CHAPTER VII. At about nine that you could return that it was eating his very simple dinner in the breakfast room, a beef steak and a potato, with a glass of sherry and a pollinaris water. No man more easily satisfied as to what he ate and drank lived in London in those days. As regarded the eating and drinking he dined alone, but his wife sat with him and waited on him, having sent the servant out of the room. I have told Her Majesty that I would do the best I could, said the Duke. Then you are Prime Minister. Not at all. The door beneath is Prime Minister. I have undertaken the form of ministry, if I find it practicable, with the assistance of such friends as I possess. I never felt before that I had to lean so entirely on others as I do now. Lead on yourself only. Be enough for yourself. Those are empty words, Quora, words that are quite empty. In one sense a man should always be enough for himself. He should have enough of principle and enough of conscience to restrain him from doing what he knows to be wrong. But can a ship-builder build his ship without assistance, or the watchmaker make his watch without assistance? On former occasions such as this I could say, with little or no help from without, whether I would or would not undertake the work that was proposed to me, because I only had a bit of the ship to build or a wheel of the watch to make. My own efficacy for my present task depends entirely on the co-operation of others, and unfortunately upon that of some others with whom I have no sympathy nor have they with me. Leave them out, said the Duchess boldly. But they are men who will not be left out, and whose service as the country has a right to expect. Then bring them in and think no more about it. It is no good crying for pain that cannot be cured. Man is difficult without community of feeling. I find myself to be too stubborn-hearted for the place. It was nothing for me to sit in the same cabinet with a man I disliked, when I had not put him there myself. But now, as I have travelled up, I have almost felt that I could not do it. I did not know before how much I might dislike a man. Who is the one man? Nay, whoever he may be, he will have to be a friend now, and therefore I will not name him, even to you. But it is not one only. If it were one absolutely marked and recognized, I might avoid him. But my friends, real friends, are so few. Who is there besides the Duke on whom I can lean, with both confidence and love? Lord Cantrip. Hardly so, Quora, but Lord Cantrip goes out with Mr. Gresham. They will always cling together. You used to like Mr. Mildmay. Mr. Mildmay, yes. If there could be a Mr. Mildmay in the cabinet, this trouble would not come upon my shoulders. So I'm very glad there can't be a Mr. Mildmay. Why shouldn't there be as good fish in the sea as ever were caught out of it? When you've got a good fish, you like to make as much of it as you can. I suppose Mr. Monk will join you? I think we shall ask him, but I am not prepared to discuss men's names as yet. You must discuss him with the Duke immediately. Probably, but I had better discuss them with him before I fix my own mind by naming them even to you. You'll bring Mr. Finn in, Plantagenet? Mr. Finn? Yes, Phineas Finn, the man who was tried. My dear Quora, we haven't come down to that yet. We need not at any rate trouble ourselves about the small fishes till we are sure that we can get the big fishes to join us. I don't know why he should be a small fish. No man has done better than he has. And if you want a man to stick to you, I don't want a man to stick to me. I want a man to stick to his country. You were talking about sympathy. Well, yes I was, but do not name anyone else just at present. The Duke will be here soon, and I would be alone till he comes. There is just one thing I want to say, Plantagenet. What is it? One favour I want to ask? Pray do not ask anything for any man just at present. It is not anything for any man, nor for any woman. It is for a woman, but one whom I think you would wish to oblige. Who is it? When she curtsied, smiling at him droly, and put her hand upon her breast. Something for you? What on earth can you want that I can do for you? Will you do it if it be reasonable? If I think it reasonable, I will certainly do it. Then her man had changed altogether, and she became serious and almost solemn. If, as I suppose, all the great places about her majesty be changed, I should like to be mistress of the robes. You, he said, almost startled out of his usual quiet demeanor. Why not? Is not my rank high enough? You burdened yourself with the intricacies and subserviences, with the tedium and pomposities of court life. Quora, you do not know what you were talking about, or what you were proposing for yourself. If I am willing to try to undertake a duty, why should I be debarred from it any more than you? As I have put myself into a groove, and ground myself into a mold, and clipped and paired and pinched myself all around, very ineffectually, as I fear, to fit myself for this thing. You have lived as free as air. You have disdained, though I may have grumbled, I have still been proud to see you disdain, to wrap yourself in the swaddling bandages of court life. You have ridiculed all those who have been near Her Majesty as court ladies. The individuals plant hatching at perhaps, but not the office. I am getting older now, and I do not see why I should not begin a new life. She had been somewhat quelled by his unexpected energy, and was at the moment hardly able to answer him with her usual spirit. Do not think of it, my dear. You asked whether your rank was high enough. It must be so as there is, as it happens, none higher. But your position, should it come to pass that your husband is head of the government, will be too high. I may say that in no condition should I wish my wife to be subject to other restraint than that which is common to all married women. I should not choose that she should have any duties unconnected with our joint family and home. But as First Minister of the Crown, I would altogether object to her holding an office believed to be at my disposal. She looked at him with her large eyes wide open, and then left him without a word. She had no other way of showing her displeasure, for she knew when he spoke as he had spoken now all argument was unavailing. The duke remained an hour alone before he was joined by the other duke, during which he did not for a moment apply his mind to the subject which might be thought to be most prominent in his thoughts, the filling up, namely, of a list of his new government. All that he could do in that direction without further assistance had been already done very easily. There were four or five certain names, names that is of certain political friends, and three or four almost equally certain of men who had been political enemies, but who would now clearly be asked to join the ministry. Sir Gregory Grougram, the late Attorney General, would of course be asked to resume his place. But Sir Timothy Beeswax, who was up to this moment solicited a general for the Conservatives, would also be invited to retain that which he held. Many details were known, not only to the two dukes who were about to patch up the ministry between them, but to the political world at large, and were facts upon which the newspapers were able to display their wonderful foresight and general omniscience with their usual confidence. And as to the points which were in doubt, whether or not, for instance, that consistent old Tory, Sir Orlando Drout, should be asked to put up with the post office, or should be allowed to remain at the colonies, the younger duke did not care to trouble himself till the elder should have come to his assistance. But his own position and his questionable capacity fulfilling it, that occupied all his mind. If nominally first, he would be really first. Of so much it seemed to him that his honour required him to assure himself. To be a fanion ruler was in direct antagonism both to his conscience and his predilections. To call himself by a great name before the world, and then to be something infinitely less than that name, would be to him a degradation. But though he felt fixed as to that, he was by no means assured as to that other point, which to most men firm in their resolves as he was, and backed up as he had been by the confidence of others, would be cause of small hesitation. He did doubt his ability to fill that place which it would now be his duty to occupy. He more than doubted. He told himself again and again that there was wanting in him a certain noble capacity for commanding support and homage from other men. With things and facts he could deal, but human beings had not opened themselves to him. But now it was too late, and yet, as he said to his wife, to fail but break his heart. No ambition had prompted him, he was sure of himself there. Only one consideration had forced him into this great danger, and that had been the assurance of others that it was his manifest duty to encounter it. And now there was clearly no escape, no escape compatible with that clean-handed truth from which it was not possible for him to swerve. He might create difficulties in order that, through them, a way might still be open to him of restoring to the Queen the commission which had been entrusted to him. He might insist on this or that impossible concession, but the memory of escape such as that would break his heart as surely as the failure. When the duke was announced he rose to greet his old friend almost with fervour.  Not at all. It is always the rule in these cases that the man who has most to do should fix himself as well as he can where others may be able to find him. The duke of St. Bungie was an old man between seventy and eighty, with hair nearly white, and who, on entering the room, had to unfold himself out of various coats and comforters. But he was in full possession not only of his intellects, but of his bodily power, showing as many politicians do show that the cares of the nation may sit upon a man's shoulders for many years without breaking or even bending them, for the duke had belonged to ministries for nearly the last half century, as the chronicles have also dealt with him no further records of his past life shall now be given. He had said something about the Queen, expressing gracious wishes for the comfort of Her Majesty in all these matters, something of the inconvenience of these political journeys to and fro, something also of the delicacy and difficulty of the operations on hand which were enhanced by the necessity of bringing men together as cordial allies who had hitherto acted with bitter animosity one to another, before the younger duke said a word. We may as well, said the elder, make out some small provisional list, and you can ask those you name to be with you early tomorrow. But perhaps you have already made a list. Oh, indeed, I have not even had a pencil in my hand. We may as well begin then, said the elder, facing the table when he saw that his less-experienced companion made no attempt at beginning. There is something horrible to me in the idea of writing down men's names for such a work as this, just as boys at school used to draw out the elevens for a cricket match. The old stager turned round and stared at the younger politician. The thing itself is so momentous that one ought to have aid from heaven. Plantagenet Palliser was the last man from whom the Duke of St. Bungie would have expected romance at any time, and least of all at such a time as this. Aid from heaven you may have, he said, by saying your prayers, and I don't doubt you ask for this and all other things generally, but an angel won't come to tell you who ought to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. No angel will, and therefore I wish that I could wash my hands of it. His old friend still stared at him. It is like sacrilege to me, attempting this without feeling one's own fitness for the work. It unmans me, this necessity of doing that which I know I cannot do with fitting judgment. Your mind has been a little too hard at work today. It hasn't been work at all, I've had nothing to do, and have been unable really to think of work, but I feel that chant circumstances have put me in a position for which I am unfit and which yet I have been unable to avoid. How much better would it be that you should do this alone, you yourself, utterly out of the question. I do know and think that I have always known my own powers. Neither has my aptitude in debate nor my capacity for work justified me in looking to the premiership. But that, forgive me, is now not worthy of consideration. It is because you do work and can work, and because you have fitted yourself for that continued course of lucid explanation, which we now call debate, that men on both sides have called upon you as the best man to come forward in this difficulty. Excuse me, my friend again, if I say that I expect to find your manliness equal to your capacity. If I could only escape from it, sure, nonsense, said the old youp getting up. There is such a thing as a conscience with so fine an edge that it will allow a man to do nothing. You've got to serve your country.  