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 FELIX HOLT
 
 Upou the niidlauds uow the industrious muse doth fall, 
 The shires which we the heart of England well may call. 
 
 My native country thou, which so brave spirits hast bred, 
 If there be virtues yet remaining in thy earth, 
 Or any good of thine thou bred'st into my birth. 
 Accept it as thine own, whilst now I sing of thee. 
 Of all thy later brood the uu worthiest though I be." 
 
 Drayton : Poli/olbion.
 
 FELIX HOLT 
 
 THE RADICAL 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' ADAM BEDE,' ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 i 
 . 1 ' ' ' ' J ■> J J ' i , , : -t I > " ■> ' 
 
 WILLIAM ELACKWOOl) AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXVI 
 
 
 ■i j'i '*'' -5 
 
 J.   
 
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 t c i c I t *■ i •
 
 A 1 
 
 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 THE RADICAL. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 And doubt shall be as lead upon tlie feet 
 Of thy most anxious will. 
 
 Mk Lyon was careful to look in at Felix as soon as 
 possible after Christian's departure, to tell him that 
 his trust was discharged. During the rest of the 
 day lie was somewhat relieved from agitating re- 
 flections by the necessity of attending to his minis- 
 terial duties, the rebuke of rebellious singers being 
 one of them; and on his return from the Monday 
 evening prayer-meeting he was so overcome with 
 weariness that he went to bed without taking note 
 of any objects in his study. But when he rose the 
 VOL. II. A
 
 2 FELIX HOLT 
 
 next morning, his mind, once more eagerly active, 
 was arrested by Philip Debarry's letter, which still 
 lay open on his desk, and was arrested by precisely 
 that portion which had been unheeded the day 
 before : — " / shall consider myself doubly fortunate 
 if at any time, you can jpoint out to me some method 
 hy which I may procure you as lively a satisfac- 
 tion as I am 7ww feeling, in that full and speedy, 
 relief from anxiety which I owe to your considerate 
 conduct." 
 
 To understand how these words could carry the 
 suggestion they actually had for the minister in a 
 crisis of peculiar personal anxiety and struggle, we 
 must bear in mind that for many years he had 
 walked through life with the sense of having for 
 a space been unfaithful to what he esteemed the 
 highest trust ever committed to man — the minis- 
 terial vocation. In a mind of any nobleness, a lapse 
 into transgression against an object still regarded 
 as supreme, issues in a new and purer devotedness, 
 chastised by humility and watched over by a pas- 
 sionate regret. So it was with that ardent spirit 
 which animated the little body of Rufus Lyon. 
 Once in his life he had been blinded, deafened, 
 hurried along by rebellious impulse ; he had gone 
 astray after his own desires, and had let the fire die
 
 THE KADICAL. 3 
 
 out on the altar ; and as the true penitent, hating 
 his self-besotted error, asks from all coming life 
 duty instead of joy, and service instead of ease, so 
 Eufus was perpetually on the watch lest he should 
 ever again postpone to some private affection a 
 great public opportunity which to him was equiva- 
 lent to a command. 
 
 Now here was an opportunity brought by a 
 combination of that unexpected incalculable kind 
 which might be regarded as the Divine emphasis 
 invoking especial attention to trivial events — an 
 opportunity of securing what Eufus Lyon had 
 often wished for as a means of honouring truth, 
 and exhibiting error in the character of a stam- 
 mering, halting, short-breathed usurper of office 
 and dignity. What was more exasperating to a 
 zealous preacher, with whom copious speech was 
 not a difficulty but a relief — who never lacked 
 argument, but only combatants and listeners — than 
 to reflect that there were thousands on thousands of 
 pulpits in this kingdom, supplied with handsome 
 sounding-boards, and occupying an advantageous 
 position in buildings far larger than the chapel in 
 Malthouse Yard — buildings sure to be places of 
 resort, even as the markets were, if only from habit 
 and interest ; and that these pulpits were filled, or
 
 4 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 ratlier made vacuous, by men whose privileged edu- 
 cation in the ancient centres of instruction issued 
 in twenty minutes' formal reading of tepid exhorta- 
 tion or probably infirm deductions from premises 
 based on rotten scaffolding? And it is in the nature 
 of exasperation gradually to concentrate itself. The 
 sincere antipathy of a dog towards cats in general, 
 necessarily takes the form of indignant barking at 
 the neighbour's black cat which makes daily tres- 
 pass ; the bark at imagined cats, though a fre- 
 quent exercise of the canine mind, is yet compara- 
 tively feeble. Mr Lyon's sarcasm was not without 
 an edge when he dilated in general on an elaborate 
 education for teachers which issued in the minimum 
 of teaching, but it found a whetstone in the par- 
 ticular example of that bad system known as the 
 Eector of Treby Magna. There was nothing positive 
 to be said against the Eev. Augustus Debarry ; his 
 life could not be pronounced blameworthy except 
 for its negatives. And the good Paifus was too 
 pure-minded not to be glad of that. He had no 
 delight in vice as discrediting wicked opponents ; he 
 shrank from dwelling on the images of cruelty or 
 of grossness, and his indignation was habitually in- 
 spired only by those moral and intellectual mistakes 
 which darken the soul but do not injure or degrade
 
 THE EADICAL. 
 
 the temple of the body. If the Rector had been a 
 less respectable man, Rufus would have more re- 
 luctantly made him an object of antagonism ; but 
 as an incarnation of soul-destroying error, dissociated 
 from those baser sins which have no good repute 
 even with the worldly, it would be an argumentative 
 luxury to get into close quarters with him, and fight 
 with a dialectic short-sword in the eyes of the Treby 
 world (sending also a written account thereof to 
 the chief organs of Dissenting opinion). Vice was 
 essentially stupid — a deaf and eyeless monster, in- 
 susceptible to demonstration : the Spirit might work 
 on it by unseen ways, and the unstudied sallies of 
 sermons were often as the arrows which pierced 
 and awakened the brutified conscience ; but illu- 
 minated thought, finely -dividing speech, were the 
 choicer weapons of the Divine armoury, which 
 whoso could wield must be careful not to leave 
 idle. 
 
 Here, then, was the longed-for opportunity. Here 
 was an engagement — an expression of a strong wish 
 — on the part of Philip Debarry, if it were in his 
 power, to procure a satisfaction to Rufus Lyon. How 
 had that man of God and exemplary Independent 
 minister, Mr xlinsworth, of persecuted sanctity, con- 
 ducted himself when a similar occasion had befallen
 
 6 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 him at Amsterdam? He had thought of nothing 
 but the glory of the highest cause, and had con- 
 verted the offer of recompense into a public debate 
 with a Jew on the chief mysteries of the faith. 
 Here was a model : the case was nothing short of 
 a heavenly indication, and he, Eufus Lyon, would 
 seize the occasion to demand a public debate with 
 the Eector on the Constitution of the true Church. 
 
 What if he were inwardly torn by doubt and 
 anxiety concerning his own private relations and 
 the facts of his past life ? That danger of absorption 
 within the narrow bounds of self only urged him 
 the more towards action which had a wider bearing, 
 and might tell on the welfare of England at large. 
 It was decided. Before the minister went down to 
 his breakfast that morning he had written the fol- 
 lowing letter to Mr Philip Debarry : — 
 
 Sir, — Referring to your letter of yesterday, I find 
 the following words : " I shall consider myself doubly 
 fortunate if at any time you can jyoint out to me 
 some method by which I may procure you as lively 
 a satisfaction as I am now feeling, in that full and 
 speedy relief from anxiety which I owe to your con- 
 siderate conduct." 
 
 I am not unavjare, sir, that, in the usage of the
 
 THE EADICAL. 7 
 
 woiid, there are luords of courtesy (so called) vjhich 
 are understood, hy those amongst whom they are cur- 
 rent, to have no precise meaning, and to constitute no 
 bond or obligation. I will not novj insist that this is 
 an abuse of language, wherein our fallible nature re- 
 quires the strictest safeguards against laxity and mis- 
 application, for I do not apprehend thai in writing 
 the words 1 have above quoted, you were open to the 
 reproach of using phrases which, while seeming to 
 carry a specific meaning, were really no more than 
 what is called a polite form. I believe, sir, that you 
 used these words advisedly, sincerely, aiid with an 
 honourable intention of acting on them as a pledge, 
 should such action be demanded. No other sujjposi- 
 tion on my part would correspond to the character 
 you bear as a young man who aspires (albeit mis- 
 takenly) to engraft the finest fruits of public virtue 
 on a creed and institutions, ivhereof the sap is com- 
 posed rather of human self-sccking than of everlasting 
 truth. 
 
 Wherefore I act on this my belief in the integrity 
 of your written word ; and I beg you to procure for 
 me (as it is doubtless in your potver) that I may be 
 allowed a public discussion with your near relative, 
 the Rector of this parish, the Reverend Augustus De- 
 barry, to be held in the large room of the Free School,
 
 8 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 or in the Assembly Room of the Marquis of Granby, 
 these being the largest covered spaces at our command. 
 For I presume he ivoidd neither allow me to speak 
 ivithin his church, nor would consent himself to speak 
 within my chapel; arid the probable inclemency of the 
 approaching season forbids an assured expectation 
 that ive could discourse in the open air. The subjects 
 I desire to discuss are,— first, the Constitution of the 
 true Church; and, secondly, the bearing thereupon of 
 the English Reformation. Confidently expecting that 
 yoii luill comidly with this request, which is the se- 
 quence of your exp7^essed desire, I remain, sir, yours, 
 with the respect offered to a sincere withstander, 
 
 RUFU8 LYON. 
 
 Malthouse Yard. 
 
 After writing tliis letter, tlie good Kufus felt 
 that serenity and elevation of mind whicli is in- 
 fallibly brought by a preoccupation with the wider 
 relations of things. Already he was beginning to 
 sketch the course his argument might most judi- 
 ciously take in the coming debate ; his thoughts 
 were running into sentences, and marking off care- 
 ful exceptions in parentheses; and he had come 
 down and seated himself at the breakfast-table 
 quite automatically, without expectation of toast
 
 THE RADICAL. 9 
 
 or coffee, when Esther's voice and touch recalled 
 him to an inward debate of another kind, in which 
 he felt himself much v/eaker. Again there arose 
 before him the image of that cool, hard-eyed, 
 worldly man, who might be this dear child's 
 father, and one against whose rights he had him- 
 self grievously offended. Always as the image 
 recurred to him Mr Lyon's heart sent forth a 
 prayer for guidance, but no definite guidance had 
 yet made itself visible for him. It could not be 
 guidance — it was a temptation — that said, " Let 
 the matter rest : seek to know no more ; know 
 only what is thrust upon you." The remembrance 
 that in his time of w^andering he had wilfully 
 remained in ignorance of facts which he might 
 have inquired after, deepened the impression that 
 it was now an imperative duty to seek the fullest 
 attainable knowledge. And the inquiry might 
 possibly issue in a blessed repose, by putting a 
 negative on all his suspicions. But the more 
 vividly all the circumstances became present to 
 him, the more unfit he felt himself to set about 
 any investigation concerning this man who called 
 himself Maurice Christian. He could seek no con- 
 fidant or helper among "the brethren;" he was 
 obliged to admit to himself that the members of
 
 10 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 his cliurch, with whom he hoped to go to heaven, 
 were not easy to converse with on earth touching 
 the deeper secrets of his experience, and were still 
 less able to advise him as to the wisest procedure, 
 in a case of high delicacy, with a worldling who 
 had a carefully -trimmed whisker and a fashion- 
 able costume. For the first time in his life it 
 occurred to the minister that he should be glad 
 of an adviser who had more worldly than spiritual 
 experience, and that it might not be inconsistent 
 with his principles to seek some light from one 
 who had studied human law. But it was a thought 
 to be paused upon, and not followed out rashly; 
 some other guidance miglit intervene. 
 
 Esther noticed that her father was in a fit of 
 abstraction, that he seemed to swallow his coffee 
 and toast quite unconsciously, and that he vented 
 from time to time a low guttural interjection, 
 which was habitual with him when he was ab- 
 sorbed by an inward discussion. She did not dis- 
 turb him by remarks, and only wondered whether 
 anything unusual had occurred on Sunday even- 
 ing. But at last she thought it needful to say, 
 " You recollect what I told you yesterday, father ? " 
 
 "Nay, child; what?" said Mr Lyon, rousing 
 himself
 
 THE KADICAL. 11 
 
 " That Mr Jermyii asked me if you would pro- 
 bably be at home this morning before one o'clock." 
 
 Esther was surprised to see her father start and 
 change colour as if he had been shaken by some 
 sudden collision before he answered, 
 
 " Assuredly ; I do not intend to move from my 
 study after I have once been out to give this 
 letter to Zachary." 
 
 " Shall I tell Lyddy to take him up at once to 
 your study if he comes ? If not, I shall have to 
 stay in my own room, because I shall be at home 
 all this morning, and it is rather cold now to sit 
 without a fire." 
 
 " Yes, my dear, let him come up to me ; unless, in- 
 deed, he should bring a second person, which might 
 happen, seeing that in all likelihood he is coming, 
 as liitherto, on electioneering business. And I could 
 not well accommodate two visitors up-stairs." 
 
 While Mr Lyon went out to Zachary, the pew- 
 opener, to give him a second time the commission 
 of carrying a letter to Treby Manor, Esther gave 
 her injunction to Lyddy that if one gentleman 
 came he was to be shown up-stairs — if two, they 
 were to be shown into the parlour. But she had 
 to resolve various questions before Lyddy clearly 
 saw what was expected of her, — as that, " if it was
 
 12 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 tlie gentleman as came on Thursday in the pepper- 
 and-salt coat, was he to be shown np-stairs ? And 
 the gentleman from the Manor yesterday as went 
 out whistling — had Miss Esther heard about him ? 
 There seemed no end of these great folks coming 
 to Malthouse Yard since there was talk of the 
 election ; but they might be poor lost creatures 
 the most of 'em." Whereupon Lyddy shook her 
 head and groaned, under an edifying despair as 
 to the future lot of gentlemen callers. 
 
 Esther always avoided asking questions of Lyddy, 
 who found an answer as she found a key, by pour- 
 ing out a pocketful of miscellanies. But she had 
 remarked so many indications that something had 
 happened to cause her father unusual excitement 
 and mental preoccupation, that slie could not help 
 connecting Avith them the fact of this visit from the 
 Manor, which he had not mentioned to her. 
 
 She sat down in the dull parlour and took up her 
 netting; for since Sunday she had felt unable to 
 read when she was alone, being obliged, in spite of 
 herself, to think of Felix Holt — to imagine what he 
 would like her to be, and what sort of views he 
 took of life so as to make it seem valuable in the 
 absence of all elegance, luxury, gaiety, or romance. 
 Had he yet reflected that he had behaved very
 
 THE RADICAL. 13 
 
 rudely to her on Sunday ? Perhaps not. Perhaps 
 he had dismissed her from his mind with contempt. 
 And at that thought Esther's eyes smarted unpleas- 
 antly. She was fond of netting, because it showed 
 to advantage both her hand and her foot; and across 
 this image of Felix Holt's indifference and contempt 
 there passed the vaguer image of a possible some- 
 body who would admire her hands and feet, and 
 delight in looking at their beauty, and long, yet not 
 dare, to kiss them. Life would be much easier in 
 the presence of such a love. But it was precisely 
 this longing after her own satisfaction that Felix 
 had reproached her with. Did he want her to be 
 heroic ? That seemed impossible without some 
 great occasion. Her life was a heap of fragments, 
 and so were her thoughts : some great energy was 
 needed to bind them together. Esther was begin- 
 ning to lose her complacency at her own wit and 
 criticism ; to lose the sense of superiority in an 
 awakening need for reliance on one whose vision 
 was wider, whose nature was purer and stronger 
 than her own. But then, she said to herself, that 
 " one " must be tender to her, not rude and predom- 
 inating in his manners. A man with any chivalry 
 in him could never adopt a scolding tone towards a 
 woman — that is, towards a charming woman. But
 
 14 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 Felix had no chivalry in him. He loved lecturing 
 and opinion too well ever to love any woman. 
 
 In this way Esther strove to see that Felix was 
 thoroughly in the wrong — at least, if he did 
 not come again expressly to show that he was 
 sorry.
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 Trueblue. These men have no votes. Why should I court them ? 
 
 Greyfox. No votes, but power. 
 
 Trueblue. What ! over charities ? 
 
 Greyfox. 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 parlour 
 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 dif- 
 fered 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
 
 16 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 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 irrespec- 
 tive 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 had 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 towards 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 inter- 
 fere witli the course of his serious ambition.
 
 THE KADICAL. 17 
 
 Esther was perfectly aware, as lie 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 high- 
 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 yester- 
 day. 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 colours." 
 
 " 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. 
 
 VOL. II. B
 
 18 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 " If my cause is to be recommended by the be- 
 comiiigness of my colours, 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 Naiad, 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 consider- 
 able 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 v/as the 
 original meaning of "Whig in the Scottish, and it 
 might assist the theoretic advantages of Eadicalism 
 if it could be associated with a more generous pre-
 
 THE RADICAL. 19 
 
 sence. What would conciliate the personal regard 
 of old Mr Lyon became a curious problem to Harold, 
 now the little man made his appearance. But can- 
 vassing 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 the 
 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 shortsighted 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 visit- 
 ors, his worn look of intellectual eagerness, slight 
 frame, and rusty attire, making an odd contrast 
 with their flourishing persons, unblemished costume,
 
 20 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 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 in- 
 wardly 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 in- 
 terests 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 hsh." 
 
 " 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
 
 THE RADICAL. 21 
 
 much selected instruments as abundant horse-power. 
 But it is an unavoidable evil of these massive 
 achievements that they encourage a coarse undis- 
 criminatingness obstructive of more nicely- wrought 
 results, and an exaggerated expectation inconsistent 
 Avith the intricacies of our fallen and struggling 
 condition. I say not that compromise is unneces- 
 sary, but it is an evil attendant on our imperfec- 
 tion ; and I would pray every one to mark that, 
 where compromise broadens, intellect and con- 
 science 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 
 Eeform, 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 immedi- 
 ate 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
 
 22 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 divide their votes. As it appears that many who 
 vote for Debarry are likely to split their votes in 
 favour 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 direc- 
 tion, Mr Lyon. We candidates have to praise our- 
 selves 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 loyal- 
 ties, 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 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 ex- 
 amining the face of the candidate, whom he was 
 preparing to turn into a catechumen. For the good 
 Paifus, conscious of his political importance as an 
 organ of persuasion, felt it his duty to catechise a 
 little, and also to do his part towards impressing a
 
 THE RADICAL. 23 
 
 probable legislator with a sense of his responsibi- 
 lity. 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 pas- 
 sive resistance to a legal imposition which had been 
 adopted by the Friends (whose heroism in this 
 regard was nevertheless worthy of all honour). 
 
 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 cack- 
 ling, 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
 
 24 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 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 Transom e ; you have 
 probably still many things to say to Mr Lyon." 
 
 " I beseech you, sir," said the minister, changing 
 colour, and by a quick movement laying his hand 
 on Jermyn's arm — " I beseech you to favour me with 
 an interview on some private business — this even- 
 ing, if it were possible," 
 
 Mr Lyon, like others who are habitually occupied 
 with impersonal subjects, was liable to this impul- 
 sive 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 abstrac- 
 tions 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 deter- 
 mined on by continuous thought. And if Jermyn 
 had not startled him by threatening to vanish just 
 when he was plunged in politics, lie might never 
 have made up his mind to confide in a worldly 
 attorney.
 
 THE KADICAL. 25 
 
 (" 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 eager- 
 ness. " 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." 
 
 " 0, 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 valu- 
 able wdien 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 favourite 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
 
 26 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 a time is a time of hope. Afterwards, wlien 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 Ee- 
 form-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 Eeform 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 w^ere less suffused with exhala- 
 tions of the dawn, insisted chieily 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 EADICAL. 27 
 
 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 free- 
 dom 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 unde- 
 ceived. 
 
 " 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 fur- 
 nished with the principles of public and private rec- 
 titude, 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 preserva-
 
 28 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 tive from bribery and illegitimate influence ; and, 
 secondly, that it would be in the worst kind perni- 
 cious, 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 invit- 
 ing 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 INIr 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, truth- 
 fully enough, though he felt little interest in the
 
 THE EADICAL. 29 
 
 voteless man of ideas except as a diversion from tlie 
 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 en- 
 tered, "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 wdien 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 ex- 
 cuse me, as my business refers to some electioneer-
 
 30 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 ing measures which are being taken by Mr Tran- 
 some'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 neces- 
 sary humbug of Eepresentation. But I wish to ask , 
 you, Mr Transome, whether it is with your know- 
 ledge that agents of yours are bribing rough fel- 
 lows 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 a.t 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 conduct- 
 ing 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 speak- 
 ing to you. If not, I should be tempted to expose
 
 THE RADICAL. 31 
 
 the whole affair as a disgrace to the Eadical party. 
 I'm a Eadical 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 dishonest3\" 
 
 " 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 behaviour in Felix proceeded 
 from a repulsion which was mutual. It was a con- 
 stant source of irritation to him that the public 
 men on his side were, on the whole, not con- 
 spicuously 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 mouth- 
 pieces 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 pvirity — dis- 
 liked aU 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
 
 32 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 office," lie went on, " the matter shall be inquired 
 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. " Es- 
 pecially if he winked at their malpractices." 
 
 Mr Lyon smiled, shook his head, and stroked his 
 favourite'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. 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." 
 
 " yes ! " said Felix, scornfully, " give me a
 
 THE RADICAL. 33 
 
 handful of generalities and analogies, and I'll under- 
 take 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 tliat question of the ballot with you. 
 The reasons against it need not be urged lengthily ; 
 they only require complete enimieration 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." 
 
 VOL. n. c
 
 34 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 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 tlie 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 present realities — a willing movement of a man's 
 soul with the larger sweep of the world's forces — a 
 movement towards 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
 
 THE RADICAL. 35 
 
 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 con- 
 tinuity of the sunbeams is precious, though some of 
 them fall unseen and on barrenness. 
 
 At present, looking back on that day at Treby, it 
 seems to me that the sadder illusion lay with Harold 
 Transome, who was trusting in his own skill to shape 
 the success of his owii morrows, ignorant of what 
 many yesterdays had determined for him before- 
 hand.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 It is a good and soothfast saw ; 
 Half-roasted never will be raw; 
 No dongh is dried onee more to meal, 
 No crock new-shapen by the wheel ; 
 You cau't turn curds to milk again, 
 Nor Now, by wishicg, back to Tlieii ; 
 And having tasted stolen honey. 
 You cau't buy innoceuce for money. 
 
 Jeemyn was not particularly pleased that some 
 chance had apparently hindered Harold Transome 
 from making other canvassing visits immediately 
 after leaving Mr Lyon, and so had sent him back 
 to the office earlier than he had been expected to 
 come. The inconvenient chance he guessed at once 
 to be represented by Felix Holt, whom he knew 
 very well by Trebian report to be a young man 
 with so little of the ordinary Christian motives as 
 to making an appearance and getting on in the 
 world, that he presented no handle to any judicious 
 and respectable person who might be willing to 
 make use of him. 
 
 Harold Transome, on his side, was a good deal
 
 FELIX HOLT. 37 
 
 auuoyecl at being worried by Felix into an inquiry 
 about electioneering details. The real dignity and 
 honesty there was in him made him shrink from 
 this necessity of satisfying a man with a trouble- 
 some tongue ; it was as if he were to show indigna- 
 tion at the discovery of one barrel with a false bot- 
 tom, when he had invested his money in a manu- 
 factory where a larger or smaller number of such 
 barrels had always been made. A practical man 
 must seek a good end by the only possible means ; 
 that is to say, if he is to get into Parliament he 
 must not be too particular. It was not disgraceful 
 to be neither a Quixote nor a theorist, aiming to 
 correct the moral rules of the world ; but whatever 
 actually was, or might prove to be, disgraceful, 
 Harold held in detestation. In this mood he 
 pushed on unceremoniously to the inner office 
 without waiting to ask questions ; and when he 
 perceived that Jermyn was not alone, he said, with 
 haughty quickness, 
 
 "A question about the electioneering at Sprox- 
 ton. Can you give your attention to it at once ? 
 Here is Mr Holt, who has come to me about the 
 business." 
 
 "A— yes — a — certainly," said Jermyn, who, as 
 usual, was the more cool and deliberate because he
 
 38 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 was vexed. He was standing, and, as he turned 
 round, liis broad figure concealed the person who 
 was seated writing at the bureau. " Mr Holt — a — 
 will doubtless — a — make a point of saving a busy 
 man's time. You can speak at once. This gentle- 
 man " — here Jermyn made a slight backward move- 
 ment of the head — " is one of ourselves ; he is a 
 true-blue." 
 
 ' I have simply to complain," said Felix, " that one 
 of your agents has been sent on a bribing expedi- 
 tion to Sproxton — with what purpose you, sir, may 
 know better than I do. Mr Transome, it appears, 
 was ignorant of the affair, and does not approve it." 
 
 Jermyn, looking gravely and steadily at Felix 
 while he was speaking, at the same time drew forth 
 a small sheaf of papers from his side-pocket, and 
 then, as he turned his eyes slowly on Harold, felt 
 in his waistcoat-pocket for his pencil-case. 
 
 " I don't approve it at all," said Harold, who 
 hated Jermyn's calculated slowness and conceit in 
 his own impenetrability. " Be good enough to put 
 a stop to it, will you ? " 
 
 " Mr Holt, I know, is an excellent Liberal," said 
 Jermyn, just inclining his head to Harold, and then 
 alternately looking at Felix and docketing his bills ; 
 "but he is perhaps too inexperienced to be aware
 
 THE RADICAL. 39 
 
 tliat no canvass — a — can be conducted without tlie 
 action of able men, who must — a — be trusted, and 
 not interfered with. And as to any possibility of 
 promising to put a stop — a — to any procedure 
 — a — that depends. If he had ever held the 
 coachman's ribbons in his hands, as I have in my 
 younger days — a — he would know that stopping is 
 not always easy." 
 
 " I know very little about holding ribbons," said 
 Felix ; " but I saw clearly enough at once that more 
 mischief had been done than could be well mended. 
 Though I believe, if it were heartily tried, the treat- 
 ing might be reduced, and something might be 
 done to hinder the men from turning out in a body 
 to make a noise, which mitrht end in worse." 
 
 " They might be hindered from making a noise 
 on our side," said Jermyn, smiling. " That is per- 
 fectly true. But if they made a noise on the other 
 — would your purpose be answered better, sir?" 
 
 Harold w^as moving about in an irritated manner 
 w^hile Felix and Jermyn were speaking. He pre- 
 ferred leaving the talk to the attorney, of whose 
 talk he himself liked to keep as clear as possible. 
 
 " I can only say," answered Felix, " that if you 
 make use of those heavy fellows when the drink is 
 in them, I shouldn't like your responsibility. You
 
 40 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 might as well drive bulls to roar on our side as 
 bribe a set of colliers and navvies to sliout and 
 groan." 
 
 " A lawyer may well envy your command of lan- 
 guage, Mr Holt," said Jermyn, pocketing his bills 
 again, and shutting up his pencil ; " but he would 
 not be satisfied with the accuracy — a — of your 
 terms. You must permit me to check your use of 
 the word ' bribery.' The essence of bribery is, that 
 it should be legally proved ; there is not such a 
 thing — a — in rerum natura — a — as unproved brib- 
 ery. There has been no such thing as bribery at 
 Sproxton, I'll answer for it. The presence of a 
 body of stalwart fellows on — a — the Liberal side 
 will tend to preserve order ; for we know that the 
 benefit clubs from the Pitchley district will show 
 for Debarry. Indeed, the gentleman who has con- 
 ducted the canvass at Sproxton is experienced in 
 Parliamentary affairs, and would not exceed — a — 
 the necessary measures that a' rational judgment 
 would dictate." 
 
 " What ! you mean the man who calls himself 
 Johnson ?" said Felix, in a tone of disgust. 
 
 Before Jermyn chose to answer, Harold broke in, 
 saying, quickly and peremptorily, " The long and 
 the short of it is this, Mr Holt : I shall desire and
 
 THE KADICAL. , 41 
 
 insist that whatever can he done hy way of remedy 
 shall he done. Will that satisfy you ? You see 
 now some of a candidate's difficulties?" said Har- 
 old, breaking into his most agreeable smile. " I 
 hope you will have some pity for me." 
 
 " I suppose I must be content," said Felix, not 
 thoroughly propitiated. " I bid you good-morning, 
 gentlemen." 
 
 When he was gone out, and had closed the door 
 behind him, Harold, turning round and flashing, in 
 spite of himself, an angry look at Jermyn, said, 
 
 " And who is Johnson ? an alias, I suppose. It 
 seems you are fond of the name." 
 
 Jermyn turned perceptibly paler, but disagreeables 
 of this sort between himself and Harold had been 
 too much in his anticipations of late for him to be 
 taken by surprise. He turned quietly round and 
 just touched the shoulder of the person seated at 
 the bureau, who now rose. 
 
 " On the contrary," Jermyn answered, " the John- 
 son in question is this gentleman, whom I have the 
 pleasure of introducing to you as one of my most 
 active helpmates in electioneering business — Mr 
 Johnson, of Bedford Eow, London. I am compara- 
 tively a novice — a — in these matters. But he was 
 engaged with James Putty in two hardly-contested
 
 42 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 elections, and there could scarcely be a better initia- 
 tion. Putty is one of the first men of the country 
 as an agent — a — on the Liberal side — a — eh, John- 
 son ? I think Makepiece is — a — not altogether a 
 match for him, not quite of the same calibre — a — 
 haud consimili iiigenio — a — in tactics — a — and in 
 experience?" 
 
 " Makepiece is a wonderful man, and so is 
 Putty," said the glib Johnson, too vain not to be 
 pleased with an opportunity of speaking, even 
 when the situation was rather awkward. " Make- 
 piece for scheming, but Putty for management. 
 Putty knows men, sir," he went on, turning to 
 Harold ; " it's a thousand pities that you have not 
 had his talents employed in your service. He's 
 beyond any man for saving a candidate's money — 
 does half the work with his tongue. He'll talk of 
 anything, from the Areopagus, and that sort of 
 thing, down to the joke about ' Where are you 
 going, Paddy ? ' — you know what I mean, sir ! 
 ' Back again, says Paddy ' — an excellent election- 
 eering joke. Putty understands these things. He 
 has said to me, ' Johnson, bear in mind there are 
 two ways of speaking an audience will always 
 like: one is, to tell them what they don't under- 
 stand ; and the other is, to tell them what they're
 
 THE RADICAL. 43 
 
 used to.' I shall never be the man to deny that I 
 owe a great deal to Putty. I always say it was a 
 most providential thing in the Mugham election 
 last year that Putty was not on the Tory side. He 
 managed the women ; and, if you'll believe me, sir, 
 one fourth of the men woidd never have voted if 
 their wives hadn't driven them to it for the good of 
 their families. And as for speaking — it's currently 
 reported in our London circles that Putty writes 
 regularly for the 'Times.' He has that kind of 
 language; and I needn't tell you, ]\Ir Transonic, 
 that it's the apex, which, I take it, means the tip- 
 top — and nobody can get higher than that, I think. 
 I've belonged to a political debating society myself ; 
 I've heard a little language in my time ; but when 
 Mr Jermyn first spoke to me about having the 
 honour to assist in your canvass of iSTorth Loam- 
 shire " — 'here Johnson played with his watch-seals 
 and balanced himself a moment on his toes — " the 
 very first thing I said was, ' And there's Garstin 
 has got Putty ! ISTo Whig could stand against a 
 Whig,' I said, 'who had Putty on his side : I hope Mr 
 Transome goes in for something of a deeper colour.' 
 I don't say that, as a general rule, opinions go for 
 much in a return, Mr Transome ; it depends on 
 who are in the field before you, and on the skill of
 
 44 / FELIX HOLT, 
 
 your agents. But as a Eadical, and a moneyed 
 Eadical, you are in a fine position, sir ; and with 
 care and judgment — with care and judgment " 
 
 It had been impossible to interrupt Johnson be- 
 fore, witliou.t the most impolitic rudeness. Jerniyn 
 was not sorry that he should talk, even if he made 
 a fool of himself ; for in that solid shape, exhibiting 
 the average amount of human foibles, he seemed 
 less of the alias which Harold had insinuated him 
 to be, and had all the additional plausibility of a 
 lie with a circumstance. 
 
 Harold had thrown himself with contemptuous 
 resignation into a chair, had drawn off one of his 
 buff gloves, and was looking at his hand. But 
 when Johnson gave his iteration with a slig] tly 
 slackened pace, Harold looked up at him and 
 broke in, 
 
 " Well then, Mr Johnson, I shall be glad if you 
 will use your care and judgment in putting an end 
 as well as you can to this Sproxton affair ; else it 
 may turn out an ugly business." 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, I must beg you to look at the 
 matter a little more closely. You will see that 
 it is impossible to take a single step backward 
 at Sproxton. It was a matter of necessity to get 
 the Sproxton men ; else I know to a certainty
 
 THE EADICAL. 45 
 
 the other side would have laid hold of them first, 
 and now I've undermined Garstin's people. They'll 
 use their authority, and give a little shabby treat- 
 ing, but I've taken all the wind out of then- sails. 
 But if, by your orders, I or Mr Jermyn here were 
 to break promise with the honest fellows, and offend 
 Chubb the publican, what would come of it? 
 Chubb would leave no stone unturned against you, 
 sir ; he would egg on his customers against you ; 
 the colliers and navvies would be at the nomina- 
 tion and at the election all the same, or rather 
 not all the same, for they would l^e there against 
 us; and instead of hustling people good-humoin-- 
 edly by way of a joke, and counterbalancing 
 De''''\arry's cheers, they'd help to kick the cheer- 
 ing^ and the voting out of our men, and in- 
 stead of being, let us say, half-a-dozen ahead of 
 Garstm, you'd be half-a-dozen behind him, that's 
 all. I speak plain English to you, Mr Transome, 
 though I've the highest respect for you as a gentle- 
 man of first-rate talents and position. But, sir, 
 to judge of these things a man must know the 
 English voter and the English publican ; and it 
 would be a poor tale indeed" — here Mr Johnson's 
 mouth took an expression at once bitter and 
 pathetic — " that a gentleman Like you, to say no-
 
 46 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 thing of the good of the country, should have gone 
 to the expense and trouble of a canvass for nothing 
 but to find himself out of Parliament at the end 
 of it. I've seen it again and again ; it looks bad 
 in the cleverest man to have to sing small." 
 
 Mr Johnson's argument was not the less strin- 
 gent because his idioms were vulgar. It requires 
 a conviction and resolution amounting to heroism 
 not to wince at phrases tliat class our foreshadowed 
 endurance among those common and ignominious 
 troubles which the world is more likely to sneer 
 at than to pity. Harold remained a few moments 
 in angry silence looking at the floor, with one 
 hand on his knee, and the other on his hat, as 
 if he were preparing to start up. 
 
 "As to undoing anything that's been done down 
 there," said Johnson, throwing in this observa- 
 tion as something into the bargain, " I must wash 
 my hands of it, sir. I couldn't work knowingly 
 against your interest. And that young man who 
 is just gone out, — you don't believe that he need 
 be listened to, I hope ? Chubb, the publican, 
 hates him. Chubb would guess he was at the 
 bottom of your having the treating stopped, and 
 he'd set half-a-dozen of the colliers to duck him 
 in the canal, or break his head by mistake. I'm
 
 THE EADICAL. 47 
 
 an experienced man, sir. I liope I've put it clear 
 enough." 
 
 "Certainly, the exposition befits the subject," 
 said Harold, scornfully, liis dislike of the man 
 Johnson's personality being stimulated by causes 
 ■which Jermyn more than conjectured. " It's a 
 damned, unpleasant, ravelled business that you and 
 Mr Jermyn have knit up between you. I've no 
 more to say." 
 
 " Then, sir, if you've no more commands, I don't 
 wish to intrude. I shall wish you good-morning 
 sir," said Johnson, passing out quickly. 
 
 Harold knew that he was indulging his temper, 
 and he would probably have restrained it as a 
 foolish move if he had thought there was great 
 danger in it. But he was beginning to drop much 
 of his caution and self-mastery where Jermyn 
 was concerned, under the growing conviction that 
 the attorney had very strong reasons for being 
 afraid of him ; reasons which would only be re- 
 inforced by any action hostile to the Transome 
 interest. As for a sneak like this Johnson, a 
 gentleman had to pay him, not to please him, 
 Harold had smiles at command in the right place, 
 but he was not going to smile when it was neither 
 necessary nor agreeable. He was one of those
 
 48 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 good-humoured, yet energetic men, who have the 
 gift of anger, hatred, and scorn upon occasion, 
 though they are too healthy and self-contented 
 for such feelings to get generated in them without 
 external occasion. And in relation to Jermyn the 
 gift was coming into fine exercise. 
 
 " A — pardon me, Mr Harold," said Jermyn, speak- 
 ing as soon as Johnson went out, " but I am sorry 
 — a — you should behave disobligingly to a man who 
 has it in his power to do much service — who, in 
 fact, holds many threads in his hands. I admit 
 that — a — nemo mortalium omnibus Jioris sapit, as 
 we say — a " 
 
 "Speak for yourself," said Harold. "I don't 
 talk in tags of Latin, which might be learned 
 by a schoolmaster's footboy. 1 find the King's 
 English express my meaning better." 
 
 " In the King's English, then," said Jermyn, who 
 could be idiomatic enough wlieu he was stung, " a 
 candidate should keep his kicks till he's a member." 
 
 " 0, I suppose Johnson will bear a kick if you 
 bid him. You're his principal, I believe." 
 
 " Certainly, thus far — a — he is my London agent. 
 But he is a man of substance, and " 
 
 " I shall know what he is if it's necessary, I 
 daresay. But I must jump into the carnage again.
 
 THE RADICAL. 49 
 
 I've no time to lose ; I must go to Hawkins at tlie 
 factory. Will you go?" 
 
 When Harold was gone, Jermyn's handsome face 
 gathered blackness. He hardly ever wore his worst 
 expression in the presence of others, and but seldom 
 when he was alone, for he w^as not given to believe 
 that any game would ultimately go against him. 
 His luck had been good. New conditions might al- 
 ways turn up to give him new chances ; and if affairs 
 threatened to come to an extremity between Harold 
 and himself, he trusted to finding some sure resource. 
 
 " He means to see to the bottom of everything if 
 he can, that's quite plain," said Jermyn to himself. 
 " I believe he has been getting another opinion ; he 
 has some new light about those annuities on the 
 estate that are held in Johnson's name. He has 
 inherited a deuced faculty for business — there's no 
 denying that. But I shall beg leave to tell him 
 that I've propped up the family. I don't know 
 where they would have been without me ; and if it 
 comes to balancing, I know into which scale the 
 gratitude ought to go. Not that he's likely to feel 
 any — but he can feel something else ; and if he 
 makes signs of setting the dogs on me, I shall make 
 him feel it. The people named Transome owe me a 
 good deal more than I owe them." 
 
 VOL. n. D
 
 50 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 In this way Mr Jermyn inwardly appealed 
 against an unjust construction which he foresaw 
 that his old acquaintance the Law might put on 
 certain items in his history. 
 
