THE ELECTION
Eloquent had taken a small furnished house in Marlehouse, and was
installed there with a housekeeper and manservant for the fortnight
preceding the election. The Moonstone, chief, and in fact only, hotel
in the town, was "blue," and although the proprietor would have been
glad enough to secure Eloquent's custom, it was felt better "for all
parties" that he should make his headquarters elsewhere. He worked
hard and unceasingly, his agent was equally tireless, and it was only
at the last that Mr Brooke's supporters awoke to the fact that if he
was to represent Marlehouse again no stone should be left unturned.
But it was too late: Mr Brooke, elderly, amiable, and lethargic, was
quite incapable of either directing or controlling his more ardent
supporters, and their efforts on his behalf were singularly devoid of
tact. The Tory and Unionist ladies were grievous offenders in this
respect. They started a house-to-house canvass in the town, and those
possessed of carriages or motors parcelled out the surrounding villages
and "did" them, their methods being the reverse of conciliatory.
Indeed, had Mr Brooke in the smallest degree realised how these zealous
supporters were injuring his cause, his smiling optimism would have
been sadly shaken.
The day after the accident Eloquent called at Marlehouse Infirmary to
ask for Buz, and was informed that the arm had been set successfully,
that it was a bad break, but that the Rontgen rays had been used, and
it was going on satisfactorily.
He wondered if he ought to send flowers or fruit to the invalid, but a
vivid recollection of the look in Buz's eyes as he watched him pack his
suit-case decided him that any such manifestation of sympathy would be
unsuitable. He then, although he was so rushed that he could hardly
overtake his engagements, hired a motor to drive out to the Manor
House, and so hurried the chauffeur that they fell straightway into a
police trap and were "warned."
He asked for Mrs Ffolliot, and Fusby blandly informed him that she was
in Marlehouse with Master Buz.
"Is Miss Ffolliot at home?" Eloquent asked boldly.
"Miss Ffolliot is out huntin' with the young gentlemen," Fusby remarked
stiffly.
So Eloquent was fain to get into his motor again, and quite forgot to
look in on his aunt on the way back.
The night before the election there was a Liberal meeting in the Town
Hall, and a certain section of the Tory party, a youthful and
irresponsible section it must be confessed, had arranged to attend the
meeting, and if possible bring it to nought. The ringleader in this
scheme was a young man named Rabbich, whose people some years before
had bought a large property in a village about four miles from
Redmarley.
Mr Rabbich, senr., was an extremely wealthy man with many irons in the
fire, a man so busy that he found little time to look after either his
property or his family, and though he, himself, was generally declared
to be a "very decent sort" with no nonsense or "side" about him, and of
a praiseworthy liberality in the matter of subscriptions, his wife and
children did not find equal favour either in the eyes of the villagers
or those of his neighbours.
Mrs Rabbich was a foolish woman whose fetich was society with a big
"S," and she idolised her only son, a rather vacuous youth who had just
managed to scrape into Sandhurst.
On the night before the election then, young Rabbich gave a dinner at
the Moonstone to some twenty youths of his own age, and Grantly
Ffolliot was of the party. Grantly did not like young Rabbich, and as
a rule steered clear of him in the hunting-field and elsewhere, though
civil enough if actually brought into contact with him. But though
Grantly did not like young Rabbich, he dearly loved any form of "rag,"
and as party feeling ran very high just then, the chance of disturbing
the last Liberal meeting before the election was far too entrancing to
be missed. He obtained his father's permission to go to the dinner (Mr
Ffolliot was never difficult when his sons asked for permission to go
from home), told his mother he would be late, obtained the key of the
side door from Fusby, and quite unintentionally left his family under
the impression that he was dining at the Rabbich's.
Mine host of the Moonstone provided an excellent dinner, and young
Rabbich kept calling for more champagne, so that it was a very
hilarious and somewhat unsteady party that presently, in a solid
phalanx, got wedged in at the very back of the Town Hall, which was
filled to overflowing. Twenty noisy young men in evening clothes, and
all together, made a fairly conspicuous feature in the meeting, and the
crowd, which was almost wholly Liberal in its sympathies, guessed they
were out for trouble.
During the first couple of speeches, which were short and introductory,
they were fairly quiet, only indulging in occasional derisive comments.
When Eloquent arose to address the meeting he was greeted by such a
storm of cheering from his supporters, as quite drowned the hisses and
cat-calls of the "knuts" at the back of the hall.
