"Naturally enough, Gerty," said Maude. "Mrs. Creswell is one of the most ambitious women in the world, and this 'election thing,' as you call it, is to do her more good, and gain her higher position, than she ever dreamed of until she heard of it." "What a curious girl you are, Maude! How you do think of things! What makes you think that?" "Think it--I'm sure of it. I've noticed the difference in her manner, and the way in which she has thrown herself into this question more than any other since her marriage, and brought all her brains--and she has plenty--to uncle's help. Poor dear uncle!" "Ah, poor dear uncle! Do you think madam really cares for him?" "Cares for him? Yes, as a stepping-stone for herself, as a means to the end she requires." "Ah, Maude, how dreadful! But you know what I mean; do you think she loves him--you know?" "My dear Gerty, Marian Ashurst never loved anybody but one, and--" "Ah, I know who you mean; that man who kept the school--no, not kept the school, was usher to Mr. Ashurst--Mr.--Joyce: that was it. She was fond of him, wasn't she?" "She was engaged to him, if the report we heard was true; but as to fond of him--the only person Marian Ashurst ever cared for was--Marian Ashurst!--Who's there?" A figure glided past the open door, dimly seen in the waning light. But there was no response, and Gertrude's remark of "Only one of the servants" was almost drowned in the clanging summons of the dinner-bell. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE OPPORTUNITY. Mr. Bokenham did not improve in the estimation either of the constituency of Brocksopp, or of those in London who had the guidance of electioneering matters in the borough in the Liberal interest. The aspiring candidate was tolerably amenable at first, went down as often as the policy of such a course was suggested to him, and visited all the people whose names were on the list with which he was supplied; though his objectionable manner, and his evident lack of real interest in the place and its inhabitants, militated very much against his success. But after a little time he neglected even these slight means for cultivating popularity. A young man, with an excellent income, and with the prospect of a very large fortune on his father's death, has very little trouble in getting into such society as would be most congenial to him, more especially when that society is such as is most affected by the classes which he apes. Young Mr. Bokenham, whose chief desire in life was, as his sharp-seeing, keen-witted old father said of him, to "sink the shop," laid himself out especially for the company of men of birth and position, and he succeeded in hooking himself on to one of the fastest and most raffish sets in London. The fact that he was a _novus homo_, and that his father was "in trade," which had caused him to be held up to ridicule at Eton, and had rendered men shy of knowing him at Christchurch, had, he was delighted to perceive, no such effect in the great city.