"We want something done to correct the impression that has been made. You and I know perfectly well that the vast majority of workshops work factory-hours and an average of four and a half days a week. You have just had personal experience, and you can write. Will you do three or four signed articles for the 'Reporter' this week or next? Of course the office will give you every help." George considered. "I think not," he said presently, looking up. "I shouldn't do it well. Perhaps I have become too conscious of the exceptions--the worst cases. Frankly, the whole thing has become more of a problem to me than it was." Fontenoy moved, and grunted uneasily. "Does that mean," he said at last, in his harshest manner, "that you will feel any difficulty in--?" "In voting? No. I shall vote right enough. I am all for delay. This particular Bill doesn't convince me any more than it did. But I don't want to take a strong public part just at present." The two men eyed each other in silence. "I thought there was something brewing," said Fontenoy at last. "Well, I'm not sorry to have had these few words," was George's reply, after a pause. "I wanted to tell you that, though I shall vote, I don't think I shall speak much more. I don't believe I'm the stuff people in Parliament ought to be made of. I shall be remorseful presently for having led you into a mistake!" He forced a smile. "I made no mistake," said Fontenoy, grimly, and departed. Then, as he walked down the corridor, he completed his sentence--"except in not seeing that you were the kind of man to be made a fool of by women!" First of all, a hasty marriage with a silly girl who could be no help to him or to the cause; now, according to Watton--who had called upon Fontenoy that morning, at his private house, to discuss various matters of business--the Lady-Maxwell fever in a pronounced form. Most likely. It was the best explanation. The leader's own sense of annoyance and disappointment was considerable. There was no man for whom he had felt so much personal liking as for Tressady since the fight began. Somewhere before midnight the division on the second reading was taken, amid all those accompaniments of crowd, expectation, and commotion, that are usually evoked by the critical points of a contested measure. The majority for Government was forty-four--less by twenty-four votes than its normal figure. As the cheers and counter-cheers subsided, George found himself borne into the Lobby with the crowd pouring out of the House. As he approached the door leading to the outer lobby, a lady in front of him turned. George received a lightning impression of beauty, of a kind of anxious joy, and recognised Marcella Maxwell. She held out her hand. "Well, the first stage is over!" she said. "Yes, and well over," he said, smiling. "But you have shed a great many men already."