James laughed.

“I don’t think I shall tell my father what you say of him. But tell me this: how else could the empire be governed? How could the American colonists be represented?”

“There are two alternatives. There could be American representatives in the London Parliament. An unwieldy arrangement perhaps, with America being an ocean away from London, but it might do the trick.”

“And have colonists voting on English concerns?” said Grey Albion. “I can’t see any government standing for that.”

“You see,” said Hughes, with a sly smile to James, “what you colonists are up against. In fact,” he turned to Albion, “if governments were wise, they would think even larger thoughts. Were the American colonies to have representation in London, then as they grew, so might the number of their representatives, and in a century or two, I dare say, we should have an imperial parliament in which the American members made up the majority. Who knows, the king might even abandon London and keep his court in New York!”

Grey Albion burst out laughing. James shook his head, amused, but thoughtful also.

“You said there were two alternatives,” he reminded Hughes.

“Indeed. The other would be to let the Americans govern themselves—at least to approve the taxes they must pay.”

“If they are willing to pay taxes at all.”

“That may be a difficulty. But they should pay for their defense. However, it is a hard thing for ministers in London to give up any power.”

Here, Grey Albion interposed.

“You omit one difficulty, Hughes. Our ministers fear that if they give in to radical American demands, then other parts of the empire, especially Ireland, will want more liberty, and the whole British Empire could collapse.”

“I think they’ll have even more trouble if they don’t,” said Hughes.

“You do not consider then,” James asked, “that the present arrangement for America can last?”

“I think that men like Ben Franklin and your father may find temporary compromises. But the system is fundamentally flawed.”

When the evening was over, and James and Grey Albion walked home together, Grey was full of amusement.

“Isn’t Hughes a character? He always has an opinion on everything. Some people think he’s a little mad, but I relish him.”

James nodded silently. He didn’t think Hughes was mad in the least. But what the legal clerk had said made him uneasy, and he wanted to think about it further.

It was the next evening that he met Vanessa for the first time. It was at Lord Riverdale’s house and he was wearing a splendid new blue coat in which he knew he looked handsome. Since Vanessa was introduced as Lady Rockbourne, he assumed that she was married. They talked for some time, and he certainly noticed that she was very beautiful. She was fair, and slim, with pale blue eyes that seemed to be focused in the middle distance. But he thought no more about his encounter until toward the end of the evening, when one of the other ladies of the party declared to him that Vanessa had been much impressed with him. James remarked that he had not met her husband.