 I have known persons who have been suspected 
 of undervaluing gratitude, and excluding it from the 
 list of virtues ; but on closer observation it has been 
 seen that, if they have never felt grateful, it has been 
 for want of an opportunity ; and that, far -from despis- 
 ing gratitude, they regard it as the virtue most of all 
 incumbent — on others towards them.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The little, nameless, um-emembered acts 
 Of kindness and of love. 
 
 Wordsworth: Tiniern Abhe>j. 
 
 Jeemyn did not forget to pay liis visit to the 
 minister in ]\Ialthonse Yard that evening. The 
 mingled irritation, dread, and defiance which he was 
 feeling towards Harold Transome in the middle of 
 the day, depended on too many and far-stretching 
 causes to be dissipated by eight o'clock ; but when 
 he left Mr Lyon's house he was in a state of compar- 
 ative triumph in the belief that he, and he alone, 
 was now in possession of facts which, once grouped 
 together, made a secret that gave him new power 
 over Harold. 
 
 Mr Lyon, in his need for help from one who had 
 that wisdom of the serpent which, he argued, is not 
 forbidden, but is only of hard acquirement to dove- 
 like innocence, had been gradually led to pour out 
 to the attorney all the reasons which made him
 
 52 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 desire to know tlie truth about the man who called 
 himself Maurice Christian: he had shown all the 
 precious relics, the locket, the letters, and the 
 marriage certificate. And Jermyn had comforted . 
 him by confidently promising to ascertain, without 
 scandal or premature betrayals, whether this man 
 were really Annette's husband, Maurice Christian 
 Bycliffe. 
 
 Jermyn was not rash in making this promise, since 
 he had excellent reasons for believing that he had 
 already come to a true conclusion on the subject. 
 But he wished both to know a little more of this 
 man himself, and to keep Mr Lyon in ignorance — 
 not a difficult precaution — in an affair which it cost 
 the minister so much pain to speak of. An easy 
 opportunity of getting an interview with Christian 
 was sure to offer itself before long — might even offer 
 itself to-morrow. Jermyn had seen him more than 
 once, though hitherto without any reason for ob- 
 serving him with interest; he had heard that 
 Philip Debarry's courier was often busy in the town, 
 and it seemed especially likely that he would be 
 seen there when the Market was to be agitated by 
 politics, and the new candidate was to show his 
 paces. 
 
 The world of which Treby Magna was the centre
 
 THE EADICAL. 53 
 
 was naturally curious to see the young Transome, 
 who had come from the East, was as rich as a Jew, 
 and called himself a Eadical ; characteristics all 
 equally vague in the minds of various excellent 
 rate23ayers, who drove to market in their taxed 
 carts, or in their hereditary gigs. Places at con- 
 venient windows had been secm^ed beforehand for 
 a few best bonnets ; but, in general, a Eadical can- 
 didate excited no ardent feminine partisanship, even 
 among the Dissenters in Treby, if they were of the 
 prosperous and long-resident class. Some chapel- 
 going ladies were fond of remembering that " their 
 family had been Church;" others objected to poli- 
 tics altogether as having spoiled old neighbourliness, 
 and sundered friends who had kindred views as to 
 cowslip wine and Michaelmas cleaning ; others, of 
 the melancholy sort, said it would be well if people 
 would think less of reforming Parliament and more 
 of pleasing God. Irreproachable Dissenting matrons, 
 like Mrs Muscat, whose youth had been passed in 
 a short-waisted boddice and tight skirt, had never 
 been animated by the struggle for liberty, and had 
 a timid suspicion that religion was desecrated by 
 being applied to the things of this world. Since Mr 
 Lyon had been in Malthouse Yard there had been 
 far too much mixing up of politics with religion ;
 
 54 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 but, at any rate, these ladies had never yet been to 
 bear speechifying in the market-place, and they were 
 not going to begin that practice. 
 
 Esther, however, had heard some of her feminine 
 acquaintances say that they intended to sit at the 
 druggist's upper window, and she was inclined to 
 ask her father if he could think of a suitable place 
 where she also might see and hear. Two inconsist- 
 ent motives urged her. She knew that Felix cared 
 earnestly for all public questions, and she supposed 
 that he lield it one of her deficiencies not to care 
 about them : well, she w^ould try to learn the secret 
 of this ardour, which was so strong in him that it 
 animated what she thouoht the dullest form of life. 
 She was not too stupid to find it out. But this 
 self-correcting motive was presently displaced by a 
 motive of a different sort. It had been a pleasant 
 variety in her monotonous days to see a man like 
 Harold Transome, with a distinguished appearance 
 and polished manners, and she would like to see 
 him again : he suggested to her that brighter and 
 more luxurious life on which her imagination dwelt 
 without the painful effort it required to conceive 
 the mental condition which would place her in com- 
 plete sympathy with Felix Holt. It was this less 
 unaccustomed prompting of which she was chiefly
 
 THE EADICAL. 55 
 
 conscious when she awaited her father's coming down 
 to "breakfast. Why, indeed, should she trouble her- 
 self so much about Felix 1 
 
 Mr Lyon, more serene now that he had unbo- 
 somed his anxieties and obtained a promise of help, 
 was already swimming so happily in the deep water 
 of polemics in expectation of Philip Debarry's answer 
 to his challenge, that, in the occupation of making 
 a few notes lest certain felicitous inspirations should 
 be wasted, he had forgotten to come down to break- 
 fast. Esther, suspecting his abstraction, went up to 
 his study, and found him at his desk looking up 
 with wonder at her interruption. 
 
 " Come, father, you have forgotten your break- 
 fast." 
 
 " It is true, child ; I will come," he said, lingering 
 to make some final strokes. 
 
 " you naughty father ! " said Esther, as he got 
 up from his chair, " your coat-collar is twisted, your 
 waistcoat is buttoned all wrong, and you have not 
 brushed your hair. Sit down and let me brush it 
 again as I did yesterday." 
 
 He sat down obediently, while Esther took a 
 towel, which she threw over his shoulders, and then 
 brushed the thick long fringe of soft auburn hair. 
 This very trifling act, which she had brought herself
 
 56 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 to for the first time yesterday, meant a great deal in 
 Esther's little liistory. It had been her habit to 
 leave the mending of her father's clothes to Lyddy ; 
 she had not liked even to touch his cloth garments ; 
 still less had it seemed a thing she would willingly 
 undertake to correct his toilette, and use a brush for 
 him. But having once done this, under her new 
 sense of faulty omission, the affectionateness that 
 was in her flowed so pleasantly, as she saw how 
 much her father was moved by what he thought a 
 great act of tenderness, that she quite longed to 
 repeat it. This morning, as he sat under her hands, 
 his face had sucli a calm delight in it that she could 
 not lielp kissing the top of his bald head ; and after- 
 wards, when they were seated at breakfast, she said, 
 merrily, 
 
 " Father, I shall make a i^etit maitre of you by- 
 and-by ; your hair looks so pretty and silken when 
 it is well brushed." 
 
 " Nay, child, I trust that while I would willingly 
 depart from my evil habit of a somewhat slovenly 
 forgetfulness in my attire, I shall never arrive at the 
 opposite extreme. For though there is that in ap- 
 parel which pleases the eye, and I deny not that 
 your neat gown and the colour thereof — which is 
 that of certain little flowers that spread themselves
 
 THE EADICAL. 57 
 
 in the hedgerows, and make a blueness there as of 
 the sky when it is deepened in the water, — I deny 
 not, I say, that these minor strivings after a per- 
 fection which is, as it were, an irrecoveraljle yet 
 haunting memory, are a good in their propor- 
 tion. Nevertheless, the brevity of our hfe, and the 
 hurry and crush of the great battle with error and 
 sin, often oblige us to an advised neglect of what is 
 less momentous. This, I conceive, is the principle 
 on which my friend Felix Holt acts ; and I cannot 
 but think the light comes from the true fount, though 
 it shines through obstructions." 
 
 " You have not seen Mr Holt since Sunday, have 
 you, father?" 
 
 " Yes ; he was here yesterday. He sought Mr 
 Transome, having a matter of some importance to 
 speak upon with him. And I saw him afterward 
 in the street, when he agreed that I should call for 
 him this morning before I go into the market-place. 
 He will have it," Mr Lyon went on, smiling, " that 
 1 must not walk about in the crowd without him to 
 act as my special constable." 
 
 Esther felt vexed with herself that her heart was 
 suddenly beating with unusual quickness, and that 
 her last resolution not to trouljle herself about what 
 Felix thought, had transformed itself with magic
 
 58 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 swiftness into mortification tliat he evidently avoided 
 coming to the house when she was there, though he 
 used to come on the slightest occasion. He knew 
 that she was always at home until the afternoon on 
 market days ; that was the reason why he would 
 not call for her father. Of course, it was because he 
 attributed such littleness to her that he supposed 
 she would retain nothing else than a feeling of 
 offence towards him for what he had said to her. 
 Such distrust of any good in others, such arrogance 
 of immeasurable superiority, was extremely un- 
 generous. But presently she said, 
 
 " I should have liked to hear Mr Transome speak, 
 but I suppose it is too late to get a place now." 
 
 " I am not sure ; I would fain have you go 
 if you desire it, my dear," said Mr Lyon, who 
 could not bear to deny Esther any lawful wish. 
 "Walk with me to Mistress Holt's, and w^e will 
 learn from Felix, who will doubtless already have 
 been out, whether he could lead you in safety to 
 Friend Lambert's." 
 
 Esther was glad of the proposal, because, if it 
 answered no other purpose, it would be an easy 
 way of obliging Felix to see her, and of showing 
 him that it was not she who cherished offence. 
 But when, later in the morning, she was walking
 
 THE RADICAL. 59 
 
 towards Mrs Holt's witli her father, they met Mr 
 Jermyn, who stopped them to ask, in his most 
 afifable manner, whether Miss Lyon intended to 
 hear the candidate, and whether she had secured 
 a suitable place. And he ended by insisting tliat 
 his daughters, who were presently coming in an 
 open carriage, should call for her, if she would 
 permit them. It was impossible to refuse this 
 civility, and Esther turned back to await the car- 
 riage, pleased with the certainty of hearing and 
 seeing, yet sorry to miss Felix. There was another 
 day for her to think of him with unsatisfied resent- 
 ment, mixed with some longings for a better under- 
 standing ; and in our spring-time every day has its 
 hidden growths in the mind, as it has in the earth 
 when the little folded blades are getting ready to 
 pierce the ground.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Consistency? — I never changed my mind, 
 Wliich is, and always was, to live at ease. 
 
 It was only in the time of the summer fairs that 
 the market-place had ever looked more animated 
 than it did under that autumn mid-day sun. There 
 were plenty of blue cockades and streamers, faces 
 at all the windows, and a crushing buzzing crowd, 
 urging each other backwards and forwards round 
 the small hustings in front of the Eam Inn, which 
 showed its more plebeian sign at right angles with 
 the venerable Marquis of Granby. Sometimes there 
 were scornful shouts, sometimes a rolling cascade 
 of cheers, sometimes the shriek of a penny whistle ; 
 but above all these fitful and feeble sounds, the fine 
 old church-tower, which looked down from above 
 the trees on the other side of the narrow stream, 
 sent vibrating, at every quarter, the sonorous tones 
 of its great bell, the Good Queen Bess.
 
 FELIX HOLT. 61 
 
 Two carriages, with blue ribbons on the harness, 
 were conspicuous near the hustings. One was 
 Jermyn's, filled with the brilliantly-attired daugh- 
 ters, accompanied by Esther, whose quieter dress 
 helped to mark her out for attention as the most 
 striking of the group. The other was Harold Tran- 
 some's; but in this there was no lady — only the 
 olive-skinned Dominic, whose acute yet mild face 
 was brightened by the occupation of amusing little 
 Harry and rescuing from his tyrannies a King 
 Charles puppy, with big eyes, much after the 
 pattern of the boy's. 
 
 This Trebian crowd did not count for much in 
 the political force of the nation, but it was not the 
 less determined as to lending or not lending its 
 ears. No man was permitted to speak from the 
 jjlatform except Harold and his uncle Lingon, 
 though, in the interval of expectation, several 
 Liberals had come forward. Among these ill- 
 advised persons the one whose attempt met the 
 most emphatic resistance was Kufus Lyon. This 
 might have been taken for resentment at the 
 unreasonableness of the cloth, that, not content 
 with pulpits, from whence to tyrannise over the 
 ears of men, wishes to have the larger share of 
 the platforms ; but it was not so, for Mr Lingon
 
 62 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 was heard witli much cheering, and wonld have 
 been welcomed again. 
 
 The Rector of Little Treby had been a favourite 
 in the neighbourhood since the beginning of the - 
 century. A clergyman thoroughly unclerical in 
 his habits had a piquancy about him which made 
 him a sort of practical joke. He had always been 
 called Jack Lingon, or Parson Jack — sometimes, in 
 older and less serious days, even " Cock-fighting 
 Jack." He swore a little when the point of a joke 
 seemed to demand it, and was fond of wearing a col- 
 oured bandana tied loosely over his cravat, together 
 with large brown leather leggings ; he spoke in a 
 pithy familiar way that people could understand, and 
 had none of that frigid mincingness called dignity, 
 which some have thought a peculiar clerical disease. 
 In fact, he was " a charicter " — something cheerful 
 to think of, not entirely out of connection with Sun- 
 day and sermons. And it seemed in keeping that 
 he should have turned sharp round in politics, his 
 opinions being only part of the excellent joke called 
 Parson Jack. When his red eagle face and white 
 hair were seen on the platform, the Dissenters 
 hardly cheered this questionable Eadical ; but to 
 make amends, all the Tory farmers gave him a 
 friendly " hurray." " Let's hear what old Jack will
 
 THE RADICAL. 63 
 
 say for himself," was the predominant feeling 
 among them ; " he'll have something funny to say, 
 I'll bet a 23enny." 
 
 It was only Lawyer Labron's young clerks and 
 their hangers-on who were sufficiently dead to 
 Trebian traditions to assail the parson with various 
 sharp-edged interjections, such as broken shells, and 
 cries of " Cock-a-doodle-doo." 
 
 " Come now, my lads," he began, in his full, 
 pompous, yet jovial tones, thrusting his hands into 
 the stuffed-out pockets of his greatcoat, " I'll tell 
 you what ; I'm a parson, you know ; I ought to re- 
 turn good for evil. So here are some good nuts for 
 you to crack in return for your shells." 
 
 There was a roar of laughter and cheering as 
 he threw handfuls of nuts and filberts among the 
 crowd. 
 
 " Come, now, you'll say I used to be a Tory ; and 
 some of you, whose faces I know as well as I know 
 the head of my own crab-stick, will say that's why 
 I'm a good fellow. But now I'LL tell you something 
 else. It's for that very reason — that I used to be 
 a Tory, and am a good fellow — that I go along with 
 my nephew here, who is a thoroughgoing Liberal. 
 For will anybody here come forward and say, 'A 
 good fellow has no need to tack about and change
 
 (34 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 his road '? No, there's not one of you such a Tom- 
 noddy. What's good for one time is bad for an- 
 other. If anybody contradicts that, ask him to eat 
 pickled pork when he's thirsty, and to bathe in the 
 Lapp there when the spikes of ice are shooting. 
 And that's the reason why tlie men who are the 
 best Liberals now are the very men who used to 
 be the best Tories. There isn't a nastier horse 
 than your horse that'll jib and back and turn round 
 when there is but one road for him to go, and that's 
 the road before him. 
 
 " And my nephew here — he comes of a Tory 
 breed, you know — I'll answer for the Lingons.* In 
 the old Tory times there was never a pup belonging 
 to a Lingon but would howl if a Whig came near 
 him. The Lingon blood is good, rich, old Tory 
 blood — like good rich milk — and that's why, when 
 the right time comes, it throws up a Liberal cream. 
 The best sort of Tory turns to the best sort of 
 Eadical. There's plenty of Eadical scum — I say, 
 beware of the scum, and look out for the cream. 
 And here's my nephew — some of the cream, if 
 there is any : none of your Whigs, none of your 
 painted water that looks as if it ran, and it's 
 standing still all the while ; none of your spinning- 
 jenny fellows. A gentleman ; but up to all sorts
 
 THE KADICAL. 65 
 
 of business. I'm no fool myself; I'm forced to 
 wink a good deal, for fear of seeing too much, for 
 a neighbourly man must let himself be cheated a 
 little. But though I've never been out of my own 
 country, I know less about it than my nephew does. 
 You may tell what he is, and only look at him. 
 There's one sort of fellow sees nothing but the end 
 of his own nose, and another sort that sees nothing 
 but the hinder side of the moon ; but my nephew 
 Harold is of another sort ; he sees everything that's 
 at hitting distance, and he's not one to miss his 
 mark. A good-looking man in his prime ! Not a 
 o-reenliorn ; not a shrivelled old fellow, who'll come 
 to speak to you and find he's left his teeth at home 
 bv mistake. Harold Transonic will do vou credit ; 
 if anybody says tlie Radicals are a set of sneaks, 
 Brummagem halfpennies, scamps who want to play 
 pitch and toss with the property of the country, 
 you can say, 'Look at the member for North Loam- 
 shire ! ' And mind what you'll hear him say ; he'll 
 go in for making everything right — Poor-laws and 
 Charities and Church — he wants to reform 'em all. 
 Perhaps you'll say, ' There's that Parson Lingon 
 talking about Church Pteform — why, he belongs 
 to the Church himself — he wants reforming too.' 
 Well, well, wait a bit, and you'll hear by-and-by 
 VOL. II. E
 
 66 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 that old Parson Liiigon is reformed — shoots no 
 more, cracks his joke no more, has drunk his last 
 bottle: the dogs, tlie old pointers, will be sorry; 
 bnt you'll hear that the Parson at Little Treby is a 
 new man. That's what Church Picform is sure to 
 come to before long. So now here are some more 
 nuts for you, lads, and I leave you to listen to your 
 candidate. Here he is— give him a good hurray; 
 wave your hats, and I'll begin. Hurray !" 
 
 Harold had not been quite confident beforehand 
 as to the good effect of his uncle's introduction ; 
 but he was soon reassured. There was no acrid 
 partisanshii^ among the old-fashioned Tories who 
 mustered strong about the Marquis of Granby, and 
 Parson Jack had put them in a good humour. 
 Harold's only interruption came from his own 
 party. The oratorical clerk at the Factory, acting 
 as the tribune of the Dissenting interest, and feeling 
 bound to put questions, might have been trouble- 
 some ; but his voice being unpleasantly sharp, 
 while Harold's was full and penetrating, the ques- 
 tioning was cried down. Harold's speech " did :" 
 it M^as not of the glib-nonsensical sort, not ponder- 
 ous, not hesitating — which is as much as to say, 
 that it was remarkable among British speeches. 
 Read in print the next day, perhaps it would
 
 THE RADICAL. 67 
 
 be neither pregnant nor couchisive, wliicli is say- 
 in" no more than that its excellence was not of 
 an abnormal kind, but such as is usually found in 
 the best efforts of eloquent candidates. Accord- 
 ingly the applause drowned the opposition, and con- 
 tent predominated. 
 
 But, perhaps, the moment of most diffusive pleas- 
 ure from public speaking is that in which the speech 
 ceases and the audience can turn to commenting on 
 it. The one speech, sometimes uttered under great 
 responsibility as to missiles and other consequences, 
 has given a text to twenty speakers who are under 
 no responsibility. Even in the days of duelling a 
 man was not challenged for being a bore, nor does 
 this quality apparently hinder him from being 
 much invited to dinner, which is the great index 
 of social responsibility in a less barbarous age. 
 
 Certainly the crowd in the market-place seemed 
 to experience this culminating enjoyment when the 
 speaking on the platform in front of the Earn had 
 ceased, and there were no less than three orators 
 holding forth from the elevation of chance vehicles, 
 not at all to the prejudice of the talking among 
 those who were on a level with their neighbours. 
 There was little ill-lnimour among the listeners, for 
 Queen Bess was striking the last quarter before two,
 
 68 PELIX HOLT, 
 
 and a savoury smell from the inn kitchens inspired 
 them with an agreeable consciousness that the 
 speakers were helping to trifle away the brief time 
 before dinner. 
 
 Two or three of Harold's committee had lingered 
 talking to each other on the platform, instead of 
 re-entering ; and Jermyn, after coming out to speak 
 to one of them, had turned to the corner near which 
 the carriages were standing, that he might tell the 
 Transomes' coachman to drive round to the side 
 door, and signal to his own coachman to follow. 
 ]i)Ut a dialogue which was going on below induced 
 him to pause, and, instead of giving the order, to 
 assume the air of a careless gazer. Christian, whom 
 the attorney had already observed looking out of a 
 window at the ]\Iarquis of Granby, was talking to 
 Dominic. The meeting appeared to be one of new 
 recognition, f(jr Christian was saying — 
 
 " You've not got grey as I have, Mr Lenoni; you're 
 not a day older for the sixteen years. But no wonder 
 you didn't know me ; I'm bleached like a dried 
 bone." 
 
 " Not so. It is true I was confused a meenute — T 
 could put your foce nowhere; but after that, Naples 
 came behind it, and I said, Mr Creestian. And so
 
 THE llADICAL. 69 
 
 you reside at the Manor, and I am at Transome 
 Court." 
 
 " Ah ! it's a thousand pities you're not on our 
 side, else we might have dined togetlier at the Mar- 
 quis," said Christian. "Eh, coukl you manage it?" 
 he added, languidly, knowing there was no chance 
 of a yes. 
 
 " No — much obliged — couldn't leave the leetle 
 hoy. Ahi ! Arry, Arry, pinch not poor Moro." 
 
 While Dominic was answering. Christian had 
 stared about him, as his manner was when he was 
 being spoken to, and had had his eyes arrested by 
 Esther, who was leaning forward to look at Mr 
 Harold Transome's extraordinary little gipsy of a 
 son. But happening to meet Christian's stare, she 
 felt annoyed, drew back, and turned away her head, 
 colouring. 
 
 " Who are those ladies ? " said Christian, in a low 
 tone, to Dominic, as if he had been startled into a 
 sudden wish for this information, 
 
 " They are Meester Jermyn's daughters," said 
 Dominic, who knew nothing either of the lawyer's 
 family or of Esther. 
 
 Christian looked puzzled a moment or two, and 
 was silent.
 
 70 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 " 0, well — au rcvoir" he said, kissing the tips of 
 his fingers, as the coachman, having had Jermyn's 
 order, began to urge on the horses. 
 
 " Does he see some likeness in the girl ? " thought 
 Jermyn, as he turned away. " I wish I hadn't invit- 
 ed her to come in the carriage, as it happens."
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " Good earthenware pitcliers, sir !— of an exrellent quaint pattern and sober 
 colour." 
 
 The market dinner at " the Marquis " was in liigli 
 repute in Treby and its neighbourhood. The fre- 
 quenters of this three-and-sixpenny ordinary liked 
 to allude to it, as men allude to anything which 
 implies that they move in good society, and habit- 
 ually converse with those who are in the secret of 
 the highest affairs. The guests were not only such 
 rural residents as had driven to market, but some 
 of the most substantial townsmen, who had always 
 assured their wives that business required this 
 weekly sacrifice of domestic pleasure. The poorer 
 farmers, who put up at the Eam or the Seven Stars, 
 where there was no fish, felt their disadvantage, 
 bearing it modestly or bitterly, as the case might 
 be ; and although the Marquis was a Tory house, 
 devoted to Debarry, it was too much to expect that
 
 72 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 such tenants of the Transomes as had always been 
 used to dine there, shouki consent to eat a worse 
 dinner, and sit with worse company, because they 
 suddenly found themselves under a Eadical land- 
 lord, opposed to the political party known as Sir 
 Maxim's. Hence the recent political divisions had 
 not reduced the handsome length of the table at the 
 JVIarquis ; and the many gradations of dignity — from 
 Mr Wace, the brewer, to the rich butcher from 
 Leek Malton, who always modestly took the lowest 
 seat, though without the reward of being asked to 
 come up higher — had not been abbreviated by any 
 secessions. 
 
 To-day there was an extra table spread for ex- 
 pected supernumeraries, and it was at this that 
 Christian took his place with some of the younger 
 farmers, who had almost a sense of dissipation in 
 talking to a man of his questionable station and 
 unknown experience. The provision was especially 
 liberal, and on the whole the presence of a minority 
 destined to vote for Transome was a ground for 
 joking, which added to the good -humour of the 
 chief talkers. A respectable old acquaintance 
 turned Eadical rather against his will, was rallied 
 with even greater gusto than if his wife had had 
 twins twice over. The best Trebian Tories were far
 
 THE RADICAL. 73 
 
 too sweet-blooded to turn against such old friends, 
 and to make no distinction between them and the 
 Radical, Dissenting, Papistical, Deistical set with 
 whom they never dined, and probably never saw 
 except in their imagination. But the talk was 
 necessarily in abeyance until the more serious 
 business of dinner was ended, and the wine, 
 spirits, and tobacco raised mere satisfaction into 
 beatitude. 
 
 Among the frequent though not regular guests, 
 whom every one was glad to see, was Mr Xolau, the 
 retired London hosier, a wiry old gentleman past 
 seventy, whose square tight forehead, with its rigid 
 hedge of grey hair, whose bushy eyebrows, sharp 
 dark eyes, and remarkable hooked nose, gave a 
 handsome distinction to his face in the midst of 
 rural physiognomies. He had married a Miss 
 Pendrell early in life, when he was a poor young- 
 Londoner, and the match had been thought as bad 
 as ruin by her family ; but fifteen years ago he had 
 had the satisfaction of brinrdno- liis wife to settle 
 amongst her own friends, and of being received with 
 pride as a brother-in-law, retired from business, 
 possessed of unknown thousands, and of a most 
 agreeable talent for anecdote and conversation 
 generally. No question had ever been raised as to
 
 74 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Mr Nolan's extraction on the strength of his hooked 
 nose, or of his name being Baruch. Hebrew names 
 " ran " in the best Saxon families ; the Bible ac- 
 counted for them ; and no one among the uplands ' 
 and hedgerows of that district was suspected of 
 having an Oriental origin unless he carried a 
 pedlar's jewel-box. Certainly, whatever genealo- 
 gical research might have discovered, the worthy 
 Baruch Nolan was so free from any distinctive 
 marlv« of religious persuasion — he went to church 
 with so ordinary an irregularity, and so often 
 grumbled at the sermon — that there was no ground 
 for classing hira otherwise than with good Trebian 
 Churchmen. He was generally regarded as a good- 
 looking old gentleman, and a certain thin eager- 
 ness in his aspect was attributed to the life of 
 the metropolis, where narrow space had the same 
 sort of effect on men as on thickly-planted trees. 
 Mr Nolan always ordered his pint of port, which, 
 after he had sipped it a little, was wont to ani- 
 mate his recollections of the Eoyal Family, and 
 the various ministries which had been contem- 
 porary with the successive stages of his prosper- 
 ity. He was always listened to with interest : a 
 man who had been born in the year when good old 
 Kiiiff Georoe came to the throne — who had been
 
 THE RADICAL. 75 
 
 acquainted witli the nude leg of the Prince Regent, 
 and hinted at private reasons for believing that the 
 Princess Charlotte ouoht not to have died — had 
 conversational matter as special to his auditors 
 as Marco Polo could have had on his return from 
 Asiatic travel. 
 
 " My good sir," he said to Mr AVace, as he crossed 
 his knees and spread his silk handkerchief over 
 them, " Transome may be returned, or he may not 
 be returned — that's a question for Xortli Loamshire; 
 but it makes little ditierence to the Idnodom. 1 
 don't want to say things which may put younger 
 men out of spirits, but I believe this country has 
 seen its best days — I do indeed." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear it from one of yoiu' experi- 
 ence, jNIr Nolan," said tlie brewer, a large happy- 
 looking man. " I'd make a good fight myself before 
 I'd leave a worse world for my boys than I've found 
 for myself. There isn't a greater pleasure than 
 doing a bit of planting and improving one's build- 
 ings, and investing one's money in some pretty acres 
 of land, when it turns up here and there — land 
 you've known from a Iwy. It's a nasty thought that 
 these Radicals are to turn tliinos round so as one 
 can calculate on nothing. One doesn't like it for 
 one's self, and one doesn't like it for one's neighbours.
 
 76 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 But someliow, I believe it won't do : if we can't 
 trust the Government just now, there's Providence 
 and the good sense of the countr)- ; and there's a 
 right in things — that's what I've always said — 
 there's a right in things. The heavy end will get 
 downmost. And if Church and King, and every man 
 being sure of his own, are things good for this 
 country, there's a God above will take care of 'em." 
 " It won't do, my dear sir," said Mr Nolan — " it 
 won't do. When Peel and the Duke turned round 
 about the Catholics in '29, I saw it was all over 
 with us. We could never trust ministers any more. 
 It was to keep off a rebellion, they said ; but I say 
 it was to keep their places. They're monstrously 
 fond of place, both of them — that I know." Here 
 Mr Nolan changed the crossing of his legs, and gave 
 a deep cough, conscious of having made a point. 
 Then he went on — " What we want is a king with 
 a good will of his own. If we'd had that, we 
 shouldn't have heard what we've heard to-day ; 
 Reform would never have come to this pass. W^hen 
 our good old King George the Third heard his min- 
 isters talking about Catholic Emancipation, he 
 boxed their ears all round. Ah, poor soul ! he did 
 indeed, gentlemen," ended Mr Nolan, shaken by a 
 deep laugh of admiration.
 
 THE EADICAL. 77 
 
 " Well, now, that's something like a king," said 
 Mr Crowder, who w^as an eager listener. 
 
 " It was uncivil, though. How did they take 
 it?" said Mr Timothy Eose, a "gentleman farmer" 
 from Leek Malton, against whose independent posi- 
 tion nature had provided the safeguard of a spon- 
 taneous servility. His large porcine cheeks, round 
 twinkling eyes, and thumbs habitually twirling, 
 expressed a concentrated effort not to get into 
 trouble, and to speak everybody fair except when 
 they were safely out of hearing. 
 
 " Take it ! they'd be obliged to take it," said the 
 impetuous young Joyce, a farmer of superior infor- 
 mation. " Have you ever heard of the king's pre - 
 rogative?" 
 
 " I don't say but M'hat I have," said Eose, retreat- 
 ing. " I've nothing against it — nothing at all." 
 
 " No, but the Eadicals have," said young Joyce, 
 winking. "The prerogative is what they want to 
 clip close. They want us to be governed by dele- 
 gates from the trades-unions, who are to dictate to 
 everybody, and make everything square to their 
 mastery." 
 
 " They're a pretty set, now, those delegates," said 
 Mr Wace, with disgust. " I once heard two of 'em 
 spouting away. They're a sort of fellow^ I'd never
 
 78 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 employ in my brewery, or anywhere else. I've 
 seen it again and again. If a man takes to tongue- 
 work it's all over with him. ' Everything's wrong,' 
 says he. That's a big text. But does he want to 
 make everything right ? Not he. He'd lose his 
 text. ' "VVe want every man's good,' say they. 
 Wliy, they never knew yet what a man's good is. 
 How should they? It's working for his victual 
 — not getting a slice of other people's." 
 
 " Ay, ay," said young Joyce, cordially. " I 
 should just have liked all the delegates in the 
 country mustered for our yeomanry to go into — 
 that's all. They'd see where the strength of Old 
 England lay then. You may tell what it is for a 
 country to trust to trade when it breeds such spind- 
 ling fellows as those." 
 
 " That isn't the fault of trade, my good sir," said 
 Mr Nolan, who was often a little pained by the 
 defects of provincial culture. " Trade, properly 
 conducted, is good for a man's constitution. I 
 could have shown you, in my time, weavers past 
 seventy, with all their faculties as sharp as a pen- 
 knife, doing without spectacles. It's the new sys- 
 tem of trade that's to blame : a country can't have 
 too much trade, if it's j)TOperly managed. Plenty 
 of sound Tories have made their fortune by trade.
 
 THE RADICAL. ' 79 
 
 You've heard of Calibut & Co. — everybody has 
 heard of Caliljiit. Well, sir, I knew old Mr Calibut 
 as well as I know you. He was once a crony of 
 mine in a city warehouse ; and now, I'll answer for 
 it, he has a larger rent-roll than Lord Wyvern. 
 Bless your soul ! his subscriptions to charities 
 would make a fine income for a nobleman. And 
 he's as good a Tory as I am. And as for his town 
 establishment — why, how much butter do you think 
 is consumed there annually ? " 
 
 Mr Nolan paused, and then his face glowed with 
 triumph as he answered his own question. "Why, 
 gentlemen, not less than two thousand pounds of 
 butter during the few months the family is in town ! 
 Trade makes property, my good sir, and property is 
 Conservative, as they say now. Calibut's son-in- 
 law is Lord Fortinbras. He paid me a large debt 
 on his marriage. It's all one web, sir. The pros- 
 perity of the country is one web." 
 
 " To be sure," said Christian, who, smoking his 
 cigar with his chair turned away from the table, 
 was willing to make himself agreeable in the conver- 
 sation. " We can't do without nobility. Look at 
 France. When they got rid of the old nobles they 
 were obliged to make new." 
 
 " True, very true," said Mr Nolan, who thought
 
 80 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Christian a little too wise for his position, but could 
 not resist the rare gift of an instance in point. 
 " It's the French Eevolution that has done us harm 
 here. It was the same at the end of the last cen- - 
 tury, but the war kept it off — Mr Pitt saved us. I 
 knew Mr Pitt. I had a particular interview with 
 him once. He joked me about getting the length 
 of his foot. ' Mr Nolan,' said he, ' there are those 
 on the other side of the water whose name begins 
 with N. who would be glad to know what you 
 know.' I was recommended to send an account of 
 that to the newspapers after his death, poor man ! 
 but I'm not fond of that kind of show myself" Mr 
 Nolan swung his upper leg a little, and pinched his 
 lip between his thumb and finger, naturally pleased 
 with his own moderation. 
 
 "No, no, very right," said Mr Wace, cordially. 
 " But you never said a truer word than that about 
 property. If a man's got a bit of property, a stake 
 in the country, he'll want to keep things square. 
 Where Jack isn't safe, Tom's in danger. But that's 
 what makes it such an uncommonly nasty thing 
 that a man like Transonic should take up with these 
 Iladicals. It's my belief he does it only to get into 
 Parliament ; he'll turn round when he gets there. 
 Come, Dibbs, there's something to put you in
 
 THE RADICAL. 81 
 
 spirits," added Mr Wace, raising liis voice a little 
 and looking at a guest lower down. " You've got 
 to vote for a Eadical with one side of your mouth, 
 and make a wry face with the other ; but he'll turn 
 round by-and-by. As Parson Jack says, he's got 
 tlie right sort of blood in him." 
 
 " I don't care two straws Avho I vote for," said 
 Dibbs, sturdily. " I'm not going to make a wry 
 face. It stands to reason a man should vote for his 
 landlord. My farm's in good condition, and I've 
 got the best pasture on the estate. The rot's never 
 come nigh me. Let them grumble as are on the 
 wrong side of the hedge." 
 
 "1 wonder if Jermyn'll l)ring him in, tliough," 
 said Mv Sircome, the great miller. "He's an 
 uncommon fellow for carrying things through. I 
 know he brought me through that suit about my 
 \\ eir ; it cost a pretty penny, but he brought me 
 through." . -- 
 
 " It's a bit of a pill for him, too, having to turn 
 Radical," said Mr Wace. " They say he counted on 
 making friends with Sir Maximus, by this young 
 one coming home and joining with INIr Philip." 
 
 "But I'll bet a penny he brings Transome in," 
 said Mr Sircome. " Folks say he hasn't got many 
 votes hereabout ; but towards Duffield, and all there, 
 VOL. II. F
 
 82 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 where the Radicals are, everybody's for him. Eh, 
 Mr Christian ? Come — you're at the fountainhead 
 — what do they say about it now at the Manor ? " 
 
 When general attention was called to Christian, 
 young Joyce looked down at his own legs and 
 touched the curves of his own hair, as if measuring 
 his own approximation to that correct copy of a 
 gentleman. Mr Wace turned his head to listen for 
 Christian's answer with that tolerance of inferiority 
 which becomes men in places of public resort, 
 
 " They think it will be a hard run between Tran- 
 some and Garstin," said Christian. " It depends on 
 Transome's getting plumpers." 
 
 " Well, I know I shall not split for Garstin," said 
 Mr Wace. " It's nonsense for Debarry's voters to 
 split for a Whig. A man's either a Tory or not a 
 Tory." 
 
 " It seems reasonable there should be one of each 
 side," said Mr Timothy Eose. " I don't like show- 
 ing favour either way. If one side can't lower the 
 Poor's rates and take off the Tithe, let the other try." 
 
 " But there's this in it, Wace," said Mr Sircome. 
 " I'm not altogether against the Whigs. For they 
 don't want to go so far as the Radicals do, and 
 when they find they've slipped a bit too far, they'U 
 hold on all the tighter. And the Whigs have got
 
 THE RADICAL. 83 
 
 tlie upper hand now, and it's no use fighting with 
 the current. I run with the " 
 
 Mr Sircome checked himself, looked furtively at 
 Christian, and, to divert criticism, ended with — " eh, 
 Mr Nolan ? " 
 
 " There have been eminent Whigs, sir. Mr Fox 
 was a Whig," said Mr Nolan. "Mr Fox was a 
 great orator. He gambled a good deal. He was 
 very intimate with the Prince of Wales. I've seen 
 him, and the Duke of York too, go home by day- 
 light with their hats crushed. Mr Fox was a great 
 leader of Opposition : Government requires an Op- 
 position. The Whigs should always be in opposi- 
 tion, and the Tories on the ministerial side. That's 
 what the country used to like. 'The Whigs for 
 salt and mustard, the Tories for meat,' Mr Gottlib 
 the banker used to say to me. Mr Gottlib was 
 a worthy man. When there was a great run on 
 Gottlib's bank in '16, I saw a gentleman come in 
 with bags of gold, and say, ' Tell Mr Gottlib there's 
 plenty more where that came from.' It stopped the 
 run, gentlemen — it did indeed." 
 
 This anecdote was received with great admira- 
 tion, but Mr Sircome returned to the previous ques- 
 tion. 
 
 "There now, you see, Wace — it's right there
 
 84 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 should be Whigs as well as Tories— Pitt and Fox 
 — IVe always heard them go together." 
 
 "Well, I don't like Garstin," said the brewer. 
 "I didn't like his conduct about the Canal Com- 
 pany. Of the two, I like Transome best. If a nag 
 is to throw me, I say, let him have some blood." 
 
 "As for blood, Wace," said INIr Salt, the wool- 
 factor, a bilious man, who only spoke when there 
 was a good opportunity of contradicting, " ask my 
 brother-in-law Labron a little about that. These 
 Transomes are not the old blood." 
 
 "Well, they're the oldest that's forthcoming, I 
 suppose," said Mr Wace, laughing. "Unless you 
 believe in mad old Tommy Trounsem. I wonder 
 where that old poaching fellow is now." 
 
 " I saw him half-drunk the other day," said young 
 Joyce. " He'd got a flag-basket with hand-bills in 
 it over his shoulder." 
 
