"You won't get many Polterham women to see it in that light," observed the widow. "This talk about the ascendency of England is just the thing to please them. They adore Dizzy, because he is a fop who has succeeded brilliantly; they despise Gladstone, because he is conscientious and an idealist. Surely I don't need to tell you this?" She leaned forward, smiling into his face. "Well," he exclaimed, with a laugh, "of course I can admit, if you like, that most women are _not_ worth anything politically. But why should I be uncivil?" Mrs. Wade answered in a low voice, strangely gentle. "Don't I know their silliness and worthlessness? What woman has more reason to be ashamed of her sex?" "Let us--hope!" "For the millennium--yes." Her eyes gleamed, and she went on in a more accustomed tone. "Women are the great reactionary force. In political and social matters their native baseness shows itself on a large scale. They worship the vulgar, the pretentious, the false. Here they will most of them pester their husbands to vote for Welwyn-Baker just because they hate change with the hatred of weak fear. Those of them who know anything at all about the Irish question are dead set against Ireland--simply because they are unimaginative and ungenerous; they can't sympathize with what seems a hopeless cause, and Ireland to them only suggests the dirty Irish of Polterham back streets. As for European war, the idiots are fond of drums and fifes and military swagger; they haven't brains enough to picture a battle-field." "You are severe, Mrs. Wade. I should never have ventured"---- "You are still afraid of telling _me_ the truth!" "Well, let us rejoice in the exceptions. Yourself, Lilian, my sister Mary, for instance." The widow let her eyes fall and kept silence. "We hope you will dine with us on Friday of next week," said Denzil. "Lilian posted you an invitation this morning. There will be a good many people." "Seriously then, I am to work for you, openly and vigorously?" "What a contemptible fellow I should be if I wished you to hold aloof!" He spoke sincerely, having overcome his misgivings of a short time ago. "The fight will be fought on large questions, you know. I want to win, but I have made up my mind to win honestly; it's a fortunate thing that I probably sha'n't be called upon to declare my views on a thousand side-issues." "Don't be so sure of that. Polterham is paltry, even amid national excitement." "Confound it! then I will say what I think, and risk it. If they want a man who will fight sincerely for the interests of the people, here he is! I'm on the side of the poor devils; I wish to see them better off; I wish to promote honest government, and chuck the selfish lubbers overboard. Forgive the briny phrase; you know why it comes natural to me." Mrs. Wade gave him her kindest smile. "You will win, no doubt of it; and not this battle only." She rose, and half turned away. "By-the-bye, shall you be able to finish your book?"