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mentioned t’other day.”
    “That’s the dandy, Tony, and caveat emptor.”
    “Eh?”
    “Let the buyer beware. I mean, don’t say anything to offend Mr. Meadows, but the phrase usually means . . .”He went on with a little free lesson in Latin for the scholar manqué.
    They bought a great many items at the greengrocer’s shop and others, and then went along to the Cat’s Paw Inn for lunch and a chat with the proprietor, who had to be introduced to the candidate! At the rather disappointing meal’s conclusion, Hudson pushed Tony forward to express his delight to the owner and his intention of returning again very soon.
    There was an open stall market in progress, and Hudson walked his candidate along to it, bowing and smiling to everyone they had met that morning and trying to get Tony to do the same. He saw that Mr. Reising, whom the Tories had sent down to get their man in, had beat him to it. The well-set-up young gentleman with him, he assumed, was Alistair. He looked five or six years younger than Tony and nineteen or twenty times as bright. He too was a local citizen, and obviously on the best of terms with everyone. It took a great deal of back-slapping and handshaking on Hudson’s part—he a stranger—to give any show at all of Tony’s being popular.
    He was very happy indeed to see the ladies from New Moon across the way. They had been watching him, a little surprised to see him so much at home in the community he had come to just the day before. His distinguished appearance, heightened by his well-cut jacket and gray hair, stood out in the motley crowd of country folks.
    “He gives a good impression, does he not?”Lillian asked her cousin.
    “I never saw anything half so handsome,”Sara answered.
    “It is surprising he knows so many people. He got here only yesterday.”
    “He has lived here forever, Cousin.”
    This reply informed Miss Watters that they were discussing two different gentlemen, but at least, she thought, they were looking at the same duo. “Oh,you refer to Mr. Fellows.”
    “Mr. Fellows? No indeed, I mean Mr. Alistair.”
    “The Conservative?”Lillian asked with interest.
    “No, he’s a Tory,”Sara told her.
    “They mean the same thing, Cousin, as a Whig, you know, is another label for a Liberal. But which is Mr. Alistair?”
    “The awfully handsome one in the blue jacket.”
    Nine-tenths of the gentlemen wore blue jackets, but there weren’t many that could be designated as handsome, and by following Sara’s intent gaze, Lillian soon picked out Mr. Alistair as being a tall, good-looking blond gentleman, accompanied by an older, gray-haired man to whom the term seedy seemed to apply—not for any dishevelment in his toilette—but owing to an air of dissipation in his face.
    “So that’s Mr. Alistair. I think he will give Mr. Fellows a good run for his money. He seems popular,”Lillian said.
    “All the girls are crazy for him,”Sarah assured her.
    “I meant popular with thetownspeople, the farmers—generally popular. He’ll get a lot of votes.”
    “He’s looking at us,”Sarah said in a low, excited voice.
    He was indeed not only looking at them, but walking toward them, and at thesame time Mr. Hudson and Mr. Fellows were coming toward them from the opposite direction. The two groups converged at the same time on the four females from New Moon, and while Miss Monteith and Lady Monteith greeted the Whigs, the Tories were greeted by the young ladies. Miss Watters had to admit she was more impressed with Mr. Alistair’s charm and wits than she was with Mr. Fellows. He seemed well-spoken, well-mannered, well-informed, well-everything. Her only complaint was in regard to his politics and his mentor, who was introduced as a Mr. Reising fromLondon, Mr. Alistair’s campaign manager. Reising’s glance more than once went to the group with the elder ladies, and after a few remarks he walked the two steps to join them.
    “Well, Mr. Hudson, we meet again,”Lillian