So far as his own powers of endurance were concerned, he told her, he had no fears; and was prepared to face all the terrors and hardships of the journey, as well as the risks and dangers, in the search for gold. The question of her own and the children’s subsistence during his absence he confessed he had not carefully gone into, as he first wanted to get at a general expression of her views before considering what really was the most difficult aspect of the subject. "I understand your mother is coming this afternoon; so suppose we leave the matter as it stands at present, that you may talk it over with her, hear what she has to say, and then when I come home we can go more fully into it together." On his return in the evening, he was quickly informed that the two women regarded the scheme as being altogether a mad and impracticable proposal; one which no sensible married man ought for a moment to entertain. Nor, if the truth were told, did Arnold himself quite see how the thing could be accomplished. The main difficulty was how to provide for his family during an almost two years necessary absence. His wife’s mother could have rendered this part of the task easy enough, had she been so disposed; but since no such proposal came from her, he himself was not willing to suggest it. For the present, therefore, the idea was abandoned, and in the course of a week or two he wrote his cousins, stating fully the difficulties as they had presented themselves, and explaining that the financial bogey alone rendered it impossible for him to undertake the exploit, and that it was with infinite regret he had been compelled to that conclusion. *CHAPTER XIII.* *BROADSTONE LIBERALS.* "Now, afore heaven, ’tis shame such wrongs are borne." _Richard II._, Act II. sc. i. A parliamentary election was pending at Broadstone, through the decease of one of its sitting members. The several election agents were busy marshalling their forces, in readiness for what it was believed would be a sharp contest. Party clubs were rallying their members, so that each club might bring forward the strongest possible candidate it could find. The local press were putting out feelers as to this man and that man’s suitability, evidently with no very definite notion as to which of those named the choice was likely to fall upon. Energetic correspondents were at work detailing to an open-mouthed clientele that So-and-so was being approached with a view to stand, only to furnish a paragraph for the next day’s issue to the effect that the intelligence so reported was premature or unfounded.