He smiled grimly.
“My party,” he said, “are thinking of dropping me!”
“Well,” she said, “let them throw you over. Who but themselves would suffer! Personally, I believe that your association with them is only a drag upon you.”
“That is all very well,” he answered. “They are a rough lot, I know, and most of them fatally ignorant. I do not believe that any class of men in the world are so girt about with prejudices as those whose eyes have been opened a little way. But, after all, they each have a vote, and as parties are at present they are an immensely powerful factor in the situation.”
“That,” she said, “is only a temporary matter, a matter of weeks or months. After all, you must remember they are an isolated body of men in the House. Your place is with the only great party of progress. You are moving toward them day by day. Your joining them sooner or later is inevitable.”
He smiled.
“Lord Sydenham has been very kind to me,” he said, “but I fancy I should be a sort of ugly duckling among the Conservatives.”
“You would be in office in less than twelve months,” she declared. “Do let me tell Sydenham that he may talk to you about this.”
He shook his head.
“I came into the House as a Labor member,” he said, “and unless something unforeseen happens, a Labor member I must remain. Besides, I hate to think of myself as a party man. The rank and file remind me most unpleasantly of a flock of geese. They must follow their leaders blindly; their personal opinions go for nothing.”