CHAPTER VIII

THE TRIALS OF AN HONOURABLE

It was about this time that Mr. Humphrey Crewe was transformed, by one of those subtle and inexplicable changes which occur in American politics, into the Honourable Humphrey Crewe.  And, as interesting bits of news about important people are bound to leak out, it became known in Leith that he had subscribed to what is known as a Clipping Bureau.  Two weeks after the day he left Mr. Braden’s presence in the Ripton House the principal newspapers of the country contained the startling announcement that the well-known summer colony of Leith was to be represented in the State Legislature by a millionaire.  The Republican nomination, which Mr. Crewe had secured, was equivalent to an election.

For a little time after that Mr. Crewe, although naturally an important and busy man, scarcely had time to nod to his friends on the road.

“Poor dear Humphrey,” said Mrs. Pomfret, “who was so used to dropping in to dinner, hasn’t had a moment to write me a line to thank me for the statesman’s diary I bought for him in London this spring.  They’re in that new red leather, and Aylestone says he finds his so useful.  I dropped in at Wedderburn to-day to see if I could be of any help, and the poor man was buttonholed by two reporters who had come all the way from New York to see him.  I hope he won’t overdo it.”

It was true.  Mr. Crewe was to appear in the Sunday supplements.  “Are our Millionaires entering Politics?” Mr. Crewe, with his usual gracious hospitality, showed the reporters over the place, and gave them suggestions as to the best vantage-points in which to plant their cameras.  He himself was at length prevailed upon to be taken in a rough homespun suit, and with a walking-stick in his hand, appraising with a knowing eye a flock of his own sheep.  Pressed a little, he consented to relate something of the systematic manner in which he had gone about to secure this nomination:  how he had visited in person the homes of his fellow-townsmen.  “I knew them all, anyway,” he is quoted as saying; “we have had the pleasantest of relationships during the many years I have been a resident of Leith.”

“Beloved of his townspeople,” this part of the article was headed.  No, these were not Mr. Crewe’s words—­he was too modest for that.  When urged to give the name of one of his townsmen who might deal with this and other embarrassing topics, Mr. Ball was mentioned.  “Beloved of his townspeople” was Mr. Ball’s phrase.  “Although a multi-millionaire, no man is more considerate of the feelings and the rights of his more humble neighbours.  Send him to the Legislature!  We’d send him to the United States Senate if we could.  He’ll land there, anyway.”  Such was a random estimate (Mr. Ball’s) the reporters gathered on their way to Ripton.  Mr. Crewe did not hesitate to say that the prosperity of the farmers had risen as a result of his labours at Wedderburn where the most improved machinery and methods were adopted.  His efforts to raise the agricultural, as well as the moral and intellectual, tone of the community had been unceasing.