. Lespel; »I knew it. I know Bevisham. The only chance there
is for five thousand pounds in a sack with a hole in it.«
    »Bad for Beauchamp? Dear me, no«; Palmet corrected the error. »He is
carrying all before him. And he tells them,« Palmet mimicked Beauchamp, »they
shall not have one penny: not a farthing. I gave a couple of young ones a
shilling apiece, and he rowed me for bribery; somehow I did wrong.«
    Lord Palmet described the various unearthly characters he had inspected in
their dens: Carpendike, Tripe-hallow, and the radicals Peter Molyneux and Samuel
Killick, and the ex-member for the borough, Cougham, posing to suit sign-boards
of Liberal inns, with a hand thrust in his waistcoat, and his head well up, the
eyes running over the under-lids, after the traditional style of our
aristocracy; but perhaps more closely resembling an urchin on tiptoe peering
above park-palings. Cougham's remark to Beauchamp, heard and repeated by Palmet
with the object of giving an example of the senior Liberal's phraseology: »I was
necessitated to vacate my town mansion, to my material discomfort and that of my
wife, whose equipage I have been compelled to take, by your premature canvass of
the borough, Captain Beauchamp: and now, I hear, on undeniable authority, that
no second opponent to us will be forthcoming«: - this produced the greatest
effect on the company.
    »But do you tell me,« said Mr. Lespel, when the shouts of the gentlemen were
subsiding, »do you tell me that young Beauchamp is going ahead?«
    »That he is. They flock to him in the street.«
    »He stands there, then, and jingles a money-bag.«
    Palmet resumed his mimicry of Beauchamp: »Not a stiver; purity of election
is the first condition of instruction to the people! Principles! Then they've
got a capital orator: Turbot, an Irishman. I went to a meeting last night, and
heard him; never heard anything finer in my life. You may laugh - he whipped me
off my legs; fellow spun me like a top; and while he was orationing, a donkey
calls, Turbot! ain't you a flat fish? and he swings round, Not for a fool's
hook! and out they hustled the villain for a Tory. I never saw anything like
it.«
    »That repartee wouldn't have done with a Dutchman
