Before a committee of wits and poets, Paul perhaps would not have had a dog's chance.

But he appealed to the hard-headed merchants and professional men who chose him very much as the hero of melodrama appeals to a pit and gallery audience.

He symbolized to them hope and force and predestined triumph.

One or two at first sniffed suspiciously at his lofty ideals; but as there was no mistaking his political soundness, they let the ideals pass, as a natural and evanescent aroma.
So, in his thirtieth year, Paul was nominated as Unionist candidate for the Borough of Hickney Heath, and he saw himself on the actual threshold of the great things to which he was born.

He wrote a little note to Jane telling her the news.