up her hand, and he had protestingly
brought the car to a stop.

"Your horses don't frighten," he had said.

"No, but I wanted to speak to you, Humphrey," Mrs. Pomfret had replied;
"you are becoming so important that nobody ever has a glimpse of you. I
wanted to tell you what an interest we take in this splendid thing you
are doing."

"Well," said Mr. Crewe, "it was a plain duty, and nobody else seemed
willing to undertake it."

Mrs. Pomfret's eyes had flashed.

"Men of that type are scarce," she answered. "But you'll win. You're the
kind of man that wins."

"Oh, yes, I'll win," said Mr. Crewe.

"You're so magnificently sure of yourself," cried Mrs. Pomfret. "Alice is
taking such an interest. Every day she asks, 'When is Humphrey going to
make his first speech?' You'll let us know in time, won't you?"

"Did you put all that nonsense in the New York Flare?" asked Mr. Crewe.

"Oh, Humphrey, I hope you liked it," cried Mrs. Pomfret. "Don't make the
mistake of despising what women can do. They elected the Honourable Billy
Aylestone--he said so himself. I'm getting all the women interested."

"Who've you been calling on now?" he inquired.

Mrs. Pomfret hesitated.

"I've been up at Fairview to see about Mrs. Flint. She isn't much
better."

"Is Victoria home?" Mr. Crewe demanded, with undisguised interest.

"Poor dear girl!" said Mrs. Pomfret, "of course I wouldn't have mentioned
the subject to her, but she wanted to know all about it. It naturally
makes an awkward situation between you and her, doesn't it?"

"Oh, Victoria's level-headed enough," Mr. Crewe had answered; "I guess
she knows something about old Flint and his methods by this time. At any
rate, it won't make any difference with me," he added magnanimously, and
threw in his clutch. He had encircled Fairview in his drive that day, and
was, curiously enough, headed in that direction now. Slow to make up his
mind in some things, as every eligible man must be, he was now coming
rapidly to the notion that he might eventually decide upon Victoria as
the most fitting mate for one in his position. Still, there was no hurry.
As for going to Fairview House, that might be awkward, besides being open
to misconstruction by his constituents. Mr. Crewe reflected, as he rushed
up the hills, that he had missed Victoria since she had been abroad--and
a man so continually occupied as he did not have time to miss many
people. Mr. Crewe made up his mind he would encir