Before plunging into the fray at Blackhampton, Endor did a bold thing.
He got married. A fortnight’s grace was allowed him by the Government,
before the issuing of the writs; and more than one consideration urged
him to turn that precious interregnum to high account.
Wyndham itself was hardly more than ten miles from Blackhampton and
this he made his headquarters for the fight. Having due regard to the
circumstances of the case, John felt it would be wise to get through
the business of being married with the least possible delay. Moreover,
an impetuous nature urged him to this course. The opposition of his
mother, conceal it as she might, he knew to be strong. It would be
kinder to her, therefore, to rush the matrimonial fence. And he hoped
that the old lady’s mind would be distracted by the shock of events
from dwelling too much on the affront to her wishes, the death of her
hopes.
Again there was policy in this dispatch. Helen was going to be a great
ally in the fight. An accomplished speaker, she thoroughly understood
her own sex, and on the platform and in the press she had a way with
her in her dealings with them. As the blushing bride of John Endor, an
old and tried friend, now with his back to the wall, fighting for his
political life, she would be in a position to steal a little of the
enemy’s thunder. “Aunt Mittie,” “Lovely Lily Langrish,” and their like,
who had proved so formidable at other Stunt elections up and down the
land, must look to their laurels. Romance of a more genuine kind might
invest John Endor and his new and singularly attractive American wife.
And if only “they could get the real goods over” with half the skill
of the U. P. the fire of several big enemy batteries was likely to be
dominated.
The wedding at the tiny church of the ancestral village was the
simplest and quietest affair. No more than a handful of indispensables
were there; just a few friends and relations who were bound to be
present. George Hierons gave Helen away. This remarkable man was
becoming very much the friend of both. He heartily approved Helen’s
severance from the _Planet_ and Saul Hartz; moreover, he ventured upon
the prophecy that Endor with such a wife would go far.
Lady Elizabeth, of course, was scandalized by the whole affair. Such a
“nose-dive” into the holy state, such an absence of all trumpets and
shawms, was worthy indeed of “Comrade” Endor. This undignified haste
was nothing short of indecent; Lady Elizabeth had fully counted on “an
engagement of at least two years.” She felt, in fact, that she had
every right to insist upon it. Still the old Die-hard supposed she must
look at the bright side of the picture: this Miss Sholto, although an
American, was not a person of color. She had no money, therefore John’s
infatuation for her was extremely reprehensible; at the same time, she
seemed a shrewd, sensible, practical girl, and had the makings no doubt
of an excellent wife. But if she was only a quarter as extravagant as
the other American wives Lady Elizabeth had heard of, it would be quite
impossible for them to keep up Wyndham. In the meantime, the old lady
was a little appeased by John’s announcement that they proposed to live
in London in a very modest fashion, strictly in accordance with their
own present income, and she would be left to carry on at Wyndham in the
way she had always done.
The Blackhampton by-election might be an odd kind of honeymoon, yet
John and Helen considered it to be an affair vastly more exhilarating
than the regulation visit to an empty country house which ended
invariably in boredom. At any rate, to John and Helen, there was
nothing in the least boring about the Blackhampton election.
To begin with, they recognized from the outset how much was at stake.
Then, too, Blackhampton itself, a live place, with three hundred
thousand particularly live people in it, was by no means addicted to
boredom. For these the world was far too full of a number of things
interesting for that form of poison to be allowed to enter.
The member for _Blackhampton East_ was to find moreover, when in person
he came to open the campaign, that he had not entered the lists a
moment too soon. The enemy was in the field already. It was never the
way of the U. P.--for the sake of clearness and brevity, the foe may be
incorporated in that comprehensive title--to let the grass grow beneath
its feet. As Mr. Wilberforce Williams had himself predicted, within
twenty-four hours of the Government showing its hand, the Great General
Staff of Cosmos Alley and Universe Lane was ready to the last gaiter
button.
East Blackhampton itself had for some little time past been on a war
basis. Several months ago had come the order “from above” that at
the next election ENDOR MUST GO. Everything was in review order for
“the day.” So declared the U. P. agent-in-chief, at any rate. For
many moons the constituency had been sedulously nursed by one of the
regulation Colonial “bagmen,” Sir Stuyvescent Milgrim K. B. E. by name,
a distinguished member of a famous army which had won the war without
going near it.
When Mr. Endor at last came on to the scene, a little belatedly as it
seemed to his own election agent, Mr. Ambrose Furley, he was received
by that gentleman at the Central Committee Rooms. These were situated
in Market Square, almost under the shadow of the noble statue of John
Bright, by G. F. Watts.