Westways began to take itself seriously, as little towns will at times, and to ask how this man or that would vote at the coming election in November.

The old farmers who from his youth still called the Squire "James" were Democrats.

Swallow, the only lawyer the town possessed, was silent, which was felt as remarkable in a man who usually talked much more than occasion demanded and wore a habit-mask of good-fellowship, which had served to deceive many a blunt old farmer, but not James Penhallow.
At Grey Pine there was a sense of tension.

Penhallow was a man slow in thinking out conclusions, but in times demanding action swiftly decisive.
He had at last settled in his mind that he must leave his party and follow a leader he had known in the army and never entirely trusted.
Whether he should take an active share in the politics of the county troubled him, as he had told Rivers.

He must, of course, tell his wife how he had resolved to vote.