He fell into a strain of quiet sympathy, encouragement, hope; dwelt with a good deal of homely iteration on the immediate practical steps which each man before him could, if he would, take towards the common end; spoke of the help and support lying ready for the country labourers throughout democratic England if they would but put forward their own energies and quit themselves like men; pointed forward to a time of plenty, education, social peace; and so--with some good-tempered banter of his opponent, old Dodgson, and some precise instructions as to how and where they were to record their votes on the day of election--came to an end.

Two or three other speeches followed, and among them a few stumbling words from Hurd.

Marcella approved herself and applauded him, as she recognised a sentence or two taken bodily from the _Labour Clarion_ of the preceding week.

Then a resolution pledging the meeting to support the Liberal candidate was passed unanimously amid evident excitement.

It was the first time that such a thing had ever happened in Mellor.
* * * * * Mrs.Boyce treated her visitor on their way home with a new respect, mixed, however, as usual, with her prevailing irony.