XXIV
A RIGHT AND LEFT
If anything was certain in a political world so changed, it wascertain that if the Reform Bill passed the Lords--in the teeth ofthose plaguy Bishops of whose opposition so much was heard--aDissolution would immediately follow. To not a few of the members thiscontingency was a spectre, ever present, seated at bed and board, andable to defy the rules even of Almack's and Crockford's. For how coulda gentleman, who had just given five thousand pounds for his seat,contemplate with equanimity a notice to quit, so rude and sopremature? And worse, a notice to quit which meant extrusion into aworld in which seats at five thousand for a Parliament would be fewand far between; and fair agreements to pay a thousand a year whilethe privilege lasted, would be unknown!
Many a member asked loudly and querulously, "What will happen to thecountry if the Bill pass?" But more asked themselves in their hearts,and more often and more querulously, "What will happen to me if theBill pass? How shall I fare at the hands of these new constituencies,which, unwelcome as a gipsy's brats, I am forced to bring into theworld?"
Hitherto few on his own side of the House, and not many on the Toryside, had regarded a Dissolution with more misgiving than ArthurVaughan. The borough for which he sat lay under doom; and he saw noopening elsewhere. He had no longer the germs of influence nor greatprospects: nor yet such a fortune as justified him in an appeal to oneof the new and populous boroughs. It was a pleasant thing to go in andout by the door of the privileged, to take his chop at Bellamy's, tolounge in the dignified seclusion of the library, or to air his newhonours in Westminster Hall; pleasant also to have that sensation ofliving at the hub of things, to receive whips, to give franks, to feelthat the ladder of ambition was open to him. But he knew that anexperience of the House counted by months did no man good; and theprospect of losing his plumes and going forth again a common biped,was the more painful to him because his all was embarked in theventure. He might, indeed, fall back on the bar; but with half a heartand the reputation of a man who had tried to fly before he could walk.
His relief, therefore, when Chippinge, alone of all the Boroughs inSchedule A, was removed in Committee to Schedule B, may be imagined.The road before him was once more open, while the exceptional natureof his luck almost persuaded him that he was reserved for greatness.True, Sergeant Wathen might pride himself on the same fact; but at thethought Vaughan smiled. The Sergeant and Sir Robert would find it atrifle harder, he thought, to deal with the hundred-and-odd voterswhom the Act enfranchised, than with the old Cripples! And very, veryungrateful would those hundred-and-odd be, if they did not vote forthe man who had made their cause his own!
A load, indeed, was lifted from his mind, and for some days his reliefcould be read in the lightness of his step, and the returning gaietyof his eyes. He knew nothing of the things which were being whisperedabout him. And though he had cause to fancy that he was not _personagrata_ on his own benches, he thought sufficiently well of himself toset this down to jealousy. There is a stage in the life of a risingman when many hands are against him; and those most cruelly which willpresently applaud him most loudly. He flattered himself that he hadset a foot on the ladder: and while he waited for an opportunity toraise himself another step, he came as near to a kind of feverishhappiness as thoughts of Mary, ever recurring when he was alone, wouldpermit. For the time the loss of his prospects ceased to trouble himseriously. He lived less in his rooms, more among men. He was lesscrabbed, less moody. And so the weeks wore away in Committee, and aday or two after the Coronation, the Bill came on for the thirdreading.
The House was utterly weary. The leaders on both sides were reservingtheir strength for the final debate, and Vaughan had some hope that hemight find an opening to speak with effect. With this in his mind hewas on his way across the Park about three in the afternoon, conninghis peroration, when a hand was clapped on his shoulder, and he turnedto find himself face to face with Flixton.
So much had happened since they stood together on the hustings atChippinge, Vaughan's fortunes had changed so greatly since they hadparted in anger in Queen's Square, that he, at any rate, had nothought of bearing malice. To Flixton's "Well, my hearty, you're aneat artist, ain't you? Going to the House, I take it?" he gave acordial answer.
"Yes," he said. "That's it."
"Bringing ruination on the country, eh?" Flixton continued. And hepassed his arm through Vaughan's, and walked on with him. "That's theticket?"
"Some say so, but I hope not."
"Hope's a cock that won't fight, my boy!" the Honourable Bob rejoined."Fact is, you're doing your best, only the House of Lords is in theway, and won't let you! They'll pull you up sweetly by and by, see ifthey don't!"
"And what will the country say to that?" Vaughan rejoinedgood-humouredly.
"Country be d----d! That's what all your chaps are saying. AndI tell you what! That book-in-breeches man--what do you callhim--Macaulay?--ought to be pulled up! He ought indeed! I read one ofhis farragoes the other day and it was full of nothing but 'Thinklong, I beg, before you thwart the public will!' and 'The might of anangered people!' and 'Let us beware of rousing!' and all that rubbish!Meaning, my boy, only he didn't dare to say it straight out, that ifthe Lords did not give way to you chaps, there'd be a revolution; andthe deuce to pay! And I say he ought to be in the dock. He's as bad asold Brereton down in Bristol, predicting fire and flames and all therest of it."
