oor shut; she
was alone--and free.

BOOK III.

"O Neigung, sage, wie hast du so tief
Im Herzen dich verstecket?
Wer hat dich, die verborgen schlief,
Gewecket?"

CHAPTER I.

"Don't suppose that I feel enthusiastic or sentimental about the 'claims
of Labour,'" said Wharton, smiling to the lady beside him. "You may get
that from other people, but not from me. I am not moral enough to be a
fanatic. My position is simplicity itself. When things are inevitable, I
prefer to be on the right side of them, and not on the wrong. There is
not much more in it than that. I would rather be on the back of the
'bore' for instance, as it sweeps up the tidal river, than the swimmer
caught underneath it."

"Well, that is intelligible," said Lady Selina Farrell, looking at her
neighbour, as she crumbled her dinner-roll. To crumble your bread at
dinner is a sign of nervousness, according to Sydney Smith, who did it
with both hands when he sat next an Archbishop; yet no one for a good
many years past had ever suspected Lady Selina of nervousness, though
her powers had probably been tried before now by the neighbourhood of
many Primates, Catholic and Anglican. For Lady Selina went much into
society, and had begun it young.

"Still, you know," she resumed after a moment's pause--"you _play_
enthusiasm in public--I suppose you must."

"Oh! of course," said Wharton, indifferently. "That is in the game."

"Why should it be--always? If you are a leader of the people, why don't
you educate them? My father says that bringing feeling into politics is
like making rhymes in one's account book."

"Well, when you have taught the masses how _not_ to feel," said Wharton,
laughing, "we will follow your advice. Meanwhile it is our brains and
their feelings that do the trick. And by the way, Lady Selina, are _you_
always so cool? If you saw the Revolution coming to-morrow into the
garden of Alresford House, would you go to the balcony and argue?"

"I devoutly hope there would be somebody ready to do something more to
the point," said Lady Selina, hastily. "But of course _we_ have
enthusiasms too."

"What, the Flag--and the Throne--that kind of thing?"

The ironical attention which Wharton began at this moment to devote to
the selection of an olive annoyed his companion.

"Yes," she repeated emphatically, "the Flag and the Throne--all that has
made England great in the past. But we know very well that they are not
_your_ e