The Palliser Novels (509 page)

“Oh yes; of course.”

“You cannot but be aware that the political condition of the country is the one subject to which I have devoted the labour of my life.”

“I know that very well; and, of course, I know how much they all think of you.”

“Then my opinion might go for something with you?”

“So it does, sir; I shouldn’t have doubted at all only for that little. Still, you see, as the thing is, — how am I to help myself?”

“You believe that you must be right, — you, who have never given an hour’s study to the subject!”

“No, sir. In comparison with a great many men, I know that I am a fool. Perhaps it is because I know that, that I am a Conservative. The Radicals are always saying that a Conservative must be a fool. Then a fool ought to be a Conservative.”

Hereupon the father got up from his chair and turned round, facing the fire, with his back to his son. He was becoming very angry, but endeavoured to restrain his anger. The matter in dispute between them was of so great importance, that he could hardly be justified in abandoning it in consequence of arguments so trifling in themselves as these which his son adduced. As he stood there for some minutes thinking of it all, he was tempted again and again to burst out in wrath and threaten the lad, — to threaten him as to money, as to his amusements, as to the general tenure of his life. The pity was so great that the lad should be so stubborn and so foolish! He would never ask his son to be a slave to the Liberal party, as he had been. But that a Palliser should not be a Liberal, — and his son, as the first recreant Palliser, — was wormwood to him! As he stood there he more than once clenched his fist in eager desire to turn upon the young man; but he restrained himself, telling himself that in justice he should not be angry for such offence as this. To become a Conservative, when the path to Liberalism was so fairly open, might be the part of a fool, but could not fairly be imputed as a crime. To endeavour to be just was the study of his life, and in no condition of life can justice be more imperatively due than from a father to his son.

“You mean to stand for Silverbridge?” he said at last.

“Not if you object, sir.”

This made it worse. It became now still more difficult for him to scold the young man.

“You are aware that I should not meddle in any way.”

“That was what I supposed. They will return a Conservative at any rate.”

“It is not that I care about,” said the Duke sadly.

“Upon my word, sir, I am very sorry to vex you; but what would you have me do? I will give up Parliament altogether, if you say that you wish it.”

“No; I do not wish that.”

“You wouldn’t have me tell a lie?”

“No.”

“What can I do then?”

“Learn what there is to learn from some master fit to teach you.”

“There are so many masters.”

“I believe it to be that most arrogant ill-behaved young man who was with me yesterday who has done this evil.”

“You mean Frank Tregear?”

“I do mean Mr. Tregear.”

“He’s a Conservative, of course; and of course he and I have been much together. Was he with you yesterday, sir?”

“Yes, he was.”

“What was that about?” asked Lord Silverbridge, in a voice that almost betrayed fear, for he knew very well what cause had produced the interview.

“He has been speaking to me — ” When the Duke had got so far as this he paused, finding himself to be hardly able to declare the disgrace which had fallen upon himself and his family. As he did tell the story, both his face and his voice were altered, so that the son, in truth, was scared. “He has been speaking to me about your sister. Did you know of this?”

“I knew there was something between them.”

“And you encouraged it?”

“No, sir; just the contrary. I have told him that I was quite sure it would never do.”

“And why did you not tell me?”

“Well, sir; that was hardly my business, was it?”

“Not to guard the honour of your sister?”

“You see, sir, how many things have happened all at once.”

“What things?”

“My dear mother, sir, thought well of him.” The Duke uttered a deep sigh and turned again round to the fire. “I always told him that you would never consent.”

“I should think not.”

“It has come so suddenly. I should have spoken to you about it as soon as — as soon as — ” He had meant to say as soon as the husband’s grief for the loss of his wife had been in some degree appeased, but he could not speak the words. The Duke, however, perfectly understood him. “In the meantime, they were not seeing each other.”

“Nor writing?”

“I think not.”

“Mrs. Finn has known it all.”

“Mrs. Finn!”

“Certainly. She has known it all through.”

“I do not see how it can have been so.”

