The voice was Harding Watton's. That observant young man advanced bowing, and holding out his hand to Lady Maxwell. When Marcella had drifted once more into the fast-melting crowd, George found himself face to face with Letty. She was very white, and stared at him with wide, passionate eyes. And on the way home George, with all his efforts, could not keep the peace. Letty flung at him a number of bitter and insulting things that he found very hard to bear. "What do you want me to do?" he said to her at last, impatiently. "I have hardly spoken six sentences to Lady Maxwell, since the meeting, till tonight--I suppose because you wished it. But neither you nor anyone else shall make me rude to her. Don't be such a fool, Letty! Make friends with her, and you will be ashamed of saying or even thinking such things." Whereat Letty burst into hysterical tears, and he soon found himself involved in all the remorseful, inconsequent speeches to which a man in such a plight feels himself driven. She allowed herself to be calmed, and they had a dreary making-up. When it was over, however, George was left with the uneasy conviction that he knew very little of his wife. She was not of a nature to let any slight to her go unpunished. What was she planning? What would she do? CHAPTER XVII "Hullo! Are you come back?" The speaker was George Tressady. He was descending the steps of his club in Fall Mall, and found his arm caught by Naseby, who had just dismissed his hansom outside. "I came back last night. Are you going homewards? I'll walk across the Square with you." The two men turned into St. James's Square, and Naseby resumed: "Yes, we had a most lively campaign. Maxwell spoke better than I ever heard him." "The speeches have been excellent reading, too. And you had good meetings?" "Splendid! The country is rallying, I can tell you. The North is now strong for Maxwell and the Bill--or seems to be." "Just as we are going to kick it out in the House! It's very queer--for no one could tell, a month ago, how the big towns were going. And it looked as though London even were deserting them." "A mere wave, I think. At least, I'll bet you anything they'll win this Stepney election. Shall we get the division on the hours clause to-morrow?" "They say so." "If you know your own interests, you'll hurry up," said Naseby, smiling. "The country is going against you." "I imagine Fontenoy has got his eye on the country! He's been letting the Socialists talk nonsense till now to frighten the steady-going old fellows on the other side or putting up our men to mark time. But I saw yesterday there was a change." "Between ourselves, hasn't he been talking a good deal of nonsense on his own account?"