flowers," she repeated, "at ten o'clock at night! And
for me, too!"

"And why not for you?" Selingman demanded, almost indignantly. "You are
like all enthusiasts of your sex. You are too intense, you concentrate
too much. You have lived in a cold and austere atmosphere. You have
waited a long time for the hand which is to lead you into the sunshine."

She laughed at him once more, yet perhaps this time a little wistfully.

"Very well," she promised, "I will reform. I will eat all the
chocolates you can bring me, and I will sleep with your flowers at my
bedside. There! Am I improving?"

Selingman rose to his feet. He drained his glass of wine and lit one of
his long black cigars by the flame of the candle.

"Dear Julia," he said, "you have spoken. I start on the quest of my
life."

CHAPTER XXXVI

Selingman had scarcely left the place when Ernshaw arrived, piloted into
the room by Aaron, who had been waiting for him below. Maraton and he
gripped hands heartily. During the first few days of the campaign they
had been constant companions.

"At least," he declared, as he looked into Maraton's face, "whatever the
world may think of the justice of their cause, no one will ever any
longer deny the might of the people."

"None but fools ever did deny it," Maraton answered.

"How are they in the north?" Ernshaw asked.

"United and confident," Maraton assured him. "Up there I don't think
they realise the position so much as here. In Nottingham and Leicester,
people are leading their usual daily lives. It was only as we neared
London that one began to understand."

"London is paralysed with fear," Ernshaw asserted, "perhaps with reason.
The Government are working the telephones and telegraph to a very small
extent. The army engineers are doing the best they can with the East
Coast railways."

"What about Dale and his friends?"

Ernshaw's dark, sallow face was lit with triumph.

"They are flustered to death like a lot of rabbits in the middle of a
cornfield, with the reapers at work'!" he exclaimed. "Heckled and
terrified to' death! Cecil was at them the other night. 'Are you not,'
he cried, 'the representatives of the people?' Wilmott was in the
House--one of us--treasurer for the Amalgamated Society, and while Dale
was hesitating, he sprang up. 'Before God, no!' he answered. 'There
isn't a Labour Member in this House who stands for more than the
constituency he represents, or is here for more than the salary