to fight
Hellesfield, which it was never intended that I should win. Then Miller
dug his own grave. He opposed me there and I lost the seat. Horlock
was politely regretful, scarcely saw what could be done for me at the
moment, was disposed to join in a paltry little domestic plot to send
me to the Lords. This was at the time I came down to Martinhoe, the
time, except for those brief moments in Paris, when I first met you."

"Pruning roses in a shockingly bad suit of clothes," she murmured.

"And taken for my own gardener! Well, then came Dartrey's visit. He
laid his programme before me, offered me a seat and I agreed to lead the
Democrats in the House. There I think I have been useful. I knew the
game, which Dartrey didn't. Whilst he has achieved almost the
impossible, has, except so far as regards Miller's influence amongst the
trades unions, brought the great army of the people into line, I
accomplished the smaller task of giving them their due weight in the
House."

"Very well, then," Jane declared, looking at him with glowing eyes,
"there is your stocktaking, taken from your own, the most modest point
of view. With your own lips you confess to what you have achieved, to
where you stand. What doubts should any sane man have? How can you say
that the lamp of your life has burned dull?"

"Insight," he answered promptly. "Don't think that I fear the big
fight. I don't. With Dartrey on my side we shall wipe Miller into
oblivion. It isn't true to-day to say that he represents the trades
unions, for the very reason that the trades unions as solid bodies don't
exist any longer. The men have learnt to think for themselves. Many of
them are earnest members of the Democratic Party. They have learnt to
look outside the interests of the little trade in which they earn their
weekly wage. No, it isn't Miller that I am afraid of."

"Then what is it?" she demanded.

"How can I put it?" he went on thoughtfully. "Well, first of all, then,
I feel that the Democrats, when they come into power, are going to
develop as swiftly as may be all the fevers, the sore places, the
jealousies and the pettiness of every other political party which has
ever tried to rule the State. I see the symptoms already and that is
what I think makes my heart grow faint. I have given the best years of
my life to toiling for others. Who believes it? Who is grateful? Who
would not say that because I lead a great party in the House of Commons,
I have all th