“You mean to upset the Constitution?”

“Speaking officially, I do not know.  Speaking to you as a fellow politician, I should say that sooner or later some changes are desirable.”

“You’ll never get away from party government.”

“Perhaps not, but I dare say we can find machinery to prevent the house of Commons being used for a debating society.”

Horlock, whose sense of humour had never been entirely crushed by the exigencies of political leadership, suddenly grinned.

“The old gang will commit suicide,” he declared.  “If they aren’t allowed to spout, they’ll either wither or die.  Old man Lethbridge’s monthly attacks of high-minded patriotism are the only things that keep him alive.”

“I don’t fancy,” Tallente remarked, “that we shall abandon any of our principles for the sake of keeping Lethbridge alive.”

“What the mischief are your principles?”

“No doubt Dartrey would enlighten you, if you chose to go to him,” was the indifferent reply.  “Within the course of the next few months we shall launch our thunderbolt.  You will know then what we claim for the people.”

“Hang the people!” Horlock exclaimed.  “I’ve legislated for them myself until I’m sick of it.  They’re never grateful.”

“Perhaps you confine yourself too much to one class,” Tallente observed drily.  “As a rule, the less intelligent the voter, the more easily he is caught by flashy legislation.”

“The operative pure and simple,” Horlock announced, “has no political outlook.  He’ll never see beyond his trades union.  You’ll never found a great national party with his aid.”

His companion smiled.

“Then we shall fail and you will continue to be Prime Minister.”

Mrs. Van Fosdyke came back to them, on the arm of a foreign diplomat.  She leaned over to Horlock and whispered: 

“Lethbridge has heard that you two are here together and he is on your track.  Better separate.”

She passed on.  The two men strolled away.

“Have you any personal feeling against me, Tallente?” Horlock asked.

“None whatever,” his companion assured him.  “You did me the best turn in your life when you left me stranded after Hellesfield.”

Horlock sighed.

“Lethbridge almost insisted, he looked upon you as a firebrand.  He said there would be no repose about a Cabinet with you in it.”

“Well, it’s turned out for the best,” Tallente remarked drily.  “Au revoir!”

On his way back to the reception rooms, an acquaintance tapped him on the shoulder.

“One moment, Tallente.  Lady Alice Mountgarron has asked me to present you.”

Tallente bowed before the woman who stood looking at him pleasantly, but a little curiously.  She held out her hand.

“I seem to have heard so much of you from my sister Jane,” she said.  “You are neighbours in Devonshire, aren’t you?”