ake that
splendid. Perhaps he'll come to the politics in time."

"He's made you believe in him anyhow."

"Yes, and I know I don't count. All the same I've seen a good deal of
him. Mr Neeld and I have been in it right from the beginning."

"And in the end it was all a mare's nest. Fancy if Addie Tristram had
known that!"

"I think she liked it just as well as she thought it was. And I'm sure
Harry did."

"Oh, if he's like that, he'll never do for the British public, my dear.
He may get their money but he won't get their votes. After all, would
you have the country governed by Addie Tristram's son?"

"I suppose it would be rather risky," said the Imp reluctantly. But she
cheered up directly on the strength of an obvious thought. "There are
much more interesting things than politics," she said.

"And how is Cecily?" asked Lady Evenswood.

"Oh, she's just adorable--and Mrs Iver's got her a very good
housekeeper."

The old lady laughed as she turned to welcome Lord Southend.

"I've just met Disney," he remarked. "He doesn't seem to mind being
out."

"Oh, he'll be back before long, and without his incumbrances. And
Flora's delighted to get a winter abroad. It couldn't have happened more
conveniently, she says."

"He told me to tell you that he thought your young friend--he meant
Harry Tristram--was lost forever now."

"What a shame!" cried Mina indignantly.

"Just like Robert! He never could understand that a man has a history
just as a country has. He is and ought to be part of his family."

"No sense of historical continuity," nodded Southend. "I agree, and
that's just why, though I admire Disney enormously, I----"

"Generally vote against him on critical occasions? Yes, Robert makes so
many admirers like that."

"Is his work at Blinkhampton nothing?" demanded Mina.

"He got in for that while he was dispossessed," smiled Southend. "I say,
thank heaven he wouldn't have the viscounty!"

"That would have been deplorable," agreed Lady Evenswood.

"It's all a very curious little episode."

"Yes. No more than that."

"Yes, it is more," cried Mina. "Without it he'd never have married
Cecily."

"Romance, Madame Zabriska, romance!" Southend shook his head at her
severely.

Mina flinched a little under the opprobrium of the word. Yet why? In
these days we have come to recognize--indeed there has been small choice
in the matter, unless a man would throw away books and wear cotton-wool
in his ears--that