did. She had an arm about his neck in a moment, and he felt delightfully

near strangulation. He could not cry out for help, because there were two middle-aged ladies with books and a clergyman with _The Guardian_ on the seat in the hollow of the cliff.

“You are a perfect darling!” she cried. “You are doing this thing just to please me, because you know I have set my heart on it--and I _have_ set my heart on it, Jack, dear. I admit that I am ambitious, Jack, but only for you, dear--only because I know what there is in you, and I want it brought out. I want people to accept you at your true worth. My ambition is bounded by you.”

He did not say anything in response to this confession. But he pressed her arm very close to him, and so they walked on in silence, until he said:

“My girl, my girl, shall I tell you what I feel just now? I feel that I should like to do something to justify your belief in me. Until you began to talk to me I used to be inclined to grin at those old chaps who used to bump about in armour--Lord! the noise they made must have been like a tinker’s horse running away with a cartload of tin kettles--looking out for doughty deeds to do so that they might appear big Indians in the eyes of their ladies fair. They spelt--such of them as could spell, and there weren’t a lot--‘lady’ with an e at the end. I say I used to laugh at them and think them howling bounders; but by the Lord Henrietta! since I came to know you I’ve had just the same feeling. I tell you that I should dearly like to do something big, so that you might be able to say, ‘He did it, and he’s my husband, and it was I taught him how.’”

“And you will do it--I have no fear for you, Jack. You will show people what you can do, and I shall feel--I may boast of it, too--that I have had an influence for good upon you, not for evil.”

“If anybody wants to hear further of what that influence has been to me, send them along, and I’ll tell them. My dear girl, you’ve now set me a job of work to do, and if you stand by me I’ll do it.”

“I’ll stand by you, Jack; I’ve no interest in life except to stand by you. If I wasn’t quite sure that you’ll be a success in the fight to get into Parliament, and a still bigger success when you get in, I shouldn’t say a word to urge you on to this job. But I know enough of you to be sure that there’s no one in the House of Commons who has a greater capacity than you for grasping the practical side of things, and seeing the rights and the wrongs in every question. Of course you may say that I don’t know all the members of the House of Commons and that I don’t know so much about you, if it comes to that.”

“Well, I admit that something like that did occur to me.”

“I daresay it did. But don’t you think that I’m going to retract anything that I said on that account. I’m not. I’ve read the newspapers like a student for the past four years, and I’ve read you like--like a lover for the past two months. These respective times are quite long enough to enable me to pronounce the definite judgment that I did in making my comparison. Oh, Jack, I can see quite well that people won’t have oratory at any price, in these days. What they want is men like you, who will say in common language--colloquial language--what they think. After all, the great thing is the thinking and the doing; the talking is quite a secondary consideration. Goodness! Here have I been making a long speech to prove to you that there’s no use for speech-makers nowadays.”

“You have spoken good sense and to the point, my girl, and that’s more than can be said of the majority of orators. Well, I’ve taken on a big contract, and you’ve promised to see me through with it. All that we’ve got to do now is to search for principles to take the place of politics. Have you any outline in your mind at present?”

“Not even the most shadowy.”

“That’s satisfactory. We don’t start on this campaign with any foolish prejudices in favour of one thing or another. We can be all things to all men in the Nuttingford division of Nethershire.”

“And to all women--don’t forget the women. I look to them to make a strong muster on our side.”

“Whatever our side may be.”