It was in his mind that the next twenty years, whether this man or that turned out to be important or no, must see an enormous quickening of the political pace.

He himself was not conscious of any jealousy of the younger men; but neither did he see among them any commanding personality.

This young fellow, with his vivacity, his energy, and his Socialist whims, was interesting enough; and his problem was interesting--the problem of whether he could make a party out of the heterogeneous group of which he was turning out to be indisputably the ablest member.

But what was there _certain_ or _inevitable_ about his future after all?
And it was the same with all the rest.

Whereas the leaders of the past had surely announced themselves beyond mistake from the beginning.