Fitzgerald, wisely remembering his cousin's somewhat petulant advice, sent no warning before him, but turned up at Downing Street a little before four. His reception was very cordial. They had known each other from the time when Charlie was in petticoats, a baby, in and out of Mary Smith's house in the height of its splendour, and the Prime Minister a young man, almost a boy himself, fresh from his victory in the Isle of Dogs and the idol of that Free Trade Unionist section which he had since triumphantly transformed into the National Party after his acceptance of the Round Table Tariff in 1909. Charlie did not waste five minutes in coming to the point, and he put it with a simplicity that did him honour. He let the head of the Government talk upon the bigness of the Mickleton election and upon the way in which it had caught the Press, and when it was his turn to speak he quietly took it for granted that Mr. Clutterbuck's name would appear among the New Year's honours. But there was a great deal more in the Prime Minister than met the naked eye; he shook his head with a determination of which the ballast was his big bulging forehead with its rare wisp of hair, and he said: "All that's been thought about, Charlie." Fitzgerald got quite red. He saw danger and was annoyed. "You _are_ making a fuss," he said. "No, I'm not," said the Prime Minister kindly. "You don't mean to say you're not going to do it?" said Fitzgerald. "Of course we are, but not before the House meets. It would bind us. It can't be done," he said. "You mean 't'd look like reversing the judgment by statute?" "Charlie," said the other, somewhat gravely, "you're too old to ask 'why.'" He smiled at him a little quizzically. "Then when you mean to do it?" said Fitzgerald. "Oh, I really don't know." The Prime Minister had occasion to go out, and they went out together, but Charlie, when he left him a few moments later, was feeling a good many things. He was feeling that he had weakened his own position in one house at least, and that he had done it for nothing; and he determined that a lowering of position like that could not be tolerated. He easily saw the way to repair it. He would begin to put on the screw. To Mr. Clutterbuck that evening he simply said the Prime Minister had been most delightful and had met him halfway, and had taken the whole thing for granted, but said of course there must be a little delay. "Of course," said Mr. Clutterbuck, "of course." In this intimacy he talked about the matter quite frankly. "I quite understand; there's a whole fortnight." "Yes," said Charlie Fitzgerald. It was the 15th of December. * * * * * It is not the custom in this country for men whom the Sovereign is pleased to honour to make a vulgar boast of their advancement; but it is inevitable that an approaching accession of social rank should be expected by the immediate circle of the recipient.