_Trueblue._ These men have no votes. Why should I court them?
_Grayfox._ No votes, but power.
_Trueblue._ What! over charities?
_Grayfox._ No, over brains: which disturbs the canvass. In a
natural state of things the average price of a vote at Paddlebrook
is nine-and-sixpence, throwing the fifty pound tenants, who cost
nothing, into the divisor. But these talking men cause an
artificial rise of prices.
The expected important knock at the door came about twelve o'clock, and
Esther could hear that there were two visitors. Immediately the parlor
door was opened and the shaggy-haired, cravatless image of Felix Holt,
which was just then full in the mirror of Esther's mind, was displaced
by the highly-contrasted appearance of a personage whose name she
guessed before Mr. Jermyn had announced it. The perfect morning costume
of that day differed much from our present ideal: it was essential that
a gentleman's chin should be well propped, that his collar should have a
voluminous roll, that his waistcoat should imply much discrimination,
and that his buttons should be arranged in a manner which would now
expose him to general contempt. And it must not be forgotten that at the
distant period when Treby Magna first knew the excitements of an
election, there existed many other anomalies now obsolete, besides
short-waisted coats and broad stiffeners.
But we have some notions of beauty and fitness which withstand the
centuries; and quite irrespective of dates, it would be pronounced that
at the age of thirty-four Harold Transome was a striking and handsome
man. He was one of those people, as Denner remarked, to whose presence
in the room you could not be indifferent; if you do not hate or dread
them, you must find the touch of their hands, nay, their very shadows,
agreeable.
Esther felt a pleasure quite new to her as she saw his finely-embrowned
face and full bright eyes turned toward her with an air of deference by
which gallantry must commend itself to a refined woman who is not
absolutely free from vanity. Harold Transome regarded women as slight
things, but he was fond of slight things in the intervals of business;
and he held it among the chief arts of life to keep these pleasant
diversions within such bounds that they should never interfere with the
course of his serious ambition. Esther was perfectly aware, as he took a
chair near her, that he was under some admiring surprise at her
appearance and manner. How could it be otherwise? She believed that in
the eyes of a well-bred man no young lady in Treby could equal her: she
felt a glow of delight at the sense that she was being looked at.
"My father expected you," she said to Mr. Jermyn. "I delivered your
letter to him yesterday. He will be down immediately."
She disentangled her foot from her netting and wound it up.
"I hope you are not going to let us disturb you," said Harold, noticing
her action. "We come to discuss election affairs, and we particularly
desire to interest the ladies."
"I have no interest with any one who is not already on the right side,"
said Esther smiling.
"I am happy to see at least that you wear the Liberal colors."
"I fear I must confess that it is more from love of blue than from love
of Liberalism. Yellow opinions could only have brunettes on their side."
Esther spoke with her usual pretty fluency, but she had no sooner
uttered the words than she thought how angry they would have made Felix.
"If my cause is to be recommended by the becomingness of my colors, then
I am sure you are acting in my interest by wearing them."
Esther rose to leave the room.
"Must you really go?" said Harold, preparing to open the door for her.
"Yes, I have an engagement--a lesson at half past twelve," said Esther,
bowing and floating out like a blue-robed Naïad, but not without a
suffused blush as she passed through the doorway.
It was a pity the room was so small, Harold Transome thought: this girl
ought to walk in a house where there were halls and corridors. But he
had soon dismissed this chance preoccupation with Esther; for before the
door was closed again Mr. Lyon had entered, and Harold was entirely bent
on what had been the object of his visit. The minister, though no
elector himself, had considerable influence over Liberal electors, and
it was the part of wisdom in a candidate to cement all political
adhesion by a little personal regard, if possible. Garstin was a harsh
and wiry fellow; he seemed to suggest that sour whey, which some say was
the original meaning of Whig in the Scottish, and it might suggest the
theoretic advantages of Radicalism if it could be associated with a more
generous presence. What would conciliate the personal regard of old Mr.
Lyon became a curious problem to Harold, now the little man made his
appearance. But canvassing makes a gentleman acquainted with many
strange animals; together with the ways of catching and taming them; and
thus the knowledge of natural history advances amongst the aristocracy
and wealthy commoners of our land.
