nconscious--dying."

He paused impressively. The listener was panting as if she had run a
race.

"And the will?" she asked.

"It dates from a year ago. May Tomalin is not mentioned in it. I, of
course, have nothing."

Iris gazed at the floor. A little sound as of consternation had passed
her lips, but she made no attempt to console the victim of destiny who
sat with bowed head before her. After a brief silence, Lashmar told of
the will as it concerned Constance Bride, insisting on the fact that
she was a mere trustee of the wealth bequeathed to her. With a
humorously doleful smile, he spoke of Lady Ogram's promise to defray
his election expenses, and added that Miss Bride, in virtue of her
trusteeship, would carry out this wish. Another exclamation sounded
from the listener, this time one of joy.

"Well, that's something! I suppose the expenses are heavy, aren't they?"

"Oh, not very. But what's the use? Of course I withdraw."

He let his hand fall despondently. Again there was silence.

"And that is why you thought of taking poison?" asked Iris, with a
quick glance at his lowering visage.

"Isn't it a good reason? All is over with me. If Lady Ogram had lived
to make her new will, I should have been provided for. Now I am
penniless and hopeless."

"But, if she had lived, you would have had to marry Miss Bride."

Dyce made a sorrowful gesture.

"No. She would never have consented, even if I could have brought
myself to such a sacrifice. In any case, I was doomed."

"But--"

Iris paused, biting her lip.

"You were going to say?"

"Only--that I suppose you would have been willing to marry that girl,
the niece."

"I will answer you frankly." He spoke in the softest tone and his look
had a touching candour. "You, better than anyone, know the nature of my
ambition. You know it is not merely personal. One doesn't like to talk
grandiloquently, but, alone with you, there is no harm in saying that I
have a message for our time. We have reached a point in social and
political evolution where all the advance of modern life seems to be
imperilled by the growing preponderance of the multitude. Our need is
of men who are born to guide and rule, and I feel myself one of these.
But what can I do as long as I am penniless? And so I answer you
frankly: yes, if May Tomalin had inherited Lady Ogram's wealth, I
should have _felt it my duly_ to marry her."

Iris listened without a smile. Lashmar had never spoken with a