And lo! instead of the Radical House that was to return the great Land Act and other more startling measures, an assembly of which the large majority held very different views indeed was elected, to the exceeding surprise of the over-cute wire-pullers, who thought they had arranged everything so cleverly.
Catherine stayed at home, greedily reading the papers, day after day, and hope died away again and she became sick at heart. When at last there could be no doubt about the result, she wrote to Sister Eliza and asked her to come to her.
Her friend was shocked when she entered the little parlour in Maida Vale to see how ill and worn her Chief was looking.
"Good-afternoon, Eliza," said Catherine in a feeble voice; "I sent for you because you are the only one I could bear to see. You do not look at me with reproachful eyes as the others do—and I am unwell and weak."
There was sympathy expressed on Sister Eliza's homely features as she replied:
"No wonder, Sister Catherine, after what you have been suffering. But brighter days will come."
"Never, never! Sister Eliza—but I have sent for you to learn the whole truth. What has happened—what do they say now?"
"Fools and cowards!" exclaimed the boarding-house keeper, contemptuously; "they do not know their own minds."
"I thought it would be so; and what do they say? Tell me all!"