 "I thought the old fellow was dead," said Mr 
 Wace. " Hey ! wliy, Jermyn," he went on merrily, 
 as he turned round and saw the attorney entering ; 
 "you Eadical ! how dare you show yourself in this 
 Tory house? Come, this is going a bit too far. 
 We don't mind Old Harry managing our law for us 
 — that's his proper business from time immemo- 
 rial ; but "
 
 THE RADICAL. 85 
 
 " But — a — " said Jermyn, smiling, always ready 
 to carry on a joke, to wliicli his slow manner gave 
 the piquancy of surprise, " if he meddles with poli- 
 tics he must be a Tory." 
 
 Jermyn was not afraid to show himself anywhere 
 in Treby. He knew many people were not exactly 
 fond of him, but a man can do without that, if he 
 is prosperous. A provincial lawyer in those old- 
 fashioned days was as independent of personal 
 esteem as if he had been a Lord Chancellor. 
 
 There was a good-humoured laugh at this upper 
 end of the room as Jermyn seated himself at about 
 an equal angle between Mr AVace and Christian. 
 
 " We were talking about old Tommy Trounsem ; 
 you remember him? They say he's turned up 
 again," said Mr Wace. 
 
 "Ah?" said Jermyn, indifferently. "But — a — 
 Wace — I'm very busy to-day — but I wanted to see 
 you about that bit of land of yours at the corner of 
 Pod's End. I've had a handsome offer for you — I'm 
 not at liberty to say from whom — but an offer that 
 ought to tempt you." 
 
 " It won't tempt me," said Mr Wace, peremptorily ; 
 "if I've got a bit of land, I'll keep it. It's hard 
 enough to get hereabouts." 
 
 " Then I'm to understand that you refuse all
 
 86 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 negotiation ?" said Jermyn, who had ordered a glass 
 of sherry, and was looking round slowly as he 
 sipped it, till his eyes seemed to rest for the first 
 time on Christian, though he had seen him at once 
 on entering the room. 
 
 " Unless one of the confounded railways should 
 come. But then I'll stand out and make 'em bleed 
 for it."- 
 
 There was a murmur of approbation ; the railways 
 were a public wrong much denunciated in Treby. 
 
 "A— Mr Philip Debarry at the Manor now?" 
 said Jermyn, suddenly questioning Christian, in a 
 haughty tone of superiority which he often chose 
 to use. 
 
 " No," said Christian, " he is expected to-morrow 
 mornin;.;." 
 
 " Ah ! " Jermyn paused a moment or two, and 
 
 then said, "You are sufficiently in his confidence, 
 I think, to carry a message to him with a small 
 document?" 
 
 " Mr Debarry has often trusted me so far," said 
 Christian, with much coolness; "but if the busi- 
 ness is yours, you can probably find some one you 
 know better." 
 
 There was a little winking and grimacing among 
 those of the company who heard this answer.
 
 THE KADICAL. 87 
 
 "A — true — a," said Jermyn, not showing any 
 offence ; " if you decline. But I think, if you will 
 do me the favour to step round to my residence on 
 your way back, and learn the business, you will 
 prefer carrying it yourself At my residence, if you 
 please — not my office." 
 
 " very well," said Christian. " I shall be very 
 happy." Christian never allowed himself to be 
 treated as a servant by any one but his master, 
 and his master treated a servant more deferentially 
 than an equal. 
 
 "Will it be five o'clock? what hour shall we 
 say ? " said Jermyn. 
 
 Christian looked at his watch and said, " About 
 five I can be there." 
 
 " Very good," said Jermyn, finishing his sherry. 
 
 "Well — a — Wace — a — so you will hear nothing 
 about Pod's End?" 
 
 "Not I." 
 
 "A mere pocket-handkerchief, not enough to 
 swear by — a — " here Jermyn's face broke into a 
 smile — " without a magnifying-glass." 
 
 " Never mind. It's mine into the bowels of the 
 earth and up to the sky. I can build the Tower of 
 Babel on it if I like— eh, Mr Nolan?" 
 
 "A bad investment, my good sir," said Mr Nolan,
 
 88 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 who enjoyed a certain flavour of infidelity in this 
 smart reply, and laughed much at it in his inward 
 way. 
 
 " See now, how blind you Tories are," said 
 Jermyn, rising; "if I had been your lawyer, I'd 
 have had you make another forty -shilling free- 
 holder with that land, and all in time for this elec- 
 tion. But — a — the verhum sapientibus comes a 
 little too late now." 
 
 Jermyn was moving away as he finished speak- 
 ing, but Mr Wace called out after him, "We're 
 not so badly off for votes as you are — good sound 
 votes, that'll stand the Revising Barrister. De- 
 barry at the top of the poll !" 
 
 The lawj^er was already out of the doorway.
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 'Tis grievous, that with all amplifieation of travel both by sea and land, a 
 man can never separate himself from his past history. 
 
 Me Jermyn's handsome house stood a little way 
 out of the town, snrrounded by garden and lawn 
 and plantations of hopeful trees. As Christian 
 approached it he was in a perfectly easy state of 
 mind : the business he was going on was none of 
 his, otherwise than as he was M^ell satisfied with 
 any opportunity of making himself valuable to Mr 
 Philip Debarry. As he looked at Jermyn's length 
 of wall and iron railing, he said to himself, " These 
 lawyers are the fellows for getting on in the world 
 with the least expense of civility. With this cursed 
 conjuring secret of theirs called Law, they think 
 everybody's frightened at them. My Lord Jermyn 
 seems to have his insolence as ready as his soft 
 sawder. He's as sleek as a rat, and has as vicious 
 a tooth. I know the sort of vermin well enough. 
 I've helped to fatten one or two."
 
 90 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 In this mood of conscious, contemptuous pene- 
 tration. Christian was shown by the footman into 
 Jermyn's private room, where the attorney sat sur- 
 rounded with massive oaken bookcases, and other 
 furniture to correspond, from the thickest-legged 
 library-table to the calendar frame and card-rack. 
 It was the sort of room a man prepares for himself 
 when he feels sure of a long and respectable future. 
 He was leaning back in his leather chair, against 
 the broad window opening on the lawn, and had 
 just taken off his spectacles and let the newspaper 
 fall on his knees, in despair of reading by the 
 fading light. 
 
 When the footman opened the door and said, 
 " Mr Christian," Jermyn said, " Good evening, Mr 
 Christian. Be seated," pointing to a chair oppo- 
 site himself and the window. " Light the candles 
 on the shelf, John, but leave the blinds alone." 
 
 He did not speak again till the man was gone 
 out, but appeared to be referring to a document 
 which lay on the bureau before him. When the 
 door was. closed he drew himself up again, began 
 to rub his hands, and turned towards his visitor, 
 who seemed perfectly indifferent to the fact that 
 the attorney was in shadow, and that the light fell 
 on himself.
 
 THE RADICAL. 91 
 
 " A — your name — a — is Henry Scaddon." 
 
 There was a start through Christian's frame which 
 he was quick enough, ahnost simultaneously, to 
 try and disguise as a change of position. He un- 
 crossed his legs and unbuttoned his coat. But 
 before he had time to say anything, Jermyn went 
 on with slow emphasis. 
 
 "You were born on the 16th of December 1782, 
 at Blackheath. Your father was a cloth-merchant 
 in London : he died when you were barely of age, 
 leaving an extensive business ; before you were 
 five-and-twenty you had run through the greater 
 part of the property, and had compromised your 
 safety by an attempt to defraud your creditors. 
 Subsequently you forged a cheque on your father's 
 elder brother, who had intended to make you his 
 heir." 
 
 Here Jermyn paused a moment and referred to 
 the document. Christian was silent. 
 
 " In 1808 you found it expedient to leave 
 this country in a military disguise, and were 
 taken prisoner by the French. On the occasion 
 of an exchange of prisoners you had the oppor- 
 tunity of returning to your own country, and 
 to the bosom of your own family. You were 
 generous enough to sacrifice that prospect in favour
 
 92 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 of a fellow-prisoner, of about your own age and 
 figure, wlio had more pressing reasons than yourself 
 for wishing to be on this side of the water. You 
 exchanged dress, luggage, and names with him, 
 and he passed to England instead of you as Henry 
 Scaddon. Almost immediately afterwards you 
 escaped from your imprisonment, after feign- 
 ing an illness which prevented your exchange 
 of names from being discovered ; and it was re- 
 ported that you — that is, you under the name of 
 your fellow-prisoner — were drowned in an open 
 boat, trying to reach a Neapolitan vessel bound 
 for Malt.a. Nevertheless I have to congratulate 
 you on the falsehood of that report, and on the 
 certainty that you are now, after the lapse of 
 more than twenty years, seated liere in perfect 
 safety." 
 
 Jermyn paused so long that he was evidently 
 awaiting some answer. At last Christian replied, 
 in a dogged tone, 
 
 "Well, sir, I've heard much longer stories than 
 that told quite as solemnly, when there was not a 
 word of truth in them. Suppose I deny the very 
 peg you hang your statement on. Suppose I say I 
 am not Henry Scaddon." 
 
 " A — in that case — a," said Jermyn, with wooden
 
 THE RADICAL. 93 
 
 indifference, " you would lose the advantage which 
 — a — may attach to your possession of Henry 
 Scaddon's knowledge. And at the same time, if 
 it were in the least — a — inconvenient to you that 
 you should be recognised as Henry Scaddon, your 
 denial would not prevent me from holding the 
 knowledge and evidence which I possess on that 
 point; it would only prevent us from pursuing the 
 present conversation." 
 
 " Well, sir, suppose we admit, for the sake of the 
 conversation, that your account of the matter is the 
 true one : what advantage have you to offer the man 
 named Henry Scaddon ? " 
 
 " The advantage — a — is problematical ; 1 )ut it 
 may be considerable. It might, in fact, release 
 you from the necessity of acting as courier, or 
 — a — valet, or whatever other office you may 
 occupy which prevents you from being your own 
 master. On the other hand, my acquaintance with 
 your secret is not necessarily a disadvantage to 
 you. To put the matter in a nutshell, I am not 
 inclined — a — gratuitously — to do you any harm, 
 and I may be able to do you a considerable 
 service." 
 
 " Which you want me to earn somehow ? " said 
 Christian. " You offer me a turn in a lottery ?"
 
 94 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 "Precisely. The matter in question is of no 
 earthly interest to you, except — a — as it may yield 
 you a prize. We lawyers have to do with compli- 
 cated questions, and — a — legal subtleties, which 
 are never — a — fully known even to the parties 
 immediately interested, still less to the witnesses. 
 Shall we agree, then, that you continue to retain 
 two-thirds of the name which you gained by ex- 
 change, and that you oblige me by answering 
 certain questions as to the experience of Henry 
 Scaddon ?" 
 
 " Very good. Go on." 
 
 "What articles of property, once belonging to 
 your fellow-prisoner, Maurice Christian BycliffCj 
 do you still retain ? " 
 
 "This ring," said Christian, twirling round the 
 fine seal-ring on his finger, "his watch, and the 
 little matters that hung with it, and a case of 
 papers. I got rid of a gold snuff-box once when I 
 was hard-up. The clothes are all gone, of course. 
 We exchanged everything ; it was all done in a 
 hurry. Bycliffe thought we should meet again in 
 England before long, and he was mad to get there. 
 But that was impossible — I mean that we should 
 meet soon after. I don't know what's become of 
 him, else I would give him up his papers and the
 
 THE KADICAL. 95 
 
 watch, and so on — though, you know, it was I who 
 did Mm the service, and he felt that." 
 
 "You were at Vesoul together before being 
 moved to Verdun ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "What else do you know about Bycliffe?" 
 
 " 0, nothing very particular," said Christian, 
 pausing, and rapping his boot with his cane. 
 " He'd been in the Hanoverian army — a high- 
 spirited fellow, took nothing easily; not over- 
 strong in health. He made a fool of himself with 
 marrying at Vesoul; and there was the devil to 
 pay with the girl's relations ; and then, when the 
 prisoners were ordered off, they had to part. Whe- 
 ther they ever got together again I don't know." 
 
 " Was the marriage all right, then?" 
 
 " 0, all on the square — civil marriage, church — 
 everything. Bycliffe was a fool — a good-natured, 
 proud, headstrong fellow." 
 
 " How long did the marriage take place before you 
 left Vesoul?" 
 
 " About three months. I was a witness to the 
 marriage." 
 
 " And you know no more about the wife?" 
 
 " Not afterwards. 1 knew her very well before — 
 pretty Annette — Annette Ledru was her name.
 
 96 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 She was of a good family, and they had made up a 
 fine match for her. But she was one of your meek 
 little diablesses, who have a will of their own 
 once in their lives — the will to choose their own 
 master." 
 
 " Bycliffe was not open to you about his other 
 affairs?" 
 
 " no — a fellow you wouldn't dare to ask a ques- 
 tion of People told him everything, but he told 
 nothing in return. If Madame Annette ever found 
 him aiiain, she found her lord and master with a 
 vengeance ; but she was a regular lapdog. How- 
 ever, her family shut her up— made a prisoner of 
 her— to prevent her running away." 
 
 " Ah — good. Much of what you have been so 
 obliging as to say is irrelevant to any possible pur- 
 pose of mine, which, in fact, has to do only with a 
 mouldy law-case that might be aired some day. 
 You will doubtless, on your own account, maintain 
 perfect silence on what has passed between us, and 
 with that condition duly preserved — a — it is pos- 
 sible that — a — the lottery you have put into — as 
 you observe — may turn up a prize." 
 
 " This, then, is all the business you have with 
 me?" said Christian, rising. 
 
 " All. You will, of course, preserve carefully all
 
 THE RADICAL. 97 
 
 the papers and other articles which have so many — 
 a — recollections — a — attached to them ? " 
 
 " yes. If there's any chance of Bycliffe turn- 
 ing up again, I shall be sorry to have parted with 
 the snuff-box; but I was hard-up at Naples. In 
 fact, as you see, I was obliged at last to turn 
 courier." 
 
 " An exceedingly agreeable life for a man of some 
 — a — accomplishments and — a — no income," said 
 Jermyn, rising, and reaching a candle, which he 
 placed against his desk. 
 
 Christian knew this was a sign that he was 
 expected to go, but he lingered standing, with one 
 hand on the back of his chair. At last he said, 
 rather sulkily, 
 
 " I think you're too clever, Mr Jermyn, not 
 to perceive that I'm not a man to be made a 
 fool of." 
 
 " Well — a — it may perhaps be a still better guar- 
 antee for you," said Jermyn, smiling, " that I see no 
 use in attempting that — a — metamorphosis." 
 
 " The old gentleman, who ought never to have 
 felt himself injured, is dead now, and I'm not afraid 
 of creditors after more than twenty years." 
 
 " Certainly not ; — a — there may indeed be claims 
 which can't assert themselves — a — legally, which 
 
 VOL. IL G
 
 98 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 yet are molesting to a man of some reputation. 
 But you may perhaps be happily free from such 
 fears." 
 
 Jermyn drew round his chair towards the bureau, 
 and Christian, too acute to persevere uselessly, said, 
 " Good-day," and left the room. 
 
 After leaning back in his chair to reflect a few 
 minutes, Jermyn wrote the following letter : — 
 
 Dear Johnson, — I learn from your letter, received 
 this morning, that you intend returning to town on 
 Saturday. 
 
 While you are there, he so good as to see Medivin, 
 who used to he with Batt & Cowley, and ascertain 
 from him indirectly, and iri the course of conversa- 
 tion on other topics, whether in that old business in 
 1810-11, Scaddon alias Bycliffe, or Bycliffc alias 
 Scaddon, before his imprisonment, gave Batt <& Cow- 
 ley any reason to helieve that he was married and 
 expected to have a child. The qiiestion, as you know, 
 is of no practical importance ; hut I wish to draw up 
 an abstract of the Bycliffe case, and the exact posi- 
 tion in which it stood before the suit was closed hy 
 the death of the plaintiff, in order that, if Mr Harold 
 Transome desires it, he may see how the failure of 
 the last claim has sec2ired the Durfey-Transome title,
 
 THE EADICAL. 99 
 
 and whether there is a hair's-breadth of chance that 
 another claim shoidd he set up. 
 
 Of course there is not a shadoiv of such a chance. 
 For even if Bait <& Cowley were to suppose that they 
 had alighted on a surviving representative of the 
 Bycliffes, it woidd not enter into their heads to set 
 tip a new claim, since they brought evidence that the 
 last life which suspiended the Bycliffe remainder was 
 extinct before the case was closed, a good twenty 
 years ago. 
 
 Still, I ivant to show the present heir of the Durfcy- 
 Transomes the exact conditioji of the family title to 
 the estates. So get me «?^ answer from Medwin on 
 the above-mentioned point. 
 
 I shall meet you at Duficld next week We must 
 get Transome returned. Kcver mind his having been 
 a little rough the other day, but go 07i doing what you 
 Inoiu is necessary for his interest. His interest is 
 mine, which I need not say is John Johnson's. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 MATTHEW JERMYN. 
 
 When the attorney had sealed this letter and 
 leaned back in his chair again, he was inwardly 
 saying, 
 
 " Now, Mr Harold, I shall shut up this affair in
 
 100 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 a private drawer till you choose to take any ex- 
 treme measures which will force me to bring it 
 out. I have the matter entirely in my own power. 
 No one but old Lyon knows about the girl's birth. 
 No one but Scaddon can clench the evidence about 
 Bycliffe, and I've got Scaddon under my thumb. 
 No soul except myself and Johnson, who is a liml) 
 of myself, knows that there is one half-dead life 
 which may presently leave the girl a new claim 
 to the Byclifte heirship. I shall learn through 
 Methurst whether Batt & Cowley knew, through 
 Bycliffe, of this woman having come to England. I 
 shall hold all the threads between my thumb and 
 finger. I can use the evidence or I can nullify it. 
 
 " And so, if Mr Harold pushes me to extremity, 
 and threatens me with Chancery and ruin, I have 
 an opposing threat, which will either save me or 
 turn into a punishment for him." 
 
 He rose, put out his candles, and stood with his 
 back to the fire, looking out on the dim lawn, with 
 its black twilight fringe of shrubs, still meditating. 
 Quick thought was gleaming over five-and-thirty 
 years filled with devices more or less clever, more or 
 less desirable to be avowed. Those which might be 
 avowed with impunity were not always to be dis- 
 tinguished as innocent by comparison with those
 
 THE RADICAL. 101 
 
 which it was advisable to conceal. In a profession 
 where much that is noxious may he done without 
 disgrace, is a conscience likely to be without balm 
 when circumstances have urged a man to overstep 
 the line where his good technical information makes 
 liim aware that (with discovery) disgrace is likely 
 to begin ? 
 
 With regard to the Transome affairs, the family 
 had been in pressing need of money, and it had lain 
 with him to get it for them : was it to be expected 
 that he would not consider his own advantage where 
 lie had rendered services such as are never fully 
 paid ? If it came to a question of right and wrong 
 instead of law, the least justifiable things he had 
 ever done had been done on behalf of the Transomes. 
 It had been a deucedly unpleasant thing for him 
 to get Bycliffe arrested and thrown into prison as 
 Henry Scaddon — perhaps hastening the man's death 
 in that way. But if it had not been done by dint of 
 his (Jermyn's) exertions and tact, he would like to 
 know where the Durfey-Transomes might have been 
 by this time. As for right or wrong, if the truth 
 were known, the very possession of the estate by 
 the Durfey-Transomes was owing to law-tricks that 
 took place nearly a century ago, when the original 
 old Durfey got his base fee.
 
 102 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 But inward argument of this sort now, as always, 
 was merged in anger, in exasperation, that Harold, 
 precisely Harold Transome, should have turned out 
 to be the probable instrument of a visitation which 
 would be bad luck, not justice; for is there any 
 justice where ninety-nine out of a hundred escape? 
 He felt himself beginning to hate Harold as he had 
 never 
 
 Just then Jermyn's third daughter, a tall slim girl 
 wrapped in a white woollen shawl, which she had 
 hung over her blanketwise, skipped across the lawn 
 towards the greenhouse to get a fiower. Jermyn 
 was startled, and did not identify the figure, or 
 rather he identified it falsely with another tall white- 
 wrapped figure which had sometimes set his heart 
 beating quickly more than thirty years before. For 
 a moment he was fully back in those distant years 
 when he and another bright-eyed person had seen 
 no reason why they should not indulge their pas- 
 sion and their vanity, and determine for themselves 
 how their lives should be made delightful in spite 
 of unalterable external conditions. The reasons had 
 l)een unfolding themselves gradually ever since 
 through all tlie years which had converted the 
 handsome, soft-eyed, slim young Jermyn (with a 
 touch of sentiment) into a portly lawyer of sixty.
 
 THE KADICAL. 103 
 
 for whom life had resolved itself into the means of 
 keeping up his head among his professional brethren 
 and maintaining an establishment — into a grey- 
 haired husband and father, whose third affectionate 
 and expensive daughter now rapped at the window 
 and called to him, " Papa, papa, get ready for dinner; 
 don't you remember that the Lukyns are coming?"
 
 CHAPTEK XXII. 
 
 Her gentle looks shot arrows, piercing him 
 As gods are pierced, witli poison of sweet pity. 
 
 The evening of the market-day had passed, and 
 Felix had not looked in at Malthouse Yard to talk 
 over the public events with Mr Lyon. When 
 Esther was dressing the next morning, she had 
 reached a point of irritated anxiety to see Felix, at 
 which she found herself devising little schemes for 
 attaining that end in some way that would be so 
 elaborate as to seem perfectly natural. Her watch 
 had a long-standing ailment of losing ; possibly it 
 wanted cleaning ; Felix would tell her if it merely 
 wanted regulating, whereas Mr Prowd might de- 
 tain it unnecessarily, and cause her useless incon- 
 venience. Or could she not get a valuable hint 
 from Mrs Holt about the home-made bread, which 
 was something as " sad" as Lyddy herself? Or, if 
 she came home that way at twelve o'clock, Felix
 
 FELIX HOLT. 105 
 
 might be going out, she might meet him, and not 
 be obliged to call. Or — but it would be very much 
 beneath her to take any steps of this sort. Her 
 watch had been losing for the last two months — why 
 should it not go on losing a little longer ? She could 
 think of no devices that were not so transparent as 
 to be undignifiedi All the more undignified because 
 Felix chose to live in a way that would prevent 
 any one from classing him according to his educa- 
 tion and mental refinement — " which certainly are 
 very high," said Esther inwardly, colouring, as if in 
 answer to some contrary allegation, " else I should 
 not think his opinion of any consequence." But 
 she came to the conclusion that she could not pos- 
 sibly call at Mrs Holt's. 
 
 It followed that up to a few minutes past twelve, 
 when she reached the turning towards Mrs Holt's, 
 she believed that she should go home the other 
 way ; but at the last moment there is always a 
 reason not existing before — namely, the impossibil- 
 ity of further vacillation. Esther turned the corner 
 without any visible pause, and in another minute 
 was knocking at Mrs Holt's door, not without an 
 inward flutter, which she was bent on disguising. 
 
 " It's never you, Miss Lyon ! who'd have thought 
 of seeing you at this time ? Is the minister ill ? I
 
 106 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 thought he looked creechy. If you want help, I'll 
 put my bonnet on." 
 
 " Don't keep Miss Lyon at the door, mother ; ask 
 her to come in," said the ringing voice of Felix, 
 surmounting various small shufflings and babbling 
 voices within. 
 
 " It's my wish for her to come in, I'm sure," said 
 Mrs Holt, making way ; " but what is there for her 
 to come in to ? a floor worse than any public. But 
 step in, pray, if you're so inclined. When I've 
 been forced to take my bit of carpet up, and have 
 benches, I don't see why I need mind nothing no 
 more." 
 
 " I only came to ask Mr Holt if he would look at 
 my watch for me," said Esther, entering, and blush- 
 ing a general rose-colour. 
 
 " He'll do that fast enough," said Mrs Holt, with 
 emphasis ; " that's one of the things he will do." 
 
 "Excuse my rising. Miss Lyon," said Felix; "I'm 
 binding up Job's finger." 
 
 Job was a small fellow about five, with a germi- 
 nal nose, large round blue eyes, and red hair that 
 curled close to his head like the wool on the back 
 of an infantine lamb. He had evidently been cry- 
 ing, and the corners of his mouth were still dolor- 
 ous. Felix held him on his knee as he bound and
 
 THE EADICAL. 107 
 
 tied up very cleverly a tiny forefinger. There was 
 a table in front of Felix and against the window, 
 covered with his watchmaking implements and 
 some open books. Two benches stood at right angles 
 on the sanded floor, and six or seven boys of various 
 ages up to twelve were getting their caps and pre- 
 paring to go home. They huddled themselves 
 together and stood still when Esther entered. 
 Felix could not look up till he had finished his 
 surgery, but he went on speaking. . 
 
 " This is a hero, Miss Lyon. This is Job Tudge, 
 a bold Briton whose finger hurts him, but who 
 doesn't mean to cry. Good morning, boys. Don't 
 lose your time. Get out into the air." 
 
 Esther seated herself on the end of the bench 
 near Felix, much relieved that Job was the im- 
 mediate object of attention ; and tlie other boys 
 rushed out behind her with a brief chant of 
 " Good morning ! " 
 
 " Did you ever see," said Mrs Holt, standing to 
 look on, " how wonderful Felix is at that small 
 work with his large fingers? And that's because 
 he learnt doctoring. It isn't for want of cleverness 
 he looks like a poor man, Miss Lyon. I've left off 
 speaking, else I should say it's a sin and a shame." 
 
 " Mother," said Felix, who often amused himself
 
 108 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 and kept good-humoured by giving liis mother an- 
 swers that were unintelligible to her, " you have 
 an astonishing readiness in the Ciceronian anti- 
 phrasis, considering you have never studied oratory. 
 There, Job — thou patient man — sit still if thou 
 wilt; and now we can look at Miss Lyon." 
 
 Esther had taken off her watch and was holding 
 it in her hand. But he looked at her face, or 
 rather at her eyes, as he said, " You want me to 
 doctor your watch ?" 
 
 Esther's expression was appealing and timid, as 
 it had never been before in Felix's presence ; but 
 when she saw the perfect calmness, which to her 
 seemed coldness, of his clear grey eyes, as if he saw 
 no reason for attaching any emphasis to this first 
 meeting, a pang swift as an electric shock darted 
 through her. She had been very foolish to think 
 so much of it. It seemed to her as if her inferiority 
 to Felix made a great gulf between them. She 
 could not at once rally her pride and self-command, 
 but let her glance fall on her watch, and said, rather 
 tremulously, " It loses. It is very troublesome. It 
 has been losing a long while." 
 
 Felix took the watch from her hand ; then, look- 
 ing round and seeing that his mother was gone out 
 of the room, he said, very gently,
 
 THE EADICAL. 109 
 
 " You look distressed, Miss Lyon. I hope there 
 is no trouble at home " (Felix was thinking of the 
 minister's agitation on the previous Sunday). " But 
 I ought perhaps to beg your pardon for saying so 
 much." 
 
 Poor Esther was quite helpless. The mortifica- 
 tion which had come like a bruise to all the sensi- 
 bilities that had been in keen activity, insisted on 
 some relief. Her eyes filled instantly, and a great 
 tear rolled down while she said in a loud sort of 
 whisper, as involuntary as her tears, 
 
 "I wanted to tell you that I was not offended — 
 that I am not ungenerous — I thought you might 
 think — but you have not thought of it." 
 
 Was there ever more awkward speaking ? — or any 
 behaviour less like that of the graceful, self-pos- 
 sessed Miss Lyon, whose phrases were usually so 
 well turned, and whose repartees were so ready ? 
 
 For a moment there was silence. Esther had her 
 two little delicately-gloved hands clasped on the 
 table. The next moment she felt one hand of Felix 
 covering them both and pressing them firmly ; but 
 he did not speak. The tears were both on her 
 cheeks now, and she could look up at him. His 
 eyes had an expression of sadness in them, quite 
 new to her. Suddenly little Job, who had his
 
 110 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 mental exercises on the occasion, called out, im- 
 patiently, 
 
 " She's tut her finger ! " 
 
 Felix and Esther laughed, and drew their hands 
 awUy ; and as Esther took her handkerchief to wipe 
 the tears from her cheeks, she said, 
 
 " You see. Job, I am a naughty coward. I can't 
 help crying when I've hurt myself." 
 
 " Zoo soodn't kuy," said Job, energetically, being 
 much impressed with a moral doctrine which had 
 come to him after a sufficient transgression of it, 
 
 " Job is like me," said Felix, " fonder of preach- 
 ing than of practice. But let us look at this same 
 watch," he went on, opening and examining it. 
 " These little Geneva toys are cleverly constructed 
 to go always a little wrong. But if you wind them 
 up and set them regularly every night, you may 
 know at least that it's not noon when the hand 
 points there." 
 
 Felix chatted, that Esther might recover herself ; 
 but now Mrs Holt came back and apologised. 
 
 "You'll excuse my going away, I know. Miss 
 Lyon. But there were the dumplings to see to, and 
 what little I've got left on my liands now, I like to 
 do well. Not but what I've more cleaning to do 
 than ever I had in my life before, as you may tell
 
 THE KADICAL. Ill 
 
 soon enougli if you look at this floor. But when 
 you've been used to doing things, and they've been 
 taken away from you, it's as if your hands had been 
 cut off, and you felt the fingers as are of no use to 
 you." 
 
 " That's a great image, mother," said Felix, as 
 he snapped the watch together, and handed it to 
 Esther : " I never heard you use such an image 
 before." 
 
 " Yes, I know you've alw^ays some fault to find 
 with wdiat your mother says. But if ever there was 
 a woman could talk with the open Bible before 
 her, and not be afraid, it's me. I never did tell 
 stories, and I never will — though I know it's done. 
 Miss Lyon, and by church members too, when they 
 have candles to sell, as I could bring you the proof. 
 But I never was one of 'em, let Felix say what he 
 will about the printing on the tickets. His father 
 believed it w^as gospel truth, and it's presumptions to 
 say it wasn't. For as for curing, how can anybody 
 know ? There's no physic'll cure without a bless- 
 ing, and with a blessing I know I've seen a mustard 
 plaister work when there was no more smell nor 
 strength in the mustard than so much flour. And 
 reason good — for the mustard had lain in paper no- 
 body knows how long — so I'll leave you to guess."
 
 112 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Mrs Holt looked hard out of the window and 
 gave a slight inarticulate sound of scorn. 
 
 Felix had leaned back in his chair with a re- 
 signed smile, and was pinching Job's ears. 
 
 Esther said, " I think I had better go now," not 
 knowing what else to say, yet not wishing to go 
 immediately, lest she should seem to be running 
 away from Mrs Holt. She felt keenly how much 
 endurance there must be for Felix. And she had 
 often been discontented with her father, and called 
 him tiresome ! 
 
 " Where does Job Tudge live ? " she said, still 
 sitting, and looking at the droll little figure, set oft 
 by a ragged jacket with a tail about two inches 
 deep sticking out above the funniest of corduroys. 
 
 " Job has two mansions," said Felix. " He lives 
 here chiefly; but he has another home, where his 
 grandfather, Mr Tudge the stone-breaker, lives. 
 My mother is very good to Job, Miss Lyon. She 
 has made him a little bed in a cupboard, and she 
 gives him sweetened porridge." 
 
 The exquisite goodness implied in these words 
 of Felix impressed Esther the more, because in her 
 hearing his talk had usually been pungent and 
 denunciatory. Looking at Mrs Holt, she saw that 
 her eyes had lost their bleak north-easterly expres-
 
 THE RADICAL. 113 
 
 sion, and were shining with some mildness on little 
 Job, who had turned round towards her, propping 
 his head against Felix. 
 
 " Well, why shouldn't I be motherly to the child, 
 Miss Lyon 1 " said Mrs Holt, whose strong powers of 
 argument required the file of an imagined contradic- 
 tion, if there were no real one at hand. " I never 
 was heard-hearted, and I never will be. It was Felix 
 picked the child up and took to him, you may be 
 sure, for there's nobody else master where he is ; 
 but I wasn't going to beat the orphin child and 
 abuse him because of that, and him as straight as 
 an arrow when he's stript, and me so fond of chil- 
 dren, and only had one of my own to live. I'd three 
 babies, Miss Lyon, but the blessed Lord only spared 
 Felix, and him the masterfuUest and the brownest 
 of 'em all. But I did my duty by him, and I said, 
 he'll have more schooling than his father, and he'll 
 grow up a doctor, and marry a woman with money 
 to furnish — as I was myself, spoons and everything 
 — and I shall have the grandchildren to look up to 
 me, and be drove out in the gig sometimes, like old 
 Mrs Lukyn. And you see what it's all come to, 
 Miss Lyon : here's Felix made a common man of 
 himself, and says he'll never be married — which is 
 the most unreasonable thing, and him never easy 
 
 VOL. II. H
 
 114 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 but when he's got the child on his lap, or 
 when " 
 
 " Stop, stop, mother, " Felix burst in ; " pray don't 
 use that limping argument again — that a man 
 should marry because he's fond of children. That's 
 a reason for not marrying. A bachelor's children 
 are always young : they're immortal children — al- 
 ways lisping, waddling, helpless, and with a chance 
 of turning out good." 
 
 " The Lord above may know what you mean ! 
 And haven't other folk's children a chance of turn- 
 ing out good ? " 
 
 " 0, they grow out of it very fast. Here's Job 
 Tudge now," said Felix, turning the little one round 
 on his knee, and holding his head by the back — 
 " Job's limbs will get lanky ; this little fist, that 
 looks like a puff-ball and can hide nothing bigger 
 than a gooseberry, Avill get large and bony, and 
 perhaps want to clutch more than its share ; these 
 wide blue eyes that tell me more truth than Job 
 knows, will narrow and narrow and try to hide 
 truth that Job would be better without knowing; 
 this little negative nose will become long and self- 
 asserting; and this little tongue — put out thy tongue, 
 Job " — Job, awe-struck under this ceremony, put 
 out a little red tongue very timidly — "this tongue,
 
 THE RADICAL. 115 
 
 liardly bigger than a rose-leaf, will get large and 
 thick, wag out of season, do mischief, brag and cant 
 for gain or vanity, and cut as cruelly, for all its 
 clumsiness, as if it were a sharp-edged blade. Big 
 Job will perhaps be naughty " As Felix, speak- 
 ing with the loud emphatic distinctness habitual 
 to him, brought out this terribly familiar word. 
 Job's sense of mystification became too painful : 
 he hung his lip, and began to cry. 
 
 " See there," said Mrs Holt, " you're frightening 
 the innicent child with such talk — and it's enough 
 to frighten them that think themselves the safest." 
 
 " Look here, Job, my man," said Felix, setting the 
 boy down and turning him towards Esther ; " go to 
 Miss Lyon, ask her to smile at you, and that will 
 dry up your tears like the sunshine." 
 
 Job put his two brown fists on Esther's lap, and 
 she stooped to kiss him. Then holding his face 
 between her hands, she said, " Tell Mr Holt we 
 don't mean to be naughty. Job. He should believe 
 in us more. But now I must really go home." 
 
 Esther rose and held out her hand to Mrs Holt, 
 who kept it while she said, a little to Esther's 
 confusion, 
 
 " I'm very glad it's took your fancy to come here 
 sometimes, Miss Lyon. I know you're thought to
 
 116 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 bold your head high, but I speak of people as I find 
 'em. And I'm sure anybody had need be humble 
 that comes where there's a floor like this — for I've 
 put by my best tea-trays, they're so out of all char- 
 icter — I must look Above for comfort now ; but I 
 don't say I'm not worthy to be called on for all 
 that." 
 
 Felix had risen and moved towards the door that 
 he might open it and shield Esther from more last 
 words on his mother's part. 
 
 " Good-bye, Mr Holt." 
 
 " Will Mr Lyon like me to sit with him an hour 
 this evening, do you think ? " 
 
 " Why not ? He always likes to see you." 
 
 "Then I will come. Good-bye." 
 
 " She's a very straight figure," said Mrs Holt. 
 " How she carries herself ! But I doubt there's 
 some truth in what our people say. If she won't 
 look at young Muscat, it's the better for Jdm. He'd 
 need have a big fortune that marries her." 
 
 " That's true, mother," said Felix, sitting down, 
 snatching up little Job, and finding a vent for some 
 unspeakable feeling in the pretence of worrying 
 him. 
 
 Esther was rather melancholy as she went home, 
 yet happier withal than she had been for many days
 
 THE RADICAL. 117 
 
 before. She thought, " I need not mind having 
 shown so much anxiety about his opinion. He is 
 too clear-sighted to mistake our mutual position ; 
 he is quite above putting a false interpretation on 
 what I have done. Besides, he had not thought of 
 me at all — I saw that plainly enough. Yet he was 
 very kind. There is something greater and better 
 in him than I had imagined. His behaviour to-day 
 — to his mother and me too — I should call it the 
 highest gentlemanliness, only it seems in him to be 
 something deeper. But he has chosen an intolerable 
 life ; though I suppose, if I had a mind equal to 
 his, and if lie loved me very dearly, I should choose 
 the same life." 
 
 Esther felt that she had prefixed an impossible 
 "if" to that result. But now she had known Felix, 
 her conception of what a happy love must be had 
 become like a dissolving view, in which the once- 
 clear images were gradually melting into new forms 
 and new colours. The favourite Byronic heroes 
 were beginning to look something like last night's 
 decorations seen in the sober dawn. So fast does a 
 little leaven spread within us — so incalculable is 
 the effect of one personality on another. Behind all 
 Esther's thoughts, like an unacknowledged yet con- 
 straining presence, there was the sense, that if Felix
 
 118 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Holt were to love her, her life wovild be exalted into 
 somethmg quite new — into a sort of difficult blessed- 
 ness, such as one may imagine in beings who are 
 conscious of painfully growing into the possession 
 of higher powers. 
 
 It was quite true that Felix had not thought the 
 more of Esther because of that Sunday afternoon's 
 interview which had shaken her mind to the very 
 roots. He had avoided intruding on Mr Lyon with- 
 out special reason, because he believed the minister 
 to be preoccupied with some private care. He had 
 thought a great deal of Esther with a mixture of 
 strong disapproval and strong liking, which both 
 together made a feeling the reverse of indifference ; 
 but he was not going to let her have any influence 
 on his life. Even if his determination had not been 
 fixed, he would have believed that she would utterly 
 scorn him in any other light than that of an ac- 
 quaintance, and the emotion she had shown to-day 
 did not change that belief. But he was deeply 
 touched by this manifestation of her better quali- 
 ties, and felt that there was a new tie of friendship 
 between them. That was the brief history Felix 
 would have given of his relation to Esther. And 
 he was accustomed to observe himself. But very 
 close and diligent looking at living creatures, even
 
 THE RADICAL, 119 
 
 through the best microscope, will leave room for 
 new and contradictory discoveries. 
 
 Felix found Mr Lyon particularly glad to talk 
 to him. The minister had never yet disburthened 
 himself about liis letter to Mr Philip Debarry con- 
 cerning the public conference ; and as by this time 
 he had all the heads of his discussion thoroughly 
 in his mind, it was agreeable to recite them, as well 
 as to express his regret that time had been lost by 
 Mr Debarry's absence from the Manor, which had 
 prevented the immediate fulfilment of his pledge. 
 
 " I don't see how he can fulfil it if the Eector 
 refuses," said Felix, thinking it well to moderate 
 the little man's confidence. 
 
