," she asked him, "the first night we dined together?"

He looked at her with twinkling eyes.

"Rather! It was my introduction to your uncle's household. Selina sat
on my left, and Louise on my right. You sat opposite, tired and
disagreeable."

"I was tired--and I am always disagreeable."

"I have noticed it," he agreed, equably. "I hope you like oysters."

"If Selina were to see us now," she remarked, with a sudden humorous
smile, "how shocked she would be."

"What a little far-away world it seems down there," he said
thoughtfully. "After all, I am glad that I have not to live in
Medchester all my life."

"You have been there this afternoon, haven't you?"

"Yes. Henslow is giving us a lot of trouble. I am afraid we shall lose
the seat next election."

"Do you mind?"

"Not much. I am no party politician. I want to see Medchester
represented by a man who will go there with a sense of political
proportion, and I don't care whether he calls himself Liberal, or
Radical, or Conservative, or Unionist."

"Please explain what you mean by that," she begged.

"Why, yes. I mean a man who will understand how enormously more
important is the welfare of our own people, the people of whom we are
making slaves, than this feverish Imperialism and war cant. Mind, I
think our patriotism should be a thing wholly understood. It needn't be
talked about. It makes showy fireworks for the platform, but it's all
unnecessary and to my mind very undignified. If only people would take
that for granted and go on to something worth while."

"Are things any better in Medchester just now?" she asked.

"On the surface, yes, but on the surface only. More factories are
running half-time, but after all what does that mean? It's slow
starvation. A man can't live and keep a family on fifteen shillings a
week, even if his wife earns a little. He can't do it in a dignified
manner, and with cleanliness and health. That is what he has a right
to. That is what the next generation will demand. He should have room
to expand. Cleanliness, air, fresh food. Every man and woman who is
born into the world has a God-given right to these, and there are
millions in Medchester, Manchester, and all the great cities who are
denied all three."

"So all Henslow's great schemes, his Royal Commissions, his Protection
Duties, his great Housing Bill, have come to nothing then?" she
remarked.

"To less than nothing," he answered, gloomily. "The man was a fraud.