"Sleep, sleep!" he moaned musically. "If I could but sleep a
little!--But I have so much to say. Don't fuss; you know how I hate
fuss. No, no, I don't want anything, I assure you. But I haven't slept
for a week Give me your hand. How glad I am to see you again! So you
still have faith in me? You don't despise me?"

"What nonsense!" said Iris, allowing him to hold her hand against his
breast as he lay motionless, his eyes turned to the ceiling. "You must
try again, that's all. At Hollingford, it was evidently hopeless."

"Yes. I made a mistake. If I could have stood as a Conservative, I
should have carried all before me. It was Lady Ogram's quarrel with
Robb which committed me to the other side."

Iris was silent, panting a little as if she suppressed words which had
risen to her lips. He turned his head to look at her.

"Of course you understand that party names haven't the least meaning
for me. By necessity, I wear a ticket, but it's a matter of total
indifference to me what name it bears. My object has nothing to do with
party politics. But for Lady Ogram's squabbles, I should at this moment
be Member for Hollingford."

"But would it be possible?" asked Iris, with a flutter, "to call
yourself a Conservative next time?"

"I have been thinking about that." He spoke absently, his eyes still
upwards. "It is pretty certain that the Conservative side gives me more
chance. It enrages me to think how I should have triumphed at
Hollingford! I could have roused the place to such enthusiasm as it
never knew! The great mistake of my life--but what choice had I? Lady
Ogram was fatal to me."

He groaned, and let his eyelids droop.

"It is possible that, at the general election, a Liberal constituency
may invite me. In that case, of course--" He broke off with a weary
wave of the band. "But what's the use of thinking about it? I must look
for work. Do you know, I have thoughts of going to New Zealand."

"Oh! That's nonsense!"

"Try to realise my position." He raised himself on his elbow. "After my
life of the last few months, will it be very enjoyable to become a
subordinate, to work for wages, to sink into obscurity? Does it seem to
you natural? Do you think I shall be able to bear it?"

He had begun to quiver with excitement. As Iris kept silence, he rose
to a sitting position, and continued more vehemently.

"Don't you understand that death would be preferable, a thousand times?
Imagine me--_me_ at the beck and ca