e was a
fellow-townsman,--a man who had made his own way in life; he wanted to
free his native place from aristocratic usurpation; it was the battle
of the electors, not his private cause, etc. He said little against
Randal,--"Pity a clever young man should pin his future to two yards of
worn-out red tape;" "He had better lay hold of the strong rope, which
the People, in compassion to his youth, were willing yet to throw out to
save him from sinking," etc. But as for Audley Egerton, "the gentleman
who would not show, who was afraid to meet the electors, who could only
find his voice in a hole-and-corner meeting, accustomed all his venal
life to dark and nefarious jobs"--Dick, upon that subject, delivered
philippics truly Demosthenian. Leonard, on the contrary, never attacked
Harley's friend, Mr. Egerton; but he was merciless against the youth who
had filched reputation from John Burley, and whom he knew that Harley
despised as heartily as himself. And Randal did not dare to retaliate
(though boiling over with indignant rage), for fear of offending
Leonard's uncle. Leonard was unquestionably the popular speaker of the
three. Though his temperament was a writer's, not an orator's; though
he abhorred what he considered the theatrical exhibition of self, which
makes what is called "delivery" more effective than ideas; though he had
little interest at any time in party politics; though at this time
his heart was far away from the Blues and Yellows of Lansmere, sad and
forlorn,--yet, forced into action, the eloquence that was natural to his
conversation poured itself forth. He had warm blood in his veins;
and his dislike to Randal gave poignancy to his wit, and barbed his
arguments with impassioned invective. In fact, Leonard could conceive no
other motive for Lord L'Estrange's request to take part in the election
than that nobleman's desire to defeat the man whom they both regarded
as an impostor; and this notion was confirmed by some inadvertent
expressions which Avenel let fall, and which made Leonard suspect that,
if he were not in the field, Avenel would have exerted all his interest
to return Randal instead of Egerton. With Dick's dislike to that
statesman Leonard found it impossible to reason; nor, on the other hand,
could all Dick's scoldings or coaxings induce Leonard to divert his
siege on Randal to an assault upon the man who, Harley had often said,
was dear to him as a brother.

In the mean while, Dick kept the ca