222 IDLEHURST : 



mixed landed and moneyed interest at present 

 dominant in the county. The attitude of the local 

 Conservative managers to men of this class appears 

 to me to be the prius dementat order ; and when the 

 perdition arrives, it will be none the better for having 

 Mr. Biles and his kind riding the whirlwind and 

 directing the storm they did not raise. When our 

 Parish Council was first elected, the Radical ground- 

 swell of the place swept over us all. Those were 

 wild times. The Major's coachman beat his master 

 by three places. Old Tomsett was nearly elected. 

 Bish, to his agony and terror, found himself incredibly 

 nominated. The Doctor got in as the doctor. The 

 Rector stood out and watched the fray, telling us it 

 was all make-believe. And Mr. Biles was easily head 

 of the poll. Then we waited to see how the new 

 broom, with Biles at the handle as Chairman, supported 

 by the coachman, the publican, the brewer's-cad, the 

 schoolmaster, and the two small farmers, would deal 

 with our destinies. After this interval we are begin- 

 ning to fancy that nothing particular is going to 

 happen ; that there are higher powers still left, that 

 the new Council was only a toy pistol for the Arcadian 

 Demos to play with. So far, after punctual meetings, 

 heightened oratorical style of Mr. Biles, a few vulgar 

 " breezes " (one satisfactorily concluded with fists on 