“He told me so himself,” said the Duke, unwittingly putting words into Tregear’s mouth which Tregear had never uttered. “There must be an end of this. I will speak to your sister. In the meantime, the less, I think, you see of Mr. Tregear the better. Of course it is out of the question he should be allowed to remain in this house. You will make him understand that at once, if you please.”

“Oh, certainly,” said Silverbridge.

The Duke returned to Matching an almost broken-hearted man. He had intended to go down into Barsetshire, in reference to the coming elections; — not with the view of interfering in any unlordly, or rather unpeerlike fashion, but thinking that if his eldest son were to stand for the county in a proper constitutional spirit, as the eldest son of so great a county magnate ought to do, his presence at Gatherum Castle, among his own people, might probably be serviceable, and would certainly be gracious. There would be no question of entertainment. His bereavement would make that impossible. But there would come from his presence a certain savour of proprietorship, and a sense of power, which would be beneficial to his son, and would not, as the Duke thought, be contrary to the spirit of the constitution. But all this was now at an end. He told himself that he did not care how the elections might go; — that he did not care much how anything might go. Silverbridge might stand for Silverbridge if he so pleased. He would give neither assistance nor obstruction, either in the county or in the borough. He wrote to this effect to his agent, Mr. Morton; — but at the same time desired that gentleman to pay Lord Silverbridge’s electioneering expenses, feeling it to be his duty as a father to do so much for his son.

But though he endeavoured to engage his thoughts in these parliamentary matters, though he tried to make himself believe that this political apostasy was the trouble which vexed him, in truth that other misery was so crushing, as to make the affairs of his son insignificant. How should he express himself to her? That was the thought present to his mind as he went down to Matching. Should he content himself with simply telling her that such a wish on her part was disgraceful, and that it could never be fulfilled; or should he argue the matter with her, endeavouring as he did so to persuade her gently that she was wrong to place her affections so low, and so to obtain from her an assurance that the idea should be abandoned?

The latter course would be infinitely the better, — if only he could accomplish it. But he was conscious of his own hardness of manner, and was aware that he had never succeeded in establishing confidence between himself and his daughter. It was a thing for which he had longed, — as a plain girl might long to possess the charms of an acknowledged beauty; — as a poor little fellow, five feet in height, might long to have a cubit added to his stature.

Though he was angry with her, how willingly would he take her into his arms and assure her of his forgiveness! How anxious he would be to make her understand that nothing should be spared by him to add beauty and grace to her life! Only, as a matter of course, Mr. Tregear must be abandoned. But he knew of himself that he would not know how to begin to be tender and forgiving. He knew that he would not know how not to be stern and hard.

But he must find out the history of it all. No doubt the man had been his son’s friend, and had joined his party in Italy at his son’s instance. But yet he had come to entertain an idea that Mrs. Finn had been the great promoter of the sin, and he thought that Tregear had told him that that lady had been concerned with the matter from the beginning. In all this there was a craving in his heart to lessen the amount of culpable responsibility which might seem to attach itself to the wife he had lost.

He reached Matching about eight, and ordered his dinner to be brought to him in his own study. When Lady Mary came to welcome him, he kissed her forehead and bade her come to him after his dinner. “Shall I not sit with you, papa, whilst you are eating it?” she asked; but he merely told her that he would not trouble her to do that. Even in saying this he was so unusually tender to her that she assured herself that her lover had not as yet told his tale.

The Duke’s meals were not generally feasts for a Lucullus. No man living, perhaps, cared less what he ate, or knew less what he drank. In such matters he took what was provided for him, making his dinner off the first bit of meat that was brought, and simply ignoring anything offered to him afterwards. And he would drink what wine the servant gave him, mixing it, whatever it might be, with seltzer water. He had never been much given to the pleasures of the table; but this habit of simplicity had grown on him of late, till the Duchess used to tell him that his wants were so few that it was a pity he was not a hermit, vowed to poverty.

Very shortly a message was brought to Lady Mary, saying that her father wished to see her. She went at once, and found him seated on a sofa, which stood close along the bookshelves on one side of the room. The table had already been cleared, and he was alone. He not only was alone, but had not even a pamphlet or newspaper in his hand.

