yet flourish as it had flourished in her father's days.

"It is because you and men like you will not do your duty by your
country," she had said some score of times to Maurice--not with much
justice considering the laboriousness of his life.

But Maurice knew well what she meant. "What could I do there up at
Spanish Town," he would answer, "among such a pack as there are
there? Here I may do something."

And then she would reply with the full swing of her eloquence, "It is
because you and such as you think only of yourself and not of
Jamaica, that Jamaica has come to such a pass as this. Why is there
a pack there as you call them in the honourable House of Assembly?
Why are not the best men in the island to be found there, as the best
men in England are to be found in the British House of Commons? A
pack, indeed! My father was proud of a seat in that house, and I
remember the day, Maurice Cumming, when your father also thought it
no shame to represent his own parish. If men like you, who have a
stake in the country, will not go there, of course the house is
filled with men who have no stake. If they are a pack, it is you who
send them there;--you, and others like you."

All had its effect, though at the moment Maurice would shrug his
shoulders and turn away his head from the torrent of the lady's
discourse. But Miss Jack, though she was not greatly liked, was
greatly respected. Maurice would not own that she convinced him; but
at last he did allow his name to be put up as candidate for his own
parish, and in due time he became a member of the honourable House of
Assembly in Jamaica.