
+"It sounds cannibalistic," Tallente rejoined. "Have I any cause for
+alarm?"
+
+"Not so far as I am concerned," Susan assured him. "I have really found
+my man, only he doesn't know it yet. I am trying to get it into his
+brain by mental suggestion."
+
+"You wouldn't think Susan would be so much luckier than I, would you?"
+Nora observed, studying her friend reflectively. "I am really much
+better-looking, but I think she must have more taking ways. You needn't
+be nervous, Mr. Tallente. You are outside the range of our ambitions.
+I shall have to be content with some one in a humbler walk of life."
+
+"Aren't you a little over-modest?" he asked. "You haven't told me much
+about the social side of this new era which you propose to inaugurate,
+but I imagine that intellect will be the only aristocracy."
+
+"Even then," Norah sighed, "I am lacking in confidence. To tell you the
+truth, I am not a great believer in my own sex. I don't see us
+occupying a very prominent place in the politics of the next few
+decades. The functions of woman were decided for her by nature and a
+million years of revolt will never alter them."
+
+Tallente was a little surprised.
+
+"You mean that you don't believe in woman Member of Parliament, doctors
+and lawyers, and that sort of thing?"
+
+"In a general way, certainly not," she replied. "Women doctors for
+women and children, yes! Lawyers--no! Members of Parliament--certainly
+not! Women were made for one thing and to do that properly should take
+all the energy they possess."
+
+"You are full of surprises," Tallente declared. "I expected a miracle
+of complexity and I find you almost primitive." She laughed. "Then
+considering the sort of man you are, I ought to have gone up a lot in
+your estimation."
+
+"There are a very few higher notches," he assured her, smiling, "than
+the one where you now sit enthroned."
+
+Nora glanced at her wrist watch.
+
+"Susan dear, what time do you have to join your friends?" she asked.
+
+Susan shook her head.
+
+"Nothing doing. I've got my seat. I am going when I've had my dinner
+comfortably. There's fried chicken coming and no considerations of
+friendship would induce me to hurry away from it."
+
+Nora sighed plaintively.
+
+"There is no doubt about it, women do lack the sporting instinct," she
+lamented. "Now if we'd both been men, and Mr. Tallente a charming
+woman, I should have just given you a wink, you would have muttered
+something clumsy about an appointment, shuffled off and finished your
+dinner elsewhere."
+
+"Our sex isn't capable of such sacrifices," Susan declared, leaning back
+to enable the waiter to fill her glass. "There's the champagne, too."
+
+The meal came to a conclusion with scarcely another serious word. Susan
+departed in due course, and Tallente called for his bill, a short time
+afterwards, with a feeling of absolute reluctance.
+
+"Shall we try and get in at a show somewhere?" he suggested.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Not to-night. Four nights a week I go to bed early and this is one of
+them. Let's escape, if we can, before Mr. Miller can make his way over
+here. I know he'll try and have coffee with us or something."
+
+Tallente was adroit and they left the restaurant just as Miller was
+rising to his feet. Nora sprang into the waiting taxi with a little
+laugh of triumph and drew her skirts on one side to make room for her
+escort. They drove slowly off along the hot and crowded street, with
+its long-drawn-out tangle of polyglot shops, foreign-looking restaurants
+and delicatessen establishments. Every one who was not feverishly busy
+was seated either at the open windows of the second or third floor, or
+out on the pavement below. The city seemed to be exuding the soaked-in
+heat of the long summer's day. The women who floated by were dressed in
+the lightest of muslins; even the plainest of them gained a new charm in
+their airy and butterfly-looking costumes. The men walked bareheaded,
+waistcoatless, fanning themselves with straw hats. Here and there, as
+they turned into Shaftesbury Avenue, an immaculately turned-out young
+man in evening dress passed along the baked pavements and dived into one
+of the theatres. Notwithstanding the heat, there seemed to be a sort of
+voluptuous atmosphere brooding over the crowded streets. The sky over
+Piccadilly Circus was almost violet and the luminous, unneeded lamps had
+a festive effect. The strain of a long day had passed. It was the
+pleasure-seekers alone who thronged the thoroughfares. Tallente turned
+and looked into the corner of the cab, to meet a soft, reflective gleam
+in Nora's eyes.
+
+"Isn't London wonderful!" she murmured dreamily. "On a night like this
+it always seems to me like a great human being whose pulses you can see
+heating, beating all the time."
+
+Tallente, a person very little given to self-analysis, never really
+understood the impulse which prompted him to lean towards her, the
+slightly quickening sense of excitement with which he sought for the
+kindness of her eyes. Suddenly he felt his fingers clasped in hers, a
+warm, pleasant grasp, yet which somehow or other seemed to have the
+effect of a barrier.
+
+"You asked me a question at dinner-time," she said, "winch I did not
+answer at the time. You asked me why I disliked James Miller so much."
+
+"Don't tell me unless you like," he begged. "Don't talk about that
+sort of person at all just now, unless you want to."
+
+"I must tell you why I dislike him so much," she insisted. "It is
+because he once tried to kiss me."
+
+"Was that so terrible a sin?" he asked, a little thickly.
+
+She smiled up at him with the candour of a child.
+
+"To me it was," she acknowledged, "because it was just the casual caress
+of a man seeking for a momentary emotion. Sometimes you have
+wondered--or you have looked as though you were wondering--what my ideas
+about men and women and the future and the marriage laws, and all that
+sort of thing really are. Perhaps I haven't altogether made up my mind
+myself, but I do know this, because it is part of myself and my life.
+The one desire I have is for children--sons for the State, or daughters
+who may bear sons. There isn't anything else which it is worth while
+for a woman thinking about for a moment. And yet, do you know, I never
+actually think of marrying. I never think about whether love is right
+or wrong. I simply think that no man shall ever kiss me, or hold me in
+his arms, unless it is the man who is sent to me for my desire, and when
+he comes, just whoever he may be, or whenever it may be, and whether St.
+George's opens its doors to us or whether we go through some tangle of
+words at a registry office, or whether neither of these things happens,
+I really do not mind. When he comes, he will give me what I want--that
+is just all that counts. And until he comes, I shall stay just as I
+have been ever since my pigtail went up and my skirts came down."
+
+She gave his hand a final little pressure, patted and released it. He
+felt, somehow or other, immeasurably grateful to her, flattered by her
+confidence, curiously exalted by her hesitating words. Speech, however,
+he found an impossibility.
+
+"So you see," she concluded, sitting up and speaking once more in her
+conversational manner, "I am not a bit modern really, am I? I am just as
+primitive as I can be, longing for the things all women long for and
+unashamed to confess my longing to any one who has the gift of
+understanding, any one who walks with his eyes turned towards the
+clouds."
+
+Their taxicab stopped outside the building in which her little flat was
+situated. She handed him the door key. "Please turn this for me," she
+begged. "I am at home every afternoon between five and seven. Come and
+see me whenever you can." He opened the door and she passed in, looking
+back at him with a little wave of the hand before she vanished lightly
+into the shadows. Tallente dismissed the cab and walked back towards
+his rooms. His light-heartedness was passing away with every step he
+took. The cheerful little groups of pleasure-seekers he encountered
+seemed like an affront to his increasing melancholy. Once more he had
+to reckon with this strange new feeling of loneliness which had made its
+disturbing entrance into his thoughts within the last few years. It was
+as though a certain weariness of life and its prospects had come with
+the temporary cessation of his day-by-day political work, and as though
+an unsuspected desire, terrified at the passing years, was tugging at
+his heartstrings in the desperate call for some tardy realisation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Tallente met the Prime Minister walking in the Park early on the
+following morning. The latter had established the custom of walking
+from Knightsbridge Barracks, where his car deposited him, to Marble Arch
+and back every morning, and it had come to be recognised as his desire,
+and a part of the etiquette of the place, that he should be allowed this
+exercise without receiving even the recognition of passersby. On this
+occasion, however, he took the initiative, stopped Tallente and invited
+him to talk with him.
+
+"I thought of writing to you, Tallente," he said. "I cannot bring
+myself to believe that you were in earnest on Wednesday morning."
+
+"Absolutely," the other assured him. "I have an appointment with
+Dartrey in an hour's time to close the matter."
+
+The Prime Minister was shocked and pained.
+
+"You will dig your own grave," he declared. "The idea is perfectly
+scandalous. You propose to sell your political birthright for a mess of
+pottage."
+
+"I am afraid I can't agree with you, sir," Tallente regretted. "I am at
+least as much in sympathy with the programme of the Democratic Party as
+I am with yours."
+
+"In that case," was the somewhat stiff rejoinder, "there is, I fear,
+nothing more to be said."
+
+There was a brief silence. Tallente would have been glad to make his
+escape, but found no excuse.
+
+"When we beat Germany," Horlock ruminated, "the man in the street
+thought that we had ensured the peace of the world. Who could have
+dreamed that a nation who had played such an heroic part, which had
+imperiled its very existence for the sake of a principle, was all the
+time rotten at the core!"
+
+"I will challenge you to repeat that statement in the House or on any
+public platform, sir," Tallente objected. "The present state of
+discontent throughout the country is solely owing to the shocking
+financial mismanagement of every Chancellor of the Exchequer and
+lawmaker since peace was signed. We won the war and the people who had
+been asked to make heroic sacrifices were simply expected to continue
+them afterwards as a matter of course. What chance has the man of
+moderate means had to improve his position, to save a little for his old
+age, during the last ten years? A third of his income has gone in
+taxation and the cost of everything is fifty per cent, more than it was
+before the war. And we won it, mind. That is what he can't understand.
+We won the war and found ruin."
+
+"Legislation has done its best," the Prime Minister said, "to assist in
+the distribution of capital."
+
+"Legislation was too slow," Tallente answered bluntly. "Legislation is
+only playing with the subject now. You sneer at the Democratic Party,
+but they have a perfectly sound scheme of financial reform and they
+undertake to bring the income tax down to two shillings in the pound
+within the next three years."
+
+"They'll ruin half the merchants and the manufacturers in the country if
+they attempt it."
+
+"How can they ruin them?" Tallente replied. "The factories will be
+there, the trade will be there, the money will still be there. The
+financial legislation of the last few years has simply been a blatant
+nursing of the profiteer."
+
+"I need not say, Tallente, that I disagree with you entirely," his
+companion declared. "At the same time, I am not going to argue with
+you. To tell you the truth, I spent a great part of last night with you
+in my thoughts. We cannot afford to let you go. Supposing, now, that I
+could induce Watkinson to give up Kendal? His seat is quite safe and
+with a little reshuffling you would be able to slip back gradually to
+your place amongst us?"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I am very sorry, sir," he said, "but my decision is taken. I have come
+to the conclusion that, with proper handling and amalgamation, the
+Democrats are capable of becoming the only sound political party at
+present possible. If Stephen Dartrey is still of the same mind when I
+see him this morning, I shall throw in my lot with theirs."
+
+The Prime Minister frowned. He recognised bitterly an error in tactics.
+The ranks of his own party were filled with brilliant men without
+executive gifts. It was for that reason he had for the moment ignored
+Tallente. He realised, however, that in the opposite camp no man could
+be more dangerous.
+
+"This thing seems to me really terrible, Tallente," he protested
+gravely. "After all, however much we may ignore it, there is what we
+might call a clannishness amongst Englishmen of a certain order which
+has helped this country through many troubles. You are going to leave
+behind entirely the companionship of your class. You are going to cast
+in your lot with the riffraff of politics, the mealy-mouthed anarchist
+only biding his time, the blatant Bolshevist talking of compromise with
+his tongue in his cheek, the tub-thumper out to confiscate every one's
+wealth and start a public house. You won't know yourself in this
+gallery."
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"These people," he admitted, "are full of their extravagances, although
+I think that the types you mention are as extinct as the dodo, but I
+will admit their extravagances, only to pass on to tell you this. I
+claim for them that they are the only political party, even with their
+strange conglomeration of material, which possesses the least spark of
+spirituality. I think, and their programme proves it, that they are
+trying to look beyond the crying needs of the moment, trying to frame
+laws which will be lasting and just without pandering to capital or
+factions of any sort. I think that when their time comes, they will try
+at least to govern this country from the loftiest possible standard."
+
+The Prime Minister completed his walk, the enjoyment of which Tallente
+had entirely spoilt. He held out his hand a little pettishly.
+
+"Politics," he said, "is the one career in which men seldom recover from
+their mistakes. I hope that even at the eleventh hour you will relent.
+It will be a grief to all of us to see you slip away from the reputable
+places."
+
+The Right Honourable John Augustus Horlock stepped into his motor-car
+and drove away. Tallente, after a glance at his watch, called a taxi
+and proceeded to keep his appointment at Demos House, the great block of
+buildings where Dartrey had established his headquarters. In the large,
+open waiting room where he was invited to take a seat he watched with
+interest the faces of the passers-by. There seemed to be visitors from
+every class of the community. A Board of Trade official was there to
+present some figures connected with the industry which he represented.
+Half a dozen operatives, personally conducted by a local leader, had
+travelled up that morning from one of the great manufacturing centres.
+A well-known writer was there, waiting to see the chief of the literary
+section. Tallente found his period of detention all too short. He was
+summoned in to see Dartrey, who welcomed him warmly.
+
+"Sit down, Tallente," he invited. "We are both of us men who believe in
+simple things and direct action. Have you made up your mind?"
+
+"I have," Tallente announced. "I have broken finally with Horlock. I
+have told him that I am coming to you."
+
+Dartrey leaned over and held out both his hands. The spiritual side of
+his face seemed at that moment altogether in the ascendant. He welcomed
+Tallente as the head of a great religious order might have welcomed a
+novice. He was full of dignity and kindliness as well as joy.
+
+"You will help us to set the world to rights," he said. "Alas! that is
+only a phrase, but you will help us to let in the light. Remember," he
+went on, "that there may be moments of discouragement. Much of the
+material we have to use, the people we have to influence, the way we
+have to travel, may seem sordid, but the light is shining there all the
+time, Tallente. We are not politicians. We are deliverers."
+
+It was one of Dartrey's rare moments of genuine enthusiasm. His visitor
+forgot for a moment the businesslike office with its row of telephones,
+its shelves of blue books and masses of papers. He seemed to be
+breathing a new and wonderful atmosphere.
+
+"I am your man, Dartrey," he promised simply. "Make what use of me you
+will."
+
+Dartrey smiled, once more the plain, kindly man of affairs.
+
+"To descend, then, very much to the earth," he said, "to-night you must
+go to Bradford. Odames will resign to-morrow. This time," he added,
+with a little smile, "I think I can promise you the Democratic support
+and a very certain election."
+
+
+
+BOOK TWO
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Tallente found himself possessed of a haunting, almost a morbid feeling
+that a lifetime had passed since last his car had turned out of the
+station gates and he had seen the moorland unroll itself before his
+eyes. There was a new pungency in the autumn air, an unaccustomed
+scantiness in the herbiage of the moor and the low hedges growing from
+the top of the stone walls. The glory of the heather had passed,
+though here and there a clump of brilliant yellow gorse remained. The
+telegraph posts, leaning away from the wind, seemed somehow scantier;
+the road stretched between them, lonely and desolate. From a farmhouse
+in the bosom of the tree-hung hills lights were already twinkling, and
+when he reached the edge of the moor, and the sea spread itself out
+almost at his feet, the shapes of the passing steamers, with their long
+trail of smoke, were blurred and uncertain. Below, his home field, his
+wall-enclosed patch of kitchen garden, the long, low house itself lay
+like pieces from a child's play-box stretched out upon the carpet. Only
+to-night there was no mist. They made their cautious way downwards
+through the clearest of darkening atmospheres. On the hillsides, as
+they dropped down, they could hear the music of an occasional sheep
+bell. Rabbits scurried away from the headlights of the car, an early
+owl flew hooting over their heads. Tallente, tired with his journey,
+perhaps a little worn with the excitement of the last two months, found
+something dark and a little lonely about the unoccupied house, something
+a little dreary in his solitary dinner and the long evening spent with
+no company save his books and his pipe. Later on, he lay for long
+awake, watching the twin lights flash out across the Channel and
+listening to the melancholy call of the owls as they swept back and
+forth across the lawn to their secret abodes in the cliffs. When at
+last he slept, however, he slept soundly. An unlooked-for gleam of
+sunshine and the dull roar of the incoming tide breaking upon the beach
+below woke him the next morning long after his usual hour. He bathed,
+shaved in front of the open window, and breakfasted with an absolute
+renewal of his fuller interest in life. It was not until he had sent
+back the car in which he had driven as far as the station, and was
+swinging on foot across Woolhanger Moor, that he realised fully why he
+had come, why he had schemed for these two days out of a life packed
+with multifarious tasks. Then he laughed at himself, heartily yet a
+little self-consciously. A fool's errand might yet be a pleasant one,
+even though his immediate surroundings seemed to mock the sound of his
+mirth. Woolhanger Moor in November was a drear enough sight. There
+were many patches of black mud and stagnant water, carpets of
+treacherous-looking green moss, bare clumps of bushes bent all one way
+by the northwest wind, masses of rock, gaunter and sterner now that
+their summer covering of creeping shrubs and bracken had lost their
+foliage. It was indeed the month of desolation. Every scrap of colour
+seemed to have faded from the dripping wet landscape. Phantasmal clouds
+of grey mist brooded here and there in the hollows. The distant hills
+were wreathed in vapour, so that even the green of the pastures was
+invisible. Every now and then a snipe started up from one of the weedy
+places with his shrill, mournful cry, and more than once a solitary hawk
+hovered for a few minutes above his head. The only other sign of life
+was a black speck in the distance, a speck which came nearer and nearer
+until he paused to watch it, standing upon a little incline and looking
+steadily along the rude cart track. The speck grew in size. A person
+on horseback,--a woman! Soon she swung her horse around as though she
+recognised him, jumped a little dike to reach him the quicker and reined
+up her horse by his side, holding one hand down to him. "Mr.
+Tallente!" she exclaimed. "How wonderful!" He held her hand, looking
+steadfastly, almost eagerly, up into her flushed face. Her eyes were
+filled with pleasure. His errand, in those few breathless moments,
+seemed no longer the errand of a fool.
+
+"I can't realise it, even now," she went on, drawing her hand away at
+last. "I pictured you at Westminster, in committee rooms and all sorts
+of places. Aren't you forging weapons to drive us from our homes and
+portion out our savings?"
+
+"I have left the thunderbolts alone for one short week-end," he
+answered. "I felt a hunger for this moorland air. London becomes so
+enveloping." Jane sat upright upon her horse and looked at him with a
+mocking smile. "How ungallant! I hoped you had come to atone for your
+neglect."
+
+"Have I neglected you?" he asked quietly, turning and walking by her
+side.
+
+"Shockingly! You lunched with me on the seventh of August. I see you
+again on the second of November, and I do believe that I shall have to
+save you from starvation again."
+
+"It's quite true," he admitted. "I have a sandwich in my pocket,
+though, in case you were away from home."
+
+"Worse than ever," she sighed. "You didn't even trouble to make
+enquiries."
+
+"From whom should I? Robert--my servant--his wife, and a boy to help in
+the garden are all my present staff at the Manor. Robert drives the car
+and waits on me, and his wife cooks. They are estimable people, but I
+don't think they are up in local news."
+
+"You were quite safe," she said, looking ahead of her. "I am never
+away." The tail end of a scat of rain beat on their faces. From the
+hollow on their left, the wind came booming up.
+
+"I should have thought that for these few months just now," he
+suggested, "you might have cared for a change."
+
+"I have my work here, such as it is," she answered, a little listlessly.
+"If I were in town, for instance, I should have nothing to do."
+
+"You would meet people. You must sometimes feel the need of society
+down here."
+
+"I doubt whether I should meet the people who would interest me," she
+replied, "and in any case I have my work here. That keeps me occupied."
+
+They turned into the avenue and soon the long front of the house spread
+itself out before them. Jane, who had been momentarily absorbed, looked
+down at her companion.
+
+"You are alone at the Manor?" she asked.
+
+"Quite alone."
+
+She became the hostess directly they had passed the portals of the
+house. She led him across the hall into her little sanctum.
+
+"This is the room," she told him, "in which I never do a stroke of
+work--sacred to the frivolities alone. I shall send Morton in to see
+what you will have to drink, while I change my habit. You must have
+something after that walk. I shan't be long."
+
+For the second time she avoided meeting his eves as she left the room.
+Tallente stood on the hearth-rug, still looking at the closed door
+through which she had vanished, puzzled, a little chilled. He gave his
+order to the attentive butler who presently appeared and who looked at
+him with covert interest,--the Press had been almost hysterically
+prodigal of his name during the last few weeks. Then he settled down to
+wait for her return with an impatience which became almost
+uncontrollable. It seemed to him, as he paced restlessly about, that
+this little apartment, which he remembered so well, had in a measure
+changed, was revealing a different atmosphere, as though in sympathy
+with some corresponding change in its presiding spirit. There was a
+huge and well-worn couch, smothered with cushions and suggestive of a
+comfort almost voluptuous; a large easy-chair, into which he presently
+sank, of the same character. The wood logs burning in the grate gave
+out a pleasant sense of warmth. He took more particular note of the
+volumes in the well-filled bookcases,--volumes of poetry, French novels,
+with a fair sprinkling of modern English fiction. There was a plaster
+cast of the Paris Magdalene over the door and one or two fine point
+etchings, after the style of Heillieu, upon the walls. There was no
+writing table in the room, nor any signs of industry, but a black oak
+gate-table was laden with magazines and fashion papers. Against the
+brown walls, a clump of flaming yellow gorse leaned from a distant
+corner, its faint almond-like fragrance mingling aromatically with the
+perfume of burning logs and a great bowl of dried lavender. More than
+ever it seemed to Tallente that the atmosphere of the room had changed,
+had become in some subtle way at the same time more enervating and more
+exciting. It was like a revelation of a hidden side of the woman, who
+might indeed have had some purpose of her own in leaving him here. He
+set down his empty glass with the feeling that vermouth was a heavier
+drink than he had fancied. Then a streak of watery sunshine filtered
+its way through the plantation and crept across the worn, handsome
+carpet. He felt a queer exultation at the sound of her footsteps
+outside. She entered, as she had departed, without directly meeting his
+earnest gaze.
+
+"I hope you have made yourself at home," she said. "Dear me, how untidy
+everything is!"
+
+She moved about, altering the furniture a little, making little piles of
+the magazines, a graceful, elegant figure in her dark velvet house
+dress, with a thin band of fur at the neck. She turned suddenly around
+and found him watching her. This time she laughed at him frankly.
+
+"Sit down at once," she ordered, motioning him back to his easy-chair
+and coming herself to a corner of the lounge. "Remember that you have a
+great deal to tell me and explain. The newspapers say such queer
+things. Is it true that I really am entertaining a possible future
+Prime Minister?"
+
+"I suppose that might be," he answered, a little vaguely, his eyes still
+fixed upon her. "So this is your room. I like it. And I like--"
+
+"Well, go on, please," she begged.
+
+"I like the softness of your gown, and I like the fur against your
+throat and neck, and I like those buckles on your shoes, and the way you
+do your hair."
+
+She laughed, gracefully enough, yet with some return to that note of
+uneasiness.
+
+"You mustn't turn my head!" she protested. "You, fresh from London,
+which they tell me is terribly gay just now! I want to understand just
+what it means, your throwing in your lot with the Democrats. My uncle
+says, for instance, that you have abandoned respectable politics to
+become a Tower Hill pedagogue."
+
+"Respectable politics," he replied, "if by that you mean the present
+government of the country, have been in the wrong hands for so long that
+people scarcely realise what is undoubtedly the fact--that the country
+isn't being governed at all. A Government with an Opposition Party
+almost as powerful as itself, all made up of separate parties which are
+continually demanding sops, can scarcely progress very far, can it?"
+
+"But the Democrats," she ventured, "are surely only one of these
+isolated parties?"
+
+"I have formed a different idea of their strength," he answered. "I
+believe that if a general election took place to-morrow, the Democrats
+would sweep the country. I believe that we should have the largest
+working majority any Government has had since the war."
+
+"How terrible!" she murmured, involuntarily truthful.
+
+"Your tame socialism isn't equal to the prospect," he remarked, a little
+bitterly.
+
+"My tame socialism, as you call it," she replied, "draws the line at
+seeing the country governed by one class of person only, and that class
+the one who has the least at stake in it."
+
+"Lady Jane," he said earnestly, "I am glad that I am here to point out
+to you a colossal mistake from which you and many others are suffering.
+The Democrats do not represent Labour only."
+
+"The small shopkeepers?" she suggested.
+
+"Nothing of the sort," he replied. "The influence of my party has
+spread far deeper and further. We number amongst our adherents the
+majority of the professional classes and the majority of the thinking
+people amongst the community of moderate means. Why, if you consider
+the legislation of the last seven or eight years, you will see how they
+have been driven to embrace some sort of socialism. Nothing so
+detestable and short-sighted as our financial policy has ever been known
+in the history of the world. The middle classes, meaning by the middle
+classes professional men and men of moderate means, bore the chief
+burden of the war. They submitted to terrible taxation, to many
+privations, besides the universal gift of their young blood. We won the
+war and what was the result? The wealth of the country, through ghastly
+legislation, drifted into the hands of the profiteering classes, the
+wholesale shopkeepers, the ship owners, the factory owners, the mine
+owners. The professional man with two thousand a year was able to save
+a quarter of that before the war. After the war, taxation demanded that
+quarter and more for income tax, thrust upon him an increased cost of
+living, cut the ground from beneath his feet. It isn't either of the
+two extremes--the aristocrat or the labouring man--where you must look
+for the pulse of a country's prosperity. It is to the classes in
+between, and, Lady Jane, they are flocking to our camp just as fast as
+they can, just as fast as the country is heading for ruin under its
+present Government."
+
+"You are very convincing," she admitted. "Why have you not spoken so
+plainly in the House?"
+
+"The moment hasn't arrived," Tallente replied. "There will be a General
+Election before many months have passed and that will be the end of the
+present fools' paradise at St. Stephen's."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"We shan't abuse our power," he assured her. "What we aim at is a
+National Party which will consider the interests of every class. That
+is our reading of the term 'Democrat.' Our programme is not nearly so
+revolutionary as you are probably led to believe, but we do mean to
+smooth away, so far as we can from a practical point of view, the
+inequalities of life. We want to sweep away the last remnants of
+feudalism."
+
+"Tell me why they were so anxious to gather you into the fold?" she
+asked.
+
+"I think for this reason," he explained. "Stephen Dartrey is a
+brilliant writer, a great orator, and an inspired lawmaker. The whole
+world recognises him as a statesman. It is his name and genius which
+have made the Democratic Party possible. On the other hand, he is not
+in the least a politician. He doesn't understand the game as it is
+played in the House of Commons. He lives above those things. That is
+why I suppose they wanted me. I have learnt the knack of apt debating
+and I understand the tricks. Even if ever I become the titular head of
+the party, Dartrey will remain the soul and spirit of it. If they were
+not able to lay their hands upon some person like myself, I believe that
+Miller was supposed to have the next claim, and I should think that
+Miller is the one man in the world who might disunite the strongest
+party on earth."
+
+"Disunite it? I should think he would disperse it to the four corners
+of the world!" she exclaimed.
+
+The butler announced luncheon. She rose to her feet.
+
+"I cannot tell you," he said, with a little sigh of relief, as he held
+open the door for her, "how thankful I am that I happened to find you
+alone."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Luncheon was a pleasant, even a luxurious meal, for the Woolhanger chef
+had come from the ducal household, but it was hedged about with
+restraints which fretted Tallente and rendered conversation
+monosyllabic. It was served, too, in the larger dining room, where the
+table, reduced to its smallest dimensions, still seemed to place a
+formidable distance between himself and his hostess. A manservant stood
+behind Lady Jane's chair, and the butler was in constant attendance at
+the sideboard. Under such circumstances, conversation became precarious
+and was confined chiefly to local topics. When they left the room for
+their coffee, they found it served in the hall. Tallente, however,
+protested vigorously.
+
+"Can't we have it served in your sitting room, please?" he begged. "It
+is impossible to talk to you here. There are people in the background
+all the time, and you might have callers."
+
+She hesitated for a moment but yielded the point. With the door closed
+and the coffee tray between them, Tallente drew a sigh of relief.
+
+"I hope you don't think I am a nuisance," he said bluntly, "but, after
+all, I came down from London purposely to see you."
+
+"I am not so vain as to believe that," she answered.
+
+"It is nevertheless true and I think that you do believe it. What have
+I done that you should all of a sudden build a fence around yourself?"
+
+"That may be," she replied, smiling, "for my own protection. I can
+assure you that I am not used to tete-a-tete luncheons with guests who
+insist upon having their own way in everything."
+
+"I wonder if it is a good thing for you to be so much your own
+mistress," he reflected.
+
+"You must judge by results. I always have been--at least since I
+decided to lead this sort of life."
+
+"Why have you never married?" he asked her, a little abruptly.
+
+"We discussed that before, didn't we? I suppose because the right man
+has never asked me."
+
+"Perhaps," he ventured, "the right man isn't able to."
+
+"Perhaps there isn't any right man at all--perhaps there never will be."
+
+The minutes ticked away. The room, with its mingled perfumes and
+pleasant warmth, its manifold associations with her wholesome and
+orderly life, seemed to have laid a sort of spell upon him. She was
+leaning back in her corner of the lounge, her hands hanging over the
+sides, her eyes fixed upon the burning log. She herself was so
+abstracted that he ventured to let his eyes dwell upon her, to trace the
+outline of her slim but powerful limbs, to admire her long, delicate
+feet and hands, the strong womanly face, with its kindly mouth and soft,
+almost affectionate eyes. Tallente, who for the last ten years had
+looked upon the other sex as non-existent, crushed into an uninteresting
+negation for him owing to his wife's cold and shadowy existence, twice
+within the last few months found himself pass in a different way under
+the greatest spell in life. Nora Miall had provoked his curiosity, had
+reawakened a dormant sense of sex without attracting it towards herself.
+Jane brought to him again, from the first moment he had seen her, that
+half-wistful recrudescence of the sentiment of his earlier days. He was
+amazed to find how once more in her presence that sentiment had taken to
+itself fire and life, how different a thing it was from those first
+dreams of her, which had seemed like an echo from the period of his
+poetry-reading youth. Of all women in the world she seemed to him now
+the most desirable. That she was unattainable he was perfectly willing
+to admit. Even then he had not the strength to deny himself the
+doubtful joys of imagination with regard to her. He revelled in her
+proximity because of the pleasure it gave him, heedless or reckless of
+consequences. Between them, in vastly different degrees, these two
+women seemed to have brought him back something of his youth.
+
+The silence became noticeable, led him at last into a certain measure of
+alarm.
+
+"Lady Jane," he ventured, "have I said anything to offend you?"
+
+"Of course not," she answered, looking at him kindly.
