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Chapter 22: Mr. Susman's Little Schemes

After living many years in retirement on his uncle's station, Grant Attwell had gone into Parliament under an assumed name, which he had long borne, though few seemed to know it beyond Magnus Susman, who had recognised his rival one night during a visit to the city. Business, he said, had taken him down; but he carried no message to Edith, much though he desired to do so. Mr. Merton had at last come to agree with his wife that Susman knew more about Edith than he would own to, and consequently he was less confiding where she was concerned than formerly.

So Mr. Susman, having only his own affairs to attend to, found time to inspect the machinery of his country, and was surprised to find in one of the parts thereof the man whose life he had wrecked. He did not renew the acquaintance, but he learnt that Grant was little known beyond his political name. In the latter respect he was anything but an obscure personage; he was rated a fearless and capable statesman.