CHAPTER II.
YOU shall be Horace, and Tibullus I.--POPE.
LORD VARGRAVE was disturbed from his revery by the entrance of the Earl
of Saxingham.
"You are welcome!" said Lumley, "welcome!--the very man I wished to see."
Lord Saxingham, who was scarcely altered since we met with him in the
last series of this work, except that he had grown somewhat paler and
thinner, and that his hair had changed from iron-gray to snow-white,
threw himself in the armchair beside Lumley, and replied,--
"Vargrave, it is really unpleasant, our finding ourselves always thus
controlled by our own partisans. I do not understand this new-fangled
policy, this squaring of measures to please the Opposition, and throwing
sops to that many-headed monster called Public Opinion. I am sure it
will end most mischievously."
"I am satisfied of it," returned Lord Vargrave. "All vigour and union
seem to have left us; and if they carry the ----- question against us, I
know not what is to be done."
"For my part, I shall resign," said Lord Saxingham, doggedly; "it is the
only alternative left to men of honour."
"You are wrong; I know another alternative."
"What is that?"
"Make a Cabinet of our own. Look ye, my dear lord; you been ill-used;
your high character, your long experience, are treated with contempt. It
is an affront to you--the situation you hold. You, Privy Seal!--you
ought to be Premier; ay, and, if you are ruled by me, Premier you shall
be yet."
Lord Saxingham coloured, and breathed hard.
"You have often hinted at this before, Lumley; but you are so partial, so
friendly."
"Not at all. You saw the leading article in the ----- to-day? That will
be followed up by two evening papers within five hours of this time. We
have strength with the Press, with the Commons, with the Court,--only let
us hold fast together. This ----- question, by which they hope to get
rid of us, shall destroy them. You shall be Prime Minister before the
year is over--by Heaven, you shall!--and then, I suppose, I too may be
admitted to the Cabinet!"
"But how?--how, Lumley? You are too rash, too daring."
It has not been my fault hitherto,--but boldness is caution in our
circumstances. If they throw us out now, I see the inevitable march of
events,--we shall be out for years, perhaps for life. The Cabinet will
recede more and more from our principles, our party. Now is the time for
a determined stand; now can we make or mar ourselves. I will not resign;
the king is with us; our strength shall be known. These haughty
imbeciles shall fall into the trap they have dug for us."
Lumley spoke warmly, and with the confidence of a mind firmly assured of
success. Lord Saxingham was moved; bright visions flashed across
him,--the premiership, a dukedom. Yet he was old and childless, and his
honours would die with the last lord of Saxingham!
"See," continued Lumley, "I have calculated our resources as accurately
as an electioneering agent would cast up the list of voters. In the
Press, I have secured ----- and -----, and in the Commons we have the
subtle -----, and the vigour of -----, and the popular name of -----, and
all the boroughs of -----; in the Cabinet we have -----, and at Court you
know our strength. Let us choose our moment; a sudden _coup_, an
interview with the king, statement of our conscientious scruples to this
atrocious measure. I know the vain, stiff mind of the premier; _he_ will
lose temper, he will tender his resignation; to his astonishment, it will
be accepted. You will be sent for; we will dissolve parliament; we will
strain every nerve in the elections; we shall succeed, I know we shall.
But be silent in the meanwhile, be cautious: let not a word escape you,
let them think us beaten; lull suspicion asleep; let us lament our
weakness, and hint, only hint at our resignation, but with assurances of
continued support. I know how to blind them, if you leave it to me."
The weak mind of the old earl was as a puppet in the hands of his bold
kinsman. He feared one moment, hoped another; now his ambition was
flattered, now his sense of honour was alarmed. There was something in
Lumley's intrigue to oust the government with which he served that had an
appearance of cunning and baseness, of which Lord Saxingham, whose
personal character was high, by no means approved. But Vargrave talked
him over with consummate address, and when they parted, the earl carried
his head two inches higher,--he was preparing himself for his rise in
life.
"That is well! that is well!" said Lumley, rubbing his hands when he was
left alone: "the old driveller will be my _locum tenens_, till years and
renown enable me to become his successor. Meanwhile, I shall be really
what he will be in name."
Here Lord Vargrave's well-fed servant, now advanced to the dignity of own
gentleman and house-steward, entered the room with a letter; it had a
portentous look; it was wafered, the paper was blue, the hand clerklike,
there was no envelope; it bore its infernal origin on the face of it,--IT
WAS A DUN'S.
Lumley opened the epistle with an impatient pshaw! The man, a
silversmith (Lumley's plate was much admired!) had applied for years in
vain; the amount was large, and execution was threatened! An
execution!--it is a trifle to a rich man; but no trifle to one suspected
of being poor, one straining at that very moment at so high an object,
one to whom public opinion was so necessary, one who knew that nothing
but his title, and scarcely that, saved him from the reputation of an
adventurer! He must again have recourse to the money-lenders,--his small
estate was long since too deeply mortgaged to afford new security.
Usury, usury, again!--he knew its price, and he sighed--but what was to
be done?
"It is but for a few months, a few months, and Evelyn must be mine.
Saxingham has already lent me what he can; but he is embarrassed. This
d-----d office, what a tax it is! and the rascals say we are too well
paid! I, too, who could live happy in a garret, if this purse-proud
England would but allow one to exist within one's income. My
fellow-trustee, the banker, my uncle's old correspondent--all, well
thought of! He knows the conditions of the will; he knows that, at the
worst, I must have thirty thousand pounds, if I live a few months longer.
I will go to him."
