"Oh! my subscription? I'll give it now--what was it to be--a pound?"
"No, you promised only ten shillings, but it _ought_ to be a pound. I think less would be _shameful_."
"Then, Miss Agnes, shall it be a pound?" he said, turning to her with a laugh--with his fingers in his purse, "whatever you say I'll do."
"_Agnes_--of _course_, a pound," said Charity, in her nursery style of admonition.
"Charity says it must be a pound," answered Agnes.
"Then a pound it _is_--and mind," he added, laughing, and turning to Miss Charity with the coin in his fingers, "I'm to figure in your book of benefactors--your golden book of saints, or _martyrs_, rather; but you need not put down my name, only 'The old woman's friend,' or 'A lover of flannel' or 'A promoter of petticoats,' or any other benevolent alias you think becoming."
"'The old woman's friend,' will do very nicely," said Charity, gravely. "Thank you, Mr. Verney, and we were _so_ glad to hear that your uncle has succeeded at last to the peerage. He can be of such _use_--you really would be--he and you _both_, Mr. Verney--quite amazed and shocked, if you knew how much poverty there is in this town."
"It's well he does not know just now, for he wants all his wits about him. This is a critical occasion, you know, and the town expects great things from a practised orator. I've stolen away, just for five minutes, to ask you the news. We are at Ware, for a few days; only two or three friends with us. They came across in my boat to-day. We are going to set all the tradespeople on earth loose upon the house in a few days. It is to be done in an incredibly short time; and my uncle is talking of getting down some of his old lady relations to act chaperon, and we hope to have you all over there. You know it's all made up, that little coldness between my uncle and your father. I'm so glad. Your father wrote him such a nice note to-day explaining his absence--he never goes into a crowd, he says--and Lord Verney wrote him a line to say, if he would allow him, he would go up to Hazelden to pay his respects this afternoon."
This move was a suggestion of Mr. Larkin's, who was pretty well up in election strategy.
"I've ascertained, my lord, he's good for a hundred and thirty-seven votes in the county, and your lordship has managed him with such consummate tact that a very little more will, with the Divine blessing, induce the happiest, and I may say, considering the disparity of your lordship's relations and his, the most _dutiful_ feelings on his part--resulting, in fact, in your lordship's obtaining the absolute command of the constituency. You were defeated, my lord, last time, by only forty-three votes, with his influence against you. If your lordship were to start your nephew, Mr. Cleve Verney, for it next time, having made your ground good with him, he would be returned, humanly speaking, by a sweeping majority."
