A man would think now to hear you attack M'Mahon for bribery, that
you never had bribed a man in your life; and yet you know that it is
the consciousness of bribery on our own part that prevents us from
attempting to unseat Vanston."
"That's all very true, I grant you," replied the other; "but in the
mean time we must keep up appearances. The question, so far as regards
M'Mahon, is--not so much whether he is corrupt or not, as whether he has
unseated you; that is the fatal fact against him; and if we allow that
to pass without making him suffer for it, you will find that on the
next election he may have many an imitator, and your chances will not be
worth much--that's all."
"Very well, Fethertonge," replied the indolent and feeble-minded man,
"I leave him to you; manage him or punish him as you like; but I do beg
that you will let me hear no more about him. Keep his father, however,
on the property; I insist on that; he is an honest man, for he voted for
me; keep him on his farm at reasonable terms too, such,--of course, as
he can live on."
The reasonable terms proposed by Fethertonge were, however, such as old
Tom M'Mahon could not with any prospect of independence encounter. Even
this, however, was not to him the most depressing consideration. Faith
had been wantonly and deliberately broken with him--the solemn words
of a dying man had been disregarded--and, as Fethertonge had made him
believe, by that son who had always professed to regard and honor his
father's memory.
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