The appointment would involve re-election. All that infernal business to
go through again!--probably in the very midst of disturbances in the
mining district. The news from the collieries was as bad as it could be.
* * * * *
He reached home very late--close on midnight. His mother had gone to
bed, ill and worn out, and was not to be disturbed. Isabel Fotheringham
and Alicia awaited him in the drawing-room.
Mrs. Fotheringham had arrived in the course of the evening. She herself
was peevish with fatigue, incurred in canvassing for two of Lord
Philip's most headlong supporters. Personally, she had broken with John
Ferrier some weeks before the election; but the fact had made more
impression on her own mind than on his.
"Well, Oliver, this is a shocking thing! However, of course, Ferrier had
been unhealthy for a long time; any one could see that. It was really
better it should end so."
"You take it calmly!" he said, scandalized by her manner and tone.
"I am sorry, of course. But Ferrier had outlived himself. The people I
have been working among felt him merely in the way. But, of course, I am
sorry mamma is dreadfully upset.
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