“Here’s an awful mess,” said he, throwing up his hands.  “I thought I’d have a word or two with you before I tackle Savelli.  Have you seen him this morning?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Well, what do you think about it?”

“I think,” said Ursula, “that the best thing I can do is to take him away with me for a rest as soon as possible.  He’s at the end of his tether.”

“You seem to take it pretty calmly.”

“How do you expect us to take it, my dear Frank?” she asked.  “We always expected Paul to do the right thing when the time came, and we consider that he has done it.”

The Chief Whip smoothed a perplexed brow.  “I don’t quite follow.  Were you, vulgarly speaking, in the know all the time?”

“Sit down, and I’ll tell you.”

So he sat down and Miss Winwood quietly told him all she knew about Paul and what had happened during the past few weeks, while the Colonel sat by his desk and tugged his long moustache and here and there supplemented her narrative.

“That’s all very interesting,” Ayres remarked when she had finished, “and you two have acted like bricks.  I also see that he must have had a devil of a time of it.  But I’ve got to look at things from an official point of view.”

“There’s no question of invalidity, is there?” asked Colonel Winwood.

“No.  He was known as Paul Savelli, nominated as Paul Savelli, and elected as Paul Savelli by the electors of Hickney Heath.  So he’ll sit as Paul Savelli.  That’s all right.  But how is the House going to receive him when he is introduced?  How will it take him afterwards?  What use will he be to the party?  We only ran him because he seemed to be the most brilliant of the young outsiders.  We hoped great things of him.  Hasn’t he smashed up himself socially?  Hasn’t he smashed up his career at the very beginning?  All that is what I want to know.”

“So do I,” groaned Colonel Winwood.  “I didn’t have a wink of sleep last night.”

“I didn’t either,” said Ursula, “but I don’t think it will matter a row of pins to Paul in his career.”

“It will always be up against him,” said Ayres.

“Because he has acted like a man?”

“It’s the touch of Ruy Blas that I’m afraid of.”

“You must remember that he wasn’t aware of his relation to the dead man until the eve of the election.”

“But he was aware that he wasn’t a descendant of a historical Italian family, which everyone thought him to be.  I don’t speak for myself,” said Ayres.  “I’m fond of the chap.  One can’t help it.  He has the charm of the great gentleman, confound him, and it’s all natural.  The cloven hoof has never appeared, because I personally believe there’s no cloven hoof.  The beggar was born well bred, and, as to performance—­well—­he has been a young meteor across the political sky.  Until this election.  Then he was a disappointment.  I frankly confess it.  I didn’t know what