with
the very wind of wrath.

"And my poor mother used to recommend it for the colic!" said Kitty; which
puzzled the Doctor worse than ever.

V.

Before evening 'twas known through Ardevora that the Parson's votes and
interests had been booked by the Tories; which, of course, only made the
Church rebels (as you might call them) the more set on standing by their
conversion and voting for the Whigs. Nobody could tell their numbers for
certain, but nobody put them down under twenty; and both the Doctor and
Mr. Saule called on Kitty that evening with faces like fiddles. But Kitty
wasn't to be daunted. "My dears," she said, "if the worst comes to the
worst, and you can't win these votes back by four o'clock to-morrow,
I've a stocking full of guineas at your service; and I ha'n't lived in
Ardevora all this while without picking up the knowledge how to spend 'em;
and _that's_ at your service too. But we'll try a cheaper way first,"
says she, smiling to herself very comfortably.

Up at Tregoose they'd put Lord William and the old Squire to bed: and a
score of Whig supporters spent the best part of the evening downstairs in
the dining-room, with Major Dyngwall in the chair, working out the Voters'
List and making fresh calculations. On the whole they felt cheerful
enough, and showed it: but they had to own, first, that the Parson's votes
were almost as bad as lost, whereas the amount of gains couldn't be
reckoned with certainty: and second, that, resting as they did upon a
confusion between religious feeling and the stomach-ache, 'twas important
that Lord William should recover by next morning, show himself about the
town and at the hustings, and clinch the mistake. John a Hall, who had a
head on his shoulders when parsons weren't concerned, shook it at this.
He didn't believe for a moment that Lord William could be brought up to
the poll; and as it turned out, he was right. But towards the end of the
discussion he put forward a very clever suggestion.

"I don't know," says he, "if the Major here's an early riser?"

"Moderately," says Major Dyngwall, looking for the moment as if the
question took him fairly aback. They didn't think much of this at the
time, but it came back to their minds later on.

"Well, then," says John a Hall, "you're all terrible certain about the
Parson's votes being lost; but dang me if I've lost hope of 'em yet.
Though I can't do it myself, I believe the old fool could be handled.