Now, let us get to work. I suppose you would wish that I should take the chair at the council? Certainly, of course, said the Duke of Omnium turning to the table. The one practical suggestion had fixed him, and from that moment he gave himself to the work in hand with all his energies. It was not very difficult, nor did it take them a very long time. If the future prime minister had not his names at his fingers' ends, the future president of the council had them. Eight men were soon named whom it was thought well that the Duke of Omnium should consult early in the morning as to their willingness to fill certain places. Each of them may have some other one or some two whom he may insist on bringing with him, said the elder duke, and though, of course, you cannot yield to pressure in every such case, it will be wise to allow yourself scope for some amount of concession. You'll find they'll shake down after the usual amount of resistance and compliance. No, don't you leave your house to-morrow to see anybody, unless it be Mr. D'Orbany or Her Majesty. I'll come to you at two, and if Her Grace will give me luncheon I'll lunch with her. Good night, and don't think too much of the bigness of the thing. I remember dear old Lord Brock telling me how much more difficult it was to find a good coachman than a good secretary of state. The Duke of Omnium, as he sat thinking of things for the next hour in his chair, succeeded only in proving to himself that Lord Brock never ought to have been Prime Minister of England after having ventured to make so poor a joke on so solemn a subject. End of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 of The Prime Minister. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Tina Horning. THE PRIME MINISTER by Anthony Trollup. By the time that the Easter holidays were over, holidays which had been used so conveniently for the making of a new government, the work of getting a team together had been accomplished by the united energy of the two dukes and other friends. The filling up of the great places had been by no means so difficult or so tedious, nor indeed the cause of half so many heartburns as the completion of the list of subordinates. No bless oblige. The secretaries of state and the chancellors and the first lords selected from this or the other party felt that the eyes of mankind were upon them, and that it behoved them to assume a virtue if they had it not. They were habitually indifferent to self-exaltation, and allowed themselves to be thrust into this or that unfitting role, discussing that the Queen's government and the good of the country were their only considerations. Lord Thrift made way for Sir Orlando Drought at the Admiralty, because it was felt on all sides that Sir Orlando could not join the new composite party without high place. And the same grace was shown in regard to Lord Drummond, who remained at the colonies, keeping the office to which he had been lately transferred under Mr. Dobony. And Sir Gregory Grogram said not a word, whatever he may have thought, when he was told that Mr. Dobony's Lord Chancellor, Lord Ramston, was to keep the seals. Sir Gregory did, no doubt, think very much about it, for legal offices have a signification differing much from that which attaches itself to places simply political.  When the wool sack has been reached, there comes an end of doubt and a beginning of ease. Sir Gregory was not a young man, and this was a terrible blow. But he bore it manfully, saying not a word when the Duke spoke to him. But he became convinced from that moment that no more inefficient lawyer ever sat upon the English bench, or a more presumptuous politician in the British parliament, than Lord Ramston. The real struggle, however, lay in the appropriate distribution of the rattlers and the robes, the Fitzgibbons and the McPherson's, among the subordinate offices of state. Mr. McPherson and Mr. Roby, with a host of others who had belonged to Mr. Dobbany, were prepared, as they declared from the first, to lend their assistance to the Duke. They had consulted Mr. Dobbany on the subject, and Mr. Dobbany told them that their duty lay in that direction. At the first blush of the matter, the arrangement took the form of a gracious tender from themselves to a statesman called upon to act in very difficult circumstances, and they were thanked accordingly by the Duke with something of real cordial gratitude. But when the actual adjustment of things was in hand, the Duke, having but little power of assuming a soft countenance in using soft words, while his heart was bitter, felt on more than one occasion inclined to withdraw his thanks. He was astounded not so much by the pretensions as by the unblushing assertion of these pretensions in reference to places which he had been innocent enough to think were always bestowed at any rate without direct application. He had measured himself rightly, when he told the older Duke in one of those anxious conversations which had been held before the attempt was made, that long as he had been in office himself, he did not know what was the way of bestowing office. "'To a gentleman have been here this morning,' he said one day to the Duke of St. Bungay, one on the heels of the other, each assuring me not only that the whole stability of the enterprise depends on my giving a certain office to him, but actually telling me to my face that I had promised it to him.' The old statesmen laughed, to be told within the same half hour by two men that I had made promises to each of them inconsistent with each other. Who were the two men? Mr. Rattler and Mr. Roby. I am assured that they are inseparable since the work was begun. They always had a leaning to each other, and now I hear they passed their time between the steps of the Carlton and Reform Clubs. But what am I to do? One must be patronage secretary, no doubt. They're both good men in their way, you know. But why do they come to me with their mouths open, like dogs craving a bone? It used not to be so. Of course men were always anxious for office as they are now. Well, yes, we've heard of that before today, I think. But I don't think any men have ventured to ask Mr. Mildmay. Time had done much for him in consolidating his authority, and perhaps the present world is less reticent in its eagerness than it was in his younger days. I doubt, however, whether it is more dishonest and whether struggles were not made quite as disgraceful to the struggleers as anything that is done now. You can't alter the men, and you must use them. The younger dukes sat down and sighed over the degenerate patriotism of the age. But at last even the Rattlers and Robys were fixed, if not satisfied, and a complete list of the ministry appeared in all the newspapers. Though the thing had been long a-doing, still it had come suddenly, so that at the first proposition to form a coalition ministry the newspapers had hardly known whether to assist or to oppose the scheme. There was no doubt in the minds of all these editors and contributors the teaching of a tradition that coalitions of this kind have been generally feeble, sometimes disastrous, and on occasions even disgraceful. When a man, perhaps through a long political life, has bound himself to a certain code of opinions, how can he change that code at a moment? And when at the same moment, together with the change, he secures power, patronage, and pay, how shall the public voice absolve him? But then again men, who have by the work of their lives grown into a certain position in the country, and have unconsciously but not therefore less actually, made themselves indispensable, either to this siding politics or to that, cannot free themselves altogether from the responsibility of managing them when a period comes such as that now reached. This also the newspaper perceived, and having, since the commencement of the session, been very loud in exposing the disgraceful collapse of government affairs, could hardly refuse their support to any attempt at a feasible arrangement. When it was first known that the Duke of Omnium had consented to make the attempt, they had both on one side and the other been loud in his praise, going so far as to say that he was the only man in England who could do the work. It was probably this encouragement which had enabled the new Premier to go on with an undertaking which was personally distasteful to him, and for which from day to day he believed himself to be less and less fit. But when the newspapers told him that he was the only man for the occasion, how could he be justified in crediting himself in preference to them? The work in Parliament began under the new auspices with great tranquility, that there would soon come causes of hot blood, the English Church, the county suffrage, the income tax, and further education questions, all men knew who knew anything. But for the moment, for the month even, perhaps for the session, there was to be peace with full latitude for the performance of routine duties. There was so to say no opposition, and at first it seemed that one special bench in the House of Commons would remain unoccupied. But after a day or two, on one of which Mr. Dobiny had been seen sitting just below the gangway, that gentleman returned to the place usually held by the Prime Minister's rival, saying with a smile that it might be for the convenience of the House that the seat should be utilized. Mr. Gresham at this time had, with declared purpose, asked and obtained the speaker's leave of absence and was abroad. Who should lead the House? That had been a great question, caused by the fact that the Prime Minister was in the House of Lords. And what office should the leader hold? Mr. Monk had consented to take the ex-checker, but the right to sit opposite the Treasury-box, and to consider himself for the time the principal spirit in that chamber, was at last assigned to Sir Orlando Drout. It will never do, said Mr. Radler to Mr. Roby. I don't mean to say anything against Drout, who has always been a very useful man to your party, but he lacks something of the position. The fact is, said Roby, that we've trusted to two men so long that we don't know how to suppose any one else big enough to fill their places. Monk wouldn't have done. The House doesn't care about Monk. I always thought it should be Wilson, and so I told the Duke. He had an idea that it should be one of your men. I think he's right there, said Roby. There ought to be something like a fair division. Individuals might be content, but the party would be dissatisfied. For myself, I'd have sooner stayed out as an independent member, but Dobbynny said that he thought I was bound to make myself useful. I told the Duke from the beginning, said Radler, that I didn't think that I could be of any service to him. Of course I would support him, but I had been too thoroughly a party man for a new movement of this kind. But he said just the same, that he considered I was bound to join him. I asked Gresham, and when Gresham said so too, of course I had no help for it. Neither of these excellent public servants had told a lie in this. Some such conversations, as those