"Now we've put it straight," said the Dean gleefully. "He's bound to
mention your note and to accept your account, and if he accepts it, his
supporters can't help themselves, they must do the same." Sir Winterton
agreed that, distasteful as this quasi-appeal to his opponent had been,
it could not fail to have the beneficial results which the Dean forecast.
There was more cheerfulness at Moors End that evening than had been seen
since Japhet Williams rose from the body of the hall, a small but
determined Accusing Angel.
It is not so easy to put straight what has once gone crooked, nor so
safe to undertake to advise other folks, however much the task may by
habit seem to lose half its seriousness. In his heart the Dean was
thinking that he had "cornered" Quisante, and Sir Winterton was hoping
that he had combined the advantages of pliancy with the privilege of
pride. The note that Quisante wrote in answer did nothing to disturb
this comfortable state of feeling--unless indeed any danger were
foreshadowed in the last line or two; "While, as I have said, most ready
to accept your assurance, and desirous, as I have always been, of
keeping all purely personal questions in the background, I do not feel
myself called upon to express any opinion on the course which you have,
doubtless after full consideration, adopted in regard to the requests
for a public explanation which have been addressed to you by duly
qualified electors of the borough.
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