Nor could any teasing
prevail to draw from him what had been on his audacious
lips to say.
Social precedents are easily established in the country.
The accident that sent the first Liberal canvasser for
Jordanville votes to the Crow place for his supper would
be hard to discover now; the fact remains that he has
been going there ever since. It made a greater occasion
than Mrs Crow would ever have dreamed of acknowledging.
She saw to it that they had a good meal of victuals, and
affected indifference to the rest; they must say their
say, she supposed. If the occasion had one satisfaction
which she came nearer to confessing than another, it was
that the two or three substantial neighbours who usually
came to meet the politicians left their wives at home,
and that she herself, to avoid giving any offence on this
score, never sat down with the men. Quite enough to do
it was, she would explain later, for her and the hired
girl to wait on them and to clear up after them. She and
Bella had their bite afterward when the men had hitched
up, and when they could exchange comments of proud
congratulation upon the inroads on the johnny-cake or
the pies. So there was no ill feeling, and Mrs Crow,
having vindicated her dignity by shaking hands with the
guests of the evening in the parlour, solaced it further
by maintaining the masculine state of the occasion, in
spite of protests or entreaties.
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