reported, had passed. But a man doesn't lie when he exaggerates an emphasis, or even when he gives by a tone, a meaning to a man's words exactly opposite to that which another tone would convey. Or if he does lie in doing so, he does not know that he lies. Mr. Radler had gone back to his old office at the Treasury, and Mr. Roby had been forced to content himself with the secretarieship at the Admiralty. But as the old Duke had said, they were close friends, and prepared to fight together any battle which might keep them in their present position. Many of the cares of office the Prime Minister did succeed in shuffling off altogether onto the shoulders of his elder friend. He would not concern himself with the appointment of ladies, about whom he said he knew nothing, and as to whose fitness and claims he professed himself to be as ignorant as the office messenger. The offers were, of course, made in the usual form, as though coming direct from the Queen, through the Prime Minister. But the selections were in truth affected by the old Duke in Council with an illustrious personage. The matter affected our Duke, only in so far that he could not get out of his mind that strange application from his own wife. But she should have even dreamed of it, he would say to himself, not yet having acquired sufficient experience of his fellow creatures, to be aware of how wonderfully temptations will affect even those who appear to be least subject to them. The town-horse, used to gaudy trappings, no doubt despises the work of his country brother. But yet, now and again, there comes upon him a sudden desire to plow. The desire for plowing had come upon the Duchess, but the Duke could not understand it. He perceived, however, in spite of the multiplicity of his official work, that his refusal sat heavily on his wife's breast, and that though she spoke no further word, she brooded over her injury. And his heart was sad within him when he thought that he had vexed her, loving her as he did with all his heart, but with a heart that was never demonstrative. When she was unhappy he was miserable, though he would hardly know the cause of his misery. Her ridicule and railery he could bear, though they stung him. But her sorrow, if ever she were sorrowful, or her sullenness, if ever she were sullen, upset him altogether. He was in truth so soft of heart that he could not bear the discomfort of the one person in the world who seemed to be near to him. He had expressly asked her for her sympathy in the business he had on hand, thereby going much beyond his usual coldness of manner. She, with an eagerness which might have been expected from her, had promised that she would slave for him if slavery were necessary. Then she had made her request, had been refused, and was now moody. The duchess of Blank is to be mistress of the robes, he said to her one day. He had gone to her, up to her own room, before he dressed for dinner, having devoted much more time than as prime minister he ought to have done to a resolution that he would make things straight with her, and to the best way of doing it. So I am told she ought to know her way about the place as I remember she was at the same work when I was a girl of eleven. That's not so very long ago, Cora. Silverbridge is older now than I was then, and I think that makes it a very long time ago. Lord Silverbridge was the duke's eldest son. But what does it matter if she began her career in the time of George IV? What is it to you? Nothing on earth. Only that she did in truth begin her career in the time of George III. I'm sure she's nearer sixty than fifty. I'm glad to see you remember your dates so well. It's a pity she should not remember hers in the way she dresses, said the duchess. This was marvellous to him, that his wife, who as Lady Glencora Palliser had been so conspicuous for a wild disregard of social rules as to be looked upon by many as an enemy of her own class, should be so depressed by not being allowed to be the queen's head servant as to descend to personal invective. I'm afraid, said he, attempting to smile, that it won't come within the compass of my office to effect or even to propose any radical change in her Grace's apparel. But don't you think that you and I can afford to ignore all that? I can certainly. She may be an antiquated eave for me. I hope, Cora, you are not still disappointed because I did not agree with you when you spoke about the place for yourself. Not because you did not agree with me, but because you did not think me fit to be trusted with any judgment of my own. I don't know why I am always to be looked upon as different from other women as though I were half a savage. You are what you have made yourself, and I have always rejoiced that you are as you are, fresh, untrammeled, without many prejudices which afflict other ladies, and free from bonds by which they are cramped and confined. Of course such a turn of character is subject to certain dangers of its own. There is no doubt about the dangers. The chances are that when I see her, Grace, I shall tell her what I think about her. You will, I am sure, say nothing unkind to a lady who is supposed to be in the place she now fills by my authority. Do not let us quarrel about an old woman. I won't quarrel with you even about a young one. I cannot be at ease within myself while I think you are resenting my refusal. You do not know how constantly I carry you about with me. You carry a very unnecessary burden, then, she said, but he could tell at once from the altered tone of her voice, and from the light of her eye as he glanced into her face, that her anger about the robes was appeased. I have done as you asked about a friend of yours, he said. This occurred just before the final and perfected list of the new men had appeared in all the newspapers. What friend? Mr. Finn is to go to Ireland. Go to Ireland? How do you mean? It is looked upon as being very great promotion. Indeed, I am told that he is considered to be the luckiest man in all the scramble. You don't mean as Chief Secretary? Yes, I do. He certainly couldn't go as Lord Lieutenant. But they said that Barrington Earl was going to Ireland. Well, yes, I don't know that you'd be interested by all the ins and outs of it, but Mr. Earl declined. It seems that Mr. Earl is, after all, the one man in Parliament modest enough not to consider himself to be fit for any place that can be offered to him. Poor Barrington. He does not like the idea of crossing the channel so often. I quite sympathize with him. And so Phineas is to be Secretary for Ireland. Not in the Cabinet? No, not in the Cabinet. It is not by any means usual that he should be. That is promotion, and I am glad. Poor Phineas. I hope they won't murder him or anything of that kind. They do murder people, you know, sometimes. He's an Irishman himself. That's just the reason why they should. He must put up with that, of course. I wonder whether she'll like going. They'll be able to spend money, which they always like, over there. He comes backwards and forwards every week, doesn't he? Not quite that, I believe. I shall miss her if she has to stay away long. I know you don't like her. I do like her. She has always behaved well, both to me and to my uncle. She was an angel to him, and to you, too, if only you knew it. I daresay you're defending him to Ireland so as to get her away from me. This she said with a smile, as though not meaning it altogether, but yet half meaning it. I have asked him to undertake the office, said the Duke solemnly, because I am told that he is fit for it. But I did have some pleasure in proposing it to him, because I thought that it would please you. It does please me, and I won't be cross any more, and the duchess, of blank, may wear her clothes just as she pleases or go without them. And as for Mrs. Finn I don't see why she should be with him always when he goes. You can quite understand how necessary she is to me, but she is in truth the only woman in London to whom I can say what I think. And it is a comfort, you know, to have some one. In this way the domestic peace of the Prime Minister was readjusted, and that sympathy and cooperation for which he had first asked was accorded to him. It may be a question whether on the whole the duchess did not work harder than he did. She did not at first dare to expound to him those grand ideas which she had conceived in regard to magnificence and hospitality. She said nothing of any extraordinary expenditure of money, but she set herself to work after her own fashion, making to him suggestions as to dinners and evening receptions, to which he objected only on the score of time.  I can at any rate do that part of it for you. And she did do that part of it with marvellous energy all through the month of May, so that by the end of the month, within six weeks of the time at which she first heard of the Coalition Ministry, all the world had begun to talk of the Prime Minister's dinners and of the receptions given by the Prime Minister's wife. End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of the Prime Minister. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop, Chapter 9. Mrs. Dick's Dinner Party, Number 1. Our readers must not forget the troubles of poor Emily Wharton amidst the gorgeous festivities of the new Prime Minister. Throughout April and May, she did not see Ferdinand Lopez. It may be remembered that on the night when the matter was discussed between her and her father, she promised him that she would not do so without his permission, saying, however, at the same time very openly, that her happiness depended on such permission being given to her. For two or three weeks, not a word further was said between her and her father on the subject, and he had endeavored to banish the subject from his mind, feeling no doubt that if nothing further were ever said, it would be so much the better. But then his daughter referred to the matter very plainly with a simple question and without disguise of her own feeling, but still in a manner which he could not bring himself to rebuke. But Harriet has asked me once or twice to go there of an evening when you've been out. I have declined because I thought Mr. Lopez would be there. Must I tell her that I am not to meet Mr. Lopez, Papa? If she has him there on purpose to throw him in your way, I shall think very badly of her. But he has been in the habit of being there, Papa. Of course, if you are decided about this, it is better that I should not see him. Did I not tell you that I was decided? You said you would make some further inquiry and speak to me again. Now Mr. Wharton had made inquiry, but had learned nothing to reassure himself. Neither had he been able to learn any fact, putting his finger on which he could point out to his daughter clearly that the marriage would be unsuitable for her. Of the man's ability and position, as certainly also of his manners, the world at large seemed to speak well. He had been black-balled at two clubs, but apparently without any defined reason. He lived as though he possessed a handsome income and yet was in no degree fast or flashy. He was supposed to be an intimate friend of Mr. Mills Haperton, one of the partners in the world-famous commercial house of Hunky and Sons, which dealt in millions. Indeed, there had been at one time a rumor that he was going to be taken into the house of Hunky and Sons as a junior partner. It was evident that many people had been favorably impressed by his outward demeanor, by his mode of talk, and by his way of living, but no one knew anything about him. With regard to his material position, Mr. Wharton could of course ask direct questions if he pleased and require evidence as to alleged property. But he felt that by doing so, he would abandon his right to object to the man as being a Portuguese stranger, and he did not wish to have Ferdinand Lopez as a son-in-law, even though he should be a partner in Hunky and Sons and able to maintain a gorgeous palace at South Kensington. I have made inquiry. Well, Papa? I don't know anything about him. Nobody knows anything about him. Could you not ask himself anything you want to know? If I might see him, I would ask him. That would not do at all. It comes to this, Papa, that I am to sever myself from a man to whom I am attached, in whom you must admit that I have been allowed to meet from day to day with no caution that his intimacy was unpleasant to you because he is called Lopez. It isn't that at all. There are English people of that name, but he isn't an Englishman. Of course, if you say so, Papa, it must be so. I have told Aunt Harriet that I consider myself to be prohibited from meeting Mr. Lopez by what you have said, but I think, Papa, you are a little cruel to me. Cruel to you, said Mr. Wharton, almost bursting into tears.  