Then she knew that Tregear must have told the story. As this occurred to her, her legs almost gave way under her. “Come and sit down, Mary,” he said, pointing to the seat on the sofa beside himself.

She sat down and took one of his hands within her own. Then, as he did not begin at once, she asked a question. “Will Silverbridge stand for the county, papa?”

“No, my dear.”

“But for the town?”

“Yes, my dear.”

“And he won’t be a Liberal?”

“I am afraid not. It is a cause of great unhappiness to me; but I do not know that I should be justified in any absolute opposition. A man is entitled to his own opinion, even though he be a very young man.”

“I am so sorry that it should be so, papa, because it vexes you.”

“I have many things to vex me; — things to break my heart.”

“Poor mamma!” she exclaimed.

“Yes; that above all others. But life and death are in God’s hands, and even though we may complain we can alter nothing. But whatever our sorrows are while we are here, we must do our duty.”

“I suppose he may be a good Member of Parliament, though he has turned Conservative.”

“I am not thinking about your brother. I am thinking about you.” The poor girl gave a little start on the sofa. “Do you know — Mr. Tregear?” he added.

“Yes, papa; of course I know him. You used to see him in Italy.”

“I believe I did; I understand that he was there as a friend of Silverbridge.”

“His most intimate friend, papa.”

“I dare say. He came to me, in London yesterday, and told me — ! Oh Mary, can it be true?”

“Yes, papa,” she said, covered up to her forehead with blushes, and with her eyes turned down. In the ordinary affairs of life she was a girl of great courage, who was not given to be shaken from her constancy by the pressure of any present difficulty; but now the terror inspired by her father’s voice almost overpowered her.

“Do you mean to tell me that you have engaged yourself to that young man without my approval?”

“Of course you were to have been asked, papa.”

“Is that in accordance with your idea of what should be the conduct of a young lady in your position?”

“Nobody meant to conceal anything from you, papa.”

“It has been so far concealed. And yet this young man has the self-confidence to come to me and to demand your hand as though it were a matter of course that I should accede to so trivial a request. It is, as a matter of course, quite impossible. You understand that; do you not?” When she did not answer him at once, he repeated the question. “I ask you whether you do not feel that it is altogether impossible?”

“No, papa,” she said, in the lowest possible whisper, but still in such a whisper that he could hear the word, and with so much clearness that he could judge from her voice of the obstinacy of her mind.

“Then, Mary, it becomes my duty to tell you that it is quite impossible. I will not have it thought of. There must be an end of it.”

“Why, papa?”

“Why! I am astonished that you should ask me why.”

“I should not have allowed him, papa, to go to you unless I had, — unless I had loved him.”

“Then you must conquer your love. It is disgraceful and must be conquered.”

“Disgraceful!”

“Yes. I am sorry to use such a word to my own child, but it is so. If you will promise to be guided by me in this matter, if you will undertake not to see him any more, I will, — if not forget it, — at any rate pardon it, and be silent. I will excuse it because you were young, and were thrown imprudently in his way. There has, I believe, been someone at work in the matter with whom I ought to be more angry than with you. Say that you will obey me, and there is nothing within a father’s power that I will not do for you, to make your life happy.” It was thus that he strove not to be stern. His heart, indeed, was tender enough, but there was nothing tender in the tone of his voice or in the glance of his eye. Though he was very positive in what he said, yet he was shy and shamefaced even with his own daughter. He, too, had blushed when he told her that she must conquer her love.

That she should be told that she had disgraced herself was terrible to her. That her father should speak of her marriage with this man as an event that was impossible made her very unhappy. That he should talk of pardoning her, as for some great fault, was in itself a misery. But she had not on that account the least idea of giving up her lover. Young as she was, she had her own peculiar theory on that matter, her own code of conduct and honour, from which she did not mean to be driven. Of course she had not expected that her father would yield at the first word. He, no doubt, would wish that she should make a more exalted marriage. She had known that she would have to encounter opposition, though she had not expected to be told that she had disgraced herself. As she sat there she resolved that under no pretence would she give up her lover; — but she was so far abashed that she could not find words to express herself. He, too, had been silent for a few moments before he again asked her for her promise.