"I am very glad to have secured this opportunity of making your personal
acquaintance, Mr. Lyon," said Harold, putting out his hand to the
minister when Jermyn had mentioned his name. "I am to address the
electors here, in the Market-Place, to-morrow; and I should have been
sorry to do so without first paying my respects privately to my chief
friends, as there may be points on which they particularly wish me to
explain myself."
"You speak civilly, sir, and reasonably," said Mr. Lyon, with a vague
short-sighted gaze, in which a candidate's appearance evidently went for
nothing. "Pray be seated, gentlemen. It is my habit to stand."
He placed himself at a right angle with his visitors, his worn look of
intellectual eagerness, slight frame, and rusty attire, making an odd
contrast with their flourishing persons, unblemished costume, and
comfortable freedom from excitement. The group was fairly typical of the
difference between the men who are animated by ideas and the men who are
expected to apply them. Then he drew forth his spectacles, and began to
rub them with the thin end of his coat tail. He was inwardly exercising
great self-mastery--suppressing the thought of his personal needs, which
Jermyn's presence tended to suggest, in order that he might be equal to
the larger duties of this occasion.
"I am aware--Mr. Jermyn has told me," said Harold, "what good service
you have done me already, Mr. Lyon. The fact is, a man of intellect like
you was especially needed in my case. The race I am running is really
against Garstin only, who calls himself a Liberal, though he cares for
nothing, and understands nothing, except the interests of the wealthy
traders. And you have been able to explain the difference between
Liberal and Liberal, which, as you and I know, is something like the
difference between fish and fish."
"Your comparison is not unapt, sir," said Mr. Lyon, still holding his
spectacles in his hand, "at this epoch, when the mind of the nation has
been strained on the passing of one measure. Where a great weight has to
be moved, we require not so much selected instruments as abundant
horse-power. But it is an unavoidable evil of these massive achievements
that they encourage a coarse undiscriminatingness obstructive of more
nicely-wrought results, and an exaggerated expectation inconsistent with
the intricacies of our fallen and struggling condition. I say not that
compromise is unnecessary, but it is an evil attendant on our
imperfection; and I would pray every one to mark that, where compromise
broadens, intellect and conscience are thrust into narrower room.
Wherefore it has been my object to show our people that there are many
who have helped to draw the car of Reform, whose ends are but partial,
and who forsake not the ungodly principle of selfish alliances, but
would only substitute Syria for Egypt--thinking chiefly of their own
share in peacocks, gold and ivory."
"Just so," said Harold, who was quick at new languages, and still
quicker at translating other men's generalities into his own special and
immediate purposes, "men who will be satisfied if they can only bring in
a plutocracy, buy up the land, and stick the old crests on their new
gateways. Now the practical point to secure against these false Liberals
at present is, that our electors should not divide their votes. As it
appears that many who vote for Debarry are likely to split their votes
in favor of Garstin, it is of the first consequence that my voters
should give me plumpers. If they divide their votes they can't keep out
Debarry, and they may help to keep out me. I feel some confidence in
asking you to use your influence in this direction, Mr. Lyon. We
candidates have to praise ourselves more than is graceful; but you are
aware that, while I belong by my birth to the classes that have their
roots in tradition and all the old loyalties, my experience has lain
chiefly among those who make their own career, and depend on the new
rather than the old. I have had the advantage of considering the
national welfare under varied lights: I have wider views than those of a
mere cotton lord. On questions connected with religious liberty I would
stop short at no measure that was not thorough."
"I hope not, sir--I hope not," said Mr. Lyon, gravely; finally putting
on his spectacles and examining the face of the candidate, whom he was
preparing to turn into a catechumen. For the good Rufus, conscious of
his political importance as an organ of persuasion, felt it his duty to
catechise a little, and also to do his part toward impressing a probable
legislator with a sense of his responsibility. But the latter branch of
duty somewhat obstructed the catechising, for his mind was so urged by
considerations which he held in danger of being overlooked, that the
questions and answers bore a very slender proportion to his exposition.