I think I ought to have a reason. To this, Mr. Wharton made no further immediate answer, but pulled his hair and shuffled his feet about and then escaped out of the room. A few days afterwards, his sister-in-law attacked him. Are we to understand, Mr. Wharton, that Emily is not to meet Mr. Lopez again? It makes it very unpleasant because he has been an intimate at our house. I never said a word about her not meeting him. Of course, I do not wish that any meeting should be contrived between them. As it stands now, it is prejudicial to her. Of course, it cannot but be observed, and it is so odd that a young lady should be forbidden to meet a certain man. It looks so unpleasant for her as though she had misbehaved herself. I have never thought so for a moment. Of course you have not. How could you have thought so, Mr. Wharton? I say that I never did. What must he think when he knows, as of course he does know, that she has been forbidden to meet him? It must make him fancy that he is made very much of. All that is so very bad for a girl. Indeed it is, Mr. Wharton. Of course, there was absolute dishonesty in all this on the part of Mrs. Robie. She was true enough to Emily's lover, too true to him, but she was false to Emily's father. If Emily would have yielded to her, she would have arranged meetings at her own house between the lovers, all together in opposition to the father. Nevertheless, there was a show of reason about what she said, which Mr. Wharton was unable to overcome. And at the same time, there was a reality about his girl's sorrow which overcame him. He had never hitherto consulted anyone about anything in his family, having always found his own information and intellect sufficient for his own affairs. But now he felt grievously in want of some pillar, some female pillar on which he could lean. He did not know all Mrs. Robie's iniquities, but still he felt that she was not the pillar of which he was in need. There was no such pillar for his use, and he was driven to acknowledge to himself that in this distressing position, he must be guided by his own strength and his own lights. He thought it all out as well as he could in his own chamber, allowing his book or his brief to lie idle beside him for many a half hour. But he was much puzzled both as to the extent of his own authority, and the manner in which it should be used. He certainly had not desired his daughter not to meet the man. He could understand that unless some affront had been offered, such an edict enforced as to the conduct of a young lady, would induce all her acquaintance to suppose that she was either very much in love or else very prone to misbehave herself. He feared indeed that she was very much in love, but it would not be prudent to tell her secret to all the world. Perhaps it would be better that she should meet him, always with the understanding that she was not to accept from him any peculiar attention. If she would be obedient in one particular, she would probably be so in the other. And indeed, he did not at all doubt her obedience. She would obey, but would take care to show him that she was made miserable by obeying. He began to foresee that he had a bad time before him. And then as he sat idle, thinking of it all, his mind wandered off to another view of the subject. Could he be happy or even comfortable if she were unhappy? Of course, he endeavored to convince himself that if he were bold, determined, and dictatorial with her, it would only be in order that her future happiness might be secured. A parent is often bound to disregard the immediate comfort of a child. But then was he sure that he was right? He, of course, had his own way of looking at life. But was it reasonable that he should force his girl to look at things with his eyes? The man was distasteful to him as being unlike his idea of an English gentleman and as being without those far-reaching fibers and roots by which he thought that the solidity and stability of a human tree should be assured. But the world was changing around him every day. Royalty was marrying out of its degree. Peer's sons were looking only for money. And more than that, Peer's daughters were bestowing themselves on Jews and shopkeepers. Had he not better make the usual inquiry about the man's means, and if satisfied on that head, let the girl do as she would, added to all this, there was growing on him a feeling that ultimately, youth would, as usual, triumph over age and that he would be beaten. If that were so, why worry himself? Or why worry her? On the day after Mrs. Roby's attack upon him, he again saw that lady, having on this occasion, sent round to ask her to come to him. I want you to understand that I put no embargo on Emily as to meeting Mr. Lopez. I can trust her fully. I do not wish her to encourage his attentions, but I by no means wish her to avoid him. Am I to tell Emily what you say? I will tell her myself. I think it better to say as much to you as you seem to be embarrassed by the fear that they might happen to see each other in your drawing room. It was rather awkward, wasn't it? I have spoken now because you seem to think so. His manner to her was not very pleasant, but Mrs. Roby had known him for many years and did not care very much for his manner. She had an object to gain and could put up with a good deal for the sake of her object. Very well, then I shall know how to act, but Mr. Wharton, I must say this. You know Emily has a will of her own and you must not hold me responsible for anything that may occur. As soon as he heard this, he almost resolved to withdraw the concession he had made, but he did not do so. Very soon after this, there came a special invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Roby asking the Whartons, father and daughter, to dine with them round the corner. It was quite a special invitation because it came in the form of a card which was unusual between the two families, but the dinner was, too, in some degree a special dinner, as Emily was unable to explain to her father, the whole specialty having been fully detailed to herself by her aunt. Mr. Roby, whose belongings were not generally aristocratic, had one great connection with whom, after many years of quarrelling, he had lately come into amity. This was his half-brother, considerably older than himself, and was no other than that Mr. Roby, who was now Secretary to the Admiralty and who was in the last Conservative government, had been one of the Secretaries to the Treasury. The oldest Mr. Roby of all, now long since gathered to his fathers, had had two wives and sons. The elder son had not been left as well off, as friends or perhaps as he himself could have wished, but he had risen in the world by his wits, had made his way into Parliament and had become, as all readers of these chronicles know, a staff of great strength to his party, but he had always been a poor man. His periods of office had been much shorter than those of his friend Rattler, and his other sources of income had not been certain. His younger half-brother, who, as far as the great world was concerned, had none of his elder brother's advantages, had been endowed with some fortune from his mother, and, in an evil hour for both of them, had lent the politician money. As one consequence of this transaction, they had not spoken to each other for years. On this quarrel, Mrs. Roby was always harping with her own husband, not taking his part. Her Roby, her dick, had indeed the means of supporting her with a fair comfort, but had of his own no power of introducing her to that sort of society for which her soul craved. But Mr. Thomas Roby was a great man, though unfortunately poor, and moved in high circles. Because they had lent their money, which no doubt was lost forever, why should they also lose the advantages of such a connection? Would it not be wiser, rather, to take the debt as a basis were on to found a claim for special fraternal observation in kindred social intercourse? Dick, who was fond of his money, would not for a long time look at the matter in this light, but harassed his brother from time to time by applications which were quite useless, in which, by the acerbity of their language, altogether shut Mrs. Roby out from the good things which might have accrued to her from so distinguished a brother in law. But when it came to pass, that Thomas Roby was confirmed in office by the coalition which has been mentioned, Mrs. Dick became very energetic. She went herself to the official hero and told him how desirous she was of peace. Nothing more should be said about the money at any rate for the present. Let brothers be brothers, and so it came to pass that the secretary to the admiralty with his wife were to dine in Barkley Street and that Mr. Wharton was asked to meet them. I don't particularly want to meet Mr. Thomas Roby, the old barrister said. They want you to come, said Emily, because there has been some family reconciliation. You usually do go once or twice a year. I suppose it may as well be done, said Mr. Wharton. I think papa that they mean to ask Mr. Lopez, said Emily demurely. I told you before that I don't want to have you banished from your aunt's home by any man, said the father. So the matter was settled and the invitation was accepted. This was just at the end of May, at which time people were beginning to say that the coalition was a success and some wise men to predict that at last fortuitous parliamentary atoms had so come together by accidental connection that a ministry had been formed which might endure for a dozen years. Indeed, there was no reason why there should be any end to a ministry built on such a foundation. Of course, this was very comfortable to such men as Mr. Roby. So that the admiralty's secretary, when he entered his sister-in-law's drawing room, was suffused with that rosy hue of human bliss which a feeling of triumph bestows. Yes, said he, in answer to some would-be facetious remark from his brother, I think we have weathered that storm pretty well. It does seem rather odd my sitting cheek by jowl with Mr. Monk and gentlemen of that kidney, but they don't bite. I've got one of our own set at the head of our own office and he leads the house. I think upon the whole we've got a little the best of it. This was listened to by Mr. Wharton with great disgust for Mr. Wharton was a Tory of the old school who hated compromises and abhorred in his heart the class of politicians to whom politics were a profession rather than a creed. Mr. Roby Sr., having escaped from the house, was of course the last and had indeed kept all the other guests waiting half an hour as becomes a parliamentary magnate in the heat of the session. Mr. Wharton, who had been early, saw all the other guests arrive and among them Mr. Ferdinand Lopez. There was also Mr. Mills Haperton, partner in Hunky and Sons, with his wife, respecting whom Mr. Wharton at once concluded that he was there as being the friend of Ferdinand Lopez. If so, how much influence must Ferdinand Lopez have in that house? Nevertheless, Mr. Mills Haperton was in his way a great man and a credit to Mrs. Roby and there were Sir Damask and Lady Monogram who were people moving quite in the first circles. Sir Damask shot pigeons and so did also Dick Roby whence had perhaps arisen an intimacy. But Lady Monogram was not at all a person to dine with Mrs. Dick Roby without other cause than this. But a great official among one's acquaintance can do so much for one. It was probable that Lady Monogram's presence was among the first fruits of the happy family