I would look after you a little."

"I have been such a fool!" the girl sobbed.

Berenice for a moment was also sad. Her lips quivered, her eyes were
wistful.

"We all think that sometimes, child," she said, quietly. "We all have our
foolish moments and our hours of repentance, even the wisest of us!"

CHAPTER XII

SIR LESLIE BORROWDEAN INCURS A HEAVY DEBT

"I suppose," Lord Redford remarked, thoughtfully, "politics represents a
different thing to all of us, according to our temperament. To me, I must
confess, it is a plain, practical business, the business of law-making.
To you, Mannering, I fancy that it appeals a little differently. Now, let
us understand one another. Are you prepared to undertake this campaign
which we planned out a few months ago?"

"If I did undertake it," Mannering said, "it would be to leave unsaid the
things which you would naturally expect from me, and to say things of
which you could not possibly approve. I am very sorry. You can command my
resignation at any moment, if you will. But my views, though in the main
they have not changed, are very much modified."

Lord Redford nodded.

"That," he said, "is our misfortune, but it certainly is not your
fault. As for your resignation, if you crossed the floor of the House
to-morrow we should not require it of you. You are responsible to your
constituents only. We dragged you back into public life--you see I admit
it freely--and we are willing to take our risk. Whether you are with us
or against us, we recognize you as one of those whose place is amongst
the rulers of the people."

"You are very generous, Lord Redford," Mannering answered.

"Not at all. It is no use being peevish. You are a great disappointment
to us, but we have not given up hope. If you are not altogether with us
to-day, there is to-morrow. I tell you frankly, Mannering, that I look
upon you as a man temporarily led astray by a wave of sentimentality. So
long as the world lasts there will be rich men and poor, but you must
always remember in considering this that it is character as well as
circumstances which is at the root of the acquisition of wealth.
Generations have gone to the formation of our social fabric. It is the
slow evolution of the human laws of necessity. The socialist and the
sentimentalist and the philanthropist, dropping gold through his fingers,
have each had their fling at it, but their cry is like the cry from the
wilderness--a long, lone th