THE PRIME MINISTER (48 page)

‘He says that she was annoyed and insulted.’

‘Impossible! It was a letter that any
man might have written to any woman.’

‘Well; – you have got to take care of yourself at any rate. What will you do?’

‘What ought I to do?’

‘Go to the police.’ Mr Gresham had himself once, when young, thrashed a man who had offended him, and had then thought himself much aggrieved because the police had been called in. But that had been twenty years ago, and Mr Gresham’s opinions had been matured
and, perhaps, corrected by age.

‘No; I won’t do that,’ said Arthur Fletcher.

‘That’s what you ought to do.’

‘I couldn’t do that.’

‘Then take no notice of the letter, and carry a fairly big stick. It should be big enough to hurt him a good deal, but not to do him any serious damage.’ At that moment an agent came in with news of the man’s retirement from the contest. ‘Has he left the town?’
asked Gresham. No; – he had not left the town, nor had he been seen by any one that morning. ‘You had better let me go out and get the stick, before you show yourself,’ said Gresham. And so the stick was selected.

As the two walked down the street together, almost the first thing they saw was Lopez standing at his hotel door with a cutting whip in
his hand. He was at that moment quite alone,
but on the opposite side of the street there was a policeman, – one of the borough constables, – very slowly making his way along the pavement. His movement, indeed, was so slow that anyone watching him would have come to the conclusion that that particular part of the High Street had some attraction for him at that special moment Alas, alas! How age will alter the spirit of a man! Twenty years since
Frank Gresham would have thought any one to be a mean miscreant who would have interposed a policeman between him and his foe. But it is to be feared that while selecting that stick he had said a word which was causing the constable to loiter on the pavement!

But Gresham turned no eye to the policeman as he walked on with his friend, and Fletcher did not see the man. ‘What an ass he is!’ said
Fletcher, – as he got the handle of the stick well into his hand. Then Lopez advanced to them with his whip raised; but as he did so the policeman came across the street quickly but very quietly, and stood right before him. The man was so thoroughly in the way of the aggrieved wretch that it was out of the question that he should touch Fletcher with his whip.

‘Do you usually walk about attended
by a policeman?’ said Lopez, with all the scorn which he knew how to throw into his voice.

‘I didn’t know that the man was here,’ said Fletcher.

‘You may tell that to the marines. All the borough shall know what a coward you are.’ Then he turned round and addressed the street, but still under the shadow, as it were, of the policeman’s helmet. ‘This man who presumes to offer himself as a candidate
to represent Silverbridge in Parliament has insulted my wife. And now, because he fears that I shall horsewhip him, he goes about the street under the care of a policeman.’

‘This is intolerable,’ said Fletcher, turning to his friend.

‘Mr Lopez,’ said Gresham, ‘I am sorry to say that I must give you in charge; – unless you will undertake to leave the town without interfering further with Mr Fletcher,
either by word or deed.’

‘I will undertake nothing,’ said Lopez. ‘The man has insulted my wife, and is a coward.’

About two o’clock on the afternoon of that day Mr Lopez appeared before the Silverbridge bench of magistrates, and was there sworn to keep the peace to Mr Fletcher for the next six months. After that he
was allowed to leave the town, and was back in London, with his wife in Belgrave
Mansions, to dinner that evening.

On the day but one after this the ballot was taken, and at eight o’clock on the evening of that day Arthur Fletcher was declared to be duly elected. But Mr Du Boung ran him very hard.

The numbers were –

FLETCHER
...... 315

DU BOUNG
...... 308

Mr Du Boung’s friends during these two last days had not hesitated to make what use they could on behalf of their
own candidate of the Lopez and Fletcher quarrel. If Mr Fletcher had insulted the other man’s wife, surely he could not be a proper member for Silverbridge. And then the row was declared to have been altogether discreditable. Two strangers had come into this peaceful town and had absolutely quarrelled with sticks and whips in the street, calling each other opprobrious names. Would it not be better
that they should elect their own respectable townsman? All this was nearly effective. But, in spite of all, Arthur Fletcher was at last returned.

