‘So you could, Maude, but I want you too--I shall want you to copy out parts of Atlee’s last letter, which I wish to place before the Foreign Office Secretary. He ought to see what his protégé Brumsey is making of it. These are the idiots who get us into foreign wars, or those apologetic movements in diplomacy, which are as bad as lost battles. What a contrast to Atlee--a rare clever dog, Atlee--and so awake, not only to one, but to every contingency of a case. I like that fellow--I like a fellow that stops all the earths! Your half-clever ones never do that; they only do enough to prolong the race; they don’t win it. That bright relative of ours--Cecil--is one of those. Give Atlee Walpole’s chances, and where would he be?’ A very faint colour tinged her cheek as she listened, but did not speak. ‘That’s the real way to put it,’ continued he, more warmly. ‘Say to Atlee, “You shall enter public life without any pressing need to take office for a livelihood; you shall have friends able to push you with one party, and relations and connections with the Opposition, to save you from unnecessary cavil or question; you shall be well introduced socially, and have a seat in the House before--” What’s his age? five-and-twenty?’ ‘I should say about three-and-twenty, my lord; but it is a mere guess.’ ‘Three-and-twenty is he? I suspect you are right--he can’t be more. But what a deal the fellow has crammed for that time--plenty of rubbish, no doubt: old dramatists and such like; but he is well up in his treaties; and there’s not a speaker of eminence in the House that he cannot make contradict himself out of Hansard.’ ‘Has he any fortune?’ sighed she, so lazily that it scarcely sounded as a question. ‘I suppose not.’ ‘Nor any family?’ ‘Brothers and sisters he may have--indeed, he is sure to have; but if you mean connections--belonging to persons of admitted station--of course he has not. The name alone might show it.’ Another little sigh, fainter than before, followed, and all was still. ‘Five years hence, if even so much, the plebeian name and the unknown stock will be in his favour; but we have to wade through a few dreary measures before that. I wish he was in the House--he ought to be in the House.’ ‘Is there a vacancy?’ said she lazily. ‘Two. There is Cradford, and there is that Scotch place--the something-Burg, which, of course, one of their own people will insist on.’ ‘Couldn’t he have Cradford?’ asked she, with a very slight animation. ‘He might--at least if Brand knew him, he’d see he was the man they wanted. I almost think I’ll write a line to Brand, and send him some extracts of the last letter. I will--here goes.’ ‘If you’ll tell me--’