r own, and when that fell through, he advised
them to abstain from voting. And they must have done so--in several
villages. That's pulled down the majority."

"Abominable!" said Bobbie, who was comfortably conservative. "I always
said that man was a firebrand."

"I don't know what he expects to get by it," said Lady Lucy, slowly, as
she moved toward the door. Her tone was curiously helpless; she was
still stately, but it was a ghostly and pallid stateliness.

"Get by it!" sneered Lady Niton. "After all, his friends are in. They
say he's eloquent. His jackasseries will get him a bishopric in
time--you'll see."

"It was the unkindness--the ill-feeling--I minded," said Lady Lucy, in a
low voice, leaning heavily upon her stick, and looking straight before
her as though she inwardly recalled some of the incidents of the
election. "I never knew anything like it before."

Lady Niton lifted her eyebrows--not finding a suitable response. Did
Lucy really not understand what was the matter?--that her beloved Oliver
had earned the reputation throughout the division of a man who can
propose to a charming girl, and then desert her for money, at the moment
when the tragic blow of her life had fallen upon her?--and she, that of
the mercenary mother who had forced him into it. Precious lucky for
Oliver to have got in at all!

The door closed on Lady Lucy. Forgetting for an instant what had
happened before her hostess entered, Elizabeth Niton, bristling with
remarks, turned impetuously toward Forbes. He had gone back to first
editions, and was whistling vigorously as he worked. With a start, Lady
Niton recollected herself. Her face reddened afresh; she rose, walked
with as much majesty as her station admitted to the door, which she
closed sharply behind her.

As soon as she was gone Bobbie stopped whistling. If she was really
going to make a quarrel of it, it would certainly be a great bore--a
hideous bore. His conscience pricked him for the mean and unmanly
dependence which had given the capricious and masterful little woman so
much to say in his affairs. He must really find fresh work, pay his
debts, those to Lady Niton first and foremost, and marry the girl who
would make a decent fellow of him. But his heart smote him about his
queer old Fairy Blackstick. No surrender!--but he would like to
make peace.

* * * * *

It was past eight o'clock when the four-in-hand on which the new member
had be