"They must
have mistaken me for Mrs. Proudie," she said, when the rumour reached
her ears. But there was, alas! one great element of failure on Miss
Dunstable's side of the battle. Mr. Sowerby himself could not be
induced to fight it as became a man. Any positive injunctions that
were laid upon him he did, in a sort, obey. It had been a part of the
bargain that he should stand the contest, and from that bargain he
could not well go back; but he had not the spirit left to him for any
true fighting on his own part. He could not go up on the hustings,
and there defy the duke. Early in the affair Mr. Fothergill
challenged him to do so, and Mr. Sowerby never took up the gauntlet.
"We have heard," said Mr. Fothergill, in that great speech which he
made at the Omnium Arms at Silverbridge--"we have heard much during
this election of the Duke of Omnium, and of the injuries which he is
supposed to have inflicted on one of the candidates. The duke's name
is very frequent in the mouths of the gentlemen--and of the lady--who
support Mr. Sowerby's claims. But I do not think that Mr. Sowerby
himself has dared to say much about the duke. I defy Mr. Sowerby to
mention the duke's name upon the hustings." And it so happened that
Mr. Sowerby never did mention the duke's name.
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