"I cannot possibly show discourtesy to one who has been nothing but kindness to me, as she is to scores of others--to old friends like Edward Watton, or new ones like--" "She wants your vote, of course!" threw in Letty, with an excited laugh. "_Either_ she is a flirt--_or_ she wants your vote. Why should she take so much notice of you? She isn't your side--she wants to get hold of you--and it makes you ridiculous. People just laugh at you and her!" She turned upon him passionately. A little more, and the wish to say the wounding, venomous thing would have grown like a madness upon her. But George kept his self-possession. "Well, they may laugh," he said, with a strong effort to speak good-humouredly. "But politics aren't managed like that, as you and they will find out. Votes are not so simple as they sound." He got up and walked away from her as he spoke. As usual, his mood was beginning to cool. He saw no way out. They must both accept the _status quo_. No radical change was possible. It is character that makes circumstance, and character is inexorable. "Well, of course I didn't altogether believe that you would really be such a fool, and wreck all your prospects!" said Letty, violently, her feverish eyes intent the while on her husband and on the thin fingers once more busied with the cigarette. "There now! I think we have had enough of this! It doesn't seem to have led to much, does it?" "No," said George, coolly; "but perhaps we shall come to see more alike in time. I don't want to tyrannise--only to show you what I think. Shall I carry up your cloak for you?" He approached her punctiliously. Letty gathered her wraps upon her arm in a disdainful silence, warding him off with a gesture. As he opened the door for her she turned upon him: "You talk of my extravagance, but you never seem to consider what you might do to make up to me for the burden of being your mother's relation! You expect me to put up with the annoyance and ridicule of belonging to her--and to let her spend all your money besides. I give you fair warning that I sha'n't do it! I shall try and spend it on my side, that she sha'n't get it." She was perfectly conscious that she was behaving like a vixenish child, but she could not restrain herself. This strange new sense that she could neither bend nor conquer him was becoming more than she could bear. George looked at her, half inclined to shake her first, and then insist on making friends. He was conscious that he could probably assert himself with success if he tried. But the impulse failed him. He merely said, without any apparent temper, "Then I shall have to see if I can invent some way of protecting both myself and you." She flung through the door, and almost ran through the long passage to the stairs, in a sobbing excitement. A sudden thought struck George as he stood looking after her. He pursued her, caught her at the foot of the stairs, and held her arm strongly.