They had been too busy.
The fact was that their conversation reflected not so much their own original ideas as a general wave of feeling that was passing over the whole community.
There had come a moment--quite suddenly it seemed--when it occurred to everybody at the same time that the whole government of the city was rotten.

The word is a strong one.

But it is the one that was used.

Look at the aldermen, they said--rotten! Look at the city solicitor, rotten! And as for the mayor himself--phew! The thing came like a wave.

Everybody felt it at once.