ve been throwing money away, but that shall stop;
there'll be no need for it when my nerves are put in tone."

"Well, it strikes me in a comical light, but you must act as you think
best. I'll go to work for you. It's a pity I stand so much apart, but I
suppose my name is worth something. The Radicals have often tried to
draw me into their camp, and of course it's taken for granted that I am
rather for than against them. By-the-bye, what is the date? Ah! that's
fortunate. To-morrow I am booked to take the chair at the Institute; a
lecture--I don't know by whom, or about what. A good opportunity for
setting things astir."

"Then you do take some part in town life?"

"Most exceptional thing. I must have refused to lecture and to
chairmanize twenty times. But those fellows are persistent; they caught
me in a weak moment a few days ago. I suppose you realize the kind of
speechifying that would be expected of you? Are you prepared to blaze
away against Beaconsfield, and all that sort of thing?"

"I'm not afraid. There are more sides to my character than you suppose."

Eustace spoke excitedly, and tossed off a glass of liqueur. His manner
had become more youthful than of wont; his face showed more colour.

"The fact is," he went on, "if I talk politics at all, I can manage the
Radical standpoint much more easily than the Tory. I have precious
little sympathy with anything popular, that's true; but it's easier for
me to adopt the heroic strain of popular leaders than to put my own
sentiments into the language of squires and parsons. I should feel I
was doing a baser thing if I talked vulgar Toryism than in roaring the
democratic note. Do you understand?"

"I have an inkling of what you mean."

Eustace refilled the little glass.

"Of course," he went on, "my true life stands altogether outside
popular contention. I am an artist, though only half-baked But I admit
most heartily that our form of government is a good one--the most
favourable that exists to individual freedom. We are ruled by the
balance of two parties; neither could do without the other. This being
the case, a man of my mind may conscientiously support either side.
Nowadays neither is a foe to liberty; we know that party tall-talk
means nothing--mere playing to the gallery. If I throw whatever weight
I represent into the Liberal scales, I am only helping, like every
other Member of Parliament, to maintain the constitutional equilibrium.
You see, this vie