But Mr Reddypalm was a man of humble desires, whose ambitions scored no higher than this—­that his little bills should be duly settled.  It was wonderful what love an innkeeper has for his bill in its entirety.  An account, with a respectable total of five or six pounds, is brought to you, and you complain but of one article; that fire in the bedroom was never lighted; or that second glass of brandy and water was never called for.  You desire to have the shilling expunged, and all your host’s pleasure in the whole transaction is destroyed.  Oh! my friends, pay for the brandy and water, though you never drank it; suffer the fire to pass, though it never warmed you.  Why make a good man miserable for such a trifle?

It became notified to Reddypalm with sufficient clearness that his bill for the past election should be paid without further question; and therefore, at five o’clock the Mayor of Barchester proclaimed the results of the contests in the following figures:—­

Scatcherd       378
Moffat          376

Mr Reddypalm’s two votes had decided the question.  Mr Nearthewinde immediately went up to town; and the dinner party at Courcy Castle that evening was not a particularly pleasant meal.

This much, however, had been absolutely decided before the yellow committee concluded their labour at the White Horse:  there should be a petition.  Mr Nearthewinde had not been asleep, and already knew something of the manner in which Mr Reddypalm’s mind had been quieted.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE RIVALS

The intimacy between Frank and Miss Dunstable grew and prospered.  That is to say, it prospered as an intimacy, though perhaps hardly as a love affair.  There was a continued succession of jokes between them, which no one else in the castle understood; but the very fact of there being such a good understanding between them rather stood in the way of, than assisted, that consummation which the countess desired.  People, when they are in love with each other, or even when they pretend to be, do not generally show it by loud laughter.  Nor is it frequently the case that a wife with two hundred thousand pounds can be won without some little preliminary despair.

Lady de Courcy, who thoroughly understood that portion of the world in which she herself lived, saw that things were not going quite as they should do, and gave much and repeated advice to Frank on the subject.  She was the more eager in doing this, because she imagined Frank had done what he could to obey her first precepts.  He had not turned up his nose at Miss Dunstable’s curls, nor found fault with her loud voice:  he had not objected to her as ugly, nor even shown any dislike to her age.  A young man who had been so amenable to reason was worthy of further assistance; and so Lady de Courcy did what she could to assist him.

‘Frank, my dear boy,’ she would say, ’you are a little too noisy, I think.  I don’t mean for myself, you know; I don’t mind it.  But Miss Dunstable would like it better if you were a little more quiet with her.’