iment
that a wise employer knows how to put in at the end, he added: "I am
sure that you can do it." And he knew his man; Harley would certainly
do it.

Harley, seated in an obscure corner of the stage, but one offering many
points of vantage for his own view, saw the vast crowd come quickly into
the hall, among the largest in the world, and he heard the hum of
voices, in which he thought he could distinguish two notes, one of favor
and one of attack. Yet the audience was orderly, and on the whole the
element of curiosity prevailed. The correspondent, quick to read such
signs, saw that the people had an open mind in regard to Jimmy Grayson;
it was left to the candidate to make his own impression. Churchill took
a seat near him and began to annoy him with depreciatory remarks about
Grayson, not spoken to Harley in particular, but to the wide world.
Hobart once said that Churchill needed no audience, preferring to talk
to the air, which could make no reply of its own, but must return an
echo.

Harley saw Mrs. Grayson and her niece slip quietly into a box, sitting
well back, where they could be seen but little by the audience; and
then, knowing that Mr. Grayson had arrived, he went behind the wings,
where the candidate sat waiting.

Mr. Grayson received him with a calm and pleasant word; if his family
were in a tremble, he was not; at least he was able to hide any
apprehension that he might feel, and he remarked, jestingly: "It is
apparent that I will have an audience, Mr. Harley; they will not ignore
me."

"No, you are a good puller," rejoined Harley.

There were some dry preliminaries--introductory remarks by the chairman
and other necessary bores--and then the audience began to call for
Grayson. The speech would be reported in full by short-hand, for which
mechanical work the staff correspondent always hires a member of that
guild, and Harley was free for the present. He resolved to go into the
box with Mrs. Grayson and Miss Morgan, but he changed his mind when he
glanced at their faces. There was pallor in their cheeks, and their
whole attitude was of strained and intense waiting. For them the crucial
moment had come, and Harley had too much humanity to disturb them, even
with well-meant efforts, at such a moment.

The hum in the crowd increased to a roar, a thunderous call for Grayson,
but there was a pause on the stage, where no figures moved. The chairman
glanced uneasily towards the wings and shuffled in hi