may, by ill-advised action, bring upon themselves and their country.
Mr. Maraton, grant, will you not, that I am a man of some experience?
Believe, I pray you, that I am honest. Let me assure you of this. If
the people be not wisely led now, the Empire which I and my Ministers
have striven so hard to keep intact, must fall. There are troubles
pressing upon us still from every side. If the people are wrongly
advised to-day, the British Empire must fall, even as those other great
dynasties of the past have fallen."

Maraton turned once more to the window, raised the curtain, and gazed
out into the darkness. There was a little movement at the end of the
street. The police had driven back the crowd to allow a carriage to
pass through. A hoarse murmur of voices came floating into the room.
The people gave way slowly and unwillingly--still, they gave way. Law
and order, strenuous though the task of preserving them was becoming,
prevailed.

"Mr. Foley," Maraton said, dropping the curtain and returning once more
to his place, "I am honoured by your confidence. You force me, however,
to remind you that you have spoken to me as a politician. I am not a
politician. The cause of the people is above politics."

"I am for the people," Mr. Foley declared, with a sudden passion in his
tone. "It is their own fault, the blind prejudice of their ignorant
leaders, if they fail to recognise it."

"For the people," Maraton repeated softly.

"Haven't my Government done their best to prove it?" the Prime Minister
demanded, almost fiercely. "We have passed at least six measures which