Part 121 (1/2)
Amongst the strangers thus banished with Randal, while the division was being taken, were many young men, like himself, connected with the administration,--some by blood, some by place. Hearts beat loud in the swarming lobbies. Ominous mournful whispers were exchanged. ”They say the Government will have a majority of ten.” ”No; I hear they will certainly be beaten.” ”H--says by fifty.” ”I don't believe it,” said a Lord of the Bedchamber; ”it is impossible. I left five Government members dining at The Travellers.” ”No one thought the division would be so early.” ”A trick of the Whigs-shameful!” ”Wonder some one was not set up to talk for time; very odd P--did not speak; however, he is so cursedly rich, he does not care whether he is out or in.” ”Yes; and Audley Egerton too, just such another: glad, no doubt, to be set free to look after his property; very different tactics if we had men to whom office was as necessary as it is--to me!” said a candid young placeman.
Suddenly the silent Leslie felt a friendly grasp on his arm. He turned and saw Levy.
”Did I not tell you?” said the baron, with an exulting smile.
”You are sure, then, that the Government will be outvoted?”
”I spent the morning in going over the list of members with a parliamentary client of mine, who knows them all as a shepherd does his sheep. Majority for the Opposition at least twenty-five.”
”And in that case must the Government resign, sir?” asked the candid young placeman, who had been listening to the smart, well-dressed baron, ”his soul planted in his ears.”
”Of course, sir,” replied the baron, blandly, and offering his snuff-box (true Louis Quinze, with a miniature of Madame de Pompadour, set in pearls). ”You are a friend to the present ministers? You could not wish them to be mean enough to stay in?” Randal drew aside the baron.
”If Audley's affairs are as you state, what can he do?”
”I shall ask him that question to-morrow,” answered the baron, with a look of visible hate; ”and I have come here just to see how he bears the prospect before him.”
”You will not discover that in his face. And those absurd scruples of his! If he had but gone out in time--to come in again with the New Men!”
”Oh, of course, our Right Honourable is too punctilious for that!”
answered the baron, sneering.
Suddenly the doors opened, in rushed the breathless expectants. ”What are the numbers? What is the division?”
”Majority against ministers,” said a member of Opposition, peeling an orange, ”twenty-nine.”
The baron, too, had a Speaker's order; and he came into the House with Randal, and sat by his side. But, to their disgust, some member was talking about the other motions before the House.
”What! has nothing been said as to the division?” asked the baron of a young county member, who was talking to some non-parliamentary friend in the bench before Levy. The county member was one of the baron's pet eldest sons, had dined often with Levy, was under ”obligations” to him.
The young legislator looked very much ashamed of Levy's friendly pat on his shoulder, and answered hurriedly, ”Oh, yes; H------ asked if, after such an expression of the House, it was the intention of ministers to retain their places, and carry on the business of the Government.”
”Just like H-------! Very inquisitive mind! And what was the answer he got?”
”None,” said the county member; and returned in haste to his proper seat in the body of the House.
”There comes Egerton,” said the baron. And, indeed, as most of the members were now leaving the House, to talk over affairs at clubs or in saloons, and spread through town the great tidings, Audley Egerton's tall head was seen towering above the rest. And Levy turned away disappointed. For not only was the minister's handsome face, though pale, serene and cheerful, but there was an obvious courtesy, a marked respect, in the mode in which that a.s.sembly--heated though it was--made way for the fallen minister as he pa.s.sed through the jostling crowd. And the frank urbane n.o.bleman, who afterwards, from the force, not of talent but of character, became the leader in that House, pressed the hand of his old opponent, as they met in the throng near the doors, and said aloud, ”I shall not be a proud man if ever I live to have office; but I shall be proud if ever I leave it with as little to be said against me as your bitterest opponents can say against you, Egerton.”
”I wonder,” exclaimed the baron, aloud, and leaning over the part.i.tion that divided him from the throng below, so that his voice reached Egerton--and there was a cry from formal, indignant members, ”Order in the strangers' gallery I wonder what Lord L'Estrange will say?”
Audley lifted his dark brows, surveyed the baron for an instant with flas.h.i.+ng eyes, then walked down the narrow defile between the last benches, and vanished from the scene, in which, alas! so few of the most admired performers leave more than an actor's short-lived name!
CHAPTER XVI.
Baron Levy did not execute his threat of calling on Egerton the next morning. Perhaps he shrank from again meeting the flash of those indignant eyes. And indeed Egerton was too busied all the forenoon to see any one not upon public affairs, except Harley, who hastened to console or cheer him. When the House met, it was announced that the ministers had resigned, only holding their offices till their successors were appointed. But already there was some reaction in their favour; and when it became generally known that the new administration was to be formed of men few indeed of whom had ever before held office, the common superst.i.tion in the public mind that government is like a trade, in which a regular apprentices.h.i.+p must be served, began to prevail; and the talk at the clubs was that the new men could not stand; that the former ministry, with some modification, would be back in a month. Perhaps that too might be a reason why Baron Levy thought it prudent not prematurely to offer vindictive condolences to Mr. Egerton. Randal spent part of his morning in inquiries as to what gentlemen in his situation meant to do with regard to their places; he heard with great satisfaction that very few intended to volunteer retirement from their desks. As Randal himself had observed to Egerton, ”Their country before their party!”
Randal's place was of great moment to him; its duties were easy, its salary amply sufficient for his wants, and defrayed such expenses as were bestowed on the education of Oliver and his sister. For I am bound to do justice to this young man,--indifferent as he was towards his species in general, the ties of family were strong with him; and he stinted himself in many temptations most alluring to his age, in the endeavour to raise the dull honest Oliver and the loose-haired pretty Juliet somewhat more to his own level of culture and refinement. Men essentially griping and unscrupulous often do make the care for their family an apology for their sins against the world. Even Richard III., if the chroniclers are to be trusted, excused the murder of his nephews by his pa.s.sionate affection for his son. With the loss of that place, Randal lost all means of support, save what Audley could give him; and if Audley were in truth ruined? Moreover, Randal had already established at the office a reputation for ability and industry. It was a career in which, if he abstained from party politics, he might rise to a fair station and to a considerable income. Therefore, much contented with what he learned as to the general determination of his fellow officials, a determination warranted by ordinary precedent in such cases, Randal dined at a club with good relish, and much Christian resignation for the reverse of his patron, and then walked to Grosvenor Square, on the chance of finding Audley within. Learning that he was so, from the porter who opened the door, Randal entered the library. Three gentlemen were seated there with Egerton: one of the three was Lord L'Estrange; the other two were members of the really defunct, though nominally still existing, Government. He was about to withdraw from intruding on this conclave, when Egerton said to him gently, ”Come in, Leslie; I was just speaking about yourself.”
”About me, sir?”