"That's how things happen," said Cynthia, and this time she uttered the phrase with relief. "When you know people very well, you cease to notice the changes, you lose count of how they look. But when we first met at Ludsey he did claim to recognize me, though he could not fix upon the place or time. I have no doubt it was because of that picture." Harry Rames agreed. None of Colonel Challoner's suspicions had even occurred to him. He drifted off to the great subject. "Devenish won't be idle, Cynthia," he said. "No," answered Cynthia. "He gives me the impression that even on his death-bed he would be quick about it." And on the Tuesday morning, the very day after they had reached home, the _Times_ brought Harry Rames news which sent him out of his study in search of his wife. "Look, Cynthia," he said and he handed to her the paper. Cynthia read the paragraph at which he pointed. "Mr. Devenish returned to London on Sunday evening and putting off two deputations which had been arranged for Tuesday left London hurriedly on Monday afternoon to join the Prime-Minister in Scotland." Cynthia laid down the paper with a genuine sense of consternation. She was astonished to realize how much she now longed for the success of Harry's rather dingy plot. Fear was written upon her face. "That means--?" she said. "That we must look out," replied Rames. He laughed a little as a man will when the joy of battle is upon him. "Lucky Devenish can't get at my constituency. I don't know that he would try to in any case. But he can't. "You have Arthur Pynes with you." "Yes. And I pledged myself before I was elected to resign at once if any responsible number of my supporters objected to any action I thought it my duty to take in the House. Do you see, Cynthia?" and he laughed again. "That pledge is my safeguard. I thought it would be when I made it. If any one tries to put pressure upon me, I can always point to that pledge. I can always ask whether they would like me to resign." "Suppose they said yes," cried Cynthia in alarm. Harry Rames grinned. "I'd get in again if they did. I'd keep nine-tenths of my own people and get a good lot of the other fellow's because of my independence. But they won't! No one wants a by-election at Ludsey. Ludsey is too busy." "I suppose that's true," said Cynthia with a smile of relief. Once more she had occasion to recognize the accuracy of her husband's foresight. But there was a little change. The recognition was no longer accompanied with regret that the foresight was not being used in a higher cause. She was simply relieved that on this side at all events the great career was not open to attack. Rames took a turn across the room and stopped at the window. "But I wonder what his next move will be," he said. In a month he knew. The movement was swift and dramatic. Rames was summoned to London by a letter from the Prime-Minister. He travelled up from Ludsey in the morning; he reached home again in time for dinner.