foundly disgusted with human kind,--as the noblest of us will be at
times,--Mr. Crewe flung down the paper, and actually forgot to send the
fifty copies to his friends!

CHAPTER XV. THE DISTURBANCE OF JUNE SEVENTH

After Mr. Speaker Doby had got his gold watch from an admiring and
apparently reunited House, and had wept over it, the Legislature
adjourned. This was about the first of April, that sloppiest and
windiest of months in a northern climate, and Mr. Crewe had intended,
as usual, to make a little trip southward to a club of which he was
a member. A sense of duty, instead, took him to Leith, where he sat
through the days in his study, dictating letters, poring over a great
map of the State which he had hung on the wall, and scanning long
printed lists. If we could stand behind him, we should see that these
are what are known as check-lists, or rosters of the voters in various
towns.

Mr. Crewe also has an unusual number of visitors for this muddy
weather, when the snow-water is making brooks of the roads. Interested
observers--if there were any--might have remarked that his friendship
with Mr. Hamilton Tooting had increased, that gentleman coming up from
Ripton at least twice a week, and aiding Mr. Crewe to multiply his
acquaintances by bringing numerous strangers to see him. Mr. Tooting, as
we know, had abandoned the law office of the Honourable Hilary Vane and
was now engaged in travelling over the State, apparently in search of
health. These were signs, surely, which the wise might have read with
profit: in the offices, for instance, of the Honourable Hilary Vane
in Ripton Square, where seismic disturbances were registered; but the
movement of the needle (to the Honourable Hilary's eye) was almost
imperceptible. What observer, however experienced, would have believed
that such delicate tracings could herald a volcanic eruption?

Throughout the month of April the needle kept up its persistent
registering, and the Honourable Hilary continued to smile. The
Honourable Jacob Botcher, who had made a trip to Ripton and had cited
that very decided earthquake shock of the Pingsquit bill, had been
ridiculed for his pains, and had gone away again comforted by communion
with a strong man. The Honourable Jacob had felt little shocks in his
fief: Mr. Tooting had visited it, sitting with his feet on the tables of
hotel waiting-rooms, holding private intercourse with gentlemen who had
been disappointed in office. Mr.