Margaret Maliphant

								

make the tea.
"Did I hear you say that you were a Radical, Mr. Maliphant?" asked the
young man, looking at father.
"I am not a Tory," answered father, without looking up. I thought his
tone was cruelly curt.
"Well, I am a Socialist," answered Frank Forrester, with an air that
would have been defiant had it not been too pleasant-spoken. Father
smiled. The words must have provoked that--would have provoked more if
the speaker had not been so good-tempered.
"Ah, I know what you young fellows mean by a Socialist," he murmured.
"I should say I went about as far as most men in England," said Frank,
looking at him in that open-eyed fixed way that he used towards men as
well as towards women.
"I should say that you went farther than you can see," said the Squire,
laconically.
Frank laughed, good-humoredly. "Ah, I refuse to quarrel with you,
uncle," said he, taking hold of the squire's arm in a friendly fashion.
It was said as though he would imply that he could quarrel with other
people when he liked, but his look belied his words.
"If you will let me, I'll come in and have a chat one of these days,
Mr. Maliphant," continued he. "When uncle is not by, you know." He said
the words as though he felt sure that his request would be granted,
and yet with his confidence there was a graceful deference to the elder
man which was very fascinating. Why did father look at him as he did?
Did he feel something that I felt? And what was it that I felt? I do
not know.
"I am a busy man and haven't much time for talk, sir, but you're
welcome when you like to call," answered father, civilly, not warmly.
The squire had sat down again while his nephew and father were
exchanging these few words. He crossed one knee over the other and sat
there striking his foot with his hand--a provoking habit that he had
when he was trying to control his temper.
"There'll be a nice pair of you," said he, trying to turn the matter
off into a joke. "It's a pity, Frank, that you have no vote to help Mr.
Maliphant's candidate with."
"I don't know that any so-called Radical candidate would or could
do much in Parliament to help the questions that I have at heart,"
said Captain Forrester. "As Mr. Maliphant justly observed, there are
Radicals and Radicals, and the political Radical has very little in
common with those who consider merely social problems."
Father did look up now, and his eyes shone as I had seen them shine
when he was talking to the working-men, for though I had not often
heard him--the chief of his discourses being given in the village
club--I had once been to a large meeting in town where he had been the
chief speaker.
"One never knows where to have any of you fellows," laughed the squire,
rather uncomfortably. "You always led me to believe, Maliphant, that
you would have nothing to do with political party spirit. You always
said that no party yet invented would advance the interests of the