But when he started to speak, their interruptions were incessant,
irrelevant, and in the case of young Rabbich, offensive.
Eloquent, who was long-sighted, clearly perceived Grantly Ffolliot,
flushed, with rumpled hair and gesticulating arms, in the group at the
back of the hall. Young Rabbich, whose father had made the greater
part of his money in butter and bacon, kept urging Eloquent to "go back
to the shop," inquired the present price of socks and pyjamas, and
whether the clothes he wore just then were made in Germany?
Eloquent saw Grantly Ffolliot frown and say something to his companion
as young Rabbich continued his questions, and then quite suddenly the
whole of that end of the hall was in a turmoil, and one by one the
interrupters were hauled from their seats and forcibly ejected from the
meeting, in spite of desperate resistance on their part. After that,
peace was restored, and Eloquent continued his speech amidst the
greatest enthusiasm.
His supporters cheered him to his house, and then departed to parade
the town, while their band played "Hearts of Oak," the chosen war-song
of the "Yallows." Meanwhile the Rabbich party had returned to the
Moonstone to compare their bruises and to get more drinks, and then
they sallied forth again to join a "Blue" procession, headed by a band
that played "Bonnie Dundee," which is the battle-cry of the Blues.
The rival bands met, the rival processions met and locked, and there
was a regular shindy. Eloquent, very tired and rather depressed, as a
man usually is on the eve of any great struggle, heard the distant
tumult and the shouting, and thought he had better go out and see what
was afoot.
He had hardly got outside his own front door, which was in a
little-frequented street not far from the police-station, when he saw
two policemen on either side of a hatless, dishevelled, and unsteady
youth, who held one of them affectionately by the arm while the other
held him.
Another glance and he perceived that the hatless one was Grantly
Ffolliot.
"Hullo!" cried Eloquent, "what's to do here?"
"Gentleman very disorderly, sir, throwing stones at windows of your
committee-room, fighting and brawling, and resisted violently--so we're
taking him to the station."
"He seems quiet enough now," Eloquent suggested.
Grantly smiled at him sleepily. "Good chaps, policemen," he murmured;
"fine beefy chaps."
"Look here," said Eloquent, "I'd much prefer you didn't charge him.
His people are well known; it will only create ill-feeling. I'll look
after him if you leave him with me."
The policemen looked at one another. . . . "Of course," said the one
to whom Grantly clung so lovingly, "we couldn't swear as it was him who
threw the stones, though he was among them as did."
"He's only a boy," Eloquent continued, "and he's drunk . . . it would
be a pity to make a public example of him . . . just now--don't you
think?--If you could oblige me in this . . . I'm very anxious that the
election should be fought with as little ill-feeling as possible."
Something changed hands.
"What about the other young gentlemen, sir?" asked the younger
policeman.
"With the other young gentlemen," Eloquent said ruthlessly, "you can
deal exactly as you please, but if it can be managed don't charge any
of them."
With difficulty policeman number one detached himself from Grantly's
embrace and handed him over to Eloquent.
"Good-bye, old chap," Grantly called fondly as his late prop departed,
"when I'm as heavy as you, you won't cop me so easy--eh, what?"
Eloquent took the boy firmly by the arm and led him in. His steps were
uncertain and his speech was thick, but he was quite biddable, and
brimming over with loving kindness for all the world.
Eloquent took him into the sitting-room and placed him in a large
arm-chair. Grantly pushed his hair off his forehead and gazed about
the room in rather bewildered fashion, at the round table strewn with
papers, at the tray with a glass of milk and plate of sandwiches
standing on the bare little sideboard, at his pale, fagged host, who
stood on the hearthrug looking down at him.
As he met Eloquent's stern gaze he smiled sweetly at him, and he was so
like Mary when he smiled that Eloquent turned his eyes away in very
shame. It seemed sacrilege even to think of her in connection with
anything so degraded and disgusting as Grantly's state appeared to him
at that moment. His Nonconformist conscience awoke and fairly shouted
at him that he should have interfered to prevent the just retribution
that had overtaken this miserable misguided boy . . . but he was her
brother; he was the son of that gracious lady who was set as a fixed
star in the firmament of his admirations; he could not hold back when
there was a chance of saving him from this disgrace. For to be charged
with being "drunk and disorderly" in the Police Court appeared to
Eloquent just then as the lowest depths of ignominy.
"Now what in the world," he asked presently, "am I to do with you? You
can't go home in that state."
