A week later the subject was renewed at a very heated and disorderly
meeting at Dunscombe. A bookseller's assistant, well known as one of the
leading Socialists of the division, got up and in a suave mincing voice
accused Marsham of having--not written, but--"communicated" the _Herald_
article, and so dealt a treacherous blow at his old friend and
Parliamentary leader--a blow which had no doubt contributed to the
situation culminating in Mr. Ferrier's tragic death.
Marsham, very pale, sprang up at once, denied the charge, and fiercely
attacked the man who had made it. But there was something so venomous in
the manner of his denial, so undignified in the personalities with which
it was accompanied, that the meeting suddenly took offence. The attack,
instead of dying down, was renewed. Speaker after speaker got up and
heckled the candidate. Was Mr. Marsham aware that the editor of the
_Herald_ had been staying at Tallyn two days before the article
appeared? Was he also aware that his name had been freely mentioned, in
the _Herald_ office, in connection with the article?
Marsham in vain endeavored to regain sang-froid and composure under
these attacks.
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