Part 1 (2/2)
”If! I tell you at this very moment it may be all over.”
”I am shaken to my very centre.”
”It is doubtless a great blow to you,” rejoined Mr. Ferrars, ”and I wish to alleviate it. That is why I was looking for you. The King will, of course, send for the Duke, but I can tell you there will be a disposition to draw back our friends that left us, at least the younger ones of promise. If you are awake, there is no reason why you should not retain your office.”
”I am not so sure the King will send for the Duke.”
”It is certain.”
”Well,” said his companion musingly, ”it may be fancy, but I cannot resist the feeling that this country, and the world generally, are on the eve of a great change--and I do not think the Duke is the man for the epoch.”
”I see no reason why there should be any great change; certainly not in this country,” said Mr. Ferrars. ”Here we have changed everything that was required. Peel has settled the criminal law, and Huskisson the currency, and though I am prepared myself still further to reduce the duties on foreign imports, no one can deny that on this subject the Government is in advance of public opinion.”
”The whole affair rests on too contracted a basis,” said his companion.
”We are habituated to its exclusiveness, and, no doubt, custom in England is a power; but let some event suddenly occur which makes a nation feel or think, and the whole thing might vanish like a dream.”
”What can happen? Such affairs as the Luddites do not occur twice in a century, and as for Spafields riots, they are impossible now with Peel's new police. The country is employed and prosperous, and were it not so, the landed interest would always keep things straight.”
”It is powerful, and has been powerful for a long time; but there are other interests besides the landed interest now.”
”Well, there is the colonial interest, and the s.h.i.+pping interest,” said Mr. Ferrars, ”and both of them thoroughly with us.”
”I was not thinking of them,” said his companion. ”It is the increase of population, and of a population not employed in the cultivation of the soil, and all the consequences of such circ.u.mstances that were pa.s.sing over my mind.”
”Don't you be too doctrinaire, my dear Sidney; you and I are practical men. We must deal with the existing, the urgent; and there is nothing more pressing at this moment than the formation of a new government.
What I want is to see you as a member of it.”
”Ah!” said his companion with a sigh, ”do you really think it so near as that?”
”Why, what have we been talking of all this time, my dear Sidney? Clear your head of all doubt, and, if possible, of all regrets; we must deal with the facts, and we must deal with them to-morrow.”
”I still think he had a mission,” said Sidney with a sigh, ”if it were only to bring hope to a people.”
”Well, I do not see he could have done anything more,” said Mr. Ferrars, ”nor do I believe his government would have lasted during the session.
However, I must now say good-night, for I must look in at the Square.
Think well of what I have said, and let me hear from you as soon as you can.”
CHAPTER II
Zen.o.bia was the queen of London, of fas.h.i.+on, and of the Tory party. When she was not holding high festivals, or attending them, she was always at home to her intimates, and as she deigned but rarely to honour the a.s.semblies of others with her presence, she was generally at her evening post to receive the initiated. To be her invited guest under such circ.u.mstances proved at once that you had entered the highest circle of the social Paradise.
Zen.o.bia was leaning back on a brilliant sofa, supported by many cus.h.i.+ons, and a great personage, grey-headed and blue-ribboned, who was permitted to share the honours of the high place, was hanging on her animated and inspiring accents. An amba.s.sador, in an armed chair which he had placed somewhat before her, while he listened with apparent devotion to the oracle, now and then interposed a remark, polished and occasionally cynical. More remote, some dames of high degree were surrounded by a chosen band of rank and fas.h.i.+on and celebrity; and now and then was heard a silver laugh, and now and then was breathed a gentle sigh. Servants glided about the suite of summer chambers, occasionally with sherbets and ices, and sometimes a lady entered and saluted Zen.o.bia, and then retreated to the general group, and sometimes a gentleman entered, and pressed the hand of Zen.o.bia to his lips, and then vanished into air.
”What I want you to see,” said Zen.o.bia, ”is that reaction is the law of life, and that we are on the eve of a great reaction. Since Lord Castlereagh's death we have had five years of revolution--nothing but change, and every change has been disastrous. Abroad we are in league with all the conspirators of the Continent, and if there were a general war we should not have an ally; at home our trade, I am told, is quite ruined, and we are deluged with foreign articles; while, thanks to Mr.
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