She had treasured up little acts of thoughtfulness on Harry Rames's part, the merest small things which women are quick to notice and to build upon; such as having a cloak ready for her shoulders almost before she was aware that she was cold. She ran these trifles over in her mind, clutching at them for proof that the longed for change was coming--nay, perhaps had come. There had been a constant watchfulness, a constant care for her shown by her husband during this last year. It might be of course that a certain remorse was stirring in him--remorse that he was only keeping his side of the bargain in the letter and not the spirit. "But I cannot let him go," she insisted. The perils, the hardships, the dangers of snow-storms and cold and shipwreck and famine which had all seemed so trivial to her in her days of romance now loomed up before her terrible and dark. It was no use to argue that other men had gone that road and had come back. This one might not. She reached her home with her distress as heavy upon her as when she had set out; and was told that Mr. Benoliel was waiting to see her. She went at once into the drawing-room and gave Mr. Benoliel some tea. "Will you tell Mr. Rames," she said to her butler, "that Mr. Benoliel is here." "He's not in the house," said Benoliel. "He's in Ludsey. I asked for him when I heard that you were out. I am glad. For I should like to tell you my news first." The butler left the room and Mr. Benoliel became at once mysterious and omniscient. "Sir George Carberley is going to resign," he said. Cynthia looked at him in surprise. "The member for our division?" The white house was not within the borough limits of Ludsey. It stood in the Hickleton Division of the county of Warwickshire and Sir George Carberley, an important unit of the opposition, was Harry Rames's representative in the House of Commons. "Yes," said Mr. Benoliel. "He has sat for the division for forty years now and he is tired. He intends to resign when this session is over." "Are you sure?" asked Cynthia. "How do you know this?" "Ah!" said Benoliel with a smile. "You mustn't ask me that, Cynthia. Indeed I am not quite sure that I ought to have told you the news at all. But I thought that it was so important for you to know it at once that I stretched a point of confidence." "Thank you," said Cynthia. "But what I don't understand is why it is so important for us to have the news before the others?" "Captain Rames is on the executive of your association, isn't he?" "Yes." "Then he will have a voice in the selection of the candidate who will fight the seat from your political point of view." "Of course."