+
+"You are very silent. Are you afraid that I am going to attempt to make
+love to you?"
+
+She was startled in earnest this time. She sat up and looked at him
+disapprovingly. There was a touch of the old hauteur in her tone.
+
+"How can you be so ridiculous!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Would it be ridiculous of me?"
+
+"Does it occur to you," she asked, "that I am the sort of person to
+encourage attentions from a man who is not free to offer them?"
+
+"I had forgotten that," he admitted, quite frankly. "Of course, I see
+the point. I have a wife, even though of her own choosing she does not
+count."
+
+"She exists."
+
+"So do I."
+
+Jane broke into a little laugh.
+
+"Now we are both being absurd," she declared, "and I don't want to be
+and I don't want you to be. Of course, you can't look at things just as
+I do. You belong to a very large world. You spend your life destroying
+obstacles. All my people, you know," she went on, "look upon me as
+terribly emancipated. They think my mild socialism and my refusal to
+listen to such a thing as a chaperon most terribly improper, but at
+heart, you know, I am still a very conventional person. I have torn
+down a great many conventions, but there are some upon which I cannot
+bring myself even to lay my fingers."
+
+"Perhaps it wouldn't be you if you did," he reflected.
+
+"Perhaps not."
+
+"And yet," he went on, "tell me, are you wholly content here? Your
+life, in its way, is splendid. You live as much for the benefit of
+others as for yourself. You are encouraging the right principle amongst
+your yeomen and your farmers. You are setting your heel upon
+feudalism--you, the daughter of a race who have always demanded it. You
+live amongst these wonderful surroundings, you grow into the bigness of
+them, nature becomes almost your friend. It is one of the most
+dignified and beautiful lives I ever knew for a woman, and yet--are you
+wholly content?"
+
+"I am not," she admitted frankly. "And listen," she went on, after a
+moment's pause, "I will show you how much I trust you, how much I really
+want you to understand me. I am not completely happy because I know
+perfectly well that it is unnatural to live as I do. If I met the man I
+could care for and who cared for me, I should prefer to be married." She
+had commenced her speech with the faintest tinge of colour burning
+underneath the wholesome sunburn of her cheeks. She had spoken boldly
+enough, even though towards the end of her sentence her voice had grown
+very low. When she had finished, however, it seemed as though the
+memory of her words were haunting her, as though she suddenly realised
+the nakedness of them. She buried her face in her hands, and he saw her
+shoulders heave as though she were sobbing. He stood very close and for
+the first time he touched her. He held the fingers of her hand gently
+in his. "Dear Lady Jane," he begged, "don't regret even for a moment
+that you have spoken naturally. If we are to be friends, to be anything
+at all to one another, it is wonderful of you to tell me so sweetly what
+women take such absurd pains to conceal. . . . When you look up, let
+us start our friendship all over again, only before you do, listen to my
+confession. If fifteen years could be rolled off my back and I were
+free, it isn't political ambition I should look to for my guiding star.
+I should have one far greater, far more wonderful desire." The fingers
+he held were gently withdrawn. She drew herself up. Her forehead was
+wrinkled questioningly. She forced a smile. "You would be very
+foolish," she said, "if you tried to part with one of those fifteen
+years. Every one has brought you experiences Every one has helped to
+make you what you are."
+
+"And yet--" he began.
+
+He broke off abruptly in his speech. The hall seemed suddenly full of
+voices. Jane rose to her feet at the sound of approaching footsteps.
+She made the slightest possible grimace, but Tallente was oppressed with
+a suspicion that the interruption was not altogether unwelcome to her.
+
+"Some of my cousins and their friends from Minehead," she said. "I am
+so sorry. I expect they have lost the hunt and come here for tea."
+
+The room was almost instantly invaded by a company of light-hearted,
+noisy young people, flushed with exercise and calling aloud for tea,
+intimates all of them, calling one another by their Christian names,
+speaking a jargon which sounded to Tallente like another language. He
+stayed for a quarter of an hour and then took his leave. Of the
+newcomers, no one seemed to have an idea who he was, no one seemed to
+care in the least whether he remained or went, He was only able to
+snatch a word of farewell with Jane at the door. She shook her head at
+his whispered request.
+
+"I am afraid not," she answered. "How could I? Besides, there is no
+telling when this crowd will go. You are sure you won't let me send you
+home?"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"The walk will do me good," he said. "I get lazy in town. But you are
+sure--"
+
+The butler was holding open the door. Two of the girls had suddenly
+taken possession of Jane. She shook her head slightly.
+
+"Good-by," she called out. "Come and see me next time you are down."
+
+Tallente was suddenly his old self, grave and severe. He bowed stiffly
+in response to the little chorus of farewells and followed the butler
+down the hall. The latter, who was something of a politician, did his
+best to indicate by his manner his appreciation of Tallente's position.
+
+"You are sure you won't allow me to order a car, sir?" he said, with his
+hand upon the door. "I know her ladyship would be only too pleased.
+It's a long step to the Manor, and if you'll forgive my saying so, sir,
+you've a good deal on your shoulders just now."
+
+Tallente caught a glimpse of the bleak moorland and of the distant
+hills, wrapped in mist. The idea of vigorous exercise, however,
+appealed to him. He shook his head.
+
+"I'd rather walk, thanks," he said.
+
+"It's a matter of five miles, sir."
+
+Tallente smiled. There was something in the fresh, cold air wonderfully
+alluring after the atmosphere of the room he had quitted. He turned his
+coat collar up and strode down the avenue.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Tallente reached the Manor about an hour and a half later, mud-splashed,
+wet and weary. Robert followed him into the study and mixed him a
+whisky and soda.
+
+"You've walked all the way back, sir?" he remarked, with a note of
+protest in his tone.
+
+"They offered me a car," Tallente admitted. "I didn't want it. I came
+down for fresh air and exercise."
+
+"Two very good things in their way, sir, but easily overdone," was the
+mild rejoinder. "These hills are terrible unless you're at them all the
+time."
+
+Tallente drank his whisky and soda almost greedily and felt the benefit
+of it, although he was still weary. He had walked for five miles in the
+company of ghosts and their faces had been grey. Perhaps, too, it was
+the passing of his youth which brought this tiredness to his limbs.
+
+"Robert," he confessed abruptly, "I was a fool to come down here at
+all."
+
+"It's dreary at this time of the year unless you've time to shoot or
+hunt, sir. Why not motor to Bath to-morrow? I could wire for rooms,
+and I could drive you up to London the next day. Motoring's a good way
+of getting the air, sir, and you won't overtire yourself."
+
+"I'll think of it in the morning," his master promised.
+
+"My wife has found the silver, sir," Robert announced, as he turned to
+leave the room, "and I managed to get a little fish. That, with some
+soup, a pheasant, and a fruit tart, we thought--"
+
+"I shall be alone, Robert," Tallente interrupted. "There is no one
+coming for dinner."
+
+The man's disappointment was barely concealed. He sighed as he took up
+the tray.
+
+"Very good, sir. Your clothes are all out. I'll turn on the hot water
+in the bathroom."
+
+Tallente threw off his rain and mud-soaked clothes, bathed, changed and
+descended to the dining room just as the gong sounded. Robert was in
+the act of moving the additional place from the little round dining
+table which he had drawn up closer to the wood fire, but his master
+stopped him.
+
+"You can let those things be," he directed. "Take away the champagne,
+though. I shan't want that."
+
+Robert bowed in silent appreciation of his master's humour and began
+ladling out soup at the sideboard. Tallente's lips were curled a
+little, partly in self-contempt, with perhaps just a dash of self-pity.
+It had come to this, then, that he must dine with fancies rather than
+alone, that this tardily developed streak of sentimentality must be
+ministered to or would drag him into the depths of dejection. He began
+to understand the psychology of its late appearance. Stella's
+artificial companionship had kept his thoughts imprisoned, fettered with
+the meshes of an instinctive fidelity, and had driven him sedulously to
+the solace of work and books. Now that it was removed and he was to all
+practical purposes a free man, they took their own course. His life had
+suddenly become a natural one, and all that was human in him responded
+to the possibilities of his solitude, He had had as yet no time to
+experience the relief, to appreciate his liberty, before he was face to
+face with this new loneliness. To-night, he thought, as he looked at
+the empty place and remembered his wistful, almost diffident invitation,
+the solitude was almost unendurable. If she had only understood how
+much it meant, surely she would have made some effort, would not have
+been content with that half-embarrassed, half-doubtful shake of the
+head! In the darkened room, with the throb of the sea and the crackling
+of the lop in his ears, and only Robert's silent form for company, he
+felt a sudden craving for the things of his youth, for another side of
+life, the restaurants, the bright eyes of women, the whispered words of
+pleasant sentiment, the perfume shaken into the atmosphere they created,
+the low music in the background "I beg your pardon, sir," Robert said in
+his ear, "your soup. Gertrude has taken such pains with the dinner,
+sir," he added diffidently. "If I might take the liberty of suggesting
+it, it would be as well if you could eat something." Tallente took up
+his spoon. Then they both started, they both turned to the window. A
+light had flashed into the room, a low, purring sound came from outside.
+
+"A car, sir!" Robert exclaimed, his face full of pleasurable
+anticipation. "If you'll excuse me, I'll answer the door. Might it be
+the lady, after all, sir?" He hurried out. Tallente rose slowly to his
+feet. He was listening intently. The thing wasn't possible, he told
+himself. It wasn't possible! Then he heard a voice in the hall.
+Robert threw the door open and announced in a tone of triumph--
+
+"Lady Jane Partington, sir."
+
+She came towards him, smiling, self-possessed, but a little
+interrogative. He had a lightning-like impression of her beautiful
+shoulders rising from her plain black gown, her delightfully easy walk,
+the slimness and comeliness and stateliness of her.
+
+"I know that I ought to be ashamed of myself for coming after I had told
+you I couldn't," she said. "It will serve me right if you've eaten all
+the dinner, but I do hope you haven't."
+
+"I had only just sat down," he told her, as he and Robert held her
+chair, "and I think that this is the kindest action you ever performed
+in your life."
+
+Robert, his face glowing with satisfaction, had become ubiquitous. She
+had scarcely subsided into her chair before he was offering her a
+cocktail on a silver tray, serving Tallente with his forgotten glass, at
+the sideboard ladling out soup, out of the room and in again, bringing
+back the rejected bottle of champagne.
+
+"You will never believe that I am a sane person again," she laughed.
+"After you had gone, and all those foolish children had departed, I felt
+it was quite impossible to sit down and dine alone. I wanted so much to
+come and I realised how ridiculous it was of me not to have accepted at
+once. At the last moment I couldn't bear it any longer, so I rushed
+into the first gown I could find, ordered out my little coupe and here I
+am."
+
+"The most welcome guest who ever came to a lonely man," he assured her.
+"A moment ago, Robert was complaining because I was sending my soup
+away. Now I shall show him what Devon air can do."
+
+The champagne was excellent, and the dinner over which Gertrude had
+taken so much care was after all thoroughly appreciated. Tallente,
+suddenly and unexpectedly light-hearted, felt a keen desire to entertain
+his welcome guest, and remembered his former successes as a raconteur.
+They pushed politics and all personal matters far away. He dug up
+reminiscences of his class in foreign capitals, when he had first
+entered the Diplomatic Service, betrayed his intimate knowledge of the
+Florence which they both loved, of Paris, where she had studied and
+which he had seen under so many aspects,--Paris, the home of beauty and
+fashion before the war; torn with anguish and horror during its earlier
+stages; grim, steadfast and sombre in the clays of Verdun; wildly, madly
+exultant when wreathed and decorated with victory. There were so many
+things to talk about for two people of agile brains come together late
+in life. They had moved into the study and Lady Jane was sealed in his
+favourite easy-chair, sipping her coffee and some wonderful green
+chartreuse, before a single personal note had crept into the flow of
+their conversation.
+
+"It can't be that I am in Devonshire," she said. "I never realised how
+much like a succession of pictures conversation can be. You seem to
+remind me so much of things which I have kept locked away just because
+I have had no one to share them with."
+
+"You are in Devonshire all right," he answered, smiling. "You will
+realise it when you turn out of my avenue and face the hills. You see,
+you've dropped down from the fairyland of 'up over' to the nesting place
+of the owls and the gulls."
+
+"Nine hundred feet," she murmured. "Thank heavens for my forty
+horsepower engine! I want to see the sea break against your rocks," she
+went on, as she took the cigarette which he passed her. "There used to
+be a little path through your plantation to a place where you look
+sheer down. Don't you remember, you took me there the first time I
+came to see you, in August, and I have never forgotten it."
+
+He rang the bell for her coat. The night, though windy and dark, was
+warm. Stars shone out from unexpected places, pencil-like streaks of
+inky-black clouds stretched menacingly across the sky. The wind came
+down from the moors above with a dull boom which seemed echoed by the
+waves beating against the giant rocks. The beads of the bare trees
+among which they passed were bent this way and that, and the few
+remaining leaves rustled in vain resistance, or, yielding to the
+irresistible gusts, sailed for a moment towards the skies, to be dashed
+down into the ever-growing carpet. The path was narrow and they walked
+in single file, but at the bend he drew level with her, walking on the
+seaward side and guiding her with his fingers upon her arm. Presently
+they reached the little circular space where rustic seats had been
+placed, and leaned over a grey stone wall.
+
+There was nothing of the midsummer charm about the scene to-night.
+Sheer below them the sea, driven by tide and wind, rushed upon the huge
+masses of rock or beat direct upon the cave-indented cliffs. The spray
+leapt high into the air, to be caught up by the wind in whirlpools,
+little ghostly flecks, luminous one moment and gone forever the next.
+Far away across the pitchy waters they could see at regular intervals a
+line of white where the breakers came rushing in, here and there the
+agitated lights of passing steamers; opposite, the twin flares on the
+Welsh coast, and every sixty seconds the swinging white illumination
+from the Lynmouth Lighthouse, shining up from behind the headland. Jane
+slipped one hand through his arm and stood there, breathless,
+rapturously watchful. "This is wonderful," she murmured. "It is the
+one thing we have always lacked at Woolhanger. We get the booming of
+the wind--wonderful it is, too, like the hollow thunder of guns or the
+quick passing of an underground army--but we miss this. I feel,
+somehow, as though I knew now why it tears past us, uprooting the very
+trees that stand in its way. It rushes to the sea. What a meeting!"
+Her hand tightened upon his arm as a great wave broke direct upon the
+cliff below and a torrent of wind, rushing through the trees and
+downwards, caught the spray and scattered it around them and high over
+their heads.
+
+"We humans," he whispered, "are taught our lesson."
+
+"Do we need it?" she asked, with sudden fierceness. "Do you believe
+that because some mysterious power imposes restraint upon us, the
+passion isn't there all the while?"
+
+She was suddenly in his arms, the warm wind shrieking about them, the
+darkness thick and soft as a mantle. Only he saw the anguished
+happiness in her eyes as they closed beneath his kisses.
+
+"One moment out of life," she faltered, "one moment!"
+
+Another great wave shook the ground beneath them, but she had drawn
+away. She struggled for breath. Then once more her hand was thrust
+through his arm. He knew so well that his hour was over and he
+submitted.
+
+"Back, please," she whispered, "back through the plantation--quietly."
+
+An almost supernatural instinct divined and acceded to her desire for
+silence. So they walked slowly back towards the long, low house whose
+faint lights flickered through the trees. She leaned a little upon him,
+the hand which she had passed through his arm was clasped in his. Only
+the wind spoke. When at last they were en the terraces she drew a long
+breath.
+
+"Dear friend," she said softly, "see how I trust you. I leave in your
+keeping the most precious few minutes of my life."
+
+"This is to be the end, then?" he faltered.
+
+"It is not we who have decided that," she answered. "It is just what
+must be. You go to a very difficult life, a very splendid one. I have
+my smaller task. Don't unfit me for it. We will each do our best."
+
+Her servant was waiting by the car. His figure loomed up through the
+darkness. "You will come into the house for a few minutes?" he begged
+hoarsely. She shook her head.
+
+"Why? Our farewells have been spoken. I leave you--so."
+
+The man had disappeared behind the bonnet of the car. She grasped his
+hand with both of hers and brushed it lightly with her lips. Then she
+gilded away. A moment later he was listening to her polite speeches as
+she leaned out of the coupe. "My dinner was too wonderful," she said.
+"Do make my compliments to that dear Robert and his wife. Good luck to
+you, and don't rob us poor landowners of every penny we possess in
+life."
+
+The car was gone in the midst of his vague little response. He watched
+the lights go flashing up the hillside, crawling around the hairpin
+corners, up until it seemed that they had reached the black clouds and
+were climbing into the heavens. Then he turned back into the house.
+The world was still a place for dreams.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Tallente sat in the morning train, on his way to town, and on the other
+side of the bare ridge at which he gazed so earnestly Lady Jane and
+Segerson had brought their horses to a standstill half way along a rude
+cart track which led up to a farmhouse tucked away in the valley.
+
+"This is where James Crockford's land commences," Segerson remarked,
+riding up to his companion's side. "Look around you. I think you will
+admit that I have not exaggerated."
+
+She frowned thoughtfully. On every side were evidences of poor farming
+and neglect. The untrimmed hedges had been broken down in many places
+by cattle. A plough which seemed as though it had been embedded there
+for ages, stood in the middle of a half-ploughed field. Several tracts
+of land which seemed prepared for winter sowing were covered with
+stones. The farmhouse yard, into which they presently passed, was dirty
+and untidy. Segerson leaned down and knocked on the door with his whip.
+After a short delay, a slatternly-looking woman, with tousled fair hair,
+answered the summons.
+
+"Mr. Crockford in?" Segerson asked.
+
+"You'll find him in the living room," the woman answered curtly, with a
+stare at Lady Jane. "Here's himself."
+
+She retreated into the background. A man with flushed face, without
+collar or tie, clad in trousers and shirt only, had stepped out of the
+parlour. He stared at his visitors in embarrassment.
+
+"I came over to have a word or two with you on business, Mr.
+Crockford," Jane said coldly. "I rather expected to find you on the
+land."
+
+The man mumbled something and threw open the door of the sitting room.
+
+"Won't you come in?" he invited. "There's just Mr. Pettigrew here--the
+vet from Barnstaple. He's come over to look at one of my cows."
+
+Mr. Pettigrew, also flushed, rose to his feet. Jane acknowledged his
+greeting and glanced around the room. It was untidy, dirty and close,
+smelling strongly of tobacco and beer. On the table was a bottle of
+whisky, half empty, and two glasses.
+
+"There is really no reason why I should disturb you," Jane said, turning
+back upon the threshold. "A letter from Mr. Segerson will do."
+
+Crockford, however, had pulled himself together. A premonition of his
+impending fate had already produced a certain sullenness.
+
+"Pettigrew," he directed, "you get out and have another look at the cow.
+If you've any business word to say to me, your ladyship, I'm here."
+
+Jane looked once more around the squalid room, watched the unsteady
+figure of Pettigrew departing and looked back at her tenant.
+
+"Your lease is up on March the twenty-fifth, Crockford," she reminded
+him. "I have come to tell you that I shall not be prepared to renew
+it."
+
+The man simply blinked at her. His fuddled brain was not equal to
+grappling with such a catastrophe.
+
+"Your farm is favourably situated," she continued, "and, although small,
+has great possibilities. I find you are dropping behind your neighbours
+and your crops are poorer each season. Have you saved any money,
+Crockford?"
+
+"Saved any money," the man blustered, "with shepherd's wages alone at
+two pounds a week, and a week's rain starting in the day I began
+hay-making. Why, my barley--"
+
+"You started your hay-making ten days too late," Segerson interrupted
+sternly. "You had plenty of warning. And as for your barley, you sold
+it in the King's Arms at Barnstaple, when you'd had too much to drink,
+at thirty per cent, below its value."
+
+Jane turned towards the door.
+
+"I need not stay any longer," she said. "I wanted to look at your farm
+for myself, Mr. Crockford, and I thought it only right that you should
+have early notice of my intention to ask you to vacate the place."
+
+The cold truth was finding its way into the man's consciousness. It had
+a wonderfully sobering effect.
+
+"Look here, ma'am," he demanded, "is it true that you lent Farmer
+Holroyd four hundred pounds to buy his own farm and the Crocombe
+brothers two hundred each?"
+
+"Quite true," Jane replied coldly. "What of it?"
+
+"What of it?" the man repeated. "You lend them youngsters money and
+then you come to me, a man who's been on this land for twenty-two years,
+and you've nothing to say but 'get out!' Where am I to find another farm
+at my time of life? Just answer me that, will you?"
+
+"It is not my concern," Jane declared. "I only know that I decline to
+have any tenants on my property who do not do justice to the land. When
+I see that they do justice to it, then it is my wish that they should
+possess it. It is true that I have lent money to some of the farmers
+round here, but the greater part of what they have put down for the
+purchase of their holdings is savings,--money they had saved and earned
+by working early and late, by careful farming and husbandry, by putting
+money in the bank every quarter. You've had the same opportunity. You
+have preferred to waste your time and waste your money. You've had more
+than one warning you know, Crockford."
+
+"Aye, more than a dozen," Segerson muttered.
+
+The man looked at them both and there was a dull hate gathering in his
+eyes.
+
+"It's easy to talk about saving money and working hard, you that have
+got everything you want in life and no work to do," he protested "It's
+enough to make a man turn Socialist to listen to un."
+
+"Mr. Crockford," Jane said, "I am a Socialist and if you take the
+trouble to understand even the rudiments of socialism, you will learn
+that the drones have as small a part in that scheme of life as in any
+other. You have a right to what you produce. It is one of the
+pleasures of my life to help the deserving to enjoy what they produce.
+It is also one of the duties, when I find a non-productive person
+filling a position to which his daily life and character do not entitle
+him, to pull him up like a weed. That is my idea of socialism, Mr.
+Crockford. You will leave on March 25th."
+
+They rode homeward into a gathering storm. A mass of black clouds was
+rolling up from the north, and an unexpected wind came bellowing down
+the coombs, bending the stunted oaks and dark pines and filling the air
+with sonorous but ominous music. The hills around soon became
+invisible, blotted out by fragments of the gathering mists. The cold
+sleet stung their faces. Out on the moors was no sound but time
+tinkling of distant sheep bells.
+
+"There's snow coming," Segerson muttered, as he turned up his coat
+collar.
+
+"It won't do any harm," she answered. "The earth lies warm under it."
+
+The lights of Parracombe, precipitous and unexpected, were like flecks
+in the sky, wiped out by a sudden driving storm of sleet. A little
+while later they cantered up the avenue to Woolhanger and Jane slipped
+from her horse with a little sigh of relief.
+
+"You'd better stay and have some tea, Mr. Segerson," she invited.
+"John will take your horse and give him a rubdown."
+
+She changed her habit and, forgetting her guest, indulged in the luxury
+of a hot bath. She descended some time later to find him sitting in
+front of the tea tray in the hall. A more than usually gracious smile
+soon drove the frown from his forehead.
+
+"I really am frightfully sorry," she apologised, as she handed him his
+tea. "I had no idea I was so wet. You'll have rather a bad ride home."
+
+"Oh, I'm used to it," he answered. "I'm afraid they'll lose a good many
+sheep on the higher farms, though, if the storm turns out as bad as it
+threatens. Hear that!"
+
+A tornado of wind seemed to shake the ground beneath their feet. Jane
+shivered.
+
+"I suppose," she reflected, "that man Crockford thought I was very cruel
+to-day."
+
+"I will tell you Crockford's point of view," Segerson replied. "He
+doesn't exactly understand what your aims are, and wherever he goes he
+hears nothing but praise of the way you have treated your tenants and
+the way you have tried to turn them into small landowners. He isn't
+intelligent enough to realise that there is a principle behind all this.
+He has simply come to feel that he has a lenient landlord and that he
+has only to sit still and the plums will drop into his mouth, too.
+Crockford is one of the weak spots in your system, Lady Jane. There is
+no place for him or his kind in a self-supporting world."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"Then I am afraid he must go down," she said. "He simply stands in the
+way of better men."
+
+"One reads a good deal of Mr. Tallente, nowadays," Segerson remarked,
+changing the conversation a little abruptly.
+
+Jane leaned over and stroked the head of a dog which had come to lie at
+her feet.
+
+"He seems to be making a good deal of stir," she observed.
+
+The young man frowned.
+
+"You know I am not unsympathetic with your views, Lady Jane," he said, a
+little awkwardly, "but I don't mind admitting that if I had a big stake
+in the country I should be afraid of Tallente. No one seems to be able
+to pin him down to a definite programme and yet day by day his influence
+grows. The Labour Party is disintegrated. The best of all its factions
+are joining the Democrats. He is practically leader of the Opposition
+Party to-day and I don't see how they are going to stop his being Prime
+Minister whenever he chooses."
+
+"Don't you think he'll make a good Prime Minister?" Jane asked.
+
+"No, I don't," was the curt answer. "He is too dark a horse for my
+fancy."
+
+"I expect Mr. Tallente will be ready with his programme when the time
+comes," she observed. "He is a people's man, of course, and his
+proposals will sound pretty terrible to a good many of the old school.
+Still, something of the sort has to come."
+
+The butler brought in the postbag while they talked. Segerson, as he
+rose to depart, glanced with curiosity at half a dozen orange-coloured
+wrappers which were among the rest of the letters.
+
+"Fancy your subscribing to a press-cutting agency, Lady Jane!" he
+exclaimed. "You haven't been writing a novel under a pseudonym, have
+you?"
+
+She laughed as she gathered up her correspondence in her hand.
+
+"Don't pry into my secrets," she enjoined. "We may meet in Barnstaple
+to-morrow. If the weather clears, I want to go in and see those cattle
+for myself."
+
+The young man took his reluctant departure. Jane crossed the hall,
+entered her own little sanctum, drew the lamp to the edge of the table
+and sank into her easy-chair with a little sigh of relief. All the rest
+of her correspondence she threw to one side. The orange-coloured
+wrappers she tore off, one by one. As she read, her face softened and
+her eyes grew very bright. The first cutting was a report of Tallente's
+last speech in the House, a clever and forceful attack upon the
+Government's policy of compromise in the matter of recent strikes. The
+next was a speech at the Holborn Town Hall, on workmen's dwellings,
+another a thoughtful appreciation of him from the pages of a great
+review. There was also a eulogy from an American journal and a gloomy
+attack upon him in the chief Whig organ. When she had finished the
+pile, she sat for some time gazing at the burning logs. The little
+epitome of his daily life--there were records there even of many of his
+social engagements-seemed to carry her into another atmosphere, an
+atmosphere far removed from this lonely spot upon the moors. She seemed
+to catch from those printed lines some faint, reflective thrill of the
+more vital world of strife in which he was living. For a moment the
+roar of London was in her ears. She saw the lighted thoroughfares, the
+crowded pavements, the faces of the men and women, all a little strained
+and eager, so different from the placid immobility of the world in which
+she lived. She rose to her feet and moved restlessly about the room.
+Presently she lifted the curtain and looked out. There was a pause in
+the storm and a great mass of black clouds had just been driven past the
+face of the watery moon. Even the wind seemed to be holding its breath,
+but so far as she could see, moors and hillsides were wrapped in one
+unending mantle of snow. There was no visible sign of any human
+habitation, no sound from any of the birds or animals who were cowering
+in their shelters, not even a sheep hell or the barking of a dog to
+break the profound silence. She dropped the curtain and turned back to
+her chair. Her feet were leaden and her heart was heavy. The struggle
+of the day was at an end. Memory was asserting itself. She felt the
+flush in her cheek, the quickening heat of her heart, the thrill of her
+pulses as she lived again through those few wild minutes. There was no
+longer any escape from the wild, confusing truth. The thing which she
+had dreaded had come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The most popular hostess in London was a little thrilled at the arrival
+of the moment for which she had planned so carefully. She laid her hand
+on Tallente's arm and led him towards a comparatively secluded corner of
+the winter garden which made her own house famous. "I must apologise,
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke," he said, "for my late appearance. I travelled up
+from Devonshire this afternoon and found snow all the way. We were
+nearly two hours late."
+
+"It is all the more kind of you to have turned out at all, then," she
+told him warmly. "I don't mind telling you that I should have been
+terribly disappointed if you had failed me. It has been my one desire
+for months to have you three--the Prime Minister, Lethbridge and
+you--under my roof at the same time."
+
+"You find politics interesting over here?" Tallente asked, a little
+curiously.
+
+She flashed a quick glance at him.
+
+"Why, I find them absolutely fascinating," she declared. "The whole
+thing is so incomprehensible. Just look at to-night. Half of Debrett
+is represented here, practically the whole of the diplomats, and yet,
+except yourself, not a single member of the political party who we are
+told will be ruling this country within a few months. The very anomaly
+of it is so fascinating."
+
+"There is no necessary kinship between Society and politics," Tallente
+reminded her. "Your own country, for instance."
+
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke, who was an American, shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"My own country scarcely counts," she protested. "After all, we came
+into being as a republic, and our aristocracy is only a spurious
+conglomeration of people who are too rich to need to work. But many of
+these people whom you see here to-night still possess feudal rights,
+vast estates, great names, and yet over their heads there is coming this
+Government, in which they will be wholly unrepresented. What are you
+going to do with the aristocracy, Mr. Tallente?"
+
+"Encourage them to work," he answered, smiling.
+
+"But they don't know how."
+
+"They must learn. No man has a right to his place upon the earth unless
+he is a productive human being. There is no room in the world which we
+are trying to create for the parasite pure and simple."
+
+"You are a very inflexible person, Mr. Tallente."
+
+"There is no place in politics for the wobbler."
+
+"Do you know," she went on, glancing away for a moment, "that my rooms
+are filled with people who fear you. The Labour Party, as it was
+understood here five or six years ago, never inspired that feeling.
+There was something of the tub-thumper about every one of them. I think
+it is your repression, Mr. Tallente, which terrifies them. You don't
+say what you are going to do. Your programme is still a secret and yet
+every day your majority grows. Only an hour ago the Prime Minister told
+me that he couldn't carry on if you threw down the gage in earnest."
+
+Tallente remained bland, but became a little vague.
+
+"I see Foulds amongst your guests," he observed. "Have you seen his
+statue of Perseus and Andromeda!'"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"I have, but I am not going to discuss it. Of course, I accept the
+hint, but as a matter of fact I am a person to be trusted. I ask for no
+secrets. I have no position in this country. Even my sympathies are at
+present wobbling. I am simply a little thrilled to have you here,
+because the Prime Minister is within a few yards of us and I know that
+before many weeks are past the great struggle will come between you and
+him as to who shall guide the destinies of this country."
+
+"You forget, Mrs. Van Fosdyke," he objected, "that I am not even the
+leader of my party. Stephen Dartrey is our chief."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Dartrey is a brilliant person," she admitted, "but we all know that he
+is not a practical politician. The battle is between you and Horlock."
+
+Tallente was watching a woman go by, a woman in black and silver, whose
+walk reminded him of Jane. His hostess followed his eyes.
