a windbag.  If he did this thing the probability was that he might become utterly a castaway, and go entirely to the dogs before he was thirty.  He had heard of penniless men who had got into Parliament, and to whom had come such a fate.  He was able to name to himself a man or two whose barks, carrying more sail than they could bear, had gone to pieces among early breakers in this way.  But then, would it not be better to go to pieces early than never to carry any sail at all?  And there was, at any rate, the chance of success.  He was already a barrister, and there were so many things open to a barrister with a seat in Parliament!  And as he knew of men who had been utterly ruined by such early mounting, so also did he know of others whose fortunes had been made by happy audacity when they were young.  He almost thought that he could die happy if he had once taken his seat in Parliament,—­if he had received one letter with those grand initials written after his name on the address.  Young men in battle are called upon to lead forlorn hopes.  Three fall, perhaps, to one who gets through; but the one who gets through will have the Victoria Cross to carry for the rest of his life.  This was his forlorn hope; and as he had been invited to undertake the work, he would not turn from the danger.  On the following morning he again saw Barrington Erle by appointment, and then wrote the following letter to his father:—­

   Reform Club, Feb., 186—.

   My dear father,

I am afraid that the purport of this letter will startle you, but I hope that when you have finished it you will think that I am right in my decision as to what I am going to do.  You are no doubt aware that the dissolution of Parliament will take place at once, and that we shall be in all the turmoil of a general election by the middle of March.  I have been invited to stand for Loughshane, and have consented.  The proposition has been made to me by my friend Barrington Erle, Mr. Mildmay’s private secretary, and has been made on behalf of the Political Committee of the Reform Club.  I need hardly say that I should not have thought of such a thing with a less thorough promise of support than this gives me, nor should I think of it now had I not been assured that none of the expense of the election would fall upon me.  Of course I could not have asked you to pay for it.

But to such a proposition, so made, I have felt that it would be cowardly to give a refusal.  I cannot but regard such a selection as a great honour.  I own that I am fond of politics, and have taken great delight in their study —­("Stupid young fool!” his father said to himself as he read this)—­and it has been my dream for years past to have a seat in Parliament at some future time. ("Dream! yes; I wonder whether he has ever dreamed what he is to live upon.”) The chance has now come to me much earlier than I have looked for it, but I do not think that it should