THE PRIME MINISTER

by DAVID SKILTON

  Mr Slide knew very well what ought to be the next step. Proper notice should be given and a question should be asked in Parliament. Some gentleman should declare that he had noticed such and such statements in the public press, and that he thought it right to ask whether such and such payments had been made by the Prime Minister. In his meditations Mr Slide went so far as to arrange the very words which the indignant gentleman should utter, among which words was a graceful allusion to a certain public-spirited newspaper. He did even go so far as to arrange a compliment to the editor, – but in doing so he knew that he was thinking only of that which ought to be, and not of that which would be. The time had not come as yet in which the editor of a newspaper in this country received a tithe of the honour due to him. But the question in any form, with or without a compliment to the People’s Banner, would be the thing that was now desirable.

  Who was to ask the question? If public spirit were really strong in the country there would be no difficulty on that point. The crime committed had been so horrible that all the great politicians of the country ought to compete for the honour of asking it What greater service can be trusted to the hands of a great man than that of exposing the sins of the rulers of the nation? So thought Mr Slide. But he knew that he was in advance of the people, and that the matter would not be seen in the proper light by those who ought so to see it. There might be a difficulty in getting any peer to ask the question in the House in which the Prime Minister himself sat, and even in the other House there was now but little of that acrid, indignant opposition upon which, in Mr Slide’s opinion, the safety of the nation altogether depends.

  When the statement was first made in the People’s Banner, Lopez had come to Mr Slide at once and had demanded his authority for making it. Lopez had found the statement to be most injurious to himself. He had been paid his election expenses twice over, making a clear profit of £500 by the transaction; and, though the matter had at one time troubled his conscience, he had already taught himself to regard it as one of those bygones to which a wise man seldom refers. But now Mr Wharton would know that he had been cheated, should this statement reach him. ‘Who gave you authority to publish all this?’ asked Lopez, who at this time had become intimate with Mr Slide.

  ‘Is it true, Lopez?’ asked the editor.

  ‘Whatever was done was done in private, – between me and the Duke.’

  ‘Dukes, my dear fellow, can’t be private, and certainly not when they are Prime Ministers.’

  ‘But you’ve no right to publish these things about me.’

  ‘Is it true? If it’s true, I have got every right to publish it. If it’s not true, I’ve got the right to ask the question. If you will ’ave to do with Prime Ministers you can’t ’ide yourself under a bushel. Tell me this; – is it true? You might as well go ’and in ’and with me in the matter. You can’t ’urt yourself. And if you oppose me, – why I shall oppose you.’

  ‘You can’t say anything of me.’

  ‘Well; – I don’t know about that I can generally ’it pretty ’ard if I feel inclined. But I don’t want to ’it you. As regards you I can tell the story one way, – or the other, just as you please.’ Lopez, seeing it in the same light, at last agreed that the story should be told in a manner not inimical to himself The present project of his life was to leave his troubles in England, – Sexty Parker being the worst of them, – and get away to Guatemala. In arranging this the good word of Mr Slide might not benefit him, but his ill word might injure him. And then, let him do what he would, the matter must be made public. Should Mr Wharton hear of it, – as of course he would, – it must be brazened out. He could not keep it from Mr Wharton’s ears by quarrelling with Quintus Slide.

  ‘It was true,’ said Lopez.

  ‘I knew it before just as well as though I had seen it. I ain’t often very wrong in these things. You asked him for the money, – and threatened him.’

  ‘I don’t know about threatening him.’

  ‘’E wouldn’t have sent it else.’

  ‘I told him that I had been deceived by his people in the borough, and that I had been put to expense through the misrepresentations of the Ehichess. I don’t think I did ask for the money. But he sent a cheque, and of course I took it.’

  ‘Of course; – of course. You couldn’t give me a copy of your letter?’

  ‘Never kept a copy.’ He had a copy in his breast coat-pocket at that moment, and Slide did not for a moment believe the statement made. But in such discussions one man hardly expects truth from another. Mr Slide certainly never expected truth from any man. ‘He sent the cheque almost without a word,’ said Lopez.

  ‘He did write a note, I suppose?’

  ‘Just a few words.’

  ‘Could you let me ’ave that note?’

  ‘I destroyed it at once.’ This was also in his breast pocket at the time.

  ‘Did ’e write it ’imself?’

  ‘I think it was his private Secretary, Mr Warburton.’

  ‘You must be sure, you know. Which was it?’

  ‘It was Mr Warburton.’

  ‘Was it civil?’

  ‘Yes, it was. If it had been uncivil I should have sent it back. I’m not the man to take impudence even from a duke.’

  ‘If you’ll give me those two letters, Lopez, I’ll stick to you through thick and thin. By heavens I will! Think what the People’s Banner is. You may come to want that kind of thing some of these days.’ Lopez remained silent, looking into the other man’s eager face. ‘I shouldn’t publish them, you know; but it would be so much to me to have the evidence in my hands. You might do worse, you know, than make a friend of me.’

