Pa sent for The Thunderer, and there it was, as plain as your hand, that Mr. Philip Shelmerdine, the son of Lord Shelmerdine of Potterhanworth, had been adopted by the party of progress to fight their cause at Blackhampton.
"Boy must be insane," said Father. "He won't get in, at any rate—there's that consolation. I don't know any man more unfitted for public life."
"He may learn a wrinkle or two, though, Shelmerdine. A deuced clever wife he's married, you know."
"He'll need a clever wife if he is going to get in as a Rag at Blackhampton. It's—it's an act of insanity."
Then it was that Adela's young man made his faux pas.
"Married the celebrated actress, didn't he?" said Adela's young man.
The only thing to be said for him is that he was not at all well up in recent history.
Silence—complete and rather profound.
"I remember seeing her in a pantomime at Christmas, and I thought she was the jolliest girl I had ever seen—on the stage, I mean."
The afterthought sounded sincere; and the whole speech was animated by the best of intentions. But it really was not very clever of the young fellow. Yes, young fellow, this was a passage in which you did
