to make up in the street, either," Louise
remarked, primly. "A little powder in the house is all very
well"--(Louise had a nose which gave her trouble)--"but I really don't
think it looks respectable in the street."

"I suppose," Selina remarked, "you men admire all that sort of thing,
don't you?

"I really hadn't noticed it with Lady Sybil," Brooks admitted.

Selina sighed.

"Men are so blind," she remarked. "You watch next time you are close to
her, Mr. Brooks."

"I will," he promised. "I'll get her between me and a window in a
strong north light."

Selina laughed.

"Don't be too unkind," she said. "That's the worst of you men. When
you do find anything out you are always so severe."

"After all, though," Louise remarked, with a sidelong glance, "it must
be very, very interesting to meet these sort of people, even if one
doesn't quite belong to their set. I should think you must find every
one else quite tame, Mr. Brooks."

"I can assure you I don't," he answered, coolly. "This evening has
provided me with quite as pleasant society as ever I should wish for."

Selina beamed upon him.

"Oh, Mr. Brooks, you are terrible. You do say such things!" she
declared, archly.

Louise laughed a little hardly.

"We mustn't take too much to ourselves, dear," she said. "Remember that
Mr. Brooks walked all the way up from the Secular Hall with Mary."

Mr. Bullsom threw down his paper with a little impatient exclamation.

"Come, come!" he said. "I want to have a few words with Brooks myself,
if you girls'll give me a chance. Heard anything from Henslow lately,
eh?"

Brooks leaned forward.

"Not a word!" he answered.

Mr. Bullsom grunted.

"H'm! He's taken his seat, and that's all he does seem to have done. To
have heard his last speech here before polling time you would have
imagined him with half-a-dozen questions down before now. He's letting
the estimates go by, too. There are half-a-dozen obstructors, all
faddists, but Henslow, with a real case behind him, is sitting tight.
'Pon my word, I'm not sure that I like the fellow."

"I ventured to write to him the other evening," Brooks said, "and I have
sent him all the statistics we promised, he seems to have regarded my
letter as an impertinence, though, for he has never answered it."

"You mark my words," Mr. Bullsom said, doubling the paper up and
bringing it down viciously upon his knee, "Henslow will never sit again
for Medchester. There was none too