What sort of a rumour ?" "A vague but rather persistent one," she replied.

"They say that it is in the power of certain people--to drive him out of political life at any moment." Dartrey's smile was sufficiently contemptuous but there was a note of anxiety in his tone which he could not altogether conceal.
"These canards are very absurd, Nora," he declared.

"The politician is the natural quarry of the blackmailer, but I should think no man of my acquaintance has lived a more blameless life than Andrew Tallente." "I will tell you in what form the story came to me," she said.

"It was from a journalist on the staff of one of our great London dailies.

The rumour was that they had been indirectly approached to know if they would pay a large sum for a story, perfectly printable, but which would drive Tallente out of political life." "Do you know the name of the newspaper ?" he asked eagerly.
"I was told," Nora answered, "but under the most solemn abjuration of secrecy.