  ‘You won’t publish them?’

  ‘Certainly not. I shall only refer to them.’

  Then Lopez pulled a bundle of papers out of his pocket. ‘There they are,’ he said.

  ‘Well,’ said Slide, when he had read them; ‘it is one of the rummest transactions I ever ’eard of. Why did ’e send the money? That’s what I want to know. As far as the claim goes, you ’adn’t a leg to stand on.’

  ‘Not legally.’

  ‘You ’adn’t a leg to stand on anyway. But that doesn’t much matter. He sent the money, and the sending of the money was corrupt. Who shall I get to ask the question? I suppose young Fletcher wouldn’t do it?’

  ‘They’re birds of a feather,’ said Lopez.

  ‘Birds of a feather do fall out sometimes. Or Sir Orlando Drought? I wonder whether Sir Orlando would do it. If any man ever ’ated another Sir Orlando Drought must ’ate the Duke of Omnium.’

  ‘I don’t think he’d let himself down to that kind of thing.’

  ‘Let ’imself down! I don’t see any letting down in it. But those men who have been in cabinets do stick to one another even when they are enemies. They think themselves so mighty that they oughtn’t to be ’andled like other men. But I’ll let ’em know that I’ll ’andle ’em. A Cabinet Minister or a cowboy is the same to Quintus Slide when he has got his pen in ’is ‘and.’

  On the next morning there came out another article in the People’s Banner, in which the writer declared that he had in his own possession the damnatory correspondence between the Prime Minister and the late candidate at Silverbridge. ‘The Prime Minister may deny the fact,’ said the article. ‘We do not think it probable, but it is possible. We wish to be fair and aboveboard in everything. And therefore we at once inform the noble Duke that the entire correspondence is in our hands.’ In saying this Mr Quintus Slide thought that he had quite kept the promise which he made when he said that he would only refer to the letters.

  CHAPTER 52

  ‘I can sleep here to-night, I suppose?’

  That scheme of going to Guatemala had been in the first instance propounded by Lopez with the object of frightening Mr Wharton into terms. There had, indeed, been some previous thoughts on the subject, – some plan projected before his marriage; but it had been resuscitated mainly with the hope that it might be efficaci
ous to extract money. When by degrees the son-in-law began to feel that even this would not be operative on his father-in-law’s purse, – when under this threat neither Wharton nor Emily gave way, – and when, with the view of strengthening his threat, he renewed his inquiries as to Guatemala and found that there might still be an opening for him in that direction, – the threat took the shape of a true purpose, and he began to think that he would in real earnest try his fortunes in a new world. From day to day things did not go well with him, and from day to day Sexty Parker became more unendurable. It was impossible for him to keep from his partner this plan of emigration, – but he endeavoured to make Parker believe that the thing, if done at all, was not to be done till all his affairs were settled, – or in other words all his embarrassments cleared by downright money payments, and that Mr Wharton was to make these payments on the condition that he thus expatriated himself. But Mr Wharton had made no such promise. Though the threatened day came nearer and nearer he could not bring himself to purchase a short respite for his daughter by paying money to a scoundrel, – which payment he felt sure would be of no permanent service. During all this time Mr Wharton was very wretched. If he could have freed his daughter from her marriage by half his fortune he would have done it without a second thought. If he could have assuredly purchased the permanent absence of her husband, he would have done it at a large price. But let him pay what he would, he could see his way to no security. From day to day he became more strongly convinced of the rascality of this man who was his son-in-law, and who was still an inmate in his own house. Of course he had accusations enough to make within his own breast against his daughter, who, when the choice was open to her, would not take the altogether fitting husband provided for her, but had declared herself to be broken-hearted for ever unless she were allowed to throw herself away upon this wretched creature. But he blamed himself almost as much as he did her. Why had he allowed himself to be so enervated by her prayers at last as to surrender everything, – as he had done? How could he presume to think that he should be allowed to escape, when he had done so little to prevent this misery?

  He spoke to Emily about it, – not often indeed, but with great earnestness. ‘I have done it myself,’ she said, ‘and I will bear it’

  ‘Tell him you cannot go till you know to what home you are going.’

  ‘That is for him to consider. I have begged him to let me remain, and I can say no more. If he chooses to take me, I shall go.’

  Then he spoke to her about money. ‘Of course I have money,’ he said. ‘Of course I have enough both for you and Everett. If I could do any good by giving it to him, he should have it’

  ‘Papa,’ she answered, ‘I will never again ask you to give him a single penny. That must be altogether between you and him. He is what they call a speculator. Money is not safe with him.’

