"There are some things, gentlemen, on which a Democrat cannot swerve, and I cannot see, with due deference to the mixed opinion before me, how a Democrat could have answered other than I did." Here doubts of grammar rushed into his mind and he was silent. The wizened little man said: "That's all roight," and the barber beamed at him. The clergyman, rising, said: "Well, Mr. Clutterbuck, you've done us a great honour by meeting us, I'm sure.... We shall have to consider our decision. We will let you know, Mr. Clutterbuck. May I have the honour and the pleasure of shaking you by the hand?" Mr. Clutterbuck accorded him this felicity, and repeated it in the case of every other member of the crescent; they had now broken their formation and were standing in various attitudes before him, the lady with a notable pride which became her female representative position, her husband with an extremely quiet dignity. The ordeal was over. As Charlie Fitzgerald and he went out past the elephant and the dead stove into the open air, and when they were well out of earshot, Mr. Clutterbuck asked nervously: "Was that all right, Mr. Fitzgerald?" For answer Fitzgerald felt in his breast pocket, looked really anxious and said: "Good God! I forgot to post that letter." "What letter?" asked Mr. Clutterbuck, a little pale. "Nothing," said Fitzgerald, "nothing." He walked quickly to a pillar-box a few steps off, and dropped into it the envelope addressed to the United Sons of Endeavour which he should have posted the night before: his omission accounted for much, but he had rectified it and he knew that all would be well. "It's all right," he said, slogging back, "but I was a big fool to forget it. That's the worst of being an Irishman," he added genially. Mr. Clutterbuck was quite at sea. "But is it all _right_, Mr. Fitzgerald?" he insisted. "It's all right _now_," said Fitzgerald. He hit his employer fairly in the back, jumped into the car and shouted for home. Four days after a letter came to Caterham from the Acting Secretary of the Mickleton National Executive Deputation to choose. It spoke in warm terms of Mr. Clutterbuck's character and genius, admitted differences of opinion upon more than one point and severely informed him at its close that he was admitted to the full title of Prospective National Candidate. CHAPTER VI In the height of that splendid London season which had seen Mr. Clutterbuck's introduction to Mrs. Smith's delightful circle, a little thing had happened at Podger's Wharf in the neighbourhood of Nine Elms upon the south side of the river. A gentleman of the name of Peake employed by Messrs. Harman and James, barge and transport masters, to pump and swab out the bilge of the "Queen of Denmark," certified to carry 182 tons of merchandise, and of due cubic capacity for that burthen, discovered himself unable to reach the vessel on account of the intervening mud and the accident of an exceptionally low tide.