CONTENTS.
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I. | THE IMPOSSIBLE—INEVITABLE | [1] |
| II. | A POPULAR DEMONSTRATION | [11] |
| III. | HOSPITALITY EX OFFICIO | [19] |
| IV. | WEEDING OUT THE WEAK-KNEED | [30] |
| V. | A TALK AT A DANCE | [41] |
| VI. | A CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE | [50] |
| VII. | A COMMON SPECTACLE | [59] |
| VIII. | FOR THE HIGHEST BIDDER | [69] |
| IX. | TWO HASTY UTTERANCES | [80] |
| X. | THE SMOKE OF HIDDEN FIRES | [90] |
| XI. | A CONSCIENTIOUS MAN'S CONSCIENCE | [100] |
| XII. | AN ABSURD AMBITION | [110] |
| XIII. | OUT OF HARM'S WAY | [121] |
| XIV. | A FATAL SECESSION | [133] |
| XV. | AN ATTEMPT AT TERRORISM | [144] |
| XVI. | A LEAKY VESSEL | [153] |
| XVII. | THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MAN | [162] |
| XVIII. | BY AN OVERSIGHT OF SOCIETY'S | [173] |
| XIX. | LAST CHANCES | [183] |
| XX. | THE LAW VERSUS RULE 3 | [196] |
| XXI. | ALL THERE WAS TO TELL | [205] |
| XXII. | THE STORY OF A PHOTOGRAPH | [215] |
| XXIII. | AN ORATOR'S RIVAL | [227] |
| XXIV. | THREE AGAINST THE WORLD | [236] |
| XXV. | THE TRUTH TOO LATE | [244] |
| XXVI. | THE UNCLEAN THING | [255] |
| XXVII. | THE DECISION OF THE ORACLE | [268] |
| XXVIII. | STEALING A MARCH | [280] |
| XXIX. | A BEATEN MAN'S THOUGHTS | [291] |
| XXX. | THE END OF A TUMULT | [300] |
HALF A HERO.
CHAPTER I.
THE IMPOSSIBLE—INEVITABLE.
In the garden the question was settled without serious difference of opinion. If Sir Robert Perry really could not go on—and Lady Eynesford was by no means prepared to concede even that—then Mr. Puttock, bourgeois as he was, or Mr. Coxon, conceited and priggish though he might be, must come in. At any rate, the one indisputable fact was the impossibility of Mr. Medland: this was, to Lady Eynesford's mind, axiomatic, and, in the safe privacy of her family circle (for Miss Scaife counted as one of the family, and Captain Heseltine and Mr. Flemyng did not count at all), she went so far as to declare that, let the Governor do as he would (in the inconceivable case of his being so foolish as to do anything of the kind), she at least would not receive
Mr. Medland. Having launched this hypothetical thunderbolt, she asked Alicia Derosne to give her another cup of tea. Alicia poured out the tea, handed it to her sister-in-law, and asked,