Sloville was agitated from top to bottom. Yet some people are never satisfied. They regretted that the harvest was so brief; that it was all over in a day, and did not last, as it did in the good old times, a fortnight; that there was not so much of locking up doubtful voters as of old, and keeping them stowed away drunk till the election was over.
‘There ain’t a voter in the town but what I can account for,’ said Sir Watkin’s agent to his principal. ‘I have got all their names down in black and white. By-the-bye, Sir Watkin, can you let me have another cheque?’
‘I am sorry to hear that. How much do you want?’
‘Why, you have had one thousand already.’
‘Never mind,’ said the election agent. ‘What’s the good of having money if you don’t spend it. You’ll be sure to get it all back again. Nobody is so popular as a man who spends his money freely.’
‘Well, I suppose I must. But,’ added the Baronet, ‘at any rate you might send up to London and see what the Reform Club will do.’
‘Of course, we must apply to them. A stranger came down from town last night. He has not shown his face, but I’ve pumped the boots at the “Old Swan,” and I find that he is from the Carlton, and has brought a trunk full of sovereigns with him. The voters must have got an inkling of it, and are in ecstasies, and are now keeping off till the last moment. I believe I spotted the fellow in the disguise of an old woman working in the slums this morning’. I could not see his face because he put up his handkerchief; but I do believe it was no other than Shrouder.’
‘Oh, no: it can’t be him. I am told he is at Birmingham.’
‘You may depend upon it, Sir Watkin, he is here, and we shall have the devil to pay.’
‘Devil take him,’ said the Baronet angrily.
‘I must say that Shrouder is a bit of a scamp, and that he is the man for a dirty job. But I am quite a match for him,’ said the agent proudly. ‘At any rate, I am up to his little games. I am really quite delighted to have him as an opponent, and think it complimentary to the borough that he is come here to work it. The Carlton would not have sent him here had they not felt that they were in a desperate state indeed. Ah,’ continued he excitedly, ‘there is nothing like a well-contested election. I am of the opinion of a noble duke. “After all,” said he, “what greater enjoyment can there be in life than to stand a contested election for Yorkshire, and to win it by one?”’