struck a blow that night that would ring
through England,--just what _you_ would have had to say if you had got
in, in fact,--and _then_ he went on, the old sumph, to say that for
reasons best known to himself his _honourable_ opponent had seen fit to
withhold his presence from them that night, and he begged leave to add
that he considered that a man, even though he knew he was going to be
beaten, ought to have the pluck to come and face the music."

"Mangy bounder!" remarked my brother-in-law dispassionately.

"Oh, I was just raging!" continued Robin. "The people of course yelled
themselves hoarse; and Stridge was going on to rub it into you, when I
stepped on to the balcony beside him--I had been standing just inside
the window--and I put my hand on Stridge's fat shoulder and I pulled him
back a wee thing, and I roared--

"'Gentlemen, will you not let me say a word for Mr Inglethwaite?'"

Dolly's eyes began to blaze, and I saw her lips part in anticipation.

"There was a tremendous uproar then," Robin went on with relish. "The
folk howled to Stridge to put me over the balcony----"

"I wish he had tried!" said Gerald with simple fervour.

"And other folk cried to me to go on. They knew there must be some
explanation of your absence. I just stood there and let them roar.
Inside the room there was a fine commotion; and with the tail of my eye
I could see Cash hurrying round explaining to them what I wanted to say.
(He has his points, Cash!) Then at last, as the noise got worse and
worse, I put my mouth to Stridge's ear and bellowed that he would regret
it all his life if he didn't let me say what I had to say, and that he
would be grateful to me afterwards, and all that. He is a decent old
buffer, really, and he was evidently impressed with what I said----"

"I should like to know exactly what you did say, Robin," I interpolated.

"Never mind just now. Anyhow, he turned and clambered back into the
room, and left me with the crowd. They were soon quiet, and I just told
them."

Robin leaned back in his chair.

"Told them _what_?" came from all parts of the room.

But Robin had become suddenly and maddeningly Caledonian again.

"I just told them about Philly," he said. "What else could I do? It
wasn't like telling them during the election. That would have been an
appeal to the gallery for votes. This was just common justice to you.
Anyhow, they quite quietened down after that."

And that was all the report th