It was impossible to leave the question of church-rates without noting
the grounds of their injustice, and without a brief enumeration of
reasons why Mr. Lyon, for his own part, would not present that passive
resistance to a legal imposition which had been adopted by the Friends
(whose heroism in this regard was nevertheless worthy of all honor).
Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not athirst for
information, but, to be quite fair, we must admit that superior
reticence is a good deal due to the lack of matter. Speech is often
barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest.
Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be
sitting on one addled nest-egg; and when it takes to cackling, will have
nothing to announce but that addled delusion.
Harold Transome was not at all a patient man, but in matters of business
he was quite awake to his cue, and in this case it was perhaps easier to
listen than to answer questions. But Jermyn, who had plenty of work on
his hands, took an opportunity of rising, and saying, as he looked at
his watch--
"I must really be at the office in five minutes. You will find me there,
Mr. Transome; you have probably still many things to say to Mr. Lyon."
"I beseech you, sir," said the minister, changing color, and by a quick
movement laying his hand on Jermyn's arm--"I beseech you to favor me
with an interview on some private business--this evening, if it were
possible."
Mr. Lyon, like others who are habitually occupied with impersonal
subjects, was liable to this impulsive sort of action. He snatched at
the details of life as if they were darting past him--as if they were
like the ribbons at his knees, which would never be tied all day if they
were not tied on the instant. Through these spasmodic leaps out of his
abstractions into real life, it constantly happened that he suddenly
took a course which had been the subject of too much doubt with him ever
to have been determined on by continuous thought. And if Jermyn had not
startled him by threatening to vanish just when he was plunged in
politics, he might never have made up his mind to confide in a worldly
attorney.
("An odd man," as Mrs. Muscat observed, "to have such a gift in the
pulpit. But there's One knows better than we do----" which, in a lady
who rarely felt her judgment at a loss, was a concession that showed
much piety.)
Jermyn was surprised at the little man's eagerness. "By all means," he
answered, quite cordially. "Could you come to my office at eight
o'clock?"
"For several reasons, I must beg you to come to me."
"Oh, very good. I'll walk out and see you this evening, if possible. I
shall have much pleasure in being of any use to you." Jermyn felt that
in the eyes of Harold he was appearing all the more valuable when his
services were thus in request. He went out, and Mr. Lyon easily relapsed
into politics, for he had been on the brink of a favorite subject on
which he was at issue with his fellow-Liberals.
At that time, when faith in the efficacy of political change was at
fever-heat in ardent Reformers, many measures which men are still
discussing with little confidence on either side, were then talked about
and disposed of like property in near reversion. Crying abuses--"bloated
paupers," "bloated pluralists," and other corruptions hindering men from
being wise and happy--had to be fought against and slain. Such a time is
a time of hope. Afterward when the corpses of those monsters have been
held up to the public wonder and abhorrence, and yet wisdom and
happiness do not follow, but rather a more abundant breeding of the
foolish and unhappy, comes a time of doubt and despondency. But in the
great Reform-year Hope was mighty: the prospect of Reform had even
served the voters instead of drink; and in one place, at least, there
had been "a dry election." And now the speakers at Reform banquets were
exuberant in congratulation and promise: Liberal clergymen of the
Establishment toasted Liberal Catholic clergymen without any allusion to
scarlet, and Catholic clergymen replied with a like tender reserve.
Some dwelt on the abolition of all abuses, and on millennial blessedness
generally; others, whose imaginations were less suffused with
exhalations of the dawn insisted chiefly on the ballot-box.
Now on this question of the ballot the minister strongly took the
negative side. Our pet opinions are usually those which place us in a
minority of a minority amongst our own party:--very happily, else those
poor opinions, born with no silver spoon in their mouths--how would they
get nourished and fed? So it was with Mr. Lyon and his objection to the
ballot. But he had thrown out a remark on the subject which was not
quite clear to his hearer, who interpreted it according to his best
calculation of probabilities.
"I have no objection to the ballot," said Harold, "but I think that is
not the sort of thing we have to work at just now. We shouldn't get it.
And other questions are imminent."
"Then, sir, you would vote for the ballot?" said Mr. Lyon, stroking his
chin.