Lopez, as he returned to town, recovered something of his senses, though he still fancied that Arthur Fletcher had done him a positive injury by writing to his wife. But something of that madness left him which had come from his deep sense of injury, both as to the letter and as to the borough, and he began to feel that he had been wrong about the horsewhip. He
was very low in spirits on this return journey. The money which he had spent had been material to him, and the loss of it for the moment left him nearly bare. While he had had before his eyes the hope of being a member of Parliament he had been able to buoy himself up. The position itself would have gone very far with Sexty Parker, and would, he thought, have had
some effect even with his father-in-law.
But now he was returning a beaten man. Who is there that has not felt that fall from high hope to utter despair which comes from some single failure? As he thought of this he was conscious that his anger had led him into great imprudence at Silverbridge. He had not been circumspect, as it specially behoved a man to be surrounded by such difficulties as his. All his life he had been schooling
his temper so as to keep it under control, – sometimes with great difficulty, but always with a consciousness that in his life everything might depend on it. Now he had, alas, allowed it to get the better of him. No doubt he had been insulted; – but, nevertheless, he had been wrong to speak of a horse-whip.

His one great object must now be to conciliate his father-in-law, and he had certainly
increased his difficulty in doing this by his squabble down at Silverbridge. Of course the whole thing would be reported in the London papers, and of course the story would be told against him, as the respectabilities of the town had been opposed to him. But he knew himself to be clever, and he still hoped that he might overcome these difficulties. Then it occurred to him that in doing this he must
take care to have his wife entirely on his side. He did not doubt her love; he did not in the least doubt her rectitude – but there was the lamentable fact that she thought well of Arthur Fletcher. It might be that he had been a little too imperious with his wife. It suited his disposition to be imperious within his own household; – to be imperious out of it, if that were possible; – but he was
conscious of having had a fall at Silverbridge, and he must for a while take in some sail.

He had telegraphed to her, acquainting her with his defeat, and telling her to expect his return. ‘Oh, Ferdinand,’ she said, ‘I am so unhappy about this. It has made me so wretched!’

‘Better luck next time,’ he said with his sweetest smile. ‘It is no good groaning over spilt milk. They haven’t treated
me really well, – have they?’

‘I suppose not, – though I do not quite understand it all.’

He was burning to abuse Arthur Fletcher, but he abstained. He would abstain at any rate for the present moment. ‘Dukes and duchesses are no doubt very grand people,’ he said, ‘but it is a pity they should not know how to behave honestly, as they expect others
to behave to them. The Duchess has thrown me
over in the most infernal way. I really can’t understand it. When I think of it I am lost in wonder. The truth, I suppose, is, that there has been some quarrel between him and her.’

‘Who will get in?’

‘Oh, Du Boung, no doubt.’ He did not think so, but he could not bring himself to declare the success of his enemy to her. ‘The people there know him. Your old friend is as much a stranger there
as I am. By-the-way, he and I had a little row in the place.’

‘A row, Ferdinand!’

‘You needn’t look like that, my pet. I haven’t killed him. But he came up to speak to me in the street, and I told him what I thought about his writing to you.’ On hearing this Emily looked very wretched. ‘I could not restrain myself from doing that Come; – you must admit that he shouldn’t have written.’

‘He meant
it in kindness.’

‘Then he shouldn’t have meant it Just think of it Suppose that I had been making up to any girl, – which by-the-by I never did but to one in my life,’ – then he put his arm round her waist and kissed her, ‘and she were to have married someone else. What would have been said of me if I had begun to correspond with her immediately? Don’t suppose I am blaming you, dear.’

‘Certainly
I do not suppose that,’ said Emily.

‘But you must admit that it were rather strong.’ He paused, but she said nothing. ‘Only I suppose you can bring yourself to admit nothing against him. However, so it was. There was a row, and a policeman came up, and they made me give a promise that I didn’t mean to shoot him or anything of that kind.’ As she heard this she turned pale, but said nothing. ‘Of
course I didn’t want to shoot him. I wished him to know what I thought about it, and I told him. I hate to trouble you with all this, but I couldn’t bear that you shouldn’t know it all.’

‘It is very sad!’

