“If it had been Molly, instead,” he said to himself; “I can’t be at all sure how she would have behaved.  Religion and the proprieties might have been too much for her good nature; yes, they would have been.  After all, these emancipated women are the most trustworthy, and Mrs. Wade is the best example I have yet known.”

When Mrs. Liversedge welcomed her sister-in-law at luncheon, she was stricken with alarm.

“My dear girl, you look like a ghost!  This won’t do,” she added, in a whisper, presently.  “You must keep quiet!”

But the Liversedges’ house was no place for quietness.  Two or three vigorous partisans put in an appearance at the meal, and talked with noisy exhilaration.  Tobias himself had yielded to the spirit of the under his notice that morning.  One of these concerned hour; he told merry stories of incidents that had come a well-known publican, a stalwart figure on the Tory side.

“I am assured that three voters have been drinking steadily for the last week at his expense.  He calculates that delirium tremens will have set in, in each case, by the day after to-morrow.”

“Who are these men?” asked Lilian, eagerly.  “Why can’t we save them in time?”

“Oh, the thing is too artfully arranged.  They are old topers; no possibility of interfering.”

“I can’t see”——­

“Lilian,” interposed Mrs. Liversedge, “what was the material of that wonderful dress Mrs. Kay wore last night?”

“I don’t know, Mary; I didn’t notice it.—­But surely if it is known that these men are”——­

It was a half-holiday for the Liversedge boys, and they were anticipating the election with all the fervour of British youth.  That morning there had been a splendid fight at the Grammar School; they described it with great vigour and amplitude, waxing Homeric in their zeal.  Dickinson junior had told Tom Harte that Gladstone was a “blackguard”; whereupon Tom smote him between the eyes, so that the vile calumniator measured his length in congenial mud.  The conflict spread.  Twenty or thirty boys took coloured rosettes from their pockets (they were just leaving school) and pinned them to their coats, then rushed to combat with party war-cries.  Fletcher senior had behaved like a brutal coward (though alas! a Gladstonian—­it was sorrowfully admitted), actually throwing a stone at an enemy who was engaged in single fight, with the result that he had cut open the head of one of his own friends—­a most serious wound.  An under-master (never a favourite, and now loathed by the young Liversedges as a declared Tory) had interposed in the unfairest way —­what else could be expected of him?  To all this Mrs. Liversedge gave ear not without pride, but as soon as possible she drew Lilian apart into a quiet room, and did her best to soothe the feverishness which was constantly declaring itself.

About three o’clock Mrs. Wade called.  She had not expected to find Lilian here.  There was a moment’s embarrassment on both sides.  When they sat down to talk, the widow’s eyes flitted now and then over Lilian’s face, but she addressed herself almost exclusively to Mrs. Liversedge, and her visit lasted only a quarter of an hour.  On leaving, she went into the town to make some purchases, and near the Liberal committee-rooms it was her fortune to meet with Quarrier.