 "The Eector is of a spirit that will not incur 
 earthly impeachment, and he cannot refuse what is 
 necessary to his nephew's honourable discharge of 
 an obligation," said Mr Lyon. " My young friend, 
 it is a case wherein the prearranged conditions 
 tend by such a beautiful fitness to the issue I have 
 sought, that I should have for ever held myself a 
 traitor to my charge had I neglected the indication."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " I will not excuse you ; you shall not be excused ; excuses shall not be ad- 
 mitted; there's no excuse shall serve ; you shall not be excused." — Henry IV. 
 
 When Philip Debarry had come home that morn- 
 ing and read the letters which had not been for- 
 warded to him, he laughed so heartily at Mr Lyon's 
 that he congratulated himself on being in his pri- 
 vate room. Otherwise his laughter would have 
 awakened the curiosity of Sir Maximus, and Philip 
 did not wish to tell any one the contents of the 
 letter until he had shown them to his uncle. He 
 determined to ride over to the Eectory to lunch ; for 
 as Lady Mary was away, he and his uncle might 
 be tete-a-tete. 
 
 The Rectory was on the other side of the river, 
 close to the church of which it was the fitting com- 
 panion : a fine old brick-and-stone house, with a 
 great bow-window opening from the library on to 
 the deep-turfed lawn, one fat dog sleeping on the
 
 FELIX HOLT. 12] 
 
 door-stone, another fat dog waddling on the gravel, 
 the autumn leaves duly swept away, tlie lingering 
 chrysanthemums cherished, tall trees stooping or 
 soaring in the most picturesque variety, and a 
 Virginian creeper turning a little rustic hut into a 
 scarlet pavilion. It was one of those rectories which 
 are amonfr the bulwarks of our venerable iustitu- 
 tions — which arrest disintegrating doubt, serve as a 
 double embankment against Popery and Dissent, 
 and rally feminine instinct and affection to reinforce 
 the decisions of masculine thought. 
 
 " What makes you look so merry, Phil ? " said 
 the Eector, as his nephew entered the pleasant 
 library. 
 
 " Something that concerns you," said Philip, tak- 
 ing out the letter. "A clerical challenge. Here's 
 an opportunity for you to emulate the divines of 
 the sixteenth century and have a theological duel. 
 Read this letter." 
 
 "What answer have you sent the crazy little 
 fellow ? " said the Eector, keeping the letter in his 
 hand and running over it again and again, with 
 brow knit, but eyes gleaming without any malig- 
 nity. 
 
 " 0, I sent no answer. I awaited yours." 
 
 " Mine ! " said the Eector, throwing down the
 
 122 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 letter on the table. "You don't suppose I'm going 
 to hold a public debate with a schismatic of that 
 sort ? I should have an infidel shoemaker next 
 expecting me to answer blasphemies delivered in 
 bad grammar." 
 
 " But you see how he puts it," said Philip. With 
 all his gravity of nature he could not resist a slightly 
 mischievous prompting, though he had a serious 
 feeling that he should not like to be regarded as 
 failing to fulfil his pledge. " I think if you refuse, 
 I shall be obliged to offer myself" 
 
 " Nonsense ! Tell him he is himself acting a dis- 
 honourable part in interpreting your words as a 
 pledge to do any pre]30sterous thing that suits his 
 fancy. Suppose he had asked you to give him land 
 to build a chapel on; doubtless that would have 
 given him a ' lively satisfaction.' A man who puts 
 a non-natural strained sense on a promise is no 
 better than a robber." 
 
 "But he has not asked for land. I daresay he 
 thinks you won't object to his proposal I confess 
 there's a simplicity and quaintness about the letter 
 that rather pleases me." 
 
 " Let me tell you, Phil, he's a crazy little firefly, 
 that does a great deal of harm in my parish. He 
 inflames the Dissenters' minds on politics. There's
 
 THE RADICAL. 123 
 
 110 end to the mischief done by these busy prating 
 men. They make the ignorant multitude the judges 
 of the largest questions, both political and religious, 
 till we shall soon have no institution left that is not 
 on a level with the comprehension of a huckster or 
 a drayman. There can be nothing more retrograde 
 — losing all the results of civilisation, all the lessons 
 of Providence — letting the windlass run down after 
 men have been turning at it painfully for genera- 
 tions. If the instructed are not to judge for the 
 uninstructed, why, let us set Dick Stubbs to make 
 our almanacs, and have a President of the Eoyal 
 Society elected by universal suffrage." 
 
 The Eector had risen, placed himself with his 
 back to the fire, and thrust his hands in his pockets, 
 ready to insist further on this wide argument. 
 Philip sat nursing one leg, listening respectfully, 
 as he always did, though often listening to the 
 sonorous echo of his own statements, which suited 
 his uncle's needs so exactly that he did not dis- 
 tinguish them from his old impressions. 
 
 "True," said Philip, "but in special cases we 
 have to do with special conditions. You know 
 I defend the casuists. And it may happen that, 
 for the honour of the Church in Treby and a little 
 also for my honour, circumstances may demand a
 
 124 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 concession even to some notions of a Dissenting 
 preacher." 
 
 " Not at all. I should be making a figure which 
 my brother clergy might well take as an affront 
 to themselves. The character of the Establishment 
 has suffered enough already through the Evan- 
 gelicals, with their extempore incoherence and their 
 pipe -smoking piety. Look at Wimple, the man 
 who is vicar of Shuttleton — without his gown and 
 bands, anybody would take him for a grocer in 
 mourning." 
 
 " Well, I shall cut a still worse figure, and so will 
 you, in the Dissenting magazines and newspapers. 
 It w^ill go the round of the kingdom. There will be 
 a paragraph headed, ' Tory Falsehood and Clerical 
 Cowardice,' or else 'The Meanness of the Aristocracy 
 and the Incompetence of the Beneficed Clergy.' " 
 
 " There would be a worse paragraph if I were to 
 consent to the debate. Of course it would be said 
 that I was beaten hollow, and that now the question 
 had been cleared up at Treby Magna, the Church 
 had not a sound leg to stand on. Besides," the 
 Eector went on, frowning and smiling, " it's all very 
 well for you to talk, Phil, but this debating is not 
 so easy when a man's close upon sixty. What one 
 writes or says nuist be something good and scholar-
 
 THE KADICAL. 125 
 
 ly; and after all liad been done, this little Lyon 
 would buzz about one like a wasp, and cross-ques- 
 tion and rejoin. Let me tell you, a plain truth may 
 be so worried and mauled by fallacies as to get the 
 worst of it. There's no such thing as tiring a talk- 
 ing machine like Lyon." 
 
 " Then you absolutely refuse ? " 
 "Yes, I do/' 
 
 " You remember that when I wrote my letter of 
 tlianks to Lyon you approved my offer to serve him 
 if possible." 
 
 " Certainly I remember it. But suppose he had 
 asked you to vote for civil marriage, or to go and 
 hear him preach every Sunday ? " 
 " But he has not asked that." 
 " Something as unreasonable, though." 
 "Wellj" said Philip, taking up Mr Lyon's letter 
 and looking graver — looking even vexed, " It is 
 rather an unpleasant business for me. I really felt 
 obliged to him. I think there's a sort of worth in 
 the man beyond his class. Whatever may be the 
 reason of the case, I shall disappoint him instead of 
 doing him the service I offered." 
 
 " Well, that's a misfortune ; we can't help it." 
 " The worst of it is, I should be insulting him to 
 say, 'I will do anything else, but n(jt just this tliat
 
 126 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 you want.' He evidently feels himself in company 
 with Luther and Zwingle and Calvin, and considers 
 our letters part of the history of Protestantism." 
 
 "Yes, yes. I know it's rather an unpleasant 
 thing, Phil. You are aware that I would have done 
 anything in reason to prevent you from becoming 
 unpopular here. I consider your character a pos- 
 session to all of us." 
 
 " I think I must call on him forthwith, and ex- 
 plain and apologise." 
 
 "No, sit still; Pve thought of something," said 
 the Eector, with a sudden revival of spirits. " Pve 
 just seen Sherlock coming in. He is to lunch with 
 me to-day. It would do no harm for him to hold the 
 debate — a curate and a young man — he'll gain by 
 it; and it would release you from any awkwardness, 
 Phil. Sherlock is not going to stay here long, you 
 know ; he'll soon have his title. I'll put the thing 
 to him. He won't object if I wish it. It's a capital 
 idea. It will do Sherlock good. He's a clever fel- 
 low, but he wants confidence." 
 
 Philip had not time to object before Mr Sherlock 
 appeared — a young divine of good birth and figure, 
 of sallow complexion and bashful address. 
 
 "Sherlock, you have come in most opportunely," 
 said the Eector. "A case has turned up in the
 
 THE RADICAL. 127 
 
 parish in which you can be of eminent use. I 
 know that is what you have desired ever since you 
 have been with me. But I'm about so much 
 myself that there really has not been sphere enough 
 for you. You are a studious man, I know ; I dare- 
 say you have all the necessary matter prepared — at 
 your finger-ends, if not on paper." 
 
 Mr Sherlock smiled with rather a trembling lip, 
 willing to distinguish himself, but hoping that the 
 Rector only alluded to a dialogue on Baptism by 
 Aspersion, or some other pamphlet suited to the 
 purposes of the Christian Knowledge Society. But 
 as the Eector proceeded to unfold the circumstances 
 under which his eminent service was to be rendered, 
 he grew more and more nervous. 
 
 " You'll oblige me very much, Sherlock," the Eec- 
 tor ended, " by going into this thing zealously. Can 
 you guess what time you will require ? because it 
 will rest with us to fix the day." 
 
 " I should be rejoiced to oblige you, Mr Debarry, 
 but I really think I am not competent to " 
 
 "That's your modesty, Sherlock. Don't let me 
 hear any more of that, I know Filmore of Corpus 
 said you might be a first-rate man if your diffidence 
 didn't do you injustice. And you can refer any- 
 thing to me, you know. Come, you will set about
 
 128 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 the thing at once. But, Phil, you must tell the 
 preacher to send a scheme of the debate— all the 
 different heads — and he must agree to keep rigidly 
 within the scheme. There, sit down at my desk 
 and write the letter now ; Thomas shall carry it." 
 
 Philip sat down to write, and the Eector, with his 
 firm ringing voice, w^ent on at his ease, giving " in- 
 dications " to his agitated curate. 
 
 " But you can begin at once preparing a good, 
 cogent, clear statement, and considering the probable 
 points of assault. You can look into Jewel, Hall, 
 Hooker, Whitgift, and the rest : you'll find them all 
 here. My library wants nothing in English divin- 
 ity. Sketch the lower ground taken by Usher and 
 those men, but bring all your force to bear on mark- 
 ing out the true High-Church doctrine. Expose 
 the wretched cavils of the Nonconformists, and the 
 noisy futility that belongs to schismatics generally. 
 I will give you a telling passage from Burke on 
 the Dissenters, and some good quotations which I 
 brought together in two sermons of my own on the 
 Position of the English Church in Christendom. 
 How long do you think it will take you to bring your 
 thoughts together ? You can throw them afterwards 
 into the form of an essay ; we'll have the thing 
 printed; it will do you good with the Bishop."
 
 THE RADICAL. 129 
 
 With all Mr Sherlock's timidity, there was fascina- 
 tion for him in this distinction. He reflected that 
 he could take coffee and sit up late, and perhaps 
 produce something rather fine. It .might be a first 
 step towards that eminence which it was no more 
 than his duty to aspire to. Even a polemical fame 
 like that of a Philpotts must have had a beginning. 
 Mr Sherlock was not insensible to the pleasure of 
 turning sentences successfully, and it was a pleasure 
 not always unconnected with preferment. A diffi- 
 dent man likes the idea of doing something remark- 
 able, which will create belief in him without any 
 immediate display of brilliancy. Celebrity may 
 blush and be silent, and win a wrace the more. 
 Thus Mr Sherlock was constrained, trembling all 
 the while, and much wishing that his essay were 
 already in print. 
 
 " I think I could hardly be ready under a fort- 
 night." 
 
 " Very good. Just write that, Phil, and tell 
 him to fix the precise day and place. And then 
 we'll go to lunch." 
 
 The Rector was quite satisfied. He had talked 
 himself into thinking that he should like to give 
 Sherlock a few useful hints, look up his own earlier 
 sermons, and benefit the Curate by his criticism, 
 
 VOL. n. I
 
 130 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 when the argument had been got into shape. He 
 was a healthy-natured man, but that was not at all 
 a reason why he should not have those sensibilities 
 to the odour of authorship which belong to almost' 
 everybody who is not expected to be a writer — and 
 especiall}^ to that form of authorship which is called 
 suggestion, and consists in telling another man that 
 he might do a great deal with a given subject, by 
 bringing a sufficient amount of knowledge, reason- 
 ing, and wit to bear upon it. 
 
 Philip would have had some twinges of con- 
 science about the Curate, if he had not guessed that 
 the honour thrust upon him w^as not altogether dis- 
 agreeable. The Church might perhaps have had 
 a stronger supporter ; but for himself, he had done 
 what he was bound to do : he had done his best 
 towards fulfilling Mr Lyon's desire.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. . , 
 
 l£he come not, the play is marred. — Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 PiUFUs Lyon was very happy on that mild Novem- 
 ber morning appointed for the great conference in 
 the larger room at the Free School, between himself 
 and the Rev. Theodore Sherlock, B.A. The disap- 
 pointment of not contending with the Rector in 
 person, which had at first been bitter, had been 
 gradually lost sight of in the positive enjoyment 
 of an opportunity for debating on any terms. Mr 
 Lyon liad two grand elements of pleasure on such 
 occasions : confidence in the strength of liis case, 
 and confidence in his own power of advocacy. Not — 
 to use his own phrase — not that he " glorified him- 
 self herein;" for speech and exposition were so easy 
 to him, that if he argued forcibly, lie believed it to 
 be simply because the truth was forcible. He was 
 not proud of moving easily in his native medium. 
 A panting man thinks of himself as a clever swim-
 
 132 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 mer ; but a fish swims much better, and takes his 
 performance as a matter of course. 
 
 Whether Mr Sherlock were that panting, self- 
 gratulating man, remained a secret. Philip De- 
 barry, much occupied with his electioneering affairs, 
 had only once had an opportunity of asking his 
 uncle how Sherlock got on, and the Eector had 
 said, curtly, " I think he'll do. I've supplied him 
 well with references. I advise him to read only, 
 and decline everything else as out of order. Lyon 
 will speak to a point, and then Sherlock will read : it 
 will be all the more telling. It will give variety." 
 But on this particular morning peremptory business 
 connected with the magistracy called the Eector 
 away. 
 
 Due notice had been given, and the feminine 
 world of Treby Magna was much more agitated by 
 the prospect than by that of any candidate's speech. 
 Mrs Pendrell at the Bank, Mrs Tiliot, and the 
 Church ladies generally, felt bound to hear the 
 Curate, who was known, apparently by an intuition 
 concerning the nature of curates, to be a very clever 
 young man ; and he would show them what learn- 
 ing had to say on the right side. One or two 
 Dissenting ladies were not without emotion at the 
 thought that, seated on the front benches, they
 
 THE RADICAL. 133 
 
 should be brought near to old Church friends, and 
 have a longer greeting than had taken place since 
 the Catholic Emancipation. Mrs Muscat, who had 
 been a beauty, and was as nice in her millinery as 
 any Trebian lady belonging to the Establishment, 
 reflected that she should put on her best large em- 
 broidered collar, and that she should ask Mrs Tiliot 
 where it was in Duffield that she once got her bed- 
 hangings dyed so beautifully. AVhen Mrs Tiliot 
 was Mary Salt, the two ladies had been bosom 
 friends ; but Mr Tiliot had looked higher and higher 
 since his gin had become so famous ; and in the year 
 '29 he had, in Mr Muscat's hearing, spoken of Dis- 
 senters as sneaks, — a personality which could not 
 be overlooked. 
 
 The debate was to begin at eleven, for the Eector 
 would not allow the evening to be chosen, when 
 low men and boys might want to be admitted 
 out of mere mischief This was one reason why 
 the female part of the audience outnumbered the 
 males. But some chief Trebians were there, even 
 men whose means made them as independent of 
 theory as Mr Pendrell and Mr Wace ; encouraged 
 by reflecting that they were not in a place of 
 worship, and would not be obliged to stay longer 
 than they chose. There was a muster of all Dis-
 
 134 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 senters who could spare the morning time, and on 
 the back benches were all the aged Churchwomen 
 who shared the remnants of the sacrament wine, 
 and who were humbly anxious to neglect nothing 
 ecclesiastical or connected with " going to a better 
 place." 
 
 At eleven the arrival of listeners seemed to have 
 ceased. Mr Lyon was seated on the school tribune 
 oi" dais at his particular round table ; another round 
 table, with a chair, awaited the Curate, with whose 
 superior position it was quite in keeping that he 
 should not be first on the ground. A couple of 
 extra chairs were placed farther back, and more 
 than one important personage had been requested 
 to act as chairman ; but no Churchman would 
 place himself in a position so equivocal as to 
 dignity of aspect, and so unequivocal as to the 
 obligation of sitting out the discussion ; and the 
 Eector had beforehand put a veto on any Dissent- 
 ing chairman. 
 
 Mr Lyon sat patiently absorbed in his thoughts, 
 with his notes in minute handwriting lying before 
 him, seeming to look at the audience, but not seeing 
 them. Every one else was contented that there 
 should be an interval in which there could be a 
 little neighbourly talk.
 
 THE KADICAL. 135 
 
 Esther was particularly happy, seated on a side- 
 bench near her father's side of the tribune, with Felix 
 close behind her, so that she could turn her head 
 and talk to him. He had been very kind ever since 
 that morning when she had called at his home, more 
 disposed to listen indulgently to what she had to 
 say, and less blind to her looks and movements. If 
 he had never railed at her or ignored her, she would 
 have been less sensitive to the attention he gave 
 her; but as it was, the prospect of seeing him 
 seemed to light up her life, and to disperse the old 
 dulness. She looked unusually charming to-day, 
 from the very fact that she was not vividly con- 
 scious of anything but of having a mind near 
 her that asked her to be something better than 
 she actually was. The consciousness of her own 
 superiority amongst the people around her was 
 superseded, and even a few brief weeks had given 
 a softened expression to her eyes, a more feminine 
 beseechingness and self-doubt to her manners. 
 Perhaps, however, a little new defiance was rising 
 in place of the old contempt — defiance of the 
 Trebian views concerning Felix Holt. 
 
 " What a very nice-looking young woman your 
 minister's daughter is ! " said Mrs Tiliot in an under- 
 tone to Mrs Muscat, who, as she had hoped, had
 
 136 fp:lix holt, 
 
 found a seat next to her quondam friend — "quite 
 the lady." 
 
 " Eather too much so, considering," said Mrs 
 Muscat. " She's thought proud, and that's not 
 pretty in a girl, even if there was anything to back 
 it up. But now she seems to be encouraging that 
 young Holt, who scoffs at everything, as you may 
 judge by his appearance. She has despised his bet- 
 ters before now ; but I leave you to judge whether a 
 young man who has taken to low ways of getting 
 his living can pay for fine cambric handkerchiefs 
 and light kid gloves." 
 
 Mrs Muscat lowered her blond eyelashes and 
 swayed her neat head just perceptibly from side to 
 side, with a sincere desire to be moderate in her 
 expressions, notwithstanding any shock that facts 
 might have given her. 
 
 " Dear, dear," said Mrs Tiliot. " What ! that is 
 young Holt leaning forward now without a cravat ? 
 I've never seen him before to notice him, but I've 
 heard Tiliot talking about him. They say he's a 
 dangerous character, and goes stirring up the work- 
 ing men at Sproxton. And — well, to be sure, such 
 great eyes and such a gi^eat head of hair — it is 
 enough to frighten one. What can she see in him ? 
 Quite below her."
 
 THE RADICAL. 137 
 
 "Yes, and brought up a governess," said Mrs 
 Muscat ; " you'd have thought she'd know better 
 how to choose. But the minister has let her get the 
 upper hand sadly too much. It's a pity in a man of 
 God— I don't deny he's that." 
 
 " Well, I am sorry," said Mrs Tiliot, " for I meant 
 her to give my girls lessons when they came from 
 school." 
 
 Mr AVace and Mr Pendrell meanwhile were 
 standing up and looking round at the audience, 
 nodding to their fellow-townspeople with the affa- 
 bility due from men in their position. 
 
 " It's time he came now," said Mr Wace, looking 
 at his watch and comparing it with the schoolroom 
 clock. " This debating is a newfangled sort of 
 thing ; but the Rector would never have given in 
 to it if there hadn't been good reasons. Nolan said 
 he wouldn't come. He says this debating is an 
 atheistical sort of thing ; the Atheists are very 
 fond of it. Theirs is a bad book to take a leaf out 
 of However, we shall hear nothing but what's good 
 from Mr Sherlock. He preaches a capital sermon — 
 for such a young man." 
 
 " Well, it was our duty to support him — not to 
 leave him alone among the Dissenters," said Mr 
 Pendrell. "You see, everybody hasn't felt that.
 
 138 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Labrou might have shown himself, if not Lukyn. 
 I could have alleged business myself if I had thought 
 proper." 
 
 " Here he comes, I think," said Mr Wace, turn- 
 ing round on hearing a movement near the small 
 door on a level with the platform. " By George ! it's 
 Mr Debarry. Come now, this is handsome." 
 
 Mr Wace and Mr Pendrell clapped their hands, 
 and the example was followed even by most of the 
 Dissenters. Philip was aware that he was doing a 
 popular thing, of a kind that Treby was not used 
 to from the elder Debarrys ; but his appearance 
 had not been long premeditated. He was driving 
 through the town towards an engagement at some 
 distance, but on calling at Labron's office he had 
 found that the affair which demanded his presence 
 had been deferred, and so had driven round to the 
 Free School. Christian came in behind him. 
 
 Mr Lyon was now roused from his abstraction, 
 and, stepping from his slight elevation, begged Mr 
 Debarry to act as moderator or president on the 
 occasion. 
 
 "With all my heart," said Philip. "But Mr 
 Sherlock has not arrived, apparently ? " 
 
 " He tarries somewhat unduly," said Mr Lyon. 
 " Nevertheless there may be a reason of which we
 
 THE KADICAL. 139 
 
 know not. Shall I collect the thoughts of the 
 assembly by a brief introductory address in the 
 interval?" 
 
 " No, no, no," said Mr Wace, who saw a limit to 
 his powers of endurance. " Mr Sherlock is sure to 
 be here in' a minute or two." 
 
 " Christian," said Philip Debarry, who felt a slight 
 misgiving, "just be so good — but stay, I'll go my- 
 self. Excuse me, gentlemen ; I'U drive round to Mr 
 Sherlock's lodgings. He may be under a little mis- 
 take as to the time. Studious men are sometimes 
 rather absent. You needn't come with me, Chris- 
 tian." 
 
 As Mr Debarry went out, Rufus Lyon stepped 
 on to the tribune again in rather an uneasy state 
 of mind. A few ideas had occurred to him, emi- 
 nently fitted to engage the audience profitably, and 
 so to wrest some edification out of an unforeseen 
 delay. But his native delicacy made him feel that 
 in this assembly the Church people might fairly 
 decline any "deliverance" on his part which ex- 
 ceeded the programme, and Mr Wace's negative 
 had been energetic. But the little man suffered 
 from imprisoned ideas, and was as restless as a racer 
 held in. He could not sit down again, but walked 
 backwards and forwards, stroking his chin, emitting
 
 140 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 his low guttural interjection under the pressure of 
 clauses and sentences which he longed to utter 
 aloud, as he would have done in his own study. 
 There was a low buzz in the room which helped to 
 deepen the minister's sense that the thoughts within 
 him were as divine messengers unheeded or rejected 
 by a trivial generation. Many of the audience were 
 standing ; all, except the old Churchwomen on the 
 back seats, and a few devout Dissenters who kept 
 their eyes shut and gave their bodies a gentle oscil- 
 lating motion, were interested in chat. 
 
 " Your father is uneasy," said Felix to Esther. 
 
 " Yes ; and now, I tliink, he is feeling for his spec- 
 tacles. I hope he has not left them at home : he 
 will not he able to see anything two yards before 
 him without them ; — and it makes him so uncon- 
 scious of what people expect or want." 
 
 " I'll go and ask him whether he has them," said 
 Felix, striding over the form in front of him, and 
 approaching Mr Lyon, whose face showed a gleam 
 of pleasure at this relief from his abstracted 
 isolation. 
 
 " Miss Lyon is afraid that you are at a loss for 
 your spectacles, sir," said Felix. 
 
 " My dear young friend," said Mr Lyon, laying 
 his hand on Felix Holt's fore-arm, which was about
 
 THE RADICAL. 141 
 
 on a level with the minister's shoulder, " it is a very 
 glorious truth, albeit made somewhat painful to me 
 by the circumstances of the present moment, that 
 as a counterpoise to the brevity of our mortal life 
 (wherein, as I apprehend, our powers are being 
 trained not only for the transmission of an imj)roved 
 heritage, as I have heard you insist, but also for our 
 own entrance into a higher initiation in the Divine 
 scheme) — it is, I say, a very glorious truth, that even 
 in what are called the waste minutes of our time, 
 like those of expectation, the soul may soar and 
 range, as in some of our dreams which are brief as 
 a broken rainbow in duration, yet seem to comprise 
 a long history of terror or of joy. And again, each 
 moment may be a beginning of a new spiritual 
 energy ; and our pulse would doubtless be a coarse 
 and clumsy notation of the passage from that 
 which was not to that which is, even in the finer 
 processes of the material world — and how much 
 
 more " " 
 
 Esther was watching her father and Felix, and 
 though she was not within hearing of what was 
 being said, she guessed the actual state of the case 
 — that the inquiiy about the spectacles liad been 
 unheeded, and that her father was losing himself 
 and embarrassing Felix in the intricacies of a dis-
 
 142 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 sertation. There was not the stiHness around her 
 that would have made a movement on her part 
 seem conspicuous, and she was impelled by her 
 anxiety to step on the tribune and walk up to her' 
 father, who paused, a little startled. 
 
 " Pray see whether you have forgotten your spec- 
 tacles, father. If so, I will go home at once and 
 look for them." 
 
 Mr Lyon was automatically obedient to Esther, 
 and he began immediately to feel in his pockets. 
 
 "How is it that Miss Jermyn is so friendly 
 with the Dissenting parson?" said Christian to 
 Quorlen, the Tory printer, who was an intimate 
 of his. " Those grand Jermyns are not Dissenters 
 surely?" 
 
 " What Miss Jermyn ? " 
   " Why — don't you see ?— that fine girl who is talk- 
 ing to him." 
 
 " Miss Jermyn ! Why, that's the little parson's 
 daugliter." 
 
 " His daughter ! " Christian gave a low brief 
 whistle, which seemed a natural expression of sur- 
 prise that "the rusty old ranter" should have a 
 daughter of such distinguished appearance. 
 
 Meanwhile the search for the spectacles had 
 proved vain. "'Tis a grievous fault in me, my
 
 THE RADICAL. 143 
 
 dear," said tHe little man, humbly; "I become 
 thereby sadly biirthensome to you." 
 
 " I will go at once," said Esther, refusing to let 
 Felix go instead of her. But she had scarcely 
 stepped oft' the tribune when Mr Debarry re- 
 entered, and there was a commotion which made 
 her wait. After a low-toned conversation with Mr 
 Pendrell and Mr Wace, Philip Debarry stepped on 
 to the tribune with his hat in his hand, and said, 
 with an air of much concern and annoyance, 
 
 " I am sorry to have to tell you, ladies and gentle- 
 men, that — doubtless owing to some accidental cause 
 which I trust will soon be explained as nothing seri- 
 ous — Mr Sherlock is absent from his residence, and 
 is not to be found. He went out early, his landlady 
 informs me, to refresh himself by a walk on this 
 agreeable morning, as is his habit, she tells me, 
 when he has been kept up late by study ; and he 
 has not returned. Do not let us be too anxious. 
 I shall cause inquiry to be made in the direction 
 of his walk. It is easy to imagine many accidents, 
 not of a grave character, by which he might never- 
 theless be absolutely detained against his will. 
 Under these circumstances, Mr Lyon," continued 
 Philip, turning to the minister, " I presume that 
 the debate must be adjourned."
 
 144 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 "The debate, doubtless," began Mr Lyon; but 
 his further speech was drowned by a general rising 
 of the Church people from their seats, many of 
 them feeling that, even if the cause were lament-' 
 able, the adjournment was not altogether disagree- 
 able. 
 
 " Good gracious me ! " said Mrs Tiliot, as she 
 took her husband's arm, " I hope the poor young 
 man hasn't fallen into the river or broken his 
 leg." 
 
 But some of the more acrid Dissenters, whose 
 temper was not controlled by the habits of retail 
 business, had begun to hiss, implying that in their 
 interpretation the Curate's absence had not de- 
 pended on any injury to life or limb. 
 
 " He's turned tail, sure enough," said Mr Muscat 
 to the neighbour behind him, lifting his eyebrows 
 and shoulders, and laughing in a way that showed 
 that, deacon as he was, he looked at the affair in an 
 entirely secular light. 
 
 But Mrs Muscat thought it would be nothing but 
 right to have all the waters dragged, agreeing in 
 this with the majority of the Church ladies. 
 
 "I regret sincerely, Mr Lyon," said Philip 
 Debarry, addressing the minister with politeness, 
 " that I must say good-morning to you, with the
 
 THE RADICAL. 145 
 
 sense that I have not been able at present to con- 
 tribute to your satisfaction as I had wished." 
 
 "Speak not of it in the way of apology, sir," 
 said Mr Lyon, in a tone of depression. " I doubt 
 not that you yourself have acted in good faith. Nor 
 will I open any door of egress to constructions such 
 as anger often deems ingenious, but which the dis- 
 closure of the simple truth may expose as erro- 
 neous and uncharitable fabrications. I wish you 
 good-morning, sir." 
 
 When the room was cleared of the Church 
 people, Mr Lyon wished to soothe his own spirit 
 and that of his flock by a few reflections introduc- 
 tory to a parting prayer. But there was a general 
 resistance to this efl"ort. The men mustered round 
 the minister, and declared their opinion that the 
 whole thing was disgraceful to the Church. Some 
 said the Curate's absence had been contrived from 
 the first. Others more than hinted that it had been 
 a folly in Mr Lyon to set on foot any procedure 
 in common with Tories and clergymen, who, if 
 they ever aped civility to Dissenters, would never 
 do anything but laugh at them in their sleeves. 
 Brother Kemp urged in his heavy bass that Mr 
 Lyon should lose no time in sending an account of 
 the aff"air to the 'Patriot ;' and Brother Hawkins, in 
 VOL. n. K
 
 14G FELIX HOLT, 
 
 his high tenor, observed that it was an occasion on 
 which some stinging things might be said with all 
 the extra effect of an apropos. 
 
 The position of receiving a many-voiced lecture' 
 from the members of his church was familiar to 
 Mr Lyon; but now he felt weary, frustrated, and 
 doubtful of his own temper. Felix, who stood by 
 and saw that this man of sensitive fibre was suf- 
 fering from talkers whose noisy superficiality cost 
 them nothing, got exasperated. " It seems to me, 
 sirs," he burst in, with his predominant voice, 
 "that Mr Lyon has hitherto had the hard part 
 of the business, while you of his congregation have 
 had the easy one. Punish the Church clergy, if 
 you like — they can take care of themselves. But 
 don't punish your own minister. It's no business 
 of mine, perhaps, except so far as fair-play is 
 everybody's business; but it seems to me the time 
 to ask Mr Lyon to take a little rest, instead of 
 setting on him like so many wasps." 
 
 By this speech Felix raised a displeasure which 
 fell on the minister as well as on himself; but he 
 gained his immediate end. The talkers dropped 
 off* after a slight show of persistence, and Mr Lyon 
 quitted the field of no combat with a small group 
 of his less imperious friends, to whom he confided
 
 THE EADICAL. 147 
 
 his intention of committing his argument fully to 
 paper, and forwarding it to a discriminating editor. 
 
 " But regarding personalities/' he added, " I liave 
 not the same clear showing. For, say that this 
 young man was pusillanimous — I were but ill 
 provided with arguments if I took my stand even 
 for a moment on so poor an irrelevancy as that 
 because one curate is ill furnished therefore Epis- 
 copacy is false. If I held up any one to just 
 obloquy, it would be the well-designated Incumbent 
 of this parish, who, calling himself one of the 
 Church militant, sends a young and weak-kneed 
 substitute to take his place in the fight." 
 
 Mr Philip Debarry did not neglect to make in- 
 dustrious inquiry concerning the accidents which 
 had detained the Rev. Theodore Sherlock on his 
 morning walk. That well-intentioned young divine 
 was seen no more in Treby Magna. But the river 
 was not dragged, for by the evening coach the 
 Eector received an explanatory letter. The Rev. 
 Theodore's agitation had increased so much during 
 his walk, that the passing coach had been a means 
 of deliverance not to be resisted ; and, literally at 
 the eleventh hour, he had hailed and mounted 
 the cheerful Tally-ho ! and carried away his portion 
 of the debate in his pocket.
 
 148 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 i 
 
 But the Rector had subsequently the satisfaction 
 of receiving Mr Sherlock's painstaking production 
 in print, with a dedication to the Eev. Augustus 
 Debarry, a motto from St Chrysostom, and other' 
 additions, the fruit of ripening leisure. He was 
 "sorry for poor Sherlock, who wanted confidence;" 
 but he was convinced that for his own part he had 
 taken the course wdiich under the circumstances 
 was the least compromising to the Church. Sir 
 Maximus, however, observed to his son and brother 
 that he had been right and they had been wrong 
 as to the danger of vague, enormous expressions 
 of gratitude to a Dissenting preacher, and on any 
 differences of opinion seldom failed to remind them 
 of that precedent.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Your fellow-man ? — Divide the eiuthet : 
 Say rather, you're the fellow, he the man. 
 
 When Christian quitted the Free School with the 
 discovery that the young lady whose appearance 
 had first startled him with an indefinable impression 
 in the market-place was the daughter of the old 
 Dissenting preacher who had shown so much agi- 
 tated curiosity about his name, he felt very much 
 like an uninitiated chess-player who sees that the 
 pieces are in a peculiar position on the board, and 
 might open the way for him to give checkmate, if 
 he only knew how. Ever since his interview with 
 Jerrayn, his mind had been occupied wdth the 
 charade it offered to his ingenuity. What was the 
 real meaning of the lawyer's interest in him, and in 
 Ids relations with Maurice Christian Byclifte ? Here 
 was a secret; and secrets were often a source of 
 profit, of that agreeable kind which involved little
 
 150 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 labour. Jeriuyn liad hinted at profit which might 
 possibly come through him ; but Christian said in- 
 wardly, with well-satisfied self-esteem, that he was 
 not so pitiable a nincompoop as to trust Jermyn. 
 On the contrary, the only problem before him was 
 to find out by what combination of independent 
 knowledge he could outwit Jermyn, elude any pur- 
 chase the attorney had on him through his past 
 history, and get a handsome bonus, by which a 
 somewhat shattered man of pleasure might live 
 well without a master. Christian, having early ex- 
 hausted the more impulsive delights of life, had 
 become a sober calculator ; and he had made up 
 his mind that, for a man who had long ago run 
 through his own money, servitude in a great family 
 was the best kind of retirement after that of a pen- 
 sioner ; but if a better chance offered, a person of 
 talent must not let it slip through his fingers. He 
 held various ends of threads, but there was danger 
 in pulling at them too impatiently. He had not 
 forgotten the surprise which had made him drop 
 the punch-ladle, when Mr Crowder, talking in the 
 steward's room, had said that a scamp named Henry 
 Scaddon had been concerned in a lawsuit about 
 the Transome estate. Again, Jermyn was the family 
 lawyer of the Transomes ; he knew about the ex-
 
 THE EADICAL. 151 
 
 change of names between Scaddon and Bycliffe ; lie 
 clearly wanted to know as much as he could about 
 Bycliffe's history. The conclusion was not remote 
 that Bycliffe had had some claim on the Transome 
 property, and that a difficulty had arisen from 
 his being confounded with Henry Scaddon. But 
 hitherto the other incident which had been appa- 
 rently connected with the interchange of names 
 — Mr Lyon's demand that he should write down 
 the name Maurice Christian, accompanied with the 
 question whether that were his whole name — had 
 had no visible link with the inferences arrived at 
 through Crowd er and Jermyn. 
 
 The discovery made this morning at the Free 
 School that Esther was the daughter of the Dis- 
 senting preacher at last suggested a possible link. 
 Until then, Christian had not known why Esther's 
 face had impressed him so peculiarly ; but the min- 
 ister's chief association for him was with Bycliffe, 
 and that association served as a flash to show him 
 that Esther's features and expression, and still more 
 her bearing, now she stood and walked, revived 
 Bycliffe's image. Daughter? There were various 
 ways of being a daughter. Suppose this were a case 
 of adoption : suppose Byclifte were known to be 
 dead, or thought to be dead. " Begad, if the old
 
 152 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 parson had fancied the original father was come to 
 life again, it was enough to frighten him a little. 
 Slow and steady," Christian said to himself ; " I'll 
 get some talk with the old man again. He's safe 
 enough : one can handle him without cutting one's 
 self I'll tell him I knew Bycliffe, and was his 
 fellow-prisoner. I'll worm out the truth about 
 this daughter. Could pretty Annette have married 
 again, and married this little scarecrow? There's 
 no knowing what a woman will not do." 
 
 Christian could see no distinct result for himself 
 from his industry ; but if there were to be any such 
 result, it must be reached by following out every 
 clue ; and to the non-legal mind there are dim pos- 
 sibilities in law and heirship which prevent any 
 issue from seeming too miraculous. 
 
 The consequence of these meditations was, that 
 Christian hung about Treby more than usual in his 
 leisure time, and that on the first opportunity he 
 accosted Mr Lyon in the street with suitable civility, 
 statintf that since the occasion which had brouQ-ht 
 them together some weeks before he had often 
 wished to renew their conversation, and, with Mr 
 Lyon's permission, would now ask to do so. After 
 being assured, as he had been by Jermyn, that this 
 courier, who had happened by some accident to
 
 THE EADICAL. 153 
 
 possess the memorable locket and pocket-book, was 
 certainly not Annette's husband, and was ignorant 
 whether Maurice Christian Bycliffe were living or 
 dead, the minister's mind had become easy again ; 
 his habitual lack of interest in personal details ren- 
 dering him gradually oblivious of Jermyn's precau- 
 tionary statement that he was pursuing inquiries, 
 and that if anything of interest turned up, Mr Lyon 
 should be made acquainted with it. Hence, when 
 Christian addressed him, the minister, taken by 
 surprise and shaken by the recollections of former 
 anxieties, said, helplessly, 
 
 " If it is business, sir, you would perhaps do bet- 
 ter to address yourself to Mr Jermyn." 
 
 He could not have said anything that was a more 
 valuable hint to Christian. He inferred that the 
 minister had made a confidant of Jermyn, and it 
 was needful to be wary. 
 
 "On the contrary, sir," he answered, "it may 
 be of the utmost importance to you that what 
 passes between us should not be known to Mr 
 Jermyn." 
 
