Now what attraction could there be in such a place as Haworth for a stranger from London unless it were the attraction of the Brontës? So I reasoned; and reasoned, as it appeared, most erroneously. "Oh, no," he said, in reply to my question, "I didn't go to Haworth because of the Brontës. In fact, I knew nothing about them when I went there, but my friends gave me a book to read about them, and I tried to read it. It was written by somebody called Wemyss Reid, but I thought it a poor book." I knew that my friend the landlord was quite certain to tell the stranger my name, and I thought it better to take the bull by the horns, and reveal the truth to him. So, as gently as I could, and with a keen appreciation of the good story with which I saw that he had furnished me, I made him understand that I was the culprit who had produced that poor book. He took the revelation so much to heart that I really regretted having made it, and it was not until after more than an hour's talk on irrelevant topics that I eased him, as I hope, of his pain and mortification, and induced him to join me in laughing at the extraordinary stroke of ill-fortune by which I was the first person to whom he innocently revealed his bad opinion of my book. Perhaps the incident taught him to be more cautious ever afterwards in the expression of his literary verdicts, at all events when in the company of a chance acquaintance. It must be confessed that in this case the doctrine of coincidences upon which I have touched in a former chapter was not so pleasant in its application as it usually is. For my part, I have always recalled that breakfast with keen delight. CHAPTER XVII. TO THE DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT (1885). More Antagonism towards Forster--A Household Suffrage Demonstration at Leeds--A Meeting at the Carlton Club and a Coincidence--Forster and "the most Powerful Man in Europe"--Single-Member Constituencies and the Cumulative Vote--Dynamite Outrages--Police Protection for Statesmen--I Receive Threatening Letters and Get a Fright--Death of Lord Houghton--Lord Derby and how he was Misunderstood--An Unconventional Dinner at Lord Houghton's--A Visit to Tangier--In Peril of the Sea--Gibraltar "a Magnificent Imposture"--Captain W. and the M.P.--To the North Cape--Cheering a Funeral Party--News of Mr. Gladstone's Overthrow--Home Again.