His jihad it would be,
for the faith and purpose of his race; so he scanned it
and heard it, with conviction hot in him, and impulse
strong, and intention noble. Then uneasiness had arisen,
as we know; and under steady pressure he had daily drawn
himself from these high intentions, persuaded by Bingham
and the rest that they were not yet "in shape" to talk
about. So that his address on this memorable evening
would have a different stamp from the one he designed in
the early burning hours of his candidature. He had
postponed those matters, under advice, to the hour of
practical dealing, when a Government which it would be
his privilege to support would consider and carry them.
He put the notes of his original speech away in his office
desk with solicitude--it was indeed very thorough, a grand
marshalling of the facts and review of the principles
involved--and pigeonholed it in the chambers of his mind,
with the good hope to bring it forth another day. Then he
devoted his attention to the history of Liberalism in Fox
County--both ridings were solid--and it was upon the
history of Liberalism in Fox County, its triumphs and its
fruits, that he embarked so easily and so assuredly, when
he opened his address in the opera house that Tuesday night.
Who knows at what suggestion, or even precisely at what
moment, the fabric of his sincere intention fell away?
Bingham does not; Mr Farquharson has the vaguest idea;
Dr Drummond declares that he expected it from the beginning,
but is totally unable to say why.
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