 Mr Lyon was perplexed, and felt at once that he 
 was no more in clear daylight concerning Jermyn 
 than concerning Christian. He dared not neglect 
 the possible duty of hearing what this man had to
 
 154 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 say, and he invited him to proceed to Malthouse 
 Yard, where they could converse in private. 
 
 Once in Mr Lyon's study, Christian opened the 
 dialogue by saying that since he was in this room 
 before it had occurred to him that the anxiety he 
 had observed in Mr Lyon might be owing to some 
 acquaintance with Maurice Christian Bycliffe — a 
 fellow-prisoner in France whom he, Christian, had 
 assisted in getting freed from his imprisonment, 
 and who, in fact, had been the owner of the trifles 
 which Mr Lyon had recently had in his possession 
 and had restored. Christian hastened to say that 
 he knew nothing of ByclifPe's history since they had 
 parted in France, but that he knew of his marriage 
 with Annette Ledru, and had been acquainted with 
 Annette herself. He would be very glad to know 
 what became of Bycliffe, if he could, for he liked 
 him uncommonly. 
 
 Here Christian paused; but Mr Lyon only sat 
 changing colour and trembling. This man's bearing 
 and tone of mind Were made repulsive to him by 
 being brought in contact with keenly-felt memories, 
 and he could not readily summon the courage to 
 give answers or ask questions. 
 
 " May I ask if you knew my friend Bycliffe ?" said 
 Christian, trying a more direct method.
 
 THE RADICAL, 155 
 
 " No, sir ; I never saw him." 
 
 " All ! well — you have seen a very striking likeness 
 of him. It's wonderful — unaccountable ; but when 
 I saw Miss Lyon at the Free School the other day, 
 I could have sworn she was Bycliffe's daughter." 
 
 " Sir ! " said Mr Lyon, in his deepest tone, half 
 rising, and holding by the arms of his chair, "these 
 subjects touch me with too sharp a point for you to 
 be justified in thrusting them on me out of mere 
 levity. Is there any good you seek or any injury 
 you fear in relation to them ? " 
 
 " Precisely, sir. We shall come now to an un- 
 derstanding. Suppose I believed that the young 
 lady who goes by the name of Miss Lyon was the 
 daughter of Bycliffe 1" 
 
 Mr Lyon moved his lips silently. 
 
 " And suppose I had reason to suspect that there 
 would be some great advantage for her if the law 
 knew who was her father ?" 
 
 " Sir !" said Mr Lyon, shaken out oT all reticence, 
 "I would not conceal it. She believes herself to 
 be my daughter. But I will bear all things rather 
 than deprive her of a right. Nevertheless I appeal 
 to the pity of any fellow-man, not to thrust himself 
 between her and me, but -to let me disclose the truth 
 to her myself."
 
 156 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 " All in good time," said Christian. " We must 
 do nothing rash. Then Miss Lyon is Annette's 
 child?" 
 
 The minister shivered as if the edge of a knife 
 had been drawn across his hand-. But the tone of 
 this question, by the very fact that it intensified his 
 antipathy to Christian, enabled him to collect him- 
 self for what must be simply the endurance of a 
 painful operation. After a moment or two he said 
 more coolly, "It is true, sir. Her mother became 
 my wife. Proceed with any statement which may 
 concern my duty." 
 
 " I have no more to say than this : If there's a 
 prize that the law might hand over to Bycliffe's 
 daugliter, I am much mistaken if there isn't a law- 
 yer who'll take precious good care to keep the law 
 hoodwinked. And that lawyer is Mat Jermyn. 
 Why, my good sir, if you've been taking Jermyn 
 into your confidence, you've been setting the fox to 
 keep off the weasel. It strikes me that when you 
 were made a little anxious about those articles of 
 poor Bycliffe's, you put Jermyn on making inquiries 
 of me. Eh ? I think I am right ?" 
 
 " I do not deny it." 
 
 " Ah ! — it was very well you did, for by that 
 means I've found out that he's got hold of some
 
 THE EADICAL. 157 
 
 secrets about Bycliffe which he means to stifle. 
 Now, sir, if you desire any justice for your daughter, 
 step-daughter, I should say — don't so much as wink 
 to yourself before Jermyn ; and if you've got any 
 papers or things of that sort that may come in evi- 
 dence, as these confounded rascals the lawyers call 
 it, clutch them tight, for if they get into Jermyn's 
 hands they may soon fly up the chimney. Have I 
 said enough ? " 
 
 " I had not purposed any further communication 
 with Mr Jermyn, sir ; indeed, I have nothing further 
 to communicate. Except that one fact concerning 
 my daughter's birth, which I have erred in con- 
 cealing from her, I neither seek disclosures nor do I 
 tremble before them." 
 
 " Then I have your word that you will be silent 
 about this conversation between us ? It is for your 
 daughter's interest, mind." 
 
 " Sir, I shall be silent," said Mr Lyon, with cold 
 gravity. " Unless," he added, with an acumen as 
 to possibilities rather disturbing to Christian's con- 
 fident contempt for the old man — " unless I were 
 called upon by some tribunal to declare the whole 
 truth in this relation ; in which case I should sub- 
 mit myself to that authority of investigation which 
 is a requisite of social order."
 
 158 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 Christian departed, feeling satisfied that he had 
 got the utmost to be obtained at present out of the 
 Dissenting preacher, whom he had not dared to 
 question more closely. He must look out for 
 chance lights, and perhaps, too, he might catch a 
 stray hint by stirring the sediment of Mr Crowder's 
 memory. But he must not venture on inquiries 
 that might be noticed. He was in awe of Jermyn. 
 
 When Mr Lyon was alone he paced up and down 
 among his books, and thought aloud, in order to 
 relieve himself after the constraint of this inter- 
 view. " I will not wait for the urgency of neces- 
 sity," he said, more than once. " I will tell the 
 child, without compulsion. And then I shall fear 
 nothing. And an unwonted spirit of tenderness 
 has filled her of late. She will forgive me."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Consideration like an angel came 
 
 And whipped the ofl'ending Adam out of her ; 
 
 Leaving her body as a paradise 
 
 To envelop and contain celestial spirits. 
 
 Shakspeare : Henry V. 
 
 The next morning, after much prayer for the need- 
 ful strength and wisdom, Mr Lyon came down-stairs 
 with the resolution that another day should not pass 
 without the fulfilment of the task he had laid on 
 himself; but what hour he should choose for his 
 solemn disclosure to Esther, must depend on their 
 mutual occupations. Perhaps he must defer it till 
 they sat up alone together, after Lyddy was gone to 
 bed. But at breakfast Esther said, 
 
 " To-day is a holiday, father. My pupils are all 
 going to Duffield to see the wild beasts. What have 
 you got to do to-day? Come, you are eating no 
 breakfast. 0, Lyddy, Lyddy, the eggs are hard again. 
 I wish you would not read Alleyne's ' Alarm ' before 
 breakfast ; it makes you cry and forget the eggs."
 
 160 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 " They are hard, and that's the truth ; but there's 
 hearts as are harder. Miss Esther," said Lyddy. 
 
 " I think not," said Esther. " This is leathery 
 enough for the heart of the most obdurate Jew. 
 Pray giye it little Zachary for a football" 
 
 " Dear, dear, don't you be so light, miss. We may 
 all be dead before night." 
 
 " You speak out of season, my good Lyddy," said 
 Mr Lyon, wearily ; " depart into the kitchen." 
 
 " What have you got to do to-day, father ? " per- 
 sisted Esther. " I have a holiday." 
 
 Mr Lyon felt as if this were a fresh summons not 
 to delay. " I have something of great moment to 
 do, my dear ; and since you are not otherwise 
 demanded, I will ask you to come and sit with me 
 up-stairs." 
 
 Esther wondered what there could be on her 
 father's mind more pressing than his morning 
 studies. ' 
 
 She soon knew. Motionless, but mentally stirred 
 as she had never been before, Esther listened to her 
 mother's story, and to the outpouring of her step- 
 father's long-pent-up experience. Tlie rays of the 
 morning sun which fell athwart the books, the 
 sense of the beginning day, had deepened the solem- 
 nity more than night would have done. All know-
 
 THE KADICAL. 161 
 
 ledge which alters our lives penetrates us more 
 when it comes in the early morning : the day that 
 has to be travelled with something new and per- 
 haps for ever sad in its light, is an image of the life 
 that spreads beyond. But at night the time of rest 
 is near. 
 
 Mr Lyon regarded his narrative as a confession — 
 as a revelation to this beloved child of his own miser- 
 able weakness and error. But to her it seemed a 
 revelation of another sort : her mind seemed sud- 
 denly enlarged by a vision of passion and struggle, of 
 delight and renunciation, in the lot of beings who 
 had hitherto been a dull enigma to her. And in 
 the act of unfolding to her that he was not her real 
 father, but had only striven to cherish her as a 
 father, had only longed to be loved as a father, the 
 odd, wayworn, unworldly man became the object of 
 a new sympathy in which Esther felt herself ex- 
 alted. Perhaps this knowledge would have been 
 less powerful within her, but for the mental pre- 
 paration that had come during the last two months 
 from her acquaintance with Felix Holt, which had 
 taught her to doubt the infallibility of her own 
 standard, and raised a presentiment of moral depths 
 that were hidden from her. 
 
 Esther had taken her place opposite to her 
 VOL. II. L
 
 162 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 father, and had not moved even her clasped hands 
 while he was speaking. But after the long out- 
 pouring in which he seemed to lose the sense of 
 everything but the memories he was giving utter- 
 ance to, he paused a little while and then said 
 timidly, 
 
 " This is a late retrieval of a long error, Esther. 
 I make not excuses for myself, for we ought to 
 strive that our aflFections be rooted in the truth. 
 Nevertheless you " 
 
 Esther had risen, and had glided on to the wooden 
 stool on a level with her father's chair, where he 
 was accustomed to lay books. She wanted to 
 speak, but the floodgates could not be opened for 
 words alone. She threw her arms round the old 
 man's neck and sobbed out with a passionate cry, 
 " Father, father ! forgive me if I have not loved you 
 enough. I will — I will ! " 
 
 The old man's little delicate frame was shaken 
 by a surprise and joy that were almost painful in 
 their intensity. He had been going to ask forgive- 
 ness of her who asked it for herself In that mo- 
 ment of supreme complex emotion one ray of the 
 minister's joy was the thought, " Surely the work of 
 grace is begun in her — surely here is a heart that 
 the Lord hath touched."
 
 THE RADICAL. 163 
 
 They sat so, enclasped in silence, wliile Esther 
 relieved her full heart. When she raised her head, 
 she sat quite still for a minute or two looking fixed- 
 ly before her, and keeping one little hand in the 
 minister's. Presently she looked at him and said, 
 
 " Then you lived like a working man, father ; 
 you were very, very poor. Yet my mother had 
 been used to luxury. She was well born — she was 
 a lady." 
 
 " It is true, my dear ; it was a poor life that I 
 could give her." 
 
 Mr Lyon answered in utter dimness as to the 
 course Esther's mind was taking. He had antici- 
 pated before his disclosure, from his long-standing 
 discernment of tendencies in her which were often 
 the cause of silent grief to him, that the discovery 
 likely to have the keenest interest for her would be 
 that her parents had a higher rank than that of the 
 poor Dissenting preacher ; but she had shown that 
 other and better sensibilities were predominant. 
 He rebuked himself now for a hasty and shallow 
 judgment concerning the child's inner life, and 
 waited for new clearness. 
 
 "But that must be the best life, father," said 
 Esther, suddenly rising, with a flush across her 
 paleness, and standing with her head thrown a little
 
 164 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 backward, as if some illumination had given her a 
 new decision. " That must be the best life." 
 
 " What life, my dear child ? " 
 
 "Wliy, that where one bears and does every- 
 thing because of some great and strong feeling — 
 so that this and that in one's circumstances don't 
 signify." 
 
 " Yea, verily ; but the feeling that should be thus 
 supreme is devotedness to the Divine Will." 
 
 Esther did not speak ; her father's words did not 
 fit on to the impressions wrought in her by what 
 he had told her. She sat down again, and said, 
 more quietly, 
 
 "Mamma did not speak much of my— first father?" 
 
 " Not much, dear. She said he was beautiful to 
 the eye, and good and generous ; and that his 
 family was of those who have been long privileged 
 among their fellows. But now I will deliver to 
 you the letters, which, together with a ring and 
 locket, are the only visible memorials she retained 
 of him." 
 
 Mr Lyon reached and delivered to Esther the box 
 containing the relics. " Take tliem, and examine 
 them in privacy, my dear. And that I may no 
 more err by concealment, I will tell you some late 
 occurrences that bear on these memorials, though
 
 THE RADICAL. 165 
 
 to my present apprehension doubtfully and con- 
 fusedly." 
 
 He then narrated to Esther all that had passed 
 between himself and Christian. The possibility — 
 to which Mr Lyon's alarms had pointed — that her 
 real father might still be living, was a new shock. 
 She could not speak about it to her present father, 
 but it was registered in silence as a painful addition 
 to the uncertainties which she suddenly saw hang- 
 ing over her life. 
 
 " I have little confidence in this man's allega- 
 tions," Mr Lyon ended. " I confess his presence and 
 speech are to me as the jarring of metal. He bears 
 the stamp of one who has never conceived aught of 
 more sanctity than the lust of the eye and the pride 
 of life. He hints at some possible inheritance for 
 you, and denounces mysteriously the devices of Mr 
 Jermyn. All this may or may not have a true 
 foundation. But it is not my part to move in this 
 matter save on a clearer showing." 
 
 " Certainly not, father," said Esther, eagerly. A 
 little while ago, these problematic prospects might 
 have set her dreaming pleasantly ; but now, for 
 some reasons that she could not have put distinctly 
 into words, they affected her with dread.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 To hear with eyes is part of love's rare wit. 
 
 Shakspeare : Sonnets. 
 
 Custom calls me to't : — 
 What custom wills, in all things should we do't ? 
 The (lust on antique time would lie unswept, 
 And mountainous error be too highly heaped 
 For trutli to over-peer. — Coriolanus. 
 
 In the afternoon Mr Lyon went out to see the sick 
 amongst his flock, and Esther, who had been passing 
 the morninu' in dwellino- on the memories and the 
 few remaining relics of her parents, was left alone 
 in the parlour amidst the lingering odours of the 
 early dinner, not easily got rid of in that small 
 house. Rich people, who know nothing of these 
 vulgar details, can hardly imagine their significance 
 in the history of multitudes of human lives in 
 which the sensibilities are never adjusted to the 
 external conditions. Esther always felt so much 
 discomfort from those odours that she usually 
 seized any possibility of escaping from them, and 
 to-day they oppressed her the more because she was
 
 FELIX HOLT, 167 
 
 weary with loug-continued agitation. Why did she 
 not put on her bonnet as usual and get out into the 
 open air ? It was one of those pleasant November 
 afternoons — pleasant in the wide country — when 
 the sunshine is on the clinging brown leaves of the 
 young oaks, and the last yellow leaves of the elms 
 flutter down in the fresh but not eager breeze. But 
 Esther sat still on the sofa — pale and with reddened 
 eyelids, her cvirls all pushed back carelessly, and 
 her elbow resting on the ridgy black horsehair, 
 which usually almost set her teeth on edge if she 
 pressed it even through her sleeve — wdiile her eyes 
 rested blankly on the dull street, Lyddy had said, 
 " Miss, you look sadly ; if you can't take a walk, go 
 and He down," She had never seen the curls in 
 such disorder, and she reflected that there had been 
 a death from typhus recently. But the obstinate 
 Miss only shook her head. 
 
 Esther was waiting for the sake of — not a pro- 
 bability, but — a mere possibility, which made the 
 brothy odours endurable. Apparently, in less than 
 half an hour, the possibility came to pass, for she 
 changed her attitude, almost started from her seat, 
 sat down again, and listened eagerly. If Lyddy 
 should send him away, could she herself rush out 
 and call him back ? Why not ? Such things were
 
 168 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 permissible where it was understood, from the ne- 
 cessity of the case, that there was only friendship. 
 But Lyddy opened the door and said, " Here's Mr 
 Holt, miss, wants to know if you'll give him leave 
 to come in. I told him you was sadly." 
 
 " yes, Lyddy, beg him to come in." 
 
 " I should not have persevered," said Felix, as 
 they shook hands, "only I know Lyddy's dismal 
 way. But you do look ill," he went on, as he seated 
 himself at the other end of the sofa. " Or rather — 
 for that's a false way of putting it — you look as if 
 you had been very much distressed. Do you mind 
 about my taking notice of it ? " 
 
 He spoke very kindly, and looked at her more 
 persistently than he had ever done before, when 
 her hair was perfect. 
 
 "You are quite right. I am not at all ill. But 
 I have been very much agitated this morning. 
 My father has been telling me things I never heard 
 before about my mother, and giving me things that 
 belonged to her. She died when I was a very 
 little creature." 
 
 , " Then it is no new pain or trouble for you and 
 Mr Lyon ? I could not help being anxious to know 
 that." 
 
 Esther passed her hand over her brow before she
 
 THE RADICAL. 169 
 
 answered. " I hardly know whether it is pain, or 
 something better than pleasure. It has made me 
 see things I was blind to before — depths in my 
 father's nature." 
 
 As she said this, she looked at Felix, and their 
 eyes met very gravely. 
 
 " It is such a beautiful day," he said, " it would 
 do you good to go into the air. Let me take you 
 along the river towards Little Treby, will you ? " 
 
 " I will put my bonnet on," said Esther, un- 
 hesitatingly, though they had never walked out 
 together before. 
 
 It is true that to get into the fields they had 
 to pass through the street ; and when Esther saw 
 some acquaintances, she reflected that her walking 
 alone with Felix might be a subject of remark — 
 all the more because of his cap, patched boots, no 
 cravat, and thick stick. Esther was a little amazed 
 herself at what she had come to. So our lives 
 glide on : the river ends we don't know where, and 
 the sea begins, and then there is no more jumping 
 ashore. 
 
 "When they were in the streets Esther hardly 
 spoke. Felix talked with his usual readiness, as 
 easily as if he were not doing it solely to divert her 
 thoughts, first about Job Tudge's delicate chest.
 
 170 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 and the probability that the little white-faced 
 monkey would not live long ; and then about a 
 miserable beginning of a night-school, which was 
 all he could get together at Sproxton ; and the dis- 
 malness of that hamlet, which was a sort of lip to 
 the coalpit on one side and the "public" on the 
 other — and yet a paradise compared with the 
 wynds of Glasgow, where there was little more 
 than a chink of daylight to show the hatred in 
 women's faces. 
 
 But soon they got into the fields, where there was 
 a right of way towards Little Treby, now following 
 the course of the river, now crossing towards a 
 lane, and now turning into a cart-track through a 
 plantation. 
 
 "Here we are!" said Felix, when they had 
 crossed the wooden bridge, and were treading on 
 the slanting shadows made by the elm trunks. 
 "I think this is delicious. I never feel less un- 
 happy than in these late autumn afternoons when 
 they are sunny." 
 
 "Less unhappy! There now!" said Esther, 
 smiling at him with some of her habitual sauci- 
 ness, "I have caught you in self-contradiction. I 
 have heard you quite furious against puling, melan- 
 choly people. If I had said what you have just
 
 THE KADICAL. 171 
 
 said, you would have given me a long lecture, and 
 told me to go liome and interest myself in the 
 reason of the rule of three." 
 
 "Very likely," said Felix, beating the weeds, 
 according to the foible of our common humanity 
 wdien it has a stick in its hand. " But I don't 
 think myself a fine fellow because I'm melancholy. 
 I don't measure my force by the negations in me, 
 and think my soul must be a mighty one because 
 it is more given to idle suffering than to beneficent 
 activity. ' That's what your favourite gentlemen do, 
 of the Byronic-bilious style." 
 
 "I don't admit that those are my favourite 
 gentlemen." 
 
 " I've heard you defend them — ^gentlemen like 
 your Eenes, who have no particular talent for the 
 finite, but a general sense that the infinite is the 
 right thing for them. They might as well boast of 
 nausea as a proof of a strong inside." 
 
 " Stop, stop ! You run on in that way to get out 
 of my reach. I convicted you of confessing that 
 you are melancholy." 
 
 " Yes ! " said Felix, thrusting his left hand into 
 his pocket, with a shrug ; " as I could confess to a 
 great many other things I'm not proud of. The fact 
 is, there are not many easy lots to be drawn in the
 
 172 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 world at present ; and such as tliey are I am not 
 envious of them. I don't say life is not worth 
 having : it is worth having to a man who has some 
 sparks of sense and feeling and bravery in him. 
 And the finest fellow of all would be the one who 
 could be glad to have lived because the world was 
 chiefly miserable, and his life had come to help 
 some one who needed it. He would be the man wdio 
 had the most powers and the fewest selfish wants. 
 But I'm not up to the level of what I see to be best. 
 I'm often a hungry discontented fellow." 
 
 " Why have you made your life so hard then ? " 
 said Esther, rather frightened as she asked the 
 question. " It seems to me you have tried to find 
 just the most difficult task." 
 
 " Not at all," said Felix, with curt decision. " My 
 course was a very simple one. It was pointed out 
 to me by conditions that I saw as clearly as I see 
 the bars of this stile. It's a difficult stile too," 
 added Felix, striding over. " Shall I help you, 
 or will you be left to yourself ? " 
 . " I can do without help, thank you." 
 " It was all simple enough," continued Felix, as 
 they walked on. " If I meant to put a stop to the 
 sale of those drugs, I must keep my mother, and of 
 course at her age she would not leave the place she
 
 THE KADICAL. 173 
 
 had been used to. And I had made up my mind 
 against what they call genteel businesses." 
 
 " But suppose every one did as you do ? Please 
 to forgive me for saying so ; but I cannot see why 
 you could not have lived as lionourably with some 
 employment that presupposes education and refine- 
 ment." 
 
 " Because you can't see my history or my nature," 
 said Felix, bluntly. " I have to determine for my- 
 self, and not for other men. I don't blame them, or 
 think I am better than they ; their circumstances 
 are different. I would never choose to withdraw 
 myself from the labour and common burthen of the 
 world ; but I do choose to withdraw myself from 
 the push and the scramble for money and position. 
 Any man is at liberty to call me a fool, and say that 
 mankind are benefited by the push and the scramble 
 in the long-run. But I care for the people who live 
 now and will not be living when the long-run comes. 
 As it is, I prefer going shares with the unlucky." 
 
 Esther did not speak, and there was silence be- 
 tween them for a minute or two, till they passed 
 through a gate into a plantation where there was 
 no Uirge timber, Ijut only thin-stennned trees and 
 underwood, so that the sunlight fell on the mossy 
 spaces which'lay open here and there.
 
 174 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 " See how beautiful those stooping birch-stems 
 are with the light on them ! " said Felix. " Here is 
 an old felled trunk they have not thought worth 
 carrying away. Shall we sit down a little while ? " 
 
 " Yes, the mossy ground with the dry leaves 
 sprinkled over it is delightful to one's feet." Esther 
 sat down and took off her bonnet, that the light 
 breeze might fall on her head. Felix, too, threw 
 down his cap and stick, lying on the ground with 
 his back against the felled trunk. 
 
 " I wish I felt more as you do," she said, looking 
 at the point of her foot, which was playing with a 
 tuft of moss. " I can't help caring very much what 
 happens to me. And you seem to care so little 
 about yourself" 
 
 " You are thoroughly mistaken," said Felix. " It 
 is just because I'm a very ambitious fellow, with 
 very hungry passions, wanting a great deal to satisfy 
 me, that I have chosen to give up what people call 
 worldly good. At least that has been one determin- 
 ing reason. It all depends on what a man gets into 
 his consciousness — what life thrusts into his mind, 
 so that it becomes present to him as remorse is 
 present to the guilty, or a mechanical problem to an 
 inventive genius. There are two things I've got 
 present in that way : one of them is the picture of
 
 THE KADICAL. 175 
 
 what I sliould hate to be. I'm determined never to 
 go about making my face simpering or solemn, and 
 telling professional lies for profit ; or to get tangled 
 in affairs where I must wink at dishonesty and 
 pocket the proceeds, and justify that knavery as 
 part of a system that I can't alter. If I once went 
 into that sort of struggle for success, I should want 
 to win — I should defend the wrong that I had once 
 identified myself with. I should become everything 
 that I see now beforehand to be detestable. And 
 what's more, I should do this, as men are doing 
 it every day, for a ridiculously small prize — per- 
 haps for none at all — perhaps for the sake of two 
 parlours, a rank eligible for the churchwarden- 
 ship, a discontented wife and several unhopeful 
 children." 
 
 Esther felt a terrible pressure on her heart — the 
 certainty of her remoteness from Felix — the sense 
 that she was utterly trivial to him. 
 
 " The other thing that's got into my mind like a 
 splinter," said Felix, after a pause, " is the life of the 
 miserable — the spawning life of vice and hunger. 
 I'll never be one of the sleek dogs. The old Catho- 
 lics are right, with their higher rule and their lower. 
 Some are called to subject themselves to a harder 
 discipline, and renounce things voluntarily which
 
 176 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 are lawful for others. It is the old word — ' neces- 
 sity is laid upon me.' " 
 
 " It seems to me you are stricter than my father 
 is." 
 
 " No ! I quarrel with no delight that is not base 
 or cruel, but one must sometimes accommodate one's 
 self to a small share. That is the lot of the majo- 
 rity. I would wish the minority joy, only they 
 don't want my wishes." 
 
 Again there was silence. Esther's cheeks were 
 hot in spite of the breeze that sent her hair floating- 
 backward. She felt an inward strain, a demand on 
 her to see things in a light that was not easy or 
 soothing. When Felix had asked her to walk, he 
 had seemed so kind, so alive to what might be her 
 feelings, that she had thought herself nearer to him 
 than she had ever been before ; but since they had 
 come out, he had appeared to forget all that. And 
 yet she was conscious that this impatience of hers 
 was very petty. Battling in this way with her own 
 little impulses, and looking at the birch-stems oppo- 
 site till her gaze was too wide for her to see any- 
 thing distinctly, she was unaware how long they 
 had remained without speaking. She did not know 
 that Felix had changed his attitude a little, and was 
 resting his elbow on the tree-trunk, while he sup-
 
 THE RADICAL. 177 
 
 ported his head, which was turned towards her. 
 Suddenly lie said, in a lower tone than was habitual 
 to him, 
 
 " You are very beautiful." 
 
 She started and looked round at liim, to see 
 whether his face would give some help to the inter- 
 pretation of this novel speech. He was looking up 
 at her quite calmly, very much as a reverential Pro- 
 testant might look at a picture of the Virgin, with a 
 devoutness suggested by the type rather than by the 
 image. Esther's vanity was not in the least grati- 
 fied : she felt that, somehow or other, Felix was 
 going to reproach her. 
 
 " I wonder," he went on, still looking at her, 
 " whether the subtle measuring of forces will ever 
 come to measuring the force there would be in one 
 beautiful woman whose mind was as noble as her 
 face was beautiful — who made a man's passion for 
 her rush in one current with all the great aims of 
 his life." 
 
 Esther's eyes got hot and smarting. It was no 
 use trying to be dignified. She had turned away 
 her head, and now said, rather bitterly, " It is diffi- 
 cult for a woman ever to try to be anything good 
 when she is not believed in — when it is always sup- 
 posed that she must be contemptil)le." 
 
 VOL. n. M
 
 178 . FELIX HOLT, 
 
 "No, dear Esther" — it was the first time Felix 
 had been prompted to call her by her Christian 
 name, and as he did so he laid his large hand on her 
 two little hands, which were clasped on her knees. ' 
 " You don't believe that I think you contemptible. 
 When I first saw you " 
 
 " I know, I know," said Esther, interrupting him 
 impetuously, but still looking away. " You mean 
 you did think me contemptible then. But it was 
 very narrow of you to judge me in that way, when 
 my life had been so different from yours. I have 
 great faults. I know I am selfish, and think too 
 much of my own small tastes and too little of what . 
 affects others. But I am not stupid. I am not 
 unfeeling. I can see what is better." 
 
 " But I have not done you injustice since I knew 
 more of you," said Felix, gently. 
 
 " Yes, you have," said Esther, turning and smiling 
 at him through her tears. " You talk to me like 
 an angry pedagogue. Were you always wise? 
 Remember the time when you were foolish or 
 naughty." 
 
 " That is not far off," said Felix, curtly, taking 
 away his hand and clasping it with the other at the 
 back of his head. The talk, which seemed to be 
 introducing a mutual understanding, such as had
 
 THE KADICAL. 179 
 
 not existed before, seemed to have undergone some 
 check. 
 
 " Shall we get up and walk back now ? " said 
 Esther, after a few moments. 
 
 " No," said Felix, entreatingly. " Don't move 
 yet. I daresay we shall never walk together or sit 
 here again." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because I am a man who am warned by visions. 
 Those old stories of visions and dreams guiding men 
 have their truth : we are saved by making the future 
 present to ourselves." 
 
 " I wish I could get visions, then," said Esther, 
 smiling at him, with an effort at playfulness, in 
 resistance to something vaguely mournful within 
 her. 
 
 " That is what I w^ant," said Eelix, looking at her 
 very earnestly. " Don't turn your head. Do look 
 at me, and then I shall know if I may go on speak- 
 ing. I do believe in you ; but I want you to have 
 such a vision of the future that you may never lose 
 your best self. Some charm or other may be flung 
 about you — some of your atta-of-rose fascinations — 
 and nothing but a good strong terrible vision will 
 save you. And if it did save you, you might be that 
 woman I was thinking of a little while ago when I
 
 ISO FELIX HOLT, 
 
 looked at your face : the woman whose beauty- 
 makes a great task easier to meu instead of turning 
 them away from it. I am not likely to see such 
 fine issues ; but they may come where a woman's 
 spirit is finely touched. I should like to be sure 
 they would come to you." 
 
 " Why are you not likely to know what becomes 
 of me ?" said Esther, turning away her eyes in spite 
 of his command. " ^\^iy should yovi not always be 
 my father's friend and mine ?" 
 
 " 0, I shall go away as soon as I can to some 
 large town," said Felix, in his more usual tone, — 
 " some ugly, wicked, miserable place. I want to be 
 a demagogue of a new sort ; an honest one, if pos- 
 sible, who w^ill tell the people they are blind and 
 foolish, and neither flatter them nor fatten on them. 
 I have my heritage — an order I belong to. I have 
 the blood of a line of handicraftsmen in my veins, 
 and I want to stand up for the lot of the handi- 
 craftsman as a good lot, in which a man may be 
 better trained to all the best functions of his nature 
 than if he belonged tu the grimacing set who have 
 visiting-cards, and are proud to be thought richer 
 than their neighbours." 
 
 " Would nothing ever make it seem right to you 
 to change your mind ? '' said Esther (she had rapidly
 
 THE RADICAL. 181 
 
 woven some possibilities out of the new uncertain- 
 ties in lier own lot, though she would not for the 
 world have had Felix know of her weaving). " Sup- 
 pose, by some means or other, a fortune might come 
 to you honourably — by marriage, or in any other 
 unexpected way — would you see no change in your 
 course ?" 
 
 " No," said Felix, peremptorily ; " I will never be 
 rich. I don't count that as any peculiar virtue. 
 Some men do well to accept riches, but that is not 
 my inward vocation : I have no fellow-feeling with 
 the rich as a class ; the habits of their lives are 
 odious to me. Thousands of men have wedded 
 poverty because they expect to go to heaven for 
 it ; I don't expect to go to heaven for it, but 
 I wed it because it enables me to do what I 
 most want to do on earth. Wliatever tlie hopes for 
 the world may be — whether great or small — I am a 
 man of this generation ; I will try to make life less 
 bitter for a few within my reach. It is held reason- 
 able enougli to toil for the fortunes of a family, 
 though it may turn to imbecility in the third gener- 
 ation. I choose a family with more chances in it." 
 
 Esther looked before her dreamily till she said, 
 " That seems a hard lot ; yet it is a gTeat one." She 
 rose to walk back.
 
 182 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 " Then you don't think I'm a fool," said Felix, 
 loudly, starting to his feet, and then stooping to 
 gather up his cap and stick. 
 
 " Of course you suspected me of that stupidity." 
 
 " Well — women, unless they are Saint Theresas or 
 Elizabeth Frys, generally think this sort of thing 
 madness, unless when they read of it in the Bible." 
 
 " A woman can hardly ever choose in that way ; 
 she is dependent on what happens to her. She 
 must take meaner things, because only meaner 
 things are within her reach." 
 
 " Why, can you imagine yourself choosing hard- 
 ship as the better lot ? " said Felix, looking at her 
 with a sudden question in his eyes. 
 
 "Yes, I can," she said, flushing over neck and 
 brow. 
 
 Their words were charged with a meaning de- 
 pendent entirely on the secret consciousness of 
 each. Nothing had been said which was necessarily 
 personal. They walked a few yards along the road 
 by which they had come, without further speech, 
 till Felix said gently, " Take my arm." She took it, 
 and they walked home so, entirely without conversa- 
 ti()n. FelLx was struggling as a firm man struggles 
 with a temptation, seeing beyond it and disbeliev- 
 ing its lying promise. Esther was struggling as a
 
 THE RADICAL. 183 
 
 woman struggles vdth. the yearning for some ex- 
 pression of love, and with vexation under that 
 subjection to a yearning which is not likely to be 
 satisfied. Each was conscious of a silence which 
 each wa-s unable to break, till they entered Malt- 
 house Lane, and were within a few yards of the 
 minister's door. 
 
 " It is getting dusk," Felix then said ; " will Mr 
 Lyon be anxious about you ? " 
 
 " No, I think not. Lyddy would tell him that I 
 went out with you, and that you carried a large 
 stick," said Esther, with her light laugh. 
 
 Eelix went in with Esther to take tea, but the 
 conversation was entu-ely between him and Mr 
 Lyon about the tricks of canvassing, the foolish 
 personality of the placards, and the probabilities 
 of Transome's return, as to which Felix declared 
 himseK to have become indifferent. This scep- 
 ticism made the minister uneasy: he had great 
 belief in the old political watchwords, had preached 
 that universal suffrage and no ballot were agree- 
 able to the will of God, and liked to believe that a 
 visible " instrument " was forthcoming in the Radi- 
 cal Candidate who had pronounced emphatically 
 against Whig finality. Felix, being in a perverse 
 mood, contended that universal suffrage would be
 
 184 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 equally agreeable to the devil ; that he would 
 change his politics a little, liave a larger traffic, 
 and see himself more fully represented in Par- 
 liament. 
 
 " Nay, my friend," said the minister, " you. are 
 again sporting with paradox ; for you will not deny 
 that you glory in the name of Eadical, or Eoot-and- 
 hranch man, as they said in the gTeat times when 
 Nonconformity was in its giant youth." 
 
 " A Kadical — yes ; but I want to go to some roots 
 a good deal lower down than the franchise." 
 
 " Truly there is a work within which cannot be 
 dispensed with ; but it is our preliminary work to 
 free men from the stifled life of political nullity, and 
 bring them into Avhat Milton calls ' the liberal air,' 
 wherein alone can be wrought the final triumphs of 
 the Spirit." 
 
 " With all my heart. But while Caliban is Cali- 
 ban, though you multiply him by a million, he'll 
 worship every Trinculo that carries a bottle. I 
 forget, though — you don't read Shakspeare, Mr 
 Lyon." 
 
 " I am bound to confess that I have so far looked 
 into a volume of Esther's as to conceive your mean- 
 ing ; but the fantasies therein were so little to 
 be reconciled with a steady contemplation of that
 
 THE RADICAL. 185 
 
 divine economy which is hidden from sense and 
 revealed to faith, that I forbore the reading, as 
 likely to perturb my ministrations." 
 
 Esther sat by in unusual silence. The conviction 
 that Felix willed her exclusion from his life was 
 making it plain that something more than friend- 
 ship between them was not so thoroughly out of the 
 question as she had always inwardly asserted. In 
 her pain that his choice lay aloof from her, she was 
 compelled frankly to admit to herself the longing 
 that it had been otherwise, and that he had en- 
 treated her to share his difficult life. He was like 
 no one else to her : he had seemed to bring at once 
 a law, and the love that gave strength to obey the 
 law. Yet the next moment, stung by his indepen- 
 dence of her, she denied that she loved him ; she 
 had only longed for a moral support under the 
 negations of her Life. If she were not to have that 
 support, all effort seemed useless. 
 
 Esther had been so long used to hear the formulas 
 of her father's belief without feeling or understand- 
 ing them, that they had lost all power to touch her. 
 The first religious experience of her life — the first 
 self-questioning, the first voluntary subjection, tlie 
 first longing to acquire the strength of greater 
 motives and obey the more strenuous rule — had
 
 186 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 come to her througli Felix Holt. No wonder that 
 she felt as if the loss of him were inevitable back- 
 sliding. 
 
 But was it certain that she should lose him? 
 She did not believe that he was really indifferent 
 to her.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 Titus. But what says Jupiter, I ask thee? 
 Clown. Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter : 
 
 I never drank with liini iu all ray life. 
 
 Titus Androniciis. 
 
 The multiplication of uncomplimentary placards 
 noticed by Mr Lyon and Felix Holt was one of 
 several signs that the days of nomination and 
 election were approaching. The presence of the 
 Eevisiug Barrister in Treby was not only an oppor- 
 tunity for all persons not otherwise busy to show 
 their zeal for the purification of the voting-lists, but. 
 also to reconcile private ease and public duty by 
 standing about the streets and lounging at doors. 
 
 It was no light business for Trebians to form an 
 opinion ; the mere fact of a public functionary with 
 an unfamiliar title was enough to give them pause, 
 as a premiss that was not to be quickly started 
 from. To Mr Pink the saddler, for example, until 
 some distinct injury or benefit had accrued to him,
 
 188 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 the existence of the Ee vising Barrister was like the 
 existence of the young giraffe which Wombwell had 
 lately brought into those parts — it was to be con- 
 templated, and not criticised. Mr Pink professed a 
 deep-dyed Toryism ; but he regarded all fault-find- 
 ing as Eadical and somewhat impious, as disturbing 
 to trade, and likely to offend the gentry or the 
 servants through whom their harness was ordered : 
 there was a Nemesis in things which made objec- 
 tion unsafe, and even the Eeform BiU was a sort of 
 electric eel which a thriving tradesman had better 
 leave alone. It was only the " Papists " who lived 
 far enough off to be spoken of uncivilly. 
 
 But Mr Pink was fond of news, which he collected 
 and retailed with perfect impartiality, noting facts 
 and rejecting comments. Hence he was well pleased 
 to have his shop so constant a place of resort for 
 louijgers, that to many Trebians there was a strong 
 association between the pleasures of gossip and the 
 smell of leather. He had the satisfaction of chalk- 
 ing and cutting, and of keeping his journeymen 
 close at work, at the very time that he learned 
 from his visitors who were those whose votes had 
 been called in question before His Honour, how 
 Lawyer Jermyn had been too much for Lawyer 
 Labron about Todd's cottages, and how, in the
 
 THE RADICAL. 189 
 
 opinion of some townsmen, this looking into the 
 value of people's property, and swearing it down 
 below a certain sum, was a nasty, inquisitorial kind 
 of thing ; while others observed that being nice to a 
 few pounds was all nonsense — they should put the 
 figure high enough, and then never mind if a voter's 
 qualification was thereabouts. But, said Mr Sims 
 the auctioneer, everything was done for the sake of 
 tlie lawyers. Mr Pink suggested impartially that 
 lawyers must live ; but Mr Sims, having a ready 
 auctioneering wit, did not see that so many of them 
 need live, or that babies were born lawyers. Mr 
 I'ink felt that this speculation was complicated by 
 the ordering of side-saddles for lawyers' daughters, 
 and, returning to the firm ground of fact, stated that 
 it was getting dusk. 
 
