lmost automatically Paul slipped into his
place. With the instinct of the man of affairs he persuaded the Council
to change his title. An Honorary Secretary is but a dilettante, an
amateur carrying no weight, whereas an Organizing Secretary is a devil
of a fellow professedly dynamic. So Paul became Organizing Secretary of
the Young England League, and made things hum all the louder. He put
fresh life into local Committees and local Secretaries by a paternal
interest in their doings, making them feel the pulsations of the
throbbing heart of headquarters. If a local lodge was in need of
speakers, he exercised his arts of persuasion and sent them down in
trainloads. He visited personally as many lodges as his other work
permitted. In fact, he was raising the League from a jejune experiment
into a flourishing organization. To his secret delight, old Lord
Watford resigned the chairmanship owing to the infirmities of old age,
and Lord Harbury, a young and energetic peer whom Paul had recently
driven into the ranks of the Vice-Presidents, was elected in his stead.
Paul felt the future of the League was assured.

With a real Member of Parliament to preside, a. real dean to propose
the vote of thanks, another Member of Parliament and two ex-mayors of
the borough to add silent dignity to the proceedings, well-known
ladies, including, now, a real Princess to grace the assembly, this
meeting of the Hickney Heath Lodge was the most important occasion on
which Paul had appeared in public.

"I hope you won't be nervous," said Miss Winwood, on the morning of the
meeting.

"I nervous?" He laughed. "What is there to be nervous about?"

"I've had over twenty years' experience of public speaking, and I'm
always nervous when I get UP."

"It's only because you persistently refuse to realize what a wonderful
woman you are," he said affectionately.

"And you," she teased, "are you always realizing what a wonderful man
you are?"

He cried with his sunny boldness: "Why not? It's faith in oneself and
one's destiny that gets things done."

The drill hall was full. Party feeling ran high in those days at
Hickney Heath, for a Liberal had ousted a Unionist from a safe seat at
the last General Election, and the stalwarts of the defeated party,
thirsting for revenge, supported the new movement. If a child was not
born a Conservative, he should be made one. That was the watchword of
the League. They were also prepared to welcome the new star t