Tom Greenfield's hearty laugh and cordial
handshake had won him more votes than many a more able man has been
able to secure by the most thorough acquaintance with the questions and
interests with which election would make it the duty of a man to be
concerned; but it must be added that no man ever used his influence
more disinterestedly and honestly, or more conscientiously fulfilled
the duties of his position, as he understood them.
Such a man was peculiarly likely to become the victim of a woman like
Mrs. Sampson. The plea of relationship on which she had sought his
acquaintance disarmed suspicion at the outset. His country manners were
familiar with family ties as a genuine bond, and he had no reason
whatever to suppose that any ulterior motive was possible to this woman
who affected to be so ignorant of politics and public business.
In the weeks which had elapsed since her interview with Alfred Irons,
Mrs. Sampson had been making the most of the fraction of the season
which remained to her. She had offered excuses which Greenfield's
simple soul found satisfactory why she had not sought her cousin's
acquaintance early in the winter, and the very irksomeness of the
enforced absence from his country home which seized him as spring came
on, made him the more susceptible to the blandishments of the mature
siren who, with cunning art, was meshing her nets about him.
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