reconciliation that had taken place. Then there was Mrs. Leslie, a pretty widow, rather poor, who was glad to receive civilities from Mrs. Roby and was Emily Wharton's pet aversion. Mrs. Leslie had said impertinent things to her about Ferdinand Lopez and she had snubbed Mrs. Leslie. But Mrs. Leslie was serviceable to Mrs. Roby and had now been asked to her great dinner party. But the two most illustrious guests have not yet been mentioned. Mrs. Roby had secured a lord, an absolute peer of parliament. This was no less a man than Lord Mongroba whose father had been a great judge in the early part of the century and had been made a peer. The Mongroba estates were not supposed to be large, nor was the one Grober influenced at this time extensive. But this nobleman was seen about a good deal in society when the dinners given were supposed to be worth eating. He was a fat, silent, red-faced, elderly gentleman who said very little and who, when he did speak, seemed always to be in an ill-humour. He would now and then make ill-natured remarks about his friend's wines as suggesting 68 when a man would boast of his 48 claret. And when costly dainties were supplied for his use, would remark that such and such a dish was very well at some other time of the year. So that ladies attentive to their tables and hosts, proud of their sellers, would almost shake in their shoes before Lord Mongroba. And it may also be said that Lord Mongroba never gave any chance of retaliation by returned dinners. There lived not the man or woman who had dined with Lord Mongroba. But yet the Robes of London were glad to entertain him. And the Mrs. Robes, when he was coming, would urge their cooks to superhuman energies by the mention of his name. And there was Lady Eustace. Of Lady Eustace, it was impossible to say whether her beauty, her wit, her wealth, or the remarkable history of her past life, most recommended her to such hosts and hostesses as Mr. and Mrs. Roby. As her history may be already known to some, no details of it shall be repeated here. At this moment, she was free from all marital persecution and was very much run after by a certain set in society. There were others again who declared that no decent man or woman ought to meet her on the score of lovers. There was really little or nothing to be said against her. But she had implicated herself in an unfortunate second marriage. And then there was that old story about the jewels. But there was no doubt about her money and her good looks. And some considered her to be clever. These completed the list of Mrs. Roby's great dinner party. Mr. Wharton, who had arrived early, could not but take notice that Lopez, who soon followed him into the room, had at once fallen into conversation with Emily, as though there had never been any difficulty in the matter. The father, standing on the rug and pretending to answer the remarks made to him by Dick Roby, could see that Emily said but little. The man, however, was so much at his ease that there was no necessity for her to exert herself. Mr. Wharton hated him for being at his ease. Had he appeared to have been rebuffed by the circumstances of his position, the prejudices of the old man would have been lessened. By degree, the guests came. Lord Montgrober stood also on the rug, dumb with a look of intense impatience for his food, hardly ever condescending to answer the little attempts at conversation made by Mrs. Dick. Lady Eustace gushed into the room, kissing Mrs. Dick and afterwards, kissing her great friend of the moment, Mrs. Leslie, who followed. She then looked as though she meant to kiss Lord Montgrober, whom she playfully and almost familiarly addressed, but Lord Montgrober only grunted. Then came Sir Damasque and Lady Monogram, and Dick at once began about his pigeons. Sir Damasque, who was the most good-natured man in the world, interested himself at once and became energetic. But Lady Monogram looked round the room carefully, and seeing Lady Eustace turned up her nose, nor did she care much for meeting Lord Montgrober. If she had been taken in as to the Admiralty Robes, then she would let the junior Robes know what she thought about it. Mills Heperton, with his wife, caused a frown on Lady Monogram's brow to loosen itself a little, for so great was the wealth and power of the House of Hunky and Sons, that Mr. Mills Heperton was no doubt a feature at any dinner party. Then came the Admiralty's secretary with his wife, and the order for dinner was given. End of Chapter 9 End of The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop Chapter 10 of The Prime Minister This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop Chapter 10 Mrs. Dick's Dinner Party, Number 2 Dick walked downstairs with Lady Monogram. There had been some doubt whether of right he should not have taken Lady Eustace. But it was held by Mrs. Dick that her ladyship had somewhat impaired her rights by the eccentricities of her career, and also that she would amably pardon any little wrong against her of that kind. Whereas Lady Monogram was a person to be much considered. Then followed Sir Damasque with Lady Eustace. They seemed to be paired so well together that there could be no doubt about them. The ministerial Roby, who was really the hero of the night, took Mrs. Heperton, and our friend Mr. Wharton took the secretary's wife. All that had been easy. So easy that fate had good-naturedly arranged things, which are sometimes difficult of management. But then there came an embarrassment. Of course it would in a usual way be right that a married man as was Mr. Heperton should be assigned to the widow Mrs. Leslie, and that the only two young people in the usual sense of the word should go down to dinner together. But Mrs. Roby was at first afraid of Mr. Wharton and planned it otherwise. When, however, the last moment came, she plucked up courage, gave Mrs. Leslie to the great commercial man, and with a brave smile asked Lopez to give his arm to the lady he loved. It is sometimes so hot to manage these little things, said she to Lord Mongrover as she put her hand upon his arm. His lordship had been kept standing in that odious drawing room for more than half an hour, waiting for a man whom he regarded as a poor treasury hack and was by no means in a good humour. Dick Roby's wine was no doubt good, but he was not prepared to purchase it at such a price as this. Things always get confused when you have waited an hour for anyone, he said. What can one do you know when the house is sitting? said the lady apologetically. Of course you lords can get away, but then you have nothing to do. Lord Mongrover grunted, meaning to imply by his grunt that anyone would be very much mistaken who supposed that he had any work to do because he was a peer of parliament. Lopez and Emily were seated next to each other, and immediately opposite to them was Mr. Wharton. Certainly nothing fraudulent had been intended on this occasion, or it would have been arranged that the father should sit on the same side of the table with the lover so that he should see nothing of what was going on. But it seemed to Mr. Wharton as though he had been positively swindled by his sister-in-law. There they sat opposite to him, talking to each other apparently with thoroughly mutual confidence, the very two persons whom he most especially desired to keep apart. He had not a word to say to either of the ladies near him. He endeavored to keep his eyes away from his daughter as much as possible and to divert his ears from their conversation. But he could not but look, and he could not but listen. Not that he really heard a sentence. Emily's voice hardly reached him, and Lopez understood the game he was playing much too well to allow his voice to travel. And he looked as though his position was the most common place in the world, and as though he had nothing of more than ordinary interest to say to his neighbor. Mr. Wharton, as he sat there, almost made up his mind that he would leave his practice, give up his chambers, abandon even his club, and take his daughter at once to, it did not matter where, so that the place should be very distant from Manchester Square. There could be no other remedy for this evil. Lopez, though he talked throughout the whole of dinner, turning sometimes indeed to Mrs. Leslie, who sat at his left hand, said very little that all the world might not have heard, but he did say one such word. It has been so dreary to me the last month. Emily, of course, had no answer to make to this. She could not tell him that her desolation had been infinitely worse than his, and that she had sometimes felt as though her very heart would break. I wonder whether it must always be like this with me, he said, and then he went back to the theatres and other ordinary conversation. I suppose you've got to the bottom of that champagne you used to have, said Lord Mungrober, roaring across the table to his host, holding his glass in his hand and with strong marks of disapprobation on his face. The very same wine as we were drinking when your lordship last did me the honour of dining here, said Dick. Lord Mungrober raised his eyebrows, shook his head and put down the glass. Shall we try another bottle? asked Mrs. Dick with solitude. Oh no, it'd be all the same. I know, I'll just take a little dry sherry if you have it. The man came with a decanter. No, dry sherry, dry sherry, said his lordship. The man was confounded. Mrs.  Lord Mungrober was not the man to be kept waiting by a government subordinate without exacting some penalty for such ill treatment. Is lordship is a little out of sorts? whispered Dick to Lady Monogram. Very much out of sorts, it seems. And the worst of it is there isn't a better glass of wine in London and his lordship knows it. I suppose that's what he comes for, said Lady Monogram, being quite as uncivil in her way as the nobleman. He's like a good many others. He knows where he can get a good dinner. After all, there's no attraction like that. Of course an handsome woman won't admit that, Lady Monogram. I will not admit it at any rate, Mr. Roby. But I don't doubt Monogram is as careful as anyone else to get the best cookie can and takes a good deal of trouble about his wine, too. Mungrober's very unfair about that champagne. It came out of Madame Cliqueau's cellars before the war and I gave Sprott and Burlinghammer 110 shillings for it. Indeed. I don't think there are a dozen men in London can give you such a glass of wine as that. What do you say about that champagne, Monogram? Very tiny wine, said Sir Damasque. I should think it is. I gave 110 shillings for it before the war. His lordship's got a fit of the gout coming, I suppose. But Sir Damasque was engaged with his neighbour, Lady Eustace. Of all things, I should so like to see a pigeon match, said Lady Eustace. I have heard about them all my life. Only I suppose it isn't quite proper for a lady. Oh dear, yes. The darling little pigeons, they do sometimes escape, don't they? I hope they escape sometimes. I'll go any day you'll make up a party if Lady Monogram will join us. Sir Damasque said that he would arrange it, making up his mind, however, at the same time, that this last stipulation, if insisted on, would make the thing impracticable. Roby, the ministerialist, sitting at the end of the table between his sister-in-law and Mrs. Happerton, was very confidential respecting the government and parliamentary affairs in general. Yes, indeed. Of course it's a coalition, but I don't see why we shouldn't go on very well. As to the Duke, I've always had the greatest possible respect for him. The truth is, there's nothing special to be done at the present moment, and there's no reason why we shouldn't agree and divide the good things between us. The Duke has got some craze of his own about decimal coinage. He'll amuse himself with that, but it won't come to anything, and it won't hurt us. There are a great many parties, asked Mrs. Happerton. Well, yes, that kind of thing used to be done in old Lady Brock's time, and the Duchess is repeating it. There's no end to their money, you know. But it's rather a bore for the persons who have to go. The ministerial Roby knew well how he would