THE PRIME MINISTER (21 page)

‘Do you mean that Emily – favours him?’

‘I am afraid so.’

‘And would she, – would she – do anything without your sanction?’ He was always thinking of the disgrace attaching to himself by reason of his nephew’s vileness, and now, if a daughter of the family should
also go astray, so as to be exiled from the bosom of the Whartons, how manifest would it be that all the glory was departing from their house!
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‘No! She will do nothing without my sanction. She has given her word, – which is gospel.’ As he spoke the old lawyer struck his hand upon the table.

‘Then why should you run away to Dresden?’

‘Because she is unhappy. She will not marry him, – or even
see him, if I forbid it. But she is near him.’

‘Herefordshire is a long way off,’ said the baronet, pleading.

‘Change of scene is what she should have,’ said the father.

‘There can’t be more of a change than she’d get at Wharton. She always did like Wharton. It was there that she met Arthur Fletcher.’ The father only shook his head as Arthur Fletcher’s name was mentioned. ‘Well, – that is sad.
I always thought she’d give way about Arthur at last’

‘It is impossible to understand a young woman,’ said the lawyer. With such an English gentleman as Arthur Fletcher on one side, and with his Portuguese Jew on the other, it was to him Hyperion to a Satyr.
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A darkness had fallen over his girl’s eyes, and for a time her power of judgment had left her.

‘But I don’t see why Wharton should not
do just as well as Dresden,’ continued the baronet.

Mr Wharton found himself quite unable to make his cousin understand that the greater disruption caused by a residence abroad, the feeling that a new kind of life had been considered necessary for
her, and that she must submit to the new kind of life, might be gradually effective, while the journeyings and scenes which had been common to her
year after year would have no effect. Nevertheless he gave way. They could hardly start to Germany at once, but the visit to Wharton might be accelerated; and the details of the residence abroad might be there arranged. It was fixed, therefore, that Mr Wharton and Emily should go down to Wharton Hall at any rate before the end of July.

‘Why do you go earlier than usual, papa?’ Emily asked him
afterwards.

‘Because I think it best,’ he replied angrily. She ought at any rate to understand the reason.

‘Of course I shall be ready, papa. You know that I always like Wharton. There is no place on earth I like so much, and this year it will be especially pleasant to me to go out of town. But –’

‘But what?’

‘I can’t bear to think that I shall be taking you away.’

‘I’ve got to bear worse
things than that, my dear.’

‘Oh, papa, do not speak to me like that! Of course I know what you mean. There is no real reason for your going. If you wish it I will promise you that I will not see him.’ He only shook his head, – meaning to imply that a promise which could go no farther than that would not make him happy. ‘It will be just the same, papa, – either here, or at Wharton, or elsewhere.
You need not be afraid of me.’

‘I am not afraid of you; – but I am afraid for you. I fear for your happiness, – and for my own.’

‘So do I, papa. But what can be done? I suppose sometimes people must be unhappy. I can’t change myself, and I can’t change you. I find myself to be as much bound to Mr Lopez as though I were his wife.’

‘No, no! you shouldn’t say so. You’ve no right to say so.’

‘But I have given you a promise, and I certainly will keep it. If we must be unhappy, still we need not, – need not quarrel; need we, papa?’ Then she came up to him and kissed him, – whereupon he went out of the room wiping his eyes.

That evening he again spoke to her, saying merely a word. ‘I think, my dear, we’ll have it fixed that we go on the 30th. Sir Alured seemed to wish it.’

‘Very well,
papa; – I shall be quite ready.’

Ferdinand Lopez learned immediately through Mrs Roby that the early departure for Herefordshire had been fixed. ‘I should go to him and speak to him very plainly,’ said Mrs Roby. ‘He can’t bite you.’

‘I’m not in the least afraid of his biting me.’

‘You can talk so well! I should tell him everything, especially about money, – which I’m sure is all right.’

‘Yes,
– that is all right,’ said Lopez, smiling.

‘And about your people.’

‘Which, I’ve no doubt you think is all wrong.’