 The dusk seemed deepened the next moment by 
 a tall figure obstructing the doorway, at sight of 
 whom Mr Pink rubbed his hands and smiled and 
 bowed more than once, with evident solicitude to 
 show honour where honour was due, while he said, 
 "Mr Christian, sir, how do you do, sir?" 
 Christian answered with the condescending famil- 
 iarity of a superior. "Very badly, I can tell you, with 
 these confounded braces that you were to make such a 
 fine job of. See, old fellow, they've burst out again."
 
 190 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 "Very sorry, sir. Can you leave them with rne ?" 
 
 " yes, I'll leave them. What's the news, eh ? " 
 said Christian, half seating himself on a high 
 stool, and beating his boot with a hand-whip. 
 
 " Well, sir, we look to you to tell us that," said 
 Mr Pink, with a knowdng smile. "You're at 
 headquarters — eh, sir? That was what I said to 
 Mr Scales the other day. He came for some 
 straps, Mv Scales did, and he asked that question in 
 pretty near the same terms that you've done, sir, and 
 I answered him, as I may say, ditto. Not meaning 
 any disrespect to you, sir, but a way of speaking." 
 
 " Come, that's gammon. Pink," said Christian. 
 " You know everything. You can tell me, if you 
 will, who is the fellow employed to paste up Tran- 
 some's handbills ? " 
 
 " What do you say, Mr Sims ? " said Pink, looking 
 at the auctioneer. 
 
 " Wliy, you know and I know well enough. It's 
 Tommy Trounsem — an old, crippling, half-mad fel- 
 low. Most people know Tommy. I've employed 
 him myself for charity." 
 
 " Where shall I find him ? " said Christian. 
 
 " At the Cross-Keys, in Pollard's End, most like- 
 ly," said Mr Sims. " I don't know where he puts 
 himself when he isn't at the public."
 
 THE KADICAL. 191 
 
 " He was a stoutisli fellow fifteen year ago, when 
 lie carried pots," said Mr Pink. 
 
 " Ay, and has snared many a hare in his time," 
 said Mr Sims. " Bnt he was always a little cracked. 
 Lord bless you ! he used to swear he'd a right to the 
 Transome estate." 
 
 "Why, what put that notion into his head?" said 
 Christian, who had learned more than he expected. 
 
 " The lawing, sir — nothing but the lawing about 
 the estate. There was a deal of it twenty year 
 ago," said Mr Pink. " Tommy happened to turn 
 up hereabout at that time; a big, lungeous fellow, 
 who would speak disrespectfully of hanybody." 
 
 " 0, he meant no harm," said Mr Sims. " He was 
 fond of a drop to drink, and not quite right in the 
 upper storey, and he could hear no difference between 
 Trounsem and Transome. It's an odd way of speak- 
 ing they have in that part where he was born — a 
 little north'ard. You.'ll hear it in his tongue now, if 
 you talk to him." 
 
 " At the Cross-Keys I shall find him, eh ? " said 
 Christian, getting off his stool. " Good-day, Pink, 
 good-day." 
 
 Christian went straight from the saddler's to Quor- 
 len's, the Tory printer's, with whom he had contrived 
 a political spree. Quorlen was a new man in Treby,
 
 192 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 who had so reduced the trade of Dow, the old here- 
 ditary printer, that Dow had lapsed to Whiggery 
 and Eadicalism and opinions in general, so far as 
 they were contented to express themselves in a small 
 stock of types. Quorlen had brought his Duffield 
 wit with him, and insisted that religion and joking 
 were the handmaids of politics ; on which principle 
 he and Christian undertook the joking, and left the 
 religion to the Eector. The joke at present in ques- 
 tion was a practical one. Christian, turning into 
 the shop, merely said, " I've found him out — give me 
 the placards;" and, tucking a thickish flat bundle, 
 wrapped in a black glazed cotton bag, under his arm, 
 walked out into the dusk again. 
 
 " Suppose now," he said to himself, as he strode 
 along — " suppose there should be some secret to be 
 got out of this old scamp, or some notion that's as 
 good as a secret to those who know how to use it ? 
 That would be virtue rewarded. But I'm afraid the 
 old tosspot is not likely to be good for much. There's 
 truth in wine, and there may be some in gin and 
 muddy beer; but whether it's truth M'orth my know- 
 ing, is another question. I've got plenty of truth in 
 my time out of men who were half-seas-over, but 
 never any that was worth a sixpence to me." 
 
 Tlie Cross-Keys was a very old-fashioned " pub-
 
 THE RADICAL. 193 
 
 lie : " its bar was a big rambling kitchen, with an 
 undulatiug brick floor; the small -paned windows 
 threw an interesting obscurity over the far-off dresser, 
 garnished with pewter and tin, and with large dishes 
 that seemed to speak of better times ; the two settles 
 were half pushed under the wide-mouthed chimney ; 
 and the grate, with its brick hobs, massive iron 
 crane, and various pothooks, suggested a generous 
 plenty possibly existent in all moods and tenses 
 except the indicative present. One way of getting 
 an idea of our fellow-countrymen's miseries is to go 
 and look at their pleasures. The Cross-Keys had a 
 fungous-featured landlord and a yellow sickly land- 
 lady, with a napkin bound romid her head like a re- 
 suscitated Lazarus ; it had doctored ale, an odour of 
 bad tobacco, and remarkably strong cheese. It was 
 not what Astrsea, when come back, might be expected 
 to approve as the scene of ecstatic enjoyment for the 
 beings whose special prerogative it is to lift their 
 sublime faces towards heaven. Still, there was ample 
 space on the hearth — accommodation for narrative 
 bagmen or boxmen — room for a man to stretch his 
 legs ; his brain was not pressed upon by a white 
 wall within a yard of him, and the light did not 
 stare in mercilessly on bare ugliness, turning the fire 
 to ashes. Compared with some beerhouses of this 
 VOL. n. N
 
 194 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 more advanced period, the Cross-Keys of tliat day 
 presented a high standard of pleasure. 
 
 But though this venerable "public" had not 
 failed to share in the recent political excitement of 
 drinking, the pleasures it offered were not at this 
 early hour of the evening sought by a numerous 
 company. There were only three or four pipes 
 being smoked by the firelight, but it was enough 
 for Christian when he found that one of these was 
 being smoked by the bill-sticker, whose large flat 
 basket, stuffed with placards, leaned near him 
 against the settle. So splendid an apparition as 
 Christian was not a little startling at the Cross- 
 Keys, and was gazed at in expectant silence ; but he 
 was a stranger in Pollard's End, and was taken for 
 the highest style of traveller when he declared that 
 he was deucedly thirsty, ordered sixpennyworth of 
 gin and a large jug of water, and, putting a few 
 drops of the spirit into his own glass, invited Tommy 
 Trounsem, who sat next him, to help himself 
 Tommy was not slower than a shaking hand obliged 
 him to be in accepting this invitation. He was a 
 tall broad-shouldered old fellow, who had once been 
 good-looking ; but his cheeks and chest were both 
 hollow now, and his limbs were shrunken. 
 
 "You've got some bills there, master, eh?" said
 
 THE KADICAL. 195 
 
 Christian, pointing to the basket. "Is there an 
 auction coming on?" 
 
 " Auction ? no," said Tommy, with a gruff hoarse- 
 ness, which was the remnant of a jovial bass, and 
 with an accent which differed from the Trebian 
 fitfully, as an early habit is wont to reassert itself 
 " I've nought to do wi' auctions ; I'm a pol'tical cha- 
 ricter. It's me am getting Trounsem into Parl'ment." 
 "Trounsem, says he," the landlord observed, 
 taking out his pipe with a low laugh. " It's Tran- 
 some, sir. Maybe you don't belong to this part. 
 It's the candidate 'uU do most for the working men, 
 and's proved it too, in the way o' being open- 
 handed and wishing 'em to enjoy themselves. If 
 I'd twenty votes, I'd give one for Transome, and I 
 don't care who hears me." 
 
 The landlord peeped out from his fungous cluster 
 of features with a beery confidence that the high 
 figure of twenty had somehow raised the hypothetic 
 value of his vote. 
 
 " Spilkins, now," said Tommy, waving his hand 
 to the landlord, "you let one genelman speak to 
 another, will you ? This genelman wants to know 
 about my bills. Does he, or doesn't he?" 
 
 " What then ? I spoke according," said the land- 
 lord, mildly holding his own.
 
 196 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 "You're all very well, Spilkins," returned Tommy, 
 " but y'aren't me. I know what the bills are. It's 
 public business. I'm none o' your common bill- 
 stickers, master ; I've left off sticking up ten guineas 
 reward for a sheep-stealer, or low stuff like that. 
 These are Trounsem's bills; and I'm the rightful 
 family, and so I give him a lift. A Trounsem I am, 
 and a Trounsem I'll be buried ; and if Old Nick 
 tries to lay hold on me for poaching, I'll say, 'You 
 be hanged for a lawyer, Old Nick ; every hare and 
 pheasant on the Trounsem's land is mine;' and what 
 rises the family, rises old Tommy; and we're going 
 to get into Parl'ment — that's the long and the short 
 on't, master. And I'm the head o' the family, and 
 I stick the bills. There's Johnsons, and Thomsons, 
 and Jacksons, and Billsons ; but I'm a Trounsem, I 
 am. What do you say to that, master ? " 
 
 This appeal, accompanied by a blow on the table, 
 while the landlord winked at the company, was 
 addressed to Christian, who answered, with severe 
 gravity, 
 
 "I say there isn't any work more honourable 
 than bill-sticking." 
 
 "No, no," said Tommy, wagging his head from 
 side to side. " I thought you'd come in to that. 
 I thought you'd know better than say contrairy.
 
 THE RADICAL. ' 197 
 
 But I'll shake hands wi' you ; I don't want to knock 
 any man's head off. I'm a good chap — a sound crock 
 — an old family kep' out o' my rights. I shall go to 
 heaven, for all Old Nick." 
 
 As these celestial prospects might imply that a 
 little extra gin was beginning to tell on the bill- 
 sticker, Christian wanted to lose no time in arresting 
 his attention. He laid his hand on Tommy's arm 
 and spoke empliatically. 
 
 "But I'll tell you what you bill-stickers are not 
 up to. You should be on the look-out when 
 Debarry's side have stuck up fresh bills, and go and 
 paste yours over them. I know where there's a lot 
 of Debarry's bills now. Come along with me, and 
 I'll show you. We'll paste them over, and then 
 we'll come back and treat the company." 
 
 " Hooray ! " said Tommy. " Let's be off then." 
 
 He was one of the thoroughly inured, originally 
 hale drunkards, and did not easily lose his head or 
 legs or the ordinary amount of method in his talk. 
 Strangers often supposed that Tommy was tipsy when 
 he had only taken what he called " one blessed pint," 
 chiefly from that glorious contentment with himself 
 and his adverse fortunes which is not usually char- 
 acteristic of the sober Briton. He knocked the 
 ashes out of his pipe, seized his paste-vessel
 
 198 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 and his basket, and prepared to start, with a satis- 
 factory promise that he could know what he was 
 about. 
 
 The landlord and some others had confidently 
 concluded that they understood all about Christian 
 now. He was a Transome's man, come to see after 
 the bill-sticking in Transome's interest. The land- 
 lord, telling his yellow wife snappishly to open the 
 door for the gentleman, hoped soon to see him again. 
 
 " This is a Transome's house, sir," he observed, 
 " in respect of entertaining customers of that colour. 
 I do my duty as a publican, which, if I know it, 
 is to turn back no genelman's money. I say, give 
 every genelman a chancli, and the more the merrier, 
 in Parl'ment and out of it. And if anybody says 
 they want but two Parl'ment men, I say it 'ud be 
 better for trade if there was six of 'em, and voters 
 according." 
 
 "Ay, ay," said Christian; "you're a sensible man, 
 landlord. You don't mean to vote for Debarry 
 then, eh ? " 
 
 "Not nohow," said the landlord, thinking that 
 where negatives were good the more you heard of 
 them the better. 
 
 As soon as the door had closed behind Christian 
 and his new companion. Tommy said,
 
 THE RADICAL. 199' 
 
 " Now, master, if you're to be my lantern, don't 
 you be a Jacky Lantern, which I take to mean one 
 as leads you the wrong way. For I'll tell you what 
 — if you've had the luck to fall in wi' Tommy 
 Trounsem, don't you let him drop." 
 
 " No, no — to be sure not," said Christian. " Come 
 along liei'e. We'll go to the Back Brewery wall 
 tirst." 
 
 " No, no ; don't you let me drop. Give me a shil- 
 ling any day you like, and I'll tell you more nor 
 you'll hear from Spilkins in a week. There isna 
 many men like me. I carried pots for fifteen year 
 off and on — what do you think o' that now, for a 
 man as might ha' lived up there at Trounsem Park, 
 and snared his own game 1 Which I'd ha' done," 
 said Tommy, wagging his head at Christian in 
 the dimness undisturbed by gas. " None o' your 
 shooting for me — it's two to one you'll miss. Snar- 
 ing's more fishing-like. You bait your hook, and if 
 it isna the fishes' goodwill to come, that's nothing 
 again' the sporting genelman. And that's what I 
 say by snaring." 
 
 " But if you'd a right to the Transome estate, how 
 was it you were kept out of it, old boy ? It was 
 some foul shame or other, eh ? " 
 
 " It's the law — that's what it is. You're a good
 
 200 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 sort o' chap ; I don't mind telling you. There's 
 folks born to property, and there's folks catch hold 
 on it ; and the law's made for them as catch hold. 
 I'm pretty deep ; I see a good deal further than 
 Spilkins. There was Ned Patch, the pedlar, used 
 to say to me, ' You canna read. Tommy,' says he. 
 ' No ; thank you,' says I ; ' I'm not going to crack 
 my headpiece to make myself as big a fool as you.' 
 I was fond o' Ned. Many's the pot we've had to- 
 gether." 
 
 " I see well enough you're deep, Tommy. How 
 came you to know you were born to property?" 
 
 " It was the regester — the parish regester," said 
 Tommy, with his knowing wag of the head, 
 " that shows as you was born. I allays felt it 
 inside me as I was somebody, and I could see other 
 chaps thought it on me too; and so one day at 
 Littleshaw, where I kep ferrets and a little bit of a 
 public, there comes a fine man looking after me, and 
 walking me up and down wi' questions. And I made 
 out from the clerk as he'd been at the regester; and 
 I gave the clerk a pot or two, and he got it of our 
 parson as the name o' Trounsem was a great name 
 hereabout. And I waits a bit for my fine man to 
 come again. Thinks I, if there's property wants 
 a right owner, I shall be called for ; for I didn't
 
 THE RADICAL. 201 
 
 know the law then. And I waited and waited, 
 till I see'd no fun i' waiting. So I parted \vi' my 
 public and my ferrets — for she was dead a'ready, 
 my wife was, and I hadn't no cumbrance. And 
 off 1 started a pretty long walk to this country- 
 side, for I could walk for a wager in them days." 
 
 " Ah ! well, here we are at the Back Brewery 
 wall. Put down your paste and your basket now, 
 old boy, and I'll help you. You paste, and I'll 
 give you the bills, and then you can go on 
 talking." 
 
 Tommy obeyed automatically, for he was now 
 carried away by the rare opportunity of talking to 
 a new listener, and was only eager to go on with 
 his story. As soon as his back was turned, and 
 he was stooping over his paste-pot. Christian, with 
 quick adroitness, exchanged the placards in his 
 own bag for those in Tommy's basket. Christian's 
 placards had not been printed at Treby, but were 
 a new lot which had been sent from Duffield that 
 very day — "highly spiced," Quorlen had said, 
 "coming from a pen that was up to that sort of 
 thing." Christian had read the first of the sheaf, 
 and supposed they were all alike. He proceeded 
 to hand one to Tommy, and said, 
 
 " Here, old boy, paste tliis over the other. And
 
 202 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 SO, when you got into this country-side, what did 
 you do?" 
 
 " Do ? Wliy, I put up at a good public and 
 ordered the best, for I'd a bit o' money in my 
 pocket; and I axed about, and they said to me, if 
 it's Trounsem business you're after, you go to 
 Lawyer Jermyn. And I went; and says I, going 
 along, he's maybe the fine man as walked me up 
 and down. But no such thing. I'll tell vou what 
 Lawyer Jermyn was. He stands you there, and 
 holds you away from him wi' a pole three yard 
 long. He stares at you, and says nothing, till you 
 feel like a Tomfool; and then he threats you to set 
 the justice on you; and then he's sorry for you, 
 and hands you money, and preaches you a sarmint, 
 and tells you you're a poor man, and he'll give you 
 a bit of advice — and you'd better not be meddling 
 wi' things belonging to the law, else you'll be 
 catched up in a big wheel and fly to bits. And I 
 went of a cold sweat, and I wished I might never 
 come i' sight o' Lawyer Jermyn again. But he 
 says, if you keep i' this neighbourhood, behave 
 yourself well, and I'll perfect you. I were deep 
 enough, but it's no use being deep, 'cause you can 
 never know the law. And there's times when the 
 deepest fellow's worst frightened."
 
 THE RADICAL. 203 
 
 " Yes, yes. There ! Now for another placard. 
 And so that was all?" 
 
 "All?" said Tommy, turning round and holding 
 the paste-brush in suspense. " Don't you be run- 
 ning too quick. Thinks I, ' I'll meddle no more. 
 I've got a bit o' money — I'll buy a basket, and be 
 a potman. It's a pleasant life. I shall live at 
 publics and see the world, and pick up 'quaintance, 
 and get a chanch penny.' But when I'd turned 
 into the Red Lion, and got myself warm again wi' 
 a drop o' hot, something jumps into my head. 
 Thinks I, Tommy, you've done finely for yourself : 
 you're a rat as has broke up your house to take a 
 journey, and show yourself to a ferret. And then 
 it jumps into my head : I'd once two ferrets as 
 turned on one another, and the little un killed 
 the big un. Says I to the landlady, ' Missis, could 
 you teU me of a lawyer,' says I, 'not very big 
 or fine, but a second size — a pig-potato, like ? ' 
 'That I can,' says she; 'there's one now in the bar 
 parlour.' ' Be so kind as bring us together,' says 
 I. And she cries out — I think I hear her now — 
 ' Mr Johnson !' And what do you think ?" 
 
 At this crisis in Tommy's story the grey clouds, 
 which had been gradually thinning, opened suffi- 
 ciently to let down the sudden moonlight, and
 
 204 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 show his poor battered old figure and face in the 
 attitude and with th6 expression of a narrator sure 
 of the coming efTect on his auditor; his body and 
 neck stretched a little on one side, and his paste- 
 brusli held out with an alarming intention of 
 tapping Christian's coat-sleeve at the right mo- 
 ment. Christian started to a safe distance, and 
 said, 
 
 " It's wonderful. I can't tell wliat to think." 
 " Then never do you deny Old Nick," said Tommy, 
 with solemnity. " I've believed in him more ever 
 since. Who was Johnson ? A\niy, Johnson was the 
 fine man as had walked me up and down with ques- 
 tions. And I out with it to him then and there. 
 And he speaks me civil, and says, ' Come away wi' 
 me, my good fellow.' And he told me a deal o' law. 
 And he says, whether you're a Tommy Trounsem 
 or no, it's no good to you, but only to them as have 
 got hold o' the property. If you was a Tommy 
 Trounsem twenty times over, it 'ud be no good, for 
 the law's bought you out ; and your life's no good, 
 only to them as have catched hold o' the property. 
 The more you live, the more they'll stick in. Not 
 as they want you now, says he— you're no good to 
 anybody, and you might howl like a dog for iver, 
 and the law 'ud take no notice on you. Says John-
 
 THE KADICAL. 205 
 
 son, I'm doing a kind thing by you, to tell you. 
 For that's the law. And if you want to know the 
 law, master, you ask Johnson. I heard 'em say 
 after, as he was an understrapper at Jermyn's. I've 
 never forgot it from that day to this. But I saw 
 clear enough, as if the law hadn't been again' me, 
 the Trounsem estate 'ud ha' been mine. But folks 
 are fools hereabouts, and I've left off talking. The 
 more you tell 'em the truth, the more they'll niver 
 believe you. And I went and bought my basket 
 and the pots, and " 
 
 " Come, then, fire away," said Christian. " Here's 
 another placard." 
 
 " I'm getting a bit dry, master." 
 
 " Well, then, make haste, and you'll have some- 
 thing to drink all the sooner." 
 
 Tommy turned to his work again, and Christian, 
 continuing his help, said, " And how long has Mr 
 Jermyn been employing you ? " 
 
 " Oh, no particular time — off and on ; but a week 
 or two ago he sees me upo' the road, and speaks to 
 me uncommon civil, and tells me to go up to his 
 office, and he'll give me employ. And I was noways 
 unwilling to stick the bills to get the family into 
 Parl'ment. Yov there's no man can help the law. 
 And the family's the family, whether you carry pots
 
 206 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 or no. Master, I'm uncommon dry; my head's a 
 turning round ; it's talking so long on end." 
 
 The unwonted excitement of poor Tommy's me- 
 mory was producing a reaction. 
 
 " Well, Tommy," said Christian, who had just 
 made a discovery among the placards which altered 
 the bent of his thoughts, " you may go back to the 
 Cross-Keys now, if you like ; here's a half- crown 
 for you to spend handsomely. I can't go back there 
 myself just yet ; but you may give my respects to 
 Spilkins, and mind you paste the rest of the bills 
 early to-morrow morning." 
 
 " Ay, ay. But don't you believe too much i' 
 Spilkins," said Tommy, pocketing the half-crown, 
 and showing his gratitude by giving this advice — 
 " he's no harm much — but weak. He thinks he's 
 at the bottom o' things because he scores you up. 
 But I bear him no ill-will. Tommy Trounsem's a 
 good chap ; and any day you like to give me half-a- 
 crown, I'll tell you the same story over again. Not 
 now ; I'm dry. Come, help me up wi' these things ; 
 you're a younger chap than me. Well, I'll tell 
 Spilkins you'll come again another day." 
 
 The moonlight, which had lit up poor Tommy's 
 oratorical attitude, had served to light up for Chris- 
 tian the print of the placards. He had expected the
 
 THE KADICAL. 207 
 
 copies to be various, and had turned them half over 
 at different depths of the sheaf before drawing out 
 those lie offered to the bill-sticker. Suddenly the 
 clearer light had shown him on one of them a name 
 which was just then especially interesting to him, 
 and all the more wlien occurring in a placard in- 
 tended to dissuade the electors of North Loamshire 
 from voting for the heir of the Transomes. He 
 hastily turned over the lists that preceded and suc- 
 ceeded, that he might draw out and carry away all 
 of tliis pattern ; for it might turn out to be wiser for 
 him not to contribute to the publicity of handbills 
 which contained allusions to Bycliffe versus Tran- 
 some. There were about a dozen of them ; he pressed 
 them together and thrust them into liis pocket, re- 
 turning all the rest to Tommy's basket. To take 
 away this dozen might not be to prevent similar 
 bills from being posted up elsewhere, but he had 
 reason to believe that these were all of the same 
 kind which had been sent to Treby from Duffield. 
 
 Christian's interest in his practical joke had died 
 out like a morning rushlight. Apart from this dis- 
 covery in the placards, old Tommy's story had some 
 indications in it that were worth pondering over. 
 Where was that well-informed Johnson now ? Was 
 he still an understrapper of Jermyn's ?
 
 208 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 With this matter iu his thoughts, Cliristian only 
 turned in hastily at Quorlen's, threw down the black 
 bag which contained the captured Eadical handbills, 
 said he had done the job, and hurried back to the 
 Manor that he might study his problem.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 I doe believe that, as the gall has severall receptacles in several creatures, 
 soe tliere's scarce any creature but hath that emunctorye somewhere.— Sir 
 Thomas Browne. 
 
 Fancy what a game at chess woukl be if all the 
 chessmen had x^assious and intellects, more or less 
 small and cunning : if you were not only uncer- 
 tain about your adversary's men, but a little un- 
 certain also about your own ; if your knight could 
 shuffle himself on to a new square by the sly ; if 
 your bishop, in disgust at your castling, could 
 wheedle your pawns out of their places ; and if 
 your pawns, hating you because they are pawns, 
 could make away from their appointed posts that 
 you might get checkmate on a sudden. You might 
 be the longest-headed of deductive reasoners, and 
 yet you might be beaten by your own pawns. 
 You would be especially likely to be beaten, if 
 you depended arrogantly on your mathematical 
 VOL. II. o
 
 210 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces 
 with contempt. 
 
 Yet this imaginary chess is easy compared with 
 the game a man has to play against his fellow-men 
 with other fellow-men for his instruments. He 
 thinks himself sagacious, perhaps, because he trusts 
 no bond except that of self-interest ; but the only 
 self-interest he can safely rely on is what seems to 
 be such to the mind he would use ur govern. Can 
 he ever be sure of knowing this ? 
 
 Matthew Jermyn was under no misgivings as to 
 the fealty of Johnson. He had "been the making 
 of Johnson ; " and this seems to many men a 
 reason for expecting devotion, in spite of the fact 
 that they themselves, though very fond of their 
 own persons and lives, are not at all devoted to 
 the Maker they believe in. Johnson was a most 
 serviceable subordinate. Being a man who aimed 
 at respectability, a family man, who had a good 
 church -pew, sul^scribed for engravings of banquet 
 pictures where there were portraits of political cele- 
 brities, and wished his children to be more unques- 
 tionably genteel than their father, he presented all 
 the more numerous handles of worldly motive by 
 which a judicious superior might keep a hold on 
 him. But this useful regard to respectability had
 
 THE RADICAL. 211 
 
 its inconvenience in relation to such a superior : 
 it was a mark of some vanity and some pride, which, 
 if they were not touched just in the right handling- 
 place, were liable to become raw and sensitive. 
 Jermyn was aware of Johnson's weaknesses, and 
 thought he had flattered them sufficiently. But on 
 the point of knowing when we are disagreeable, our 
 Imman nature is fallible. Our lavender-water, our 
 smiles, our compliments, and other polite falsities, 
 are constantly offensive, when in the very nature 
 of them they can only be meant to attract admira- 
 tion and regard. Jermyn had often been uncon- 
 sciously disagreeable to Johnson, over and above 
 the constant offence of being an ostentatious patron. 
 He would never let Johnson dine with his wife and 
 daughters ; he would not himself dine at Johnson's 
 house when he was in town. He often did what 
 was equivalent to pooh-poohing his conversation 
 by not even appearing to listen, and by suddenly 
 cutting it short with a query on a new subject. 
 Jermyn was able and politic enough to have com- 
 manded a great deal of success in his life, but he 
 could not help being handsome, arrogant, fond of 
 being heard, indisposed to any kind of comradeship, 
 amorous and bland towards women, cold and self- 
 contained towards men. You will hear very strong
 
 212 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 denials that an attorney's being handsome could 
 enter into the dislike he excited ; but conversation 
 consists a good deal in the denial of what is true. 
 From the British point of view masculine beauty is 
 regarded very much as it is in the drapery busi- 
 ness : — as good solely for the fancy department — 
 for young noblemen, artists, poets, and the clergy. 
 Some one who, like Mr Lingon, was disposed to 
 revile Jermyn (perhaps it was Sir Maximus), had 
 called him " a cursed, sleek, handsome, long-winded, 
 overbearing sycophant ;" epithets which expressed, 
 rather confusedly, the mingled character of the 
 dislike he excited. And serviceable John Johnson, 
 himself sleek, and mindful about his broadcloth 
 and his cambric fronts, had what he considered 
 " spirit" enough within him to feel that dislike of 
 Jermyn gradually gathering force through years of 
 obligation and subjection, till it had become an 
 actuating motive disposed to use an opportunity, if 
 not to watch for one. 
 
 It was not this motive, however, but rather the 
 ordinary course of business, which , accounted for 
 Johnson's playing a double part as an electioneering 
 agent. What men do in elections, is not to be classed 
 either among sins or marks of grace : it would be 
 profane to include business in religion, and con-
 
 THE RADICAL. 213 
 
 science refers to failure, not to success. Still, the 
 sense of being galled by Jermyn's harness was an 
 additional reason for cultivating all relations that 
 were independent of him ; and pique at Harold Tran- 
 some's behaviour to him in Jermyn's office perhaps 
 gave all the more zest to Johnson's use of his pen 
 and ink when he wrote a handbill in the service of 
 Garstin, and Garstin's incomparable agent. Putty, 
 full of inuendoes against Harold Transome, as a 
 descendant of the Durfey-Transomes. It is a nat- 
 ural subject of self-congratulation to a man, when 
 special knowledge, gained long ago without any 
 forecast, turns out to afford a special inspiration in 
 the present; and Johnson felt a new pleasure in 
 the consciousness that he of all people in the world 
 next to Jermyn had the most intimate knowledge of 
 the Transome affairs. Still better — some of these 
 affairs were secrets of Jermyn's. If in an uncom- 
 plimentary spirit he might have been called Jer- 
 myn's "man of straw," it was a satisfaction to 
 know that the unreality of the man John Johnson 
 was confined to his appearance in annuity deeds, 
 and that elsewhere he was solid, locomotive, and 
 capable of remembering anything for his own plea- 
 sure and benefit. To act with doubleness towards 
 a man whose own conduct was double, was so near
 
 214 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 an approach to virtue that it deserved to be called 
 by no meaner name than Diplomacy. 
 
 By such causes it came to pass that Christian 
 held in his hands a bill in which Jermyn was play- 
 fully alluded to as Mr German Cozen, who won 
 games by clever shuffling and odd tricks without 
 any honour, and backed Durfey's crib against 
 Bycliffe, — in which it was adroitly implied that the 
 so-called head of the Transomes was only the tail 
 of the Durfeys, — and that some said the Durfeys 
 would have died out and left their nest empty if it 
 had not been for their German Cozen. 
 • Johnson had not dared to use any recollections 
 except such as might credibly exist in other minds 
 besides his own. In the truth of the case, no one 
 but himself had the prompting to recall these out- 
 worn scandals ; but it was likely enough that such 
 foul-winged things should be revived by election 
 heats for Johnson to escape all suspicion. 
 
 Christian could gather only dim and uncertain 
 inferences from this flat irony and heavy joking ; 
 but one chief thing was clear to him. He had been 
 right in his conjecture that Jermyn's interest about 
 Bycliffe had its source in some claim of Bycliffe's 
 on the Transome property. And then, there was 
 that story of the old bill-sticker's, which, closely
 
 THE RADICAL. 215 
 
 considered, indicated that the right of the present 
 Transomes depended, or at least had depended, on 
 the continuance of some other lives. Christian in 
 his time had gathered enough legal notions to be 
 aware that possession by one man sometimes de- 
 pended on the life of another ; that a man might 
 sell his own interest in property, and the interest of 
 his descendants, while a claim on that property 
 would still remain to some one else than the pur- 
 chaser, supposing the descendants became extinct, 
 and the interest they had sold were at an end. But 
 under what conditions the claim might be valid or 
 void in any particular case, was all darkness to 
 him. Suppose Bycliffe had any such claim on the 
 Transome estates : how was Christian to know 
 whether at the present moment it was worth any- 
 thing more than a bit of rotten parchment? Old 
 Tommy Trounsem had said that Johnson knew all 
 about it. But even if Johnson were still above- 
 ground — and all Johnsons are mortal — he might 
 still be an understrapper of Jermyn's, in which 
 case his knowledge would be on the wrong side of 
 the hedge for the purposes of Henry Scaddon. His 
 immediate care must be to find out all he could 
 about Johnson. He blamed himself for not having 
 questioned Tommy further while he had him at
 
 216 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 command; hut on this head the hill-sticker could 
 hardly know more than the less dilapidated deni- 
 zens of Treby. 
 
 Now it had happened that during the weeks in 
 which Christian had been at work in trying to 
 solve the enigma of Jermyn's interest about Bycliffe, 
 Johnson's mind also had been somewhat occupied 
 with suspicion and conjecture as to new information 
 on the subject of the old Bycliffe claims whicli 
 Jermyn intended to conceal from him. The letter 
 which, after his interview with Christian, Jermyn 
 had written with a sense of perfect safety to his 
 faithful ally Johnson, was, as we know, written to a 
 Johnson who had found his self-love incompatible 
 with that faithfulness of which it was supposed to 
 be the foundation. Anything that the patron felt 
 it inconvenient for his obliged friend and servant to 
 know, became by that very fact an object of pecu- 
 liar curiosity. The obliged friend and servant 
 secretly doated on his patron's inconvenience, pro- 
 vided that he himself did not share it ; and conjec- 
 ture naturally became active. 
 
 Johnson's legal imagination, being very difiFerently 
 furnished from Christian's, was at no loss to con- 
 ceive conditions under which there might arise a 
 new claim on the Transonic estates. He had before
 
 THE KADICAL. 217 
 
 him the whole history of the settlement of those 
 estates made a hundred years ago by John Justus 
 Transome, entailing them, whilst in his possession, 
 on his son Thomas and his heirs -male, with re- 
 mainder to the Bycliffes in fee. He knew that 
 Thomas, son of John Justus, proving a prodigal, 
 had, without the knowledge of his father, the tenant 
 in possession, sold his own and his descendants' 
 rights to a lawyer - cousin named Durfey ; that, 
 therefore, the title of the Durfey-Transomes, in spite 
 of that old Durfey 's tricks to show the contrary, 
 depended solely on the purchase of the " base fee" 
 thus created by Thomas Transome ; and that the 
 Bycliffes were the "remainder-men" who might 
 fairly oust the Durfey-Transomes if ever the issue of 
 the prodigal Thomas went clean out of existence, 
 and ceased to represent a right which he had bar- 
 gained away from them. 
 
 Johnson, as Jermyn's subordinate, had been 
 closely cognisant of the details concerning the suit 
 instituted by successive Bycliffes, of whom Maurice 
 Christian Bycliffe was the last, on the plea that the 
 extinction of Thomas Transome's line had actually 
 come to pass — a weary suit, which had eaten into 
 the fortunes of two families, and had only made 
 the cankerworms fat. The suit had closed with the
 
 218 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 death of Maurice Christian Bycliffe in prison ; but 
 before his death, Jerniyn's exertions to get evidence 
 that there was still issue of Thomas Transome's line 
 surviving, as a security of the Durfey title, had 
 issued in the discovery of a Thomas Transome at 
 Littleshaw, in Stonyshire, who was the representa- 
 tive of a pawned inheritance. The death of Maurice 
 had made this discovery useless — had made it seem 
 the wiser part to say nothing about it; and the 
 fact had remained a secret known only to Jerniyn 
 and Johnson. No other Bycliffe was known or 
 believed to exist, and the Durfey-Transomes might 
 be considered safe, unless — yes, there was an 
 " unless" which Johnson could conceive : an heir 
 or heiress of the Bycliffes — if such a personage 
 turned out to be in existence — might some time 
 raise a new and valid claim when once informed 
 that wretched old Tommy Trounsem the bill-sticker, 
 tottering drunkenly on the edge of the grave, was 
 the last issue remaining above ground from that 
 dissolute Thomas who played his Esau part a 
 century before. While the poor old bill-sticker 
 breathed, the Durfey-Transomes could legally keep 
 their possession in spite of a possible Bycliffe proved 
 real ; but not when the parish had buried the bill- 
 sticker.
 
 THE RADICAL. 219 
 
 Still, it is one thing to conceive conditions, and 
 another to see any chance of proving their existence. 
 Johnson at present had no glimpse of sucli a chance ; 
 and even if he ever gained the glimpse, he was not 
 sure that he should ever make any use of it. His 
 inquiries of Medwin, in obedience to Jermyn's 
 letter, had extracted only a negative as to any infor- 
 mation possessed by the lawyers of Bycliffe concern- 
 ing a marriage, or expectation of offspring on his 
 part. But Johnson felt not the less stung by curi- 
 osity to know what Jermyn had found out : that he 
 had found something in relation to a possible By- 
 cliffe, Johnson felt pretty sure. And he thought 
 with satisfaction that Jermyn could not hinder him 
 from knowing what he already knew about Thomas 
 Transome's issue. Many things might occur to alter 
 Iiis policy and give a new value to facts. Was it 
 certain that Jermyn would always be fortunate ? 
 
 When greed and unscrupulousness exhibit them- 
 selves on a grand historical scale, and there is ques- 
 tion of peace or war or amicable partition, it often 
 occurs that gentlemen of higli diplomatic talents 
 liave their minds bent on the same object from 
 different points of view. Each, perhaps, is thinking 
 of a certain duchy or province, with a view to arrang- 
 ing the ownership in such a way as shall best serve
 
 220 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 tlie purposes of the gentleman with liigh diplomatic 
 talents in whom each is more especially interested. 
 But these select minds in high office can never miss 
 their aims from ignorance of each other's existence 
 or whereabouts. Their high titles may be learned 
 even by common people from every pocket almanac. 
 But with meaner diplomatists, who might be 
 mutually useful, such ignorance is often obstructive, 
 Mr John Johnson and Mr Christian, otherwise 
 Henry Scaddon, might have had a concentration of 
 purpose and an ingenuity of device fitting them 
 to make a figure in the parcelling of Europe, and 
 yet they might never have met, simply because 
 Johnson knew nothing of Christian, and because 
 Christian did not know where to find Johnson.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 His nature is too noble for the work! : 
 
 He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, 
 
 Or Jove for his power to thunder. His heart's his mouth : 
 
 What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; 
 
 And, being angry, doth forget that ever 
 
 He heard the name of death. — Coriolanvs. 
 
 CiiEiSTiAN and Johnson did meet, however, by 
 means that were quite incalculable. The inci- 
 dent which brouoht them into communication was 
 due to Felix Holt, who of all men in the world had 
 the least affinity either for the industrious or the 
 idle parasite. 
 
 Mr Lyon had urged Felix to go to Duffield on 
 the inth of December, to witness the nomination of 
 the candidates for North Loamshire. The minister 
 wished to hear what took place ; and the pleasure 
 of gratifying him helped to outweigh some opposing 
 reasons. 
 
 " I shall get into a rage at something or other," 
 Felix had said. " Fve told you one of my weak
 
 222 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 points. Where I have any particular business, I 
 must incur the risks my nature brings. But I've 
 no particular business at Duffield. However, I'll 
 make a holiday and go. By dint of seeing folly, I 
 shall get lessons in patience." 
 
