Fan was growing elated at the turn events were taking, and the precedence thrust on Oliver which he could no longer escape accepting. And if he accepted it, he must needs lose sight of his hobby and step involuntarily, as it were, to a vantage ground from which it would hardly be possible for him to retreat afterwards. Mr. Hartley was the Liberal member largely upheld by the tradespeople, who not merely approved of his principles—which, though they had never come to the front before, were unlike his practice, and belonged to his trade descent and trade interests—but were proud of him as a tradesman himself. Still no doubt it was on so gigantic a scale and with such advantages that the ordinary lineaments of his class were a good deal effaced, and that it was out of the question for him to fraternise with the smaller fry. He was also, through his personal antecedents, habits and predilections, and notably through his marriage with Lady Cicely, at one with the opposite side—supported by the great bulk of the professional men who were apt to be more Conservative than the Conservative county gentry and Conservative nobility to whose skirts the professional men clung. It was no matter that John Hartley was fighting in a political battle against Colonel Hastings, the head of the ancient house of Hastings of Westmote and the nephew of the Marquis of Saltmarsh. The strife in its greatest keenness was conducted with the courtesy of gentlemen. Between their electioneering bouts, the men met not merely as amicable foes, but as social allies in the houses of their common acquaintances. John Hartley and Colonel Hastings agreed to differ. They were more than familiar with each other’s faces. They were members of the same clubs—if not of the Reform and Carlton—of the Alpine and Travellers’ Clubs, and Colonel Hastings was married to an old neighbour and early friend of Lady Cicely Hartley’s. Therefore it could not be held that Oliver Constable was necessarily consigning himself to farther fraternity with the lower orders when he espoused the cause of John Hartley. But had he espoused the cause? All at once, with the thrill of a shock—not only to Fan and the Hartleys, but to the whole Liberal party—including the defaulter’s fellow-tradesmen, nay, to the very Conservatives, who gave the newcomer only a half-hearted gibing welcome, as to an erratic wavering adherent, who was not at all to be depended upon—Oliver marched over with his single vote to the enemy.