+
+"You are one of Alice Mountgarron's admirers?" she enquired.
+
+"I don't even know her," he replied. "She reminded me of some one for a
+moment."
+
+"She is one of the Duchess of Barminster's daughters," his companion
+told him. "She married Mountgarron last year. Her sister, Lady Jane,
+is rather inclined towards your political outlook. She lives in
+Devonshire and tries to do good."
+
+His eyes followed the woman in black and silver until she had passed out
+of sight. The family likeness was there, appealing to him curiously,
+tugging at his heartstrings. His artificial surroundings slipped easily
+away. He was back on the moors, he felt a sniff of the strong wind, the
+wholesome exaltation of the empty places. A more wonderful memory still
+was seeping in upon him. His companion intervened chillingly.
+
+"One never sees your wife, nowadays, Mr. Tallente."
+
+"My wife is in America." he answered mechanically. "She has gone there
+to stay with some relatives."
+
+"She is interested in politics?"
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke welcomed a newcomer with a gracious little smile and
+Tallente rose to his feet. Horlock had left the group in the centre of
+the room and was making his way towards them.
+
+"At least we can talk here," he said, shaking hands with Tallente,
+"without any suggestion of a conspiracy. The old gang, you know," he
+went on, addressing his hostess, "simply close around me when I try to
+have a word with Tallente. They are afraid of some marvellous
+combination which is going to shut them out."
+
+"Lethbridge is the only one of them here to-night," She observed, "and
+he is probably in one of the rooms where they are serving things. Now I
+must go back to my guests. If I see him, I'll head him off."
+
+She strolled away. The Prime Minister sank back upon a couch. His air
+of well-bred content with himself and life fell away from him the moment
+his hostess was out of sight.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "I suppose you mean to break us?"
+
+"I thought we'd been rather friendly," was the quiet reply. "We've been
+letting you have your own way for nearly a month."
+
+"That is simply because we are on work which we are tackling practically
+in the fashion you dictated," Horlock pointed out. "When we have
+finished this Irish business, what are you going to do?"
+
+"I am not the leader of the party," Tallente reminded him.
+
+"From a parliamentary point of view you are," was the impatient protest.
+"Dartrey is a dreamer. He might even have dreamed away his
+opportunities if you hadn't come along. Miller would never have handled
+the House as you have. Miller was made to create factions. You were
+made to coalesce, to smooth over difficulties, to bring men of opposite
+points of view into the same camp. You are a genius at it, Tallente.
+Six months ago I was only afraid of the Democrats. Now I dread them.
+Shall I tell you what it is that worries me most?"
+
+"If you think it wise."
+
+"Your absence of programme. Why don't you say what you want to do--give
+us some idea of how far you are going to carry your tenets? Are we to
+have the anarchy of Bolshevists or the socialism of Marx,--a red flag
+republic or a classical dictatorship?"
+
+"We are not out for anarchy, at all events," Tallente assured him, "nor
+for revolutions in the ordinary sense of the word."
+
+"You mean to upset the Constitution?"
+
+"Speaking officially, I do not know. Speaking to you as a fellow
+politician, I should say that sooner or later some changes are
+desirable."
+
+"You'll never get away from party government."
+
+"Perhaps not, but I dare say we can find machinery to prevent the house
+of Commons being used for a debating society."
+
+Horlock, whose sense of humour had never been entirely crushed by the
+exigencies of political leadership, suddenly grinned.
+
+"The old gang will commit suicide," he declared. "If they aren't
+allowed to spout, they'll either wither or die. Old man Lethbridge's
+monthly attacks of high-minded patriotism are the only things that keep
+him alive."
+
+"I don't fancy," Tallente remarked, "that we shall abandon any of our
+principles for the sake of keeping Lethbridge alive."
+
+"What the mischief are your principles?"
+
+"No doubt Dartrey would enlighten you, if you chose to go to him," was
+the indifferent reply. "Within the course of the next few months we
+shall launch our thunderbolt. You will know then what we claim for the
+people."
+
+"Hang the people!" Horlock exclaimed. "I've legislated for them myself
+until I'm sick of it. They're never grateful."
+
+"Perhaps you confine yourself too much to one class," Tallente observed
+drily. "As a rule, the less intelligent the voter, the more easily he
+is caught by flashy legislation."
+
+"The operative pure and simple," Horlock announced, "has no political
+outlook. He'll never see beyond his trades union. You'll never found a
+great national party with his aid."
+
+His companion smiled.
+
+"Then we shall fail and you will continue to be Prime Minister."
+
+Mrs. Van Fosdyke came back to them, on the arm of a foreign diplomat.
+She leaned over to Horlock and whispered:
+
+"Lethbridge has heard that you two are here together and he is on your
+track. Better separate."
+
+She passed on. The two men strolled away.
+
+"Have you any personal feeling against me, Tallente?" Horlock asked.
+
+"None whatever," his companion assured him. "You did me the best turn
+in your life when you left me stranded after Hellesfield."
+
+Horlock sighed.
+
+"Lethbridge almost insisted, he looked upon you as a firebrand. He said
+there would be no repose about a Cabinet with you in it."
+
+"Well, it's turned out for the best," Tallente remarked drily. "Au
+revoir!"
+
+On his way back to the reception rooms, an acquaintance tapped him on
+the shoulder.
+
+"One moment, Tallente. Lady Alice Mountgarron has asked me to present
+you."
+
+Tallente bowed before the woman who stood looking at him pleasantly, but
+a little curiously. She held out her hand.
+
+"I seem to have heard so much of you from my sister Jane," she said.
+"You are neighbours in Devonshire, aren't you?"
+
+"Neighbours from a Devon man's point of view," he answered. "I live
+half-way down a precipice, and she five miles away, at the back of a
+Stygian moor, and incidentally a thousand feet above me."
+
+"You seem to have surmounted such geographical obstacles."
+
+"Your sister's friendship is worth greater efforts," Tallente replied.
+
+Lady Alice smiled.
+
+"I wish that some of you could persuade her to come to town
+occasionally," she said. "Jane is a perfect dear, of course, and I know
+she does a great deal of good down there, but I can't help thinking
+sometimes that she is a little wasted. Life must now and then be dreary
+for her." Tallente seemed for a moment to be looking through the walls
+of the room. "We are all made differently. Lady Jane is very
+self-reliant and Devonshire is one of those counties which have a
+curiously strong local hold."
+
+"But when her moors and her farms are under snow, and Woolhanger is
+wreathed in mists, and one hears nothing except the moaning of animals
+in distress, what about the local attraction then?"
+
+"You speak feelingly," Tallente observed, smiling. "I spent a fortnight
+with Jane last winter," she explains. "I had some idea of hunting.
+Never again! Only I miss Jane. She is such a dear and I don't see half
+enough of her."
+
+"I saw her yesterday," Tallente said reminiscently. "This morning she
+told me she was going to ride out to inspect for herself the farm of the
+one black sheep amongst her tenants. I looked out towards Woolhanger as
+I came up in the train. It seemed like a miasma of driven snow and
+mists."
+
+"Every one to his tastes," Lady Alice observed, as she turned away with
+a friendly little nod. "I have just an idea, however, that this
+morning's excursion was a little too much even for Jane."
+
+"What do you mean?" Tallente asked eagerly. Lady Alice looked at him
+over the top of her fan. She was a woman of instinct. "I had a
+telegram from her just before I came out," she said. "There wasn't much
+in it, but it gave me an idea that after all perhaps she is thinking of
+a short visit to town. Come and see me, Mr. Tallente, won't you? I
+live in Mount Street--Number 17. My husband used to play cricket with
+you, I think."
+
+She passed on and Tallente stood looking after her for a moment, a
+little dazed. A friend came up and took him by the arm.
+
+"Unprotected and alone in the gilded halls of the enemy!" the newcomer
+exclaimed. "Come and have a drink. By the by, you look as though you'd
+had good news."
+
+"I have," Tallente assented, smiling.
+
+"Then we'll drink to it--Mum'll. Not bad stuff. This way."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Tallente, for the first time in his life, was dining a few evenings
+later at Dartrey's house in Chelsea, and he looked forward with some
+curiosity to this opportunity of studying his chief under different
+auspices. Dartrey, notwithstanding the fact that he was a miracle of
+punctuality and devotion to duty, both at the offices in Parliament
+Street and at the House, seemed to have the gift of fading absolutely
+out of sight from the ken of even his closest friends when the task of
+the day was accomplished. He excused himself always, courteously but
+finally, from accepting anything whatever in the way of social
+entertainment, he belonged to no clubs, and, if pressed, he frankly
+confessed a predilection which amounted almost to passion for solitude
+during those hours not actually devoted to official duties. The
+invitation to dinner, therefore, was received by Tallente with some
+surprise. He had grown into the habit of looking upon Dartrey as a man
+who had no real existence outside the routine of their daily work. He
+welcomed with avidity, therefore, this opportunity of understanding a
+little more thoroughly Dartrey's pleasant but elusive personality.
+
+The house itself, situated in a Chelsea square of some repute, was small
+and unostentatious, but was painted a spotless white and possessed, even
+from the outside, an air of quiet and unassuming elegance. A trim
+maid-servant opened the door and ushered him into a drawing-room of grey
+and silver, with a little faded blue in the silks of the French chairs.
+There were a few fine-point etchings upon the walls, a small grand piano
+in a corner, and very little furniture, although the little there was
+was French of the best period. There were no flowers and the atmosphere
+would have been chilly, but for the brightly burning fire. Tallente was
+scarcely surprised when Dartrey's entrance alone indicated the fact
+that, as was generally supposed, he was free from family ties.
+
+"I am a little early, I am afraid," Tallente remarked, as they shook
+hands.
+
+"Admirably punctual," the other replied. "I shall make no apologies to
+you for my small party. I have asked only Miss Miall and Miller to meet
+you--just the trio of us who came to lure you out of your Devonshire
+paradise."
+
+"Miller?" Tallente repeated, with instant comprehension.
+
+"Yes! I was thinking, only the other day, that you scarcely see enough
+of Miller."
+
+"I see all that I want to," was Tallente's candid comment.
+
+Dartrey laid his hand upon his guest's shoulder. In his sombre dinner
+garb, with low, turned-down collar and flowing black tie, his grey-black
+beard cut to a point, his high forehead, his straightly brushed-back
+hair, which still betrayed its tendency to natural curls, he looked a
+great deal more like an artist of the dreamy and aesthetic type than a
+man who had elaborated a new system of life and government.
+
+"It is because of the feeling behind those words, Tallente," he said,
+"that I have asked you to meet him here to-night. Miller has his
+objectionable points, but he possesses still a great hold upon certain
+types of the working man. I feel that you should appreciate that a
+little more thoroughly. The politician, as you should know better than
+I, has no personal feelings."
+
+"The politician is left with very few luxuries," Tallente replied, with
+a certain grimness.
+
+Nora was announced, brilliant and gracious in a new dinner gown which
+she frankly confessed had ruined her, and close behind her Miller, a
+little ungainly in his overlong dress coat and badly arranged white tie.
+It struck Tallente that he was aware of the object of the meeting and
+his manner, obviously intended to be ingratiating, had still a touch of
+self-conscious truculence.
+
+They went into dinner, a few minutes later, and their host's tact in
+including Nora in the party was at once apparent. She talked brightly
+of the small happenings of their day-by-day political life and bridged
+over the moments of awkwardness before general conversation assumed its
+normal swing. Dartrey encouraged Miller to talk and they all listened
+while he spoke of the mammoth trades unions of the north, where his hold
+upon the people was greatest. He spoke still bitterly of the war, from
+the moral effect of which, he argued, the working man had never wholly
+recovered. Tallente listened a little grimly.
+
+"The fervour of self-sacrifice and so-called patriotism which some of
+the proletariat undoubtedly felt at the outbreak of the war," Miller
+argued, "was only an incidental, a purely passing sensation compared to
+the idle and greedy inertia which followed it. The war lost," he went
+on, "might have acted as a lash upon the torpor of many of these men.
+Won, it created a wave of immorality and extravagance from which they
+had never recovered. They spent more than they had and they earned more
+than they were worth. That is to say, they lived an unnatural life."
+
+"It is fortunate, then," Tallente remarked, "that the new generation is
+almost here."
+
+"They, too, carry the taint," Miller insisted. Tallente looked
+thoughtfully across towards his host.
+
+"It seems to me that this is a little disheartening," he said. "It is
+exactly what one might have expected from Horlock or even Lethbridge.
+Miller, who is nearer to the proletariat than any of us, would have us
+believe that the people who should be the bulwark of the State are not
+fit for their position."
+
+"I fancy," Dartrey said soothingly, "that Miller was talking more as a
+philosopher than a practical man."
+
+"I speak according to my experience," the latter insisted, a little
+doggedly.
+
+"Amongst your own constituents?" Tallente asked, with a faint smile,
+reminiscent of a recent unexpected defeat of one of Miller's partisans
+in a large constituency.
+
+"Amongst them and others," was the somewhat acid reply. "Sands lost his
+seat at Tenchester through the apathy of the very class for whom we
+fight."
+
+"Tenchester is a wonderful place," Nora intervened. "I went down there
+lately to study certain phases of women's labour. Their factories are
+models and I found all the people with whom I came in contact
+exceptionally keen and well-informed."
+
+Miller gnawed his moustache for a moment.
+
+"Then I was probably unpopular there," he said. "I have to tell the
+truth. Sometimes people do not like it."
+
+The dinner was simply but daintily served. There were wines of
+well-known vintages and as the meal progressed Dartrey unbent. Eating
+scarcely anything and drinking less, the purely intellectual stimulus of
+conversation seemed to unloose his tongue and give to his pronouncements
+a more pungent tone. Naturally, politics remained the subject of
+discussion and Dartrey disclosed a little the reason for the meeting
+which he had arranged.
+
+"The craft of politics," he pointed out, "makes but one inexorable
+demand upon her followers--the demand for unity. The amazing thing is
+that this is not generally realised. It seems the fashion, nowadays, to
+dissent from everything, to cultivate the ego in its narrowest sense
+rather than to try and reach out and grasp the hands of those around.
+The fault, I think, is in an over-developed theatrical sense, the desire
+which so many clever men have for individual notoriety. We Democrats
+have prospered because we have been free from it. We have been able to
+sink our individual prejudices in our cause. That is because our cause
+has been great enough. We aim so high, we see so clearly, that it is
+rare indeed to find amongst us those individual differences which have
+been the ruin of every political party up to to-day. We have no Brown
+who will not serve with Smith, no Robinson who declines to be associated
+with Jones. We forget the small things which are repugnant to us in a
+fellowman, because of the great things which bind us together."
+
+"To a certain extent, yes," Tallente agreed, with some reserve in his
+tone, "yet we are all human. There are some prejudices which no man may
+conquer. If he pretends he does, he only lives in an atmosphere of
+falsehood. The strong man loves or hates."
+
+They took their coffee in their host's very fascinating study. There
+was little room here for decoration. The walls were lined with books,
+there were a few choice bronzes here and there, a statue of wonderful
+beauty upon the writing table, and a figure of Justice leaning with
+outstretched arms over the world, presented to Dartrey by a great French
+artist. For the rest, there were comfortable chairs, an ample fire, and
+a round table on which were set out coffee and liqueurs of many sorts.
+
+"You will find that I am not altogether an anchorite," Dartrey observed,
+as they settled into their places.
+
+"I am a lover of old brandy. The '68 I recommend especially, Tallente,
+and bring your chair round to the fire. There are cigars and cigarettes
+at your elbow. Miller, I think I know your taste. Help yourself, won't
+you?"
+
+Miller drank creme de menthe and smoked homemade Virginia cigarettes.
+Tallente watched him and sighed. Then, suddenly conscious of his host's
+critical scrutiny, he felt an impulse of shame, felt that his contempt
+for the man had in it something almost snobbish. He leaned forward and
+did his best. Miller had been a school-board teacher, an exhibitioner
+at college, and was possessed of a singular though limited intelligence.
+He could deal adequately with any one problem presented by itself and
+affected only by local conditions, yet the more Tallente talked with
+him, the more he realised his lack of breadth, his curious weakness of
+judgment when called upon to consider questions dependent upon varying
+considerations. As to the right or wrong wording of a clause in the
+Factory Amendment Act, he could be lucid, explanatory and convincing; as
+to the justice of the same clause when compared with other forms of
+legislation, he was vague and unconvincing, didactic and prejudiced. If
+Dartrey's object had been to bring these two men into closer
+understanding of each other, he was certainly succeeding. It is
+doubtful, however, whether the understanding progressed entirely in the
+fashion he had desired. Nora, curled up in an easy-chair, affecting to
+be sleepy, but still listening earnestly, felt at last that intervention
+was necessary. The self-revelation of Miller under Tallente's surgical
+questioning was beginning to disturb even their host.
+
+"I am being neglected," she complained. "If no one talks to me, I shall
+go home."
+
+Tallente rose at once and sat on the lounge by her side. Dartrey stood
+on the hearth rug and plunged into an ingenious effort to reconcile
+various points of difference which had arisen between his two guests.
+Tallente all the time was politely acquiescent, Miller a little sullen.
+Like all men with brains acute enough to deal logically with a
+procession of single problems, he resented because he failed altogether
+to understand that a wider field of circumstances could possibly alter
+human vision.
+
+Tallente walked home with Nora. They chose the longer way, by the
+Embankment.
+
+"This is the Cockney's antithesis to the moonlight and hills of you
+country folk," Nora observed, as she pointed to the yellow lights
+gashing across the black water.
+
+Tallente drew a long breath of content.
+
+"It's good to be here, anyway. I am glad to be out of that house," he
+confessed.
+
+"I'm afraid," she sighed, "that our dear host's party was a failure.
+You and Miller were born in different camps of life. It doesn't seem to
+me that anything will ever bring you together."
+
+"For this reason," Tallente explained eagerly. "Miller's outlook is
+narrow and egotistical. He may be a shrewd politician, but there isn't
+a grain of statesmanship in him. He might make an excellent chairman of
+a parish council. As a Cabinet Minister he would be impossible."
+
+"He will demand office, I am afraid," Nora remarked.
+
+Tallente took off his hat. He was watching the lights from the two
+great hotels, the red fires from the funnel of a little tug, Mack and
+mysterious in the windy darkness.
+
+"I am sick of politics," he declared suddenly. "We are a parcel of
+fools. Our feet move day and night to the solemn music."
+
+"You, of all men," she protested, "to be talking like this!"
+
+"I mean it," he insisted, a little doggedly. "I have spent too many of
+my years on the treadmill. A man was born to be either an egoist and
+parcel out the earth according to his tastes, or to develop like Dartrey
+into a dreamer.--Curse you!" he added, suddenly shaking his fist at the
+tall towers of the Houses of Parliament. "You're like an infernal
+boarding-school, with your detentions and impositions and castigations.
+There must be something beyond."
+
+"A Cabinet Minister--" she began.
+
+"The sixth form," he interrupted. "There's just one aspiration of life
+to be granted under that roof and to win it you are asked to stifle all
+the rest. It isn't worth it."
+
+"It's the greatest game at which men can play," she declared.
+
+"And also the narrowest because it is the most absorbing," he answered.
+"We have our triumphs there and they end in a chuckle. Don't you love
+sunshine in winter, strange cities, pictures, pictures of another age,
+pictures which take your thoughts back into another world, architecture
+that is not utilitarian, the faces of human beings on whom the strain of
+life has never fallen? And women--women whose eyes will laugh into
+yours, who haven't a single view in life, who don't care a fig about
+improving their race, who want just love, to give and to take?"
+
+She gazed at him in astonishment, a little carried away, her eyes soft,
+her lips parted.
+
+"But you have turned pagan!" she cried.
+
+"An instant's revolt against the methodism of life," he replied, his
+feet once more upon the earth. "But the feeling's there, all the same,"
+he went on doggedly. "I want to leave school. I have been there so
+long. It seems to me my holiday is overdue."
+
+She passed her arm through his. She was a very clever and a very
+understanding woman.
+
+"That comes of your having ignored us," she murmured.
+
+"It isn't my fault if I have," he reminded her.
+
+"In a sense it is," she insisted. "The woman in your life should be the
+most beautiful part of it. You chose to make her the stepping-stone to
+your ambition. Consequently you go through life hungry, you wait till
+you almost starve, and then suddenly the greatest things in the world
+which lie to your hand seem like baubles."
+
+"You are hideously logical," he grumbled.
+
+They were walking slower now, within a few yards of the entrance to her
+flat. Both of them were a little disturbed,--she, full as she was with
+all the generous impulses of sensuous humanity, intensely awakened,
+intensely sympathetic.
+
+"Tell me, where is your wife?" she asked.
+
+"In America."
+
+"It is hopeless with her?"
+
+"Utterly and irretrievably hopeless."
+
+"It has been for long?"
+
+"For years."
+
+"And for the sake of your principles," she went on, almost angrily,
+"your stupid, canonical and dry-as-dust little principles, you've let
+your life shrivel up."
+
+"I can't help it," he answered. "What would you have me do? Stand in
+the market place and shout my needs?"
+
+She clung to his arm. "You dear thing!" she said. "You're a great
+baby!"
+
+They were in the shadow of the entrance to the flats. He suddenly bent
+over her; his lips were almost on hers. There was a frightened gleam in
+her eyes, but she made no movement of retreat. Suddenly he drew himself
+upright.
+
+"That wouldn't help, would it?" he said simply. "Thank you, all the
+same, Nora. Good-by!"
+
+On his table, when he entered his rooms that night, lay the letter for
+which he had craved. He opened it almost fiercely. The few lines
+seemed like a message of hope:
+
+"Don't laugh at me, dear friend, but I am coming to London for a week or
+two, to my little house in Charles Street. I don't know exactly when.
+You will find time to come and see me?"
+
+Here the mists seem to have fallen upon us like a shroud, and we can't
+escape. I galloped many miles this morning, but it was like trying to
+find the edge of the world.
+
+Please call on my sister at 17 Mount Street. She likes you and wants to
+see more of you.
+
+JANE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+For some weeks after his chief's dinner party, Tallente slackened a
+little in his grim devotion to work. A strangely quiescent period of
+day-by-day political history enabled him to be absent from his place in
+the House for several evenings during the week, and although he spent a
+good many hours with Dartrey at Demos House, carefully discussing and
+elaborating next season's programme, he still found himself with time to
+spare, and with Jane's note buttoned up in his pocket, he deliberately
+turned his face towards life in its more genial and human aspect.
+
+He dined one night at the club to which he had belonged for many years,
+a club frequented chiefly by distinguished literary men, successful
+barristers, and a sprinkling of actors. His arrival created at first
+almost a sensation, a slight feeling of constraint even, amongst the
+little gathering of men drinking their aperitifs in the lounge under the
+stairs. Somehow or other, there was a feeling that many of the old ties
+had been broken. Tallente stood for new and menacing things in
+politics. He had to a certain extent cut himself adrift from the world
+which starts at Eton and Oxford and ends by making mild puns on the
+judicial bench, or uttering sonorous platitudes from a properly
+accredited seat in the House.
+
+Tallente, fully appreciating the atmosphere, nevertheless made strenuous
+and not unsuccessful efforts to pick up the old threads. He abandoned
+even the moderation of his daily life. He drank cocktails, champagne
+and port, laughed heartily at the stories of the day and ransacked his
+brain to cap them. Of bridge, unfortunately, he knew nothing, but he
+played pool with some success, and left the club late, leaving behind
+him curiously mingled opinions as to the cause for this sudden return to
+his old haunts.
+
+He himself walked through the streets, on his way homeward, conscious of
+at least partial success, feeling the pleasurable warmth of the wine he
+had drunk and the companionship for which he had so strenuously sought.
+He found himself thinking almost enviously of the men with whom he had
+associated,--Philipson, with whom he had been at college, with three
+plays running at different theatres, interested, even fascinated by his
+work, chaffing gaily with his principal actor as to the rendering of
+some of his lines. Then there was Fardell, also a schoolfellow, now a
+police magistrate, full of dry and pleasant humour, called by his
+intimates "The Beak "; Amberson, poseur and dilettante thirty years ago,
+but always a good fellow, now an acknowledged master of English prose
+and a critic whose word was unquestioned. These men, one and all,
+seemed to be up to the neck in life, kept young and human by the taste
+of it upon their palate. The contemplation of their whole-sided
+existence, their sound combination of work and play, produced in him a
+sort of jealousy, for he knew that there was something behind it, which
+he lacked.
+
+The night was bright and dry and there were still crowds about Leicester
+Square, Piccadilly Circle and Piccadilly itself. As he walked, he
+looked into the faces of the women who passed him by, struggling against
+his old abhorrence as against one of the sickly offshoots of an
+over-eclectic epicureanism. They typified not vice but weakness, the
+unhappy result of man's inevitable revolt against unnatural laws. Yet
+even then the mingled purity and priggishness encouraged by years of
+repression forbade any vital change in his sentiments. The toleration
+for which he sought, when it made its grudging appearance, was mingled
+with dislike and distrust. He breathed more freely as he turned into
+the quieter street in which his rooms were situated, passing them by,
+however, crossing Curzon Street and embarking upon a brief pilgrimage
+which had become almost a nightly one. Within a very few minutes he
+paused before a certain number in a street even more secluded than his
+own. At last the thing which he had so greatly anticipated had
+happened. There were lights in the house from top to bottom. Jane had
+arrived!
+
+He walked slowly back and forth several times. The music in his blood,
+stirred already by the wine he had drunk and the revival of old
+memories, moved to a new and more wonderful tune. He knew now, without
+any possibility of self-deception, exactly what he had been waiting for,
+exactly where all his thoughts and hopes for the future were centered.
+Was she there now, he wondered, gazing at the windows like a moon-struck
+boy. He lingered about and fate was kind to him.
+
+A limousine swung around the corner and pulled up in front of the door,
+a few minutes later. The footman on the box sprang down. He heard her
+voice as she said "Good-by" to some one. The car rolled smoothly away.
+She crossed the pavement with an involuntary glance at the tall,
+approaching figure.
+
+"Jane!" he exclaimed.
+
+She stood quite still, with the latch-key in her hand. The car was out
+of sight now and they seemed to be almost alone in the street. At first
+there was something almost unfamiliar in her rather startled face, her
+coiffured hair, her bare neck with its collar of diamonds. There was a
+moment of suspense. Then he saw something flash into her eyes and he
+was glad to be there.
+
+"You?" she exclaimed, a little breathlessly. He plunged into
+explanations.
+
+"My rooms are close by here in Charges Street," he told her. "I was
+walking home from the club and saw you step out of the car."
+
+"How could you know that I was coming to-day?" she asked. "I only
+telephoned Alice after I arrived."
+
+"To tell you the truth," he confessed, "I have got into the habit of
+walking this way home, in case--well, to-night I have my reward."
+
+She turned the key in the latch and pushed the door open.
+
+"You must come in," she invited.
+
+"Isn't it too late?"
+
+"What does that matter so long as I ask you?"
+
+He followed her gladly into the hall, closing the door behind him.
+
+"That wretched switch is somewhere near here," she said, feeling along
+the wall.
+
+Her fingers suddenly met his and stayed passive in his grasp. She
+turned a little around as she realised the nearness of him.
+
+"Jane," he whispered, "I have wanted you so much."
+
+For a single moment she rested in his arms,--a wonderful moment,
+inexplicable, voluptuous, stirring him to the very depths. Then she
+slipped away. Her fingers sought the wall once more and the place was
+flooded with light.
+
+"You must come in here for a moment," she said, opening the nearest
+door. "I shall not ask you to share my milk, and I am afraid I don't
+know where to get you a whisky and soda, but you can light a cigarette
+and just tell me how things are and when you are coming to see me."
+
+He followed her into a comfortable little apartment, furnished in
+mid-Victorian fashion, but with an easy-chair drawn up to the brightly
+burning fire. On a table near was a glass of milk and some biscuits.
+The ermine cloak slipped from her shoulders. She stood with one foot
+upon the fender, half turned towards him. His eyes rested upon her,
+filled with a great hunger.
+
+"Well?" she queried.
+
+"You are wonderful," he murmured.
+
+She laughed and for a moment her eyes fell.
+
+"But, my dear man," she said, "I don't want compliments. I want to know
+the news."
+
+"There is none," he answered. "We are marking time while Horlock digs
+his own grave."
+
+"You have been amusing yourself?"
+
+"Indifferently. I dined the other night with Dartrey, to-night at the
+Sheridan Club. The most exciting thing in the twenty-four hours has
+been my nightly pilgrimage round here."
+
+"How idiotic!" she laughed. "Supposing you had not happened to meet me?
+You could scarcely have rung my bell at this hour of the night."
+
+"I should have been content to have seen the lights and to have known
+that you had arrived."
+
+"You dear man!" she exclaimed, with a sudden smile, a smile of entire
+and sweet friendliness. "I like the thought of your doing that. It is
+something to know that one is welcome, when one breaks away from the
+routine of one's life, as I have."
+
+"Tell me why you have done it?" he asked.
+
+She looked back into the fire.
+
+"Everything was going a little wrong," she explained. "One of my
+farmers was troublesome, and the snow has stopped work and hunting. We
+lost thirty of our best ewes last week. I found I was getting out of
+temper with everybody and everything, so I suddenly remembered that I
+had an empty house here and came up."
+
+"To the city of adventures," he murmured.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"London has never seemed like that to me. I find it generally a very
+ugly and a very sordid place, where I am hedged in with relatives,
+generally wanting me to do the thing I loathe.--You have really no news
+for me, then?"
+
+"None, except that I am glad to see you."
+
+"When will you come and have a long talk?"
+
+"Will you dine with me to-morrow night?" he begged eagerly. "In the
+afternoon I have committee meetings. Thursday afternoon you could come
+down to the House, if you cared to."
+
+"Of course I should, but hadn't you better dine here?" she suggested.
+"I can ask Alice and another man."
+
+"I want to see you alone," he insisted, "for the first time, at any
+rate."
+
+"Then will you take me to that little place you told me of in Soho?" she
+suggested. "I don't want a whole crowd to know that I am in town just
+yet. Don't think that it sounds vain, but people have such a habit of
+almost carrying one off one's feet. I want to prowl about London and do
+ordinary things. One or two theatres, perhaps, but no dinner parties.
+I shan't stay long, I don't suppose. As soon as I hear from Mr.
+Segerson that the snow has gone and that terrible north wind has died
+away, I know I shall be wanting to get back."
+
+"You are very conscientious about your work there," he complained.
+"Don't you ever realise that you may have an even more important mission
+here?"
+
+For a single moment she seemed troubled. Her manner, when she spoke,
+had lost something of its calm graciousness.
+
+"Really?" she said. "Well, you must tell me all about it to-morrow
+night. I shall wear a hat and you must not order the dinner beforehand.
+I don't mind your ordering the table, because I like a corner, but we
+must sail into the place just like any other two wanderers. It is
+agreed?"
