the voters who gave one vote to Audley, and withheld the other
from Randal, he would say to Randal, dead beat as that young gentleman
was, "Slip out with me, the moment dinner is over, and before you go the
round of the public-houses; there are some voters we must get for you
to-night." And sure enough a few kindly words from the popular heir
of the Lansmere baronies usually gained over the electors, from whom,
though Randal had proved that all England depended on their votes in his
favour, Randal would never have extracted more than a "Wu'll, I shall
waute gin the Dauy coomes!" Nor was this all that Harley did for the
younger candidate. If it was quite clear that only one vote could be won
for the Blues, and the other was pledged to the Yellows, Harley would
say, "Then put it down to Mr. Leslie,"--a request the more readily
conceded, since Audley Egerton was considered so safe by the Blues, and
alone worth a fear by the Yellows.

Thus Randal, who kept a snug little canvass-book of his own, became
more and more convinced that he had a better chance than Egerton, even
without the furtive aid he expected from Avenel; and he could only
account for Harley's peculiar exertions in his favour by supposing that
Harley, unpractised in elections, and deceived by the Blue Committee,
believed Egerton to be perfectly safe, and sought, for the honour of the
family interest, to secure both the seats.

Randal's public cares thus deprived him of all opportunity of pressing
his courtship on Violante; and, indeed, if ever he did find a moment
in which he could steal to her reluctant side, Harley was sure to seize
that very moment to send him off to canvass an hesitating freeman, or
harangue in some public-house.

Leslie was too acute not to detect some motive hostile to his wooing,
however plausibly veiled in the guise of zeal for his election, in this
officiousness of Harley's. But Lord L'Estrange's manner to Violante was
so little like that of a jealous lover, and he was so well aware of her
engagement to Randal, that the latter abandoned the suspicion he had
before conceived, that Harley was his rival. And he was soon led to
believe that Lord L'Estrange had another, more disinterested, and
less formidable motive for thus stinting his opportunities to woo the
heiress.

"Mr. Leslie," said Lord L'Estrange, one day, "the duke has confided to
me his regret at his daughter's reluctance to ratify his own promise;
and knowing the warm int