l now be shaken in, and every possible or accidental
contingency assume a shape, a size, and a stability beyond all belief. They
have got their committee, and I wish them luck of it! The only men who
could tell them anything will take care not to criminate themselves, and
the report will be a plaintive cry over a country where so few people
can be persuaded to tell the truth, and nobody should seem any worse in
consequence.'

'Cecil certainly did it,' said she, with a certain bitterness. 'I suppose
he did. These young players are always thinking of scoring eight or ten on
a single hazard: one should never back them!'

'Mr. Atlee said there was some female influence at work. He would not tell
what nor whom. Possibly he did not know.'

'I rather suspect he _did_ know. They were people, if I mistake not,
belonging to that Irish castle--Kil--Kil-somebody, or Kil-something.'

'Was Walpole flirting there? was he going to marry one of them?'

'Flirting, I take it, must have been the extent of the folly. Cecil often
said he could not marry Irish. I have known men do it! You are aware,
Maude,' and here he looked with uncommon gravity, 'the penal laws have all
been repealed.'

'I was speaking of society, my lord, not the statutes,' said she
resentfully, and half suspicious of a sly jest.

'Had she money?' asked he curtly.

'I cannot tell; I know nothing of these people whatever! I remember
something--it was a newspaper story--of a girl that saved Cecil's life
by throwing herself before him--a very pretty incident it was; but these
things make no figure in a settlement; and a woman may be as bold as Joan
of Arc, and not have sixpence. Atlee says you can always settle the courage
on the younger children.'

'Atlee's an arrant scamp,' said my lord, laughing. 'He should have written
some days since.'

'I suppose he is too late for the borough: the Cradford election comes on
next week?' Though there could not be anything more languidly indifferent
than her voice in this question, a faint pinkish tinge flitted across her
cheek, and left it colourless as before.

'Yes, he has his address out, and there is a sort of committee--certain
licensed-victualler people--to whom he has been promising some especial
Sabbath-breaking that they yearn after. I have not read it.'

'I have; and it is cleverly written, and there is little more radical in
it than we heard this very day at dinner. He tells the electors, "You are
no more bound