ng, but at this argument she and her lover
smiled. Then I took another ground, for, remembering her promise that
she would consent to be separated for three years from any suitor of
whom I did not approve, I claimed its fulfilment.

Somewhat to my surprise, after a hurried private consultation, Jane and
her lover accepted these conditions, telling me frankly that they
would wait for three years, but that after these had gone by they would
consider themselves at liberty to marry, with my consent if possible,
but, if necessary, without it. Then in my presence they kissed and
parted, nor until the last did either of them attempt to break the
letter of their bond. Once indeed they met before that dreadful hour,
but then it was the workings of fate that brought them together and not
their own design.

CHAPTER XI

THE COMING OF THE RED-HEADED MAN

Half of the three years of probation had gone by and once more we found
ourselves at Dunchester in August. Under circumstances still too recent
to need explanation, the Government of which I was a member had decided
to appeal to the country, the General Election being fixed for the
end of September, after the termination of harvest. Dunchester was
considered to be a safe Radical seat, and, as a matter of parliamentary
tactics, the poll for this city, together with that of eight or ten
other boroughs, was fixed for the earliest possible day, in the hope
that the results might encourage more doubtful places to give their
support. Constituencies are very like sheep, and if the leaders jump
through a certain gap in the political hedge the flock, or a large
proportion of it, will generally follow. All of us like to be on the
winning side.

Few people who are old enough to remember it will ever forget the August
of two years ago, if only because of the phenomenal heat. Up to that
month the year had been very cold, so cold that even during July there
were some evenings when a fire was welcome, while on several days I saw
people driving about the roads wrapped up in heavy ulsters. But with the
first day of August all this changed, and suddenly the climate became
torrid, the nights especially being extraordinarily hot. From every
quarter of the country came complaints of the great heat, while each
issue of the newspapers contained lists of those who had fallen victims
to it.

One evening, feeling oppressed in the tree-enclosed park of Ashfields,
I strolled out of it into the subu