The Ffolliots of Redmarley | Page 4

prevent a repetition
of the experiment a few months later. This time Eloquent kept awake
for nearly an hour. He was dreadfully bored, but at the same time felt
very elated and important. He was the only little boy in the hall.
Abel Gallup was never tired of impressing upon Eloquent that "the
people had the power, and the people had the votes to send you to
parlyment or keep you out. Don't you be misled, my boy, by them as
would wish you to try to please the gentry by and bye. The gentry's few
and the people's many. I don't say a word against the gentry, mind,

they're all right in their proper place, and very pleasant they be, some of
them, but when the time comes for you to stand, just you remember
that even hereabout there's hundreds of little houses for one manshun,
and in every one of those little houses there's a vote, and you can have
it if you go the right way about. When you're in, Eloquent, then you can
hob-a-nob with the gentry if it so pleases you; but till you're in,
remember it's the working man as can make or mar you."
Eloquent's aunt, Miss Gallup, had for many years "kept" the post-office
and general shop in the village of Redmarley; but when her brother
asked her to come and look after his home and his motherless child, she
did not hesitate. She resigned her position of post-mistress, sold the
good-will of her shop, and went to live in Marlehouse at "The Sign of
the Golden Anchor."
She did not lose her interest in Redmarley, however; she had many
friends there, and it was one of the treats of little Eloquent's childhood
to drive there with his aunt "in a shay," to spend the afternoon in the
woods, and have tea afterwards either with the housekeeper at the
"Manshun" or in one of the cottages in the village.
In those days, only one old gentleman lived at the "Manshun." He "kept
himself very much to himself," so aunt said, and Eloquent never saw
him except from an upper window in the Golden Anchor, when he
happened to drive through Marlehouse.
Neither did the little boy ever see much of the interior of the
"Manshun" itself, except the housekeeper's room, which was down a
passage just inside the back entrance.
It was during these visits to the housekeeper at Redmarley that it first
dawned upon Eloquent that there could be two opinions as to the
absolute righteousness of the Liberal Cause. Moreover, he found out
that his aunt's political views were not on all fours with those of his
father. This last discovery was quite a shock to him, and there was
worse in store. For while he sat in solemn silence devouring bread and
jam at the housekeeper's well-spread table, with his own ears he heard
her dare to speak of the Grand Old Man as "that there Gladstone," and

the butler, an imposing gentleman in black, actually described him as
"a snake in the grass."
"It's curious, Miss Gallup," the butler said, thoughtfully, "that your
brother should be that side in politics, and him so well-to-do and all. If
he'd been in the boot trade now, I could have understood it--there's
something in the smell of leather that breeds Radicals like a bad drain
breeds fever; but clothes now, and lining and neck-ties and hosiery,
you'd think they'd have a softening effect on a man. Dissenter, too, he is,
isn't he?"
"My brother's altogether out of the common run," Miss Gallup
remarked, rather huffily. She might deplore his politics herself--when
she was some distance away from him--but no one else should presume
to find fault. "He may be mistaken in his views--I think he is
mistaken--but that don't alter the fact that he's a very successful man: a
solid man, well thought of in Marlehouse, I can tell you."
"Dada says," Eloquent broke in, "that he's successful because of his
views."
"Well, to be sure," exclaimed the housekeeper in astonishment, "who'd
have thought the child could understand."
"The child," groaned Miss Gallup, "hears nothing but politics all day
long--it turns me cold sometimes, it does really."
CHAPTER II
ONE OF THEM
When Eloquent was six years old his visits to the "Manshun" at
Redmarley ceased.
Old Mr Ffolliot died, and his nephew, Mr Hilary, reigned in his stead.
The butler and the housekeeper, handsomely pensioned, left the village.
The staff of servants was much reduced, and at first Mr Hilary Ffolliot
only came down to Redmarley for two or three days at a time. Then he

married and came to live there altogether.
Eloquent had liked going to Redmarley. The place attracted him, and
the people were kind, even if they were wrong-headed