When he returned home that night his mother wondered why his eyes were so bright and his voice so cheerful. "Have you heard good news, my boy?" she asked. "I feel that I'm going to win, mother," was his reply, and his words meant a great deal more to him than to her. CHAPTER X THE NEW MEMBER FOR BRUNFORD The day following the meeting at the railway station Paul saw Miss Bolitho in the streets of Brunford and to his delight she greeted him with a frank smile. "Have you begun your work of canvassing?" he said, with a laugh. "Not yet," she replied. "Indeed, I doubt whether I shall take any part in this contest. I have been engaged in a far more feminine occupation!" "Shopping?" asked Paul. She laughed in assent. "But I've finished now," she said. "I am just returning to Howden Clough." "Are you staying in Brunford long?" "No, I leave to-morrow." "May I walk back with you?" he asked, wondering at his own temerity. They went together some little distance without Paul speaking a word. He felt he had much to say to her, and yet, now that the opportunity had come, he was speechless. He noticed, too, that the people in the street were watching them, and doubtless many were commenting on the fact that he, who had no reason to be friendly with Mr. Bolitho, should be walking with his daughter. Once or twice he looked shyly towards her, and could not help thinking how utterly different she was from the girls of her own age who lived in Brunford. She seemed to have no connection with the town at all. Everything there was smoky and grimy and harsh. She seemed more like a country girl than a denizen of a town or city. Sometimes, when he had watched people in the market square selling violets, the incongruity had struck him. The violets brought in fresh from the country seemed utterly out of place in the grimy hands of these Northern people. As he looked at the young girl by his side he could not help thinking of the violets. "I want to apologise to you," he said at length. "I was rude to you when I met you in the fields near Howden Clough, and I've been angry with myself ever since. It is very good of you to forgive me. I don't deserve it."