In the hostile ranks there was a good deal of loud talk and frequent
cheering, but the speeches were in general made by lieutenants, and
the shouts seemed intended to make up for the defective eloquence of
their chief. Mr. Welwyn-Baker was too old and too stout and too
shaky for the toil of personal electioneering. He gave a few dinners
at his big house three miles away, and he addressed (laconically)
one or two select meetings; for the rest, his name and fame had to
suffice. There was no convincing him that his seat could possibly be
in danger. He smiled urbanely over the reports of Quarrier's
speeches, called his adversary "a sharp lad," and continued through
all the excitement of the borough to conduct himself with this
amiable fatuity.
"I vow and protest," said Mr. Mumbray, in a confidential ear, "that
if it weren't for the look of the thing, I would withhold my vote
altogether! W.-B. is m his dotage. And to think that we might have
put new life into the party! Bah!"
Conservative canvassers did not fall to make use of thee fact that
Mr. Welwyn-Baker had always been regardful of the poor. His
alms-houses were so pleasantly situated and so tastefully designed
that many Polterham people wished they were for lease on ordinary
terms. The Infirmary was indebted to his annual beneficence, and the
Union had to thank him--especially through this past winter--for
a lightening of its burden.
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