Through the roar that followed she heard Helwise burst suddenly into tears, and saw the clerk spin round on Hamer with a fierce nod and exclamation, his face flushed violently as if he had been struck. She turned blindly to the comforting of Helwise, surprised to find her hands trembling and her own eyes full of tears. Wigmore slid from the car, and joined the little band of men as Lancaster came up. He met them with a cheerful shrug, and they stood in silence while Harriet, Head of the Poll, spoke her thanks to her supporters. It was strange to hear her steady, strong English, devoid of slang adornments--old inhabitants thought of Grand Old John as they listened--stranger still to hear her voice quiver as she added her regret at Mr. Lancaster’s defeat. More than one of her friends wondered secretly if they were meeting the real Harriet for the first time. Only Stubbs, shining with happiness, muttered: “In the family. Always in the family!” with an uplifting pride worth all the temperance sermons in the world. When the cheer had died, Thorne said his few, plausible, little sentences. His cheer was isolated to a deliberate section, but he seemed quite satisfied with it. He had expressed his pleasure that the lady was to be his partner on the Board, and now he turned to her, offering a furtive paw with something like real admiration in his shifty eyes. “It’s to be you and me, after all, Miss Harriet!” he said kindly. “I’m not sorry I interfered in that milk business, if it’s ended in bringing you to this!” And John Knewstubb’s granddaughter, whose fine diction had so recently filled delighted ears, remarked: “Go to the devil, you Creeping Jesus!” and strode off into the crowd. Hamer Shaw laid a hand on Lancaster’s shoulder. “See here, my boy!” he began, looking old and troubled in the sharp light. “Your lad here says it’s my fault they’ve outed you. He says I was so taken up asking the women to vote for Harriet I forgot to remind ’em to vote for you, too. He asked at least ten as they came out, and they all said they’d plumped for Harriet and that I’d told ’em to! Of course, I didn’t do anything of the sort, but it’s true enough I never thought of bothering them about _you_. Everybody said you were safe, that the usual crowd always voted for you. Anything else never entered my head. Your lad says I was so busy running Harriet I made them think they could only vote for one candidate. He says those ten female plumpers could have put you at the head of the poll. If that’s so, I deserve to be shot--drowned--anything--as the most interfering old ass in England!” Lancaster laughed as cheerfully as he knew how. Hamer he might deceive, but there were too many natives round him who knew exactly what he must be feeling.