poison, while I believe he has a special grudge against you. We can't
afford to play pranks, while Ned Wilson can."

But Paul paid little attention to this. He had now fully embarked on
this political fight. The town had to be canvassed. Meetings had to
be addressed. Committees had to be formed. In fact, he had to devote
the whole of his time to the fight which had engrossed him completely.

The whole country was at that time agog with the expectation that the
Government would resign and that an election would be immediately upon
them, and Paul, being fully aware of this, had determined to leave
nothing to chance. He had complete confidence in Preston's business
capacity, and felt that everything was safe. Thus, when one day the
news flashed along a thousand wires that the Government had resigned
and that a General Election was upon them, he was glad he had given
himself heart and soul to this political struggle. He did not know why
it was, but it seemed to him that upon it depended everything. If he
could win in this fight, he was sure, although it would alienate Mary
Bolitho from him, it would also open up the way to their future
meetings. It would enhance her respect for him. He believed he read
her like a book. She was ambitious even as he was, and she would scorn
the man who was easily beaten. He felt his chances had improved; at
each meeting he addressed he became more confident and spoke with more
effect. The inwardness of politics, too, possessed him more fully.
During his spare hours he had been reading the lives of eminent
politicians. He called to mind those words of Disraeli: "Read no
history, nothing but biography, for that is life without theory." He
had followed this advice, and in reading the life of great politicians
had laid hold of the history of the century. Everything had been made
vivid to him, especially the struggles of the working classes.
Moreover, in studying the lives of great men, he had grasped the
principles on which they worked, and politics had become to him not a
mere abstraction, not a matter of expediency, but something concrete, a
great working philosophy. This fact had enriched his speeches, and
thus it came about that when Mr. Bolitho read them, he discovered that
he was fighting not with an ignoramus, but with a man with a powerful
mind, a man who, given reasonable circumstances, would be bound to make
himself felt.

Mr. Bolitho, too, realised the force of wha