 The weak point to which Felix referred was his 
 liability to be carried completely out of his own 
 mastery by indignant anger. His strong health, 
 his renunciation of selfish claims, his habitual pre- 
 occupation with large thoughts and with purposes 
 independent of everyday casualties, secured him a 
 fine and even temper, free from moodiness or irrita- 
 bility. He was full of long-suffering towards his 
 unwise mother, who "pressed him daily with her 
 words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed ;" 
 he had chosen to fill his days in a way that required 
 the utmost exertion of patience, that required those 
 little rill -like out -Sowings of goodness which in 
 minds of great energy must be fed from deep 
 sources of thought and passionate devotedness. In 
 this way his energies served to make him gentle ; 
 and now, in this twenty-sixth year of his life, they 
 had ceased to make him angry, except in the pres- 
 ence of something that roused his deep indignation. 
 When once exasperated, the passionateness of his 
 nature threw off the yoke of a long-trained con-
 
 THE KADICAL. 223 
 
 sciousness in which thought and emotion had been 
 more and more completely mingled, and concen- 
 trated itself in a rage as ungovernable as that of 
 boyhood. He was thoroughly aware of the liability, 
 and knew that in such circumstances he could not 
 answer for himself. Sensitive people with feeble 
 frames have often the same sort of fury within 
 them ; but they are themselves shattered, and 
 shatter nothinsT;. Felix had a terrible arm : he 
 knew that he was dangerous ; and he avoided the 
 conditions that might cause him exasperation, as he 
 would have avoided intoxicating drinks if he had 
 been in danger of intemperance. 
 
 The nomination-day was a great epoch of success- 
 ful trickery, or, to speak in a more parliamentary 
 manner, of war-stratagem, on the part of skilful 
 agents. And Mr Johnson had his share of inward 
 chuckling and self-approval, as one who might 
 justly expect increasing renown, and be some day 
 in as general request as the great Putty himself. 
 To have the pleasure and the praise of electioneering 
 ingenuity, and also to get paid for it, without too 
 much anxiety whether the ingenuity will achieve its 
 ultimate end, perhaps gives to some select persons 
 a sort of satisfaction in their superiority to their 
 more agitated fellow-men that is worthy to be
 
 224 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 classed with those generous enjoyments of having 
 the truth chiefly to yourself, and of seeing others in 
 danger of drowning while you are high and dry, 
 which seem to have been regarded as unmixed pri- 
 vileges by Lucretius and Lord Bacon. 
 
 One of Mr Johnson's great successes was this. 
 Spratt, the hated manager of the Sproxton ColKery, 
 in careless confidence that the colliers and other 
 labourers under him would follow his orders, had 
 provided carts to carry some loads of voteless enthu- 
 siasm to Duffield on behalf of Garstin ; enthusiasm 
 which, being already paid for by the recognised 
 benefit of Garstin's existence as a capitalist with a 
 share in the Sproxton mines, was not to cost much 
 in the form of treating. A capitalist was held 
 worthy of pious honour as the cause why working 
 men existed. But Mr Spratt did not sufficiently 
 consider that a cause which has to be proved by 
 argument or testimony is not an object of passion- 
 ate devotion to colliers : a visible cause of beer 
 acts on them much more strongly. And even if 
 there had been any love of the far-off Garstin, hatred 
 of the too-immediate Spratt would have been the 
 stronger motive. Hence Johnson's calculations, made 
 long ago with Chubb, the remarkable publican, had 
 been well founded, and there had been diligent care
 
 THE KADICAL. 225 
 
 to supply treating at Duffield in the name of Tran- 
 some. After the election was over, it was not im- 
 probable that there would be much friendly joking 
 between Putty and Johnson as to the success of this 
 trick against Putty's employer, and Johnson would 
 be conscious of rising in the opinion of his cele- 
 brated senior. 
 
 For the show of hands and the cheering, the hus- 
 tling and the pelting, the roaring and the hissing, 
 the hard hits with small missiles, and the soft hits 
 with small jokes, were strong enough on the side of 
 Transome to balance the similar " demonstrations " 
 for Garstin, even with the Debarry interest in his 
 favour. And the inconvenient presence of Spratt 
 was early got rid of by a dexterously managed acci- 
 dent, which sent him bruised and limping from the 
 scene of action. Mr Chubb had never before felt 
 so thoroughly that the occasion was up to a level 
 with his talents, while the clear daylight in which 
 his virtue would appear when at the election he 
 voted, as his duty to himself bound him, for Garstin 
 only, gave him thorough repose of conscience. 
 
 Felix Holt was the only person looking on at the 
 senseless exhibitions of this nomination-day, who 
 knew from the beginning the history of the trick 
 with the Sproxton men. He had been aware all 
 
 VOL. II. -P
 
 226 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 along that the treating at Chubb's had been con- 
 tinued, and that so far Harold Transome's promise 
 had produced no good fruits ; and what he was 
 observing to-day, as he watched the uproarious 
 crowd, convinced him that the whole scheme would 
 be carried out just as if he had never spoken about 
 it. He could be fair enough to Transome to allow 
 that he might have wished, and yet have been 
 unable, with his notions of success, to keep his 
 promise ; and his bitterness towards the candidate 
 only took the form of contemptuous pity ; for Felix 
 was not sparing in his contempt for men who put 
 their inward honour in pawn by seeking the prizes 
 of the world. His scorn fell too readily on the 
 fortunate. But when he saw Johnson passing to 
 and fro, and speaking to Jermyn on the hustings, 
 he felt himself getting angry, and jumped off the 
 wheel of the stationary cart on which he was 
 mounted, that he might no longer be in sight of 
 this man, whose vitiating cant had made his blood 
 hot and his fingers tingle on the first day of en- 
 countering him at Sproxton. It was a little too 
 exasperating to look at this pink -faced rotund 
 specimen of prosperity, to witness the power for 
 evil that lay in his vulgar cant, backed by another 
 man's money, and to know that such stupid iniquity
 
 THE RADICAL. 227 
 
 flourislied the flags of Eeform, and Liberalism, and 
 justice to the needy. While the roaring and the 
 scuffling were still going on, Felix, with his thick 
 stick in his hand, made his way through the crowd, 
 and walked on through the Duffield streets till he 
 came out on a grassy suburb, where the houses 
 surrounded a small common. Here he walked 
 about in the breezy air, and ate his bread and 
 apples, telling himself that this angry haste of his 
 about evils that could only be remedied slowly, 
 could be nothing else than obstructive, and might 
 some day — he saw it so clearly that the thought 
 seemed like a presentiment — be obstructive of his 
 own work. 
 
 "Not to waste energy, to apply force where it 
 would tell, to do small work close at hand, not wait- 
 ing for speculative chances of heroism, but prepar- 
 ing for them" — these were the rules he had been 
 constantly urging on himself But what could be a 
 greater waste than to beat a scoundrel who had law 
 and opodeldoc at command ? After this meditation, 
 Felix felt cool and wise enough to return into the 
 toAvn, not, however, intending to deny himself the 
 satisfaction of a few pungent words wherever there 
 was place for them. Blows are sarcasms turned stu- 
 pid : wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest.
 
 228 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Anything that conkl be called a crowd was no 
 longer to be seen. Tlie show of hands having 
 been pronounced to be in favour of Debarry and 
 Transome, and a poll having been demanded for 
 Garstin, the business of the day might be con- 
 sidered at an end. But in the street where the 
 hustings were erected, and where the great hotels 
 stood, there were many groups, as well as strollers 
 and steady walkers to and fro. Men in superior 
 gTeatcoats and well -brushed hats were awaiting 
 with more or less impatience an important dinner, 
 either at the Crown, which was Debarry's house, 
 or at the Three Cranes, which was Garstin's, or 
 at the Fox and Hounds, which was Transome's. 
 Knots of sober retailers, who had already dined, 
 were to be seen at some shop-doors; men in very 
 shabby coats and miscellaneous head-coverings, in- 
 habitants of Duffield and not county voters, were 
 lounging about in dull silence, or listening, some to 
 a grimy man in a flannel sliirt, hatless and with 
 turbid red hair, who was insisting on political 
 points with much more ease than had seemed to 
 belong to the gentlemen speakers on the hustings, 
 and others to a Scotch vendor of articles useful to 
 sell, whose unfamiliar accent seemed to have a 
 guarantee of truth in it wanting as an association
 
 THE RADICAL. 229 
 
 with everyday English. Some rough- looking pipe- 
 smokers, or distinguished cigar-smokers, chose to 
 "walk up and down in isolation and silence. But the 
 majority of those who had shown a burning interest 
 in the nomination had disappeared, and cockades 
 no longer studded a close-pressed crowd, like, and 
 also very unlike, meadow flowers among the grass. 
 The street pavement was strangely painted with 
 fragments of perishable missiles ground flat under 
 heavy feet : but the workers were resting from their 
 toil, and the buzz and tread and the fitfully dis- 
 cernible voices seemed like stillness to Felix after 
 the roar with which the M'ide space had been filled 
 when he left it. 
 
 The group round the speaker in the flannel shirt 
 stood at the corner of a side-street, and the speaker 
 himself was elevated by the head and shoulders 
 above his hearers, not because he was tall, but be- 
 cause he stood on a projecting stone. At the oppo- 
 site corner of the turning was the great inn of the 
 Fox and Hounds, and this was the ultra-Liberal quar- 
 ter of the Higli Street. Felix was at once attracted 
 by this group; he liked the look of the speaker, 
 whose bare arms were powerfully muscular, though 
 he had the pallid complexion of a man who lives 
 chieflv amidst the heat of furnaces. He was leaning
 
 230 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 against the dark stone building behind him with 
 folded arms, the grimy paleness of his shirt and skin 
 standing out in high relief against the dark stone 
 building behind him. He lifted up one fore-finger, 
 and marked his emphasis with it as he spoke. His 
 voice was high and not strong, but Felix recognised 
 the fluency and the method of a habitual preacher 
 or lecturer. 
 
 " It's the fallacy of all monopolists," he was saying. 
 "We know what monopolists are: men who want 
 to keep a trade all to themselves, under the pretence 
 that they'll furnish the public with a better article. 
 We know what that comes to: in some countries a 
 poor man can't afford to buy a spoonful of salt, and 
 yet there's salt enough in the world to pickle every 
 living thing in it. That's the sort of benefit mono- 
 polists do to mankind. And these are the men who 
 tell us we're to let politics alone ; they'll govern us 
 better without our knowing anything about it. We 
 must ndnd our business; we are ignorant; we've no 
 time to study great questions. But I tell them this: 
 the greatest question in the world is, how to give 
 
 every man a man's share in what goes on in life " 
 
 "Hear, hear!" said Felix, in his sonorous voice, 
 which seemed to give a new impressiveness to what 
 the speaker had said. Every one looked at him :
 
 THE RADICAL. 231 
 
 the well-washed face and its educated expression 
 along with a dress more careless than that of 
 most well-to-do workmen on a holiday, made his 
 appearance strangely arresting. 
 
 " Not a pig's share," the speaker went on, " not 
 a horse's share, not the share of a macliine fed with 
 oil only to make it work and nothing else. It 
 isn't a man's share just to mind your pin-making, 
 or your glass-blowing, and higgle about your own 
 wages, and bring up your family to be ignorant 
 sons of ignorant fathers, and no better prospect; 
 that's a slave's share ; we want a freeman's share, 
 and that is to think and speak and act about what 
 concerns us all, and see whether these fine gentle- 
 men who undertake to govern us are doing the Ijest 
 they can for us. They've got the knowledge, say 
 they. Very well, we've got the wants. There's 
 many a one would be idle if hunger didn't pinch 
 him ; but the stomach sets us to work. There's a 
 fable told where the nobles are the belly and the 
 people the members. But I make another sort of 
 fable. I say, we are the belly that feels the pinches, 
 and we'll set these aristocrats, these great people 
 who call themselves our brains, to work at some 
 way of satisfying us a bit better. The aristocrats 
 are pretty sure to try and govern for their own
 
 232 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 benefit ; but how are we to be sure they'll try and 
 govern for ours ? They must be looked after, I 
 think, like other workmen. We must have what 
 we call inspectors, to see whether the work's well 
 done for us. We want to send our inspectors to 
 Parliament. AVell, they say — you've got the Ee- 
 form Bill ; what more can you want ? Send your 
 inspectors. But I say, the Eeform Bill is a trick — 
 it's nothing but swearing-in special constables to 
 keep the aristocrats safe in their monopoly ; it's brib- 
 ing some of the people with votes to make them hold 
 their tongues about giving votes to the rest. I say, 
 if a man doesn't beg or steal, but works for his bread, 
 the poorer and the more miserable he is, the more 
 he'd need have a vote to send an inspector to Par- 
 liament — else the man who is worst off is likely to 
 be forgotten ; and I say, lie's the man who ought to 
 be first remembered. Else what does their religion 
 mean? Wliy do they build churches and endow 
 them that their sons may get paid well for preach- 
 ing a Saviour, and making themselves as little like 
 Him as can be ? If I want to believe in Jesus 
 Christ, I must shut my eyes for fear I should see a 
 parson. And what's a bishop ? A bishop's a parson 
 dressed up, who sits in the House of Lords to help 
 and throw out Eeform Bills. And because it's hard
 
 THE RADICAL. 233 
 
 to get anything in the shape of a man to dress him- 
 self up like that, and do such work, they give him a 
 palace for it, and plenty of thousands a-year. And 
 then they cry out — ' The Church is in danger,' — ' the 
 poor man's Church.' And why is it the poor man's 
 Church ? Because he can have a seat for nothing. 
 I think it is for nothing ; for it would be hard to 
 tell what he gets by it. If the poor man had a vote 
 in the matter, I think he'd choose a different sort of 
 a Church to what that is. But do you think the 
 aristocrats will ever alter it, if the belly doesn't 
 pinch them? Not they. It's part of their mon- 
 opoly. They'll supply us with our religion like 
 everything else, and get a profit on it. They'll give 
 us plenty of heaven. We may have land there. 
 That's the sort of religion they like — a religion that 
 gives us working men heaven, and nothing else. 
 But we'll offer to change with 'em. We'll give them 
 back some of their heaven, and take it out in some- 
 thing for us and our children in this world. They 
 don't seem to care so much about heaven themselves 
 till they feel the gout very bad ; but you won't get 
 them to give up anything else, if you don't pinch 
 'em for it. And to pinch them enough, we must 
 get the suffrage, we must get votes, that we may 
 send the men to Parliament who will do our
 
 234 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 work for us ; and we must have Parliament dis- 
 solved every year, that we may change our man if 
 he doesn't do what we want him to do; and we 
 must have the country divided so that the little 
 kings of the counties can't do as they like, but must 
 he shaken up in one bag with us. I say, if we 
 working men are ever to get a man's share, we must 
 have universal suffrage, and annual Parliaments, 
 and the vote by ballot, and electoral districts." 
 
 "No! — something else before all that," said Felix, 
 again startling the audience into looking at him. 
 But the speaker glanced coldly at him and went on. 
 
 " That's what Sir Francis Burdett went in for 
 fifteen years ago ; and it's the right thing for us, if 
 it was Tomfool who went in for it. You must lay 
 hold of such handles as you can. I don't believe 
 much in Liberal aristocrats ; but if there's any fine . 
 carved gold-headed stick of an aristocrat will make 
 a broomstick of himself, I'll lose no time but I'll 
 sweep with him. And that's what I think about 
 Transome. And if any of you have acquaintance 
 among county voters, give 'em a hint that you wish 
 'em to vote for Transome." 
 
 At the last word, the speaker stepped down from 
 his slight eminence, and walked away rapidly, like 
 a man whose leisure was exhausted, and who must
 
 THE RADICAL. 235 
 
 go about his business. But lie had left an appetite 
 in his audience for further oratory, and one of them 
 seemed to express a general sentiment as he turned 
 inunediately to Felix, and said, " Come, sir, what do 
 you say ?" 
 
 Felix did at once what he would very likely have 
 done without being asked — he stepped on to the 
 stone, and took off his cap by an instinctive prompt- 
 icg that always led him to speak uncovered. The 
 eifect of his fioure in relief against the stone back- 
 ground was unlike that of the previous speaker. He 
 was considerably taller, his head and neck were 
 more massive, and the expression of his mouth and 
 eyes was something very different from the mere 
 acuteness and rather hard-lipped antagonism of the 
 trades-union man. Felix Holt's face had the look 
 of habitual meditative abstraction from objects 
 of mere personal vanity or desire, which is the 
 peculiar stamp of culture, and makes a very rough- 
 ly-cut face worthy to be called " the human face 
 divine." Even lions and dogs know a distinction 
 between men's glances ; and doubtless those Duffield 
 men, in the expectation with which they looked 
 up at Felix, w^ere unconsciously inHuenced by the 
 grandeur of his full yet firm mouth, and the calm 
 clearness of his grey eyes, which were somehow
 
 236 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 unlike wliat tliey were accustomed to see along with 
 an old brown velveteen coat, and an absence of chin- 
 propping. When he began to speak, the contrast 
 of voice was still stronger than that of appearance. 
 The man in the flannel shirt Iiad not been heard — 
 had probably not cared to be heard — beyond the im- 
 mediate group of listeners. But Felix at once drew 
 the attention of persons comparatively at a distance. 
 "In my opinion," he said, almost the moment 
 after he was addressed, "that was a true word 
 spoken by your friend when he said the great 
 question was how to give every man a man's share 
 in life. But I think he expects voting to do more 
 towards it than I do. I want the working men to 
 have power. I'm a working man myself, and I don't 
 want to be anything else. But there are two sorts 
 of power. There's a power to do mischief — to undo 
 what has been done with great expense and la.bour, 
 to waste and destroy, to be cruel to the weak, to lie 
 and quarrel,. and to talk poisonous nonsense. That's 
 the sort of power that ignorant numbers have. It 
 never made a joint stool or planted a potato. Do 
 you think it's likely to do much towards governing 
 a great country, and making wise laws, and giving 
 shelter, food, and clothes to millions of men ? Ignorant 
 power comes in the end to the same thing as wicked
 
 THE EADICAL. 237 
 
 power ; it makes misery. It's another sort of power 
 
 that I want us working men to have, and I can see 
 
 plainly enough that our all having votes will do little 
 
 towards it at present. I hope we, or the children 
 
 that come after us, will get plenty of political power 
 
 some time. I tell everybody plainly, I hope there 
 
 will be great changes, and that some time, Avhether 
 
 we live to see it or not, men will have come to be 
 
 ashamed of things they're proud of now. But I 
 
 should like to convince you that votes Avould never 
 
 give you political power worth having while things 
 
 are as they are now, and that if you go the right 
 
 way to work you may get power sooner without 
 
 votes. Perhaps all you who hear me are sober men, 
 
 who try to learn as much of the nature of things as 
 
 you can, and to be as little like fools as possible. 
 
 A fool or idiot is one who expects things to happen 
 
 that never can happen ; he pours milk into a can 
 
 without a bottom, and expects the milk to stay there. 
 
 The more of such vain expectations a man has, the 
 
 more he is of a fool or idiot. And if any working 
 
 man expects a vote to do for him what it never can 
 
 do, he's foolish to that amount, if no more. I think 
 
 that's clear enough, eh?" 
 
 " Hear, hear," said several voices, but they were 
 not those of the original group; they belonged to
 
 238 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 some strollers who had been attracted by Felix 
 Holt's vibrating voice, and were Tories from the 
 Crown. Among them was Christian, who was 
 smoking a cigar with a pleasure he always felt in 
 being among people who did not know him, and 
 doubtless took him to be somethino: higher than he 
 really was. Hearers from the Fox and Hounds 
 also were slowly adding themselves to the nucleus. 
 Felix, accessible to the pleasure of being listened 
 to, went on with more and more animation : 
 
 "The way to^get rid of folly is to get rid of vain 
 expectations, and of thoughts that don't agree with 
 the nature of things. The men who have had true 
 thoughts about water, and what it will do when it 
 is turned into steam and under all sorts of circum- 
 stances, have made themselves a great power in the 
 world: they are turning the wheels of engines that 
 will help to change most things. But no engines 
 would have done, if there had been false notions 
 about the way water would act. Now, all the 
 schemes about voting, and districts, and annual 
 Parliaments, and the rest, are engines, and the 
 water or steam — the force that is to work them — 
 must come out of human nature — out of men's 
 passions, feelings, desires. Whether the engines 
 will do good work or bad depends on these feel-
 
 THE RADICAL. 239 
 
 ings ; and if we have false expectations about men's 
 characters, we are very much like the idiot who 
 thinks he'll carry milk in a can without a bottom. 
 In my opinion, the notions about what mere voting 
 will do are very much of that sort." 
 
 " That's very fine," said a man in dirty fustian, 
 with a scornful laugh. "But liow are we to get 
 the powder without votes?" 
 
 "I'll tell you what's the greatest power under 
 heaven," said Felix, " and that is public opinion — 
 the ruling belief in society about what is right and 
 what is wrong, what is honourable and what is 
 shameful. That's the steam that is to work the 
 engines. How can political freedom make us bet- 
 ter, any more than a religion we don't believe in, if 
 people laugh and wink when they see men abuse 
 and defile it ? And while public opinion is what 
 it is — while men have no better beliefs about public 
 duty — while corruption is not felt to be a damning 
 disgrace — while men are not ashamed in Parlia- 
 ment and out of it to make public questions which 
 concern the welfare of millions a mere screen for 
 their own petty private ends, — I say, no fresh scheme 
 of voting will much mend our condition. For, take 
 us working men of all sorts. Suppose out of every 
 hundred who had a vote there were thirty who had
 
 240 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 some soberness, some sense to choose with, some 
 good feeling to make them wish the right thing 
 for all. And suppose there were seventy out of 
 the hundred who wei-e, lialf of them, not sober, 
 who had no sense to choose one thing in politics 
 more than another, and who had so little good 
 feeling in them that they wasted on their own 
 drinking the money that should have helped to 
 feed and clothe their wives and children ; and an- 
 other half of them who, if they didn't drink, were 
 too ignorant or mean or stupid to see any good 
 for themselves better than pocketing a live-shilling 
 piece when it was offered them. Where would be 
 the political power of the thirty sober men ? The 
 power would lie with the seventy drunken and 
 stupid votes; and I'll tell you what sort of men 
 would get the power — what sort of men would end 
 by returning whom they pleased to Parliament." 
 
 Pelix had seen every face around him, and had 
 particularly noticed a recent addition to his audi- 
 ence; but now he looked before him without ap- 
 pearing to fix his glance on any one. In spite of 
 his cooling meditations an hour ago, his pulse was 
 getting quickened by indignation, and the desire 
 to crush what he hated was likely to vent itself 
 in articulation. His tone became more biting.
 
 THE KADICAL. 241 
 
 "They would be men who would undertake to 
 do the business for a candidate, and return him : 
 men who have no real opinions, but who pilfer 
 the words of every opinion, and turn them into a 
 cant wdiich will serve their purpose at the moment ; 
 men who look out for dirty work to make their 
 fortunes by, because dirty work wants little talent 
 and no conscience; men who know all the ins and 
 outs of bribery, because there is not a cranny in 
 their own souls where a bribe can't enter. Such 
 men as these will be the masters wherever there's 
 a majority of voters who care more for money, more 
 for drink, more for some mean little end wdiich 
 is their own and nobody else's, than for anything 
 that has ever been called Eight in the ^\'orld. For 
 suppose there's a poor voter named Jack, who has 
 seven children, and twelve or fifteen shillings a- 
 week wages, perhaps less. Jack can't read — I 
 don't say whose fault that is — he never had the 
 chance to learn ; he knows so little that he perhaps 
 thinks God made the poor-laws, and if anybody 
 said the pattern of the workhouse was laid down 
 in the Testament, he wouldn't be able to contradict 
 them. What is poor Jack likely to do when he 
 sees a smart stranger coming to him, who happens 
 to be just one of those men that I say will be the 
 
 VOL. II. Q
 
 242 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 masters till public opinion gets too hot for them ? 
 He's a middle-sized man, we'll say; stout, with 
 coat upon coat of fine broadcloth, open enough to 
 show a fine gold chain : none of your dark, scowling- 
 men, but one with an innocent pink -and -white 
 skin and very smooth light hair — a most respect- 
 able man, who calls himself Ijy a good, sound, 
 well-known English name — as Green, or Baker, 
 or Wilson, or, let us say, Johnson " 
 
 Felix was interrupted by an explosion of laughter 
 from a majority of the bystanders. Some eyes had 
 been turned on Jolmson, who stood on the right 
 hand of Felix, at the very beginning of the descrip- 
 tion, and these were gradually followed by others, 
 till at last every hearer's attention was fixed on 
 him, and the first burst of laughter from the two 
 or three who knew the attorney's name, let every 
 one sufdciently into the secret to make the amuse- 
 ment common. Johnson, who had kept his ground 
 till his name was mentioned, now turned away, 
 looking unusually white after being unusually red, 
 and feeling by an attorney's instinct for his pocket- 
 book, as if he felt it was a case for taking down the 
 names of witnesses. 
 
 All the well-dressed hearers turned away too, 
 thinking they had had the cream of the speech in
 
 THE RADICAL. 243 
 
 the joke against Johnson, wliicli, as a thing wortli 
 telling, helped to recall them to the scene of 
 dinner. 
 
 " Who is this Johnson ? " said Christian to a 
 young man who had been standing near him, and 
 had been one of the first to laugh. Christian's 
 curiosity had naturally been awakened by what 
 might prove a golden opportunity. 
 
 " — a London attorney. He acts for Transome. 
 That tremendous fellow at the corner there is some 
 red-hot Eadical demagogue, and Johnson has offend- 
 ed him, I suppose ; else he wouldn't have turned in 
 that way on a man of their own party." 
 
 " I had heard there was a Johnson who was an 
 understrapper of Jermyn's," said Christian. 
 
 "Well, so this man may have been for what I 
 know. But he's a London man now— a very bus}^ 
 f(3llow — on his own legs in Bedford Row. Ha ha ! 
 It's capital, though, when these Liberals get a slap 
 in the face from the working men they're so very 
 fond of." 
 
 Another turn along the street enabled Christian 
 to come to a resolution. Having seen Jermyn drive 
 away an hour before, he was in no fear: he walked 
 at once to the Fox and Hounds and asked to speak 
 to Mr Johnson. A brief interview, in which Chris-
 
 244 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 tian ascertained that lie had before him the Johnson 
 mentioned by the bill-sticker, issued in the appoint- 
 ment of a longer one at a later hour ; and before 
 they left Duffield they had come not exactly to a 
 mutual understanding, but to an exchange of in- 
 formation mutually welcome. 
 
 Christian had been very cautious in the commence- 
 ment, only intimating that he knew something im- 
 portant which some chance hints had induced him 
 to think might be interesting to Mr Johnson, but 
 that this entirely depended on how far he had a 
 common interest with Mr Jermyn. Johnson replied 
 that he had much business in which that gentleman 
 was not concerned, Init that to a certain extent 
 they had a common interest. Probably then, Chris- 
 tian observed, the affairs of the Transonic estate 
 were part of the business in which Mr Jermyn and 
 Mr Johnson might be understood to represent each 
 other — in which case he need not detain Mr John- 
 son ? At this hint Johnson could not conceal that 
 he was becoming eager. He had no idea what Chris- 
 tian's information was, but there were many grounds 
 on which Johnson desired to know as much as he 
 could about the Transome affairs independently of 
 Jermyn. By little and little an understanding was 
 arrived at. Christian told of his interview with
 
 THE RADICAL. 245 
 
 Tommy Trounsem, and stated that if Johnson could 
 show him whether the knowledge could have any 
 legal value, he could bring evidence that a legiti- 
 mate child of ByclifFe's existed: he felt certain of his 
 fact, and of his proof. Johnson explained, that in 
 this case the death of the old bill-sticker would give 
 the child the first valid claim to the Bycliffe heir- 
 ship ; that for his own part he should be glad to fur- 
 ther a true claim, but that caution must be observed. 
 How did Christian know that Jermyn was informed 
 on this subject? Christian, more and more con- 
 vinced that Johnson would be glad to counteract 
 Jermyn, at length became explicit about Esther, but 
 still withheld his own real name, and the nature of 
 his relations with Bycliffe. He said he would bring 
 the rest of his information when Mr Johnson took 
 the case up seriously, and placed it in the hands of 
 Bycliffe's old lawyers — of course he would du that? 
 Johnson replied that he would certainly do that ; 
 but that there were legal niceties which ]\Ir Chris- 
 tian was probably not acqviainted with; that Estlier's 
 claim had not yet accrued ; and that hurry was 
 useless. 
 
 The two men parted, each in distrust of the other, 
 but each well pleased to have learned somethinr;- 
 Johnson was not at all sure how he should act, but
 
 246 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 thought it likely that events would soon guide him. 
 Christian was beginning to meditate a way of secur- 
 ing his own ends without depending in the least on 
 Johnson's procedure. It was enough for him that 
 he was now assured of Esther's legal claim on the 
 Transome estates.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 " In the copia of the factious language the word Tory was entertaiued, 
 . . . and being a vocal clever-sounding word, readily pronounced, it kept 
 its hold, and took possession of tlie foul mouths of the faction. . . . The 
 Loyalists began to cheer up and to take heart of grace, and in the working of 
 this crisis, according to the common laws of scolding, they considered which 
 way to make payment for so much of Tory as they had been treated with, to 
 clear scores. . . . Immediately the train took, and ran like wildfire and 
 became general. And so the account of Tory was balanced, and soon began 
 to run up a sharp score on the other side." — North's Exameii, p. 321. 
 
 At last the great epoch of the election for ISTorth 
 Loamshire had arrived. The roads approaching 
 Treby were early traversed by a larger number of 
 vehicles, horsemen, and also foot-passengers, than 
 were ever seen there at tlie annual fair. Treby was 
 the polling-place for many voters whose faces were 
 quite strange in the town ; and if there were some 
 strangers who did not come to poll, though they 
 had business not unconnected with the election, 
 they were not liable to be regarded with suspicion 
 or especial curiosity. It was understood that no 
 division of a county had ever been more thoroughly 
 canvassed, and that there would be a hard run be-
 
 248 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 tween Garstin and Transome. Mr Johnson's head- 
 quarters were at Duffield; but it was a maxim 
 which lie repeated after the great Putty, that a cap- 
 able agent makes himself omnipresent ; and quite 
 apart from the express between him and Jermyn, 
 Mr John Johnson's presence in the universe had 
 potent effects on this December day at Treby 
 Magna. 
 
 A slight drizzling rain which was observed liy 
 some Tories who looked out of their bedroom win- 
 dows before six o'clock, made them hope that, after 
 all, the day might pass off better than alarmists had 
 expected. The rain was felt to be somehow on the 
 side of quiet and Conservatism ; but soon the break- 
 ing of the clouds and the mild gleams of a Decem- 
 ber sun brought l)ack previous apprehensions. As 
 there were already precedents for riot at a Reformed 
 election, and as the Trebian district had had its 
 confidence in the natural course of things somewhat 
 shaken by a landed proprietor with an old name 
 offering himself as a Radical candidate, the election 
 had been looked forward to by many with a vague 
 sense that it would be an occasion something like a 
 fighting match, when bad characters would probably 
 assemble, and there might be struggles and alarms 
 for respectable men, which would make it expedient
 
 THE RADICAL. 249 
 
 for them to take a little neat brandy as a precaution 
 beforeliand and a restorative afterwards. The ten- 
 ants on the Transome estate were comparatively 
 fearless : poor Mr Gofte, of Eabbit's End, considered 
 that " one thing was as mauling as another," and 
 that an election was no worse than the sheep-rot ; 
 while Mr Dibbs, taking the more cheerful view of a 
 prosperous man, reflected that if the Radicals were 
 dangerous, it was safer to be on their side. It was 
 the voters for Debarry and Garstin who considered 
 that they alone had the right to regard themselves 
 as targets for evil-minded men ; and Mr Crowder, if 
 he could have got his ideas countenanced, would 
 have recommended a muster of farm-servants with 
 defensive pitchforks on the side of Church and 
 King. But the Imlder men were rather gratified 
 by the prospect of being groaned at, so that they 
 might face about and groan in return. 
 
 Mr Crow, the high constable of Treby, inwardly 
 rehearsed a 1)rief address to a riotous crowd in case 
 it should be M^anted, having been warned by the 
 Rector that it was a primary duty on these occasions 
 to keep a w^atch against provocation as well as vio- 
 lence. The Rector, with a brotlier magistrate who 
 was on the spot, had thought it desirable to swear 
 in some special constables, but the presence of loyal
 
 250 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 men not absolutely required for tlie polling was not 
 looked at in the light of a provocation. The Bene- 
 fit Clubs from various quarters made a show, some 
 with the orange -coloured ribbons and streamers of 
 the true Tory candidate, some with the mazarine 
 of the Whig. The orange-coloured bands played 
 " Auld Langsyne," and a louder mazarine band came 
 across them with "0 whistle and I will come to 
 thee, my lad " — probably as the time the most sym- 
 bolical of Liberalism wliich their repertory would 
 furnish. There was not a single club bearing the 
 Eadical blue : the Sproxtou Club members wore 
 the mazarine, and Mr Chubb wore so much of it 
 that he looked (at a sufficient distance) like a very 
 large gentianella. It was generally understood that 
 "these brave fellows," representing the fine institution 
 of Benefit Clubs, and holding aloft the motto, " Let 
 brotherly love continue," were a civil force calculat- 
 ed to encourage voters of sound opinions and keep 
 up their spirits. But a considerable number of un- 
 adorned heavy navvies, colliers, and stone-pit men, 
 who used their freedom as British subjects to be 
 present in Treby on this great occasion, looked like 
 a possibly imcivil force whose politics were dubious 
 until it was clearly seen for whom they cheered and 
 for whom they groaned.
 
 THE KADICAL. 251 
 
 Thus the way up to the polling-booths was 
 variously lined, and those who walked it, to what- 
 ever side they belonged, had tlie advantage of hear- 
 ing from the opposite side what were the most 
 marked defects or excesses in their personal ap- 
 pearance; for the Trebians of that day held, without 
 being aware that they had Cicero's authority for 
 it, that the bodily blemishes of an opponent were 
 a legitimate ground for ridicule; but if the voter 
 frustrated wit by being liandsome, he was groaned 
 at and satirised according to a formula, in which 
 the adjective Avas Tory, Whig, or Eadical, as the 
 case might be, and the substantive a blank to be 
 filled up after the taste of the speaker. 
 
 Some of the more timid had chosen to go through 
 this ordeal as early as possible in the morning. 
 One of the earliest was Mr Timothy Eose, the gentle- 
 man-farmer from Leek Malton. He had left home 
 with some foreboding, having swathed his more 
 vital parts in layers of flannel, and put on two 
 greatcoats as a soft kind of armour. But reflecting 
 with some trepidation that there were no resources 
 for protecting his head, he once more wavered in 
 his intention to vote; he once more observed to 
 Mrs Eose that these were hard times when a 
 man of independent property was expected to vote
 
 252 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 " willy-nilly ; " but finally, coerced by the sense 
 that he should be looked ill on "in these times" 
 if he did not stand by the gentlemen round about, 
 he set out in his gig, taking with him a powerful 
 waggoner, v/hom he ordered to keep him in sight 
 as he went to the polling-booth. It was hardly 
 more than nine o'clock when Mr Rose, having thus 
 come up to the level of his times, cheered himself 
 with a little cherry-brandy at the Marquis, drove 
 away in a much more courageous spirit, and got 
 down at Mr Nolan's, just outside the town. The 
 retired Londoner, he considered, was a man of ex- 
 perience, who would estimate properly the judicious 
 course he had taken, and could make it known to 
 others. Mr Nolan was superintending tlie removal 
 of some shrubs in his garden. 
 
 " Well, Mr Nolan," said Rose, twinkling a self- 
 complacent look over the red prominence of his 
 cheeks, "have you been to give your vote yet ?" 
 
 "No; all in good time. I shall go presently." 
 
 "Well, I wouldn't lose an hour, I wouldn't. I 
 said to myself, if I've got to do gentlemen a favour, 
 I'll do it at once. You see, I've got no landlord, 
 Nolan — I'm in that position o' life that I can be 
 independent." 
 
 " Just so, my dear sir," said the wiry-faced Nolan,
 
 THE RADICAL. 253 
 
 pinching his under-lip between his thumb and 
 finger, and giving one of those wonderful universal 
 shrugs, by which he seemed to be recalling all his 
 garments from a tendency to disperse themselves. 
 " Come in and see Mrs Nolan ? " 
 
 " No, no, thankye. Mrs Eose expects me back. 
 But, as I was saying, I'm a independent man, and 
 I consider it's not my part to show favour to one 
 more than another, but to make things as even as 
 I can. If I'd been a tenant to anybody, well, in 
 course I must have voted for my landlord — that 
 stands to sense. But I wish everybody well; and 
 if one's returned to I^arlianient more than another, 
 nobody can say it's my doing ; for when you can 
 vote for two, you can make things even. So I 
 gave one to Debarry and one to Transome; and I 
 wish Garstin no ill, but I can't help the odd num- 
 ber, and he hangs on to Debarry, they say." 
 
 "God bless me, sir," said Mr Nolan, coughing 
 down a laugh, " don't you perceive that you might 
 as well have stayed at home and not voted at all, 
 unless you would rather send a Eadical to Parlia- 
 ment than a sober Whig?" 
 
 " Well, I'm sorry you sliould have anything to 
 say against what I've done, Nolan," said Mr Eose, 
 rather crestfallen, though sustained by inward
 
 254 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 warmth, " I thought you'd agree with me, as 
 you're a sensible man. But the most a iudepen- 
 deut man can do is to try and please all; and if 
 he hasn't the luck — here's wishing I may do it 
 another time," added Mr Kose, apparently con- 
 founding a toast with a salutation, for he put out 
 his hand for a passing shake, and then stepped into 
 his gig again. 
 
 At the time that Mr Timothy Rose left the town, 
 the crowd in King Street and in the market-place, 
 where the polling-booths stood, was fluctuating. 
 Voters as yet were scanty, and brave fellows who 
 had come from any distance this morning, or who 
 had sat up late drinking the night before, required 
 some reinforcement of their strength and spirits. 
 Every public-house in Treby, not excepting the 
 venerable and sombre Cross-Keys, was lively with 
 changing and numerous company. Not, of course, 
 that there was any treating : treating necessarily 
 had stopped, from moral scruples, when once " the 
 writs were out;" but there was drinking, which 
 did equally well under any name. 
 
 Poor Tommy Trounsem, breakfasting here on 
 Falstaffs proportion of bread, and something which, 
 for gentility's sake, I will call sack, was more than 
 usually victorious over the ills of life, and felt him-
 
 THE RADICAL. 255 
 
 self one of the heroes of the day. He had an im- 
 mense light-blue cockade in his hat, and an amount 
 of silver in a dirty little canvass bag which as- 
 tonished himself For some reason, at first in- 
 scrutable to him, he had been paid for his bill- 
 sticking with great liberality at Mr Jermyn's 
 office, in spite of his having been the victim of a 
 trick by which he had once lost his own bills and 
 pasted up Debarry's ; but he soon saw that this was 
 simply a recognition of his merit as " an old family 
 kept out of its rights," and also of his peculiar 
 share in an occasion when the family was to get 
 into Parliament. Under these circumstances, it 
 was due from him that he should show himself 
 prominently where business was going forward, and 
 give additional value by his presence to every vote 
 for Transome. With this view he got a half-pint 
 bottle filled with his peculiar kind of " sack," and 
 hastened back to the market-place, feeling good- 
 natured and patronising towards all political par- 
 ties, and only so far partial as his family bound 
 him to be. 
 
