Sir George Tressady, vol 1 | Page 3

shoulders. "They'll blackguard us a bit, I suppose, and let us go. Burrows 'll keep them in order."
"What d'yer mean by it, heh, dash yer!" shouted a huge man, as he sprang on the step of the carriage and shook a black fist in Tressady's face--"thrustin yer d----d carkiss where yer ain't wanted? We wanted 'im, and we've worked for 'im. This is a workin-class district, an we've a right to 'im. Do yer 'ear?"
"Then you should have given him seventeen more votes," said George, composedly, as he thrust his hands into his pockets. "It's the fortunes of war--your turn next time. I say, suppose you tell your fellows to let our man get on. We've had a long day, and we're hungry. Ah"--to Fontenoy--"here's Burrows coming!"
Fontenoy turned, and saw that the dogcart had drawn up alongside them, and that one of the men was standing on the step of it, holding on to the rail of the cart.
He was a tall, finely built man, and as he looked down on the carriage, and on Tressady leaning over the window, the light from a street-lamp near showed a handsome face blanched with excitement and fatigue.
"Now, my friends," he said, raising his arm, and addressing the crowd, "you let Sir George go home to his dinner. He's beaten us, and so far as I know he's fought fair, whatever some of his friends may have done for him. I'm going home to have a bite of something and a wash. I'm done. But if any of you like to come round to the club--eight o'clock--I'll tell you a thing or two about this election. Now goodnight to you, Sir George. We'll beat you yet, trust us. Fall back there!"
He pointed peremptorily to the men holding the horses. They and the crowd instantly obeyed him.
The carriage swept on, followed by the hooting and groans of the whole community, men, women, and children, who were now massed along the street on either hand.
"It's easy to see this man Gregson's a new hand," said Fontenoy, with an accent of annoyance, as they got clear of the village. "I believe the Wattons have only just imported him, otherwise he'd never have avoided Marraby, and come round by Battage."
"Battage has some special connection with Burrows, hasn't it? I had forgotten."
"Of course. He was check-weigher at the Acme pit here for years, before they made him district secretary of the union."
"That's why they gave me such a hot meeting here a fortnight ago!--I remember now; but one thing drives another out of one's head. Well, I daresay you and I'll have plenty more to do with Burrows before we've done."
Tressady threw himself back in his corner with a yawn.
Fontenoy laughed.
"There'll be another big strike some time next year," he said drily--"bound to be, as far as I can see. We shall all have plenty to do with Burrows then."
"All right," said Tressady, indistinctly, pulling his hat over his eyes. "Burrows or anybody else may blow me up next year, so long as they let me go to sleep now."
However, he did not find it so easy to go to sleep. His pulses were still tingling under the emotions of the day and the stimulus of the hubbub they had just passed through. His mind raced backwards and forwards over the incidents and excitements of the last six months, over the scenes of his canvass--and over some other scenes of a different kind which had taken place in the country-house whither he and Fontenoy were returning.
But he did his best to feign sleep. His one desire was that Fontenoy should not talk to him. Fontenoy, however, was not easily taken in, and no sooner did George make his first restless movement under the rug he had drawn over him, than his companion broke silence.
"By the way, what did you think of that memorandum of mine on Maxwell's bill?"
George fidgeted and mumbled. Fontenoy, undaunted, began to harangue on certain minutiae of factory law with a monotonous zest of voice and gesture which seemed to Tressady nothing short of amazing.
He watched the speaker a minute or two through his half-shut eyes. So this was his leader to be--the man who had made him member for Market Malford.
Eight years before, when George Tressady had first entered Christchurch, he had found that place of tempered learning alive with traditions on the subject of "Dicky Fontenoy." And such traditions--good Heavens! Subsequently, at most race-meetings, large and small, and at various clubs, theatres, and places of public resort, the younger man had had his opportunities of observing the elder, and had used them always with relish, and sometimes with admiration. He himself had no desire to follow in Fontenoy's footsteps. Other elements ruled in him, which drew him other ways. But there was a