"
An hour afterward, it was announced to the crowded gathering in the
Dunscombe Corn Exchange that Mr. Marsham had been hurt by a stone at
Hartingfield, and could not address the meeting. The message was
received with derision rather than sympathy. It was universally believed
that the injury was a mere excuse, and that the publication of that most
damning letter, on the very eve of the poll, was the sole and only cause
why the Junior Lord of the Treasury failed on this occasion to meet the
serried rows of his excited countrymen, waiting for him in the packed
and stifling hall.
It was the Vicar who took the news to Beechcote. As in the case of
Diana herself, the misfortune of the enemy instantly transformed a
roaring lion into a sucking dove. Some instinct told him that she must
hear it gently. He therefore invented an errand, saw Muriel Colwood, and
left the tale with her--both of the blow and the letter.
Muriel, trembling inwardly, broke it as lightly and casually as she
could. An injury to the spine--so it was reported. No doubt rest and
treatment would soon amend it. A London surgeon had been sent for.
Meanwhile the election was said to be lost.
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