will be getting
tired. If you will come to supper to-night I'll have some of the leaders
to meet you and we can talk things over. Good-bye, we shall win the
seat; so sure as my name is Stephen Strong we shall win on the A.V.
ticket."

He went, and I saw those of my patients who had sat out the wait. When
they had gone, I considered the position, summing it up in my own mind.
The prospect was exhilarating, and yet I was depressed, for I had bound
myself to the chariot wheels of a false doctrine. Also, by implication,
I had told Strong a lie. It was true that Jane had not been vaccinated,
but of this I had neglected to give him the reason. It was that I had
postponed vaccinating her for a while owing to a certain infantile
delicacy, being better acquainted than most men with the risks
consequent on that operation, slight though it is, in certain conditions
of a child's health, and knowing that there was no danger of her taking
smallpox in a town which was free from it. I proposed, however, to
perform the operation within the next few days; indeed, for this very
purpose I had already written to London to secure some glycerinated calf
lymph, which would now be wasted.

The local papers next morning appeared with an announcement that at the
forthcoming bye-election Dunchester would be contested in the Radical
interest by James Therne, Esq., M.D. They added that, in addition to
other articles of the Radical faith, Dr. Therne professed the doctrine
of anti-vaccination, of which he was so ardent an upholder that,
although on several occasions he had been threatened with prosecution,
he declined to allow his only child to be vaccinated.

In the same issues it was announced that the Conservative candidate
would be Sir Thomas Colford.

So the die was cast. I had crossed the Rubicon.

CHAPTER VIII

BRAVO THE A.V.'S

In another week the writ had been issued, and we were in the thick of
the fight. What a fight it was! Memory could not record; tradition did
not even record another half as fierce in the borough of Dunchester.
For the most part, that is in many of our constituencies, it is not
difficult for a candidate standing in the Radical interest, if he is
able, well-backed, and not too particular as to what he promises, to win
the seat for his party. But Dunchester was something of an exception.
In a sense it was corrupt, that is, it had always been represented by
a rich man, who was expected to pay liberally for the