ouse of Commons--precisely
as I wished. What are your prospects with the constituency? Tell me
exactly how you stand, and where I can be of use to you."

"Surely, Sir, you are hardly recovered enough to enter on matters of
business yet?"

"I am quite recovered enough. I want some present interest to occupy
me. My thoughts are beginning to drift back to past times, and to things
which are better forgotten." A sudden contraction crossed his livid
face. He looked hard at his son, and entered abruptly on a new question.
"Julius!" he resumed, "have you ever heard of a young woman named Anne
Silvester?"

Julius answered in the negative. He and his wife had exchanged cards
with Lady Lundie, and had excused themselves from accepting her
invitation to the lawn-party. With the exception of Blanche, they were
both quite ignorant of the persons who composed the family circle at
Windygates.

"Make a memorandum of the name," Lord Holchester went on. "Anne
Silvester. Her father and mother are dead. I knew her father in former
times. Her mother was ill-used. It was a bad business. I have been
thinking of it again, for the first time for many years. If the girl is
alive and about the world she may remember our family name. Help
her, Julius, if she ever wants help, and applies to you." The painful
contraction passed across his face once more. Were his thoughts taking
him back to the memorable summer evening at the Hampstead villa? Did
he see the deserted woman swooning at his feet again? "About your
election?" he asked, impatiently. "My mind is not used to be idle. Give
it something to do."

Julius stated his position as plainly and as briefly as he could.
The father found nothing to object to in the report--except the son's
absence from the field of action. He blamed Lady Holchester for
summoning Julius to London. He was annoyed at his son's being there, at
the bedside, when he ought to have been addressing the electors. "It's
inconvenient, Julius," he said, petulantly. "Don't you see it yourself?"

Having previously arranged with his mother to take the first opportunity
that offered of risking a reference to Geoffrey, Julius decided to "see
it" in a light for which his father was not prepared. The opportunity
was before him. He took it on the spot.

"It is no inconvenience to me, Sir," he replied, "and it is no
inconvenience to my brother either. Geoffrey was anxious about you too.
Geoffrey has come to London with me."

Lord