r as had been possible for him to do so, he had fought
his battle with clean hands, and now he was member of Parliament for
Percycross. Let what end there might come to this petition,--even
though his seat should be taken from him,--he could be subjected to
no personal disgrace. He could himself give evidence, the truth of
which no judge in the land would doubt, as to the purity of his own
intentions, and as to the struggle to be pure which he had made. And
now they asked him to give way in order that Mr. Griffenbottom might
keep his seat!

He felt that he and poor Moggs had been fools together. At this
moment there came upon him a reflection that such men as he and Moggs
were unable to open their mouths in such a borough as Percycross
without having their teeth picked out of their jaws. He remembered
well poor Moggs's legend, "Moggs, Purity, and the Rights of Labour;"
and he remembered thinking at the time that neither Moggs nor he
should have come to Percycross. And now he was told of all that the
borough had done for him, and was requested to show his gratitude by
giving up his seat,--in order that Griffenbottom might still be a
member of Parliament, and that Percycross might not be disfranchised!
Did he feel any gratitude to Percycross or any love to Mr.
Griffenbottom? In his heart he desired that Mr. Griffenbottom might
be made to retire into private life, and he knew that it would be
well that the borough should be disfranchised.

These horrid men that sat around him,--how he hated them! He could
get rid of them now, now and for ever, by acceding to the proposition
made to him. And he thought that in doing so he could speak a few
words which would be very agreeable to him in the speaking. And then
all that Mr. Trigger had said about the L1,500 had been doubtless
true. If he defended his seat money must be spent, and he did not
know how far he might be able to compel Mr. Griffenbottom to share
the expense. He was not so rich but what he was bound to think of the
money, for his children's sake. And he did believe Mr. Trigger, when
Mr. Trigger told him that the seat could not be saved.

Yet he could not bring himself to let these men have their way with
him. To have to confess that he had been their tool went so much
against the grain with him that anything seemed to him to be
preferable to that. The passage across his brain of all these
thoughts had not required many seconds, and his guests seemed to
acknowledge