The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Voice of the People, by Ellen Glasgow

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Title: The Voice of the People

Author: Ellen Glasgow

Release Date: August 10, 2005 [EBook #16505]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR

"THE DESCENDANT"

AND

"PHASES OF AN INFERIOR PLANET"

CROWNED MASTERPIECES OF MODERN FICTION

SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION EDITION

The Voice of the People

BY

Ellen Glasgow

NEW YORK, DOUBLEDAY
PAGE & COMPANY, 1904

Copyright, 1900, by
ELLEN GLASGOW

Published September, 1902

TO REBE GORDON GLASGOW

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

BOOK I

FAIR WEATHER AT KINGSBOROUGH

I

The last day of Circuit Court was over at Kingsborough.

The jury had vanished from the semicircle of straight-backed chairs in
the old court-house, the clerk had laid aside his pen along with his air
of listless attention, and the judge was making his way through the
straggling spectators to the sunken stone steps of the platform outside.
As the crowd in the doorway parted slightly, a breeze passed into the
room, scattering the odours of bad tobacco and farm-stained clothing.
The sound of a cow-bell came through one of the small windows, from the
green beyond, where a red-and-white cow was browsing among the
buttercups.

"A fine day, gentlemen," said the judge, bowing to right and left. "A
fine day."

He moved slowly, fanning himself absently with his white straw hat,
pausing from time to time to exchange a word of greeting--secure in the
affability of one who is not only a judge of man but a Bassett of
Virginia. From his classic head to his ill-fitting boots he upheld the
traditions of his office and his race.

On the stone platform, just beyond the entrance, he stopped to speak to
a lawyer from a neighbouring county. Then, as a clump of men scattered
at his approach, he waved them together with a bland, benedictory
gesture which descended alike upon the high and the low, upon the rector
of the old chu