"I'd get in again if they did. I'd keep nine-tenths of my own people and get a good lot of the other fellow's because of my independence. But they won't! No one wants a by-election at Ludsey. Ludsey is too busy."
"I suppose that's true," said Cynthia with a smile of relief. Once more she had occasion to recognize the accuracy of her husband's foresight. But there was a little change. The recognition was no longer accompanied with regret that the foresight was not being used in a higher cause. She was simply relieved that on this side at all events the great career was not open to attack.
Rames took a turn across the room and stopped at the window.
"But I wonder what his next move will be," he said.
In a month he knew. The movement was swift and dramatic. Rames was summoned to London by a letter from the Prime-Minister. He travelled up from Ludsey in the morning; he reached home again in time for dinner.
"They are raising Lamson to the peerage," he said to Cynthia. "That means the Under Secretaryship of the Local Government Board will be vacant. It was offered to me."
Cynthia was radiant.
"That's splendid," she cried.
"I refused it," said Harry Rames.
Cynthia stared at him. Here was a definite step onward, a step refused.