THE PRIME MINISTER

by DAVID SKILTON

  ‘Why couldn’t he let Sexty alone? Why should the like of him be taking the bread out of my children’s mouths? What had we ever done to him? You’re rich.’

  ‘Indeed I am not, Mrs Parker.’

  ‘Yes, you are. You’re living here in a grand house, and your father’s made of money. You’ll know nothing of want, let the worst come to the worst What are we to do, Mrs Lopez? I’m the wife of that poor creature, and you’re the wife of the man that has ruined him. What are we to do, Mrs Lopez?’

  ‘I do not understand my husband’s business, Mrs Parker.’

  ‘You’re one with him, ain’t you? If anybody had ever come to me and said my husband had robbed him, I’d never have stopped till I knew the truth of it If any woman had ever said to me that Parker had taken the bread out of her children’s mouths, do you think that I’d sit as you are sitting? I tell you that Lopez has robbed us, – has robbed us, and taken everything.’

  ‘What can I say, Mrs Parker; – what can I do?’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘He is not here. He is dining at his club.’

  ‘Where is that’ I will go there and shame him before them all. Don’t you feel no shame? Because you’ve got things comfortable here, I suppose it’s all nothing to you. You don’t care, though my children were starving in the gutter, – as they will do.’

  ‘If you knew me, Mrs Parker, you wouldn’t speak to me like that’

  ‘Know you! Of course I know you. You’re a lady, and your father’s a rich man, and your husband thinks no end of himself. And we’re poor people, so it don’t matter whether we’re robbed and ruined or not. That’s about it’

  ‘If I had anything, I’d give you all that I had.’

  ‘And he’s taken to drinking that hard that he’s never rightly sober from morning to night’ As she told this story of her husband’s disgrace, the poor woman burst into tears. ‘Who’s to trust him with business now? He’s that broken-hearted that he don’t know which way to turn, – only to the bottle. And Lopez has done it all, – done it all! I haven’t got a father, ma’am, who has got a house over his head for me and my babies. Only think if you was turned out into the street with your babby, as I am like to be.’

  ‘I have no baby,’ said the wretched woman through her tears and sobs.

  ‘Haven’t you, Mrs Lopez? Oh dear!’ exclaimed the soft-hearted woman, reduced at once to pity. ‘How was it then?’

  ‘He died, Mrs Parker, – just a few days after he was born.’

  ‘Did he now? Well, well. We all have our troubles, I suppose.’

  ‘I have mine, I know,’ said Emily, ‘and very, very heavy they are. I cannot tell you what I have to suffer.’

  ‘Isn’t he good to you?’

  ‘I cannot talk about it, Mrs Parker. What you tell me about yourself has added greatly to my sorrows. My husband is talking of going away, – to live out of England.’

  ‘Yes, at a place they call – I forget what they call it, but I heard it.’

  ‘Guatemala, – in America.’

  ‘I know. Sexty told me. He has no business to go anywhere, while he owes Sexty such a lot of money. He has taken everything, and now he is going to Kattymaly!’ At this moment Mr Wharton knocked at the door and entered the room. As he did so Mrs Parker got up and curtsied.

  ‘This is my father, Mrs Parker,’ said Emily. ‘Papa, this is Mrs Parker. She is the wife of Mr Parker, who was Ferdinand’s partner. She has come here with bad news.’

  ‘Very bad news, indeed, sir,’ said Mrs Parker, curtsying again. Mr Wharton frowned, not as being angry with the woman, but feeling that some further horror was to be told him of his son-in-law. ‘I can’t help coming, sir,’ continued Mrs Parker. ‘Where am I to go if I don’t come? Mr Lopez, sir, has ruined us root and branch, – root and branch.’

  ‘That at any rate is not my fault,’ said Mr Wharton.

  ‘But she is his wife, sir. Where am I to go if not to where he lives? Am I to put up with everything gone, and my poor husband in the right way to go to Bedlam, and not to say a word about it to the grand relations of him who did it all?’

  ‘He is a bad man,’ said Mr Wharton. ‘I cannot make him otherwise.’

  ‘Will he do nothing for us?’

  ‘I will tell you all I know about him.’ Then Mr Wharton did tell her all that he knew, as to the appointment at Guatemala and the amount of salary which was to be attached to it. ‘Whether he will do anything for you, I cannot say; – I should think not, unless he be forced. I should advise you to go to the offices of the Company in Coleman Street and try to make some terms there. But I fear, – I fear it will be all useless.’

  ‘Then we may starve.’

  ‘It is not her fault,’ said Mr Wharton, pointing to his daughter. ‘She has had no hand in it. She knows less of it all than you do.’

  ‘It is my fault,’ said Emily, bursting out into self-reproach, – ‘my fault that I married him.’

  ‘Whether married or single he would have preyed upon Mr Parker to the same extent.’

  ‘Like enough,’ said the poor wife. ‘He’d prey upon anybody as he could get a hold of. And so, Mr Wharton, you think that you can do nothing for me.’

  ‘If your want be immediate I can relieve it,’ said the barrister. Mrs Parker did not like the idea of accepting direct charity, but, nevertheless, on going away did take the five sovereigns which Mr Wharton offered to her.