"Bed, my dear chap, bed's what I'm for, . . . so sleepy, can hardly
hold up my head . . . any shake-down'll do----"
Grantly's head fell back against the chair, and he closed his eyes in
proof of his somnolence.
"All right," said Eloquent, "you come with me."
With some difficulty he got Grantly upstairs and into his own room.
Before the meeting he had told the servants they need not sit up for
him; his own was the only other bed made up in the house. Grantly lay
down upon it, muddy boots and all, and turned sideways with a sigh of
satisfaction; but just before he settled off he opened his eyes and
said warningly:
"I say, if I was you I wouldn't go about with young Rabbich--he's a
wrong 'un--you may take it from me, he really is--he'll do you no
good--Don't you be seen about with him."
"Thank you," Eloquent said dryly, "I will follow your advice."
"That's right," Grantly murmured, "never be 'bove taking advice."
And in another minute he was fast asleep. Eloquent covered him with a
railway rug, thinking grimly the while that it seemed to have become
his mission in life to cover up prostrated Ffolliots.
He went downstairs, made up the fire, and lay down on the hard sofa in
his dining-room, and slept an intermittent feverish sleep, in which
dreadful visions of Mary between two policemen, mingled with the
declaration of the poll, which proclaimed Mr Brooke to have been
elected member for Marlehouse by an enormous majority.
At six o'clock he got up. In half an hour his servants would be
stirring, and Grantly must be got out of the house before they appeared.
He went to the kitchen, got a little teapot and cups, and made some
tea. Then he went to rouse Grantly.
This was difficult, as he couldn't raise his voice very much because of
the servants, and Grantly was sleeping heavily. At last, by a series
of shakes and soft punches, he succeeded in making him open his eyes.
Eloquent had already turned up the gas, and the room was full of light.
There is a theory extant that a man shows his real character when he is
suddenly aroused out of sleep. That if he is naturally surly, he will
be surly then; if he is of an amiable disposition, he is good-natured
then.
Grantly sat up with a start and swung his feet off the bed. "Mr
Gallup," he said very gently, "I can't exactly remember what I'm doing
here, but I do apologise."
"That's all right," Eloquent said awkwardly. "I thought perhaps you'd
like to get home before the servants were about, and it's six o'clock.
Come and have a cup of tea."
"May I wash my face?" Grantly asked meekly.
This accomplished, he went downstairs and drank the cup of tea Eloquent
had provided for him. His host lent him a bicycle and speeded him on
his way. At the door Grantly paused to say in a mumbling voice: "I
don't know, sir, why you've been so awfully decent to me, but will you
remember this? that if ever I can do anything for you, it would be very
generous of you to tell me--will you remember this?"
"I will remember," said Eloquent.
As Grantly rode away Eloquent was filled with self-reproach, for he had
not said one word either of warning or rebuke, and he had been brought
up to believe in the value of "the word in season."
Grantly pedalled as hard as he could through the dark deserted roads,
and though his head was racking and he felt, as he put it, "like
nothing on earth," he covered the five miles between Marlehouse and
Redmarley in under half an hour. He went round to the side door and
felt for the key, as he hoped to slip in without meeting any of the
servants who were, he saw by stray lights, just astir.
That key was nowhere to be found.
He tried every pocket in his overcoat, his tail coat, his white
waistcoat, his trousers, all in vain. That key was gone; lost!
There was nothing for it but to try Mary's window. Parker slept in her
room, but Parker would never bark at any member of the family. All the
bedroom windows at Redmarley were lattice, and Mary's, at the back of
the house on the first floor, stood open about a foot.
"Parker," Grantly called softly, "Parker, old chap, rouse her up and
ask her to let me in."
An old wistaria grew under the window with thick knotted stems.
Grantly climbed up this, and although it was very dark he was aware of
something dimly white at the window. Parker, much longer in the leg
than any well-bred fox-terrier has a right to be, was standing on his
hind legs thrusting his head out in silent welcome.
"Go and rouse her up, old chap," Grantly whispered. "I want her to
open the window wide enough for me to get through."
All the windows at the Manor House, open or shut, had patent catches
that it was impossible to undo from the outside.
He heard Parker jump on Mary's bed and probably lick her face, then a
sleepy "What is it, old dog, what's the matter?" and a soft movement as
Mary raised herself on her elbow and switched on the light.
"Mary," in a penetrating whisper, "let me in, I've lost that confounded
key."