+
+He bent over her fingers. His good angel and his instinct of
+sensibility, which was always appraising her attitude towards him,
+prompted his studied farewell.
+
+"You will let yourself out?" she begged. "I have taken off my cloak and
+I could not face that wind."
+
+"Of course," he answered. "I shall call for you at a quarter to eight
+to-morrow night. I only wish I could make you understand what it means
+to have that to look forward to."
+
+"If you can make me believe that," she answered gravely, "perhaps I
+shall be glad that I have come."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Whilst Tallente, rejuvenated, and with a wonderful sense of well-being
+at the back of his mind, was on his feet in the House of Commons on the
+following afternoon, leading an unexpected attack against the
+unfortunate Government, Dartrey sat at tea in Nora's study. Nora, who
+had had a very busy day, was leaning back in her chair, well content
+though a little fatigued. Dartrey, who had forgotten his lunch in the
+stress of work, was devoting himself to the muffins.
+
+"While I think of it," he said, "let me thank you for playing hostess so
+charmingly the other night."
+
+She made him a little bow.
+
+"Your dinner party was a great success."
+
+"Was it?" he murmured, a little doubtfully. "I am not quite so sure. I
+can't seem to get at Tallente, somehow."
+
+"He is doing his work well, isn't he?"
+
+"The mechanical side of it is most satisfactory," Dartrey confessed.
+"He is the most perfect Parliamentary machine that was ever evolved."
+
+"Surely that is exactly what you want? You were always complaining that
+there was no one to bring the stragglers into line."
+
+"For the present," Dartrey admitted, "Tallente is doing excellently. I
+wish, though, that I could see a little farther into the future."
+
+"Tell me exactly what fault you find with him?" Nora persisted.
+
+"He lacks enthusiasm already. He makes none of the mistakes which are
+coincident with genius and he is a little intolerant. He takes no
+trouble to adapt himself to varying views, he has a fine, broad outlook,
+but no man can see into every corner of the earth, and what is outside
+his outlook does not exist."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"He is not happy in his work. There is something wanting in his scheme
+of life. I have built a ladder for him to climb. I have given him the
+chance of becoming the greatest statesman of to-day. One would think
+that he had some other ambition."
+
+Nora sighed. She looked across at her visitor a little diffidently.
+
+"I can help you to understand Andrew Tallente," she declared. "His
+condition is the greatest of all tributes to my sex. He has had an
+unhappy married life. From forty to fifty he has borne it
+philosophically as a man may. Now the reaction has come. With the
+first dim approach of age, he becomes suddenly terrified for the things
+he is missing."
+
+Dartrey was thoughtful.
+
+"I dare say you are right," he admitted, "but if he needs an Aspasia,
+surely she could be found?"
+
+Nora rested her head upon her fingers. She seemed to be watching
+intently the dancing flames. Her broad, womanly forehead was troubled,
+her soft brown eyes pensive.
+
+"He is fifty years old," she said. "It is rather an anomalous age. At
+fifty a man's taste is almost hypercritical and his attraction to my sex
+is on the wane. No, the problem isn't so easy."
+
+Dartrey had finished tea and was feeling for his cigarette case.
+
+"I rather fancied, Nora, that he was attracted by you."
+
+"Well, he isn't, then," she replied, with a smile.
+
+"He was rather by way of thinking that he was, the other night, but that
+was simply because he was in a curiously unsettled state and he felt
+that I was sympathetic."
+
+"You are a very clever woman, Nora," he said, looking across at her.
+"You could make him care for you if you chose."
+
+"Is that to be my sacrifice to the cause?" she asked. "Am I to give my
+soul to its wrong keeper, that our party may flourish?"
+
+"You don't like Tallente?"
+
+"I like him immensely," she contradicted vigorously. "If I weren't
+hopelessly in love with some one else, I could find it perfectly easy to
+try and make life a different place for him."
+
+He looked at her with trouble in his kind eyes. It was as though he had
+suddenly stumbled upon a tragedy.
+
+"I have never guessed this about you, Nora," he murmured.
+
+"You are not observant of small things," she answered, a little
+bitterly.
+
+"Who is the man?"
+
+"That I shall not tell you."
+
+"Do I know him?"
+
+"Less, I should say, than any one of your acquaintance."
+
+He was silent for a moment or two. Then it chanced that the telephone
+rang for him, with a message from the House of Commons. He gave some
+instructions to his secretary.
+
+"It is a queer thing," he remarked, as he replaced the receiver, "how
+far our daily work and our ambitions take us out of our immediate
+environment. I see you day by day, Nora, I have known you intimately
+since your school days--and I never guessed."
+
+"You never guessed and I have no time to suffer," she answered. "So we
+go on until the breaking time comes, until one part of ourselves
+conquers and the other loses. It is rather like that just now with
+Andrew Tallente. A few more years and it will probably be like that
+with me."
+
+He threw his cigarette away as though the flavour had suddenly become
+distasteful and sat drumming with his fingers upon the table, his eyes
+fixed upon Nora.
+
+"Tallente's position," he said thoughtfully, "one can understand. He is
+married, isn't he, and with all the splendid breadth of his intellectual
+outlook he is still harassed by the social fetters of his birth and
+bringing up. I can conceive Tallente as a person too highminded to seek
+to evade the law and too scornful for intrigue. But you, Nora, how is
+it that your love brings you unhappiness? You are young and free, and
+surely," he concluded, with a little sigh, "when you choose you can make
+yourself irresistible."
+
+She looked at him with a peculiar light in her eyes.
+
+"I have proved myself very far from being irresistible," she declared.
+"The man for whose love my whole being is aching to-day is absolutely
+unawakened as to my desirability. I enjoy with him the most impersonal
+friendship in which two people of opposite sexes ever indulged."
+
+"I thought that I was acquainted with all your intimates," Dartrey
+observed, in a puzzled tone. "Let me meet this man and judge for
+myself, Nora."
+
+"Do you mean that?" she asked.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Very well, then," she acquiesced, "I'll ask him to dinner here. When
+are you free?"
+
+He glanced through a thin memorandum book.
+
+"On Sunday night?"
+
+"At eight o'clock," she said. "You won't mind a simple dinner, I know.
+I can promise you that you will be interested. My friend is worth
+knowing."
+
+Dartrey took his departure a little hurriedly. He had suddenly
+remembered an appointment at his committee rooms and went off with his
+mind full of the troubles of a northern constituency. On his way up
+Parliament Street he met Miller, who turned and walked by his side.
+
+"Heard the news?" the latter asked curtly. "No. Is there any?" was the
+quick reply.
+
+"Tallente's broken the truce," Miller announced. "There was rather an
+acid debate on the Compensation Clauses of Hensham's Allotment Bill.
+Tallente pulled them to pieces and then challenged a division. The
+Government Whips were fairly caught napping and were beaten by twelve
+votes." Dartrey's eyes flashed.
+
+"Tallente is a most wonderful tactician," he said. "This is the second
+time he's forced the Government into a hole. Horlock will never last
+the session, at this rate."
+
+"There are rumours of a resignation, of course," Miller went on, "but
+they aren't likely to go out on a snatched division like this."
+
+"We don't want them to," Dartrey agreed. "All the time, though, this
+sort of thing is weakening their prestige. We shall be ready to give
+them their coup de grace in about four months."
+
+The two men were silent for a moment. Then Miller spoke again a little
+abruptly.
+
+"I can't seem to get on with Tallente," he confessed.
+
+"I am sorry," Dartrey regretted. "You'll have to try, Miller. We can't
+do without him."
+
+"Try? I have tried," was the impatient rejoinder. "Tallente may have
+his points but nature never meant him to be a people's man. He's too
+hidebound in convention and tradition. Upon my soul, Dartrey, he makes
+me feel like a republican of the bloodthirsty age, he's so blasted
+superior!"
+
+"You're going back to the smaller outlook, Miller," his chief
+expostulated. "These personal prejudices should be entirely negligible.
+I am perfectly certain that Tallente himself would lay no stress upon
+them."
+
+"Stress upon them? Damn it, I'm as good as he is!" Miller exclaimed
+irritably. "There's no harm in Tallente's ratting, quitting his order
+and coming amongst us Democrats, but what I do object to is his bringing
+the mannerisms and outlook of Eton and Oxford amongst us. When I am
+with him, he always makes me feel that I am doing the wrong thing and
+that he knows it."
+
+Dartrey frowned a little impatiently.
+
+"This is rubbish, Miller," he pronounced. "It is you who are to blame
+for attaching the slightest importance to these trifles."
+
+"Trifles!" Miller growled. "Within a very short time, Dartrey, this
+question will have to be settled. Does Tallente know that I am promised
+a seat in his Cabinet?"
+
+"I think that he must surmise it."
+
+"The sooner he knows, the better," Miller declared acidly. "Tallente
+can unbend all right when he likes. He was dining at the Trocadero the
+other night with Brooks and Ainley and Parker and Saunderson--the most
+cheerful party in the place. Tallente seemed to have slipped out of
+himself, and yet there isn't one of those men who has ever had a day's
+schooling or has ever worn anything but ready-made clothes. He leaves
+his starch off when he's with them. What's the matter with me, I should
+like to know? I'm a college man, even though I did go as an
+exhibitioner. I was a school teacher when those fellows were wielding
+pick-axes."
+
+Dartrey looked at his companion thoughtfully. For a single moment the
+words trembled upon his lips which would have brought things to an
+instant and profitless climax. Then he remembered the million or so of
+people of Miller's own class and way of thinking, to whom he was a
+leading light, and he choked back the words.
+
+"I find this sort of conversation a little peevish, Miller," he said.
+"As soon as any definite difference of opinion arises between you and
+Tallente, I will intervene. At present you are both doing good work.
+Our cause needs you both."
+
+"You won't forget how I stand?" Miller persisted, as they reached their
+destination.
+
+"No one has ever yet accused me of breaking my word," was the somewhat
+chilly rejoinder. "You shall have your pound of flesh."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Jane leaned back in her chair, drew off her gloves and looked around her
+with an appreciative smile. She had somehow the subtle air of being
+even more pleased with herself and her surroundings than she was willing
+to admit. Every table in the restaurant was occupied. The waiters were
+busy: there was an air of gaiety. A faint smell of cookery hung about
+the place and its clients were undeniably a curious mixture of the
+bourgeois and theatrical. Nevertheless, she was perfectly content and
+smiled her greetings to the great Monsieur George, who himself brought
+their menu.
+
+"We want the best of your ordinary dishes," Tallente told him, "and
+remember that we do not come here expecting Ritz specialities or a Savoy
+_chef d'oeuvre_. We want those special _hors d'oeuvres_ which you know
+all about, a sole grilled _a la maison_, a plainly roasted chicken with
+an endive salad. The sweets are your affair. The savoury must be a
+cheese souffle. And for wine--"
+
+He broke off and looked across the table. Jane smiled apologetically.
+
+"You will never bring me out again," she declared. "I want some
+champagne."
+
+"I never felt more like it myself," he agreed. "The _Pommery_, George,
+slightly iced, an aperitif now, and the dinner can take its course. We
+will linger over the _hors d'oeuvres_ and we are in no hurry."
+
+George departed and Tallente smiled across at his companion. It was a
+wonderful moment, this. His steady success of the last few months, the
+triumph of the afternoon had never brought him one of the thrills which
+were in his pulses at that moment, not one iota of the pleasurable sense
+of well-being which was warming his veins. The new menace which had
+suddenly thrown its shadow across his path was forgotten. Governments
+might come or go, a career be made or broken upon the wheel. He was
+alone with Jane.
+
+"Now tell me all the news at Woolhanger?" he asked.
+
+"Woolhanger lies under a mantle of snow," she told him. "There is a
+wind blowing there which seems to have come straight from the ice of the
+North Pole and sounds like the devil playing bowls amongst the hills."
+
+"The hunting?"
+
+"All stopped, of course. A few nights ago, two stags came right up to
+the house and quite a troop of the really wild ponies from over
+Hawkbridge way. We've never had such a spell of cold in my memory. It
+reminded one of the snowstorm in 'Lorna Doone.'--But after all, I told
+you all about Woolhanger last night. I want your news."
+
+"I seem to have settled down with the Democrats," he told her. "I do my
+best to keep the party in line. The great trades unions are, of course,
+our chief difficulty, but I think we are making progress even with them.
+Some of the miners' representatives dined with me at the Trocadero the
+other night. Good fellows they are, too. There is only one great
+difficulty," he went on, "in the consolidation of my party, and that is
+to get a little more breadth into the views of these men who represent
+the leading industries. They are obsessed with the duties that they owe
+to their own artificers and the labour connected with the particular
+industry they represent. It is hard to make them see the importance of
+any other subject. Yet we need these very men as lawmakers. I want
+them to study production and the laws of production from a universal
+point of view."
+
+"I can quite understand," she acquiesced sympathetically, "that you have
+a difficult class of men to deal with. Tell me what the evening papers
+mean by their placards?"
+
+"We had a small tactical success against the Government this afternoon,"
+he explained. "It doesn't really amount to anything. We are not ready
+for their resignation at the moment, any more than they are ready to
+resign."
+
+"You are an object of terror to all my people," she confided smilingly.
+"They say that Horlock dare not go to the country and that you could
+turn him out to-morrow if you cared to."
+
+"So much for politics," he remarked drily.
+
+"So much for politics," she assented. "And now about yourself?"
+
+"A little finger of flame burning in an empty place," he sighed. "That
+is how life seems to me when I take my hand off the plough."
+
+She answered him lightly, but her face softened and her eyes shone with
+sympathy.
+
+"Aren't you by way of being just a little sentimental?"
+
+"Perhaps," he admitted. "If I am, let me feel the luxury of it."
+
+"One reads different things of you."
+
+"For instance?"
+
+"Town Topics says that you have become an interesting figure at many
+social functions. You must meet attractive people there."
+
+"I only wish that I could find them so," he answered. "London has been
+almost feverishly gay lately and every one seems to have discovered a
+vogue for entertaining politicians. There seems to be a sort of idea
+that dangerous corners may be rubbed off us by a judicious application
+of turtle soup and champagne."
+
+"Cynic!" she scoffed pleasantly.
+
+"Well, I don't know," he went on. "From any other point of view, some
+of the entertainments to which I have been bidden appear utterly without
+meaning. However, it is part of my programme to prove to the world that
+we Democrats can open our arms wide enough to include every class in
+life. Therefore, I go to many places I should otherwise avoid. I have
+studied the attitude of the younger women whom I have approached, purely
+impersonally and without the slightest hypersensitiveness. They have
+all been perfectly pleasant, perfectly disposed for conversation or any
+of the usual social amenities. But they know that I have in the
+background a wife. To flirt with a married man of fifty isn't worth
+while."
+
+"It appears to me," she said, with a slight note of severity in her
+tone, "that you have set your mind upon having a perfectly frivolous
+time."
+
+"Not at all," he objected. "I have simply been experimenting."
+
+The service of dinner had now commenced, and with George in the
+background, a haughty head waiter a few yards off, and a myrmidon
+handing them their dishes with a beatific smile, the conversation
+drifted naturally into generalities. When they resumed their more
+intimate talk, Tallente felt himself inspired by an ever-increasing
+admiration for his companion and her adaptability. During this brief
+interval he had seen many admiring and some wondering glances directed
+towards Jane and he realised that she was somehow a person entirely
+apart from any of the others, more beautiful, more distinguished, more
+desirable. Of the Lady Jane ruling at Woolhanger with a high hand,
+there was no trace. She looked out upon the gay room with its
+voluptuous air, its many couples and little parties carrees, with the
+friendly and sympathetic interest of one who finds herself in agreeable
+surroundings and whose only desire is to come into touch with them. Her
+plain black gown, her simple hat with its single quill, the pearls which
+were her sole adornment, all seemed part of her. She appeared wholly
+unconscious of the admiration she excited. She who was sometimes
+inclined, perhaps, to carry herself a little haughtily in her mother's
+drawing-room, was here only anxious to share in the genial atmosphere of
+friendliness which the general tone of her surroundings seemed to
+demand.
+
+"Well, what was the final result of your efforts towards companionship?"
+she enquired, after they had praised the chicken enthusiastically and
+the wave of service had momentarily ebbed kitchenwards.
+
+"They have led me to only one conclusion," he answered swiftly.
+
+"Which is?"
+
+"That if you remain on Exmoor and I in Westminster, the affairs of this
+country are not likely to prosper."
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+"As though I made any real' difference!"
+
+Then she saw a transformed man. The firm mouth suddenly softened, the
+keen bright eyes glowed. A light shone out of his worn face which few
+had ever seen there.
+
+"You make all the difference," he whispered. "You of your mercy can
+save me from the rocks. I have discovered very late in life, too late,
+many would say, that I cannot build the temples of life with hands and
+brain alone. Even though the time be short and I have so little to
+offer, I am your greedy suitor. I want help, I want sympathy, I want
+love."
+
+There was nothing whatever left now of Lady Jane of Woolhanger.
+Segerson would probably not have recognised his autocratic mistress.
+The most timid of her tenant farmers would have adopted a bold front
+with her. She was simply a very beautiful woman, trembling a little,
+unsteady, nervous and unsure of herself.
+
+"Oh, I wish you hadn't said that!" she faltered.
+
+"But I must say it," he insisted, with that alien note of tenderness
+still throbbing in his tone. "You are not a dabbler in life. You have
+never been afraid to stand on your feet, to look at it whole. There is
+the solid, undeniable truth. It is a woman's glory to help men on to
+the great places, and the strangest thing in all the world is that there
+is only one woman for any one man, and for me--you are the only one
+woman."
+
+Around them conversation had grown louder, the blue cloud of tobacco
+smoke more dense, the odour of cigarettes and coffee more pungent. Down
+in the street a wandering musician was singing a little Neapolitan love
+song. They heard snatches of it as the door downstairs was opened.
+
+"You have known me for so short a time," she argued. "How can you
+possibly be sure that I could give you what you want? And in any case,
+how could I give anything except my eager wishes, my friendship--perhaps,
+if you will, my affection? But would that bring you content?"
+
+"No!" he answered unhesitatingly. "I want your love, I want you
+yourself. You have played a woman's part in life. You haven't been
+content to sit down and wait for what fate might bring you. You have
+worked out your own destiny and you have shown that you have courage.
+Don't disprove it."
+
+She looked him in the eyes, very sweetly, but with the shadow of a great
+disturbance in her face.
+
+"I want to help you," she said. "Indeed, I feel more than you can
+believe--more than I could have believed possible--the desire, the
+longing to help. But what is there you can ask of me beyond my hand in
+yours, beyond all the comradeship which a woman who has more in her
+heart than she dare own, can give?"
+
+Once more the door was opened below. The voice of the singer came
+floating up. Then it was closed again and the little passionate cry
+blotted out. His lips moved but he said nothing. It seemed suddenly,
+from the light in his face, that he might have been echoing those words
+which rang in her ears. She trembled and suddenly held her hand across
+the table.
+
+"Hold my fingers," she begged. "These others will think that we have
+made a bet or a compact. What does it matter? I want to give you all
+that I can. Will you be patient? Will you remember that you have found
+your way along a very difficult path to a goal which no one yet has ever
+reached? I could tell you more but may not that be enough? I want you
+to have something to carry away with you, something not too cold,
+something that burns a little with the beginnings of life and love, and,
+if you will, perhaps hope. May that content you for a little while, for
+you see, although I am not a girl, these things, and thoughts of these
+things, are new to me?"
+
+He drew a little breath. It seemed to him that there was no more
+beautiful place on earth than this little smoke-hung corner of the
+restaurant. The words which escaped from his lips were vibrant,
+tremulous.
+
+"I am your slave. I will wait. There is no one like you in the world."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Tallente found a distant connection of his waiting for him in his
+rooms, on his return from the House at about half-past six,--Spencer
+Williams, a young man who, after a brilliant career at Oxford, had
+become one of the junior secretaries to the Prime Minister. The young
+man rose to his feet at Tallente's entrance and hastened to explain his
+visit.
+
+"You'll forgive my waiting, sir," he begged. "Your servant told me that
+you were dining out and would be home before seven o'clock to change."
+
+"Quite right, Spencer," Tallente replied. "Glad to see you. Whisky and
+soda or cocktail?"
+
+The young man chose a whisky and soda, and Tallente followed suit,
+waving his visitor back into his chair and seating himself opposite.
+
+"Get right into the middle of it, please," he enjoined.
+
+"To begin with, then, can you break your engagement and come and dine
+with the Chief?"
+
+"Out of the question, even if it were a royal command," was the firm
+reply. "My engagement is unbreakable."
+
+"The Chief will be sorry," Williams said. "So am I. Will you go round
+to Downing Street and see him afterwards?"
+
+"I could," Tallente admitted, "but why? I have nothing to say to him.
+I can't conceive what he could have to say to me. There are always
+pressmen loitering about Downing Street, who would place the wrong
+construction on my visit. You saw all the rubbish they wrote because he
+and I talked together for a quarter of an hour at Mrs. Van Fosdyke's?"
+
+"I know all about that," Williams assented, "but this time, Tallente,
+there's something in it. The Chief quarrelled with you for the sake of
+the old gang. Well, he made a bloomer. The old gang aren't worth
+six-pence. They're rather a hindrance than help to legislation, and
+when they're wanted they're wobbly, as you saw this afternoon.
+Lethbridge went into the lobby with you."
+
+Tallente smiled a little grimly.
+
+"He took particularly good care that I should know that."
+
+"Well, there you are," Williams went on. "The Chief's fed up. I can
+talk to you here freely because I'm not an official person. Can you
+discuss terms at all for a rapprochement?"
+
+"Out of the question!"
+
+"You mean that you are too much committed to Dartrey and the Democrats?"
+
+"'Committed' to them is scarcely the correct way of putting it,"
+Tallente objected. "Their principles are in the main my principles.
+They stand for the cause I have championed all my life. Our alliance is
+a natural, almost an automatic one."
+
+"It's all very well, sir," Williams argued, "but Dartrey stands for a
+Labour Party, pure and simple. You can't govern an Empire by parish
+council methods."
+
+ "That is where the Democrats come in," Tallente pointed out. "They
+have none of the narrower outlook of the Labour Party as you understand
+it--of any of the late factions of the Labour Party, perhaps I should
+say. The Democrats possess an international outlook. When they
+legislate, every class will receive its proper consideration. No class
+will be privileged. A man will be ranked according to his production."
+
+Williams smiled with the faint cynicism of clairvoyant youth.
+
+"Sounds a little Utopian, sir," he ventured. "What about Miller?"
+
+"Well, what about him?"
+
+"Are you going to serve with him?"
+
+"Really," Tallente protested, "for a political opponent, or the
+representative of a political opponent, you're a trifle on the
+inquisitive side."
+
+"It's a matter that you'll have to face sometime or other," the young
+man asserted. "I happen to know that Dartrey is committed to Miller."
+
+"I don't see how you can happen to know anything of the sort," Tallente
+declared, a little bluntly. "In any case, Spencer, my political
+association or nonassociation with Miller is entirely my own affair, and
+you can hook it. Remember me to all your people, and give my love to
+Muriel."
+
+"Nothing doing, eh?" Williams observed, rising reluctantly to his feet.
+
+"You have perception," Tallente replied.
+
+"The Chief was afraid you might be a little difficult about an
+interview. Those pressmen are an infernal nuisance, anyway. What about
+sneaking into Downing Street at about midnight, in a cloak and slouch
+hat, eh?"
+
+"Too much of the cinema about you, young fellow," Tallente scoffed.
+"Run along now. I have to dress."
+
+Tallente held out his hand good-humouredly. His visitor made no
+immediate motion to take it.
+
+"There was just one thing more I was asked to mention, sir," he said.
+"I will be quite frank if I may. My instructions were not to allude to
+it if your attitude were in the least conciliatory."
+
+"Go on," Tallente bade him curtly.
+
+"There has been a rumour going about that some years ago--while the war
+was on, in fact--you wrote a very wonderful attack upon the trades
+unions. This attack was so bitter in tone, so damning in some of its
+facts, and, in short, such a wonderful production, that at the last
+moment the late Prime Minister used his influence with you to suspend
+its publication. It was held over, and in the meantime the attitude of
+the trades unions towards certain phases of the war was modified, and
+the collapse of Germany followed soon afterwards. Consequently, that
+article was never published."
+
+"You are exceedingly well informed," Tallente admitted. "Pray proceed."
+
+"There is in existence," the young man continued, "a signed copy of that
+article. Its publication at the present moment would probably make your
+position with the Democratic Party untenable."
+
+"Is this a matter of blackmail?" Tallente asked.
+
+The young man stiffened.
+
+"I am speaking on behalf of the Prime Minister, sir. He desired me to
+inform you that the signed copy of that article has been offered to him
+within the last few days."
+
+Tallente was silent for several moments. The young man's subtle
+intimation was a shock in more ways than one.
+
+"The manuscript to which you refer," he said at last, "was stolen from
+my study at Martinhoe under somewhat peculiar conditions."
+
+"Perhaps you would like to explain those conditions to Mr. Horlock,"
+Williams suggested.
+
+Tallente held open the door.
+
+"I shall not seek out your Chief," he said, "but I will tell him the
+truth about that manuscript if at any time we should come together. In
+the meantime, I am perfectly in accord with the view which your Chief no
+doubt holds concerning it. The publication of that article at the
+present moment would inevitably end my connection with the Democratic
+Party and probably close my political career. This is a position which
+I should court rather than submit to blackmail direct or indirect."
+
+"My Chief will resent your using such a word, sir," Williams declared.
+
+"Your Chief could have avoided it by a judicious use of the waste-paper
+basket and an exercise of the gift of silence." Tallente retorted, as
+the young man took his departure.
+
+Horlock came face to face with Tallente the following afternoon, in one
+of the corridors of the House and, scarcely troubling about an
+invitation, led him forcibly into his private room. He turned his
+secretary out and locked the door.
+
+"A cigar?" he suggested.
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I want to see what's doing, in a few minutes," he said.
+
+"I can tell you that," Horlock declared. "Nothing at all! I was just
+off when I happened to see you. You're looking very fit and pleased
+with yourself. Is it because of that rotten trick you played on us the
+other day?"
+
+"Rotten? I thought it was rather clever of me," Tallente objected.
+
+"Perfectly legitimate, I suppose," the other assented grudgingly.
+"That's the worst of having a tactician in opposition."
+
+"You shouldn't have let me get there," was the quick retort.
+
+Horlock drew a paper knife slowly down between his fingers.
+
+"I sent Williams to you yesterday."
+
+"You did. A nice errand for a respectably brought-up young man!"
+
+"Chuck that, Tallente."
+
+"Why? I didn't misunderstand him, did I?"
+
+"Apparently. He told me that you used the word 'blackmail.'"
+
+"I don't think the dictionary supplies a milder equivalent."
+
+"Tallente," said Horlock with a frown, "we'll finish with this once and
+for ever. I refused the offer of the manuscript in question."
+
+"I am glad to hear it," was the laconic reply.
+
+"Leaving that out of the question, then, I suppose there's no chance of
+your ratting?"
+
+"Not the faintest. I rather fancy I've settled down for good."
+
+Horlock lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair.
+
+"No good looking impatient, Tallente," he said. "The door's locked and
+you know it. You'll have to listen to what I want to say. A few
+minutes of your time aren't much to ask for."
+
+"Go ahead," Tallente acquiesced.
+
+"There is only one ambition," Horlock continued, "for an earnest
+politician. You know what that is as well as I do. Wouldn't you sooner
+be Prime Minister, supported by a recognised and reputable political
+party, than try to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for your friends
+Dartrey, Miller and company?"
+
+"So this is the last bid, eh?" Tallente observed.
+
+"It's the last bid of all," was the grave answer. "There is nothing
+more."
+
+"And what becomes of you?"
+
+"One section of the Press will say that I have shown self-denial and
+patriotism greater than any man of my generation and that my name will
+be handed down to history as one of the most single-minded statesmen of
+the day. Another section will say that I have been forced into a
+well-deserved retirement and that it will remain a monument to my
+everlasting disgrace that I brought my party to such straits that it was
+obliged to compromise with the representative of an untried and unproven
+conglomeration of fanatics. A third section--"
+
+"Oh, chuck it!" Tallente interrupted. "Horlock, I appreciate your offer
+because I know that there is a large amount of self-denial in it, but I
+am glad of an opportunity to end all these discussions. My word is
+passed to Dartrey."
+
+"And Miller?" the Prime Minister asked, with calm irony.
+
+Tallente felt the sting and frowned irritably.
+
+"I have had no discussions of any sort with Miller," he answered. "He
+has never been represented to me as holding an official position in the
+party."
+
+"If you ever succeed in forming a Democratic Government," Horlock said,
+"mark my words, you will have to include him."
+
+"If ever I accept any one's offer to form a Government," Tallente
+replied, "it will be on one condition and one condition only, which is
+that I choose my own Ministers."
+
+"If you become the head of the Democratic Party," Horlock pointed out,
+"you will have to take over their pledges."
+
+"I do not agree with you," was the firm reply, "and further, I suggest
+most respectfully that this discussion is not agreeable to me."
+
+An expression of hopelessness crept into Horlock's face.
+
+"You're a good fellow, Tallente," he sighed, "and I made a big mistake
+when I let you go. I did it to please the moderates and you know how
+they've turned out. There isn't one of them worth a row of pins. If
+any one ever writes my political biography, they will probably decide
+that the parting with you was the greatest of my blunders."
+
+He rose to his feet, swinging the key upon his finger.
+
+"One more word, Tallente," he added. "I want to warn you that so far as
+your further progress is concerned, there is a snake in the grass
+somewhere. The manuscript of which Williams spoke to you, and which
+would of course damn you forever with any party which depended for its
+existence even indirectly upon the trades unions, was offered to me,
+without any hint at financial return, on the sole condition that I
+guaranteed its public production. It is perfectly obvious, therefore,
+that there is some one stirring who means harm. I speak to you now only
+as a friend and as a well-wisher. Did I understand Williams to say that
+the document was stolen from your study at Martinhoe?"
+
+"It was stolen," Tallente replied, "by my secretary, Anthony Palliser,
+who disappeared with it one night in August."
+
+"'Disappeared' seems rather a vague term," Horlock remarked.
+
+"A trifle melodramatic, I admit," Tallente assented. "So were the
+circumstances of his--disappearance. I can assure you that I have had
+the police inspector of fiction asking me curious questions and I am
+convinced that down in Devonshire I am still an object of suspicion to
+the local gossips."
+
+"I remember reading about the affair at the time," Horlock remarked, as
+he unlocked the door. "It never occurred to me, though, to connect it
+with anything of this sort. Surely Palliser was a cut above the
+ordinary blackmailer?"
