The lawyer laughed disdainfully. “Not a jot!” he said. “But I saw that he would convert some. Not many,” Stubbs continued complacently. “There’s some that mean to, but will think better of it at the last. And some would but daren’t! Two or three may. Still, he’s such a candidate as we’ve not had against us before, my lord. And with cheap bread and the preachings of this plaguy League—I shall be glad when it is over.”
Audley rose and poked the fire. “You’re not going to tell me,” he said, in a voice that was unnaturally even, “that he’s going to beat us? You’re not going, after all the assurances you’ve given me——”
“God forbid,” Stubbs replied. “No, no, my lord! Mr. Mottisfont will hold the seat! I mean only that it will be a nearer thing—a nearer thing than it has been.”
He had no idea that his patron was fighting a new spasm of anger; that the thought that he might, after all, have dealt with Sir Robert, the thought that he might, after all, have bargained with the party in power, was almost too much for the other’s self-command. It was too late now, of course. It was too late. But if the contest was to be so close, surely if he had cast his weight on the other side, he might have carried it!
And what if the seat were lost? Then this stubborn, confident fool, who was as bigoted in his faith as the narrowest Leaguer of them all, had done him a deadly injury! My lord bit off an oath, and young as he was, his face wore a very apoplectic look as he turned round, after laying down the poker.
“That reminds me,” the lawyer resumed, blandly unconscious of the crisis, and of the other’s anger. “I meant to ask your lordship what’s to be done about the two Boshams. You remember them, my lord? They’ve had the small holding by the bridge with the water meadow time out of mind—for seven generations they say. They pay eighteen pounds as joint tenants, and have votes as old freemen.”
“What of them?” the other asked impatiently.
“Well, I’m afraid they’ll not support us.”
“Do you mean that they’ll not vote for Mottisfont?”
“I’m afraid not,” Stubbs answered. “They’re as stubborn as their own pigs! I’ve spoken to them myself and told them that they’ve only one thing to expect if they go against their landlord.”