"
On that night the Dillsborough club met as usual and, as a matter
of course, Goarly and the American Senator were the subjects
chiefly discussed. Everybody in the room knew,--or thought that he
knew,--that Goarly was a cheating fraudulent knave, and that Lord
Rufford was, at any rate, in this case acting properly. They all
understood the old goose, and were aware, nearly to a bushel, of
the amount of wheat which the man had sold off those two fields.
Runciman knew that the interest on the mortgage had been paid, and
could only have been paid out of the produce; and Larry Twentyman
knew that if Goarly took his 7s. 6d. an acre he would be better off
than if the wood had not been there. But yet among them all they
didn't quite see how they were to confute the Senator's logic. They
could not answer it satisfactorily, even among themselves; but they
felt that if Goarly could be detected in some offence, that would
confute the Senator. Among themselves it was sufficient to repeat
the well-known fact that Goarly was a rascal; but with reference to
this aggravating, interfering, and most obnoxious American it would
be necessary to prove it.
"His Lordship has put it into Masters's hands, I'm told," said the
doctor. At this time neither the attorney nor Larry Twentyman were
in the room.
"He couldn't have done better," said Runciman, speaking from behind
a long clay pipe.
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