The Day of Judgment

by Joseph Hocking

"I'd rather you'd stick to business, Paul," said Preston. "We're walking on slippery ground just now. You know we've made our money by a speciality, and it needs a lot of watching."

"Yes," said Paul. "It was because we decided to specialise that we've been so successful. We discovered our secret and we've made the most of it."

"Yes," urged the other, "but we've a lot of stuff in our warehouse just now; as you know, we've kept it because we believed that prices would go up. If the prices were to go down now, we should be ruined."

"But they won't go down," said Paul; "they can't. We've the monopoly of it. And when winter comes everybody will be buying it."

"I should feel safer," said Preston, "if you'd give more of your time to it. But there, I'll do my best, although I don't like the look on Ned Wilson's face."

"Ned Wilson's face!" said Paul. "What do you mean, lad?"

"I mean that yesterday he met me in the reading-room of the Mechanics' Institute and he just laughed. 'How goes the speciality, Preston?' he said. 'Is it a speciality? Are you the only people who manufacture it?' And I didn't know what to say, Paul, for I know he hates us like poison, while I believe he has a special grudge against you. We can't afford to play pranks, while Ned Wilson can."

But Paul paid little attention to this. He had now fully embarked on this political fight. The town had to be canvassed. Meetings had to be addressed. Committees had to be formed. In fact, he had to devote the whole of his time to the fight which had engrossed him completely.

The whole country was at that time agog with the expectation that the Government would resign and that an election would be immediately upon them, and Paul, being fully aware of this, had determined to leave nothing to chance. He had complete confidence in Preston's business capacity, and felt that everything was safe. Thus, when one day the news flashed along a thousand wires that the Government had resigned and that a General Election was upon them, he was glad he had given himself heart and soul to this political struggle. He did not know why it was, but it seemed to him that upon it depended everything. If he could win in this fight, he was sure, although it would alienate Mary Bolitho from him, it would also open up the way to their future meetings. It would enhance her respect for him. He believed he read her like a book. She was ambitious even as he was, and she would scorn the man who was easily beaten. He felt his chances had improved; at each meeting he addressed he became more confident and spoke with more effect. The inwardness of politics, too, possessed him more fully. During his spare hours he had been reading the lives of eminent politicians. He called to mind those words of Disraeli: "Read no history, nothing but biography, for that is life without theory." He had followed this advice, and in reading the life of great politicians had laid hold of the history of the century. Everything had been made vivid to him, especially the struggles of the working classes. Moreover, in studying the lives of great men, he had grasped the principles on which they worked, and politics had become to him not a mere abstraction, not a matter of expediency, but something concrete, a great working philosophy. This fact had enriched his speeches, and thus it came about that when Mr. Bolitho read them, he discovered that he was fighting not with an ignoramus, but with a man with a powerful mind, a man who, given reasonable circumstances, would be bound to make himself felt.

Mr. Bolitho, too, realised the force of what his daughter had said to him; Paul was not a man to be easily beaten, and that, unless some extraordinary events took place, he, Mr. Bolitho, would not be able to gain the victory. He discussed this matter long and seriously with Mr. Wilson and his son Ned, and presently, when they were within a fortnight of the polling day, he began to look serious indeed. It is true Mary Bolitho had won many votes and had removed much of the personal prejudice that had been created against him; nevertheless, he saw that Paul had gripped the town in a way which he was unable to do, and because the young man had entered into the life and thoughts of the people, he was able to express their feelings in a way not possible to him.