‘I don’t know anything about it,’ said Mrs Roby, ‘and I don’t much care. He has old-world notions. At any rate you should say something, so that he should not be able to complain to her that you had kept him in the dark. If there is anything to be known, it’s much better to have
it known.’

‘But there is nothing to be known.’

‘Then tell him nothing; – but still tell it to him. After that you must trust to her. I don’t suppose she’d go off with you.’

‘I’m sure she wouldn’t.’

‘But she’s as obstinate as a mule. She’ll get the better of him if you really mean it.’ He assured her that he really did mean it, and determined that he would take her advice as to seeing, or endeavouring
to see, Mr Wharton once again. But before doing so he thought it to be expedient to put his house into order, so that he might be able to make a statement of his affairs if asked to do so. Whether they were flourishing or the reverse, it might be necessary that he should have to speak of them, – with, at any rate, apparent candour.

The reader may, perhaps, remember that in the month of April
Ferdinand Lopez had managed to extract a certain signature from his unfortunate city friend, Sexty Parker, which made that gentleman responsible for the payment of a considerable sum of money before
the end of July. The transaction had been one of an unmixed painful nature to Mr Parker. As soon as he came to think of it, after Lopez had left him, he could not prevail upon himself to forgive himself
for his folly. That he, – he, Sextus Parker, – should have been induced by a few empty words to give his name for seven hundred and fifty pounds without any consideration or possibility of benefit! And the more he thought of it the more sure he was that the money was lost. The next day he confirmed his own fears, and before a week was gone he had written down the sum as gone. He told nobody.
He did not like to confess his folly. But he made some inquiry about his friend, – which was absolutely futile. No one that he knew seemed to know anything of the man’s affairs. But he saw his friend from time to time in the city, shining as only successful men do shine, and he heard of him as one whose name was becoming known in the city. Still he suffered grievously. His money was surely gone.
A man does not fly a kite
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in that fashion till things with him have reached a bad pass.

So it was with Mr Parker all through May and to the end of June, – the load ever growing heavier and heavier as the time became nearer. Then, while he was still afflicted with a heaviness of spirits which had never left him since that fatal day, who but Ferdinand Lopez should walk into his office, wearing
the gayest smile and with a hat splendid as hats are splendid only in the city. And nothing could be more ‘jolly’ than his friend’s manner, – so much so that Sexty was almost lifted up into temporary jollity himself. Lopez, seating himself, almost at once began to describe a certain speculation into which he was going rather deeply, and as to which he invited his friend Parker’s co-operation. He
was intending, evidently, not to ask, but to confer a favour.

‘I rather think that steady business is best,’ said Parker. ‘I hope it’s all right about that £750.’

