s of the obviously surprised gentleman in front of
him.

'My agent!' Stonor had echoed with faint incredulity.

He took the telegram. '"Try find Stonor,"' he read. 'H'm! H'm!' His eyes
ran on.

Farnborough looked first at the expressionless face, and then at the
message.

'You see!'--he glanced over Stonor's shoulder--'"tremendous effect of
last night's Liberal manifesto ought to be counteracted in to-morrow's
papers."' Then withdrawing a couple of paces, he said very earnestly,
'You see, Mr. Stonor, it's a battle-cry we want.'

'Clap-trap,' said the great man, throwing the telegram down on the
table.

'Well,' said Farnborough, distinctly dashed, 'they've been saying we
have nothing to offer but personal popularity. No practical reform,
no----'

'No truckling to the masses, I suppose.'

Poor Farnborough bit his lip. 'Well, in these democratic days, you're
obliged (I should _think_), to consider----' In his baulked and snubbed
condition he turned to Miss Dunbarton for countenance. 'I hope you'll
forgive my bursting in like this, but'--he gathered courage as he caught
a glimpse of her averted face--'I can see you realize the gravity of the
situation.' He found her in the embrasure of the window, and went on
with an air of speaking for her ear alone. 'My excuse for being so
officious--you see it isn't as if he were going to be a mere private
member. Everybody knows he'll be in the Cabinet.'

'It may be a Liberal Cabinet,' came from Stonor at his dryest.

Farnborough leapt back into the fray. 'Nobody thought so up to last
night. Why, even your brother----' he brought up short. 'But I'm afraid
I'm really seeming rather _too_----' He took up his hat.

'What about my brother?'

'Oh, only that I went from your house to the club, you know--and I met
Lord Windlesham as I rushed up the Carlton steps.'

'Well?'

'I told him the Dutfield news.'

Stonor turned sharply round. His face was much more interested than any
of his words had been.

As though in the silence, Stonor had asked a question, Farnborough
produced the answer.

'Your brother said it only confirmed his fears.'

'Said that, did he?' Stonor spoke half under his breath.

'Yes. Defeat is inevitable, he thinks, unless----' Farnborough waited,
intently watching the big figure that had begun pacing back and forth.
It paused, but no word came, even the eyes were not raised.

'Unless,' Farnborough went on, 'you can manufacture some political
dynamit