cause
it was intellectually and morally the better side. This theory would
have been very consoling to me if I had wanted consolation. I did not. I
was far from grudging O'Donoghue his victory. He, so far as I can learn,
is just the man to enjoy hearing other people make long speeches. I have
never developed a taste for that form of amusement.

The day after the declaration of the result of the election a really
serious misfortune befell me. McMeekin himself took influenza. There was
a time when I wished very much to hear that he was writhing in the grip
of the disease. But those feelings had long passed away from my mind. I
no longer wished any ill to McMeekin. I valued him highly as a medical
attendant, and I particularly needed his skill just when he was snatched
away from me, because my nurse was becoming restive. She hinted at
first, and then roundly asserted that I was perfectly well. Nothing
but McMeekin's determined diagnosis of obscure affections of my heart,
lungs, and viscera kept her to her duties. She made more than one
attempt to take me out for a drive. I resisted her, knowing that a drive
would, in the end, take me to the railway station and from that home to
be embroiled in the contest between Lalage and the Diocesan Synod. I had
a letter from my mother urging me to return home at once and hinting at
the possibility of unpleasantness over the election of the new bishop.
This made me the more determined to stay where I was, and so McMeekin's
illness was a very serious blow to me.

I satisfied myself by inquiry that he was not likely to get well
immediately and then I sent for another doctor. This man turned out to
be one of my original supporters and I think his feelings must have been
hurt by my calling in McMeekin. He had also, I could see, been greatly
influenced by Lalage. He told me, with insulting directness of speech,
that there was nothing the matter with me. I could not remember the
names of the diseases which McMeekin said I had or might develop. The
nurse, who could have remembered them if she liked, would not. The new
doctor, an aggressive, red-faced young man, repeated his statement that
I was perfectly well. He emphasized it by refusing to take a fee. My
nurse, with evident delight, packed her box and left by the next train.
After that there was nothing for me but to go home.

My mother must have been disappointed at the result of the East Connor
election. She believed, I fear she still b