mination."

"Exactly," said Sir James, with earnestness. "I have been inquiring
into the thing, for I've never known anything about Middlemarch
politics before--the county being my business. What Brooke trusts to,
is that they are going to turn out Oliver because he is a Peelite. But
Hawley tells me that if they send up a Whig at all it is sure to be
Bagster, one of those candidates who come from heaven knows where, but
dead against Ministers, and an experienced Parliamentary man. Hawley's
rather rough: he forgot that he was speaking to me. He said if Brooke
wanted a pelting, he could get it cheaper than by going to the
hustings."

"I warned you all of it," said Mrs. Cadwallader, waving her hands
outward. "I said to Humphrey long ago, Mr. Brooke is going to make a
splash in the mud. And now he has done it."

"Well, he might have taken it into his head to marry," said the Rector.
"That would have been a graver mess than a little flirtation with
politics."

"He may do that afterwards," said Mrs. Cadwallader--"when he has come
out on the other side of the mud with an ague."

"What I care for most is his own dignity," said Sir James. "Of course
I care the more because of the family. But he's getting on in life
now, and I don't like to think of his exposing himself. They will be
raking up everything against him."

"I suppose it's no use trying any persuasion," said the Rector.
"There's such an odd mixture of obstinacy and changeableness in Brooke.
Have you tried him on the subject?"

"Well, no," said Sir James; "I feel a delicacy in appearing to dictate.
But I have been talking to this young Ladislaw that Brooke is making a
factotum of. Ladislaw seems clever enough for anything. I thought it
as well to hear what he had to say; and he is against Brooke's standing
this time. I think he'll turn him round: I think the nomination may be
staved off."

"I know," said Mrs. Cadwallader, nodding. "The independent member
hasn't got his speeches well enough by heart."

"But this Ladislaw--there again is a vexatious business," said Sir
James. "We have had him two or three times to dine at the Hall (you
have met him, by the bye) as Brooke's guest and a relation of
Casaubon's, thinking he was only on a flying visit. And now I find
he's in everybody's mouth in Middlemarch as the editor of the
'Pioneer.' There are stories going about him as a quill-driving alien,
a foreign emissary, and what not."

"Casaubon wo