CHAPTER XI
THE PRIDE BEFORE A FALL
The result of the election was announced in Gledsmuir on the next
Wednesday evening, and carried surprise to all save Lewis's nearer
friends. For Mr. Albert Stocks was duly returned member for the
constituency by a majority of seventy votes. The defeated candidate
received the news with great composure, addressed some good-humoured
words to the people, had a generous greeting for his opponent, and met
his committee with a smiling face. But his heart was sick within him,
and as soon as he decently might be escaped from the turmoil, found his
horse, and set off up Glenavelin for his own dwelling.
He had been defeated, and the fact, however confidently looked for,
comes with a bitter freshness to every man. He had lost a seat for his
party-that in itself was bad. But he had proved himself incompetent,
unadaptable, a stick, a pedantic incapable. A dozen stings rankled in
his soul. Alice would be justified of her suspicions. Where would his
place be now in that small imperious heart? His own people had forsaken
him for a gross and unlikely substitute, and he had been wrong in his
estimate alike of ally and enemy. Above all came that cruelest
stab--what would Wratislaw think of it? He had disgraced himself in the
eyes of his friend. He who had made a fetish of competence had
manifestly proved wanting; he who had loved to think of himself as the
bold, opportune man, had shown himself formal and hidebound.
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