The borough for which Arundel Dacre was about to stand was in Sussex, a
county in which his family had no property, and very slight connection.
Yet at the place, the Catholic interest was strong, and on that, and
the usual Whig influence, he ventured. His desire to be a member of
the Legislature, at all and from early times extreme, was now greatly
heightened by the prospect of being present at the impending Catholic
debate. After an absence of three weeks, he had hurried to Yorkshire for
four-and-twenty hours, to give a report of the state of his canvass,
and the probability of his success. In that success all were greatly
interested, but none more so than Miss Dacre, whose thoughts indeed
seemed to dwell on no other subject, and who expressed herself with a
warmth which betrayed her secret feelings. Had the place only been
in Yorkshire, she was sure he must have succeeded. She was the best
canvasser in the world, and everybody agreed that Harry Grey-stoke owed
his election merely to her insinuating tongue and unrivalled powers
of scampering, by which she had completely baffled the tactics of Lady
Amarantha.
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