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"Do you know, Tommy, I'm a coward," Lewis broke in "I can't face the people When I see a crowd of upturned faces, crass, ignorant, unwholesoin to explain things fro; besides, they would not understandin common with them They lead, most of them, unhealthy indoor lives, their minds are half-baked, and their bodies half-developed I feel a terrible pity, but all the same I cannot touch them And then I becoht as o away thinking, and thinking rightly, that I am a fool"

Wratislaw looked worried "That is one of my complaints The other is that on certain occasions you cannot hold yourself in check Do you know you have been blackguarded in the papers lately, and that there is a violent article against you in the Critic, and all on account of some unwise utterances?"

Lewis flushed deeply "That is the worst thing I have done, and I feel horribly penitent It was the act of a cad and a silly schoolboy But I had soth a cross It was at Gledfoot, and the ot up to tackle itator As I looked at hi brow--and heard his cockney patter, my temper went utterly I made a fool of hih, I carried them with me People say I helped my cause immensely"

"It is possible," said Wratislaw dryly "The Scot has a sense of hu his prophets put to sha a nice reputation elsewhere When I read soht ruefully of your chances"

It was a penitent and desponding ery at Etterick But light and food, the glearance of tobacco consoled him; for in htly on his affections

II

To Alice the weeks of the contest were filled with dire unpleasantness Lewis, naturally, kept far from Glenavelin, while of Mr Stocks she was never free She followed Lady Manorwater's lead and canvassed vigorously, hoping to find distraction in the exciteht But her efforts did not prosper On one occasion she found herself in a cottage on the Gledsmuir road, her hands filled with election literature A hale old reeted her cordially, and h the usual questions and exhortations "Are ye no' bidin' at Glenavelin?" he asked "And have I no seen ye walking on the hill wi' Maister Lewie?" When the girl assented, he asked, with the indignation of the privileged, "Then what for are ye sac keen this body Stocks should win in? If Maister Lewie's fond o' ye, wad it no be wiser--like to wark for him? Poalitics! What should a woman's poalitics be but just the same as her lad's? I hae nae opeenion o' this clash about weeirl had risen and fled from the old reactionary