‘Ah; yes; – I meant to have told you. I didn’t want the money, as it turned out, for much above a fortnight, and as there was no use in letting the bill run out, I settled it. So saying he took out a pocket-book, extracted the bill,
and showed it to Sexty. Sexty’s heart fluttered in his bosom. There was his name still on the bit of paper, and it might still be used. Having it shown to him after this fashion in its mid career, of course he had strong ground for hope. But he
could not bring himself to put out his hand for it. ‘As to what you say about steady business, of course that’s very well,’ said Lopez. ‘It depends upon
whether a man wants to make a small income or a large fortune.’ He still held the bill as though he were going to fold it up again, and the importance of it was so present to Sexty’s mind that he could hardly digest the argument about the steady business. ‘I own that I am not satisfied with the former,’ continued Lopez, ‘and that I go in for the fortune.’ As he spoke he tore the bill into three
or four bits, apparently without thinking of it, and let the fragments fall upon the floor. It was as though a mountain had been taken off Sexty’s bosom. He felt almost inclined to send out for a bottle of champagne on the moment, and the arguments of his friend rang in his ears with quite a different sound. The allurements of a steady income paled before his eyes, and he too began to tell himself
as he had often told himself before, that if he would only keep his eyes open and his heart high there was no reason why he too should not become a city millionaire. But on that occasion Lopez left him soon, without saying very much about his favourite speculation. In a few days, however, the same matter was brought before Sexty’s eyes from another direction. He learned from a side wind that the
house of Hunky and Sons was concerned largely in this business, – or at any rate he thought that he had so learned. The ease with which Lopez had destroyed that bill six weeks before it was due had had great effect upon him. Those arguments about a large fortune or a small income still clung to him. Lopez had come to him about the business in the first instance, but it was now necessary that he should
go to Lopez. He was, however, very cautious. He managed to happen to meet Lopez in the street, and introduced the subject in his own slap-dash, aery manner, – the result of which was, that he had gone rather deep into two or three American mines before the end of July. But he had already made some money out of them, and, though he would find himself sometimes trembling before he had taken his
daily allowance of port wine and brandy and water, still he was buoyant, and hopeful of living in a park, with a palace at the West End, and a seat in Parliament. Knowing also as he did, that his friend Lopez was intimate with the Duchess of Omnium, he had much immediate satisfaction in the intimacy which these relations created. He was getting in the thin edge of the wedge, and would
calculate
as he went home to Ponder’s End how long it must be before he could ask his friend to propose him at some West End club. On one halcyon summer evening Lopez had dined with him at Ponder’s End, had smiled on Mrs Parker, and played with the hopeful little Parkers. On that occasion Sexty had assured his wife that he regarded his friendship with Ferdinand Lopez as the most fortunate circumstance of
his life. ‘Do be careful, Sexty,’ the poor woman had said. But Parker had simply told her that she understood nothing about business. On that evening Lopez had thoroughly imbued him with the conviction that if you will only set your mind that way, it is quite as easy to amass a large fortune as to earn a small income.

About a week before the departure of the Whartons for Herefordshire, Lopez,
in compliance with Mrs Roby’s councils, called at the chambers in Stone Buildings. It is difficult to say that you will not see a man, when the man is standing just on the other side of an open door, – nor, in this case, was Mr Wharton quite clear that he had better decline to see the man. But while he was doubting, – at any rate before he had resolved upon denying his presence, – the man was there,
inside his room. Mr Wharton got up from his chair, hesitated a moment, and then gave his hand to the intruder in that half-unwilling, unsatisfactory manner which most of us have experienced when shaking hands with some cold-blooded, ungenial acquaintance. ‘Well, Mr Lopez, – what can I do for you?’ he said, as he re-seated himself. He looked as though he were at his ease and master of the situation.
He had control over himself sufficient for assuming such a manner. But his heart was not high within his bosom. The more he looked at the man the less he liked him.

‘There is one thing, and one thing only, you can do for me,’ said Lopez. His voice was peculiarly sweet, and when he spoke his words seemed to mean more than when they came from other mouths. But Mr Wharton did not like sweet voices
and mellow, soft words, – at least not from men’s mouths.

‘I do not think that I can do anything for you, Mr Lopez,’ he said. There was a slight pause, during which the visitor put down his hat and seemed to hesitate. ‘I think your coming here can be of no avail. Did I not explain myself when I saw you before?’

‘But, I fear, I did not explain myself. I hardly told my story.’

‘You can tell it,
of course, – if you think the telling will do you any good.’

‘I was not able to say then, as I can say now, that your daughter had accepted my love.’

‘You ought not to have spoken to my daughter on the subject after what passed between us. I told you my mind frankly.’

‘Ah, Mr Wharton, how was obedience in such a matter possible? What would you yourself think of a man who in such a position
would be obedient? I did not seek her secretly. I did nothing underhand. Before I had once directly asked her for her love, I came to you.’

‘What’s the use of that, if you go to her immediately afterwards in manifest opposition to my wishes? You found yourself bound, as would any gentleman, to ask a father’s leave, and when it was refused, you went on just as though it had been granted! Don’t
you call that a mockery?’

‘I can say now, sir, what I could not say then. We love each other. And I am as sure of her as I am of myself when I assert that we shall be true to each other. You must know her well enough to be sure of that also.’

‘I am sure of nothing but of this; – that I will not give her my consent to become your wife.’

‘What is your objection, Mr Wharton?’