,
especially in such a pretty one as yours; and there is no doubt that you
are a more imposing figure in the eyes of the world to-day than you were
a week ago. Are you really indifferent to that side of it?"

"Am I? One does such a lot of self-posing and self-imposition. There are
few things in this world that gratify a man's vanity more than being a
peer of Great Britain, and, no doubt, had I happened to be born without
what you might call a fighting ambition, and certain abilities, I
should--barring natural grief--feel that I was one of the favorites of
destiny--that is to say if I had a commensurate income. The fact that I
must let the Abbey and Capheaton, and after portioning off all the
unmarried women of the family, shall have barely enough left to keep up
my flat in Charles Street, may have something to do with my absence of
enthusiasm. But--yes--I _am_ sure of myself!" he burst out. "I am the
most miserable man on earth to-night, and the reason is not that I have
lost two good friends, but because my career is ruined, broken off in
the middle."

"You could become a militant Liberal peer."

"Paradoxes don't happen to appeal to me. And the only chance for a
genuine fighter is the House of Commons. Besides, it is impossible for a
man to be a peer and remain a true Liberal. Power, and inherited
influence, and exalted social position have a deadly insinuation. I
don't believe any man is strong enough to withstand them. There is never
an hour that a peer is not reminded of his difference from the mass of
humanity; and human nature is too weak to resist complacency in the
end--long before the end. And complacency is the premature old age of
the brain and character. If this tragedy had not occurred, even if my
grandfather had lived on for fifteen years more, as there was every
reason to believe he would, I might have gone on that much longer before
discovering weak points in my character. Now God knows what I shall
develop."

"Have you made any plans?"

"Plans? I hadn't faced the situation until you spoke."

"You have weak spots like other people, of course. You would be a horrid
prig if you hadn't. But you surely must know if your Liberalism is
sincere, ingrained. There is no question that you are a hopeless
aristocrat in essentials. But so have been certain of America's greatest
patriots--Washington and Hamilton, for instance. I do not see that it
matters. One can hold to what seems to me the first principles o