provincial paper, to return to town, and oppose
Joyce on one or two special subjects of
discussion. Portcullis came up to London,
and the encounter took place before a room
crowded to the ceiling (it was rumoured—
and believed by some—that the Premier and
the leader of the Opposition were present,
with wigs drawn over their eyes, and
comforters over their noses) and re-echoing to
the cheers of the partisans. Walter was
understood to have held his own, and,
indeed, to have had the best of it; but
Portcullis made a very good speech, covering his
opponent with sarcasm and invective, and
declaiming against the cause which he
represented with a whirlwind of fury which
greatly incensed old Jack Byrne, who
happened to be sitting immediately beneath
him.

Political feeling ran very high just at
that time, and the result of the forthcoming
election was looked forward to with the
greatest confidence by the Radicals. The
organisation of the party was very
complete, a central committee, of which Mr.
Byrne and Terence O'Connor were
members, had its sittings in London, and was
in daily communication with the various
local committees of the principal provincial
towns, and most of the intending candidates
had been despatched to make a tour of the
neighbourhood which they proposed to
represent, with the view of ascertaining the
feelings of the electors, and ingratiating
themselves with them.

Among these touring candidates was young
Mr. Bokenham, who aspired to represent
the constituency of Brocksopp. Young
Bokenham had been selected by the central
committee principally because his father
was a very influential manufacturer, and
because he himself, though not specially
clever or deeply versed in politics, was
recommended as fluent, of good appearance,
and eminently docile and leadable. The
reports which during and after his visit
came up from the local to the central
committee by no means bore out the
recommendation. The fact was that young Mr.
Bokenham, who had at a very early age
been sent to Eton, who had been a gentle-
man commoner of Christchurch, and who
had always had his own way and the
command of large sums of money to enable
him to do as he pleased, had become, as is
very often the case under the influence of
such surroundings, a perfect type of the
parvenu and the plutocrat, and had, if
anything, rather an antipathy for that
cause of which he was about to offer
himself as one of the representatives. To
announce this would, however, he was aware,
be simply to renounce the very large fortune
which would accrue to him at his father's
death, and which the old man, who had
been a staunch Radical from his earliest
days, and who gloried in being a self-
made man, would certainly have dispersed
through a thousand charitable channels
rather than allow one penny of it to be
touched by his politically-renegade son.
Moreover, young Bokenham pined for the
distinction of parliament membership,
which he knew, for the present at least,
was only to be obtained by holding to his
father's political principles, and so he
professed to be in earnest in the matter, and
went down to Brocksopp and called on the
principal people of the place, and
convened a few meetings and delivered a few
speeches. But the Brocksopp folk were
very badly impressed. They utterly failed
to recognise young Tommy Bokenham, as
they had always spoken of him among
themselves during all the years of his
absence, in the bearded, natty-booted,
delicate-gloved gentleman, who minced
his words and used a perfumed hand-
kerchief, and talked about the chah-tah
of our lib-ah-ties. His manner was
unpleasant and offensive, and his matter
was not half sufficiently peppered to suit
the tastes of the Brocksopp Radicals, who
could not be too frequently reminded that
they were the salt of the earth, and that
the horny hand of labour was what their
intending representative was always wishing
to clasp. Young Mr. Bokenham, no
longer Tommy after he had once been seen,
objected to the horny hand of labour,
disliked the smell of factories, and the manner
and appearance of the working-classes
altogether. He could not drink much at the
public-houses, and the smell of the strong
shag tobacco made him ill, and in fact
his first tour for canvassing was a woeful
and egregious failure, and was so reported
to the central committee in London by their
Brocksopp agents.

On this report the committee met, and
had a long and earnest consultation. Brocksopp
was an important place, and one which
it was most desirable to secure. No other
candidate possessing such wealth, or such
local influence, as young Bokenham could
be found, and it was therefore imperative
that he should be carried through. It was,
however, necessary that his mistakes should
be pointed out to him, and he should be
thoroughly well schooled and advised as to