He gave thanks to the Returning Officer, and then, with his agent, left the building by the back door.

He did not wait for the announcement of Carnac's triumph, and he knew his work was done for ever in public life.
Soon he had said his say at the club where his supporters, discomfited, awaited him.

To demands for a speech, he said he owed to his workers what he could never repay, and that the long years they had kept him in Parliament would be the happiest memory of his life.
"We'll soon have you back," shouted a voice from the crowd.
"It's been a good fight," said Barode Barouche.

Somehow the fact he had not beaten his son by the story of his secret marriage was the sole comfort he had.

He advised his followers to "play the game" and let the new member have his triumph without belittlement.
"It's the best fight I've had in thirty years," he said at last, "and I've been beaten fairly." In another hour he was driving into the country on his way to visit an old ex-Cabinet Minister, who had been his friend through all the years of his Parliamentary life.