+
+Tallente shrugged his shoulders. "A confusion of ethics," he said. "I
+dare say you remember that the young man conspired with my wife to boost
+me into a peerage behind my back However!--"
+
+"One last word, Tallente," Horlock interrupted. "I am not at liberty to
+tell you from what source the offer as to your article came, but I can
+tell you this--Palliser was not or did not appear to be connected with
+it in any way."
+
+"But I know who was," Tallente exclaimed, with a sudden lightning-like
+recollection of that meeting on the railway platform at Woody
+Bay.--"Miller!"
+
+Horlock made no answer. To his visitor, however, the whole affair was
+now clear.
+
+"Miller must have bought the manuscript from Palliser," he said, "when
+he knew what sort of an offer Dartrey was going to make to me and
+realised how it would affect him. Horlock, I am not sure, after all,
+that I don't rather envy you if you decide to drop out of politics. The
+main road is well enough, but the by-ways are pretty filthy."
+
+Horlock remained gravely silent and Tallente passed out of the room,
+realising that he had finally severed his connection with orthodox
+English politics. The realisation, however, was rather more of a relief
+than otherwise. For fifteen years he had been cumbered with precedent
+in helping to govern by compromise. Now he was for the clean sweep or
+nothing. He strolled into the House and back into his own committee
+room, read through the orders of the day and spoke to the Government
+Whip. It was, as Horlock had assured him, a dead afternoon. There were
+a sheaf of questions being asked, none of which were of the slightest
+interest to any one. With a little smile of anticipation upon his lips,
+he hurried to the telephone. In a few moments he was speaking to Annie,
+Lady Jane's maid.
+
+"Will you give her ladyship a message?" he asked. "Tell her that I am
+unexpectedly free for an hour or so, and ask if I may come around and
+see her?" The maid was absent from the telephone for less than a minute.
+When she returned, her message was brief but satisfactory. Her ladyship
+would be exceedingly pleased to see Mr. Tallente.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Tallente found a taxi on the stand and drove at once to Charles Street.
+The butler took his hat and stick and conducted him into the spacious
+drawing-room upon the first floor. Here he received a shock. The most
+natural thing in the world had happened, but an event which he had never
+even taken into his calculation. There were half a dozen other callers,
+all, save one, women. Jane saw his momentary look of consternation, but
+was powerless to send him even an answering message of sympathy. She
+held out her hand and welcomed him with a smile.
+
+"This is perfectly charming of you, Mr. Tallente," she said. "I know
+how busy you must be in the afternoons, but I am afraid I am
+old-fashioned enough to like my men friends to sometimes forget even the
+affairs of the nation. You know my sister, I think--Lady Alice
+Mountgarron? Aunt, may I present Mr. Tallente--the Countess of
+Somerham. Mrs. Ward Levitte--Lady English--oh! and Colonel Fosbrook."
+
+Tallente made the best of a very disappointing situation. He exchanged
+bows with his new acquaintances, declined tea and was at once taken
+possession of by Lady Somerham, a formidable-looking person in
+tortoise-shell-rimmed spectacles, with a rasping voice and a judicial
+air.
+
+"So you are the Mr. Tallente," she began, "who Somerham tells me has
+achieved the impossible!"
+
+"Upon the face of it," Tallente rejoined, with a smile, "your husband is
+proved guilty of an exaggeration."
+
+"Poor Henry!" his wife sighed. "He does get a little hysterical about
+politics nowadays. What he says is that you are in a fair way to form a
+coherent and united political party out of the various factions of
+Labour, a thing which a little time ago no one thought possible."
+
+Tallente promptly disclaimed the achievement.
+
+"Stephen Dartrey is the man who did that," he declared. "I only joined
+the Democrats a few months ago."
+
+"But you are their leader," Lady Alice put in.
+
+"Only in the House of Commons," Tallente replied.
+
+"Dartrey is the leader of the party."
+
+"Somerham says that Dartrey is a dreamer," the Countess went on, "that
+you are the man of affairs and the actual head of them all."
+
+"Your husband magnifies my position," Tallente assured her.
+
+Mrs. Ward Levitte, the wife of a millionaire and a woman of vogue,
+leaned forward and addressed him.
+
+"Do set my mind at rest, Mr. Tallente," she begged. "Are you going to
+break up our homes and divide our estates amongst the poor?"
+
+"Is there going to be a revolution?" Lady English asked eagerly. "And
+is it true that you are in league with all the Bolshevists on the
+continent?"
+
+Tallente masked his irritation and answered with a smile.
+
+"Civil war," he declared, "commences to-morrow. Every one with a title
+is to be interned in an asylum, all country houses are to be turned into
+sanatoriums and all estates will be confiscated."
+
+"The tiresome man won't tell us anything," Lady Alice sighed.
+
+"Of course, he won't," Mrs. Ward Levitte observed. "You can't announce
+a revolution beforehand truthfully."
+
+"If there is a revolution within the next fifteen years," Tallente said,
+"I think it will probably be on behalf of the disenfranchised
+aristocracy, who want the vote back again."
+
+Lady English and Mrs. Levitte found something else to talk about
+between themselves. Lady Somerham, however, had no intention of letting
+Tallente escape.
+
+"You are a neighbour of my niece in Devonshire, I believe?" she asked.
+
+He admitted the fact monosyllabically. He was supremely uncomfortable,
+and it seemed to him that Jane, who was conducting an apparently
+entertaining conversation with Colonel Fosbrook, might have done
+something to rescue him.
+
+"My niece has very broad ideas," Lady Somerham went on. "Some of her
+fellow landowners in Devonshire are very much annoyed with the way she
+has been getting rid of her property."
+
+"Lady Jane," he pronounced drily, "is in my opinion very wise. She is
+anticipating the legislation to come, which will inevitably restore the
+land to the people, from whom, in most cases, it was stolen."
+
+"Well, my husband gave two hundred thousand pounds of good, hard-earned
+money for Stoughton, where we live," Mrs. Ward Levitte intervened. "So
+far as I know, the money wasn't stolen from anybody, and I should say
+that the robbery would begin if the Socialists, or whatever they call
+themselves, tried to take it away from us to distribute amongst their
+followers. What do you think, Mr. Tallente? My husband, as I dare say
+you know, is a banker and a very hard-working man."
+
+"I agree with you," he replied. "One of the pleasing features of the
+axioms of Socialism adopted by the Democratic Party is that it respects
+the rights of the wealthy as well as the rights of the poor man. The
+Democrats may--in fact, they most certainly will--legislate to prevent
+the hoarding of wealth or to have it handed down to unborn generations,
+but I can assure you that it does not propose to interfere with the
+ethics of _meum_ and _tuum_."
+
+"I wish I could make out what it's all about," Lady Alice murmured.
+
+"Couldn't you give a drawing-room lecture, Mr. Tallente, and tell us?"
+the banker's wife suggested.
+
+"I am unfortunately a little short of time for such missionary
+enterprise," Tallente replied, with unappreciated sarcasm. "Dartrey's
+volume on 'Socialism in Our Daily Life' will tell you all about it."
+"Far too dry," she sighed. "I tried to read it but I never got past the
+first half-dozen pages."
+
+"Some day," Tallente observed coolly, "it may be worth your while, all
+of you, to try and master the mental inertia which makes thought a
+labour; the application which makes a moderately good bridge player
+should be sufficient. Otherwise, you may find yourselves living in an
+altered state of Society, without any reasonable idea as to how you got
+there." Mrs. Ward Levitte turned to her hostess.
+
+"Lady Jane," she begged, "come and rescue us, please. We are being
+scolded. Colonel Fosbrook, we need a man to protect us. Mr. Tallente
+is threatening us with terrible things."
+
+"We're getting what we asked for," Lady Alice put in quickly.
+
+Colonel Fosbrook caressed for a moment a somewhat scanty moustache. He
+was a man of early middle-age, with a high forehead, an aquiline nose
+and a somewhat vague expression.
+
+"I'm afraid my protection wouldn't be much use to you," he said,
+regarding Tallente with mild interest. "I happen to be one of the few
+surviving Tories. I imagine that Mr. Tallente's opinions and mine are
+so far apart that even argument would be impossible."
+
+Tallente acquiesced, smiling.
+
+"Besides which, I never argue, outside the House," he added. "You
+should stand for Parliament, Colonel Fosbrook, and let us hear once more
+the Athanasian Creed of politics. All opposition is wholesome."
+
+Colonel Fosbrook glared. The fact that he had three times stood for
+Parliament and three times been defeated was one of the mortifications
+of his life. He made his adieux to Jane and departed, and to Tallente's
+joy a break-up of the party seemed imminent. Mrs. Ward Levitte drifted
+out and Lady English followed suit. Lady Somerham also rose to her
+feet, but after a glance at Tallente sat down again.
+
+"My dear Jane," she insisted, "you must dine with us to-night. You
+haven't been here long enough to have any engagements, and it always
+puts your uncle in such a good temper to hear that you are coming."
+
+Jane shook her head.
+
+"Sorry, aunt," she regretted, "but I am dining with the Temperleys. I
+met Diana in Bond Street this morning."
+
+"Thursday, then."
+
+"I am keeping Thursday for--a friend. Saturday I am free."
+
+"Saturday we are going into the country," her aunt said, a little
+ungraciously. "Heaven knows what for! Your uncle hates shooting and
+always catches cold if he gets his feet wet."
+
+Tallente unwillingly held out his hand to his hostess. He seemed to
+have no alternative but to make his adieux. Jane walked with him
+towards the door.
+
+"I am horribly disappointed," he confessed, under his breath.
+
+She smiled a little deprecatingly.
+
+"I couldn't help having people here, could I?"
+
+"I suppose not," he answered, with masculine unreasonableness. "I only
+know that I wanted to see you alone."
+
+"Men are such schoolboys," she murmured tolerantly. "Even you! I must
+see my friends, mustn't I, when they know that I am here and call?"
+
+"About that friend on Thursday night?" he went on.
+
+"I am waiting to hear from him," she answered, "whether he prefers to
+dine here or to take me out."
+
+His ill-humour vanished, and with it some of his stiffness of bearing.
+His farewell bow from the door to Lady Somerham was distinguished with a
+new affability.
+
+"If we may be alone," he said softly, "I should like to come here."
+
+Nevertheless, his visit left him a little disturbed, perhaps a little
+irritable. With all the dominant selfishness which is part of a man's
+love, he had spent every waking leisure moment since their last meeting
+in a world peopled by Jane and himself alone, a world in which any other
+would have been an intruder. His eagerly anticipated visit to her had
+brought him sharply up against the commonplace facts of their day-by-day
+existence. He began to realise that she was without the liberty
+accorded to his sex, or to such women as Nora Miall, whose emancipation
+was complete. Jane's way through life was guarded by a hundred
+irritating conventions. He began to doubt even whether she realised the
+full import of what had happened between them. There was nothing gross
+about his love, not even a speculation in his mind as to its ultimate
+conclusion. He was immersed in a wave of sentimentality. He wanted her
+by his side, free from any restraint. He wanted the joy of her
+presence, more of those soft, almost reluctant kisses, the mute
+obedience of her nature to the sweet and natural impulse of her love.
+Of the inevitable end of these things he never thought. He was like a
+schoolboy in love for the first time. His desires led him no further
+than the mystic joy of her presence, the sweet, passionless content of
+propinquity. For the time the rest lay somewhere in a world of golden
+promise. The sole right that he burned to claim was the right to have
+her continually by his side in the moments when he was freed from his
+work, and even with the prospect of the following night before him, he
+chafed a little as he reflected that until then he must stand aside and
+let others claim her. In a fit of restlessness he abandoned his usual
+table in the House of Commons grillroom, and dined instead at the
+Sheridan Club, where he drank a great deal of champagne and absorbed
+with ready appreciation and amusement the philosophy of the man of
+pleasure. This was one of the impulses which kept his nature pliant
+even in the midst of these days of crisis.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Whilst Tallente was trying to make up for the years of pleasant
+good-fellowship which his overstudious life had cost him and to recover
+touch with the friends of his earlier days, Stephen Dartrey, filled with
+a queer sense of impending disaster, was climbing the steps to Nora's
+flat. On the last landing he lingered for a moment and clenched his
+fingers.
+
+"I am a coward," he reflected sadly. "I have asked for this and it has
+come."
+
+He stood for a moment perfectly still, with half-closed eyes, seeking
+for self-control very much in the fashion of a man who says a prayer to
+himself. Then he climbed the last few stairs, rang the bell and held
+out both his hands to Nora, who answered it herself.
+
+"Commend my punctuality," he began.
+
+"Why call attention to the one and only masculine virtue?" she replied.
+"Let me take your coat."
+
+He straightened his tie in front of the looking-glass and turned to look
+at her with something like wonder in his eyes.
+
+"Dear hostess," he exclaimed, "what has come to you?"
+
+"An epoch of vanity," she declared, turning slowly around that he might
+appreciate better the clinging folds of her new black gown. "Don't dare
+to say that you don't like it, for heaven only knows what it cost me!"
+
+"It isn't only your gown--it's your hair."
+
+"Coiffured," she confided, "by an artist. Not an ordinary hairdresser
+at all. He only works for a few of our aristocracy and one or two
+leading ladies on the stage. I pulled it half down and built it up
+again, but it's an improvement, isn't it?"
+
+"It suits you," he admitted. "But--but your colour!"
+
+"Natural--absolutely natural," she insisted. "You can wet your finger
+and try if you like. It's excitement. If you look into the depths of
+my wonderful eyes--I have got wonderful eyes, haven't I?"
+
+"Marvellous."
+
+"You will see that I am suffering from suppressed excitement. To-night
+is quite an epoch. To tell you the truth, I am rather nervous about
+it."
+
+"Is he here?"
+
+"You shall see him presently," she promised. "Come along."
+
+"Where is Susan?" he asked, as he followed her.
+
+"Gone out. So has my maid. I had a fancy to turn every one else out of
+the flat. Your only hot course will be from a chafing-dish. You see, I
+am anxious to impress--him--with my culinary skill. I hope you will
+like your dinner, but it will be rather a picnic."
+
+Dartrey glanced back at the hall stand. There was no hat or coat there
+except his own. He followed Nora into the little study, which was
+separated only by a curtain from the dining room.
+
+"I think your idea is excellent," he pronounced. "And you will forgive
+me," he added, producing the parcel which he had been carrying under his
+arm. "See what I have brought to drink your health and his, even if he
+does not know yet the good fortune in store for him."
+
+He set down a bottle of champagne upon the table. She laughed softly.
+
+"You dear man!" she exclaimed. "Fancy your thinking of it! I thought
+you scarcely ever touched wine?"
+
+"I am not a crank," he replied. "Sometimes my guests have told me that
+I have quite a reasonably good cellar for a man who takes so little
+himself. To-night I am going to drink a glass of champagne."
+
+"Pommery!" she exclaimed. "I hope you'll be able to open it."
+
+"That shall be my task," he promised. "You needn't worry about
+flippers. I have some in my pocket. And by the by," he added, glancing
+at the clock, "where is your other guest? It is ten minutes past eight,
+and I can hear your chafing-dish sizzling."
+
+She threw back the curtain and took his arm. The table was laid for
+two. He looked at it in bewilderment and then back at her.
+
+"He has disappointed you?"
+
+She smiled up at him.
+
+"He has disappointed me many, many times," she said, "but not to-night."
+
+"I don't--understand," he faltered.
+
+"I think you do," she answered.
+
+He took the chair opposite to hers. The chafing-dish was between them.
+He was filled with a curious sense of unreality. It was a little scene,
+this, out of a story or a play. It didn't actually concern him. It
+wasn't Nora who sat within a few feet of him, bending down over the
+chafing-dish and stirring its contents vigorously.
+
+"Of course," she said, "I am perfectly well aware that this is an
+anti-climax. I am perfectly well aware, too, that you will have a most
+uncomfortable dinner. You won't know what to say to me and you'll be
+dying all the time to look in your calendar and see if this is leap
+year. But even we working women sometimes," she went on, smiling
+bravely up at him, "have whims. I had a whim, Stephen, to let you know
+that I am very stupidly fond of you, and although it isn't your fault
+and I expect nothing from you except that you do not alter our
+friendship, you just stand in the way whenever I think of marrying any
+one."
+
+Perhaps because speech seemed so inadequate, Dartrey said nothing. He
+sat looking at her with a queer emotion in his soft, studious eyes,
+drumming a little on the table with his finger tips, not quite sure what
+it meant that his heart was beating like a young man's and a queer
+sensation of happiness was stealing through his whole being.
+
+"Nothing in the world," he murmured, "could alter our friendship."
+
+"What you see before you," she went on, "is an oyster stew. The true
+hostess, you see, studying her guest's special tastes. It is very
+nearly cooked and if you do not pronounce it the most delicious thing
+you ever ate in your life, I shall be terribly disappointed."
+
+Dartrey sat as still as a man upon whom some narcotic influence rested,
+and his words sounded almost unnatural.
+
+"I am convinced," he assured her, "that I shall be able to gratify you."
+
+"What you get afterwards you see upon the sideboard: cold
+partridges--both young birds though--ham, salad of my own mixing, and,
+behold! my one outburst of extravagance--strawberries. There is also a
+camembert cheese lying in ambush outside because of its strength. I
+would suggest that during the three minutes which will ensue before I
+serve you with the stew, you open the champagne. You are so dumbfounded
+at my audacity that perhaps a little exercise will be good for you."
+
+Dartrey rose to his feet, produced the corkscrew and found the cork
+amenable. He filled Nora's glass and his own. Then he leaned over her
+and took her hand for a moment. His face was full of kindness and he
+was curiously disturbed.
+
+"You are the dearest child on earth, Nora," he said. "I find myself
+wishing from the bottom of my heart that it were possible that you could
+be--something nearer and dearer to me."
+
+She looked feverishly into his face and pushed him away.
+
+"Go and sit down and don't be absurd," she enjoined. "Try and forget
+everything else except that you are going to eat an oyster stew. That
+is really the way to take life, isn't it--in cycles--and it doesn't
+matter then whether one's happy times are bounded by the coming night or
+the coming years. For five minutes, then, a paradise--of oyster stew."
+
+"It is distinctly the best oyster stew I have ever tasted in my life,"
+he pronounced a few minutes later.
+
+"It is very good indeed," she assented. "Now your turn comes. Go to
+the sideboard and bring me something. Remember that I am hungry and
+don't forget the salad. And tell me, incidentally, whether you have
+heard anything of a rumour going around about Andrew Tallente?"
+
+He served her and himself and resumed his seat.
+
+"A rumour?" he repeated. "No, I have heard nothing. What sort of a
+rumour?"
+
+"A vague but rather persistent one," she replied. "They say that it is
+in the power of certain people--to drive him out of political life at
+any moment."
+
+Dartrey's smile was sufficiently contemptuous but there was a note of
+anxiety in his tone which he could not altogether conceal.
+
+"These canards are very absurd, Nora," he declared. "The politician is
+the natural quarry of the blackmailer, but I should think no man of my
+acquaintance has lived a more blameless life than Andrew Tallente."
+
+"I will tell you in what form the story came to me," she said. "It was
+from a journalist on the staff of one of our great London dailies. The
+rumour was that they had been indirectly approached to know if they
+would pay a large sum for a story, perfectly printable, but which would
+drive Tallente out of political life."
+
+"Do you know the name of the newspaper?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"I was told," Nora answered, "but under the most solemn abjuration of
+secrecy. You ought to be able to guess it, though. Then a woman whom I
+met in the Lyceum Chub this afternoon asked me outright if there was any
+truth in certain rumours about Tallente, so people must be talking about
+it."
+
+The cloud lingered on Dartrey's face. He ate and drank in his usual
+sparing fashion, silently and apparently wrapped in thought. From the
+other side of the pink-shaded lamp which stood in the middle of the
+table, Nora watched him with a curious, almost a sardonic sadness in her
+clear eyes. An hour ago she had looked at herself in the mirror and had
+been startled at what she saw. The lines of her black gown, the most
+extravagant purchase of her life, had revealed the beauty of her soft
+and shapely figure. Her throat and bosom had seemed so dazzlingly
+white, her hair so rich and glossy, her eyes full of the hope, the
+softness, almost the anticipatory joy of the woman who has everything to
+offer to the one man in her life. She had felt as she had looked:
+almost a girl, with music on her lips and joyous things in her heart,
+nursing that wonderful gift to her sex,--the hopeless optimism begotten
+of love. And her little house of cards had tumbled so quickly to the
+ground, the little denouement on which she had counted had fallen so
+flat. They two were there alone. The little dinner which she had
+planned was as near perfection as possible. The champagne bubbled in
+their glasses. The soft light, the solitude, the stillness,--nothing
+had failed her, except the man. Stephen sat within a few feet of her,
+with furrowed brow and mind absorbed by a possible political problem.
+
+Nora made coffee at the table, but they drank it seated in great easy
+chairs drawn up to the fire. She passed him silently a box of his
+favourite brand of cigarettes. Perhaps that evidence of her
+forethought, the mute resignation of her restrained conversation with
+its attempted note of cheerfulness forced its way through the chinks of
+his unnatural armour. His whole face suddenly softened. He leaned
+across and took her fingers into his.
+
+"Dear Nora," he sighed, "what a brute I must seem to you and how
+difficult it is for me to try and tell you all that is in my heart!"
+
+"All tasks that are worth attempting are difficult," she murmured.
+"Please go on."
+
+"They are such simple things that I feel," he began, "simple and yet
+contradictory. I should miss you more out of my life than any other
+person. I shall resent from my very soul the man who takes you from me.
+And yet I know what life is, dear. I know how inexorable are its
+decrees. You have a fancy for me, born of kindness and sympathy,
+because you know that I am a little lonely. In our thoughts, too, we
+live so much in the same world. That is just one of the ironies of
+life, Nora. Our thoughts can move linked together through all the
+flowery and beautiful places of the world, but our bodies--alas, dear!
+Do you know how old I really am?"
+
+"I know how young you are," she answered, with a little choke in her
+throat.
+
+"I am fifty-four years old," he went on. "I am in the last lap of
+physical well-being, even though my mind should continue to flourish.
+And you are--how much younger! I dare not think."
+
+"Idiot!" she exclaimed. "At fifty-four you are better and stronger than
+half the men of forty."
+
+"I have good health," he admitted, "but no constitution or manner of
+living is of any account against the years. In six years' time I shall
+be sixty years old."
+
+She leaned a little towards him. Now once more the light was coming
+back into her eyes. If that was the only thing with him!
+
+"In twelve years' time from now," she said, "I, too, shall turn over a
+chapter, the chapter of my youth. What is time but a relative thing?
+Who shall measure your six years against my twelve? The years that
+count in the life of a man or a woman are the measure of their
+happiness."
+
+She glided from her chair and sank on her knees beside him. Her lips
+pleaded. He took her gently, far too gently, into his arms.
+
+"Dear Nora," he begged, "be kind to me. It is for your sake. I know
+what love should mean for you, what it must mean for every sweet woman.
+You see only the present. It is my hard task to look into the future
+for you."
+
+"Can't you understand," she whispered feverishly, "that I would rather
+have that six years of your life, and its aftermath, than an eternity
+with any other man? Bend down your head, Stephen."
+
+Her hands were clasped around his neck, her lips forced his. For a
+moment they remained so, while the room swam around her and her heart
+throbbed like a mad thing. Then she slowly unlocked her arms and drew
+away. As though unconscious of what she was doing, she found herself
+rubbing her lips softly with her handkerchief. She threw herself back
+in her chair a little recklessly.
+
+"Very well, Stephen," she said, "you know your heart best. Drink your
+coffee and I'll be sensible again directly."
+
+To his horror she was shaken with sobs. He would have consoled her, but
+she motioned him away.
+
+"Dear Stephen," she pleaded, "I am sorry--to be such a fool--but this
+thing has lived with me a long time, and--would you go away? It would
+be kindest."
+
+He rose to his feet, hesitated for one moment of agony, then crossed the
+room with a farewell glance at the sad little feast. He closed the door
+softly behind him, descended the stairs and stood for a moment in the
+entrance hall, looking out upon the street. A cheerless, drizzling rain
+was falling. The streets were wet and swept with a cold wind. He
+looked up and down, thought out the way to his club and shivered,
+thought out in misery the way back to Chelsea, the turning of his
+latch-key, the darkened rooms. The house opposite was brilliantly lit
+up. They seemed to be dancing there and the music of violins floated
+out into the darkness. Even as he stood there, he felt the bands of
+self-control weaken about him. A vision of the cold, grey days ahead
+terrified him. He was pitting his brain against his heart. Lives had
+been wrecked in that fashion. Philosophy, as the years creep on, is but
+a dour consolation. He saw himself with the jewel of life in his hand,
+prepared to cast it away. He turned around and ran up the stone steps,
+light-hearted and eager as a boy. Nora heard the door open and raised
+her head. On the threshold stood Stephen, transformed, rejuvenated, the
+lover shining out of his eyes, the look in his face for which she had
+prayed. He came towards her, speechless save for one little cry that
+ended like a sob in his throat, took her into his arms tenderly but
+fiercely, held her to him while the unsuspected passion of his lips
+brought paradise into the room.
+
+"You care?" she faltered. "This is not pity?"
+
+He held her to him till she almost swooned. The restraint of so many
+years was broken down.
+
+"Must I, after all, be the teacher?" he asked passionately, as their
+lips met again. "Must I show you what love is?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Tallente was seated at breakfast a few mornings later when his wife paid
+him an unexpected visit. She responded to his greeting with a cold nod,
+refused the coffee which he offered her and the easy-chair which he
+pushed forward to the fire.
+
+"I got your letter, Andrew," she said, "in which you proposed to call
+upon me this afternoon. I am leaving town. I am on my way back to New
+York, as a matter of fact, and I shall have left the hotel by midday, so
+you see I have come to visit you instead."
+
+"It is very kind," he answered.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and looked disparagingly around the plainly
+furnished man's sitting room.
+
+"Not much altered here," she remarked. "It looks just as it did when I
+used to come to tea with you before we were married."
+
+"The neighbourhood is a conservative one," he replied. "Still, I must
+confess that I am glad I never gave the rooms up. I don't think that
+nature intended me to dwell in palaces."
+
+"Perhaps not," she agreed, a little insolently. "It is a habit of yours
+to think and live parochially. Now what did you want of me, please?"
+
+"There is a scheme on foot," he began, "to bring about my political
+ruin."
+
+"You don't mean to tell me," she exclaimed, with a sudden light in her
+eyes, "that you, my well-behaved Andrew, have been playing around? You
+are not going to be a corespondent or any-thing of that sort?"
+
+"I used the word 'political,'" he reminded her coldly. "You would not
+understand the situation, but its interest and my danger centres round a
+certain document which was stolen from my study at Martinhoe on or just
+before the day of my arrival from London last August."
+
+"How dull!" she murmured.
+
+"That document," he went on, "was purloined by Anthony Palliser from the
+safe in my study. It was either upon him when he disappeared, or he
+disposed of it on the afternoon of my arrival to a political opponent of
+mine--James Miller."
+
+"I had so hoped there was a lady in the case," she yawned.
+
+"If you will give me your attention for one moment longer," he begged,
+"it will be all I ask. I want you to tell me, first of all, whether
+James Miller called at the Manor that afternoon and saw Palliser,
+whether any one called who might have been helping him, or--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Whether you have heard anything of Palliser since his disappearance?"
+
+She looked at him hardly.
+
+"You have brought me here to answer these questions?"
+
+"Pardon me," he reminded her, "your coming was entirely your own idea."
+
+"But why should you expect that I should give you information?" she
+demanded. "You refused to give me the thing I wanted more than anything
+in life and you have thrown me off like an old glove. If you are
+threatened with what you call political ruin, why on earth should I
+intervene to prevent it?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You take a severe and I venture to believe a prejudiced view of the
+situation between us," he replied. "I never promised you that I would
+make you a peeress. Such a thing never entered into my head. Every
+pledge I made to you when we were married, I kept. You cannot say the
+same."
+
+"The man's point of view, I suppose," she scoffed. "Well, I'll tell you
+what I know, in exchange for a little piece of information from you,
+which is--what do you know about Anthony Palliser's disappearance?"
+
+He was silent for several moments. The frown on his forehead deepened.
+
+"Your very question," he observed, "answers one of the queries which
+have been troubling me."
+
+"I have no objection to telling you," she said, "that since that night I
+have neither seen nor heard of Palliser."
+
+"What happened that night was simple," Tallente explained calmly;
+"perhaps you would call it primitive. You left the room. I beckoned
+Palliser to follow me outside. The car was still in the avenue and the
+servants were taking my luggage in. The spot where we stood on the
+terrace, too, was exactly underneath your window. I took him by the arm
+and I led him along the little path towards the cliff. When we came to
+the open space by the wall, I let him go. I asked him if he had
+anything to say. He had nothing. I thrashed him."
+
+"You bully!"
+
+Tallente raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Palliser was twenty years younger than I and of at least equal build
+and strength," he said. "It was not my fault that he seemed unable to
+defend himself."
+
+"But his disappearance--tell me about that?"
+
+"We were within a few feet of the edge of the cliff. I struck him
+harder, Perhaps, than I had intended, and he went over. I stood there
+and hooked down, but I could see nothing. I heard the crashing of some
+bushes, and after that--silence. I even called out to him, but there
+was no reply. Some time later, Robert and I searched the cliff and the
+bay below for his body. We discovered nothing."
+
+"It was high tide that night!" she cried. "You know very well that he
+must have been drowned!"
+
+"I have answered your question," Tallente replied quietly.
+
+There was a cold fury in her eyes. The veins seemed to stand out on her
+clenched, worn hands. She looked at him with all the suppressed passion
+of a creature impotent yet fiercely anxious to strike.
+
+"I shall give information," she cried. "You shall be charged with his
+murder!"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"You will waste your time, Stella," he said. "For one thing, a woman
+may not give evidence against her husband. Another thing, there cannot
+very well be a charge for murder unsupported by the production of the
+body. And for a third thing, I should deny the whole story."
+
+Her fury abated, though the hate in her eyes remained.
+
+"I think," she declared, "that you are the most coldblooded creature I
+ever knew."
+
+The irony of the situation gripped at him. He rose suddenly to his
+feet, filled with an overwhelming desire to end it.
+
+"Stella," he said, "to me you always seemed, especially during our last
+few years together, cold and utterly indifferent. I know now that I was
+mistaken. In your way you cared for Palliser. You starved me. My own
+fault, you would say? Perhaps. But listen. There is a way into every
+man's heart and a way into every woman's, but sometimes that way lies
+hidden except to the one right person, and you weren't the right person
+for me, and I wasn't the right person for you. Now answer the rest of
+my question and let us part."
+
+"Tell me," she asked, with almost insolent irony, "do you believe that
+there could ever have been a right person for you?"
+
+"My God, yes!" he answered, with a sudden fire. "I suffer the tortures
+of the damned sometimes because I missed my chance! There! I'm telling
+you this just so that you shall think a little differently, if you can.
