father's room.
Maggie's door was closed. Darius was already in bed, but the gas was
blazing at full.

"You've forgotten the gas," he said lightly and pleasantly, and turned
it down to a blue point.

"I say, lad," the old man stopped him, as he was finally leaving.

"Yes?"

"What about that Home Rule?"

The voice was weak, infantile. Edwin hesitated. The "Signal" made a
patch of white on the ottoman.

"Oh!" he answered soothingly, and yet with condescension, "it's much
about what everybody expected. Better leave that till to-morrow."

He shut the door. The landing received light through the open door of
his bedroom and from the hall below. He went downstairs, bolted the
front door, and extinguished the hall gas. Then he came softly up, and
listened at his father's door. Not a sound! He entered his own room
and began to undress, and then, half clothed, crept back to his father's
door. Now he could hear a heavy, irregular snoring.

"Devilish odd, all this!" he reflected, as he got into bed. Assuredly
he had disconcerting thoughts, not all unpleasant. His excitement had
even an agreeable, zestful quality.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER TWO.

THE CONCLAVE.

The next morning Edwin overslept himself. He seldom rose easily from
his bed, and his first passage down Trafalgar Road to business was
notoriously hurried; the whole thoroughfare was acquainted with its
special character. Often his father arrived at the shop before him, but
Edwin's conscience would say that of course if Darius went down early
for his own passion and pleasure, that was Darius's affair. Edwin's
official time for beginning work was half-past eight. And at half-past
eight, on this morning, he was barely out of the bath. His lateness,
however, did not disturb him; there was an excuse for it. He hoped that
his father would be in bed, and decided that he must go and see, and, if
the old man was still sufficiently pliant, advise him to stay where he
was until he had had some food.

But, looking out of the window over a half-buttoned collar, he saw his
father dressed and in the garden. Darius had resumed the suit of
broadcloth, for some strange reason, and was dragging his feet with
painful, heavy slowness along the gravel at the south end of the garden.
He carried in his left hand the "Signal," crumpled. A cloth cap,
surmounting the ceremonious suit, gave to his head a ridiculous
appearance. He was gazing at the earth with an exp