people,
is generally the pleasantest man to be met. But he is a Buddhist,
possessing a religious creed which is altogether dark and mysterious
to the outer world. Those who watch the ways of the advanced Buddhist
hardly know whether the man does believe himself in his hidden god,
but men perceive that he is respectable, self-satisfied, and a man
of note. It is of course from the society of such that Conservative
candidates are to be sought; but, alas, it is hard to indoctrinate
young minds with the old belief, since new theories of life have
become so rife!

Nevertheless Frank Greystock, when he was invited to stand for
Bobsborough in the Conservative interest, had not for a moment
allowed any political heterodoxy on his own part to stand in the way
of his advancement. It may, perhaps, be the case that a barrister is
less likely to be influenced by personal convictions in taking his
side in politics than any other man who devotes himself to public
affairs. No slur on the profession is intended by this suggestion. A
busy, clever, useful man, who has been at work all his life, finds
that his own progress towards success demands from him that he shall
become a politician. The highest work of a lawyer can only be reached
through political struggle. As a large-minded man of the world,
peculiarly conversant with the fact that every question has two
sides, and that as much may often be said on one side as on the
other, he has probably not become violent in his feelings as a
political partisan. Thus he sees that there is an opening here or an
opening there, and the offence in either case is not great to him.
With Frank Greystock the matter was very easy. There certainly was no
apostasy. He had now and again attacked his father's ultra-Toryism,
and rebuked his mother and sisters when they spoke of Gladstone as
Apollyon, and called John Bright the Abomination of Desolation. But
it was easy to him to fancy himself a Conservative, and as such he
took his seat in the House without any feeling of discomfort.

During the first four months of his first session he had not
spoken,--but he had made himself useful. He had sat on one or two
Committees, though as a barrister he might have excused himself, and
had done his best to learn the forms of the House. But he had already
begun to find that the time which he devoted to Parliament was much
wanted for his profession. Money was very necessary to him. Then a
new idea was presented to hi