ll, doctor! ... we've every reason, I think, to feel satisfied
with the lie of the land."

But here he was snatched from them by an urgent request for a
pronouncement--"A quite informal word, sir, if you'll be so good,"--on
the vexed question of vote by ballot. And this being a pet theme of
John's, and a principle he was ready to defend through thick and thin,
he willingly complied.

Mahony had no further talk with him. The speech over--it was a concise
and spirited utterance, and, if you were prepared to admit the efficacy
of the ballot, convincing enough--Mahony quietly withdrew. He had to
see a patient at eleven. Polly, too, would probably be lying awake for
news of her brother.

As he threw back his braces and wound up his watch, he felt it
incumbent on him to warn her not to pitch her hopes too high. "You
mustn't expect, my dear, that your brother's arrival will mean much to
us. He is now a public man, and will have little time for small people
like ourselves. I'm bound to admit, Polly, I was very favourably
impressed by the few words I heard him say," he added.

"Oh, Richard, I'm SO glad!" and Polly, who had been sitting on the edge
of the bed, stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss.

As Mahony predicted, John's private feelings went down before the
superior interests of his campaign. Three days passed before he found
time to pay his sister a visit; and Polly, who had postponed a washing,
baked her richest cakes and pastries, and clad Trotty in her Sunday
best each day of the three: Polly was putting a good face on the
matter, and consoling herself with Jerry's descriptions of John's
triumphs. How she wished she could hear some of the speechifying! But
Richard would never consent; and electioneering did certainly seem,
from what Jerry said, a very rough-and-ready business--nothing for
ladies. Hence her delight knew no bounds when John drove up
unexpectedly late one afternoon, between a hard day's personal
canvassing and another of the innumerable dinners he had to eat his way
through. Tossing the reins to the gentleman who sat next him, he jumped
out of the wagonette--it was hung with placards of "Vote for
Turnham!"--and gave a loud rat-a-tat at the door.

Forgetting in her excitement that this was Ellen's job, Polly opened to
him herself, and drew him in. "John! How pleased I am to see you!"

"My dear girl, how are you? God bless me, how you've altered! I should
never have known you." He held her at arm's len