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They both laughed, and Loder joined, a little uncertainly. He had yet to learn that the devotion of Fraide and his wife was a long-standing jest in their particular set. At the sound of his tardy laugh Eve turned to him. "I hope I didn't rob you of all sleep last night," she said. "I caught him in his den," she explained, turning to Fraide, "and invaded it most courageously.

I believe we talked till two." Again Loder noticed bow quickly she looked from him to Fraide. The knowledge roused his self-assertion. "I had an excellent night," he said. "Do I look as if I hadn't slept?" Somewhat slowly and reluctantly Eve looked back. "No," she said, truthfully, and with a faint surprise that to Loder seemed the first genuine emotion she had shown regarding him.

Being delayed by some communications from Wark, he was a few minutes late in keeping his appointment, and on being shown into the drawing-room found the little group of three that was to make up the party already assembled Fraide, Lady Sarah and Eve. As he entered the room they ceased to speak, and all three turned in his direction.

Without announcement or apology, the door was suddenly flung open and Lakely entered the room. His face was brimming with excitement, and his eyes flashed. In the first haste of the entry he failed to see that there were ladies in the room, And, crossing instantly to Fraide, laid an open telegram before him. "This is official, sir," he said. Then at last he glanced round the table.

The first was an interview with Cresham, one of Chilcote's supporters in Wark; the other an engagement to lunch with Fraide. At the idea of the former his interest quickened, but at thought of the latter it quailed momentarily. Had the entry been a royal command it would have affected him infinitely less.

"Don't you believe that flotsam can sometimes be washed ashore?" he asked. High above them Big Ben chimed the hour. Eve raised her head. It almost seemed to him that he could see her answer trembling on her lips; then the voice of Lady Sarah Fraide came cheerfully from behind them. "Eve!" she called. "Eve! We must fly. It's absolutely three o'clock!"

He lunched with Fraide at his club, and afterwards walked with him to Westminster. The walk and lunch were both memorable. In that hour he learned many things that had been sealed to him before. He tasted his first draught of real elation, his first drop of real discomfiture. He saw for the first time how a great man may condescend how unostentatiously, how fully, how delightfully.

"No," he said, honestly and without embellishment. The curtness of the answer might have displeased another woman. Eve seemed to take no offence. "I had a talk with the Fraides to-day," she said "A long talk. Mr. Fraide said great things of you things I wouldn't have believed from anybody but Mr. Fraide." She altered her position and looked from Loder's face back into the fire.

Slowly and unmistakably speculation and dissatisfaction crept into the atmosphere of the House, as moment succeeded moment, and the Opposition made no sign. Was Fraide shirking the attack? Or was he playing a waiting game?

"My dear chap," he said, "there's going to be a breach somewhere and Fraide says you're the man to step in and fill it! You see, five years ago, when things looked lively on the Gulf and the Bundar Abbas business came to light, you did some promising work; and a reputation like that sticks to a man even when he turns slacker!