east in dogged despair. Levy had to shake hands
for Mr. Egerton with a rapidity that took away his breath. He longed to
slink away,--longed to get at L'Estrange, whom he supposed would be
as wroth at this turn in the wheel of fortune as himself. But how, as
Egerton's representative, escape from the continuous gripes of those
horny hands? Besides, there stood the parish pump, right in face of the
booth, and some huge truculent-looking Yellows loitered round it, as
if ready to pounce on him the instant he quitted his present sanctuary.
Suddenly the crowd round the booth receded; Lord L'Estrange's carriage
drove up to the spot, and Harley, stepping from it, assisted out of the
vehicle an old, gray-haired, paralytic man. The old man stared round
him, and nodded smilingly to the mob. "I'm here,-I'm come; I'm but a
poor creature, but I'm a good Blue to the last!"

"Old John Avenel,--fine old John!" cried many a voice.

And John Avenel, still leaning on Harley's arm, tottered into the booth,
and plumped for "Egerton."

"Shake hands, Father," said Dick, bending forward, "though you'll not
vote for me."

"I was a Blue before you were born," answered the old man, tremulously;
"but I wish you success all the same, and God bless you, my boy!"

Even the poll-clerks were touched; and when Dick, leaving his place, was
seen by the crowd assisting Lord L'Estrange to place poor John again
in the carriage, that picture of family love in the midst of political
difference--of the prosperous, wealthy, energetic son, who, as a boy,
had played at marbles in the very kennel, and who had risen in life
by his own exertions, and was now virtually M. P. for his native town,
tending on the broken-down, aged father, whom even the interests of
a son he was so proud of could not win from the colours which he
associated with truth and rectitude--had such an effect upon the rudest
of the mob there present, that you might have heard a pin fall,--till
the carriage drove away back to John's humble home; and then there rose
such a tempest of huzzas! John Avenel's vote for Egerton gave another
turn to the vicissitudes of that memorable election. As yet Avenel had
been ahead of Audley; but a plumper in favour of Egerton, from Avenel's
own father, set an example and gave an excuse to many a Blue who had not
yet voted, and could not prevail on himself to split his vote between
Dick and Audley; and, therefore, several leading tradesmen, who, seeing
that Eger