 But a disposition to concentrate at that extremity 
 of King Street which issued in the uiarket-place 
 was not universal among the increasing crowd. 
 Some of them seemed attracted towards another
 
 256 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 nucleus at the other extremity of King Street, near 
 the Seven Stars. This was Garstin's chief house, 
 where his committee sat, and it was also a point 
 which must necessarily be passed by many voters 
 entering the town on the eastern side. It seemed 
 natural that the mazarine colours should be visible 
 here, and that Pack, the tall "shepherd" of the 
 Sproxton men, should be seen moving to and fro 
 where tliere would be a frequent opportunity of 
 cheering the voters for a gentleman who had the 
 chief share in the Sproxton mines. But the side 
 lanes and entries out of King Street were numerous 
 enough to relieve any pressure if there was need to 
 make way. The lanes had a distinguished reputa- 
 tion. Two of them had odours of brewincj ; one 
 had a side entrance to Mr Tiliot's wine and spirit 
 vaults ; up another Mr Muscat's cheeses were fre- 
 quently being unloaded; and even some of the 
 entries had those cheerful suggestions of plentiful 
 provision which were among the characteristics of 
 Treby. 
 
 Between ten and eleven the voters came in more 
 rapid succession, and the whole scene became 
 spirited. Cheers, sarcasms, and oaths, which 
 seemed to have a flavour of wit for many hearers, 
 were beginning to be reinforced by more practical
 
 THE RADICAL. 257 
 
 demonstrations, dubiously jocose. There was a dis- 
 position in the crowd to close and hem in the way 
 for voters, either going or coming, until they had 
 paid some kind of toll. It was difficult to see who 
 set the example in the transition from words to 
 deeds. Some thought it was due to Jacob Cuff, 
 a Tory charity-man, who was a well-known orna- 
 ment of the pothouse, and gave his mind much 
 leisure for amusing devices ; but questions of origi- 
 nation in stirring periods are notoriously hard to 
 settle. It is by no means necessary in human 
 things that there should be only one beginner. 
 This, however, is certain — that Mr Chubb, who 
 wished it to be noticed that he voted for Garstin 
 solely, was one of the first to get rather more notice 
 than he wished, and that he had his hat knocked 
 off and crushed in the interest of Debarry by Tories 
 opposed to coalition. On tlie other hand, some 
 said it was at the same time that Mr Pink, the 
 saddler, being stopped on his way and made to 
 declare that he was going to vote for Debarry, got 
 himself well chalked as to his coat, and pushed up 
 an entry, where he remained the prisoner of terror 
 combined with the want of any back outlet, and 
 never gave his vote that day. 
 
 The second Tory joke was performed with much 
 VOL. n. R
 
 258 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 gusto. The majority of tlie Transome tenants came 
 in a body from the Eam Inn, with Mr Banks the 
 bailiff leading them. Poor Goffe was the last of 
 them, and his worn melancholy look and forward-, 
 leaning gait gave the jocose Cuff the notion that 
 the farmer was not what he called " compus." Mr 
 Goffe was cut off from his companions and hemmed 
 in ; asked, by voices with hot breath close to his 
 ear, how many horses he had, how many cows, how 
 many fat pigs ; then jostled from one to another, who 
 made trumpets with their hands and deafened him 
 by telling him to vote for Debarry. In this way 
 the melancholy Goffe was hustled on till he was 
 at the polling-booth — filled with confused alarms, 
 the immediate alarm being that of having to go 
 back in still worse fashion than he had come. 
 Arriving in this way after the other tenants had 
 left, he astonished all hearers who knew him for 
 a tenant of the Transomes by saying "Debarry," 
 and was jostled back trembling amid shouts of 
 laughter. 
 
 By stages of this kind the fun grew faster, and 
 was in danger of getting rather serious. The Tories 
 began to feel that their jokes were returned by 
 others of a heavier sort, and that the main strength 
 of the crowd was not on the side of sound opinion,
 
 THE RADICAL. 259 
 
 but might come to be on the side of sound cudgel- 
 ling and kicking. The navvies and pitmen in dis- 
 habille seemed to be nmltiplying, and to be clearly 
 not belonging to the party of Order. The shops 
 were freely resorted to for various forms of playful 
 missiles and weapons; and news came to the ma- 
 gistrates, watching from the large window of the 
 Marquis, that a gentleman coming in on horseback 
 at the other end of the street to vote for Garstin 
 had had his horse turned round and frightened 
 into a headlong gallop out of it again. 
 
 Mr Crow and his subordinates, and all the 
 special constables, felt that it was necessary to 
 make some energetic effort, or else every voter 
 would be intimidated and the poll must be ad- 
 journed. The Eector determined to get on horse- 
 back and go amidst the crowd with the constables ; 
 and he sent a message to Mr Lingon, who was at 
 the Eam, calling on him to do the same. " Sporting 
 Jack" was sure the good fellows meant no harm, 
 but he was courageous enough to face any bodily 
 dangers, and rode out in his brown leggings and 
 coloured bandanna, speaking persuasively. 
 
 It was nearly twelve o'clock when this sally was 
 made: the constables and magistrates tried the 
 most pacific measures, and they seemed to succeed.
 
 260 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 There was a rapid thinning of the crowd : the most 
 l)oisterous disappeared, or seemed to do so by 
 becoming quiet ; missiles ceased to fly, and a suffi- 
 cient way was cleared for voters along King Street. - 
 The magistrates returned to their quarters, and the 
 constables took convenient posts of observation. 
 Mr Wace, who was one of Debarry's committee, 
 had suggested to the Eector that it might be wise 
 to send for the military from Duf&eld, with orders 
 that they should station themselves at Hathercote, 
 three miles off : there was so much property in the 
 town that it would be better to make it secure 
 aaainst risks. But the Eector felt that this was 
 not the part of a moderate and wise magistrate, 
 unless the signs of riot recurred. He was a brave 
 man, and fond of thinking that his own authority 
 sufficed for the maintenance of the general good in 
 Treby.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall staud 
 Henceforward iii thy shadow. Never more 
 Alone upon the threshold of my door 
 Of individual life, I shall command 
 The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand 
 Serenely in the sunshine as before 
 Without the sense of that wliich I forbore— 
 Thy touch upon the ]ialm. The widest land 
 Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine 
 With pulses tliat beat double. "What I do 
 And what I dream include thee, as the wine 
 Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue 
 God for myself, He hears that name of thine. 
 And sees within my eyes the tears of two. 
 
 Mrs Browning. 
 
 Felix Holt, seated at his work without his pupils, 
 who had asked for a holiday with a notion that the 
 wooden booths promised some sort of show, noticed 
 about eleven o'clock that the noises which reached 
 him from the main street were getting more and 
 more tumultuous. He had long seen bad auguries 
 for this election, but, like all people who dread the 
 prophetic wisdom that ends in desiring the fulfil- 
 ment of its own evil forebodings, he had checked 
 himself with remembering that, though many condi-
 
 262 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 tions were possible which might bring on violence, 
 there were just as many wliich might avert it. There 
 would, perhaps, be no other mischief than what he 
 was already certain of. With these thoughts he 
 had sat down quietly to his work, meaning not to 
 vex his soul by going to look on at things he would 
 fain have made different if he could. But he was 
 of a fibre that vibrated too strongly to the life 
 around him to shut himself away in quiet, even 
 from suffering and irremediable wrong. As the 
 noises grew louder, and wrought more and more 
 strongly on his imagination, he was obliged to lay 
 down his delicate wheel-work. His mother came 
 from her turnip-paring in the kitchen, where little 
 Job was her companion, to observe that they must 
 be killing everybody in the High Street, and that 
 the election, which had never been before at Treby, 
 must have come for a judgment ; that there were 
 mercies where you didn't look for them, and that 
 she thanked God in His wisdom for making her live 
 up a back street. 
 
 Felix snatched his cap and rushed out. But 
 when he got to the turning into the market- 
 place the magistrates were already on horseback 
 there, the constables were moving about, and Felix 
 observed that there was no strong spirit of resist-
 
 THE RADICAL. 263 
 
 ance to them. He stayed long enough to see the 
 partial dispersion of the crowd and the restoration 
 of tolerable quiet, and then went back to Mrs Holt 
 to tell her that there was nothing to fear now : he 
 was going out again, and she must not be in any 
 anxiety at his absence. She might set by his 
 dinner for him. 
 
 Felix had been thinking of Esther and her pro- 
 bable alarm at the noises that must have reached 
 her more distinctly than they had reached him, for 
 Malthouse Yard was removed but a little way from 
 the main street. Mr Lyon was away from home, 
 having been called to preach charity sermons and 
 attend meetings in a distant town ; and Esther, with 
 the plaintive Lyddy for her sole companion, was not 
 cheerfully circumstanced. Felix had not been to see 
 her yet since her father's departure, but to-day he 
 gave way to new reasons. 
 
 " Miss Esther was in the garret," Lyddy said, try- 
 ing to see what was going on. But before she was 
 fetched she came running down the stairs, drawn 
 by the knock at the door, which had shaken the 
 small dwelling. 
 
 " I am so thankful to see you," she said, eagerly. 
 " Pray come in," 
 
 When she had shut the parlour door behind them,
 
 264 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 Felix said, " I suspected that you might have been 
 made anxious by the noises. I came to tell you that 
 things are quiet now. Though, indeed, you can hear 
 that they are." 
 
 " I was frightened," said Esther. " The shouting 
 and roaring of rude men is so hideous. It is a relief 
 to me that my father is not at home — that he is out 
 of the reach of any danger he might have fallen 
 into if he had been here. But I gave you credit 
 for being in the midst of the danger," she added, 
 smiling, with a determination not to show much 
 feeling. " Sit down and tell me what has hap- 
 pened." 
 
 They sat down at the extremities of the old 
 black sofa, and Felix said, 
 
 " To tell you the truth, I had shut myself up, 
 and tried to be as indifferent to the election as if 
 I'd been one of the fishes in the Lapp, till the 
 noises got too strong for me. But I only saw the 
 tail end of the disturbance. The poor noisy simple- 
 tons seemed to give way before the magistrates and 
 the constables. I hope nobody has been much 
 hurt. The fear is that they may turn out again by- 
 and-by ; their giving way so soon may not be alto- 
 gether a good sign. There's a great number of 
 heavy fellows in the town. If they go and drink
 
 THE RADICAL. 265 
 
 more, the last end may be worse than the first. 
 However " 
 
 Felix broke off, as if this talk were futile, clasped 
 his hands behind his head, and, leaning backward, 
 looked at Esther, who was looking at him. 
 
 " May I stay here a little while ? " he said, after 
 a moment, which seemed long. 
 
 " Pray do," said Esther, colouring. To relieve 
 herself she took some work and bowed her head 
 over her stitching. It was in realitv a little heaven 
 to her that Eelix was there, but she saw beyond it 
 — saw that by-and-by he would be gone, and that 
 they should be farther on their way, not towards 
 meeting, but parting. His will was impregnable. 
 He was a rock, and she was no more to him than 
 the white clinging mist-cloud. 
 
 " I wish I could be sure that you see things just 
 as I do," he said, abruptly, after a minute's silence, 
 
 " I am sure you see them much more wisely than 
 I do," said Esther, almost bitterly, without looking 
 up. 
 
 " There are some people one must wish to judge 
 one truly. Not to wish it would be mere hardness. 
 I know you think I am a man witliout feeling — at 
 least, without strong affections. You think I love 
 nothing but my own resolutions."
 
 266 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 . " Suppose I reply in the same sort of strain?" said 
 Esther, with a little toss of the head. 
 
 " How ? " 
 
 " Why, that you think me a shallow woman, in- 
 capable of believing what is best in you, setting down 
 everything that is too high for me as a deficiency." 
 
 " Don't parry what I say. Answer me." There 
 was an expression of painful beseeching in the tone 
 with which Felix said this. Esther let her work 
 fall on her lap and looked at him, but she was 
 unable to speak. 
 
 " I want you to tell me — once — that you know- 
 it would be easier to me to give myself up to 
 loving and being loved, as other men do, when they 
 can, than to " 
 
 This breaking-off in speech was something quite 
 new in Felix. For the first time he had lost his 
 self-possession, and turned his eyes away. He was 
 at variance with himself He had begun what he 
 felt that he ought not to finish. 
 
 Esther, like a woman as she was — a woman wait- 
 ing for love, never able to ask for it — had her joy 
 in these signs of her power ; but they made her 
 generous, not chary, as they might have done if she 
 had had a pettier disposition. She said, with deep 
 yet timid earnestness.
 
 THE KADICAL. 267 
 
 " What you have chosen to do has only con- 
 vinced me that your love would be the better worth 
 having." 
 
 All the finest part of Esther's nature trembled 
 in those words. To be right in great memorable 
 moments, is perhaps the thing we need most desire 
 for ourselves. 
 
 Felix as quick as lightning turned his look upon 
 her again, and, leaning forward, took her sweet hand 
 and held it to his lips some moments before he let 
 it fall again and raised his head. 
 
 " We shall always be the better for thinking of 
 each other," he said, leaning his elbow on the back 
 of the sofa, and supporting his head as he looked 
 at her with calm sadness. " This thing can never 
 come to me twice over. It is my knighthood. 
 That was always a business of great cost." 
 
 He smiled at her, but she sat biting her inner 
 lip, and pressing her hands together. She desired 
 to be worthy of what she reverenced in Felix, but 
 the inevitable renunciation was too difficult. She 
 saw herself wandering through the future weak and 
 forsaken. The charming sauciness was all gone 
 from her face, but the memory of it made this child- 
 like dependent sorrow all the more touching. 
 
 " Tell me what you would " Felix burst out,
 
 268 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 leaning nearer to her; but the next instant he 
 started up, went to the table, took his cap in his 
 liand, and came in front of her. 
 
 " Good-bye," he said, very gently, not darnig to 
 put out his hand. But Esther put up hers instead 
 of speaking. He just pressed it and then went 
 away. 
 
 She heard the doors close behind him, and felt 
 free to be miserable. She cried bitterly. If she 
 might have married Felix Holt, she could have 
 been a good woman. She felt no trust that she 
 could ever be good without him. 
 
 Felix reproached himself He would have done 
 better not to speak in that way. But the prompting 
 to which he had chiefly listened had been the desire 
 to prove to Esther that he set a high value on her 
 feelings. He could not help seeing that he was 
 very important to her ; and he was too simple and 
 sincere a man to ape a sort of humility which would 
 not have made him any the better if he had pos- 
 sessed it. Such pretences turn our lives into sorry 
 dramas. And Felix wished Esther to know that her 
 love was dear to him as the beloved dead are dear. 
 He felt that they must not marry — that they would 
 ruin each other's lives. But he had longed for her 
 to know fully that his will to be always apart from
 
 THE KADICAL. 269 
 
 her was renunciation, not an easy preference. In 
 this he was thoroughly generous ; and yet, now 
 some subtle, mysterious conjuncture of impressions 
 and circumstances had made him speak, he ques- 
 tioned the wisdom of what he had done. Express 
 confessions give definiteness to memories that might 
 more easily melt away without them; and Felix 
 felt for Esther's pain as the strong soldier, who can 
 march on hungering without fear that he shall faint, 
 feels for the young brother — the maiden -cheeked 
 conscript whose load is too heavy for him.
 
 CHAPTEK XXXIII. 
 
 Mischief, thou art afoot. 
 
 Julius Ccesar. 
 
 Felix could not go home again immediately after 
 quitting Esther. He got out of the town, skirted it 
 a little while, looking across the December stillness 
 of the fields, and then re-entered it by the main road 
 into the market-place, thinking that, after all, it 
 would be better for him to look at the busy doings 
 of men than to listen in solitude to the voices within 
 him ; and he wished to know how things were 
 going on. 
 
 It was now nearly half-past one, and Felix per- 
 ceived that the street was filling with more than the 
 previous crowd. By the time he got in front of the 
 booths, he was himself so surrounded by men who 
 were being thrust hither and thither that retreat 
 would have been impossible ; and he went where he 
 was obliged to go, although his height and strength 
 were above the average even in a crowd where there
 
 FELIX HOLT. 271 
 
 were so many heavy- armed workmen used to the 
 pick-axe. Almost all shabby-coated Trebians must 
 have been there, but the entries and back-streets of 
 the toM'n did not supply the mass of the crowd ; 
 and besides the rural incomers, both of the more 
 decent and the rougher sort, Felix, as he was pushed 
 along, thought he discerned here and there men of 
 that keener aspect which is only common in manu- 
 facturing towns. 
 
 But at present there was no evidence of any dis- 
 tinctly mischievous design. There was only evidence 
 that the majority of the crowd were excited with 
 drink, and that their action could hardly be calcu- 
 lated on more than those of oxen and pigs congre- 
 gated amidst hootings and pushings. The confused 
 deafening shouts, the incidental fighting, the knock- 
 ing over, pulling and scufJfling, seemed to increase 
 every moment. Such of the constables as were 
 mixed with the crowd were quite helpless ; and if 
 an of&cial staff was seen above the heads, it moved 
 about fitfully, showing as little sign of a guiding- 
 hand as the summit of a buoy on the waves. Doubt- 
 less many hurts and bruises had been received, but 
 no one could know the amount of injuries that were 
 widely scattered. 
 
 It was clear that no more voting could be done.
 
 272 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 and the poll had been adjourned. The probabilities 
 of serious mischief had grown strong enough to pre- 
 vail over the Eector's objection to getting military 
 aid within reach; and when Felix re-entered the 
 town, a galloping messenger had already been de- 
 spatched to Duffield. The Eector wished to ride out 
 again, and read the Eiot Act from a point where he 
 could be better heard than from the window of the 
 Marquis; but Mr Crow, the high constable, who 
 had returned from closer observation, insisted that 
 the risk would be too great. New special constables 
 had been sworn in, but Mr Crow said prophetically 
 that if once mischief began, the mob was past caring 
 for constables. 
 
 But the Eector's voice was ringing and penetrat- 
 ing, and when he appeared on the narrow balcony 
 and read the formula, commanding all men to go to 
 their homes or about their lawful business, there 
 was a strong transient effect. Every one within 
 hearing listened, and for a few moments after the 
 final words, " God save the King ! " the comparative 
 silence continued. Then the people began to move, 
 the buzz rose again, and grew, and grew, till it 
 turned to shouts and roaring as before. The move- 
 ment was that of a flood hemmed in ; it carried 
 nobody away. Whether the crowd would obey the
 
 THE RADICAL. 273 
 
 order to disperse themselves within an hour, was a 
 doubt that approached nearer and nearer to a nega- 
 tive certainty. 
 
 Presently Mr Crow, who held himself a tactician, 
 took a well-intentioned step, which went far to fulfil 
 his own prophecy. He had arrived with the magis- 
 trates by a back way at the Seven Stars, and here 
 again the Riot Act was read from a window, with 
 much the same result as before. The Rector had 
 returned by the same way to the Marquis, as the 
 headquarters most suited for administration, but 
 Mr Crowe remained at the other extremity of King 
 Street, where some awe-striking presence was cer- 
 tainly needed. Seeing that the time was passing, 
 and all effect from the voice of law had disappeared, 
 he showed himself at an upper window, and ad- 
 dressed the crowd, telling them that the soldiers 
 had been sent for, and that if they did not disperse 
 they would have cavalry upon them instead of con- 
 stables. 
 
 Mr Crow, like some other high constables more 
 celebrated in history, " enjoyed a bad reputation ; " 
 that is to say, he enjoyed many things which caused 
 his reputation to be bad, and he was anything but 
 popular in Treby, It is probable that a pleasant 
 message would have lost something from his lips, 
 
 VOL. IL s
 
 274 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 and what lie actually said was so unpleasant, that, 
 instead of persuading the crowd, it appeared to 
 enrage them. Some one, snatching a raw potato 
 from a sack in the greengrocer's shop behind him, 
 threw it at the constable, and hit him on the mouth. 
 Straightway raw potatoes and turnips were flying by 
 twenties at the windows of the Seven Stars, and the 
 panes were smashed. Felix, who was half-way up 
 the street, heard the voices turning to a savage roar, 
 and saw a rush towards the hardware shop, which 
 furnished more effective weapons and missiles than 
 turnips and potatoes. Then a cry ran along that 
 the Tories had sent for the soldiers, and if those 
 among the mob who called themselves Tories as 
 willingly as anything else were disposed to take 
 whatever called itself the Tory side, they only 
 helped the main result of reckless disorder. 
 
 But there were proofs that the predominant will 
 of the crowd was against " Debarry's men," and in 
 favour of Transome. Several shops were invaded, 
 and they were all of them "Tory shops." The 
 tradesmen who could do so, now locked their doors 
 and barricaded their windows within. There was 
 a panic among the householders of this hitherto 
 peaceful town, and a general anxiety for the mili- 
 tary to arrive. The Eector was in painful anxiety
 
 THE RADICAL. 275 
 
 on this head : he had sent out two messengers as 
 secretly as he could towards Hathercote, to order 
 the soldiers to ride straight to the town ; but he 
 feared that these messengers had been somehow 
 intercepted. 
 
 It was three o'clock : more than an hour had 
 elapsed since the reading of the Kiot Act. The 
 Rector of Treby Magna wrote an indignant message 
 and sent it to the Earn, to Mr Lingon, the Eector 
 of Little Treby, saying that there was evidently a 
 Radical animus in the mob, and that Mr Transome's 
 party should hold themselves peculiarly responsible. 
 Where w^as Mr Jermyn ? 
 
 Mr Lingon replied that he was going himself out 
 towards Duffield to see after the soldiers. As for 
 Jermyn, he was not that attorney's sponsor : he be- 
 lieved that Jermyn was gone away somewhere on 
 business — to fetch voters. 
 
 A serious effort was now being made by all the 
 civil force at command. The December day w^ould 
 soon be passing into evening, and all disorder would 
 be aggravated by obscurity. The horrors of fire 
 were as likely to happen as any minor evil. The 
 constables, as many of them as could do so, armed 
 themselves with carbines and sabres : all the respect- 
 able inhabitants who had any courage, prepared
 
 276 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 themselves to struggle for order ; and many felt 
 with Mr Wace and Mr Tiliot that the nearest duty 
 was to defend the breweries and the spirit and wine 
 vaults, where the property was of a sort at once 
 most likely to be threatened and most dangerous 
 in its effects. The Eector, with fine determination, 
 got on horseback again, as the best mode of lead- 
 ing the constables, who could only act efficiently 
 in a close body. By his direction the column of 
 armed men avoided the main street, and made 
 their way along a back road, that they might oc- 
 cupy the two chief lanes- leading to the wine-vaults 
 and the brewery, and bear down on the crowd from 
 these openings, which it was especially desirable to 
 guard. 
 
 Meanwhile Felix Holt had been hotly occupied in 
 King Street. After the first window-smashing at the 
 Seven Stars, there was a sufficient reason for damag- 
 ing that inn to the utmost. The destructive spirit 
 tends towards completeness; and any object once 
 maimed or otherwise injured, is as readily doomed 
 by unreasoning men as by unreasoning boys. Also 
 the Seven Stars sheltered Spratt; and to some 
 Sproxton men in front of that inn it was exasperat- 
 ing that Spratt should be safe and sound on a day 
 when blows were going, and justice might be ren-
 
 THE RADICAL. 277 
 
 dered. And again, there was the general desirable- 
 ness of bemg inside a public-house. 
 
 Felix had at last been willingly urged on to this 
 spot. Hitherto swayed by the crowd, he had been able 
 to do nothing but defend himself and keep on his 
 legs; but he foresaw that the people would burst into 
 the inn ; he heard cries of " Spratt ! " " Fetch him 
 out!" " We'll pitch him out ! " " Pummel him ! " It 
 was not unlikely that lives might be sacrificed ; and 
 it was intolerable to Felix to be "wdtnessing the blind 
 outrages of this mad crowd, and yet be dicing nothing 
 to counteract them. Even some vain effort would 
 satisfy him better than mere gazing. Within the 
 walls of the inn he might save some one. He went 
 in with a miscellaneous set, who dispersed them- 
 selves with different objects — some to the taproom, 
 and to search for the cellar ; some up-stairs to search 
 in all rooms for Spratt, or any one else perhaps, as 
 a temporary scapegoat for Spratt. Guided l^y the 
 screams of women, Felix at last got to a high up- 
 stairs passage, where the landlady and some of her 
 servants were running away in helpless terror from 
 two or three half-tipsy men, who had been emptying 
 a spirit-decanter in the bar. Assuming the tone of 
 a mob-leader, he cried out, " Here, boys, here's better 
 fun this way — come with me ! " and drew the men
 
 278 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 back with him along the passage. They reached the 
 lower staircase in time to see the unhappy Spratt 
 being dragged, coatless and screaming, down the 
 steps. No one at present was striking or kicking 
 him ; it seemed as if he were being reserved for 
 punishment on some wider area, where the satisfac- 
 tion might be more generally shared. Felix followed 
 close, determined, if he could, to rescue both assailers 
 and assaulted from the worst consequences. His mind 
 was busy with possible devices. 
 
 Down the stairs, out along the stones through the 
 gateway, Spratt was dragged as a mere heap of linen 
 and cloth rags. When he was got outside the gate- 
 way, there was an immense hooting and roaring, 
 though many there had no grudge against him, and 
 only guessed that others had the grudge. But this 
 was the narrower part of the street ; it widened as it 
 went onwards, and Spratt was dragged on, his ene- 
 mies crying, "We'll make a ring — we'll see how 
 frightened he looks ! " 
 
 " Kick him, and have done with him," Felix heard 
 another say. "Let's go to Tiliot's vaults — there's 
 more gin there ! " 
 
 Here were two hideous threats. In dragging Spratt 
 onward the people were getting very near to the 
 lane leading up to Tiliot's. Felix kept as close as
 
 THE RADICAL. 279 
 
 he could to the threatened victun. He had thrown 
 away his own stick, and carried a bludgeon which 
 had escaped from the hands of an invader at the 
 Seven Stars ; his head was bare ; he looked, to un- 
 discerning eyes, like a leading spirit of the mob. In 
 this condition he was observed by several persons 
 looking anxiously from their upper windows, and 
 finally observed to push himself, by violent efforts, 
 close behind the dragged man. 
 
 Meanwhile the foremost among the constables, 
 who, coming by the back way, had now reached the 
 opening of Tiliot's Lane, discerned that the crowd 
 had a victim amongst them. One spirited fellow, 
 named Tucker, who was a regular constable, feeling 
 that no time was to be lost in meditation, called on 
 his neighbour to follow him, and with the sabre that 
 happened to be his weapon got a way for himself 
 where he was not expected, by dint of quick resolu- 
 tion. At this moment Spratt had been let go — had 
 been dropped, in fact, almost lifeless with terror, on 
 the street stones, and the men round him had re- 
 treated for a little space, as if to amuse themselves 
 with looking at him. Felix had taken his oppor- 
 tunity; and seeing the first step towards a plan he 
 was bent on, he sprang forward close to the cower- 
 ing Spratt. As he did this. Tucker had cut his way
 
 280 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 to the spot, and imagining Felix to be the destined 
 executioner of Spratt — for any discrimination of 
 Tucker's lay in his muscles rather than his eyes — he 
 rushed up to Felix, meaning to collar him and 
 throw him down. But Felix had rapid senses and 
 quick thoughts ; he discerned the situation ; he chose 
 between two evils. Quick as lightning he frustrated 
 the constable, fell upon him, and tried to master his 
 weapon. In the struggle, which was watched with- 
 out interference, the constable fell undermost, and 
 Felix got his weapon. He started up with the bare 
 sabre in his hand. The crowd round him cried 
 " Hurray ! " with a sense that he was on their side 
 affainst the constable. Tucker did not rise imme- 
 diately; but Felix did not imagine that he was 
 much hurt. 
 
 " Don't touch him ! " said Felix. " Let him go. 
 Here, bring Spratt, and follow me." 
 
 Felix was perfectly conscious that he was in the 
 midst of a tangled business. But he had chiefly 
 before his imagination the horrors that might come 
 if the mass of wild chaotic desires and impulses 
 around him were not diverted from any further 
 attack on places where they would get in the midst 
 of intoxicating and inflammable materials. It was 
 not a moment in which a spirit like his could cal-
 
 THE EADICAL. 281 
 
 culate the effect of misunderstanding as to himself : 
 nature never makes men who are at once energe- 
 tically sympathetic and minutely calculating. He 
 believed he had the power, and he was resolved to 
 try, to carry the dangerous mass out of mischief till 
 the military came to awe them — which he sup- 
 posed, from Mr Crowe's announcement long ago, 
 must be a near event. 
   He was followed the more willingly, because 
 Tiliot's Lane was seen by the hindmost to be now 
 defended by constables, some of whom had iire- 
 arms ; and where there is no strong counter-move- 
 ment, any proposition to do something unspecified 
 stimulates stupid curiosity. To many of the Sprox- 
 ton men who were within sight of him, Felix was 
 known personally, and vaguely believed to be a 
 man Avho meant many queer things, not at all of an 
 everyday kind. Pressing along like a leader, with 
 the sabre in his hand, and inviting them to bring on 
 Spratt, there seemed a better reason for following 
 him than for doing anjrthing else. A man with a 
 definite will and an energetic personality acts as a 
 sort of flag to draw and bind together the foolish 
 units of a mob. It was on this sort of influence 
 over men whose mental state was a mere medley of 
 appetites and confused impressions, that Felix had
 
 282 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 dared to count. He hurried them along with words 
 of invitation, telling them to hold up Spratt and 
 not drag him ; and those behind followed him, with a 
 growing belief that he had some design worth know- 
 ing, while those in front were urged along partly by 
 the same notion, partly by the sense that there was 
 a motive in those behind them, not knowing what 
 the motive was. It was that mixture of pushing 
 forward and being pushed forward, which is a brief 
 history of most human things. 
 
 What Felix really intended to do, was to get the 
 crowd by the nearest way out of the town, and 
 induce them to skirt it on the north side with him, 
 keeping up in them the idea that he was leading 
 them to execute some stratagem by which they 
 would surprise something worth attacking, and 
 circmnvent the constables who were defending the 
 lanes. In the mean time he trusted that the soldiers 
 would have arrived, and with this sort of mob, 
 which was animated by no real political passion or 
 fury against social distinctions, it was in the highest 
 degree unlikely that there would be any resistance 
 to a military force. The presence of fifty soldiers 
 would probably be enough to scatter the rioting 
 hundreds. How numerous the mob was, no one 
 ever knew: many inhabitants afterwards were ready
 
 THE KADICAL. 283 
 
 to swear that there must have been at least two 
 thousand rioters. Felix knew he was incurring 
 great risks ; but " his blood was up : " we hardly 
 allow enough in common life for the results of 
 that enkindled passionate enthusiasm which, under 
 other conditions, makes world-famous deeds. 
 
 He was making for a point where the street 
 branched off on one side towards a speedy open- 
 ing between hedgerows, on the other towards the 
 shabby wideness of Pollard's End. At this forking 
 of the street there was a large space, in the centre 
 of which there was a small stone platform, mount- 
 ing by three steps, with an old green finger-post upon 
 it. Felix went straight to this platform and stepped 
 upon it, crying " Halt !" in a loud voice to the men 
 behind and before him, and calling to those who 
 held Spratt to bring him there. All came to a 
 stand with faces towards the finger-post, and per- 
 haps for the first time the extremities of the crowd 
 got a definite idea that a man with a sabre in his 
 hand was taking the command. 
 
 " Now ! " said Felix, when Spratt had been 
 brought on to the stone platform, faint and trem- 
 bling, " has anybody got cord ? if not, handker- 
 chiefs knotted fast ; give them to me." 
 
 He drew out his own handkerchief, and two or
 
 284 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 three others were mustered and handed to him. 
 He ordered them to be knotted together, while 
 curious eyes were fixed on him. Was he going to 
 have Spratt hanged ? Felix kept fast hold of his 
 weapon, and ordered others to act. 
 
 " Now, put it round his waist, wind his arms in, 
 draw them a little backward — so ! and tie it fast on 
 the other side of the post." 
 
 When that was done, Felix said, imperatively, 
 
 " Leave him there — we shall come back to him ; 
 let us make haste ; march along, lads ! Up Park 
 Street and down Hobb's Lane." 
 
 It was the best chance he could think of for 
 saving Spratt's life. And he succeeded. The plea- 
 sure of seeing the helpless man tied up sufficed for 
 the moment, if there were any who had ferocity 
 enough to count much on coming back to him. 
 Nobody's imagination represented the certainty that 
 some one out of the houses at hand would soon 
 come and untie him when he was left alone. 
 
 And the rioters pushed up Park Street, a noisy 
 stream, with Felix still in the midst of them, though 
 he was labouring hard to get his way to the front. 
 He wished to determine the course of the crowd 
 along a by-road called Hobb's Lane, which would 
 have taken them to the other — the Duflfield end of
 
 THE liADICAL. 285 
 
 the town. He urged several of the men round him, 
 one of whom was no less a person than the big- 
 Dredge, our old Sproxton acquaintance, to get for- 
 ward, and be sure tliat all the fellows would go 
 down the lane, else they would spoil sport. Hitherto 
 Felix had been successful, and he had gone along 
 with an unbroken impulse. But soon something 
 occurred which brought with a terrible shock the 
 sense that his plan might turn out to be as mad as 
 all bold projects are seen to be when they have 
 failed. 
 
 Mingled with the more headlong and half- drunken 
 crowd there were some sharp-visaged men who loved 
 the irrationality of riots for something else than its 
 own sake, and who at present were not so much the 
 richer as they desired to be, for the pains they had 
 taken in coming to the Treby election, induced by 
 certain prognostics gathered at Duffield on the no- 
 mination-day that there might be the conditions 
 favourable to that confusion which was always a 
 harvest-time. It was known to some of these 
 sharp men that l*ark Street led out towards the 
 grand house of Treby Manor, which was as good — 
 nay, better for their purpose than the bank. While 
 Felix was entertaining his ardent purpose, these 
 other sons of Adam were entertaining another
 
 286 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 ardent purpose of their peculiar sort, and the mo- 
 ment was come when they were to have their 
 triumph. 
 
 From the front ranks backward towards Felix 
 there ran a new summons — a new invitation. 
 
 " Let us go to Treby Manor !" 
 
 From that moment Felix was powerless ; a new 
 definite suggestion overrode his vaguer influence. 
 There was a determined rush past Hobb's Lane, and 
 not down it. Felix was carried along too. He did 
 not know whether to wish the contrary. Once on 
 the road, out of the town, with openings into fields 
 and with the wide park at hand, it would have 
 been easy for him to liberate himself from the 
 crowd. At first it seemed to him the better part to 
 do this, and to get back to the town as fast as he 
 could, in the hope of finding the military and get- 
 ting a detachment to come and save the Manor. 
 But he reflected that the course of the mob had been 
 sufficiently seen, and that there were plenty of people 
 in Park Street to carry the information faster than 
 he could. It seemed more necessary that he should 
 secure the presence of some help for the family at 
 the Manor by going there himself The Debarrys 
 were not of the class he was wont to be anxious 
 about ; but Felix Holt's conscience was alive to the
 
 THE KADICAL. 287 
 
 accusation that any danger they might be in now 
 was brought on by a deed of his. In these moments 
 of bitter vexation and disappointment, it did occur 
 to him that very unpleasant consequences might be 
 hanging over him of a kind quite different from 
 inward dissatisfaction ; but it was useless now to 
 think of averting such consequences. As he was 
 pressed along with the multitude into Treby Park, 
 his very movement seemed to him only an image 
 of the day's fatalities, in which the multitudinous 
 small wickednesses of small selfish ends, really un- 
 directed towards any larger result, had issued in 
 widely- shared mischief that might yet be hideous. 
 
 The light was declining: already the candles shone 
 through many windows of the Manor. Already the 
 foremost part of the crowd had burst into the offices, 
 and adroit men were busy in the right places to find 
 plate, after setting others to force the butler into 
 unlocking the cellars ; and Felix had only just been 
 able to force his way on to the front terrace, with 
 the hope of getting to the rooms where he would 
 find the ladies of the household and comfort them 
 with the assurance that rescue must soon come, 
 when the sound of horses' feet convinced him that 
 the rescue was nearer than he had expected. Just 
 as he heard the horses, he had approached the large
 
 288 FELIX HOLT, 
 
 window of a room, where a brilliant light suspended 
 from the ceiling showed him a group of women 
 clinging together in terror. Others of the crowd 
 were pushing their way up the terrace-steps and 
 gravel - slopes at various points. Hearing the 
 horses, he kept his post in front of the win- 
 dow, and, motioning with his sabre, cried out to 
 the on -comers, "Keep back! I hear the soldiers 
 coming." Some scrambled back, some paused 
 automatically. 
 
 The louder a^id louder sound of the hoofs changed 
 its pace and distribution. " Halt ! Fire !" Bang 1 
 bang ! bang ! — came deafening the ears of the men 
 on the terrace. 
 
 Before they had time or nerve to move, there was 
 a rushing sound closer to them — again " Fire ! " 
 a bullet whizzed, and passed through Felix Holt's 
 shoulder — the shoulder of the arm that held the 
 naked weapon which shone in the light from the 
 window. 
 
   Felix fell. The rioters ran confusedly, like ter- 
 rified sheep. Some of the soldiers, turning, drove 
 them along with the flat of their swords. The 
 greater difficulty was to clear the invaded offices. 
 
 The Eector, who with another magistrate and 
 several other gentlemen on horseback had accom-
 
 THE KADICAL. 289 
 
 panied the soldiers, now jumped on to the terrace, 
 and hurried to the ladies of the family. 
 
 Presently there was a group round Felix, who 
 had fainted, and, reviving, had fainted again. He 
 had had little food during the day, and had been 
 overwrought. Two of the group were civilians, but 
 only one of them knew Felix, the other being a 
 magistrate not resident in Treby. The one who 
 knew Felix was Mr John Johnson, whose zeal for 
 the public peace had brought him from Duffield 
 when he heard that the soldiers were summoned. 
 
 " I know this man very well," said Mr Johnson. 
 " He is a dangerous character — quite revolu- 
 tionary." 
 
 It was a weary night ; and the next day, Felix, 
 whose wound was declared trivial, was lodged in 
 Loamford Jail. He was committed on three counts 
 — for having assaulted a constable, for having com- 
 mitted manslaughter (Tucker was dead from spinal 
 concussion), and for having led a riotous onslaught 
 on a dwelling-house. 
 
 Four other men were committed : one of them 
 for possessing himself of a gold cup with the 
 Debarry arms on it ; the three others, one of whom 
 was the collier Dredge, for riot and assault. 
 
 Tliat morning Treby town was no longer in ter- 
 VOL. II. T
 
 290 FELIX HOLT. 
 
 ror ; but it was in much sadness. Other men, more 
 innocent than the hated Spratt, were groaning under 
 severe bodily injuries. And poor Tucker's corpse 
 was not the only one that had been lifted from the 
 pavement. It is true that none grieved much for 
 the other dead man, unless it be grief to say, " Poor 
 old fellow ! " He had been trampled upon, doubt- 
 less where he fell drunkenly, near the entrance 
 of the Seven Stars. This second corpse was old 
 Tommy Trounsem, the bill-sticker — otherwise Tho- 
 mas Transome, the last of a very old family-line. 
 
 END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBUROH. J/
 
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