In a moment Mary was over at the window, undid the catches, and Grantly
scrambled through.
"Grantly!" Mary exclaimed. "What on earth is the matter? You look
awful."
Grantly caught sight of himself in her long glass and agreed with her.
He was covered with mud from head to foot, his overcoat was torn, his
white tie was gone, his beautiful smooth hair, with the neat ripple at
the temples, stood on end in ragged locks; in fact he was as unlike the
"Knut" of ordinary life as he could well be.
"Get into bed, Mary," he said, "you'll catch cold . . ."
Mary, looking very tall in her straight white nightgown, turned slowly
and got into bed. "Now tell me," she said.
Grantly went and sat at the end of her bed and Parker joined him,
cuddling up against him and trying to lick his face. It mattered
nothing to Parker that he was ragged and dirty and disreputable;
nothing that he might have committed any crime in the rogues' calendar.
He was one of the family, he was home, he had evidently been in
trouble, he needed comfort, therefore Parker made much of him. Grantly
felt this and was vaguely cheered.
"Now," said Mary again, and switched off the light; "you can have the
eiderdown if you're cold."
"Well, if you must know," said Grantly, "we went to the Radical meeting
and got chucked out."
"Who went? I thought you were dining with the Rabbiches."
"Not _the_ Rabbiches, _a_ Rabbich, and an insufferable bounder at that;
but he gave us a jolly good dinner, champagne flowed."
"And you got drunk? Oh, Grantly!"
"Well, no; I shouldn't describe it thus crudely--like the Irishman, I
prefer to say 'having drink taken.'"
"Well, 'having drink taken'--then?"
"After we were chucked out for interrupting (it _was_ a rag) we went
back to the Moonstone."
"To the Moonstone," Mary repeated; "why there?"
"Because we dined there, my dear. Young Rabbich gave the feast; it was
all arranged beforehand. We meant to spoil that meeting, but we began
too soon, and they were too strong for us, and . . . he's an ass, and
shouted out all sorts of things he shouldn't--we deserved what we got."
"And then?"
"I'm not very clear what happened then, except that there was the most
tremendous shindy in the street, and fur was flying like anything, and
the next I know was two bobbies had got me, and your friend Gallup
squared them and took me home and put me to bed . . . and here I am."
"Mr Gallup," Mary repeated incredulously; "you've been to bed in his
house?"
"You've got it, my sister; lay on his bed just as I am . . . and he
woke me at six and sent me home on his bicycle."
"But why--why should he have interfered? I should have thought he'd
have been _glad_ for you to be taken up, interrupting his meeting and
being on the other side . . . and everything."
"Well, anyway, that's what he did, and whatever his motives may have
been it was jolly decent of him . . . and . . ." here Grantly lowered
his voice to the faintest mumble, "he never said a word of reproof or
exhortation . . . I tell you he behaved like a gentleman. What's to
be done?"
"Nothing," said Mary decidedly. "You've played the fool, and by the
mercy of Providence you've got off uncommonly cheap. It would worry
mother horribly if she knew, and as for father . . . well you know what
_he_ thinks of people who can't carry their liquor like gentlemen, and
grandfather too . . . and . . . oh, Grantly--father's not going South
till the very end of January; he decided to-night that as the weather
was so mild he'd wait till then. So it would _never_ do if it was to
come out, your life would be unbearable, all of our lives; he'd say it
was the Grantly strain coming out--you know how he blames every bit of
bad in us on mother's people."
"I know," groaned Grantly, "I know."
"Well, anyway," Mary said in quite a different tone, "there's one thing
we've got to remember, and that is we must be uncommonly civil to that
young man if we happen to meet him--he's put us under an obligation."
"I know . . . I know, that's what I feel, and I shall never have an
easy minute till I've done something for him . . . and I don't see
anything I can do with the pater like he is and all. Isn't it a
_beastly_ state of things?"
In the darkness Mary leant forward and stroked the tousled head bent
down over Parker.
"Poor old boy," she said softly, "poor old boy," and Parker licked
something that tasted salt off the end of his nose.
When Grantly left his sister's room Parker went with him.
* * * * * *
Eloquent's housekeeper found the missing key under his bed, and he sent
it out to the Manor House that morning, addressed to Grantly, in a
sealed envelope by special messenger.
In the evening the poll was declared in Marlehouse, and the Liberal
candidate was elected by a majority of three hundred and forty-nine
votes.