need not go into the details of the affair; sufficient that the name
of Robb excites her fury, and that it is better to say nothing about
the man at all unless you know something distinctly to his
disadvantage--and, in _that_ case, you must take your chance of
being dealt with as a calumniator or a sycophant; all depends on
Lady Ogram's mood of the moment. Detesting Mr. Robb, she naturally
aims at ousting him from his Parliamentary seat, and no news could
be more acceptable to her than that of a possible change in the
political temper of Hollingford. The town is Tory, from of old. Mr.
Robb is sitting in his second Parliament, and doubtless hopes to
enter a third. But he is nearly seventy years old, and we hear that
his constituents would not be sorry if he gave place to a more
active man. The hope that Hollingford may turn Liberal does not seem
to me to be very well founded, and yet I don't regard the thing as
an impossibility. Lady Ogram has persuaded herself that a thoroughly
good man might carry the seat. That man she is continually seeking,
and she carries on a correspondence on the subject with party
leaders, whips, caucus directors, and all manner of such folk. If
she lives until the next general election, heaven and earth will be
moved against Mr. Robb, and I believe she would give the half of her
substance to anyone who defeated him."

This epistle caused a commotion in Lashmar's mind. The last
paragraph opened before him a vista of brilliant imaginings. He read
it times innumerable; day and night he could think of nothing else.
Was not here the occasion for which he had been waiting? Had not
fortune turned a shining face upon him?

If only he had still been in enjoyment of his three hundred a year.
There, indeed, was a troublesome reflection. He thought of writing