ent animal in a forest, interested, inquiring,
speculative, but singularly untroubled....

5

Polling day came after a last hoarse and dingy crescendo. The excitement
was not of the sort that makes one forget one is tired out. The waiting
for the end of the count has left a long blank mark on my memory, and
then everyone was shaking my hand and repeating: "Nine hundred and
seventy-six."

My success had been a foregone conclusion since the afternoon, but
we all behaved as though we had not been anticipating this result for
hours, as though any other figures but nine hundred and seventy-six
would have meant something entirely different. "Nine hundred and
seventy-six!" said Margaret. "They didn't expect three hundred."

"Nine hundred and seventy-six," said a little short man with a paper.
"It means a big turnover. Two dozen short of a thousand, you know."

A tremendous hullaboo began outside, and a lot of fresh people came into
the room.

Isabel, flushed but not out of breath, Heaven knows where she had sprung
from at that time of night! was running her hand down my sleeve almost
caressingly, with the innocent bold affection of a girl. "Got you in!"
she said. "It's been no end of a lark."

"And now," said I, "I must go and be constructive."

"Now you must go and be constructive," she said.

"You've got to live here," she added.

"By Jove! yes," I said. "We'll have to house hunt."

"I shall read all your speeches."

She hesitated.

"I wish I was you," she said, and said it as though it was not exactly
the thing she was meaning to say.

"They want you to speak," said Margaret, with something unsaid in her
face.

"You must come out with me," I answered, putting my arm through hers,
and felt someone urging me to the French windows that gave on the
balcony.

"If you think--" she said, yielding gladly

"Oh, RATHER!" said I.

The Mayor of Kinghamstead, a managing little man with no great belief in
my oratorical powers, was sticking his face up to mine.

"It's all over," he said, "and you've won. Say all the nice things you
can and say them plainly."

I turned and handed Margaret out through the window and stood looking
over the Market-place, which was more than half filled with swaying
people. The crowd set up a roar of approval at the sight of us, tempered
by a little booing. Down in one corner of the square a fight was going
on for a flag, a fight that even the prospect of a speech could not
in