"There you have me," he confessed. "I know a little about everything
else you have mentioned."

"A very good opening." she approved. "Keep it till Susan has gone and
then propose yourself as a disciple. There is only one drawback about
this place," she went on, nodding curtly across the room to Miller. "So
many of our own people come here. Mr. Miller must be pleased to see us
together."

"Why?" Tallente asked. "Is he an admirer?"

Nora's face was almost ludicrously expressive.

"He would like to he," she admitted, "but, thick-skinned though he is, I
have managed to make him understand pretty well how I feel about him.
You'll find him a thorn in your side," she went on reflectively.

"You see, if our party has a fault, it is in a certain lack of system.
We have only a titular chief and no real leader. Miller thinks that
post is his by predestination. Your coming is beginning to worry him
already. It was entirely on your account he paid me that visit this
afternoon."

"To be perfectly frank with you," Tallente sighed, "I should find Miller
a loathsome coadjutor."

"There are drawbacks to everything in life," Nora replied. "Long before
Miller has become anything except a nuisance to you, you will have
realised that the only political party worth considering, during the
next fifty years, at any rate, will be the Democrats. After that, I