comer with a gracious little smile and
Tallente rose to his feet. Horlock had left the group in the centre of
the room and was making his way towards them.

"At least we can talk here," he said, shaking hands with Tallente,
"without any suggestion of a conspiracy. The old gang, you know," he
went on, addressing his hostess, "simply close around me when I try to
have a word with Tallente. They are afraid of some marvellous
combination which is going to shut them out."

"Lethbridge is the only one of them here to-night," She observed, "and
he is probably in one of the rooms where they are serving things. Now I
must go back to my guests. If I see him, I'll head him off."

She strolled away. The Prime Minister sank back upon a couch. His air
of well-bred content with himself and life fell away from him the moment
his hostess was out of sight.

"Tallente," he said, "I suppose you mean to break us?"

"I thought we'd been rather friendly," was the quiet reply. "We've been
letting you have your own way for nearly a month."

"That is simply because we are on work which we are tackling practically
in the fashion you dictated," Horlock pointed out. "When we have
finished this Irish business, what are you going to do?"

"I am not the leader of the party," Tallente reminded him.

"From a parliamentary point of view you are," was the impatient protest.
"Dartrey is a dreamer. He might even have dreamed away his
opportunities if you hadn't come along. Miller would never have handled
the House as you have. Miller was made to create factions. You were
made to coalesce, to smooth over difficulties, to bring men of opposite
points of view into the same camp. You are a genius at it, Tallente.
Six months ago I was only afraid of the Democrats. Now I dread them.
Shall I tell you what it is that worries me most?"

"If you think it wise."

"Your absence of programme. Why don't you say what you want to do--give
us some idea of how far you are going to carry your tenets? Are we to
have the anarchy of Bolshevists or the socialism of Marx,--a red flag
republic or a classical dictatorship?"

"We are not out for anarchy, at all events," Tallente assured him, "nor
for revolutions in the ordinary sense of the word."

"You mean to upset the Constitution?"

"Speaking officially, I do not know. Speaking to you as a fellow
politician, I should say that sooner or later some changes are
desirable."

"You'll never get away from party governme