--"I hope you mind your aunt, Emma, and are properly grateful to her?"
Abruptly quitting his hold, he swept the parlour with a glance. "A very
snug little place you have here, upon my word!"
While Polly, with Trotty pattering after, bustled to the larder, Mahony
congratulated his brother-in-law on the more favourable attitude towards
his election policy which was becoming evident in the local press.
John's persuasive tongue was clearly having its effect, and the
hostility he had met with at the outset of his candidature was yielding
to more friendly feelings on all sides. John was frankly gratified by
the change, and did not hesitate to say so. When the wine arrived they
drank to his success, and Polly's delicacies met with their due share of
praise. Then, having wiped his mouth on a large silk handkerchief, John
disclosed the business object of his call. He wanted specific
information about the more influential of their friends and
acquaintances; and here he drew a list of names from his pocket-book.
Mahony, his chin propped on the flaxen head of the child, whom he
nursed, soon fell out of the running for Polly proved far the cleverer
at grasping the nature of the information John sought, and at retailing
it. And John complimented her on her shrewdness, ticked off names, took
notes on what she told him; and when he was not writing sat tapping his
thick, carnation-red underlip, and nodding assent. It was arranged that
Polly should drive out with him next day to Yarangobilly, by way of
Dandaloo; while for the evening after they plotted a card-party, at
which John might come to grips with Archdeacon Long.
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