afraid there can be
only one explanation."

"That is our _honourable_ member, my dear!" threw out Mrs. Mumbray.
"These are Radical principles--in man and woman. Why, I am told that
scarcely a day passed without Mrs. Wade calling at the house."

"And they tell me that _he_ was frequently at _hers_!"

"That poor young wife! Oh, it is shameful! The matter oughtn't to end
here. Something ought to be done. If that man is allowed to keep his
seat"----

Many were the conjectures put forward and discussed throughout the day,
but this of Mrs. Mumbray's--started of course in several
quarters--found readiest acceptance in Conservative circles. Mrs. Wade
was obviously the cause of what had happened--no wonder she fainted at
the inquest; no wonder she hid herself in her cottage! When she
ventured to come out, virtuous Polterham would let her know its mind.
Quarrier shared in the condemnation, but not even political animosity
dealt so severely with him as social opinion did with Mrs. Wade.

Mr. Chown--who would on no account have been seen in a place of
worship--went about all day among his congenial gossips, and scornfully
contested the rumour that Quarrier's relations with Mrs. Wade would not
bear looking into. At the house of Mr. Murgatroyd, the Radical dentist,
he found two or three friends who were very anxious not to think evil
of their victorious leader, but felt wholly at a loss for satisfactory
explanations. Mr. Vawdrey, the coal-merchant, talked with gruff
discontent.

"I don't believe there's been anything wrong; I couldn't think
it--neither of him nor her. But I do say it's a lesson to you men who
go in for Female Suffrage. Now, this is just the kind of thing that 'ud
always be happening. If there isn't wrong-doing, there'll be
wrong-speaking. Women have no business in politics, that's the plain
moral of it. Let them keep at home and do their duty."

"Humbug!" cried Mr. Chown, who cared little for the graces of dialogue.
"A political principle is not to be at the mercy of party scandal. I,
for my part, have never maintained that women were ripe for public
duties but Radicalism involves the certainty that they some day will
be. The fact of the matter is that Mrs. Quarrier was a woman of
unusually feeble physique. We all know--those of us, at all events, who
keep up with the science of the day--that the mind is entirely
dependent upon the body--entirely!" He looked round, daring his friends
to contradict this. "Mr