At that time there
were only nine days more before the election, and Mr Carbottle,
the Liberal candidate, was already living in great style at the
Camborne Arms.
Mr and Mrs Tregear and an elder sister of Frank's, who quite
acknowledged herself to be an old maid, were very glad to welcome
Frank's friend. On the first morning of course they discussed the
candidate's prospects. 'My best chance of success,' said Frank,
'arises from that fact that Mr Carbottle is fatter than the people
here seem to approve.'
'If his purse be fat,' said old Mr Tregear, 'that will carry off
any personal defect.' Lord Silverbridge asked whether the
candidate was not too fat to make speeches. Miss Tregear declared
that he had made three speeches daily last week, and that Mr
Williams the rector who had heard him, declared him to be a
godless dissident. Mrs Tregear thought that it would be much
better that the place should be disfranchised altogether than that
such a horrid man should be brought into the neighbourhood. 'A
godless dissenter!' she said, holding up her hands in dismay.
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