. He was Sir Isaac's best man, and the new
knight entertained a feeling of something very like admiration for him.
Moreover, Mr. Charterson had very large ears, more particularly was the
left one large, extraordinarily large and projecting upper teeth, which
he sought vainly to hide beneath an extravagant moustache, and a harsh
voice, characteristics that did much to allay the anxieties natural to a
newly married man. Mr. Charterson was moreover adequately married to a
large, attentive, enterprising, swarthy wife, and possessed a splendid
house in Belgravia. Not quite so self-made as Sir Isaac, he was still
sufficiently self-made to take a very keen interest in his own social
advancement and in social advancement generally, and it was through him
that Sir Isaac's attention had been first directed to those developing
relations with politics that arise as a business grows to greatness.
"I'm for Parliament," said Charterson. "Sugar's in politics, and I'm
after it. You'd better come too, Harman. Those chaps up there, they'll
play jiggery-pokery with sugar if we aren't careful. And it won't be
only sugar, Harman!"

Pressed to expand this latter sentence, he pointed out to his friend
that "any amount of interfering with employment" was in the air--"any
amount."

"And besides," said Mr. Charterson, "men like us have a stake in the
country, Harman. We're getting biggish people. We ought to do our
share. I don't see the fun of leaving everything to the landlords and
the lawyers. Men of our sort have got to make ourselves felt. We want a
business government. Of course--one pays. So long as I get a voice in
calling the tune I don't mind paying the piper a bit. There's going to
be a lot of interference with trade. All this social legislation. And
there's what you were saying the other day about these leases...."

"I'm not much of a talker," said Harman. "I don't see myself gassing in
the House."

"Oh! I don't mean going into Parliament," said Charterson. "That's for
some of us, perhaps.... But come into the party, make yourself felt."

Under Charterson's stimulation it was that Harman joined the National
Liberal Club, and presently went on to the Climax, and through him he
came to know something of that inner traffic of arrangements and
bargains which does so much to keep a great historical party together
and maintain its vitality. For a time he was largely overshadowed by the
sturdy Radicalism of Charterson, but presently as