+You and I between us have made an infernal mess of things. It was
+chiefly my fault. And as regards Palliser--well, I am sorry. Only the
+fellow--he may have been lovable to you, but he was a coward and a sneak
+to me--and he paid. I am sorry."
+
+She seemed a little dazed.
+
+"You mean to tell me, Andrew," she persisted, "that there is really some
+one you care for, care for in the big way--a woman who means as much to
+you as your place in Parliament--your ambition?"
+
+"More," he declared vigorously. "There isn't a single thing I have or
+ever have had in life which I wouldn't give for the chance--just a
+chance--"
+
+"And she cares for you?"
+
+"I think that she would," he answered. "She has been brought up in a
+very old-fashioned school. She knows of you."
+
+Stella smiled a little bitterly.
+
+"Well," she said, "I suppose I am a brute, but I am glad to know that
+you can suffer. I hope you will suffer; it makes you seem more human
+anyhow. But in return for your confidence I will answer the other part
+of your question. The man Miller was at the Manor that afternoon.
+Palliser confessed to me that he had given him some important document."
+
+"Given him!"
+
+"Well, sold him, then. Tony hadn't got a shilling in the world and he
+would never take a halfpenny from me. He had to have money. He told me
+about it that night before you came. Miller gave him five thousand
+pounds for it--secret service money from one of the branches of his
+party. Now you know all about it."
+
+"Yes, I know all about it," Tallente assented, a little bitterly. "You
+can take your trip to America without a single regret, Stella. I shall
+certainly never be a Cabinet Minister again, much less Prime Minister of
+England. Miller can use those papers to my undoing."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders as she turned towards the door.
+
+"You are like the fool," she said, "who tried to build the tower of his
+life without cement. All very well for experiments, Andrew, when one is
+young and one can rebuild, but you are a little old for that now, aren't
+you, and all your brain and all your efforts, and every thought you have
+been capable of since the day I met you have been given to that one
+thing. You'll find it a little difficult to start all over
+again.--Don't--trouble. I know the way down and I have a car waiting.
+You must take up golf and make a water garden at Martinhoe. I don't
+know whether you deserve that I should wish you good fortune. I can't
+make up my mind. But I will--and good-by!"
+
+She left him in the end quite suddenly. He had not even time to open
+the door for her. Tallente looked out of the window and watched her
+drive away. His feelings were in a curiously numb state. For Stella he
+had no feeling whatever. Her confirmation of Palliser's perfidy had
+awakened in him no new resentment. Only in a vague way he began to
+realise that his forebodings of the last few days were founded upon a
+reality. Whether Palliser lived or was dead, it was too late for him to
+undo the mischief he had done.
+
+Tallente took up the receiver and asked for Dartrey's number. In half
+an hour he was on his way to see him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Tallente had the surprise of his life when he was shown into Dartrey's
+little dining room. A late breakfast was still upon the table and Nora
+was seated behind the coffee pot. She took prompt pity upon his
+embarrassment.
+
+"You've surprised our secret," she exclaimed, "but anyhow, Stephen was
+going to tell you to-day. We were married the day before yesterday."
+
+"That is why I played truant," Dartrey put in, "although we only went as
+far as Tunbridge Wells."
+
+Tallente held out a hand to each. For a moment the tragedy in his own
+life was forgotten.
+
+"I can't wish you happiness, because you have found it," he said. "Wise
+and wonderful people! Let me see if your coffee is what I should
+expect, Nora," he went on. "To tell you the truth, I have had rather a
+disturbed breakfast."
+
+"So have we," Dartrey observed. "You mean the Leeds figures, of
+course?"
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I haven't even opened a newspaper."
+
+"Horlock went down himself yesterday to speak for his candidate. Our
+man is in by five thousand, seven hundred votes."
+
+"Amazing!" Tallente murmured.
+
+"It is the greatest reversal of figures in political history," Dartrey
+declared. "Listen, Tallente. I was quite prepared to go the Session,
+as you know, but Horlock's had enough. He is asking for a vote of
+confidence on Tuesday. He'll lose by at least sixty votes."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"We can't put it off any longer. We shall have to take office. I shall
+be sent for as the nominal leader of the party and I shall pass the
+summons on to you. Here is a list of names. Some of them we ought to
+see unofficially at once."
+
+Tallente looked down the slip of paper. He came to a dead stop with his
+finger upon Miller's name.
+
+"I know," Dartrey said sympathetically, "but, Tallente, you must
+remember that men are not made all in the same mould, and Miller is the
+link between us and a great many of the most earnest disciples of our
+faith. In politics a man has sometimes to be accepted not so much for
+what he is as for the power which he represents."
+
+"Has he agreed to serve under me?" Tallente inquired.
+
+"We have never directly discussed the subject," Dartrey replied. "He
+posed rather as the ambassador when we came to you at Martinhoe, but as
+a matter of fact, if it interests you to know it, he was strongly
+opposed to my invitation to you. I am expecting him here every
+moment--in fact, he telephoned that he was on the way an hour ago."
+
+Miller arrived, a few minutes later, with the air of one already
+cultivating an official gravity. He was dressed in his own conception
+of morning clothes, which fitted him nowhere, linen which confessed to a
+former day's service and a brown Homburg hat. It was noticeable that
+whilst he was almost fulsome in his congratulations to Nora and
+overcordial to Dartrey, he scarcely glanced at Tallente and confined
+himself to a nod by way of greeting.
+
+"Couldn't believe it when you told me over the telephone," he said. "I
+congratulate you both heartily. What about Leeds, Dartrey?"
+
+"Splendid!"
+
+"It's the end, I suppose?"
+
+"Absolutely! That is why I telephoned for you. Horlock is quite
+resigned. I understand that they will send for me, but I wish to tell
+you, Miller, as I have just told Tallente, that I have finally made up
+my mind that it would not be in the best interests of our party for me
+to attempt to form a Ministry myself. I am therefore passing the task
+on to Tallente. Here is a list of what we propose."
+
+Miller clenched the sheet of paper in his hand without glancing at it.
+His tone was bellicose.
+
+"Do I understand that Tallente is to be Prime Minister?"
+
+"Certainly! You see I have put you down for the Home Office, Sargent as
+Chancellor of the Exchequer, Saunderson--"
+
+"I don't want to hear any more," Miller interrupted. "It's time we had
+this out. I object to Tallente being placed at the head of the party."
+
+"And why?" Dartrey asked coldly.
+
+"Because he is a newcomer and has done nothing to earn such a position,"
+Miller declared; "because he has come to us as an opportunist, because
+there are others who have served the cause of the people for all the
+years of their life, who have a better claim; and because at heart, mind
+you, Dartrey, he isn't a people's man."
+
+"What do you mean by saying that I am not a people's man?" Tallente
+demanded.
+
+"Just what the words indicate," was the almost fierce reply. "You're
+Eton and Oxford, not board-school and apprentice. Your brain brings you
+to the cause of the people, not your heart. You aren't one of us and
+never could be. You're an aristocrat, and before we knew where we were,
+you'd be legislating for aristocrats. You'd try and sneak them into
+your Cabinet. It's their atmosphere you've been brought up in. It's
+with them you want to live. That's what I mean when I say that you're
+not a people's man, Tallente, and I defy any one to say that you are."
+
+"Miller," Dartrey intervened earnestly, "you are expounding a case from
+the narrowest point of view. You say that Tallente was born an
+aristocrat. That may or may not be true, but surely it makes his
+espousal of the people's cause all the more honest and convincing? For
+you to say that he is not a people's man, you who have heard his
+speeches in the house, who have read his pamphlets, who have followed,
+as you must have followed, his political career is sheer folly."
+
+"Then I am content to remain a fool," Miller rejoined. "Once and for
+all, I decline to serve under Tallente, and I warn you that if you put
+him forward, if you go so far, even, as to give him a seat in the
+Cabinet of the Government it is your job to form, you will disunite the
+party and bring calamity upon us."
+
+"Have you any further reason for your attitude," Tallente asked
+pointedly, "except those you have put forward?"
+
+Miller met his questioner's earnest gaze defiantly.
+
+"I have," he admitted.
+
+"State it now, then, please."
+
+Miller rose to his feet. He became a little oratorical, more than
+usually artificial.
+
+"I make my appeal to you, Dartrey," he said. "You have put forward this
+man as your choice of a leader of the great Democratic Party, the party
+which is to combine all branches of Labour, the party which is to stand
+for the people. I charge him with having written in the last year of
+the war a scathing attack upon the greatest of British institutions, the
+trades unions, an article written from the extreme aristocratic
+standpoint, an article which, if published to-day and distributed
+broadcast amongst the miners and operatives of the north, would result
+in a revolution if his name were persisted in."
+
+"I have read everything Tallente has ever written, and I have never come
+across any such article," Dartrey declared promptly.
+
+"You have never come across it because it was never published," Miller
+continued, "and yet the fact remains that it was written and offered to
+the Universal Review. It was actually in type and was only held back at
+the earnest request of the Government, because on the very day that it
+should have appeared, an armistice was concluded between the railway
+men, the miners and the War Council, and the Government was terrified
+lest anything should happen to upset that armistice."
+
+"Is this true, Tallente?" Dartrey asked anxiously.
+
+"Perfectly. I admit the existence of the article and I admit that it
+was written with all the vigour I could command, on the lines quoted by
+Miller. Since, however, it was never published, it can surely be
+treated as nonexistent?"
+
+"That is just what it cannot be," Miller declared. "The signed
+manuscript of that article is in the hands of those who would rather see
+it published than have Tallente Prime Minister."
+
+"Blackmail," the latter remarked quietly.
+
+"You can call it what you please," was the sneering reply. "The facts
+are as I have stated them."
+
+"But what in the world could have induced you to write such an article,
+Tallente?" Dartrey demanded. "Your attitude towards Labour, even when
+you were in the Coalition Cabinet, was perfectly sound."
+
+"It was more than sound, it was sympathetic," Tallente insisted. "That
+is why I worked myself into the state of indignation which induced me to
+write it. I will not defend it. It is sufficient to remind you both
+that when we were hard pressed, when England really had her back to the
+wall, when coal was the very blood of life to her, a strike was declared
+in South Wales and received the open sympathy of the faction with which
+this man Miller here is associated. Miller has spoken plainly about me.
+Let him hear what I have to say about him. He went down to South Wales
+to visit these miners and he encouraged them in a course of action
+which, if other industries had followed suit, would have brought this
+country into slavery and disgrace. And furthermore, let me remind you
+of this, Dartrey. It was Miller's branch of the Labour Party who sent
+him to Switzerland to confer with enemy Socialists and for the last
+eighteen months of the war he practically lived under the espionage of
+our secret service--a suspected traitor."
+
+"It's a lie!" Miller fumed.
+
+"It is the truth and easily proved," Tallente retorted. "When peace
+came, however, Miller's party altered their tactics and the hatchet was
+to have been buried. My article was directed against the trades unions
+as they were at that time, not as they are to-day, and I still claim
+that if public opinion had not driven them into an arrangement with the
+Government, my article would have been published and would have done
+good. To publish it now could answer no useful purpose. Its
+application is gone and the conditions which prompted its tone
+disappeared."
+
+"I am beginning to understand," Dartrey admitted. "Tell me, how did the
+manuscript ever leave your possession, Tallente?"
+
+"I will tell you," Tallente replied, pointing over at Miller. "Because
+that man paid Palliser, my secretary, five thousand pounds out of his
+secret service money to obtain possession of it."
+
+Miller was plainly discomfited.
+
+"Who told you that lie?" he faltered.
+
+"It's no lie--it's the truth," Tallente rejoined. "You used five
+thousand pounds of secret service money to gratify a private spite."
+
+"That's false, anyhow," Miller retorted. "I have no personal spite
+against you, Tallente. I look upon you as a dangerous man in our party,
+and if I have sought for means to remove you from it, it has been not
+from personal feeling, but for the good of the cause."
+
+"There stands your leader," Tallente continued. "Did you consult him
+before you bribed my secretary and hawked about that article, first to
+Horlock and now to heaven knows whom?"
+
+"It is the first I have heard of it," Dartrey said sternly.
+
+"Just so. It goes to prove what I have declared before--that Miller's
+attack upon me is a personal one."
+
+"And I deny it," Miller exclaimed fiercely. "I don't like you,
+Tallente, I hate your class and I distrust your presence in the ranks of
+the Democratic Party. Against your leadership I shall fight tooth and
+nail. Dartrey," he went on, "you cannot give Tallente supreme control
+over us. You will only court disaster, because that article will surely
+appear and the whole position will be made ridiculous. I am strong
+enough--that is to say, those who are behind me will take my word on
+trust--to wreck the position on Thursday. I can keep ninety Labour men
+out of the Lobby and the Government will carry their vote of confidence.
+In that case, our coming into power may be delayed for years. We shall
+lose the great opportunity of this century. Tallente is your friend,
+Dartrey, but the cause comes first. I shall leave the decision with
+you."
+
+Miller took his departure with a smile of evil triumph upon his thin
+lips. He had his moment of discomfiture, however, when Dartrey coldly
+ignored his extended hand. The two men left behind heard the door slam.
+
+"This is the devil of a business, Tallente!" Dartrey said grimly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Nora returned to the room as Miller left.
+
+"I don't know whether you wanted me to go," she said to Dartrey, "but I
+cannot sit and listen to that man talk. I try to keep myself free from
+prejudices, but there are exceptions. Miller is my pet one. Tell me
+exactly what he came about? Something disagreeable, I am sure?"
+
+They told her, but she declined to take the matter seriously.
+
+"A position like this is necessarily disagreeable," she argued, "but I
+have confidence in Mr. Tallente. Remember, this article was written
+nine years ago, Stephen, and though for twenty-four hours it may make
+things unpleasant, I feel sure that it won't do nearly the harm you
+imagine. And think what a confession to make! That man, who aims at
+being a Cabinet Minister, sits here in this room and admits that he
+bribed Mr. Tallente's secretary with five thousand pounds to steal the
+manuscript out of his safe. How do you think that will go down with the
+public?"
+
+"A certain portion of the public, I am afraid," Tallente said gravely,
+"will say that I discovered the theft--and killed Palliser."
+
+"Killed Palliser!" Nora repeated incredulously. "I never heard such
+rubbish!"
+
+"Palliser certainly disappeared on the evening of the day when he parted
+with the manuscript to Miller," Tallente went on, "and has never been
+seen or heard of since."
+
+"But there must be some explanation of that," Dartrey observed.
+
+There was a short silence, significant of a curious change in the
+atmosphere. Tallente's silence grew to possess a queer significance.
+The ghost of rumours to which neither had ever listened suddenly forced
+its way back into the minds of the other two. Dartrey was the first to
+collect himself.
+
+"Tallente," he said, "as a private person I have no desire to ask you a
+single question concerned with your private life, but we have come to
+something of a crisis. It is necessary that I should know the worst.
+Is there anything else Miller could bring up against you?"
+
+"To the best of my belief, nothing," Tallente replied calmly
+
+"That is not sufficient," Dartrey persisted. "Have you any knowledge,
+Tallente, which the world does not share, of the disappearance of this
+man Palliser? It is inevitable that if you discovered his treachery
+there should have been hard words. Did you have any scene with him? Do
+you know more of his disappearance than the world knows?"
+
+"I do," Tallente replied. "You shall share that knowledge with me to a
+certain extent. I had another cause for quarrel with Palliser to which
+I do not choose to refer, but on my arrival home that night I summoned
+him from the house and led him to an open space. I admit that I chose a
+primitive method of inflicting punishment upon a traitor. I intended to
+thrash Palliser, a course of action in which I ask you, Dartrey, to
+believe, as a man of honour, I was justified. I struck too hard and
+Palliser went over the cliff."
+
+Neither Nora nor Dartrey seemed capable of speech. Tallente's cool,
+precise manner of telling his story seemed to have an almost paralysing
+effect upon them.
+
+"Afterwards," Tallente continued, "I discovered the theft of that
+document. A faithful servant of mine, and I, searched for Palliser's
+body, risking our lives in vain, as it turns out, in the hope of
+recovering the manuscript. The body was neither in the bay below nor
+hung up anywhere on the cliff. One of two things, then, must have
+happened. Either Palliser's body must have been taken out by the tide,
+which flows down the Bristol Channel in a curious way, and will never
+now be recovered, or he made a remarkable escape and decided, under all
+the circumstances, to make a fresh start in life."
+
+Nora came suddenly over to Tallente's side. She took his arm and
+somehow or other the strained look seemed to pass from his face.
+
+"Dear friend," she said, "this is very painful for you, I know, but your
+other cause of quarrel with Palliser--you will forgive me if I ask--was
+it about your wife?"
+
+"It was," Tallente replied. "You are just the one person in the world,
+Nora, in whom I am glad to confide to that extent."
+
+She turned to Dartrey.
+
+"Stephen," she said, "either Palliser is dead and his death can be
+brought to no one's door, or he is lying hidden and there is no one to
+blame. You can wipe that out of your mind, can you not? All that we
+shall have to consider now is the real effect upon the members of our
+party as a whole, if this article is published."
+
+"Have you a copy of it?" Dartrey asked.
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I haven't, but if a certain suspicion I have formed is true, I might be
+able to get you one. In any case, Dartrey, don't come to any decision
+for a day or two. If it is for the good of the party for you to throw
+me overboard, you must do it, and I can assure you I'll take the plunge
+willingly. On the other hand, if you want me to fight, I'll fight."
+
+Dartrey smiled.
+
+"It is extraordinary," he said, "how one realises more and more, as time
+goes on, how inhuman politics really are. The greatest principle in
+life, the principle of sticking to one's friends, has to be discarded.
+I shall take you at your word, Tallente. I am going to consider only
+what I think would be best for the welfare of the Democratic Party and
+in the meantime we'll just go on as though nothing had happened."
+
+"If Horlock approaches me," Tallente began--
+
+"He can go out either on a vote of confidence or on an adverse vote on
+any of the three Bills next week," Dartrey said. "We don't want to
+drive them out like a flock of sheep. They can go out waving banners
+and blowing tin horns, if they like, but they're going. It's time the
+country was governed, and the country, after all, is the only thing that
+counts.--I am sorry to send you back to work, Tallente, in such a state
+of uncertainty, but I know it will make no difference to you. Strike
+where you can and strike hard. Our day is coming and I tell you
+honestly I can't believe--nothing would make me believe--that you won't
+be in at the death."
+
+"Don't forget that we meet to-night in Charles Street," Tallente
+reminded them, as he shook hands.
+
+"Trust Nora," Dartrey replied. "She has been looking forward to it
+every day."
+
+"I now," Tallente said, as he took up his hat and stick, "am going to
+confront an editor."
+
+"You are going to try and get me a copy of the article?"
+
+Tallente nodded.
+
+"I am going to try. If my suspicions are correct, you shall have it in
+twenty-four hours."
+
+Tallente, however, spent a somewhat profitless morning, and it was only
+by chance in the end that he succeeded in his quest. He strolled into
+the lounge at the Sheridan Club to find the man he sought the centre of
+a little group. Greetings were exchanged, cocktails drunk, and as soon
+as an opportunity occurred Tallente drew his quarry on one side.
+
+"Greening," he said, "if you are not in a hurry, could I have a word
+with you before lunch?"
+
+"By all means," the other replied. "We'll go into the smoking room."
+
+They strolled off together, followed by more than one pair of curious
+eyes. An interview between the editor of the daily journal having the
+largest circulation in Great Britain and Tallente, possible dictator of
+a new party in politics, was not without its dramatic interest.
+Tallente wasted no words as soon as they had entered the smoking room
+and found it empty.
+
+"Do you mind talking shop, Greening?" he asked. "I've been down to your
+place twice this morning, but couldn't find you."
+
+"Go ahead," the other invited. "I had to go round to Downing Street and
+then on to see the chief. Sorry you had a fruitless journey."
+
+"I will be quite frank with you," Tallente went on. "What I am going to
+suggest to you is pure guesswork. A political opponent, if I can
+dignify the fellow with such a term, has in his possession an article of
+mine which I wrote some years ago, during the war. I have been given to
+understand that he means to obtain publication of it for the purpose of
+undermining my position with the Labour Party. Has he brought it to
+you?"
+
+"He has," Greening answered briefly.
+
+"Are you going to use it?"
+
+"We are. The article is in type now. It won't be out for a day or two.
+When it does, we look upon it as the biggest political scoop of this
+decade."
+
+"I protest to you formally," Tallente said, "against the publication by
+a respectable journal of a stolen document."
+
+Greening shook his head.
+
+"Won't do, Tallente," he replied. "We have had a meeting and decided to
+publish. The best I can do for you is to promise that we will publish
+unabridged any comments you may have to make upon the matter, on the
+following day."
+
+"I have always understood that there is such a thing as a journalistic
+conscience," Tallente persisted. "Can you tell me what possible
+justification you can find for making use of stolen material?"
+
+"The journalistic conscience is permitted some latitude in these
+matters," Greening answered drily. "We are not publishing for the sake
+of any pecuniary benefit or even for the kudos of a scoop. We are
+publishing because we want to do our best to drive you out from amongst
+the Democrats."
+
+"Did Horlock send Miller to you?" Tallente enquired.
+
+Greening shook his head once more.
+
+"I cannot answer that sort of question. I will say as much as this in
+our justification. We stand for sane politics and your defection from
+the ranks of sane politicians has been very seriously felt. We look
+upon this opportunity of weakening your present position with the
+Democratic Party as a matter of political necessity. Personally, I am
+very sorry, Tallente, to do an unfriendly action, but I can only say,
+like the school-master before he canes a refractory pupil, that it is
+for your own good."
+
+"I should prefer to remain the arbiter of my own destiny," Tallente
+observed drily. "I suppose you fully understand that that noxious
+person, Miller, paid my defaulting secretary five thousand pounds for
+that manuscript?"
+
+"My dear fellow, if your pocket had been picked in the street of that
+manuscript and it had been brought to us, we should still have used it,"
+was the frank reply.
+
+Tallente stared gloomily out of the window.
+
+"Then I suppose there is nothing more to be said," he wound up.
+
+"Nothing! Sorry, Tallente, but the chief is absolutely firm. He looks
+upon you as the monkey pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for the
+Labour Party and he has made up his mind to singe your paws."
+
+"The Democrats will rule this country before many years have passed,"
+Tallente said earnestly, "whether your chief likes it or not. Isn't it
+better to have a reasonable and moderate man like myself of influence in
+their councils than to have to deal with Miller and his lot?"
+
+Greening shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the clock.
+
+"Orders are orders," he declared, "and even if I disbelieved in the
+policy of the paper, I couldn't afford to disobey. Come and lunch,
+Tallente."
+
+"Can I have a proof of the article?"
+
+"By all means," was the prompt reply. "Shall I send it to your rooms or
+here?"
+
+"Send it direct to Stephen Dartrey at the House of Commons."
+
+"I see," Greening murmured thoughtfully, "and then a council of war, eh?
+Don't forget our promise, Tallente. We'll publish your counterblast,
+whatever the consequences."
+
+Tallente sighed.
+
+"It isn't decided yet," he said, as they made their way towards the
+luncheon room, "whether there is to be a counterblast."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+"We have achieved a triumph," Jane declared, when the last of the
+servants had disappeared and the little party of four were left to their
+own devices. "We have sat through the whole of dinner and not once
+mentioned politics."
+
+"You made us forget them," Tallente murmured.
+
+"A left-handed compliment," Jane laughed. "You should pay your tribute
+to my cook. Mr. Dartrey, I have told you all about my farms and your
+wife has explained all that I could not understand of her last article
+in the National. Now I am going to seek for further enlightenment.
+Tell my why the publication of an article written years ago is likely to
+affect Mr. Tallente's present position so much?"
+
+"Because," Dartrey explained, "it is an attack upon the most sensitive,
+the most difficult, and the section of our party furthest removed from
+us--the great trades unions. Some years ago, Lady Jane, since the war,
+one of our shrewdest thinkers declared that the greatest danger
+overshadowing this country was the power wielded by the representatives
+of these various unions, a power which amounted almost to a
+dictatorship. We have drawn them into our party through detaching the
+units. We have never been able to capture them as a whole. Even to-day
+their leaders are in a curiously anomalous position. They see their
+power going in the dawn of a more socialistic age. They cannot refuse
+to accept our principles but in their hearts they know that our triumph
+sounds the death knell to their power. This article of Tallente's would
+give them a wonderful chance. Out of very desperation they will seize
+upon it."
+
+"Have you read the article?" Jane enquired.
+
+"This evening, just before I came," Dartrey replied gravely.
+
+"I can understand," Tallente intervened, "that you feel bound to take
+this seriously, Dartrey, but after all there is nothing traitorous to
+our cause in what I wrote. I attacked the trades unions for their
+colossal and fiendish selfishness when the Empire was tottering. I
+would do it again under the same circumstances. Remember I was fresh
+from Ypres. I had seen Englishmen, not soldiers but just hastily
+trained citizens--bakers, commercial travellers, clerks, small
+tradesmen--butchered like rabbits but fighting for their country, dying
+for it--and all the time those blackguardly stump orators at home turned
+their backs to France and thought the time opportune to wrangle for a
+rise in wages and bring the country to the very verge of a universal
+strike. It didn't come off, I know, but there were very few people who
+really understood how near we were to it. Dartrey, we sacrifice too
+much of our real feelings to political necessity. I won't apologize for
+my article; I'll defend it."
+
+Dartrey sighed.
+
+"It will be a difficult task, Tallente. The spirit has gone. People
+have forgotten already the danger which we so narrowly escaped--forgotten
+before the grass has grown on the graves of our saviours."
+
+"Still, you wouldn't have Mr. Tallente give in without a struggle?"
+Jane asked.
+
+"I hope that Tallente will fight," Dartrey replied, "but I must warn
+you, Lady Jane, that I am the guardian of a cause, and for that reason
+I am an opportunist. If the division of our party which consists of the
+trades unionists refuses to listen to any explanation and threatens
+severance if Tallente remains, then he will have to go."
+
+"So far as your personal view is concerned," Tallente asked, "you could
+do without Miller, couldn't you?"
+
+"I could thrive without him," Dartrey declared heartily.
+
+"Then you shall," Tallente asserted. "We'll show the world what his
+local trades unionism stands for. He has belittled the whole principle
+of cooperation. He twangs all the time one brazen chord instead of
+seeking to give expression to the clear voices of the millions. Miller
+would impoverish the country with his accursed limited production, his
+threatened strikes, his parochial outlook. Englishmen are brimful of
+common sense, Dartrey, if you know where to dig for it. We'll
+materialise your own dream. We'll bring the principles of socialism
+into our human and daily life and those octopus trades unions shall feel
+the knife."
+
+Jane laid her hand for a moment upon his arm.
+
+"Why aren't you oftener enthusiastic?"
+
+He glanced at her swiftly. Their eyes met. Fearlessly she held his
+fingers for a moment,--a long, wonderful moment.
+
+"I was getting past enthusiasms," he said; "I was dropping into the
+dry-as-dust school--the argumentative, logical, cold, ineffectual
+school. The last few months have changed that. I feel young again. If
+Dartrey will give me a free hand, I'll deliver up to him Miller's
+bones."
+
+Dartrey had come to the dinner in an uncertain frame of mind. No one
+knew better than he the sinister power behind Miller. Yet before
+Tallente had finished speaking he had made up his mind.
+
+"I'll stand by you, Tallente," he declared, "even if it puts us back a
+year or so. Miller carries with him always an atmosphere of unwholesome
+things. He has got the Bolshevist filth in his blood and I don't trust
+him. No one trusts him. He shall take his following where he will, and
+if we are not strong enough to rule without them, we'll wait."
+
+It was a compact of curious importance which the two men sealed
+impulsively with a grip of the hands across the table, and down at
+Woolhanger, through some dreary months, it was Jane's greatest pleasure
+to remember that it was at her table it had been made.
+
+
+Tallente, seeking about for some excuse to remain for a few moments
+after the departure of the Dartreys, was relieved of all anxiety by
+Jane's calm and dignified remark.
+
+"I can't part with you just yet, Mr. Tallente," she said. "You are not
+in a hurry, I hope, and you are so close to your rooms that the matter
+of taxies need not worry you. And, Mr. Dartrey, next time you come
+down to my county you must bring your wife over to see me. Woolhanger
+is so typically Devonshire, I really think you would be interested."
+
+"I shall make Stephen bring me in the spring," Nora promised. "I shall
+never forget how fascinated we were with the whole place this last
+summer. Don't forget that you are coming to the House with me tomorrow
+afternoon."
+
+Jane smiled.
+
+"I am looking forward to it," she declared. "The only annoying part is
+that that stupid man won't promise to speak."
+
+"I shall have so much to say within the next week or so," Tallente
+observed, a little grimly, "that I think I had better keep quiet as long
+as I can."
+
+The moment for which Tallente had been longing came then. The front
+door closed behind the departing guests. Jane motioned to him to come
+and sit by her side on the couch.
+
+"I love your friends," she said. "I think Mrs. Dartrey is perfectly
+sweet and Dartrey is just as wonderful as I had pictured him. They are
+so strangely unusual," she went on. "I can scarcely believe, even now,
+that our dinner actually took place in my little room here--Stephen
+Dartrey, the man I have read about all my life, and this brilliant young
+wife of his. Thank you so much, dear friend, for bringing them."
+
+"And thank you, dear perfect hostess," he answered. "Do you know what
+you did? You created an atmosphere in which it was possible to think
+and talk and see things clearly. Do you realise what has happened?
+Dartrey has done a great thing. He has thrown over the one menacing
+power in the advancing cause of the people. He is going to back me
+against Miller."
+
+"What exactly is Miller's position?" she asked.
+
+"Let me tell you another time," he begged. "I have looked forward so to
+these few minutes with you. Tell me how much time you are going to
+spare me this next week?"
+
+She looked at him with the slight, indulgent smile of a woman realising
+and glad to realise her power. To Tallente she had never seemed more
+utterly and entirely desirable. It was not for him to know that a
+French modiste had woven all the cunning and diablerie of the sex lure
+into the elegant shape, the apparent simplicity of the black velvet
+which draped her limbs. In some mysterious way, the same spirit seemed
+to have entered into Jane herself. The evening had been one of
+unalloyed pleasure. She felt the charm of her companion more than ever
+before. The pleasant light in her eyes, the courteous, half-mocking
+phrases with which, as a rule, she fenced herself about in those moments
+when he sought to draw her closer to him, were gone. Her eyes were as
+bright as ever, but softer. Her mouth was firm, yet somehow with a
+faint, womanly voluptuousness in its sweet curves. The fingers which
+lay unresistingly in his hand were soft and warm.
+
+"As much time as you can spare," she promised him. "I thought, though,
+that you would be busy tearing Miller bone from bone."
+
+"The game of politics is played slowly," he answered, "sometimes so
+slowly that one chafes. Dear Jane, I want to see you all the time. So
+much of what is best in me, best and most effective, comes from you."
+
+"If I can help, I am proud," she whispered.