"But you cannot deny, Flixton," Vaughan answered soberly, "that thecountry is excited as we have never known it excited before? And thata rising is not impossible!"
"A rising! I wish we could see one! That's just what we want," theHonourable Bob answered, stopping and bringing his companion to asudden stand also. "Eh? Who was that old Roman--Poppaea, or some namelike that, who said he wished the people had all one head that hemight cut it off?" suiting the action to the word with his cane. "Arising, begad? The sooner the better! The old Fourteenth would knowhow to deal with it!"
"I don't know," Vaughan answered, "that you would be so confident ifyou were once face to face with it!"
"Oh, come! Don't talk nonsense!"
"Well, but----"
"Oh, I know all that! But I say, old chap," he continued, changing histone, and descending abruptly from the political to the personalsituation, "You've played your cards badly, haven't you? Eh?"
Vaughan fancied that he referred to Mary; or at best to his quarrelwith Sir Robert. And he froze visibly, "I won't discuss that," he saidin a different tone. And he moved on again.
"But I was there the evening you had the row!"
"At Stapylton?"
"Yes."
"Well?" stiffly.
"And, lord, man, why didn't you sing a bit small? And the oldgentleman would have come round in no time!"
Vaughan halted, with anger in his face. "I won't discuss it!" he saidwith something of violence in his tone.
"Very well, very well!" Flixton answered with the superabundantpatience of the man whose withers are not wrung. "But when you did getyour seat--why didn't you come to terms with someone?" with a wink."As it is, what's the good of being in the House three months, or sixmonths--and out again?"
Vaughan wished most heartily that he had not met the Honourable Bob;who, he remembered, had always possessed, hearty and jovial as heseemed, a most remarkable knack of rubbing him the wrong way. "How doyou know?" he asked with a touch of contempt--was he, a rising Memberof Parliament to be scolded after this fashion?--"How do you know thatI shall be out?"
"You'll be out, if it's Chippinge you are looking to!"
"Why, if you please, my friend? Why so sure?"
Flixton winked with deeper meaning than before. "Ah, that's telling,"he said. "Still--why not? If you don't hear it from me, old chap,you'll soon hear it from someone. Why, you ask? Well, because a littlebird whispered to me that Chippinge was--arranged! That Sir Robert andthe Whigs understood one another, and whichever way it went it would
not come your way!"
Vaughan reddened deeply. "I don't believe it," he said bluntly.
"Did you know that Chippinge was going to be spared?"
"No."
"They didn't tell you?"
"No."
"Ah!" shrugging his shoulders, with a world of meaning, and preparingto turn away. "Well, other people did, and there it is. I may bewrong, I hope I am, old chap. Hope I am! But anyway--I must be going.I turn here. See you soon, I hope!"
And with a wave of the hand the Honourable Bob marched off throughWhitehall, his face breaking into a mischievous grin as soon as he wasout of Vaughan's sight. "Return hit for your snub, Miss Mary!" hemuttered. "If you prick me, at least I can prick him! And do him good,too! He was always a most confounded prig."
Meanwhile, Vaughan, freed from his companion, was striding on pastDowning Street; the old street, long swept away, in which Walpolelived, and to which the dying Chatham was carried. And unconsciously,under the spur of his angry thoughts, he quickened his pace. It wasincredible, it was inconceivable that so monstrous an injustice hadbeen planned, or could be perpetrated. He, who had stepped into thebreach, well-nigh in his own despite, he, who had refused, soscrupulous had he been, to stand on a first invitation, he, who hadbeen elected almost against his will, was, for all thanks, to be setaside, and by his friends! By those whose unsolicited act it had beento return him and to put him into this position! It was impossible, hetold himself. It was unthinkable! Were this true, were this a fact,the meanness of political life had reached its apogee! Thefaithlessness of the Whigs, their incredible treachery to theirdependants, could need no other exemplar!
"I'll not bear it! By Heaven, I'll not bear it!" he muttered. And ashe spoke, striding along in the hurry of his spirits as if he carrieda broom and swept the whole Whig party before him, he overtook no lessa person than Sergeant Wathen, who had been lunching at the Athenaeum.
The Sergeant heard his voice and turning, saw who it was. He fanciedthat Vaughan had addressed him. "I beg your pardon," he said politely."I did not catch what you said, Mr. Vaughan."
For a moment Vaughan glowered at him, as if he would sweep him fromhis path, along with the Whigs. Then out of the fullness of the heartthe mouth spoke. "Mr. Sergeant," he said, in a not very friendly tone,"do you know anything of an agreement disposing of the futurerepresentation of Chippinge?"
The Sergeant who knew all under the rose, looked shrewdly at hiscompanion to see, if possible, what he knew. And, to gain time, "I begyour pardon," he said. "I don't think I--quite understand you."