"Certainly, if the point came up. I have too much respect for the
freedom of the voter to oppose anything which offers a chance of making
that freedom more complete."
Mr. Lyon looked at the speaker with a pitying smile and a subdued
"h'm--m--m," which Harold took for a sign of satisfaction. He was soon
undeceived.
"You grieve me, sir; you grieve me much. And I pray you to reconsider
this question, for it will take you to the root, as I think, of
political morality. I engage to show to any impartial mind, duly
furnished with the principles of public and private rectitude, that the
ballot would be pernicious, and that if it were not pernicious, it would
still be futile. I will show, first, that it would be futile as a
preservative from bribery and illegitimate influence; and, secondly,
that it would be in the worst kind pernicious, as shutting the door
against those influences whereby the soul of a man and the character of
a citizen are duly educated for their great functions. Be not alarmed if
I detain you, sir. It is well worth the while."
"Confound this old man," thought Harold. "I'll never make a canvassing
call on a preacher again, unless he has lost his voice from a cold." He
was going to excuse himself as prudently as he could, by deferring the
subject till the morrow, and inviting Mr. Lyon to come to him in the
committee-room before the time appointed for his public speech; but he
was relieved by the opening of the door. Lyddy put in her head to say--
"If you please, sir, here's Mr. Holt wants to know if he may come in and
speak to the gentleman. He begs your pardon, but you're to say 'no' if
you don't like him to come."
"Nay, show him in at once, Lyddy. A young man," Mr. Lyon went on,
speaking to Harold, "whom a representative ought to know--no voter, but
a man of ideas and study."
"He is thoroughly welcome," said Harold, truthfully enough, though he
felt little interest in the voteless man of ideas except as a diversion
from the subject of the ballot. He had been standing for the last minute
or two, feeling less of a victim in that attitude, and more able to
calculate on means of escape.
"Mr. Holt, sir," said the minister, as Felix entered, "is a young friend
of mine, whose opinions on some points I hope to see altered, but who
has a zeal for public justice which I trust he will never lose."
"I am glad to see Mr. Holt," said Harold, bowing. He perceived from the
way in which Felix bowed to him and turned to the most distant spot in
the room, that the candidate's shake of the hand would not be welcome
here. "A formidable fellow," he thought, "capable of mounting a cart in
the market-place to-morrow and cross-examining me, if I say anything
that doesn't please him."
"Mr. Lyon," said Felix, "I have taken a liberty with you in asking to
see Mr. Transome when he is engaged with you. But I have to speak to him
on a matter which I shouldn't care to make public at present, and it is
one on which I am sure you will back me. I heard that Mr. Transome was
here, so I ventured to come. I hope you will both excuse me, as my
business refers to some electioneering measures which are being taken by
Mr. Transome's agents."
"Pray go on," said Harold, expecting something unpleasant.
"I'm not going to speak against treating voters," said Felix; "I suppose
buttered ale, and grease of that sort to make the wheels go, belong to
the necessary humbug of representation. But I wish to ask you, Mr.
Transome, whether it is with your knowledge that agents of yours are
bribing rough fellows who are no voters--the colliers and navvies at
Sproxton--with the chance of extra drunkenness, that they may make a
posse on your side at the nomination and polling?"
"Certainly not," said Harold. "You are aware, my dear sir, that a
candidate is very much at the mercy of his agents as to the means by
which he is returned, especially when many years' absence has made him a
stranger to the men actually conducting business. But are you sure of
your facts?"
"As sure as my senses can make me," said Felix, who then briefly
described what had happened on Sunday. "I believed that you were
ignorant of all this, Mr. Transome," he ended, "and that was why I
thought some good might be done by speaking to you. If not, I should be
tempted to expose the whole affair as a disgrace to the Radical party.
I'm a Radical myself, and mean to work all my life long against
privilege, monopoly, and oppression. But I would rather be a
livery-servant proud of my master's title, than I would seem to make
common cause with scoundrels who turn the best hopes of men into
by-words for cant and dishonesty."
