It took a great deal to disconcert Farnborough. "Some of us were arguing in the smoking-room last night," he said, "whether it didn"t hurt a candidate"s chances going about in a motor."
As Mr. Stonor, not deigning to reply to this, paused the merest instant in what he was saying to his hostess, Lord John came to the rescue of the audacious young gentleman.
"Yes, we"ve been hearing a great many stories about the unpopularity of motor-cars--among the cla.s.s that hasn"t got "em, of course."
"I"m sure," Lady John put in, "you gain more votes by being able to reach so many more of your const.i.tuents than we used----"
"Well, I don"t know," said Stonor. "I"ve sometimes wondered whether the charm of our presence wasn"t counterbalanced by the way we tear about smothering our fellow-beings in dust and running down their pigs and chickens,--not to speak of their children."
"What on the whole are the prospects?" Lord John asked.
"We shall have to work harder than we realized," Stonor answered gravely.
Farnborough let slip an "Ah, I said so!" meant for Lady John, and then before Stonor"s raised eyes, the over-zealous young politician retreated towards the window--but with hands in his pockets and head held high, like one who has made his mark. And so in truth he had. For Lady John let drop one or two good-natured phrases--what he had done, his hero-worship, his mother had been a Betham--Yes, he was one of the Farnboroughs of Moore Abbey. Though Stonor made no comment beyond a dry, "The staple product of this country, young men like that!"--it appeared later that Lady John"s good offices in favour of a probable nephew-in-law had not been invoked in vain.
Despite the menace of "the irrelevant" dotting the lawn immediately outside the windows, the little group on the farther side of the hall still stood there talking in low tones with the sense of intimacy which belongs to a family party.
Jean had slipped her arm in her uncle"s, and was smiling at Stonor--
"He says he believes I"ll be able to make a real difference to his chances," she said, half aside. "Isn"t it angelic of him?"
"Angelic?" laughed the great man. "Macchiavellian. I pin all my hopes on your being able to counteract the pernicious influence of my opponent"s glib wife."
"You want me to have a real share in it all, don"t you, Geoffrey?"
"Of course I do." He smiled into her eyes.
That moth Farnborough, whirling in the political effulgence, was again hovering on the outskirts. He even made conversation to Mrs. Heriot, as an excuse to remain inside the window.
"But you don"t mean seriously," Lord John asked his guest, "you don"t mean, do you, that there"s any possible complication about _your_ seat?"
"Oh, I dare say it"s all right"--Stonor drew a Sunday paper out of his pocket. "There"s this agitation about the Woman Question. Oddly enough, it seems as if it might--there"s just the off-chance--it _might_ affect the issue."
"Affect it? How? G.o.d bless my soul!" Lord John"s transparent skin flushed up to his white hair. "Don"t tell me any responsible person is going even to consider the lunacy of tampering with the British Const.i.tution----"
"We _have_ heard that suggested, though for better reasons," Stonor laughed, but not Lord John.
"Turn over the destinies of the Empire," he said hotly, "to a lot of ignorant women just because a few of "em have odious manners and violent tongues!" The sight of Stonor"s cool impa.s.sivity calmed him somewhat. He went on more temperately. "Every sane person sees that the only trouble with England to-day is that too many ignorant people have votes already."
"The penalty we pay for being more republican than the Republics."
Lord John had picked up the Sunday paper and glanced down a column.
"If the worst came to the worst, you can do what the other four hundred have done."
"Easily! But the mere fact that four hundred and twenty members have been worried into promising support--and then, once in the House, have let the matter severely alone----"
"Let it alone?" Lord John burst out again. "I should think so indeed!"
"Yes," laughed Stonor, "only it"s a device that"s somewhat worn."
"Still," Lord John put on a Macchiavellian air that sat rather incongruously on his honest English face, "Still, if they think they"re getting a future Cabinet Minister on their side----"
"It will be sufficiently embarra.s.sing for the Cabinet Minister."
Stonor caught sight of Farnborough approaching and lowered his voice. He leaned his elbow on the end of the wide mantelpiece and gave his attention exclusively to Lord John, seeming to ignore even the pretty girl who still stood by her uncle with a hand slipped through his arm.
"n.o.body says much about it," Stonor went on, "but it"s realized that the last Labour member, and that Colne Valley Socialist--those men got in largely through the tireless activity of the women."
"The Suffragettes!" exclaimed the girl, "_they_ were able to do that?"
"They"re always saying they don"t favour _any_ party," said a voice.
Stonor looked up, and, to Jean"s obvious relief, refrained from snubbing the irrepressible Farnborough.
"I don"t know what they _say_----" began Stonor.
"Oh, _I_ do!" Farnborough interrupted. "They"re not _for_ anybody.
They"re simply agin the Government."
"Whatever they say, they"re all Socialists." Lord John gave a snort.
"No," said Farnborough, with cool audacity. "It only looks like that."
Jean turned quite pink with anxiety. She, and all who knew him well, had seen Stonor crush the c.o.c.ksure and the unwary with an awful effectualness.
But Farnborough, with the courage of enthusiasm--enthusiasm for himself and his own future--went stoutly on.
"There are Liberals and even Unionists among "em. And they do manage to hold the balance pretty even. I go and hear them, you see!"
"And speaking from the height of your advantage," although Stonor was slightly satirical, he was exercising an exceptional forbearance, "do you mean to tell me they are not more in sympathy with the Labour party than with any other?"
"If they are, it"s not because the Suffragists are all for Socialism.
But because the Labour party is the only one that puts Women"s Suffrage in the forefront of its programme."
Stonor took his elbow off the mantel. "Whatever the reason," he said airily, "the result is momentarily inconvenient. Though I am one of those who think it would be easy to overestimate the importance----"
He broke off with an effect of dismissing both the matter and the man.
As he turned away, he found himself without the smallest warning face to face with Vida Levering. She had come down the great staircase un.o.bserved and un.o.bserving; her head bent, and she in the act of forcing a recalcitrant hatpin through her hat--doing it under certain disadvantages, as she held her gloves and her veil in one hand.
As she paused there, confronting the tall figure of the new-comer, although it was obvious that her unpreparedness was not less than his own, there was to the most acute eye nothing in the remotest degree dramatic about the encounter--hardly more than a cool surprise, and yet there was that which made Jean say, smiling--
"Oh, you know one another already?"
"Everybody in this part of the world knows Mr. Stonor," the lady said, "but he doesn"t know me."
"This is Miss Levering. You knew her father, didn"t you?"
Even before Lady John had introduced them, the people in the garden seemed not to be able to support the prospect of Miss Levering"s threatened monopoly of the lion. They swarmed in--Hermione Heriot and Paul Filey appearing for the first time since church--they overflowed into the Hall, while Jean Dunbarton, with artless enthusiasm, was demanding of Miss Levering if the reason she knew Mr. Stonor was that she had been hearing him speak.