I did not say that I thought Mulross's accident a merciful dispensation. I was far more afraid of him than of all the others, for if with his reputation for sanity he chose to run amok, he would be taken seriously. He was better in bed than affixing a flea to Von Kladow's ear. 

 "Caerlaverock was with the Prime Minister this morning," my aunt went on.  "He is going to make a statement in the Lords tomorrow to try to cover Mr. Vennard's folly. They are very anxious about what Mr. Cargill will do today. He is addressing the National Convention of Young Liberals at Oldham this afternoon, and though they have sent him a dozen telegrams they can get no answer. Caerlaverock went to Downing Street an hour ago to get news." 

 There was the sound of an electric brougham stopping in the square below, and we both listened with a premonition of disaster. A minute later Caerlaverock entered the room, and with him the Prime Minister. The cheerful, eupeptic countenance of the latter was clouded with care. He shook hands dismally with my aunt, nodded to me, and flung himself down on a sofa. 

 "The worst has happened," Caerlaverock boomed solemnly.  "Cargill has been incredibly and infamously silly."  He tossed me an evening paper. 

 One glance convinced me that the Convention of Young Liberals had had a waking-up. Cargill had addressed them on what he called the true view of citizenship. He had dismissed manhood suffrage as an obsolete folly. The franchise, he maintained, should be narrowed and given only to citizens, and his definition of citizenship was military training combined with a fairly high standard of rates and taxes. I do not know how the Young Liberals received his creed, but it had no sort of success with the Prime Minister. 

 "We must disavow him," said Caerlaverock. 

 "He is too valuable a man to lose," said the Prime Minister.  "We must hope that it is only a temporary aberration. I simply cannot spare him in the House." 

 "But this is flat treason." 

 "I know, I know. It is all too horrible, and utterly unexpected. But the situation wants delicate handling, my dear Caerlaverock. I see nothing for it but to give out that he was ill." 

 "Or drunk?"  I suggested. 

 The Prime Minister shook his head sadly.  "I fear it will be the same thing. What we call illness the ordinary man will interpret as 

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