"Your energetic protest is needless here, sir," said Harold, offended at
what sounded like a threat, and was certainly premature enough to be in
bad taste. In fact, this error of behavior in Felix proceeded from a
repulsion which was mutual. It was a constant source of irritation to
him that the public men on his side were, on the whole, not
conspicuously better than the public men on the other side; that the
spirit of innovation, which with him was a part of religion, was in many
of its mouthpieces no more of a religion than the faith in rotten
boroughs; and he was thus predisposed to distrust Harold Transome.
Harold, in his turn, disliked impracticable notions of loftiness and
purity--disliked all enthusiasm; and he thought he saw a very
troublesome, vigorous incorporation of that nonsense in Felix. But it
would be foolish to exasperate him in any way.
"If you choose to accompany me to Jermyn's office," he went on, "the
matter shall be enquired into in your presence. I think you will agree
with me, Mr. Lyon, that this will be the most satisfactory course."
"Doubtless," said the minister, who liked the candidate very well, and
believed that he would be amenable to argument; "and I would caution my
young friend against a too great hastiness of words and action. David's
cause against Saul was a righteous one; nevertheless not all who clave
unto David were righteous men."
"The more was the pity, sir," said Felix. "Especially if he winked at
their malpractices."
Mr. Lyon smiled, shook his head, and stroked his favorite's arm
deprecatingly.
"It is rather too much for any man to keep the consciences of all his
party," said Harold. "If you had lived in the East, as I have, you would
be more tolerant, for example, of an active industrious selfishness,
such as we have here, though it may not always be quite scrupulous: you
would see how much better it is than an idle selfishness. I have heard
it said, a bridge is a good thing--worth helping to make, though half
the men who worked at it were rogues."
"Oh, yes!" said Felix, scornfully, "give me a handful of generalities
and analogies, and I'll undertake to justify Burke and Hare, and prove
them benefactors of their species. I'll tolerate no nuisances but such
as I can't help; and the question now is, not whether we can do away
with all the nuisances in the world, but with a particular nuisance
under our noses."
"Then we had better cut the matter short, as I propose, by going at once
to Jermyn's," said Harold. "In that case, I must bid you good-morning,
Mr. Lyon."
"I would fain," said the minister, looking uneasy--"I would fain have
had a further opportunity of considering that question of the ballot
with you. The reasons against it need not be urged lengthily; they only
require complete enumeration to prevent any seeming hiatus, where an
opposing fallacy might thrust itself in."
"Never fear, sir," said Harold, shaking Mr. Lyon's hand cordially,
"there will be opportunities. Shall I not see you in the committee-room
to-morrow?"
"I think not," said Mr. Lyon, rubbing his brow, with a sad remembrance
of his personal anxieties. "But I will send you, if you will permit me,
a brief writing, on which you can meditate at your leisure."
"I shall be delighted. Good-bye."
Harold and Felix went out together; and the minister, going up to his
dull study, asked himself whether, under the pressure of conflicting
experience, he had faithfully discharged the duties of the past
interview?
If a cynical sprite were present, riding on one of the motes in that
dusty room, he may have made himself merry at the illusions of the
little minister who brought so much conscience to bear on the production
of so slight an effect. I confess to smiling myself, being sceptical as
to the effect of ardent appeals and nice distinctions on gentlemen who
are got up, both inside and out, as candidates in the style of the
period; but I never smiled at Mr. Lyon's trustful energy without falling
to penitence and veneration immediately after. For what we call
illusions are often, in truth, a wider vision of past and recent
realities--a willing movement of a man's soul with the larger sweep of
the world's forces--a movement toward a more assured end than the
chances of a single life. We see human heroism broken into units and
say, this unit did little--might as well not have been. But in this way
we might break up a great army into units; in this way we might break
the sunlight into fragments, and think that this and the other might be
cheaply parted with. Let us rather raise a monument to the soldiers
whose brave hearts only kept the ranks unbroken and met death--a
monument to the faithful who were not famous, and who are precious as
the continuity of the sunbeams is precious, though some of them fall
unseen and on barrenness.
At present, looking back on that day at Treby, it seem to me that the
sadder illusion lay with Harold Transome, who was trusting in his own
skill to shape the success of his own morrows, ignorant of what many
yesterdays had determined for him beforehand.