, bring upon themselves and their country.
Mr. Maraton, grant, will you not, that I am a man of some experience?
Believe, I pray you, that I am honest. Let me assure you of this. If
the people be not wisely led now, the Empire which I and my Ministers
have striven so hard to keep intact, must fall. There are troubles
pressing upon us still from every side. If the people are wrongly
advised to-day, the British Empire must fall, even as those other great
dynasties of the past have fallen."

Maraton turned once more to the window, raised the curtain, and gazed
out into the darkness. There was a little movement at the end of the
street. The police had driven back the crowd to allow a carriage to
pass through. A hoarse murmur of voices came floating into the room.
The people gave way slowly and unwillingly--still, they gave way. Law
and order, strenuous though the task of preserving them was becoming,
prevailed.

"Mr. Foley," Maraton said, dropping the curtain and returning once more
to his place, "I am honoured by your confidence. You force me, however,
to remind you that you have spoken to me as a politician. I am not a
politician. The cause of the people is above politics."

"I am for the people," Mr. Foley declared, with a sudden passion in his
tone. "It is their own fault, the blind prejudice of their ignorant
leaders, if they fail to recognise it."

"For the people," Maraton repeated softly.

"Haven't my Government done their best to prove it?" the Prime Minister
demanded, almost fiercely. "We have passed at least six measures which
a dozen years ago would have been reckoned rank Socialism. What we do
need to-day is a people's man in our Government. I admit our weakness.
I admit that with every desire to do the right thing, we may sometimes
err through lack of knowledge. Our great trouble is this; there is not
to-day a single man amongst the Labour Party, a single man who has come
into Parliament on the mandate of the people, whose assistance would be
of the slightest service to us. I make you an offer which you yourself
must consider a wonderful one. You come to this country as an enemy,
and I offer you my hand as a friend. I offer you not only a seat in
Parliament but a share in the counsels of my party. I ask you to teach
us how to legislate for the people of the future."

Maraton remained for a moment silent. His face betrayed no exultation.
His tone, when at last he spoke, was almost sad.

"Mr. Foley," he