He shook his head and laughed.

“I will do my utmost!” exclaimed Lilian, her face glowing with sympathetic enthusiasm.  “I will go and talk to all the people we know”——­

“Really!  You feel equal to that?”

“I will begin this very afternoon!  I think I understand the questions sufficiently.  Suppose I begin with Mrs. Powell?  She said her husband had always voted Conservative, but that she couldn’t be quite sure what he would do this time.  Perhaps I can persuade her to take our side.”

“Have a try!  But you astonish me, Lily—­you are transformed!”

“Oh, I have felt that I might find courage when the time came.”  She put her head aside, and laughed with charming naivete.  “I can’t sit idle at home whilst you are working with such zeal.  And I really feel what you say:  women have a clear duty.  How excited Mrs. Wade must be!”

“Have you written all the dinner-cards?”

“They were all sent before twelve.”

“Good!  Hammond will be here in half an hour to talk over the address with me.  Dinner at seven prompt; I am due at Toby’s at eight.  Well, it’s worth going in for, after all, isn’t it?  I am only just beginning to live.”

“And I, too!”

The meal was over.  Denzil walked round the table and bent to lay his cheek against Lilian’s.

“I admire you more than ever,” he whispered, half laughing.  “What a reserve of energy in this timid little girl!  Wait and see; who knows what sort of table you will preside at some day?  I have found my vocation, and there’s no saying how far it will lead me.  Heavens! what a speech I’ll give them at the Public Hall!  It’s bubbling over in me.  I could stand up and thunder for three or four hours!”

They gossiped a little longer, then Lilian went to prepare for her call upon Mrs. Powell, and Quarrier retired to the library.  Here he was presently waited upon by Mr. Hammond, editor of the Polterham Examiner.  Denzil felt no need of assistance in drawing up the manifesto which would shortly be addressed to Liberal Polterham; but Hammond was a pleasant fellow of the go-ahead species, and his editorial pen would be none the less zealous for confidences such as this.  The colloquy lasted an hour or so.  Immediately upon the editor’s departure, a servant appeared at the study door.

“Mrs. Wade wishes to see you, sir, if you are at leisure.”

“Certainly!”

The widow entered.  Her costume—­perhaps in anticipation of the sunny season—­was more elaborate and striking than formerly.  She looked a younger woman, and walked with lighter step.

“I came to see Mrs. Quarrier, but she is out.  You, I’m afraid, are frightfully busy?”

“No, no.  This is the breathing time of the day with me.  I’ve just got rid of our journalist.  Sit down, pray.”

“Oh, I won’t stop.  But tell Lilian I am eager to see her.”

“She is off canvassing—­really and truly!  Gone to assail Mrs. Powell.  Astonishing enthusiasm!”