but whom he had the power to
interest whether they approved of him or not. He had many friends among
women, some conquered by the magic of notoriety, others, like Flora
Thangue, sensible of his finer side, or tolerant of him through
life-long intimacy; and there were times when he was as alive to the
pleasures of their society as any young sprig about town; but to-night
their admiration was too illogical to administer to the self-love which
in the last few days had palpitated with so exquisite a sense of
fruition. Moreover, it gave him the keenest satisfaction to read in the
manner of these older and long-tried men the grudging belief in his own
sincerity.

In reality his motives for joining a party at war with every tradition
of his house had been, primarily, as mixed as are all motives that bring
about great voluntary changes in a man's life. It was quite true that
he was inordinately ambitious, that he had a distinct preference for the
sensational method, as productive of speedier results; for he had no
intention of waiting until middle-age for the activities and honors he
craved in his insatiable youth; and it was also true that he was even
more of an aristocrat than many of his class, with whom a simpler
attitude had become the fashion, even if it were not marrow-deep. But
the ruling motive had been his passionate love of battle, a trait
inherited perhaps from his pioneer ancestors, whose roots were in the
soil. This desire to prove his mettle and fill his life with the only
excitement worthy of his gifts, would alone have made him turn from the
broad ancestral paths, but, like a lawyer fascinated by his brief, he
had long since been heart and soul with the party he had chosen, and,
with the exercise of his faculties, become possessed of a mounting
desire not only to be of genuine use to his country, but to lift the
family name from the comparative obscurity where it had rested during
the half of a century.

The present head of the family had been an invalid in his early life,
and Italy had withered whatever ambitions may have pricked him in his
youth. When he finally found himself able to live the year round in
England he saw no fault in a nation so superior to any of his exile, and
he had settled down to the life of a country squire, devoted to sport,
and supremely satisfied with himself. His eldest son, an estimable young
man, who had worked at Christ Church as if he had been qualifying for a
statesman or a do