The contrast between the two men might indeed have afforded some ground for speculation as to the nature of their intimacy.

Furley, a son of the people, had the air of cultivating, even clinging to a certain plebeian strain, never so apparent as when he spoke, or in his gestures.

He was a Member of Parliament for a Labour constituency, a shrewd and valuable exponent of the gospel of the working man.

What he lacked in the higher qualities of oratory he made up in sturdy common sense.

The will-o'-the-wisp Socialism of the moment, with its many attendant "isms" and theories, received scant favour at his hands.