"
"H'm. Lady Lucy isn't standing for West Brookshire."
"No matter. The son's teeth are set on edge. Marsham has been appealed
to, and has done nothing--attempted nothing. He makes eloquent Liberal
speeches, and himself spends money got by grinding the poor!"
"You make him out a greater fool than I believe him," said the doctor.
"He has probably attempted a great deal, and finds his power limited.
Moreover, he has been eight years member here, and these charges are
quite new."
"Because the spirit abroad is new!" cried the Vicar. "Men will no longer
bear what their fathers bore. The old excuses, the old pleas, serve no
longer. I tell you the poor are tired of their patience! The Kingdom of
Heaven, in its earthly aspect, is not to be got that way--no! 'The
violent take it by force!' And as to your remark about Marsham, half the
champions of democracy in this country are in the same box: prating
about liberty and equality abroad; grinding their servants and
underpaying their laborers at home. I know scores of them; and how any
of them keep a straight face at a public meeting I never could
understand. There is a French proverb that exactly expresses them--"
"I know," murmured the doctor, "I know.
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