‘Sad enough! I have had plenty to bear I can tell you. Everybody seemed to turn away from me there. Everybody deserted me.’ As he said this he could perceive that he must obtain her sympathy
by recounting his own miseries and not Arthur Fletcher’s sins. ‘I was all alone and hardly knew how to hold up my head against so much
wretchedness. And then I found myself called upon to pay an enormous sum for my expenses.’

‘Oh, Ferdinand!’

‘Think of their demanding £500!’

‘Did you pay it?’

‘Yes, indeed. I had no alternative. Of course they took care to come for that before they talked of
my resigning. I believe it was all planned beforehand. The whole thing seems to me to have been a swindle, from beginning to end. By heaven, I’m almost inclined to think that the Duchess knew all about it herself!’

‘About the £500!’

‘Perhaps not the exact sum, but the way in which the thing was to be done. In these days one doesn’t know whom to trust. Men, and women too, have become so dishonest
that nobody is safe anywhere. It has been awfully hard upon me, – awfully hard. I don’t suppose that there was ever a moment in my life when the loss of £500 would have been so much to me as it is now. The question is, what will your father do for us?’ Emily could not but remember her husband’s intense desire to obtain money from her father not yet three months since, as though all the world
depended on his getting it, – and his subsequent elation, as though all his sorrows were over for ever, because the money had been promised. And now, – almost immediately, – he was again in the same position. She endeavoured to judge him kindly, but a feeling of insecurity in reference to his affairs struck her at once and made her heart cold. Everything had been achieved, then, by a gift of £3,000,
– surely a small sum to effect such a result with a man living as her husband lived. And now the whole £3,000 was gone; – surely a large sum to have vanished in so short a time! Something of the uncertainty of business she could understand, but a business must be perilously uncertain if subject to such vicissitudes as these! But as ideas of this nature crowded themselves into her mind she told
herself again and again that she had taken him for better and for worse. If the worse were already coming, she would still be true to her promise. ‘You had better tell papa everything,’ she said.

‘Had it not better come from you?’

‘No, Ferdinand. Of course I will do as you bid me. I will do anything that I can do. But you had better tell him. His nature is
such that he will respect you more
if it come from yourself. And then it is so necessary that he should know all; – all.’ She put whatever emphasis she knew how to use upon this word.

‘You could tell him – all, as well as I.’

‘You would not bring yourself to tell it to me, nor could I understand it He will understand everything, and if he thinks that you have told him everything, he will at any rate respect you.’

He sat silent
for a while meditating, feeling always and most acutely that he had been ill-used, – never thinking for an instant that he had ill-used others. ‘£3,000, you know, was no fortune for your father to give you!’ She had no answer to make, but she groaned in spirit as she heard the accusation. ‘Don’t you feel that yourself?’

‘I know nothing about money, Ferdinand. If you had told me to speak to him
about it before we were married, I would have done so.’

‘He ought to have spoken to me. It is marvellous how close-fisted an old man can be. He can’t take it with him.’ Then he sat for half an hour in moody silence, during which she was busy with her needle. After that he jumped up, with a manner altogether altered, – gay, only that the attempt was too visible to deceive even her, – and shook
himself, as though he were ridding himself of his trouble. ‘You are right, old girl. You are always right, – almost. I will go to your father to-morrow, and tell him everything. It isn’t so very much that I want him to do. Things will all come right again. I’m ashamed that you should have seen me in this way; – but I have been disappointed about the election, and troubled about that Mr Fletcher.
You shall not see me give way again like this. Give me a kiss, old girl.’

She kissed him, but she could not even pretend to recover herself as he had done. ‘Had we not better give up the brougham?’ she said.

‘Certainly not. For heaven’s sake do not speak in that way! You do not understand things.’

‘No; certainly I do not’

‘It isn’t that I haven’t the means of living, but that in my business
money is so often required for instant use. And situated as I am at present an addition to my capital would enable me to do so much!’ She certainly did not understand it, but she had sufficient knowledge of the world and sufficient common sense to be aware that their
present rate of expenditure ought to be matter of importance to a man who felt the loss of £500 as he felt that loss at Silverbridge.