"I am told," Vaughan said haughtily, "that an agreement has been madeto avoid a contest at Chippinge."
"Do you mean," the Sergeant asked blandly, "at the next election, Mr.Vaughan?"
"At future elections!"
The Sergeant shrugged his shoulders. "As a member," he said primly, "Itake care to know nothing of such agreements. And I would recommendyou, Mr. Vaughan, to adopt that rule. For the rest," he added, with acandid smile, "I give you fair warning that I shall contest the seat.May I ask who was your informant?"
"Mr. Flixton."
"Flixton? Flixton? Ah! The gentleman who is to marry Miss Vermuyden!Well, I can only repeat that I, at any rate, am no party to such anagreement."
His sly look which seemed to deride his companion's inexperience, saidas plainly as a look could say, "You find the game of politics lesssimple than you thought?" And at another time it would have increasedVaughan's ire. But as one pellet drives out another, the Sergeant'sreference to Miss Vermuyden had in a second driven the prime subjectfrom his mind. He did not speak for a moment. Then with his faceaverted, "Is Mr. Flixton--going to marry Miss Vermuyden?" he asked, ina muffled tone. "I had not heard of it."
"I only heard it yesterday," the Sergeant answered, not unwilling toshelve the other topic. "But it is rumoured, and I believe it is true.Quite a romance, wasn't it?" he continued airily. "Quite a nine days'wonder! But"--he pulled himself up--"I beg your pardon! I wasforgetting how nearly it concerned you. Dear me, dear me! It is a fairwind indeed that blows no one any harm!"
Vaughan made no reply. He could not speak for the hard beating of hisheart. Wathen saw that there was something wrong and looked at himinquisitively. But the Sergeant had not the clue, and could onlysuspect that the marriage touched the other, because issue of it wouldentirely bar his succession. And no more was said. As they crossed NewPalace Yard, a member drew the Sergeant aside, and Vaughan went upalone to the lobby.
But all thought of speaking was flown from his mind; nor did thethinness of the House when he entered tempt him. There were hardlymore than a hundred present; and these were lolling here and therewith their hats on, half asleep it seemed, in the dull light of aSeptember afternoon. A dozen others looked sleepily from thegalleries, their arms flattened on the rail, their chins on theirarms. There were a couple of ministers on the Treasury Bench, and LordJohn Russell was moving the third reading. No one seemed to take muchinterest in the matter; a stranger entering at the moment would havelearned with amazement that this was the mother of parliaments, therenowned House of Commons; and with still greater amazement would hehave learned that the small, boyish-looking gentleman in thehigh-collared coat, and with lips moulded on Cupid's bow, who appearedto be making some perfunctory remarks upon the weather, or the stateof the crops, was really advancing by an important stage the famousBill, which had convulsed three kingdoms and was destined to changethe political face of the land.
Lord John sat down presently, thrusting his head at once into a packetof papers, which the gloom hardly permitted him to read. A clerk atthe table mumbled something; and a gentleman on the other side of theHouse rose and began to speak. He had not uttered many sentences,however, before the members on the Reform benches awoke, not only tolife, but to fury. Stentorian shouts of "Divide! Divide!" rendered thespeaker inaudible; and after looking towards the door of the Housemore than once he sat down, and the House went to a division. In a fewminutes it was known that the Bill had been read a third time, by 113to 58.
But the foreign gentleman would have made a great mistake had he goneaway, supposing that Lord John's few placid words--and not thosespiteful shouts--represented the feelings of the House. In truththe fiercest passions were at work under the surface. Among thefifty-eight who shrugged their shoulders and accepted the verdict ingloomy silence were some primed with the fiercest invective; andothers, tongue-tied men, who nevertheless honestly believed that LordJohn Russell was a republican, and Althorp a fool; who were certainthat the Whigs wittingly or unwittingly were working the destructionof the country, were dragging her from the pride of place to which anicely-balanced Constitution had raised her, and laying her choicesttraditions at the feet of the rabble. Men who believed such things,and saw the deed done before their eyes, might accept their doom insilence--even as the King of old went silently to the Banquet Hallhard by--but not with joy or easy hearts!
Vaughan, therefore, was not the only one who walked into the lobbythat evening, brooding darkly on his revenge. Yet, even he behavedhimself as men, so bred, so trained do behave themselves. He held hispeace. And no one dreamed, not even Orator Hunt, who sat not far fromhim under the shadow of his White Hat, that this well-conducted younggentleman was revolving thoughts of the Social Order, and of the PartySystem, and of most things which the Church Catechism commends, besidewhich that terrible Radical's own opinions were mere Tory prejudices.The fickleness of women! The treachery of men! Oh, Aetna bury them!Oh, Ocean overwhelm them! Let all cease together and be no more! Butgive me sweet, oh, sweet, oh, sweet Revenge!
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