+
+"You help more than you will ever know, more than my lips can tell you.
+It is you who have lit the lamp again in my life, you from whom come the
+fire and strength which make me feel that I shall triumph, that I shall
+achieve the one thing I have set my heart upon."
+
+"The one thing?" she murmured rashly.
+
+"The one thing outside," he answered, "the desire of my brain. The
+desire of my heart is here."
+
+She lay in his arms, her lips moved to his and the moments passed
+uncounted. Then, with a queer little cry, she stood up, covered her
+face for a moment with her hands and then held them both out to him.
+
+"Dear man," she begged, "dearest of all men--will you go now?
+To-morrow--whenever you have time--let your servant ring up. I will
+free myself from any engagement--but please!"
+
+He kissed her fingers and passed out with a murmured word. He knew so
+little of women and yet some wonderful instinct kept him always in the
+right path. Perhaps, too, he feared speech himself, lest the ecstasy of
+those few moments might be broken.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+This is how a weekly paper of indifferent reputation but immense
+circulation brought Tallente's love affair to a crisis. In a column
+purporting to set out the editor's curiosity upon certain subjects, the
+following paragraphs appeared:
+
+
+Whether a distinguished member of the Democratic Party is not considered
+just now the luckiest man in the world of politics and love.
+
+
+Whether the young lady really enjoys playing the prodigal daughter at
+home and in the country, and what her noble relatives have to say about
+it.
+
+
+Whether there are not some sinister rumours going about concerning the
+politician in question.
+
+
+Jane's mother, who had arrived in London only the day before, was in
+Charles Street before her prodigal daughter had finished breakfast. She
+brandished a copy of the paper in her hand. Jane read the three
+paragraphs and let the paper slip from her fingers as though she had
+been handling an unclean thing. She rang the bell and pointed to where
+it lay upon the floor.
+
+"Take that into the servants' hall and let it be destroyed, Parkins,"
+she ordered.
+
+The Duchess held her peace until the man had left the room. Then she
+turned resolutely to Jane.
+
+"My dear," she said, "that's posing. Besides, it's indiscreet. Parkins
+will read it, of course, and it's what that sort of person reads,
+nowadays, that counts. We can't afford it. The aristocracy has had its
+fling. To-day we are on our good behaviour."
+
+"I should have thought," Jane declared, "that in these democratic days
+the best thing we could do would be to prove ourselves human like other
+people."
+
+"And people call you clever!" her mother scoffed. "Why, my dear child,
+any slight respect which we still receive from the lower orders is based
+upon their conviction that somehow or other we are, after all, made
+differently from them. Sometimes they hate us for it and sometimes they
+love us for it. The great thing, nowadays, however, is to cultivate and
+try and strengthen that belief of theirs."
+
+"How did you come to see this rag?" Jane enquired mildly.
+
+"Your Aunt Somerham brought it round this morning while I was in bed,"
+her mother replied. "It was a great shock to me. Also to your father.
+He was anxious to come with me but is threatened with an attack of
+gout."
+
+"And what do you want to say to me about it? Just why did you bring me
+that rag and show me those paragraphs?"
+
+"My dear, I must know how much truth there is in them. Have you been
+going about with this man Tallente?"
+
+"To a certain extent, yes," Jane admitted, after a moment's hesitation.
+
+"Chaperoned?"
+
+"Pooh! You know I finished with all that sort of rubbish years ago,
+mother."
+
+"I am informed that Mr. Tallente is a married man."
+
+Jane flinched a little for the first time.
+
+"All the world knows that," she answered. "He married an American, one
+of William Hunter's daughters."
+
+"Who has now, I understand, left him?" Lady Jane shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"I do not discuss Mr. Tallente's matrimonial affairs with him."
+
+
+"Surely," her mother remarked acidly, "in view of your growing intimacy
+they are of some interest to you both?"
+
+Jane was silent for a moment.
+
+"Just what have you come to say, mother?" she asked, looking up at her,
+clear-eyed and composed. "Better let's get it over."
+
+The Duchess cleared her throat.
+
+"Jane," she said, "we have become reconciled, your father and I, against
+our wills, to your strange political views and the isolation in which
+you choose to live, but when your eccentricities lead you to a course of
+action which makes you the target for scandal, your family protests. I
+have come to beg that this intimacy of yours with Mr. Tallente should
+cease."
+
+"Mother," Jane replied, "for years after I left the schoolroom I
+subjected myself to your guidance in these matters. I went through
+three London seasons and made myself as agreeable as possible to
+whatever you brought along and called a man. At the end of that time I
+revolted. I am still in revolt. Mr. Tallente interests me more than
+any man I know and I shall not give up my friendship with him."
+
+"Your aunt tells me that Colonel Fosbrook wants to marry you."
+
+"He has mentioned the fact continually," Jane assented. "Colonel
+Fosbrook is a very pleasant person who does not appeal to me in the
+slightest as a husband."
+
+"The Fosbrooks are one of our oldest families," the Duchess said
+severely. "Arnold Fosbrook is very wealthy and the connection would be
+most desirable. You are twenty-nine years old, Jane, and you ought to
+marry. You ought to have children and bring them up to defend the order
+in which you were born."
+
+"Mother dear," Jane declared, smiling, "this conversation had better
+cease. Thanks to dear Aunt Jane, I have an independent fortune,
+Woolhanger, and my little house here. I have adopted an independent
+manner of life and I have not the least idea of changing it. You have
+three other daughters and they have all married to your complete
+satisfaction. I don't think that I shall ever be a very black sheep but
+you must look upon me as outside the fold.--I hope you will stay to
+lunch. Colonel Fosbrook is bringing his sister and the Princess is
+coming."
+
+The Duchess rose to her feet. The family dignity justified itself in
+her cold withdrawal.
+
+"Thank you, Jane," she said, "I am engaged. I am glad to know, however,
+that you still have one or two respectable friends."
+
+The setting was the same only the atmosphere seemed somehow changed when
+Jane received her second visitor that day. She was waiting for him in
+the small sitting room into which no other visitor save members of the
+family were ever invited. There was a comfortable fire burning, the
+roses which had come from him a few hours before were everywhere
+displayed, and Jane herself, in a soft brown velvet gown, rose to her
+feet, comely and graceful, to welcome him.
+
+"So we are immortalised!" she exclaimed, smiling.
+
+"That wretched rag!" he replied. "I was hoping you wouldn't see it."
+
+"Mother was here with a copy before eleven o'clock."
+
+Tallente made a grimace.
+
+"Have you sworn to abjure me and all my works?"
+
+"So much so," she told him, "that I have been here waiting for you for
+at least half an hour and I have put on the gown you said you liked
+best. Some one said in a book I was reading last week that affection
+was proved only by trifles. I have certainly never before in my life
+altered my scheme of clothes to please any man."
+
+He raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+"You are exercising," he said, "the most wonderful gift of your sex.
+You are providing an oasis--more than that, a paradise--for a
+disheartened toiler. It seems that I have enemies whose very existence
+I never guessed at."
+
+"Well, does that matter very much?" she asked cheerfully. "It was one
+of your late party, wasn't it, who said that the making of enemies was
+the only reward of political success?"
+
+"A cheap enough saying," Tallente sighed, "yet with the germs of truth
+in it. I don't mind the allusion to a sinister rumour. The air will be
+thick with them before long. The other--well, it's beneath criticism
+but it hurts."
+
+She laughed whole-heartedly.
+
+"Andrew," she said, "for the first time in my life I am ashamed of you.
+Here am I, hidebound in conventions, and I could just summon indignation
+enough to send the paper down to the kitchen to be burnt. Since then I
+have not even thought of it. I was far more angry that any one should
+anticipate the troubles which you have to face. Come and sit down."
+
+She led him to the couch and held his fingers in hers as she leaned back
+in a corner.
+
+"I honestly believe," she went on gently, "that the world is not
+sufficiently grateful to those who toil for her. Criticism has become a
+habit of life. Nobody believes or wants to believe in the altruist any
+longer. I believe that if to-day a rich man stripped himself of all his
+possessions and obeyed the doctrines of the Bible by giving them to the
+poor, the Daily something or other would worry around until they found
+some interested motive, and the Daily something or other else would
+succeed in proving the man a hypocrite."
+
+He smiled and in the lightening of his face she appreciated for the
+first time a certain strained look about his eyes and the drawn look
+about the mouth.
+
+"You are worrying about all this!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, in a way I am worrying," he confessed simply. "Not about the
+storm itself. I am ready to face that and I think I shall be a stronger
+and a saner man when the battle has started. In the meantime, I think
+that what has happened to me is this. I have arrived just at that time
+of life when a man takes stock of himself and his doings, criticises his
+own past and wonders whether the things he has proposed doing in the
+future are worth while."
+
+"You of all men in the world need never ask yourself that," she declared
+warmly. "Think of your lifelong devotion to your work. Think of the
+idlers by whom you are surrounded."
+
+"I work," he admitted, "but I sometimes ask myself whether I work with
+the same motives as I did when I was young. I started life as an
+altruist. I am not sure now whether I am not working in self-defence,
+from habit, because I am afraid of falling behind."
+
+"You mean that you have lost your ideals?"
+
+"I wonder," he speculated, "whether any man can carry them through to my
+age and not be afflicted with doubts as to whether, after all, he has
+been on the right path, whether he may not have been worshipping false
+gods."
+
+"Tell me exactly how you started life," she begged.
+
+"Like any other third or fourth son of a bankrupt baronet," he replied.
+"I went to Eaton and Oxford with the knowledge that I had to carve out
+my own career and my ambitions when I left the University were entirely
+personal. I chose diplomacy. I did moderately well, I believe. I remember
+my first really confidential mission," he went on, with a faint smile,
+"brought me to Paris, where we met.--Then came Parliament--afterwards
+the war and a revolution in all my ideas. I suddenly saw the strength
+and power of England and realised whence it came. I realised that it
+was our democracy which was the backbone of the country. I realised the
+injustice of those centuries of class government. I plunged into my old
+socialistic studies, which I had taken up at Oxford more out of caprice
+than anything, and I began to have a vision of what I have always since
+looked upon as the truth. I began to realise that there was some
+super-divine truth in the equality of all humans, notwithstanding the
+cheap arguments against it; that by steady and broad-minded government
+for a generation or so, human beings would be born into the world under
+more level conditions; and with the fading away of class would be born
+or rather generated the real and wonderful spirit of freedom. My
+parliamentary career progressed by leaps and bounds, but when in '15 the
+war began to go against us, I turned soldier."
+
+"You don't need to tell me anything about that part of your career," she
+interrupted, with a little smile almost of proprietory pride. "I never
+forget it."
+
+"When I came back," he continued, "I was almost a fanatic. I worked not
+from the ranks of the Labour Party itself, because I flatter myself that
+I was clear-sighted enough to see that the Labour Party as it existed
+after the war, split up by factions, devoted to the selfish interests of
+the great trades unions and with the taint of Miller retarding all
+progress, had nothing in it of the real spirit of freedom. It was every
+man for his own betterment and the world in which he lived might go
+hang. I stayed with the Coalitionists, though I was often a thorn in
+their side, but because I was also useful to them I bent them often
+towards the light. Then they began to fear me, or rather my principles.
+It was out of my principles, although I was not nominally one of them,
+that Dartrey admits freely to-day he built up the Democratic Party. He
+had been working on the same lines for years, a little too much from the
+idealistic point of view. He needed the formula. I gave it to him.
+Horlock came into office again and I worked with him for a time.
+Gradually, however, my position became more and more difficult. In the
+end he offered me a post in the Cabinet, induced me to resign my own
+seat, which I admit was a doubtful one, and sent me to fight
+Hellesfield, which it was never intended that I should win. Then Miller
+dug his own grave. He opposed me there and I lost the seat. Horlock
+was politely regretful, scarcely saw what could be done for me at the
+moment, was disposed to join in a paltry little domestic plot to send
+me to the Lords. This was at the time I came down to Martinhoe, the
+time, except for those brief moments in Paris, when I first met you."
+
+"Pruning roses in a shockingly bad suit of clothes," she murmured.
+
+"And taken for my own gardener! Well, then came Dartrey's visit. He
+laid his programme before me, offered me a seat and I agreed to lead the
+Democrats in the House. There I think I have been useful. I knew the
+game, which Dartrey didn't. Whilst he has achieved almost the
+impossible, has, except so far as regards Miller's influence amongst the
+trades unions, brought the great army of the people into line, I
+accomplished the smaller task of giving them their due weight in the
+House."
+
+"Very well, then," Jane declared, looking at him with glowing eyes,
+"there is your stocktaking, taken from your own, the most modest point
+of view. With your own lips you confess to what you have achieved, to
+where you stand. What doubts should any sane man have? How can you say
+that the lamp of your life has burned dull?"
+
+"Insight," he answered promptly. "Don't think that I fear the big
+fight. I don't. With Dartrey on my side we shall wipe Miller into
+oblivion. It isn't true to-day to say that he represents the trades
+unions, for the very reason that the trades unions as solid bodies don't
+exist any longer. The men have learnt to think for themselves. Many of
+them are earnest members of the Democratic Party. They have learnt to
+look outside the interests of the little trade in which they earn their
+weekly wage. No, it isn't Miller that I am afraid of."
+
+"Then what is it?" she demanded.
+
+"How can I put it?" he went on thoughtfully. "Well, first of all, then,
+I feel that the Democrats, when they come into power, are going to
+develop as swiftly as may be all the fevers, the sore places, the
+jealousies and the pettiness of every other political party which has
+ever tried to rule the State. I see the symptoms already and that is
+what I think makes my heart grow faint. I have given the best years of
+my life to toiling for others. Who believes it? Who is grateful? Who
+would not say that because I lead a great party in the House of Commons,
+I have all that I have worked for, that my reward is at hand? And it
+isn't. If I am Prime Minister in three months' time, there will still
+be something left of the feeling of weariness I carry with me to-day."
+
+It was a new phase of the man who unconsciously had grown so dominant in
+her life. She felt the pull at her heartstrings. Her eyes were soft
+with unshed tears as her arm stole through his.
+
+"Please go on," she whispered.
+
+"There is the ego," he confessed, his voice shaking. "Why it has come
+to me just at this period of life--but there it is. I have neglected
+human society, human intercourse, sport, pleasures, the joys of a man
+who was born to be a man. I am philosopher enough not to ask myself
+whether it has been worth while, but I do ask myself--what of the next
+ten years?"
+
+"Who am I to give you counsel?" she asked, trembling.
+
+"The only person who can."
+
+"Then I advise you to go on. This is just a mood. There are muddy
+places through which one must pass, even in the paths that lead to the
+mountain tops, muddy and ugly and depressing places. As one climbs, one
+loses the memory of them."
+
+"But I climb always alone," he answered, with a sudden fierceness. "I
+walk alone in life. I have been strong enough to do it and I am strong
+enough no longer.--Jane," he went on, his voice a little unsteady, his
+hands almost clutching hers, "it is only since I have known you that I
+have realised from what source upon this earth a man may draw his
+inspiration, his courage, the strength to face the moving of mountains,
+day by day. My heart has been as dry as a seed plot. You have brought
+new things to me, the soft, humanising stimulus of a new hope, a new
+joy. If I am to fight on to the end, I must have you and your love."
+
+She was trembling and half afraid, but her hands yielded their pressure
+to his. Her lips and her eyes, the little quivering of her body, all
+spoke of yielding.
+
+"I have done foolish things in my life," he went on, drawing her nearer
+to him. "When I was young, I felt that I had the strength of a
+superman, and that all I needed in life was food for the brain. I
+placed woman in her wrong place. I sold myself and my chance of
+happiness that I might gain more power, a wider influence. It was a sin
+against life. It was a greater crime against myself. Now that the
+thunder is muttering and the time is coming for the last test, I see the
+truth as I have never seen it before. Nature has taken me by the
+hand--shows it me.--Tell me it isn't too late, Jane? Tell me you care?
+Help me. I have never pleaded for help before. I plead to you."
+
+Her eyes were wet and beautiful with the shine of tears. It seemed to
+him in that moment of intense emotion that he could read there
+everything he desired in life. Her lips met his almost eagerly, met his
+and gave of their own free will.
+
+"Andrew," she murmured, "you see, you are the only man except those of
+my family whom I have ever kissed, and I kiss you now--again--and
+again--because I love you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Tallente, notwithstanding the glow of happiness which had taken him down
+to Westminster with the bearing of a young man, felt occasional little
+shivers of doubt as he leaned back in his seat during the intervals of a
+brief but portentous debate and let his mind wander back to that short
+hour when he seemed to have emptied out all the hidden yearnings which
+had been lurking in the dark corners of his heart and soul. His love
+for Jane had no longer the boyish characteristics of a vague worship.
+He made no further pretences to himself. It was Jane herself, and not
+the spirit of her sex dwelling in her body, which he desired. A tardy
+heritage of passion at times rejuvenated him and at others stretched him
+upon the rack.
+
+He walked home later with Dartrey, clinging to the man with a new
+sympathy and drinking in with queer content some measure of his
+happiness. Dartrey himself seemed a little ashamed of its exuberance.
+
+"If it weren't that Nora is so entirely a disciple of our cause,
+Tallente," he said, "I think I should feel a little like the man in the
+'Pilgrim's Progress,' who stopped to pick flowers by the way. She is
+such a help, though. It was she who pointed out the flaw in that second
+amendment of Saunderson's, which I had very nearly passed. Did you read
+her article in the National, too?"
+
+"Wonderful!" Tallente murmured. "There is no living woman who writes
+such vivid and convincing prose."
+
+"And the amazing part of it all is," Dartrey went on, "that she seeks no
+reward except just to see the cause prosper. She hasn't the faintest
+ambition to fill any post in life which could be filled by a man. She
+would write anonymously if it were possible. She has insight which
+amounts to inspiration, yet whenever I am with her she makes me feel
+that her greatest gift is her femininity."
+
+"It must be the most wonderful thing in life to have the help of any one
+like Nora," Tallente said dreamily.
+
+"My friend," the other rejoined, "I wish I could make you believe this.
+There is room in the life of the busiest man in the world for an
+understanding woman. I'll go further. No man can do his best work
+without her."
+
+"I believe you are right," Tallente assented.
+
+His friend pressed his arm kindly.
+
+"You've ploughed a lonely furrow for a good many years, Tallente," he
+said. "Nora talks of you so often and so wistfully. She is such an
+understanding creature.--No, don't go. Just one whisky and soda. It
+used to be chocolate, but Nora insists upon making a man of me."
+
+Tallente was a little in the shadow of the hall and he witnessed the
+greeting between Nora and her husband: saw her come out of the study,--a
+soft, entrancing figure in the little circle of firelight gleaming
+through the open door. She threw her arms around Dartrey's neck and
+kissed him.
+
+"Dear," she exclaimed, "how early you are! Come and have an easy-chair
+by the fire and tell me how every one's been behaving."
+
+Dartrey, with his arm around her waist, turned to Tallente.
+
+"An entirely unrehearsed exhibition, I can assure you, Tallente," he
+declared.
+
+Nora pouted and passed her other arm through Tallente's.
+
+"That's just like Stephen," she complained, "advertising his domestic
+bliss. Never mind, there is room for an easy-chair for you."
+
+Tallente took a whisky and soda but declined to sit down.
+
+"I walked home with Stephen," he said, "and then I felt I couldn't go
+away without seeing you just for a moment, Nora."
+
+"Dear man," she answered, "I should have been terribly hurt if you had.
+Do make yourself comfortable by the fire. You will be able to check all
+that Stephen tells me about the debate to-night. He is so inexact."
+
+Tallente shook his head. "I am restless to-night, Nora," he said
+simply. "I shall walk up to the club."
+
+She let him out herself, holding his hand almost tenderly. "Oh, you
+poor dear thing!" she said. "I do wish I knew--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"What to wish you--what to hope for you."
+
+He walked away in silence. They both understood so well.--He found his
+way to the club and ate sandwiches with one or two other men, also just
+released from the House, but the more he tried to compose himself, the
+more he was conscious of a sort of fierce restlessness that drove the
+blood through his veins at feverish pace. He wandered from room to
+room, played a game of billiards, chafing all the time at the necessity
+of finishing the game. He hurried away, pleading an appointment. In
+the hall he met Greening, who led him at once to a secluded corner.
+
+"Prepared with your apologia, Tallente?" he enquired.
+
+"It's in your office at the present moment," Tallente replied, "finished
+this morning."
+
+Greening stroked his beard. He was a lank, rather cadaverous man, with
+a face like granite and eyes like polished steel. Few men had anything
+to say against him. No one liked him.
+
+"How are you regarding the appearance of these outpourings of yours,
+Tallente?" he asked.
+
+"With equanimity," was the calm rejoinder. "I think I told you what I
+thought of you and your journalism for having any dealings with a thief
+and for making yourself a receiver of stolen property. I have nothing
+to add to that. I am ready to face the worst now and you may find the
+thunders recoil on your own head."
+
+"No one will ever be able to blame us," Greening replied, "for
+publishing material of such deep interest to every one, even though it
+should incidentally be your political death warrant. As a matter of
+fact, Tallente, I was rather hoping that I might meet you here to-night.
+The chief and Horlock appear to have had a breeze."
+
+"How does that concern me?" Tallente asked bluntly.
+
+"It may concern you very much indeed. A few days ago I should have told
+you, as I did, that nothing in the world could stop the publication of
+that article. To-day I am not so sure. At any rate, I believe there is
+a chance. Would you care to see the chief?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest desire to," Tallente replied. "I have made my
+protest. Nothing in the world can affect the morality of your action.
+At the same time, I have got over my first dread of it. I am prepared
+with my defence, and perhaps a little in the way of a counterattack.
+No, I am not going hat in hand to your chief, Greening. He must do as
+he thinks well."
+
+"If that is your attitude," Greening observed, "things will probably
+take their course. On the other hand, if you were inclined to have a
+heart-to-heart talk with the chief and our other editors, I believe that
+something might come of it."
+
+"In other words," Tallente said coldly, "your chief, who is one of the
+most magnificent opportunists I ever knew, has suddenly begun to wonder
+whether he is backing the right horse."
+
+"Something like it, perhaps," Greening admitted. "Look here, Tallente,"
+he went on, "you're a big man in your way and I know perfectly well that
+you wouldn't throw away a real advantage out of pique. Consider this
+matter. I can't pledge the paper or the chief. I simply say--see him
+and talk it over."
+
+Tallente shook his head.
+
+"I am much obliged, Greening," he said, "but I don't want to go through
+life with this thing hanging over me. Miller has a copy of the
+article, without a doubt. If you turn him down, he'll find some one
+else to publish it. I should never know when the thunderbolt was going
+to fail. I am prepared now and I would rather get it over."
+
+"Is Dartrey going to back you?" Greening asked.
+
+Tallente smiled.
+
+"I can't give away secrets."
+
+Greening turned slowly away.
+
+"I am off for a rubber of bridge," he said. "I am sorry, Tallente.
+Better dismiss this interview from your mind altogether. It very likely
+wouldn't have led to anything. All the same, I envy you your
+confidence. If I could only guess at its source, I'd have a leader for
+to-morrow morning."
+
+Tallente walked down the stairs with a smile upon his lips. He put on
+his hat and coat and hesitated for a moment on the broad steps. Then a
+sudden wonderful thought came to him, an impulse entirely irresistible.
+He started off westward, walking with feverish haste.
+
+The spirit of adventure sat in his heart as he passed through the
+crowded streets. The night was wonderfully clear, the stars were
+brilliant overhead and from behind the Colliseum dome a corner of the
+yellow moon was showing. He was conscious of a sudden new feeling of
+kinship with these pleasure-seeking crowds who jostled him here and
+there upon the pavement. He was glad to find himself amongst them and
+of them. He felt that he had come down from the chilly heights to walk
+the lighted highways of the world. The keen air with its touch of frost
+invigorated him. There was a new suppleness in his pulses, a queer
+excitement in his whole being, which he scarcely understood until his
+long walk came to an end and he found himself at a standstill in front
+of the house in Charles Street, his unadmitted destination.
+
+He glanced at his watch and found that it was half an hour after
+midnight. There was a light in the lower room into which Jane had taken
+him on the night of her arrival in town. Above, the whole of the house
+seemed in darkness. He walked a little way down the street and back
+again. Jane was dining, he knew, with the Princess de Fenaples, her
+godmother, and had spoken of going on to a ball with her afterwards. In
+that case she could scarcely be home for hours. Yet somehow he had a
+joyful conviction that history would repeat itself, that he would find
+her, as he had once before, entering the house. His fortune was in the
+ascendant. Not even the emptiness of the street discouraged him. He
+strolled a little way along and back again. As he passed the door once
+more, something bright lying underneath the scraper attracted his
+notice. He paused and stooped down. Almost before he had realised what
+he was doing, he had picked up a small key, her latch-key, and was
+holding it in his hand.
+
+He passed down the street again and there seemed something unreal in the
+broad pavement, the frowning houses, the glow of the gas lamps. The
+harmless little key burned his flesh. All the passionate acuteness of
+life seemed throbbing again in his veins. He retraced his steps, making
+no plans, obeying only an ungovernable instinct. The street was empty.
+He thrust the key into the lock, opened the door, replaced the key under
+the scraper, entered the house and made his way into the room on the
+right.
+
+Tallente stood there for a few minutes with fast-beating heart. He had
+the feeling that he had burned his boats. He was face to face now with
+realities. There was no sound from anywhere. A bright fire was burning
+in the grate. An easy-chair was drawn up to the side of a small table,
+on which was placed a tumbler, some biscuits, a box of cigarettes and
+some matches. A copper saucepan full of milk stood in the hearth, side
+by side with some slippers,--dainty, fur-topped slippers. Even these
+slight evidences of her coming presence seemed to thrill him. Time
+dissolved away into a dream of anticipation. Minutes or hours might
+have passed before he heard the motor stop outside, her voice bidding
+some friend a cheerful good night, the turning of the key in the door,
+the drawing of a bolt, a light step in the hall, and then--Jane.
+
+She was wrapped from head to foot in white furs, a small tiara of
+emeralds and diamonds on her head. She entered, humming a tune to
+herself, serene, desirable.
+
+"Andrew!"
+
+Her exclamation, the light in her eyes, the pleasure which swiftly took
+the place of her first amazement, intoxicated him. He drew her into his
+arms and his voice shook.
+
+"Jane," he confessed, "I tried to keep away and I couldn't. I stole in
+here to wait for you. And you're glad--thank heavens you're glad!"
+
+"But how long have you been here?" she asked wonderingly.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I don't know. I walked down the street, hoping for a miracle. Then I
+saw your key under the scraper. I let myself in and waited.--Jane, how
+wonderful you are!"
+
+Unconsciously she had unfastened and thrown aside her furs. Her arms
+and neck shone like alabaster in the shaded light. She looked into his
+face and began to tremble a little.
+
+"You ought not to have done this," she said.
+
+"Why not?" he pleaded.
+
+"If any one had seen you--if the servants knew!"
+
+He laughed and stopped her mouth with a kiss.
+
+"Dear, these things are trifles. The things that count lie between us
+two only. Do you know that you have been in my blood like a fever all
+day? You were there in the House this afternoon, you walked the streets
+with me, you drew me here.--Jane, I haven't felt like this since I was a
+boy. You have brought me back my youth. I adore you!"
+
+Again she rested willingly enough in his arms, smiling at him, as he
+drew near to her, with wonderful kindness. The fire of his lips,
+however, seemed to disturb her. She felt the enveloping turmoil of his
+passion, now become almost ungovernable, and extricated herself gently
+from his arms.
+
+"Put my saucepan on the fire, please," she begged. "You will find some
+whisky and soda on the sideboard there. Parkins evidently thinks that I
+ought to have a male escort when I come home late."
+
+"I don't want whisky and soda, Jane," he cried passionately. "I want
+you!"
+
+She rested her hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"And am I not yours, dear," she asked,--"foolishly, unwisely perhaps,
+but certainly yours?--They were all talking about you to-night at dinner
+and I was so proud," she went on, a little feverishly. "Our host was
+almost eloquent. He said that Democracy led by you, instead of proving
+a curse, might be the salvation of the country, because you have
+political insight and imperialistic ideas. It is those terrible people
+who would make a parish council of Parliament from whom one has most to
+fear."
+
+Tallente made no reply. He was standing on the hearth rug, a few feet
+away from her, watching as she stirred her milk, watching the curve of
+her body, the grace of her long, smoothly shining arms. And beyond
+these things he strove to read what was at the back of her mind.
+
+"We must talk almost in whispers," she went on. "And do have your
+whisky and soda, Andrew, because you must go very soon."
+
+"It would disturb you very much if your servants were to know of my
+presence here?" he asked, in a queer, even tone.
+
+"Of course it would," she answered, without looking at him. "As you
+know, I have lived, from my standpoints, an extraordinarily
+unconventional life, but that was because I knew myself and was safe.
+But--I have never done anything like this before in my life."
+
+"You have never been in the same position," he reminded her. "There has
+never been any one else to consider except yourself."
+
+"True enough," she admitted, "but oughtn't that to make one all the more
+careful? I loved seeing you when I came in, and I have loved our few
+minutes together, but I am getting a little nervous. Do you see that it
+is past two o'clock?"
+
+"There is no one to whom you are accountable for anything in life except
+to me," he told her passionately.
+
+She laughed softly but a little uneasily.
+
+"Dear Andrew," she said, "there is my own sense of what is seemly
+and--must I use the horrid word?--my reputation to be considered. As it
+is, you may be seen leaving the house in the small hours of the
+morning."
+
+A little shiver passed through him. All the splendid warmth of living
+seemed to be fading away from his heart and thoughts. He was back again
+in that empty world of unreal persons. Jane had been a dream. This
+kindly faced, beautiful but anxious girl was not the Jane to whose arms
+he had come hotfoot through the streets.
+
+"I ought not to have come," he muttered.
+
+"Dear, I don't blame you in the least," she answered, "only be very
+careful as you go out. If there is any one passing in the street, wait
+for a moment."
+
+"I understand," he promised. "I will take the greatest care."
+
+He took up his hat and coat mechanically. She thrust her arm through
+his and led him to the door, looking furtively into his face as though
+afraid of what she might find there. Her own heart was beginning to
+beat faster. She was filled with a queer sense of failure.
+
+"You are not angry with me, Andrew? You know that I have been happy to
+see you?"
+
+"I am not angry," he answered.
+
+There was a little choking in her throat. She felt the rush of strange
+things. Her eyes sought his, filled with almost terrified anticipation.
+It chanced that he was looking away. She clenched her hands. His
+moment had passed.
+
+"There is something else on your mind, Andrew, I know, but to-night we
+cannot talk any longer," she said, in something resembling her old tone.
+"Be very careful, dear. To-morrow--you will come to-morrow."
