?"

She did not speak.

"In the first place," he said, laughing, "as to my speech, do you
suppose that I believe in that Bill which I described just now?"

"I don't know," she said indignantly, once more playing with the stones
on the wall. "It sounded like it."

"That is my gift--my little _carillon_, as Renan would say. But do you
imagine I want you or any one else to tell me that we shan't get such a
Bill for generations? Of course we shan't!"

"Then why do you make farcical speeches, bamboozling your friends and
misleading the House of Commons?"

He saw the old storm-signs with glee--the lightning in the eye, the rose
on the cheek. She was never so beautiful as when she was angry.

"Because, my dear lady--_we must generate our force_. Steam must be got
up--I am engaged in doing it. We shan't get a compulsory eight hours'
day for all trades--but in the course of the agitation for that precious
illusion, and by the help of a great deal of beating of tom-toms, and
gathering of clans, we shall get a great many other things by the way
that we _do_ want. Hearten your friends, and frighten your
enemies--there is no other way of scoring in politics--and the
particular score doesn't matter. Now don't look at me as if you would
like to impeach me!--or I shall turn the tables. _I_ am still fighting
for my illusions in my own way--_you_, it seems, have given up yours!"

But for once he had underrated her sense of humour. She broke into a low
merry laugh which a little disconcerted him.

"You mock me?" he said quickly--"think me insincere,
unscrupulous?--Well, I dare say! But you have no right to mock me. Last
year, again and again, you promised me guerdon. Now it has come to
paying--and I claim!"

His low distinct voice in her ear had a magnetising effect upon her. She
slowly turned her face to him, overcome by--yet fighting
against--memory. If she had seen in him the smallest sign of reference
to that scene she hated to think of, he would have probably lost this
hold upon her on the spot. But his tact was perfect. She saw nothing but
a look of dignity and friendship, which brought upon her with a rush all
those tragic things they had shared and fought through, purifying things
of pity and fear, which had so often seemed to her the atonement for,
the washing away of that old baseness.

He saw her face tremble a little. Then she said proudly--

"I promised to be grateful. So I am."

"No, no!" he said, still in th