PAUL leaned back in his leather writing chair, smoking a cigarette and focussing the electioneering situation.

Beside a sheet of foolscap on which he had been jotting down notes lay in neat piles the typewritten Report of the Forlorn Widows' Fund, the account book and the banker's pass book.

He had sat up till three o'clock in the morning preparing for his Princess.

Nothing now remained but the formal "examined and found correct" report of the auditors.

For the moment the Forlorn Widows stood leagues away from Paul's thoughts.