Free The Angry Tide by Winston Graham Page B

relationship. 'I have been buying property, Father. In St Michael. A few houses. A few farms. A posting house.'
    'Derelict,' said Cary. 'Tumbledown.'
    'Not altogether.'
    'But this very large sum ...?'
    George said: 'Last year, because of a stupid and contrived agreement between two of our so-called nobility, I lost my seat in Parliament. This you well know, my dear Father, since you fought with me to the end, allowed our friend Poldark to take my se at. Wellthat is done. Unless we arrange to shoot him on the highway we cannot unseat him. But I see no reason to be deprived of a place in Parliament for any length of ti me. I enjoyed the experience. Se ats are for sale. I am buying one.'
    'Not a seat,' said Cary. 'A borough. You can get a se at for two or three thousand pounds. Trying to buy a borough will cost you five or ten times that before you're finished.'
    'Agreed,' said George. 'But who has a seat for sale just after an election? Life is short: I don't wish to wait. With a borough - if I get it - I have control. I can also dispense patronage: a parsonage for one, a customs appointment for another, a profitable contract for a third. One comes to possess influence and power of a new kind.'
    'St Michael is scot and lot, isn't it?' Nicholas remarked. 'From what I know of them they're very difficult boroughs to control - and expensive. The costs do not finish when you buy the property, George, they go on and on, People - the voters, such as they are - tend to form themselves into groups and sell themselves to the highest bidder.'
    'I'm a rich man,' said George. ‘I can afford to indulge myself. This fellow Barwell, who made a fortune in India; he too is prepared to pay for his indulgences. My fortune came from nowhere but the county in which I was born; and I intend to represent that county. There is no more to be said, dear Father, there is no more to be said.'
    'Nor is there,' said Nicho las, frowning at the accounts. ‘I do not for a moment deny your right to spend this money as you please. Indeed I'm in favour of your attempt to get back into Parliament. So long as you know the pitfalls ...' 'I think so. Sir Christopher Hawkins has made them clear.' 'He's selling the properties to you?' 'In part. In other cases he's negotiating the sale.' Cary said: 'D'you know that lampoon about Hawkins and his home? It was going the rounds a year or so ago.
     
    "A large park without any deer,
    A large cellar without any beer,
    A large house without any cheer,
    Sir Christopher Hawkins lives here."
    Cary sniggered.
    'Nevertheless we'd do well to keep him as our friend,' said Nicholas. 'Ha ving quarrelled with the Boscawe ns - irrevocably, I fear -and being on less amiable terms than hithe rto with Basset, Hawkins is a necessary ally in high places.'
    'I'm bearing that very much in mind,' said George.
    Further conversation was prevented for a time by a fit of coughing that attacked Nicholas. Cary watched his brother with an eye like a cockerel.
    'Have you tried snail tea?' he asked. 'When I had the influenza some bad last winter a year gone and my chest was raw as a brush, it had a soothing effect. That and camphor behind the ears.'
    George fetched his father a glass of wine, which he sipped. 'Upon my soul,' Nicholas said, 'I never was troubled in all my life with an affection of the bronchia until the time I came to Trenwith, George, when Valentine was born. I caught a chill in th at draughty bedroom you gave mc, and I truly believe that old witch of a woman, Agatha Poldark, cast some spell upon me there that will not disperse.'
    'Agath a cast an evil spell on us all,’ said George sourly. 'Even Valentine. If another child is ever born to us I shall make certain the confinement takes place cither here or a t Carde w.'
    Nicholas wiped his eyes with a red bandana handkerchief. 'Is there something of it in the wind?'
    'That was not what I said.'
    'All the same, boy, one child is scarce enough to make sure of the inheritance. Twould be