“I do so wish I could hear you.”
“You’d find it awfully dull work, my girl. And I shall find it awfully dull too. I do not imagine that Mr. Sprugeon and Mr. Sprout will be pleasant companions. Well; I shall stay there a day or two and settle when I am to go down for the absolute canvass. I shall have to go with my hat in my hand to every blessed inhabitant in that dirty little town, and ask them all to be kind enough to drop in a paper for the most humble of their servants, Ferdinand Lopez.”
“I suppose all candidates have to do the same.”
“Oh yes;—your friend, Master Fletcher, will have to do it.” She winced at this. Arthur Fletcher was her friend, but at the present moment he ought not so to have spoken of him. “And from all I hear, he is just the sort of fellow that will like the doing of it. It is odious to me to ask a fellow that I despise for anything.”
“Why should you despise them?”
“Low, ignorant, greasy cads, who have no idea of the real meaning of political privileges;—men who would all sell their votes for thirty shillings each, if that game had not been made a little too hot!”
“If they are like that I would not represent them.”
“Oh yes, you would;—when you came to understand the world. It’s a fine thing to be in Parliament, and that is the way to get in. However, on this visit I shall only see the great men of the town—the Sprouts and Sprugeons.”
“Shall you go to Gatherum Castle?”
“Oh, heavens, no! I may go anywhere now rather than there. The Duke is supposed to be in absolute ignorance of the very names of the candidates, or whether there are candidates. I don’t suppose that the word Silverbridge will be even whispered in his ear till the thing is over.”
“But you are to get in by his friendship.”
“Or by hers;—at least I hope so. I have no doubt that the Sprouts and the Sprugeons have been given to understand by the Lococks and the Pritchards what are the Duchess’s wishes, and that it has also been intimated in some subtle way that the Duke is willing to oblige the Duchess. There are ever so many ways, you know, of killing a cat.”
“And the expense?” suggested Emily.
“Oh—ah; the expense. When you come to talk of the expense things are not so pleasant. I never saw such a set of meaningless asses in my life as those men at the club. They talk and talk, but there is not one of them who knows how to do anything. Now at the club over the way they do arrange matters. It’s a common cause, and I don’t see what right they have to expect that one man should bear all the expense. I’ve a deuced good mind to leave them in the lurch.”
“Don’t do it, Ferdinand, if you can’t afford it.”
“I shall go on with it now. I can’t help feeling that I’ve been a little let in among them. When the Duchess first promised me it was to be a simple walk over. Now that they’ve got their candidate, they go back from that and open the thing to any comer. I can’t tell you what I think of Fletcher for taking advantage of such a chance. And then the political committee at the club coolly say that they’ve got no money. It isn’t honest, you know.”
“I don’t understand all that,” said Emily sadly. Every word that he said about Fletcher cut her to the heart;—not because it grieved her that Fletcher should be abused, but that her husband should condescend to abuse him. She escaped from further conflict at the moment by proclaiming her ignorance of the whole matter; but she knew enough of it to be well aware that Arthur Fletcher had as good a right to stand as her husband, and that her husband lowered himself by personal animosity to the man. Then Lopez took his departure. “Oh, Ferdinand,” she said, “I do so hope you may be successful.”
“I don’t think he can have a chance. From what people say, he must be a fool to try. That is, if the Castle is true to me. I shall know more about it when I come back.”
That afternoon she dined with her father, and there met Mrs. Roby. It was of course known that Lopez had gone down to Silverbridge, and Emily learned in Manchester Square that Everett had gone with him. “From all I hear, they’re two fools for their pains,” said the lawyer.
“Why, papa?”
“The Duke has given the thing up.”
“But still his interest remains.”
“No such thing! If there is an honest man in England it is the Duke of Omnium, and when he says a thing he means it. Left to themselves, the people of a little town like Silverbridge are sure to return a Conservative. They are half of them small farmers, and of course will go that way if not made to go the other. If the club mean to pay the cost—”
“The club will pay nothing, papa.”
“Then I can only hope that Lopez is doing well in his business!” After that, nothing further was said about the election, but she perceived that her father was altogether opposed to the idea of her husband being in Parliament, and that his sympathies and even his wishes were on the other side. When Mrs. Roby suggested that it would be a very nice thing for them all to have Ferdinand in Parliament—she always called him Ferdinand now—Mr. Wharton railed at her. “Why should it be a nice thing? I wonder whether you have any idea of a meaning in your head when you say that. Do you suppose that a man gets £1,000 a year by going into Parliament?”
“Laws, Mr. Wharton; how uncivil you
