Beth was full of curiosity to know this story.

As for Tom Gates, he had been so horrified by his mistake that he tried to avoid meeting Eliza again.  This was not difficult because the girl kept pretty closely to the linen room, and Tom was chiefly occupied in the library.

Kenneth had little chance to test his secretary’s abilities just then, because the girls pounced upon the new recruit and used his services in a variety of ways.  Tom Gates’s anxiety to give satisfaction made him willing to do anything, but they refrained from sending him often to town because he was sensitive to the averted looks and evident repulsion of those who knew he had recently been a “jail-bird.”  But there was plenty for him to do at Elmhurst, where they were all as busy as bees; and whatever the young man undertook he accomplished in a satisfactory manner.

Saturday forenoon the three girls, with Kenneth, Mr. Watson and Uncle John, rode over to Fairview to prepare for the debate that was to take place in the afternoon, leaving only Tom Gates at home.  As Mr. Hopkins had thrust upon his opponent the task of naming the place and time, the Republican candidate was obliged to make all the arrangements, and pay all the costs.  But whatever the girl managers undertook they did well.  So the Opera House had been in the hands of a special committee for two days, the orchestra had been hired, and the news of the joint debate had spread far and wide.

The party from Elmhurst lunched at the Fairview Hotel, and then the girls hurried to the Opera House while Kenneth remained to attend a conference of the Republican Committee.  These gentlemen were much worried over the discovery of a scheme to trade votes that had been sprung, and that Forbes and Reynolds were being sacrificed for Hopkins and Cummings.  Mr. Cummings was called into the meeting, and he denied that the trading was being done with his consent, but defiantly refused to make a public announcement to that effect.

The matter was really serious, because every vote lost in that way counted as two for the other side, and Hopkins’s rabid hand-bills had influenced many of the more ignorant voters and created endless disputes that were not of benefit to the Republican party.

“As nearly as we can figure from our recent canvass,” said Mr. Cunningham, the chairman, “we are fast losing ground, and our chances of success are smaller than if no interest in the election had been aroused.  Hopkins has cut our majority down to nothing, and it will be a hard struggle to carry our ticket through to success.  This is the more discouraging because Mr. Forbes has spent so much money, while Hopkins’s expenses have been very little.”

“I do not mind that,” said Kenneth, quietly.  “It was my desire that the voters should fully understand the issues of the campaign.  Then, if they vote against me, it is because they are not worthy of honest representation in the Legislature, and I shall in the future leave them to their own devices.”