make his sister-in-law's mouth water by such an allusion as this to the great privilege of entering the Prime Minister's mansion in Carlton Terrace. I suppose you and the government are always asked. We are expected to go to and are watched pretty close. Lady Glenn, as we used to call her, has the eyes of Argus, and of course we who used to be on the other side are especially bound to pay her observance. Don't you like the Duchess? asked Mrs. Happerton. Oh yes, I like her very well. She's mad, you know, mad as a hatter, and no one can ever guess what freak may come next. One always feels that she'll do something sooner or later that will startle all the world. There was a queer story once, wasn't there? asked Mrs. Dick. I never quite believed that, said Roby. It was something about some lover she had before she was married. She went off to Switzerland. But the Duke, he was Mr. Palliser then, followed her very soon, and it all came right. When ladies are going to be Duchesses, things do come right, don't they? said Mrs. Happerton. On the other side of Mrs. Happerton was Mr. Wharton, quite unable to talk to his right-hand neighbour, the secretary's wife. The elder Mrs. Roby had not indeed much to say for herself, and he during the whole dinner was in misery. He had resolved that there should be no intimacy of any kind between his daughter and Ferdinand Lopez. Nothing more than the merest acquaintance. And there they were, talking together before his very eyes, with more evident signs of understanding each other than were exhibited by any other two persons at the table. And yet, he had no just ground of complaint against either of them. If people dined together at the same house, it may of course happen that they shall sit next to each other. And if people sit next to each other at dinner, it is expected that they shall talk. Nobody could accuse Emily of flirting, but then she was a girl who under no circumstances would condescend to flirt. But she had declared boldly to her father that she loved this man, and there she was in close conversation with him. Would it not be better for him to give up any further trouble and let her marry the man? She would certainly do so sooner or later. When the ladies went upstairs, that misery was over for a time, but Mr. Wharton was still not happy. Dick came round and took his wife's chair, so that he sat between the Lord and his brother. Lopez and Happerton fell into city conversation, and Sir Damask tried to amuse himself with Mr. Wharton. But the task was hopeless, as it always is when the elements of a party have been ill-mixed. Mr. Wharton had not even heard of the new Aldershot coach, which Sir Damask had just started with Colonel Bushkin and Sir Alfonso Blackbird. And when Sir Damask declared that he drove the coach up and down twice a week himself, Mr. Wharton at any rate affected to believe that such a thing was impossible. Then, when Sir Damask gave his opinion as to the cause of the failure of a certain horse at Northampton, Mr. Wharton gave him no encouragement whatever. I never was at a race course in my life, said the barrister. After that, Sir Damask drank his wine in silence. You remember that Claret, my lord, said Dick, thinking that some little compensation was due to him for what had been said about the champagne. But Lord Mongrober's dinner had not yet had the effect of mollifying the man sufficiently for Dick's purposes. Oh yes, I remember the wine. You call it 57, don't you? And it is 57. 57 Leoville. Very likely, very likely. If it hadn't been heated before the fire, it hasn't been near the fire, said Dick.  Or treated after some damnable fashion. It would be very good wine, I dare say. You are hard to please, my lord, today, said Dick, who was put beyond his bearing. What is a man to say? If he will talk about your wine, I can only tell you what I think. Any man may get good wine, that is, if he can afford to pay the price. But it isn't one out of ten who knows how to put it on a table. Dick felt this to be very hard. When a man pays 110 shillings a dozen for his champagne, and then gives it to guests like Lord Mungrober, who are not even expected to return the favor, then that man ought to be allowed to talk about his wine without fear of rebuke. One doesn't have an agreement to that effect written down on parchment and sealed, but it is as well understood and ought to be as faithfully kept as any legal contract. Dick, who could on occasions be awakened to a touch of manliness, gave the bottle a shove and threw himself back in his chair.  His lordship's face became very square and very red as he looked round at his host. As for talking about my wine, of course I talked to a man about what he understands. I talked to Monogram about pigeons, to Tom there about politics, to Appetun and Lopez about the price of consoles, and to you about wine. If I asked you what you thought of the last new book, your lordship would be a little surprised. Lord Mungrober grunted and looked redder and squareer than ever, but he made no attempt at reply and the victory was evidently left with Dick, very much to the general exaltation of his character, and he was proud of himself. We had a little tiff, me and Mungrober, he said to his wife that night. He's a very good fellow, and of course he's a lord and all that, but he has to be put down occasionally. And by George, I did it tonight. You ask Lopez. There were two drawing rooms upstairs, opening into each other, but still distinct. Emily had escaped into the back room, avoiding the gushing sentiments and equivocal morals of Lady Eustace and Mrs. Leslie. And here she was followed by Ferdinand Lopez. Mr. Wharton was in the front room, and though on entering it, he did look round furtively for his daughter. He was ashamed to wander about in order that he might watch her. And there were others in the back room, Dick and Monogram standing on the rug, and the elder Mrs. Roby seated in a corner so that there was nothing peculiar in the position of the two lovers. Must I understand, said he, that I am banished from Manchester Square? Has Papa banished you? That's what I want you to tell me. I know you had an interview with him, Mr. Lopez. I had. And you must know best what he told you. He would explain himself better to you than he did to me. I doubt that very much. Papa, when he has anything to say, generally says it plainly. However, I do think that he did intend to banish you. I do not know why I should not tell you the truth. I do not know either. I think he did intend to banish you. And you? I shall be guided by him in all things as far as I can. Then I am banished by you also. I did not say so. But if Papa says that you are not to come there, of course I cannot ask you to do so. But may I see you here? Mr. Lopez, I will not be asked some questions. I will not indeed. You know why I ask them. You know that to me you are more than all the world. She stood still for a moment after hearing this, and then without any reply walked away into the other room. She felt half ashamed of herself in that she had not rebuked him for speaking to her in that fashion after his interview with her father. And yet his words had filled her heart with delight. He had never before plainly declared his love to her, though she had been driven by her father's questions to declare her own love to herself. She was quite sure of herself that the man was and would always be to her the one being whom she would prefer to all others. Her fate was in her father's hands. If he chose to make her wretched he must do so. But on one point she had quite made up her mind. She would make no concealment. To the world at large she had nothing to say on the matter. But with her father there should be no attempt on her part to keep back the truth. Were he to question her on the subject she would tell him as far as her memory would serve her the very words which Lopez had spoken to her this evening. She would ask nothing from him. He had already told her that the man was to be rejected and had refused to give any other reason than his dislike to the absence of any English connection. She would not again ask even for a reason. But she would make her father understand that though she obeyed him she regarded the exercise of his authority as tyrannical and irrational. They left the house before any of the other guests and walked round the corner together into the square. What a very vulgar set of people, said Mr. Barton as soon as they were down the steps. Some of them were, said Emily, making a mental reservation of her own. Upon my word I don't know where to make the exception. Why on earth anyone should want to know such a person as Lord Mongrober I can't understand. What does he bring into society? A title. But what does that do of itself? He is an insolent bloated brute. Papa, you are using strong language tonight. And that lady Eustace, heaven and earth, am I to be told that that creature is a lady? They had now come to their own door and while that was being opened and as they went up into their own drawing room nothing was said but then Emily began again. I wonder why you go to Aunt Harriet at all? You don't like the people? I didn't like any of them today.  You don't like Aunt Harriet herself? You don't like Uncle Dick? You don't like Mr. Lopez? Certainly I do not. I don't know who it is you do like. I like Mr. Fletcher. It's no use saying that to me Papa. You ask me a question and I choose to answer it.  Because he is a gentleman of the class to which I belong myself. Because he works, because I know all about him so that I can be sure of him. Because he had had a decent father and mother because I'm safe with him being quite sure that he will say to me neither awkward things nor impertinent things. He will not talk to me about driving a male coach like that foolish baronet nor tell me the price of all his wines like your uncle. Nor would Ferdinand Lopez do so, thought Emily to herself. But in all such matters my dear, the great thing is like to like. I have spoken of a young person merely because I wish you to understand that I can sympathize with others besides those of my own age. But tonight there was no one there at all like myself or as I hope like you.  How such a man can be useful to any government I can't conceive. Happerton was the best. But what had he to say for himself? I've always thought that there was very little wit wanted to make a fortune in the city. In this frame of mind Mr. Wharton went off to bed but not a word more was spoken about Ferdinand Lopez. End of Chapter 10 End of The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop Chapter 11 of The Prime Minister This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Nicholas Clifford The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop Chapter 11 Carlton Terrace Certainly the thing was done very well by Lady Glenn as many in the political world persisted in calling her even in these days. She had not as yet quite carried out her plan the knowing of which would have required her to reconcile her husband to some excessive abnormal expenditure to have obtained from him a deliberate sanction for appropriation and probable sale of property. She could never find the proper moment for doing this having with all her courage low down in some corner of her heart a wholesome fear of a certain quiet power which her husband possessed. She could not bring herself to make her proposition but she almost acted as though it had been made and approved. Her house was always gorgeous with flowers. Of course there would be the bill and he when he saw the exotics and the whole place turned into a bower of ever fresh blooming floral glories must know that there would be the bill and when he found that there was an arched Eucl dinner party every week and an almost imperial reception twice a week that at these receptions a banquet was always provided when he was asked whether she might buy a magnificent pair of bay carriage horses as to which she assured him that nothing so lovely had ever as yet been seen stepping in the streets of London of course he must know that the bills would come it was better perhaps to do it in this way than to make any