“Tom,” proceeded Val, “I hope you've thought over what I mentioned to you on our canvass the other day?”
“I have, sir,” said Tom, “and I'm still of the same opinion. I'll vote for Hartley and no other.”
“You don't imagine of what service Lord Cumber and I could be of to you.”
“I know of no service Lord Cumber ever was to any of his tenants,” replied Maguire; “except, indeed, to keep them ground to the earth, in supportin' his extravagance, and that he might spend their hard earnings in another country, not caring one damn whether they live or starve. It's for that raison, sir, I vote, and will vote against him.”
“Well, but,” said Val, whose brow began to darken, “you have not considered what an enemy he can be to those like you, whose obstinacy draws down his resentment upon them. Have you ever considered that— eh?”
“I don't see how he can readily be a worse enemy to me, or any tenant he has, than he is at present. I'll trouble you for my receipt, Mr. M'Clutchy, but I won't vote for him. I beg your pardon, sir,” said he, on looking at the receipt which Val, as he spoke, had handed to him; “this isn't signed—your name's not to it.”
“Show,” said Val; “upon my life it is not. You are right, Maguire; but the truth is, M'Slime, that while speaking on any subject that affects Lord Cumber's interests, I am scarcely conscious of doing anything else. Now, sir,” he proceeded, addressing Maguire, with a brow like midnight; “there is your receipt—bring it home—show it to your family—and tell them it is the last of the kind you will ever receive on the property of Lord Cumber. I shall let you know, sir, that I am somewhat stronger than you are.”
“That's all to be proved yet, sir,” said the sturdy farmer: “you know the proverb, sir—'man proposes, but God disposes.'”
“What do you mean, sirra? What language is this to my father? Be off to h—l or Connaught, sir, or we'll make it worse for you—ha!—bow-wow.” He did not utter the last interjection, but his face expressed it.
“That's not the religious individual I took him to be,” said Solomon; “there is much of the leaven of iniquity in him.”