ness took a sudden
turn for the worse last night and he died this afternoon at three
o'clock."

Quisante sat quite still for a few minutes, the dead Professor's report
on the Alethea Printing Press still in his fingers.

"What'll you do now?" she asked, with the smile of curiosity which she
always had ready for his plans. Would he pursue the Professor beyond
Charon's stream?

He hesitated a little, glancing at her rather uneasily. At last he spoke.

"One thing at all events is clear to me," he said. "This thing doesn't
represent a reasoned and well-informed opinion." He folded it up
carefully and placed it by itself in a long envelope. "We must consider
our course," he ended.

In a flash, by an instinct, May knew what their course would be and at
whose dictation it would be followed.

"Of course," said Quisante, "all this is strictly between ourselves."

Her cheek flushed a little. "You mustn't tell me any more business
secrets. I don't like them," said she, and she turned away to escape the
quick, would-be covert glance that she knew he would direct at her.

Money was necessary; votes had been necessary; old Foster smiled in fat
shrewdness from the mantelpiece. May Quisante was less sure that she knew
the worst.

CHAPTER XV.

A STRANGE IDEA.

The next few weeks were a time of restless activity with Alexander
Quisante. Again he was like an electric current, not travelling now from
constituency to constituency, but between Westminster and his cousin
Mandeville's offices in the City. In both places he was very busy. His
leader had declared for a waiting policy, and an interval in which the
demoralisation of defeat should pass away; the party must feel its feet
again, the great man said. Constantine Blair was full of precedents for
the course, quoting Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Sir James Graham,
and all the gods of the Parliamentarian. Brusquely and almost rudely
Quisante brushed him, his gods, and his leader on one side, and raised
the standard of fierce and immediate battle. The majority was composite;
his quick eye saw the spot where a wedge might be inserted between the
two component parts and driven home till the gap yawned wide and scission
threatened. The fighting men needed only to be shown where to fight; they
followed enthusiastically the man who led them to the field. Leaders
shook grey heads, and leader-writers disclaimed a respo