direct proposition and then early in June she spoke to him as to the guests to be invited to Gatherham Castle in August do you want to go to Gatherham in August? he asked in surprise for she hated the place and had hardly been content to spend ten days there every year at Christmas I think it should be done she said solemnly one cannot quite consider just now what one likes oneself why not? you would hardly go to a small place like matching in your present position there were so many people whom you should entertain you would probably have two or three of the foreign ministers down for a time we always used to find plenty of room at matching but you did not always used to be Prime Minister it is only for such a time as this that such a house as Gatherham is serviceable he was silent for a moment thinking about it and then gave way without another word she was probably right there is the huge pile of magnificent buildings and somebody at any rate had thought that it behooved a Duke of Omnium to live in such a palace if it ought to be done at any time it ought to be done now in that his wife had been right very well then let us go there I'll manage it all said the Duchess I and Lowcock Lowcock was the house steward I remember once said the Duke and he smiled as he spoke a peculiarly sweet expression which would at times come across his generally inexpressive face I remember once that some first minister of the Crown gave evidence as to the amount of his salary saying that his place entailed upon him expenses higher than his stipend would defray I begin to think that my experience will be the same does that fret you no Cora it certainly does not fret me or I should not allow it but I think there should be a limit no man is ever rich enough to squander though they were to squander her fortune the money which she had brought for the next ten years at a much greater rate than she contemplated they might do so without touching the palace or property of that she was quite sure and the squandering was to be all for his glory so that he might retain his position as a popular prime minister for an instant it occurred to her that she should tell him all this but she checked herself and the idea of what she had been about to say brought the blood into her face never yet had she in talking to him alluded to her own wealth of course we are spending money she said if you give me a hint to hold my hand I will hold it he had looked at her and read it all in her face God knows he said you've a right to do it if it pleases you for your sake then he stooped down and kissed her twice and left her to arrange her parties as she pleased after that she congratulated herself that she had not made the direct proposition knowing that she might now do pretty much what she pleased then there were solemn cabinets held at which she presided and Mrs. Finn and Lowcock assisted at other cabinets it is supposed that let a leader be ever so autocratic by disposition and superior by intelligence still he must not unfrequently yield to the opinion of his colleagues but in this cabinet the Duchess always had her own way though she was very persistent in asking for counsel Lowcock was frightened about the money hitherto money had come without a word out of the common spoken to the Duke the Duke had always signed certain checks but they had been normal checks and the money in its natural course had flown in to meet them but now he must be asked to sign abnormal checks that indeed had already been done but still the money had been there a large balance such as had always stood to his credit would stand a bigger racket than had yet been made but Lowcock was quite sure the balance ought not to be much further reduced and that steps must be taken something must be sold the idea of selling anything was dreadful to the mind of Lowcock or else money must be borrowed now the management of the palace of property had always been conducted on principles antagonistic to borrowing but his grace has never spent his income, said the Duchess that was true but the money as it showed a tendency to heap itself up had been used for the purchase of other bits of property or for the amelioration of the estates generally you don't mean to say that we can't get money if we want it Lowcock was profuse in his assurances that any amount of money could be obtained only that something must be done then let something be done, said the Duchess going on with her general plans many people are rich, said the Duchess afterwards to her friend and some people are very rich indeed but nobody seems to be rich enough to have ready money to do just what one wishes it all goes into a grand sum total which is never to be touched without a feeling of sacrifice I suppose you always have enough for everything it was well known that the present Mrs Finn as Madame Gersler had been a wealthy woman indeed no, very far from that I haven't a shilling what has happened, asked the Duchess pretending to be frightened you forget that I've got a husband of my own and that he has to be consulted that must be nonsense but don't you think women are fools to marry when they've got anything of their own and could be their own mistresses I couldn't have been married before I was old enough to assert myself and how well they did for you Pussy-mal, he's Prime Minister which is a great thing and I begin to find myself filled to the full with political ambition I feel myself to be a Lady Macbeth prepared for the murder of any Duncan or any Daubany who may stand in my Lord's way in the meantime like Lady Macbeth herself we must attend to the backwarding her Lord appeared and misbehaved himself my Lord won't show himself at all which I think is worse our old friend Phineas Finn who had now reached a higher place in politics than even his political dreams had assigned to him though he was a member of Parliament was much away from London in these days new brooms sweep clean and official new brooms I think sweep cleaner than any other who has not watched at the commencement of a ministry some secretary, some Lord, some commissioner who intends by fresh Herculean labors to cleanse the Orgian stables just committed to his care who does not know the gentleman at the Home Office who means to reform the police and put an end to malefactors or the new minister at the Board of Works who was to make London beautiful as by a magician's stroke or above all the new First Lord who has resolved that he will really build as a fleet purge the dockyards and save us half a million a year at the same time Phineas Finn was bent on unriddling the Irish Sphinx surely something might be done to prove to his susceptible countrymen that at the present moment no curse could be laid upon them so heavy as that of having to rule themselves apart from England and he thought that this might be the easier as he became from day to day more thoroughly convinced that those home rulers who were all around him in the house were altogether of the same opinion had some inscrutable degree of fate ordained and made it certain with a certainty not to be disturbed that no candidate could be returned to Parliament who would not assert the earth to be triangular there would rise immediately a clamorous assertion of triangularity among political aspirants the test would be innocent candidates have swallowed and daily do swallow many a worse one as might be this doctrine of a great triangle so is the doctrine of home rule why is the gentleman of property to be kept out in the cold by some omulans because he will not mutter an unmeaning shibboleth triangular? yes, or Lawson's shaped if you please but gentlemen, I am the man for Tipperary Phineas Finn, having seen or thought that he had seen all this began from the very first moment of his appointment to consider painfully within himself whether the genuine services of an honest and patriotic man might not compass sub-remedy for the present ill boating ferment of the country what was it that the Irish really did want what that they wanted and had not got and which might with propriety be conceded to them what was it that the English really would refuse to sanction even though it might not be wanted he found himself beating about among the rocks as to Catholic education and papal interference the passage among which might be made clear to him the Irish atmosphere than in that of Westminster therefore he was away a good deal in these days travelling backwards and forwards as he might be wanted for any debate but as his wife did not accompany him on these fitful journeys she was able to give her time very much to the Duchess the Duchess was on the whole very successful with her parties there were people who complained that she had everybody that there was no selection whatever as to politics principle, rank, morals or even manners but in such a work as the Duchess had now taken in hand it was impossible that she should escape censure they who really knew what was being done were aware that nobody was asked to that house without an idea that his or her presence might be desirable in however remote a degree paragraphs and newspapers go for much and therefore the writers and editors of such paragraphs were there sometimes with their wives Mr. Brown of the breakfast table was to be seen there constantly with his wife Lady Carberry and poor old Booker of the literary chronicle city men can make a budget popular or the reverse and therefore the mills' habitants of the day were welcome rising barristers might be wanted to become solicitors general the pet Orpheus of the hour the young tragic actor who was thought to have a real hamlet within him the old painter who was growing rich on his reputation and the young painter who was still strong with hope even the little trilling poet though he trilled never so faintly and a somewhat wooden novelist all had tongues of their own and certain modes of expression which might assist or injure the palace or coalition as the Duke's ministry was now called who is that man? I've seen him here before the Duchess was talking to him ever so long just now the question was asked by Mr. Rattler of Mr. Roby about half an hour before this time Mr. Rattler had a say to get a few words with the Duchess beginning with a communication of some small political secret but the Duchess did not much care for the Rattlers attached to her husband's government they were men whose services could be had for a certain payment and when paid for were the Duchess thought that the premiers command without further trouble of course they came to the receptions and were entitled to a smile apiece as they entered but they were entitled to nothing more and on this occasion Rattler had felt himself to be snubbed it did not occur to him to abuse the Duchess the Duchess was too necessary for abuse just at present but any friend of the Duchess any favorite for the moment was of course open to remark he is a man named Lopez said Roby a friend of Haberton a very clever fellow they say did you ever see him anywhere else? well yes I have met him at dinner he was never in the house what does he do? Rattler was distressed to think that any drone should have made its way into the hive of working bees oh money I fancy he's not a partner at hunkies is he? I fancy not I think I should have known if he was she ought to remember that people make a use of coming here said Rattler she was of course the Duchess it's not like a private house and whatever influence outsiders get by coming so much she loses somebody ought to explain that to her I don't think you or I could do that replied Mr. Roby I'll tell the Duke in a minute said Rattler perhaps he thought he could tell the Duke but we may be allowed to doubt whether his prowess would not have fallen below the necessary pitch when he met the Duke's eye Lopez was there for the third time about the middle of June and had certainly contrived to make himself personally known to the Duchess there had been a deputation from the city to the Prime Minister asking for a subsidized mail via San Francisco to Japan and Lopez though he had no interest in Japan had contrived to be one of the number he had contrived also as the deputation was