ough to rule without them, we'll wait."

It was a compact of curious importance which the two men sealed
impulsively with a grip of the hands across the table, and down at
Woolhanger, through some dreary months, it was Jane's greatest pleasure
to remember that it was at her table it had been made.

Tallente, seeking about for some excuse to remain for a few moments
after the departure of the Dartreys, was relieved of all anxiety by
Jane's calm and dignified remark.

"I can't part with you just yet, Mr. Tallente," she said. "You are not
in a hurry, I hope, and you are so close to your rooms that the matter
of taxies need not worry you. And, Mr. Dartrey, next time you come
down to my county you must bring your wife over to see me. Woolhanger
is so typically Devonshire, I really think you would be interested."

"I shall make Stephen bring me in the spring," Nora promised. "I shall
never forget how fascinated we were with the whole place this last
summer. Don't forget that you are coming to the House with me tomorrow
afternoon."

Jane smiled.

"I am looking forward to it," she declared. "The only annoying part is
that that stupid man won't promise to speak."

"I shall have so much to say within the next week or so," Tallente
observed, a little grimly, "that I think I had better keep quiet as long
as I can."

The moment for which Tallente had been longing came then. The front
door closed behind the departing guests. Jane motioned to him to come
and sit by her side on the couch.

"I love your friends," she said. "I think Mrs. Dartrey is perfectly
sweet and Dartrey is just as wonderful as I had pictured him. They are
so strangely unusual," she went on. "I can scarcely believe, even now,
that our dinner actually took place in my little room here--Stephen
Dartrey, the man I have read about all my life, and this brilliant young
wife of his. Thank you so much, dear friend, for bringing them."

"And thank you, dear perfect hostess," he answered. "Do you know what
you did? You created an atmosphere in which it was possible to think
and talk and see things clearly. Do you realise what has happened?
Dartrey has done a great thing. He has thrown over the one menacing
power in the advancing cause of the people. He is going to back me
against Miller."

"What exactly is Miller's position?" she asked.

"Let me tell you another time," he begged. "I have looked forward so to
these few minutes with you. Tell me how much time