chain.

Lord Faramond replied:

"And why the chain?" He followed this up by saying: "It is but a case of
playing lion-tamer down there. Have one little gift all your own,
know when to impose it, and you have the pleasure of feeling that your
fingers move a great machine, the greatest in the world--yes the very
greatest. There is Little Grapnel just vacant: the faithful Glynn is
gone. Come: if you will, I'll send my secretary to-morrow morning-eh?"

"You are not afraid of the buffalo, sir?"

Lord Faramond's fingers touched his arm, drummed it "My greatest
need--one to roar as gently as the sucking-dove."

"But what if I, not knowing the rules of the game, should think myself
on the corner of the veldt or in an Indian's tepee, and hit out?"

"You do not carry derringers?"

He smiled. "No; but--"

He glanced down at his arms.

"Well, well; that will come one day, perhaps!" Lord Faramond paused,
abstracted, then added: "But not through you. Good-bye, then, good-bye.
Little Grapnel in ten days!"

And it was so. Little Grapnel was Conservative. It was mostly a matter
of nomination, and in two weeks Gaston, in a kind of dream, went down
to Westminster, lunched with Lord Faramond, and was introduced to
the House. The Ladies Gallery was full, for the matter was in all the
papers, and a pretty sensation had been worked up one way and another.

That night, after dinner, Gaston rose to make his maiden speech on a
bill dealing with an imminent social question. He was not an amateur.
Time upon time he had addressed gatherings in the North, and had once
stood at the bar of the Canadian Commons to plead the cause of the
half-breeds. He was pale, but firm, and looked striking. His eyes went
slowly round the House, and he began in a low, clear, deliberate voice,
which got attention at once. The first sentence was, however, a surprise
to every one, and not the least to his own party, excepting Lord
Faramond. He disclaimed detailed and accurate knowledge of the subject.
He said this with an honesty which took away the breath of the House. In
a quiet, easy tone he then referred to what had been previously said in
the debate.

The first thing he did was to crumble away with a regretful kind of
superiority the arguments of two Conservative speakers, to the sudden
amusement of the Opposition, who presently cheered him. He looked up as
though a little surprised, waited patiently, and went on. The iconoclasm
proceeded. He had one