It took a great deal to disconcert Farnborough. 'Some of us were arguing in the smoking-room last night,' he said, 'whether it didn't hurt a candidate's chances going about in a motor.' As Mr. Stonor, not deigning to reply to this, paused the merest instant in what he was saying to his hostess, Lord John came to the rescue of the audacious young gentleman. 'Yes, we've been hearing a great many stories about the unpopularity of motor-cars--among the class that hasn't got 'em, of course.' 'I'm sure,' Lady John put in, 'you gain more votes by being able to reach so many more of your constituents than we used----' 'Well, I don't know,' said Stonor. 'I've sometimes wondered whether the charm of our presence wasn't counterbalanced by the way we tear about smothering our fellow-beings in dust and running down their pigs and chickens,--not to speak of their children.' 'What on the whole are the prospects?' Lord John asked. 'We shall have to work harder than we realized,' Stonor answered gravely. Farnborough let slip an 'Ah, I said so!' meant for Lady John, and then before Stonor's raised eyes, the over-zealous young politician retreated towards the window--but with hands in his pockets and head held high, like one who has made his mark. And so in truth he had. For Lady John let drop one or two good-natured phrases--what he had done, his hero-worship, his mother had been a Betham--Yes, he was one of the Farnboroughs of Moore Abbey. Though Stonor made no comment beyond a dry, 'The staple product of this country, young men like that!'--it appeared later that Lady John's good offices in favour of a probable nephew-in-law had not been invoked in vain. Despite the menace of 'the irrelevant' dotting the lawn immediately outside the windows, the little group on the farther side of the hall still stood there talking in low tones with the sense of intimacy which belongs to a family party. Jean had slipped her arm in her uncle's, and was smiling at Stonor-- 'He says he believes I'll be able to make a real difference to his chances,' she said, half aside. 'Isn't it angelic of him?' 'Angelic?' laughed the great man. 'Macchiavellian. I pin all my hopes on your being able to counteract the pernicious influence of my opponent's glib wife.' 'You want me to have a real share in it all, don't you, Geoffrey?' 'Of course I do.' He smiled into her eyes. That moth Farnborough, whirling in the political effulgence, was again hovering on the outskirts. He even made conversation to Mrs. Heriot, as an excuse to remain inside the window. 'But you don't mean seriously,' Lord John asked his guest, 'you don't mean, do you, that there's any possible complication about _your_ seat?' 'Oh, I dare say it's all right'--Stonor drew a Sunday paper out of his pocket. 'There's this agitation about the Woman Question. Oddly enough, it seems as if it might--there's just the off-chance--it _might_ affect the issue.'