The Prime Minister

The Prime Minister

By Anthony Trollope.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. I: Ferdinand Lopez
4. II: Everett Wharton
5. III: Mr. Abel Wharton, Q.C.
6. IV: Mrs. Roby
7. V: “No One Knows Anything About Him”
8. VI: An Old Friend Goes to Windsor
9. VII: Another Old Friend
10. VIII: The Beginning of a New Career
11. IX: Mrs. Dick’s Dinner Party.—No. I
12. X: Mrs. Dick’s Dinner Party.—No. II
13. XI: Carlton Terrace
14. XII: The Gathering of Clouds
15. XIII: Mr. Wharton Complains
16. XIV: A Lover’s Perseverance
17. XV: Arthur Fletcher
18. XVI: Never Run Away!
19. XVII: Goodbye
20. XVIII: The Duke of Omnium Thinks of Himself
21. XIX: Vulgarity
22. XX: Sir Orlando’s Policy
23. XXI: The Duchess’s New Swan
24. XXII: St. James’s Park
25. XXIII: Surrender
26. XXIV: The Marriage
27. XXV: The Beginning of the Honeymoon
28. XXVI: The End of the Honeymoon
29. XXVII: The Duke’s Misery
30. XXVIII: The Duchess Is Much Troubled
31. XXIX: The Two Candidates for Silverbridge
32. XXX: “Yes;—A Lie!”
33. XXXI: “Yes;—with a Horsewhip in My Hand”
34. XXXII: “What Business Is It of Yours?”
35. XXXIII: Showing That a Man Should Not Howl
36. XXXIV: The Silverbridge Election
37. XXXV: Lopez Back in London
38. XXXVI: The Jolly Blackbird
39. XXXVII: The Horns
40. XXXVIII: Sir Orlando Retires
41. XXXIX: “Get Round Him”
42. XL: “Come and Try It”
43. XLI: The Value of a Thick Skin
44. XLII: Retribution
45. XLIII: Kauri Gum
46. XLIV: Mr. Wharton Intends to Make a New Will
47. XLV: Mrs. Sexty Parker
48. XLVI: “He Wants to Get Rich Too Quick”
49. XLVII: As for Love!
50. XLVIII: “Has He Ill-Treated You?”
51. XLIX: “Where Is Guatemala?”
52. L: Mr. Slide’s Revenge
53. LI: Coddling the Prime Minister
54. LII: “I Can Sleep Here Tonight, I Suppose?”
55. LIII: Mr. Hartlepod
56. LIV: Lizzie
57. LV: Mrs. Parker’s Sorrows
58. LVI: What the Duchess Thought of Her Husband
59. LVII: The Explanation
60. LVIII: “Quite Settled”
61. LIX: “The First and the Last”
62. LX: The Tenway Junction
63. LXI: The Widow and Her Friends
64. LXII: Phineas Finn Has a Book to Read
65. LXIII: The Duchess and Her Friend
66. LXIV: The New K.G.
67. LXV: “There Must Be Time”
68. LXVI: The End of the Session
69. LXVII: Mrs. Lopez Prepares to Move
70. LXVIII: The Prime Minister’s Political Creed
71. LXIX: Mrs. Parker’s Fate
72. LXX: At Wharton
73. LXXI: The Ladies at Longbarns Doubt
74. LXXII: “He Thinks That Our Days Are Numbered”
75. LXXIII: Only the Duke of Omnium
76. LXXIV: “I Am Disgraced and Shamed”
77. LXXV: The Great Wharton Alliance
78. LXXVI: Who Will It Be?
79. LXXVII: The Duchess in Manchester Square
80. LXXVIII: The New Ministry
81. LXXIX: The Wharton Wedding
82. LXXX: The Last Meeting at Matching
83. Colophon
84. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription from Project Gutenberg and on digital scans from the Internet Archive.

The source text and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. They may still be copyrighted in other countries, so users located outside of the United States must check their local laws before using this ebook. The creators of, and contributors to, this ebook dedicate their contributions to the worldwide public domain via the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

I

Ferdinand Lopez

It is certainly of service to a man to know who were his grandfathers and who were his grandmothers if he entertain an ambition to move in the upper circles of society, and also of service to be able to speak of them as of persons who were themselves somebodies in their time. No doubt we all entertain great respect for those who by their own energies have raised themselves in the world; and when we hear that the son of a washerwoman has become Lord Chancellor or Archbishop of Canterbury we do, theoretically and abstractedly, feel a higher reverence for such self-made magnate than for one who has been as it were born into forensic or ecclesiastical purple. But not the less must the offspring of the washerwoman have had very much trouble on the subject of his birth, unless he has been, when young as well as when old, a very great man indeed. After the goal has been absolutely reached, and the honour and the titles and the wealth actually won, a man may talk with some humour, even with some affection, of the maternal tub;⁠—but while the struggle is going on, with the conviction strong upon the struggler that he cannot be altogether successful unless he be esteemed a gentleman, not to be ashamed, not to conceal the old family circumstances, not at any rate to be silent, is difficult. And the difficulty is certainly not less if fortunate circumstances rather than hard work and intrinsic merit have raised above his natural place an aspirant to high social position. Can it be expected that such a one when dining with a duchess shall