Also, by implication, I had told Strong a lie.

It was true that Jane had not been vaccinated, but of this I had neglected to give him the reason.

It was that I had postponed vaccinating her for a while owing to a certain infantile delicacy, being better acquainted than most men with the risks consequent on that operation, slight though it is, in certain conditions of a child's health, and knowing that there was no danger of her taking smallpox in a town which was free from it.

I proposed, however, to perform the operation within the next few days; indeed, for this very purpose I had already written to London to secure some glycerinated calf lymph, which would now be wasted.
The local papers next morning appeared with an announcement that at the forthcoming bye-election Dunchester would be contested in the Radical interest by James Therne, Esq., M.D.They added that, in addition to other articles of the Radical faith, Dr.Therne professed the doctrine of anti-vaccination, of which he was so ardent an upholder that, although on several occasions he had been threatened with prosecution, he declined to allow his only child to be vaccinated.
In the same issues it was announced that the Conservative candidate would be Sir Thomas Colford.
So the die was cast.

I had crossed the Rubicon..