d to believe that he had forgotten
it--which, indeed, was the case.

"I want to say," he continued, "that although I have known
and--ahem--admired you for many years, Victoria, what has struck me most
forcibly in your favour has been your open-mindedness--especially on the
great political questions this summer. I have no idea how much you know
about them, but one would naturally have expected you, on account of
your father, to be prejudiced. Sometime, when I have more leisure, I
shall go into them, fully with you. And in the meantime I'll have my
secretary send you the complete list of my speeches up to date, and I
know you will read them carefully."

"You are very kind, Humphrey," she said.

Absorbed in the presentation of his subject (which chanced to be
himself), Mr. Crewe did not observe that her lips were parted, and that
there were little creases around her eyes.

"And sometime," said Mr. Crewe, "when all this has blown over a little,
I shall have a talk with your father. He undoubtedly understands that
there is scarcely any question of my election. He probably realizes,
too, that he has been in the--wrong, and that railroad domination must
cease--he has already made several concessions, as you know. I wish you
would tell him from me that when I am governor, I shall make it a point
to discuss the whole matter with him, and that he will find in me no foe
of corporations. Justice is what I stand for. Temperamentally, I am too
conservative, I am too much of a business man, to tamper with vested
interests."

"I will tell him, Humphrey," said Victoria.

Mr. Crewe coughed, and looked at his watch once, more. "And now, having
made that clear," he said, "and having only a quarter of an hour before
I have to leave to keep an appointment, I am going to take up another
subject. And I ask you to believe it is not done lightly, or without due
consideration, but as the result of some years of thought."

Victoria turned to him seriously--and yet the creases were still around
her eyes.

"I can well believe it, Humphrey," she answered. "But--have you time?"

"Yes," he said, "I have learned the value of minutes."

"But not of hours, perhaps," she replied.

"That," said Mr. Crewe, indulgently, "is a woman's point of view. A man
cannot dally through life, and your kind of woman has no use for a man
who dallies. First, I will give you my idea of a woman."

"I am all attention," said Victoria.

"Well," said Mr. Crewe, p