“Nothing, except through my gratitude to his friend Lord L’Estrange.”
“Pooh! I will tell you a secret. Levy informs me privately that L’Estrange will be well satisfied if the choice of Lansmere fall upon Leslie instead of Egerton; and I think I convinced my Lord—for I saw him in London—that Egerton would have no chance, though Leslie might.”
“I must think that Lord L’Estrange would resist to the utmost any attempt to prefer Leslie—whom he despises—to Egerton, whom he honours. And, so thinking, I too would resist it, as you may judge by the speeches which have so provoked your displeasure.”
“Let us cut short a yarn of talk which, when it comes to likings and dislikings, might last to almighty crack: I’ll ask you to do nothing that Lord L’Estrange does not sanction. Will that satisfy you?”
“Certainly, provided I am assured of the sanction.”
And now, the important day preceding the poll, the day in which the candidates were to be formally nominated, and meet each other in all the ceremony of declared rivalship, dawned at last. The town-hall was the place selected for the occasion; and before sunrise, all the streets were resonant with music, and gay with banners.
Audley Egerton felt that he could not—without incurring some just sarcasm on his dread to face the constituency he had formerly represented, and by the malcontents of which he had been burned in effigy—absent himself from the townhall, as he had done from balcony and hostel. Painful as it was to confront Nora’s brother, and wrestle in public against all the secret memories that knit the strife of the present contest with the anguish that recalled the first,—still the thing must be done; and it was the English habit of his life to face with courage whatever he had to do.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The chiefs of the Blue party went in state from Lansmere Park; the two candidates in open carriages, each attended with his proposer and seconder. Other carriages were devoted to Harley and Levy, and the principal members of the Committee. Riccabocca was seized with a fit of melancholy or cynicism, and declined to join the procession. But just before they started, as all were assembling without the front door, the postman arrived with his welcome bag. There were letters for Harley, some for Levy, many for Egerton, one for Randal Leslie.