And then he signed and dated the letter with an amateur’s pride, and looked to be famous by the morrow.
Dick, who had heard nothing of the matter, was up first on that inauspicious day, and took the journal to an arbour in the garden. He found his father’s manifesto in one column; and in another a leading article. ”No one that we are aware of,“ ran the article, ”had consulted Mr. Naseby on the subject, but if he had been appealed to by the whole body of electors, his letter would be none the less ungenerous and unjust to Mr. Dalton. We do not choose to give the lie to Mr. Naseby, for we are too well aware of the consequences; but we shall venture instead to print the facts of both cases referred to by this red-hot partisan in another portion of our issue. Mr. Naseby is of course a large proprietor in our neighbourhood; but fidelity to facts, decent feeling, and English grammar, are all of them qualities more important than the possession of land. Mr. N—— is doubtless a great man; in his large gardens and that half-mile of greenhouses, where he has probably ripened his intellect and temper, he may say what he will to his hired vassals, but (as the Scots say)—
| here He maunna think to domineer. |
Liberalism,“ continued the anonymous journalist, ”is of too free and sound a growth,“ etc.
Richard Naseby read the whole thing from beginning to end; and a crushing shame fell upon his spirit. His father had played the fool; he had gone out noisily to war, and come back with confusion. The moment that his trumpets sounded, he had been disgracefully unhorsed. There was no question as to the facts; they were one and all against the Squire. Richard would have given his ears to have suppressed the issue; but as that could not be done, he had his horse saddled, and, furnishing himself with a convenient staff, rode off at once to Thymebury.
The editor was at breakfast in a large, sad apartment. The absence of furniture, the extreme meanness of the meal, and the haggard, bright-eyed, consumptive look of the culprit, unmanned our hero; but he clung to his stick, and was stout and warlike.
“You wrote the article in this morning’s paper?” he demanded.
“You are young Mr. Naseby? I published it,” replied the editor, rising.
“My father is an old man,” said Richard; and then with an outburst, “And a damned sight finer fellow than either you or Dalton!” He stopped and swallowed; he was determined that all should go with regularity. “I have but one question to put to you, sir,” he resumed. “Granted that my father was misinformed, would it not have been more decent to withhold the letter and communicate with him in private?”