ey come back. Shall we move? I'm going over
there to listen to that talk. But--first--come and see me whenever you
like--3 to 4.30, Brown's Buildings, Maine Street--and tell me how this
goes on?"

She spoke with a careless lightness, laughing at him with a half
sisterly freedom. She had risen from her seat, and he, whose thoughts
had been wrapped up for months in one of the smallest of the sex, was
suddenly struck with her height and stately gesture as she moved away
from him.

"By Jove! Why didn't she stick to Aldous," he said to himself
discontentedly as his eyes followed her. "It was only her cranks, and of
course she'll get rid of _them_. Just like my luck!"

* * * * *

Meanwhile Marcella took a seat next to Miss Hallin, who looked up from
her knitting to smile at her. The girl fell into the attitude of
listening; but for some minutes she was not listening at all. She was
reflecting how little men knew of each other!--even the most intimate
friends--and trying to imagine what Aldous Raeburn would be like,
married to such a charmer as Frank had sketched. His friendship for her
meant, of course, the attraction of contraries--one of the most
promising of all possible beginnings. On the whole, she thought Frank's
chances were poor.

Then, unexpectedly, her ear was caught by Wharton's name, and she
discovered that what was going on beside her was a passionate discussion
of his present position and prospects in the Labour party--a discussion,
however, mainly confined to Wilkins and the two workmen. Bennett had the
air of the shrewd and kindly spectator who has his own reasons for
treating a situation with reserve; and Hallin was lying back in his
chair flushed and worn out. The previous debate, which had now merged in
these questions of men and personalities, had made him miserable; he had
no heart for anything more. Miss Hallin observed him anxiously, and
made restless movements now and then, as though she had it in her mind
to send all her guests away.

The two Socialist workmen were talking strongly in favour of an
organised and distinct Labour party, and of Wharton's leadership. They
referred constantly to Parnell, and what he had clone for "those Irish
fellows." The only way to make Labour formidable in the House was to
learn the lesson of Unionism and of Parnellism, to act together and
strike together, to make of the party a "two-handed engine," ready to
smite Tory and Liberal