Who first to hear the wondrous news but his Princess?
That there was a vacancy in Hickney Heath he knew, as all Great Britain knew; for Ponting, the Radical Member, had died suddenly the day before.

But it had never entered his head that he could be chosen as a candidate.
"Mais j'y ai bien pense, moi," came the voice through the telephone.
"Why did Lord Francis tell you to go to Hickney Heath last July ?" How a woman leaps at things! With all his ambition, his astuteness, his political intuition, he had not seen the opportunity.

But it had come.

Verily the stars in their courses were fighting for him.

Other names, he was aware, were before the Committee of the Local Association, perhaps a great name suggested by the Central Unionist Organization; there was also that of the former Tory member, who, smarting under defeat at the General Election, had taken but a lukewarm interest in the constituency and was now wandering in the Far East.