e a share if only he knew why all the great visions have never
yet been more than dreams. That this man should think foundations can be
well and truly laid when the best of one half the race are "only
happiness, dear!"' She turned on the threshold. '_Whose_ happiness?'

CHAPTER XIV

The fall of the Liberal Ministry was said by the simple-minded to have
come as a bolt from the blue. Certainly into the subsequent General
Election were entering elements but little foreseen.

Nevertheless, the last two bye-elections before the crash had resulted
in the defeat of the Liberal candidate not by the Tory antagonist, but
in one case by the nominee of the Labour party, in the other by an
independent Socialist. Both these men had publicly thanked the
Suffragettes for their notable share in piling up those triumphant and
highly significant majorities. Now the country was facing an election
where, for the first time in the history of any great nation, women were
playing a part that even their political enemies could hardly with easy
minds call subordinate.

Only faint echoes of the din penetrated the spacious quiet of Ulland
House. Although the frequent week-end party was there, the great hall on
this particular morning presented a deserted appearance as the tall
clock by the staircase chimed the hour of noon. The insistence of the
ancient timepiece seemed to have set up a rival in destruction of the
Sunday peace, for no sooner had the twelfth stroke died than a bell
began to ring. The little door in the wainscot beyond the clock was
opened. An elderly butler put his head round the huge screen of Spanish
leather that masked the very existence of the modest means of
communication with the quarters of the Ulland domestics. So little was a
ring at the front door expected at this hour that Sutton was still
slowly getting into the left sleeve of his coat when his mistress
appeared from the garden by way of the French window. The old butler
withdrew a discreet instant behind the screen to put the last touches to
his toilet, but Lady John had seen that he was there.

'Has Miss Levering gone for a walk?' she inquired of the servant.

'I don't know, m'lady.'

'She's not in the garden. Do you think she's not down yet?'

'I haven't seen her, m'lady,' said Sutton, emerging from his retirement
and approaching the wide staircase on his way to answer the front-door
bell.

'Never mind'--his mistress went briskly over to a wide-wing