departing to say a word on his own account to the minister and had ingratiated himself the Duke had remembered him and had suggested that he should have a card and now he was among the flowers and the greatness the beauty the politics and the fashion of the Duchess's gatherings for the third time it is very well done very well indeed said Mr. Boffin to him Lopez had been dining with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin and had now again encountered his late host and hostess Mr. Boffin was a gentleman who had belonged to the late ministry but had somewhat outherited hered in his conservatism so was to have been considered unfit for the coalition of course he was proud of his own staunchness and a little inclined to criticize the lax principles of men who for the sake of carrying on her majesty's government could be conservatives one day and liberals the next he was a laborious honest man but hardly of caliber sufficient not to regret his own honesty in such an emergency as the present it is easy for most of us to keep our hands for picking and stealing when picking and stealing plainly lead to prison diet and prison garments but when silks and satins come of it and with the silks and satins general respect the net result of honesty does not seem to be so secure whence will come the reward and when on whom the punishment and where a man will not surely be damned from belonging to a coalition ministry Boffin was a little puzzled as he thought on all this but in the meantime was very proud of his own consistency I think it is so lovely said Mrs. Boffin you look down through an Elysium of rhododendrons into a paradise of mirrors I don't think there was ever anything like it in London before I don't know that we have ever had anybody at the same time rich enough to do this kind of thing as it is done now said Boffin and powerful enough to get such people together if the country can be ruled by flowers and looking glasses of course it is very well flowers and looking glasses won't prevent the country being ruled well said Lopez I'm not so sure of that continued Boffin we all know what bread in the games came to in Rome what did they come to? asked Mrs. Boffin to a man burning Rome my dear for his amusement dressed in a satin petticoat and a wreath of roses I don't think the Duke will dress himself like that said Mrs. Boffin and I don't think said Lopez that the graceful expenditure of wealth in a rich man's house has any tendency to demoralize the people the attempt here said Boffin severely is to demoralize the rulers of the people I am glad to have come once to see how the thing is done but as an independent member of the House of Commons I should not wish to be known to frequent the saloon of the Duchess then Mr. Boffin took away Mrs. Boffin much to that lady's regret this is fairy land said Lopez to the Duchess as he left the room come and be a fairy then she answered very graciously we are always on the wing about this hour on Wednesday night the words contained a general invitation for the season and were esteemed by Lopez as an indication of great favor it must be acknowledged of the Duchess that she was prone to make favorites perhaps without adequate cause though it must be conceded to her that she rarely altogether threw off from her anyone whom she had once taken to her good graces it must also be confessed that when she allowed herself to hate either a man or a woman she generally hated on to the end no paradise could be too charming for her friends no pandemonium too frightful for her enemies in reference to Mr. Lopez she would have said, if interrogated that she had taken the man up in obedience to her husband but in truth she had liked the look and the voice of the man her husband before now had recommended mentor her notice and kindness whom at the first trial she had rejected from her good will and whom she had continued to reject ever afterwards let her husband's urgency be what it might another old friend of whom former chronicles were not silent was at the Duchesses that night and there came across Mrs. Finn this was Barrington Earl a politician of long standing who was still looked upon by many as a young man because he had always been known as a young man and because he had never done anything to compromise his position in that respect he had not married or settled himself down in a house of his own or become subject to gout or given up being careful about the fitting of his clothes no doubt the grey hairs were getting the better of the black hairs both on his head and face and marks of coming crow's feet were to be seen if you looked close at him and he had become careful about his great coat and umbrella he was in truth much nearer fifties and forties nevertheless he was felt in the house and among cabinet ministers and among the wives of members and cabinet ministers to be a young man still and when he was invited to become secretary for Ireland it was generally felt that he was too young for the place he declined it however and when he went to the post office the gentlemen there all felt they had had a boy put over them Finneas Finn who had become secretary for Ireland was in truth ten years his junior but Finneas Finn had been twice married and had gone through other phases of life such as make a man old how does Finneas like it? Earl asked Finneas Finn and Barrington Earl had gone through some political struggles together and had been very intimate I hope not very much said the lady why because he's away so much? no, not that I should not grudge his absence if the work satisfied him but I know him so well the more he takes to it now the more sang when he is as to some special thing to be done the more bitter will be the disappointment when he is disappointed for there never really is anything special to be done is there Mr. Earl? I think there is always a little too much zeal about Finn of course there is and then with zeal there always goes the thin skin and unjustifiable expectations and biting despair and contempt of others and all the elements of unhappiness that is a sad program for your husband he has recuperative facilities which bring him round at last but I really doubt whether he was made for a politician in this country you remember Lord Brock? dear old Brock of course I do how should I not if you remember him? young men are boys at college rowing in boats when women have been ever so long out in the world he was the very model of an English statesman he loved his country dearly he wished her to be as he believed her to be first among nations but he had no belief in perpetuating her greatness by any grand improvements let things take their way naturally with a slight direction hither or thither as things might require that was his method of ruling he believed in men rather than measures as long as he had loyalty around him he could be personally happy and quite confident as to the country he never broke his heart because he could not carry this or that reform what would have hurt him would have been to be worsted in personal conflict but he could always hold his own he was always happy your man with a thin skin a vehement ambition a scrupulous conscience and a sanguine desire for rapid improvement is never a happy and seldom a fortunate politician Mrs. Finn you understand it all better than anyone else that I ever knew I have been watching it for a long time and of course very closely since I have been married but you have an eye trained to see it all a useful member you would have been in a government but I should never have had the patience to sit all night about that bench in the House of Commons how men can do it they mustn't read they can't think because of the speaking it doesn't do for them to talk I don't believe they ever listen it isn't in human nature to listen hour after hour to such platitudes I believe they fall into a habit of half-wakeful sleeping which carries them through the hours even that can't be pleasant I look upon the treasury bench in July as a sort of casual ward which we know to be necessary but it's almost too horrid to be contemplated men do get bread and skilly there certainly but Mrs. Finn we can go into the library and smoking room oh yes, and a clerk in an office can read the newspapers instead of doing his duty but there is a certain surveillance exercised and a certain quantity of work exacted I have met Lords of the Treasury out at dinner on Monday and Thursdays but we all regard them as boys who have shirked out of school I think about the whole, Mr. Earl we women have the best of it I don't suppose you will go in for your rights? not by active parliament or by platform meeting I have a great idea of women's rights but that is the way I think to throw them away what do you think of the Duchess's evenings? Lady Glen is in her way as great a woman as you are perhaps greater because nothing ever stops her whereas I have scruples her grace has none she has feelings and convictions which keep her straight but no scruples look at her now, talking to Sir Orlando Drout a man whom she both hates and despises I am sure she is looking forward to some happy time in which the Duke may pitch Sir Orlando overboard and rule supreme with me or some other subordinate leading the House of Commons simply as lieutenant such a time will never come but that is her idea but she is talking to Sir Orlando now as if you are pouring her full confidence into his ear and Sir Orlando is believing her Sir Orlando is in a seventh heaven she is measuring his credulity inch by inch she makes the place very bright and is spending an enormous amount of money said Barrington Earl what does it matter? well no, if the Duke likes it I had an idea that the Duke would not like the display of the thing there he is do you see him in the corner with his brother Duke? he doesn't look as if he were happy does he? no one would think he was the master of everything here he has got himself hidden almost behind the screen I am sure he doesn't like it he tries to like whatever she likes said Mrs Finn as her husband was away in Ireland Mrs Finn was staying in the house in Carleton Gardens the Duchess at present required so much of her time that this was found to be convenient when therefore the guests on the present occasion had all gone the Duchess and Mrs Finn were left together did you ever see anything so hopeless as he is? said the Duchess who is hopeless? Heavens and earth, Plantagenet, who else? is there another man in the world would come into his own house among his own guests and speak only to one person? and then think of it popularity is the staff on which alone ministers can lean in this country with security political but not social popularity you know as well as I do that the two go together we've seen enough of that even in our day what broke up Mr Gresham's ministry? if he had stayed away people might have thought that he was reading blue books or calculating coinage or preparing a speech that would have been much better but he comes in and sits for half an hour whispering to another Duke I hate Dukes he talks to the Duke of St Bungie because there was no one he trusts so much a few years ago it would have been Mr Milt May my dear said the Duchess angrily you treat me as though I were a child of course I know why he chooses that old man out of all the crowd I don't suppose he does it from any stupid pride of rank I know very well what set of ideas govern him but that isn't the point he has to reflect what others think of it and to endeavor to do what will please them there was I telling Taradiddles by the yard to that old oaf, Sir Orlando Drought when a confidential word from Plantagenet would have had ten times more effect and why can't he speak a word to the people's wives they wouldn't bite him he has got to say a few words to you sometimes to whom it doesn't signify my dear I don't know about that but he never speaks to another woman he was here this evening for exactly forty minutes and he didn't open his lips to a female creature I watched him how on earth am I to pull him through if he goes on in that way yes Lowcock I'll go to bed and I don't think I'll get up for a week End of Chapter 11