+
+He walked down the hall with the footsteps of a cat, let himself out
+silently into the empty street and walked with leaden footsteps to his
+rooms. It was not until he had reached the seclusion of his study that
+the change came. A sudden dull fury burned in his heart. He poured
+himself out whisky and drank it neat. Then he seated himself before his
+desk and wrote. He did not once hesitate. He did not reread a single
+sentence. He dug up the anger and the bitterness from his heart and set
+them out in flaming phrases. A sort of lunacy drove him into the
+bitterest of extremes. His brain seemed fed with the inspiration of his
+suffering, fed with cruel epigrams and biting words. He dragged his
+idol down into the dust, scoffed at the piecemeal passion which measures
+its gifts, the complacency of an analysed virtue, the sense of
+well-living and self-contentment achieved in the rubric of a dry-as-dust
+morality. She had failed him, offered him stones instead of bread.--He
+signed the letter, blotted it with firm fingers, addressed the envelope,
+stamped it and dropped it himself into the pillar box at the corner of
+the street. Then he turned wearily homeward, filled with the strange,
+almost maniacal satisfaction of the man who has killed the thing he
+loves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+There followed days of sullen battle for Tallente, a battle with luck
+against him, with his back to the wall, with despair more than once
+yawning at his feet. The house in Charles Street was closed. There had
+come no word to him from Jane, no news even of her departure except the
+somewhat surprised reply of Parkins, when he had called on the following
+afternoon.
+
+"Her ladyship left for Devonshire, sir, by the ten-fifty train."
+
+Tallente went back to the fight with those words ringing in his ears.
+He had deliberately torn to pieces his house of refuge. Success or
+failure, what did it matter now? Yet with the dogged courage of one
+loathing failure for failure's own sake, he flung himself into the
+struggle.
+
+On the fifth day after Jane's departure, the thunderbolt fell.
+Tallente's article was printed in full and the weaker members of the
+Democratic Party shouted at once for his resignation. At a question
+cunningly framed by Dartrey, Tallente rose in the House to defend his
+position, and acting on the soundest axiom of military tactics, that the
+best defence is attack, he turned upon Miller, and with caustic
+deliberation exposed the plot framed for his undoing. He threw caution
+to the winds, and though repeatedly and gravely called to order, he
+poured out his scorn upon his enemy till the latter, white as a sheet,
+rose to demand the protection of the Speaker. There were very few in
+the House that day who ever forgot the almost terrifying spectacle of
+Miller's collapse under his adversary's hurricane assault, or the proud
+and dignified manner in which Tallente concluded his own defence. But
+this was only the first step. The Labour Press throughout the country
+took serious alarm at an attack which, though out of date and influenced
+by conditions no longer predominant, yet struck a very lusty blow at the
+very existence of their great nervous centres. Miller, as Chairman of
+the Associated Trades Unions, issued a manifesto which, notwithstanding
+his declining influence, exercised considerable effect. It seemed clear
+that he could rely still upon a good ninety votes in the House of
+Commons. Horlock became more cheerful. He met Tallente leaving the
+House one windy March evening and the two men shared a taxi together,
+westwards.
+
+"Looks to me like another year of office, thanks to you," the Prime
+Minister observed. "Lenton tells me that we shall have a majority of
+forty on Thursday week. It is Thursday week you're going for us again,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Many things may happen before then," Tallente replied, with a little
+affirmative nod. "Dartrey may decide that I am too expensive a luxury
+and make friends with Miller."
+
+"I don't think that's likely," Horlock pronounced. "Dartrey is a fine
+fellow, although he is not a great politician. He is out to make a
+radical and solid change in the government of this country and he knows
+very well that Miller's gang will only be a dead weight around his neck.
+He'd rather wait until he has weaned away a few more votes--even get rid
+of Miller if he can--and stick to you."
+
+"I think you are right," Tallente said. "I am keeping the Democrats
+from a present triumph, but if through me they shake themselves free
+from what I call the little Labourites, I think things will pan out
+better for them in the long run."
+
+"And in the meantime," Horlock went on, lighting a cigar and passing his
+case to Tallente, "I must give you the credit of playing a magnificent
+lone hand. I expected to see Miller fall down in a fit when you went
+for him in the House. If only his army of adherents could have heard
+that little duel, I think you'd have won straight through!"
+
+"Unfortunately they couldn't," Tallente sighed, "and it's so hard to
+capture the attention, to reach the inner understanding, of a great
+mixed community."
+
+"It's a curious thing about Englishmen," Horlock reflected, "especially
+the Englishman who has to vote. The most eloquent appeals on paper
+often leave him unmoved. A perfectly convincing pamphlet he lays down
+with the feeling that no doubt it's all right but there must be another
+side. It's the spoken words that tell, every time. What about Miller's
+election next week?"
+
+"A great deal depends upon that," Tallente replied. "Miller himself
+says that it is a certainty. On the other hand, Saunderson is going to
+be proposed, and, with Dartrey's influence, should have a pretty good
+backing."
+
+They travelled on in silence for a short time. Tallente looked idly
+through the rain-streaming window at the block of traffic, the hurrying
+passers-by, the cheerful warmth of the shops and restaurants.
+
+"You take life too seriously, Tallente," his companion said, a little
+abruptly.
+
+"Do I?" Tallente answered, with a thin smile.
+
+"You do indeed. Look at me. I haven't a line on my face as compared
+with yours and I've held together a patchwork Government for five years.
+I don't know when I may be kicked out and I know perfectly well that the
+Government which succeeds mine is going to undo all I have done and is
+going to establish a state of things in this country which I consider
+nothing short of revolutionary. I am not worrying about it, Tallente.
+The fog of Downing Street stinks sometimes in my nostrils, but I have a
+little country house--you must come and see me there some day--down in
+Buckinghamshire, one of these long, low bungalow types, you know, with
+big gardens, two tennis courts, and a golf course just across the river.
+My wife spends most of her time there now and every week-end, when I go
+down, I think what a fool I am to waste my time trying to hold a
+reluctant nation to principles they are thoroughly sick of. Tallente,
+you can turn me out whenever you like. The day I settle down for two or
+three months' rest is going to be one of the happiest of my life."
+
+"You have a wonderful temperament," Tallente remarked, a little sadly.
+
+"Temperament be damned!" was the forcible reply. "I have done my best.
+When you've said those four words, Tallente, any man ought to have
+philosophy enough to add, 'Whatever the result may be, it isn't going to
+be my funeral.' Look at you--haggard, losing weight every day, poring
+over papers, scheming, planning, writing articles, pouring out the great
+gift of your life twice as fast as you need. No one will thank you for
+it. It's quite enough to give half your soul and the joy of living to
+work for others. Keep something up your sleeve for yourself, Tallente.
+Mark you, that's the soundest thing in twentieth century philosophy
+you'll ever hear of.--Corner of Clarges Street right for you, eh?"
+
+Tallente held out his hand.
+
+"Horlock," he said, "thank you. I know you're right but unfortunately I
+am not like you. I haven't an idyllic retreat, a charming companion
+waiting for me there, a life outside that's so wonderful. I am driven
+on because there's nothing else."
+
+Horlock laid his hand upon his companion's shoulder. His tone was
+suddenly grave--amply sympathetic.
+
+"My friend--and enemy," he said. "If that is so--I'm sorry for you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+There was a tense air of expectation amongst the little company of men
+who filed into one of the smaller lecture rooms attached to Demos House
+a few afternoons later. Two long tables were arranged with sixty or
+seventy chairs and a great ballot box was placed in front of the
+chairman. A little round of subdued cheers greeted the latter as he
+entered the room and took his place,--the Right Honourable John Weavel,
+a Privy Councillor, Member for Sheffield and Chairman of the
+Ironmaster's Union. Dartrey and Tallente appeared together at the tail
+end of the procession. Miller sprang at once to his feet and addressed
+the chairman.
+
+"Mr. Chairman," he said, "I call attention to the fact that two
+honorary members of this company are present. I submit that as these
+honorary members have no vote and the present meeting is called with the
+sole object of voting a chairman for the year, honorary members be not
+admitted."
+
+Mr. Weavel shook his head.
+
+"Honorary members have the right to attend all meetings of our society,"
+he pronounced. "They can even speak, if invited to do so by the
+chairman for the day. I am sure that we are all of us very pleased
+indeed to welcome Mr. Dartrey and Mr. Tallente."
+
+There was a murmur of approval, in one or two cases a little dubious.
+Dartrey smiled a greeting at Weavel.
+
+"I have asked Mr. Tallente to accompany me," he explained, "because, in
+face of the great issues by which the party to which we all belong is
+confronted, some question might arise on to-day's proceedings which
+would render his presence advisable. He does not wish to address you.
+I, however, with the chairman's permission, before you go to the vote
+would like to say a few words."
+
+Miller again arose to his feet.
+
+"I submit, Mr. Chairman," he said arrogantly, "that when I had the
+privilege of being elected last April, no honorary member was present or
+allowed to speak."
+
+Mr. Weavel rose to his feet.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "you know what this meeting is. It is a meeting
+of fifty-seven representatives of the various trades unions of the
+country, to elect a single representative to take the chair whenever
+meetings of this company shall be necessary. This gathering does not
+exist as a society in any shape or form and we have therefore neither
+rules nor usages. Mr. Dartrey and Mr. Tallente, although they are
+honorary members, are, I am sure, welcome guests, and whatever either of
+them wishes to say to us will, I am sure, be listened to. There is no
+business. All that we have to do is to vote, to choose our leader for
+the next twelve months. There are two names put forward--Saunderson and
+Miller. It is my business only to count the votes you may record.
+Presuming that no one else wishes to speak, I shall ask Mr. Dartrey to
+say those few words."
+
+Miller sat frowning and biting his nails. Dartrey moved to the farther
+end of the room and looked down the long line of attentive faces.
+
+"Weavel," he said, "and you, my friends, I am not here to say a word in
+favour of either of the two candidates between whom you have to choose
+to-day. I am here just because you are valued members of the great
+party which before very long will be carrying upon its shoulders the
+burden of this country's government, to tell you of one measure which
+some of you know of already, which may help you to realise how important
+your to-day's choice will be. You know quite as much about politics as
+I do. You know very well that the present Government is doomed. But
+for an unfortunate difference of opinion between two of our supporters
+who are present to-day, there is not the slightest doubt that the
+Government would lose their vote of confidence to-morrow, and that in
+that case, if I still remained your chief, I should be asked to form a
+Democratic Government, a task which, when the time comes, it is my
+intention to pass on to one more skilled in Parliamentary routine. I
+want to explain to you that we consider the representative you elect
+to-day to be one of the most important personages in that Government.
+We have not issued our programme yet. When we do, we are going to make
+the country a wonderful promise. We are going to promise that there
+shall be no more strikes. That sounds a large order, perhaps, but we
+shall keep our word and we are going to end for ever this bitter
+struggle between capital and labour by welding the two into one and by
+making the interests of one the interests of the other. Our scheme is
+that the person whom you elect to-day will be chairman of an inner
+conference of twelve. We shall ask you to elect a further three from
+amongst yourselves, which will give the trades unions four
+representatives upon this inner council. Four representative Cabinet
+Ministers will be chosen by ballot to add to their number. Four
+employers of labour, elected by the Employers' Association, will also
+join the council and the whole will be presided over by the person whom
+you elect to-day. There will be a select committee, or rather
+fifty-seven select committees, of each industry always at hand, and we
+consider that we shall frame in that manner a body of men competent to
+deal with the inner workings of every industry. They will decide what
+proportion of the earnings of each industry shall be allocated to labour
+and what to capital. In other words, they will fix or approve of or
+revise the wages of the country. They will settle every dispute and
+their decision will be final. The funds held by the various trades
+unions will form charitable funds or be returned as bonuses to the
+contributors. I have given you the barest outline of the scheme which
+has been drawn up to form a part of our programme when the time comes
+for us to present one. To-day you are only concerned to elect the one
+representative. I am here to beg, gentlemen, that you elect one whose
+theories, whose principles, whose antecedents and whose general attitude
+towards labour problems will fit him to take a very important place in
+the future government of the country."
+
+There was a little murmur of applause. Miller was once more on his
+feet.
+
+"I claim," he said, "that this is neither the time nor the place to
+spring upon us an utterly new method of dealing with Labour questions.
+What you propose seems to me a subtle attack upon the trades unions
+themselves. They have been the guardians of the people for the last
+fifteen years, and even though some strikes have been necessary and
+although all strikes may not have been successful, yet on the whole the
+trades unions have done their work well. I shall not accept, in the
+event of my election, the programme which Mr. Dartrey has laid down,
+unless I am elected with a special mandate to do so."
+
+Saunderson rose to his feet, a man of different type, blunt of speech,
+rugged, the typical working-man's champion except for his voice, which
+was of unexpected tone and quality.
+
+"Mr. Weavel and the rest of you," he said, "I differ from Miller.
+That's lucky, because you can vote now not only for the man but the
+principle. I have loathed strikes all my life, just because I am
+political economist enough to loathe waste and to hate to see production
+fettered,--that is, where the fruits of the production are shared fairly
+with Labour. I like Dartrey's scheme and I am prepared to stand by it."
+
+Saunderson sat down. Dartrey and Tallente left the room while the
+business of voting went on. Dartrey had a private room of his own in
+the rear of the building and he and Tallente made their way there.
+
+"Those men have a good deal to decide," Tallente reflected. "It's queer
+how the balance of things has changed. I don't suppose any Cabinet
+Council for years has had to tackle a more important problem."
+
+"I wonder how they'll vote," Dartrey speculated. "Weavel's our man."
+
+"You can't tell," Tallente replied. "You've given them something fresh
+to think about. They may even decide not to vote to-day at all. Miller
+has some strong supporters. He appeals tremendously to a certain class
+of labour--and that class exists, you know, Dartrey--which loves the
+excitement and the loafing of a strike, which feels somehow or other
+that benefits got in any other way than by force are less than they
+ought to have been."
+
+There was a knock at the door. Northern put in his head. He was the
+Boot and Shoe representative.
+
+"Thought I'd let you know how the thing's gone," he said. "There's an
+unholy row there. They've chucked Miller. Saunderson's in by five
+votes. I'm off back again. Miller's up speaking, tearing mad."
+
+He nodded and disappeared. Dartrey held out his hand.
+
+"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "Let's clear cut, Tallente. Nora must know
+about this at once. We'll call at the House and enter your amendment
+against the vote of confidence. And then--Nora. I am not sure,
+Tallente--the man's a subtle fellow--but I rather think we've driven
+the final nail into Miller's coffin."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+The great night came and passed with fewer thrills than any one had
+imagined possible. Horlock himself undertook the defence of his once
+more bitterly assailed Government and from the first it was obvious what
+the end must be. He spoke with the resigned cynicism of one who knows
+that words are fruitless, that the die is already cast and that his
+little froth of words, valedictory in their tone from the first, was
+only a tribute to exacting convention. Tallente had never been more
+restrained, although his merciless logic reduced the issues upon which
+the vote was to be taken to the plainest and clearest elements. He
+remained studiously unemotional and nothing which he said indicated in
+any way his personal interest in the sweeping away of the Horlock
+regime. He was the impersonal but scathing critic, paving the way for
+his chief. It was Dartrey himself who overshadowed every one that
+night. He spoke so seldom in the House that many of the members had
+forgotten that he was an orator of rare quality. That night he lifted
+the debate from the level of ordinary politics to the idyllic realms
+where alone the lasting good of the world is fashioned. He pointed out
+what government might and should be, taking almost a Roman view of the
+care of the citizen, his early and late education, his shouldering of
+the responsibilities which belong to one of a great community. From the
+individual he passed to the nation, sketching in a few nervous but
+brilliant phrases the exact possibilities of socialistic legislation;
+and he wound up with a parodied epigram: Government, he declared, was
+philosophy teaching by failures. In the end, Miller led fourteen of his
+once numerous followers into the Government lobby to find himself by
+forty votes upon the losing side.
+
+Horlock found Tallente once more slipping quietly away from the House
+and bundled him into his car. They drove off rapidly. "So it's
+Buckinghamshire for me," the former observed, not without jubilation.
+"After all, it has been rather a tame finale. We were beaten before we
+opened our mouths."
+
+"Even your new adherent," Tallente said, smiling, "could not save you."
+
+Horlock made a grimace.
+
+"You can have Miller and his faithful fourteen," he declared. "We don't
+want him. The man was a Little Englander, he has become a Little
+Labourite. Heaven knows where he'll end! Are you going to be Prime
+Minister, Tallente?"
+
+"I don't know," was the quiet reply. "Just for the moment I am weary of
+it all. Day after day, fighting and scheming, speaking and writing,
+just to get you fellows out. And now we've got you out, well, I don't
+know that we are going to do any better. We've got the principles,
+we've got some of the men, but is the country ready for our programme!"
+
+"If you ask me, I think the country's ready for anything in the way of a
+change," Horlock replied. "I am sure I am. I have been Prime Minister
+before, but I've never in my life had such an army of incompetents at
+the back of me. Take my tip, Tallente. Don't you have a Chancellor of
+the Exchequer who refuses to take a bit off the income tax every year."
+
+"We shall abolish the income tax before long," Tallente declared.
+
+"I shall invest my money in America," Horlock observed, "my savings,
+that is. Where shall I put you down?"
+
+"In Chelsea, if you would," Tallente begged. "We are only just turning
+off the Embankment. I want to see Mrs. Dartrey."
+
+Horlock gave an order through the tube.
+
+"I am going down to Belgrave Square," he said, "then I am going back to
+Downing Street for to-night. To-morrow a dutiful journey to Buckingham
+Palace, Saturday a long week-end. I shall take out a season ticket to
+Buckinghamshire now. You're not going to nationalise the railways--or
+are you, Tallente; what about season tickets then?"
+
+"Nationalisation is badly defined," Tallente replied. "The Government
+will certainly aim at regulating the profits of all public companies and
+applying a portion of them to the reduction of taxation."
+
+"Well, good luck to you!" Horlock said heartily, as the car pulled up
+outside Dartrey's little house. "Here's just a word of advice from an
+old campaigner. You're going to tap the people's pockets, that's what
+you are going to do, Tallente, and I tell you this, and you'll find it's
+the truth--principles or no principles, your own party or any one
+else's--the moment you touch the pockets of any class of the community,
+from the aristocrat to the stone-breaker, they'll be up against you like
+a hurricane. Every one in the world hugs their principles, but there
+isn't any one who'd hold on to them if they found it was costing them
+money.--So long, and the best of luck to you, Tallente. We may meet in
+high circles before long."
+
+Horlock drove away, a discomfited man, jubilant in his thoughts of
+freedom. Tallente was met by Nora in the little hall--Nora, who had
+kept away from the house at Stephen's earnest request.
+
+"Stephen has done it," Tallente announced triumphantly. "He made the
+only speech worth listening to. Horlock crumbled to pieces. Miller
+only got fourteen of the ragtail end of his lot to vote with him. We
+won by forty votes. Horlock brought me here. He is to have a formal
+meeting of the party. He'll offer his resignation on Thursday."
+
+"It's wonderful!" Nora exclaimed.
+
+"Stephen will be sent for," Tallente went on. "That, of course, is a
+foregone conclusion. Nora, I wish you'd make him see that it's his duty
+to form a Government. There isn't any reason why he should pass it on
+to me. I can lead in the Commons if he wants me to, so far as the
+debates are concerned. We are altering the procedure, as I dare say you
+know. Half the government of the country will be done by committees."
+
+"It's no use," Nora replied. "Stephen simply wouldn't do it. You must
+remember what you yourself said--procedure will be altered. So much of
+the government of the country will be done outside the House. Stephen
+has everything mapped out. You are going to be Prime Minister."
+
+Tallente left early and walked homeward by the least frequented ways. A
+soft rain was falling, but the night was warm and a misty moon made
+fitful appearances. The rain fell like little drops of silver around
+the lampposts. There was scarcely a breath of wind and in Curzon Street
+the air was almost faint with the odour of spring bulbs from the window
+boxes. Tallente yielded to an uncontrollable impulse. He walked rather
+abruptly up Clarges Street, past his rooms, and paid a curious little
+visit, almost a pilgrimage, to the closed house in Charles Street. It
+seemed to him that those drawn blinds, the dead-looking windows, the
+smokeless chimneys typified in melancholy fashion the empty chambers in
+his own heart. Weeks had passed now and no word had come from Jane. He
+pictured her still smarting under the sting of his brutal words. Some
+of his phrases came back to his mind and he shivered with remorse. If
+only--He started. It seemed for a moment as though history were about
+to repeat itself. A great limousine had stolen up to the kerbstone and
+a woman in evening dress was leaning out.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she called out, "do come and speak to me, please."
+
+Tallente approached at once. In the dim light his heart gave a little
+throb. He peered forward. The woman laughed musically. "I do believe
+that you have forgotten me," she said, "I am Alice Mountgarron--Jane's
+sister. I saw you there and I couldn't help stopping for a moment. Can
+I drop you anywhere?"
+
+"Thank you so much," he answered. "My rooms are quite close by here in
+Clarges Street."
+
+"Get in, please, and I will take you there," she ordered. "Tell the man
+the number. I want just one word with you."
+
+The car started off. Lady Alice looked at her companion and shook her
+head.
+
+"Mr. Tallente," she said, "I am very much a woman of the world and Jane
+is a very much stronger person than I am, in some things, and a great
+baby in others. You and she were such friends and I have an idea that
+there was a misunderstanding."
+
+"There was," he groaned. "It was my fault."
+
+"Never mind whose fault it was," she went on. "You two were made for
+each other. You have so much in common. Don't drift apart altogether,
+just because one has expected too much, or the other been content to
+give too little. Jane has a great soul and a great heart. She wants to
+give but she doesn't quite know how. And perhaps there isn't any way.
+But two people whose lives seem to radiate towards each other, as yours
+and hers, shouldn't remain wholly apart. Take a day or two's holiday
+soon, even from this great work of yours, and go down to Devonshire. It
+would be very dangerous advice," she went on, smiling, "to a different
+sort of man, but I have a fancy that to you it may mean something, and I
+happen to know--that Jane is miserable."
+
+The car stopped. Tallente held Lady Alice's hand as he had seldom held
+the hand of a woman in his life. A curious incapacity for speech
+checked the words even upon his lips.
+
+"Thank you," he faltered.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Upon the moor above Martinhoe and the farm lands adjoining, spring had
+fallen that year as gently as the warm rain of April. Tallente,
+conscious of an unexpected lassitude, paused as he reached the top of
+the zigzag climb from the Manor and rested for a moment upon a block of
+stone. Below him, the forests of dwarf oaks which stretched down to the
+sea were tipped with delicate green. The meadows were like deep soft
+patches of emerald verdure; the fruit trees in his small walled garden
+were pink and white with blossoms. The sea was peaceful as an azure
+lake into which the hulls of the passing steamers cut like knives,
+leaving behind a long line of lazy foam. Little fleecy balls of cloud
+were dotted across the sky, puffs of soft wind cooled his cheeks when he
+rose to his feet and faced inland.
+
+Soon he left the stony road and walked upon the springy turf bordering
+the moorland. Little curled-up shoots of light green were springing
+from the bracken. Here and there, a flame of gorse filled the air with
+its faint, almond-like blossom. And the birds! Farmlands stretched
+away on his left-hand side, and above the tender growth of corn, larks
+invisible but multifarious filled the air with little quiverings of
+melody. Bleatng lambs, ridiculously young, tottered around on this
+new-found, wonderful earth. A pair of partridges scurried away from his
+feet; the end of a drooping cloud splashed his face with a few warm
+raindrops.
+
+Tallente, as he swung onwards, carrying his cap in his hand, felt a
+great glow of thankfulness for the impulse which had brought him here.
+Already he was finding himself. The tangled emotions of the last week
+were loosening their grip upon his brain and consciousness. Behind him
+London was in an uproar, his name and future the theme of every journal.
+Journalists were besieging his rooms. Embryo statesmen were telephoning
+for appointments. Great men sent their secretaries to suggest a
+meeting. And in the midst of it all he had disappeared. The truth as
+to his sudden absence from town was unknown even to Dartrey. At the
+very moment when his figure loomed large and triumphant upon one of the
+great canvasses in history, he had simply slipped away, a disappearance
+as dramatic as it was opportune. And all because he had a fancy to see
+how spring sat upon the moors,--and because he had walked back to his
+rooms by way of Charles Street and because he had met Lady Alice.
+
+The last ascent was finished and below him lay the house and climbing
+woods,--woods that crept into the bosom of the hills, the closely
+growing trees tipped with tender greens melting into the softest of
+indeterminate greys as the breeze rippled through their tops like
+fingers across a harp. The darker line of moorland in the background,
+scant as ever of herbiage, had yet lost its menacing bareness and seemed
+touched with the faint colour of the earth beneath, almost pink in the
+generous sunshine. The avenue into which he presently turned was
+starred on either side with a riot of primroses, running wild into the
+brambles, with here and there a belt of bluebells. The atmosphere
+beneath the closely growing trees--limes, with great waxy buds--became
+enervating with spring odours and a momentary breathlessness came to
+Tallente, fresh from his crowded days and nights of battle. The
+sun-warmed wave of perfume from the trim beds of hyacinths in the
+suddenly disclosed garden was almost overpowering and he passed like a
+man in a dream through their sweetness to the front door. The butler
+who admitted him conducted him at once to Jane's sanctum. Without any
+warning he was ushered in.
+
+"Mr. Tallente, your ladyship."
+
+He had a strange impression of her as she rose from a very sea of
+newspapers. She was thinner--he was sure of that--dressed in indoor
+clothes although it was the middle of the morning, a suggestion of the
+invalid about her easy-chair and her tired eyes. It seemed to him that
+for a moment they were lit with a gleam of fear which passed almost
+instantaneously. She had recovered herself even before the door was
+closed behind the departing servant.
+
+"Mr. Tallente!" she repeated. "You! But how is this possible?"
+
+"Everything is possible," he answered. "I have come to see you, Jane."
+
+She was glad but amazed. Even when he had obeyed her involuntary
+gesture and seated himself by her side, there was something incredulous
+about her expression.
+
+"But what does it mean that you are here just now?" she persisted.
+"According to the newspapers you should be at Buckingham Palace to-day."
+
+"To-morrow," he corrected her. "I hired a very powerful car and motored
+down yesterday afternoon. I am starting back when the moon rises
+to-night. For these few hours I am better out of London."
+
+"But why--" she faltered.
+
+He was slowly finding himself.
+
+"I came for you, Jane," he said, "on any terms--anyhow. I came to beg
+for your sympathy, for some measure of your affection, to beg you to
+come back to Charles Street. Is it too late for me to abase myself?"
+
+Her eyes glowed across at him. She suddenly rose, came over and knelt
+by the side of his chair. Her arms went around his neck.
+
+"Andrew," she whispered, "I have been ashamed. I was wrong. That
+night--the thought of my pettiness--my foolish, selfish fears.--Oh, I
+was wrong! I have prayed that the time might come when I could tell
+you. And if you hadn't come, I never could have told you. I couldn't
+have written. I couldn't have come to London. But I wanted you to
+know."
+
+She drew his head down and kissed him upon the lips. Tallente knew then
+why he had come. The whole orchestra of life was playing again. He was
+strong enough to overcome mountains.
+
+"Andrew," she faltered, "you really--"
+
+He stopped her.
+
+"Jane," he said, "I have some stupid news. It seems to me incredibly
+stupid. Let me pass it on to you quickly. You knew, didn't you, that I
+was married in America? Well, my wife has divorced me there. We
+married in a State where such things are possible."
+
+"Divorced you?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Quite legally," he went on. "I saw a lawyer before I started yesterday
+morning. But listen to the rest of it. Stella is married--married to
+the man I thought I had thrown over the cliff. She is married to
+Anthony Palliser."
+
+"Then you are free?" Jane murmured, drawing a little away. "Not in the
+least," he replied. "I am engaged to marry you."
+
+At luncheon, with Parkins in attendance, it became possible for them to
+converse coherently.
+
+"When I found you at home in the middle of the morning," he said, "I was
+afraid that you were Ill."
+
+"I haven't been well," she admitted. "I rode some distance yesterday
+and it fatigued me. Somehow or other, I think I have had the feeling,
+the last few weeks, that my work here is over. All my farms are sold.
+I have really now no means of occupying my time."
+
+"It is fortunate," he told her, with a smile, "that I am able to point
+out to you a new sphere of usefulness."
+
+She made a little grimace at him behind Parkins' august back.
+
+"Tell me," she asked, "how did you ever make your peace with the trades
+unions after that terrible article of yours?"
+
+"Because," he replied, "except for Miller, their late chief, there are a
+great many highly intelligent men connected with the administration of
+the trades unions. They realised the spirit in which I wrote that
+article and the condition of the country at the time I wrote it. My
+apologia was accepted by every one who counted. The publication of that
+article," he went on, "was Miller's scheme to drive me out of politics.
+It has turned out to be the greatest godsend ever vouchsafed to our
+cause, for it is going to put Mr. Miller out of the power of doing
+mischief for a--many years to come."
+
+"How I hated him when he called here that day! Jane murmured
+reminiscently."
+
+"Miller is the type of man," Tallente declared, "who was always putting
+the Labour Party in a false position. He was born and he has lived and
+he has thought parochially. He is all the time lashing himself into a
+fury over imagined wrongs and wanting to play the little tin god on
+Olympus with his threatened strikes. Now there will be no more
+strikes."
+
+"I was reading about that," she reflected. "How wonderful it sounds!"
+
+"The greatest power in the country," Tallente explained, "is that
+wielded by these trades unions. There will be no more fights between
+the Government and them, because they are coaling into the Government.
+I am afraid you will think our programme revolutionary. On the other
+hand, it is going to be a Government of justice. We want to give the
+people their due, each man according to his worth. By that means we
+wipe out all fear forever of the scourge of eastern and mid-Europe, the
+bolshevism and anarchy which have laid great empires bare. We are not
+going to make the poor add to the riches of the rich, but on the other
+hand we are not going to take from the rich to give to the poor. The
+sociological scheme upon which our plan of government will be based is
+to open every avenue to success equally to rich and poor. The human
+being must sink or swim, according to his capacity. Ours will never be
+a State-aided socialism."
+
+Parkins had left the room. She held out her hand.
+
+"How horrid of you!" she murmured. "You are gibing at me because I lent
+my farmers a little money." He laughed softly.
+
+"You dear!" he exclaimed. "On my honour, it never entered into my head.
+Only I want to bring you gradually into the new way of thinking, because
+I want so much from you so much help and sympathy."
+
+"And?" she pleaded.
+
+He looked around to be sure that Parkins was gone and, leaning from his
+place, kissed her.
+
+"If you care for moonlight motoring," he whispered, "I think I can give
+you quite a clear outline of all that I expect from you."
+
+She drew a little sigh of relief.
+
+"If you had left me behind," she murmured, "I should have sat here and
+imagined that it was all a dream. And I am just a little weary of
+dreams."
+
+
+
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