  ‘I shall have to send it you when you are in want’

  ‘When I am – dead there will be no more to be sent. Do not look like that, papa. I know what I have done, and I must bear it. I have thrown away my life. It is just that. If baby had lived it would have been different’ This was about the end of January, and then Mr Wharton heard of the great attack made by Mr Quintus Slide against the Prime Minister, and heard, of course, of the payment alleged to have been made to Ferdinand Lopez by the Duke on the score of the election at Silverbridge. Some persons spoke to him on the subject. One or two friends at the club asked him what he supposed to be the truth in the matter, and Mrs Roby inquired of him on the subject. ‘I have asked Lopez,’ she said, ‘and I am sure from his manner that he did get the money.’

  ‘I don’t know anything about it,’ said Mr Wharton.

  ‘If he did get it I think he was very clever.’ It was well known at this time to Mrs Roby that the Lopez marriage had been a failure, that Lopez was not a rich man, and that Emily, as well as her father, was discontented and unhappy. She had latterly heard of the Guatemala scheme, and had of course expressed her horror. But she sympathized with Lopez rather than with his wife, thinking that if Mr Wharton would only open his pockets wide enough things might still be right ‘It was all the Duchess’s fault, you know,’ she said to the old man.

  ‘I know nothing about it, and when I want to know I certainly shall not come to you. The misery he has brought upon me is so great that it makes me wish that I had never seen anyone who knew him.’

  ‘It was Everett who introduced him to your house.’

  ‘It was you who introduced him to Everett.’

  ‘There you are wrong, – as you so often are, Mr Wharton. Everett met him first at the club.’

  ‘What’s the use of arguing about it? It was at your house that Emily met him. It was you that did it. I wonder you can have the face to mention his name to me.’

  ‘And the man living all the time in your own house!’

  Up to this time Mr Wharton had not mentioned to a single person the fact that he had paid his son-in-law’s election expenses at Silverbridge. He had given him the cheque without much consideration, with the feeling that by doing so he would in some degree benefit his daughter; and had since regretted the act, finding that no such payment from him could be of any service to Emily. But the thing had been done, – and there had been, so far, an end of it In no subsequent discussion would Mr Wharton have alluded to it, had not circumstances now as it were driven it back upon his mind. And since the day on which he had paid that money he had been, as he declared to himself, swindled over and over again by his son-in-law. There was the dinner in Manchester Square, and after that the brougham, and the rent, and a score of bills, some of which he had paid and some declined to pay! And yet he had said but little to the man himself of all these injuries. Of what use was it to say anything? Lopez would simply reply that he had asked him to pay nothing. ‘What is it all,’ Lopez had once said, ‘to the fortune I had a right to expect with your daughter?’ ‘You had no right to expect a shilling,’ Wharton had said. Then Lopez had shrugged his shoulders, and there had been an end of it.

  But now, if this rumour were true, there had been positive dishonesty. From whichever source the man might have got the money first, if the money had been twice got, the second payment had been fraudulently obtained. Surely if the accusation had been untrue Lopez would have come to him and declared it to be false, knowing what must otherwise be his thoughts. Lately, in the daily worry of his life, he had avoided all conversation with the man. He would not allow his mind to contemplate clearly what was coming. He entertained some irrational, undefined hope that something would at last save his daughter from the threatened banishment. It might be, if he held his own hand tight enough, that there would not be money enough even to pay for her passage out. As for her outfit, Lopez would of course order what he wanted and have the bills sent to Manchester Square. Whether or not this was being done neither he nor Emily knew. And thus matters went on without much speech between the two men. But now the old barrister thought that he was bound to speak. He therefore waited on a certain morning till Lopez had come down, having previously desired his daughter to leave the room. ‘Lopez,’ he asked, ‘what is this that the newspapers are saying about your expenses at Silverbridge?’

  Lopez had expected the attack and had endeavoured to prepare himself for it. ‘I should have thought, sir, that you would not have paid much attention to such statements in a newspaper.’

  ‘When they concern myself, I do. I paid your electioneering expenses.’

  ‘You certainly subscribed £500 towards them, Mr Wharton.’

  ‘I subscribed nothing, sir. There was no question of a subscription, – by which you intend to imply contribution from various sources. You told me that the contest cost you £500 and that sum I handed to you, with the full understanding on your part, as well as on mine, that I was paying for the whole. Was that so?’

  ‘Have it your own way, sir.’

  ‘If you are not more precise, I shall think that you have defrauded me.’

  ‘Defrauded
you!’

  ‘Yes, sir; – defrauded me, or the Duke of Omnium. The money is gone, and it matters little which. But if that be so I shall know that either from him or from me you have raised money under false pretences.’

  ‘Of course, Mr Wharton, from you I must bear whatever you may choose to say.’

  ‘Is it true that you have applied to the Duke of Omnium for money on account of your expenses at Silverbridge, and is it true that he has paid you money on that score?’

  ‘Mr Wharton, as I said just now, I am bound to hear and to bear from you anything that you may choose to say. Your connection with my wife and your age alike restrain my resentment. But I am not bound to answer your questions when they are accompanied by such language as you have chosen to use, and I refuse to answer any further questions on this subject.’

  ‘Of course I know that you have taken the money from the Duke.’