But the social advantages accruing to the wife of an M.P. impressed
her very strongly indeed. For such an end she was willing to make
sacrifices, and the first of these declared itself in an abandonment
of her opposition to Mr. Eustace Glazzard. Her husband pointed out
to her that a connection with the family so long established at
Highmead would be of distinct value. William Glazzard nominally
stood on the Liberal side, but he was very lukewarm, and allowed to
be seen that his political action was much swayed by personal
considerations. Eustace made no pretence of Liberal learning; though
a friend of the Radical candidate (so Quarrier was already
designated by his opponents), he joked at popular enthusiasm, and
could only be described as an independent aristocrat. Money, it
appeared, he had none; and his brother, it was suspected, kept up
only a show of the ancestral position. Nevertheless, their names had
weight in the borough.
Eustace spent Christmas at Highmead, and made frequent calls at the
house of the ex-Mayor. On one of the occasions it happened that the
ladies were from home, but Mr. Mumbray, on the point of going out,
begged Glazzard to come and have a word with him in his sanctum.
After much roundabout talk, characteristically pompous, he put the
question whether Mr. Glazzard, as a friend of Mr. Denzil Quarrier,
would "take it ill" if he, Mr.
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