'No,' he said curtly. 'My place was nearer than this and she was tired.
I left her to get some tea. We couldn't tell whether you'd be here, or
_what_ had become of you!'

'Mr. Trent got us a hansom.'

'Trent?'

'The chairman of the meeting.'

'Got us----?'

'Miss Levering and me.'

Stonor's incensed face turned almost brick colour as he repeated, '_Miss
Lev_----!'

Before he got the name out, the folding doors had opened again, and the
butler was saying, 'Mr. Farnborough.'

That young gentleman was far too anxious and flurried himself, to have
sufficient detachment of mind to consider the moods of other people. 'At
last!' he said, stopping short as soon as he caught sight of Stonor.

'Don't speak loud, please,' said Miss Dunbarton; 'some one is resting in
the next room.'

'Oh, did you find your grandfather worse?'--but he never waited to
learn. 'You'll forgive the incursion when you hear'--he turned abruptly
to Stonor again. 'They've been telegraphing you all over London,' he
said, putting his hat down in the nearest chair. 'In sheer despair they
set me on your track.'

'Who did?'

Farnborough was fumbling agitatedly in his breast-pocket. 'There was the
devil to pay at Dutfield last night. The Liberal chap tore down from
London, and took over your meeting.'

'Oh? Nothing about it in the Sunday paper I saw.'

'Wait till you see the press to-morrow! There was a great rally, and the
beggar made a rousing speech.'

'What about?'

'Abolition of the Upper House.'

'They were at that when I was at Eton.' Stonor turned on his heel.

'Yes, but this man has got a way of putting things--the people went
mad.'

It was all very well for a mere girl to be staring indifferently out of
the window, while a great historic party was steering straight for
shipwreck; but it really was too much to see this man who ought to be
taking the situation with the seriousness it deserved, strolling about
the room with that abstracted air, looking superciliously at Mr.
Dunbarton's examples of the Glasgow school. Farnborough balanced himself
on wide-apart legs and thrust one hand in his trousers' pocket. The
other hand held a telegram. 'The Liberal platform as defined at Dutfield
is going to make a big difference,' he pronounced.

'You think so,' said Stonor, dryly.

'Well, your agent says as much.' He pulled off the orange-brown
envelope, threw it and the reply-paid form on the table, and held the
message under the eye