apers you
wanted. I didn't think of 'em to-day, but I'll bring 'em up to you myself
on Thursday."

Mr. Flint reflected afterwards that what made him helpless must have been
the sudden change in Hilary's manner to the commonplace. The president of
the Northeastern stood where he was, holding the envelope in his hand,
apparently without the power to move or speak. He watched the tall form
of his chief counsel go through the doorway, and something told him that
that exit was coincident with the end of an era.

The end of an era of fraud, of self-deception, of conditions that
violated every sacred principle of free government which men had shed
blood to obtain.

CHAPTER XXIV

AN ADVENTURE OF VICTORIA'S

Mrs. Pomfret was a proud woman, for she had at last obtained the consent
of the lion to attend a lunch party. She would have liked a dinner much
better, but beggars are not choosers, and she seized eagerly on the
lunch. The two days before the convention Mr. Crewe was to spend at
Leith; having continual conferences, of course, receiving delegations,
and discussing with prominent citizens certain offices which would be in
his gift when he became governor. Also, there was Mr. Watling's
nominating speech to be gone over carefully, and Mr. Crewe's own speech
of acceptance to be composed. He had it in his mind, and he had decided
that it should have two qualities: it should be brief and forceful.

Gratitude, however, is one of the noblest qualities of man, and a
statesman should not fail to reward his faithful workers and adherents.
As one of the chiefest of these, Mrs. Pomfret was entitled to high
consideration. Hence the candidate had consented to have a lunch given in
his honour, naming the day and the hour; and Mrs. Pomfret, believing that
a prospective governor should possess some of the perquisites of royalty,
in a rash moment submitted for his approval a list of guests. This
included two distinguished foreigners who were staying at the Leith Inn,
an Englishman and an Austrian, and an elderly lady of very considerable
social importance who was on a visit to Mrs. Pomfret.

Mr. Crewe had graciously sanctioned the list, but took the liberty of
suggesting as an addition to it the name of Miss Victoria Flint,
explaining over the telephone to Mrs. Pomfret that he had scarcely seen
Victoria all summer, and that he wanted particularly to see her. Mrs.
Pomfret declared that she had only left out Victoria because her pr