habit of constantly pulling down his
waistcoat, "I can't say that I should regret to be called upon to vote
for a really advanced man. But I may say--I really must say--and I
think Mr. Wykes will support me--I think Mr. Vawdrey will bear me
out--that it wouldn't be easy to find a candidate who would unite all
suffrages in the way that Mr. Liversedge does. We have to remember"----

"Well," broke in the coal-merchant, with his muffled bass, "if any one
cares to know what I think, I should say that we want a local man, a
popular man, and a Christian man. I don't know whom you would set up in
preference to Liversedge; but Liversedge suits me well enough. If the
Tories are going to put forward such a specimen as Hugh Welwyn-Baker, a
gambler, a drinker, and a profligate, I don't know, I say, who would
look better opposed to him than Toby Liversedge."

Mr. Chown could not restrain himself.

"I fail altogether to see what Christianity has to do with politics!
Christianity is all very well, but where will you find it? Old
Welwyn-Baker calls himself a Christian, and so does his son. And I
suppose the Rev. Scatchard Vialls calls himself a Christian! Let us
have done with this disgusting hypocrisy! I say with all
deliberation--I affirm it--that Radicalism must break with religion
that has become a sham! Radicalism is a religion in itself. We have no
right--no right, I say--to impose any such test as Mr. Vawdrey insists
upon!"

"I won't quarrel about names," returned Vawdrey, stolidly, "What I
meant to say was that we must have a man of clean life, a moral man."

"And do you imply," cried Chown, "that such men are hard to find among
Radicals?"

"I rather think they're hard to find anywhere nowadays."

Mr. Wykes had made a gesture requesting attention, and was about to
speak, when a boy came up to him and held out a telegram.

"What's this?" murmured the Secretary, as he opened the envelope.
"Well, well, how very annoying! Our lecturer of to-morrow evening can't
possibly keep his engagement. No reason given; says he will write."

"Another blank evening!" exclaimed Chown. "This is most unsatisfactory,
I must say."

"We must fill it up," replied the Secretary. "I have an idea; it
connects with something I was on the point of saying." He looked round
the room cautiously, but saw only a young lad bent over an illustrated
paper. "There is some one," he continued, subduing his voice, "who
might possibly be willing to stand if