Hart were - not as the large
imagination of the North Loamshire Herald suggested, of all shades of political
opinion, but - of as many shades as were to be found among the gentlemen of that
county.
    Harold Transome has been energetically active in bringing about this
meeting. Over and above the stings of conscience and a determination to act up
to the level of all recognised honourableness, he had the powerful motive of
desiring to do what would satisfy Esther. His gradually heightened perception
that she had a strong feeling towards Felix Holt had not made him uneasy, Harold
had a conviction that might have seemed like fatuity if it had not been that he
saw the effect he produced on Esther by the light of his opinions about women in
general. The conviction was, that Felix Holt could not be his rival in any
formidable sense: Esther's admiration for this eccentric young man was, he
thought, a moral enthusiasm, a romantic fervour, which was one among those many
attractions quite novel in his own experience; her distress about the trouble of
one who had been a familiar object in her former home, was no more than
naturally followed from a tender woman's compassion. The place young Holt had
held in her regard had necessarily changed its relations now that her lot was so
widely changed. It is undeniable, that what most conduced to the quieting nature
of Harold's conclusions was the influence on his imagination of the more or less
detailed reasons that Felix Holt was a watchmaker, that his home and dress were
of a certain quality, that his person and manners - that, in short (for Harold,
like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of
distinct ideas), Felix Holt was not the sort of man a woman would be likely to
be in love with when she was wooed by Harold Transome.
    Thus, he was sufficiently at rest on this point not to be exercising any
painful self-conquest in acting as the zealous advocate of Felix Holt's cause
with all persons worth influencing; but it was by no direct intercourse between
him and Sir Maximus that they found themselves in co-operation, for the old
baronet would not recognise Harold by more than the faintest bow, and Harold was
not a man to expose himself to a rebuff. Whatever he in his inmost soul regarded
as nothing more than a narrow prejudice, he could defy, not with airs of
importance, but with easy indifference. He could bear most things
good-humouredly where he felt that he had the superiority. The object of the
meeting was discussed, and the memorial