In the courtroom the parties jostled each other at the polls, and the
candidates, side by side upon the Justice's Bench, watched the day go
now this way and now that. Their partisans they must acceptably thank,
and they must be quick of wit with their adversaries. Fatigue did not
count, nor hoarseness from much speaking, nor an undercurrent of
consciousness that there were, after all, more parties than two, more
principles than those they advocated, more colours than black and white,
more epithets than hero and villain. They must act in their moment, and
accept its excitement. A colour burned in their cheeks, and the hair lay
damp upon their foreheads. They must listen and answer to men saying
loudly to their faces and before other men, "I hold with you, and your
mind is brother to my mind"; or saying, "I hold not with you, and you
and your mind are abominable to me! To outer darkness with you both!"

Sometimes they consulted with their committee-men, and sometimes punch
was brought, and they drank with their friends. Occasionally they spoke
to each other; when they did this, it was with extreme courtesy. Cary
used the buttoned foil with polished ease. Rand's manner was less
assured; there was something antique and laboured in his determined
grasp at the amenities of the occasion. It was the only heaviness. To
the other contest between them he brought an amazing sureness, a
suppleness, power, and audacity beyond praise. He directed his battle,
and at his elbow Tom Mocket, sandy-haired and ferret-eyed, did him
yeoman service.

At one o'clock there was an adjournment for dinner. The principal
Federalists betook themselves to the Swan; the principal Republicans to
the Eagle. The commonalty ate from the packed baskets upon the trampled
grass of the Court House yard. An hour later, when the polls were
reopened, men returned to them flushed with drink and in the temper for