  After such an interview as that the evening between the father and the daughter was not very happy. She was eaten up by remorse. Gradually she had learned how frightful was the thing she had done in giving herself to a man of whom she had known nothing. And it was not only that she had degraded herself by loving such a man, but that she had been persistent in clinging to him though her father and all his friends had told her of the danger which she was running. And now it seemed that she had destroyed her father as well as herself! All that she could do was to be persistent in her prayer that he would let her go. ‘I have done it,’ she said that night, ‘and I could bear it better, if you would let me bear it alone.’ But he only kissed her, and sobbed over her, and held her close to his heart with his clinging arms, – in a manner in which he had never held her in their old happy days.

  He took himself to his own rooms before Lopez returned, but she of course had to bear her husband’s presence. As she had declared to her father more than once, she was not afraid of him. Even though he should strike her, – though he should kill her, – she would not be afraid of him. He had already done worse to her than anything that could follow. ‘Mrs Parker has been here to-day,’ she said to him that nigh.t

  ‘And what had Mrs Parker to say?’

  ‘That you had ruined her husband.’

  ‘Exactly. When a man speculates and doesn’t win of course he throws the blame on someone else. And when he is too much of a cur to come himself, he sends his wife.’

  ‘She says you owe him money.’

  ‘What business have you to listen to what she says? If she comes again, do not see her. Do you understand me?’

  ‘Yes, I understand. She saw papa also. If you owe him money, should it not be paid?’

  ‘My dearest love, everybody who owes anything to anybody should always pay it. That is so self-evident that one would almost suppose that it might be understood without being enunciated. But the virtue of paying your debts is incompatible with an absence of money. Now, if you please, we will not say anything more about Mrs Parker. She is not at any rate a fit companion for you.’

  ‘It was you who introduced me to her.’

  ‘Hold your tongue about her, – and let that be an end of it I little knew what a world of torment I was preparing for myself when I allowed you to come and live in your father’s house.’

  CHAPTER 56

  What the Duchess Thought of her Husband

  When the Session began it was understood in the political world that a very strong opposition was to be organized against the Government und
er the guidance of Sir Orlando Drought, and that the great sin to be imputed to the Cabinet was an utter indifference to the safety and honour of Great Britain, as manifested by their neglect of the navy. All the world knew that Sir Orlando had deserted the Coalition because he was not allowed to build new ships, and of course Sir Orlando would make the most of his grievance. With him was joined Mr Boffin, the patriotic Conservative who had never listened to the voice of the seducer, and the staunch remainder of the old Tory party. And with them the more violent of the Radicals were prepared to act, not desirous, indeed, that new ships should be built, or that a Conservative Government should be established, – or, indeed, that anything should be done, – but animated by intense disgust that so mild a politician as the Duke of Omnium should be Prime Minister. The fight began at once, Sir Orlando objecting violently to certain passages in the Queen’s Speech. It was all very well to say that the country was at present at peace with all the world; but how was peace to be maintained without a fleet’ Then Sir Orlando paid a great many compliments to the Duke, and ended his speech by declaring him to be the most absolutely faineant minister that had disgraced the country since the days of the Duke of Newcastle.12 Mr Monk defended the Coalition, and assured the House that the navy was not only the most powerful navy existing, but that it was the most powerful that ever had existed in the possession of this or any other country, and was probably in absolute efficiency superior to the combined navies of all the world. The House was not shocked by statements so absolutely at variance with each other, coming from two gentlemen who had lately been members of the same Government, and who must be supposed to know what they were talking about, but seemed to think that upon the whole Sir Orlando had done his duty. For though there was complete confidence in the navy as a navy, and though a very small minority would have voted for any considerably increased expense, still it was well that there should be an opposition. And how can there be an opposition without some subject for grumbling, – some matter on which a minister may be attacked? No one really thought that the Prussians and French combined would invade our shores and devastate our fields, and plunder London, and carry our daughters away into captivity. The state of the funds showed very plainly that there was no such fear. But a good cry is a very good thing, – and it is always well to rub up the officials of the Admiralty by a little wholesome abuse. Sir Orlando was thought to have done his business well. Of course he did not risk a division upon the address. Had he done so he would have been ‘nowhere’. But, as it was, he was proud of his achievement.

  The ministers generally would have been indifferent to the very hard words that were said of them, knowing what they were worth, and feeling aware that a ministry which had everything too easy must lose its interest in the country, had it not been that their chief was very sore on the subject The old Duke’s work at this time consisted almost all together in nursing the younger Duke. It did sometimes occur to his elder Grace that it might be well to let his brother retire, and that a Prime Minister, malgré lui,13 could not be a successful Prime Minister, or a useful one. But if the Duke of Omnium went the Coalition must go too, and the Coalition had been the offspring of the old statesman. The country was thriving under the Coalition, and there was no real reason why it should not last for the next ten years. He continued, therefore, his system of coddling, and was ready at any moment, or at every moment, to pour, if not comfort, at any rate consolation into the ears of his unhappy friend. In the present emergency, it was the falsehood and general baseness of Sir Orlando which nearly broke the heart of the Prime Minister. ‘How is one to live,’ he said, ‘if one has to do with men of that kind?’

  ‘But you haven’t to do with him any longer,’ said the Duke of St Bungay.

  ‘When I see a man who is supposed to have earned the name of a statesman, and been high in the councils of his sovereign, induced by personal jealousy to do as he is doing, it makes me feel that an honest man should not place himself where he may have to deal with such persons.’

  ‘According to that the honest men are to desert their country in order that the dishonest men may have everything their own way.’ Our Duke could not answer this, and therefore for the moment he yielded. But he was unhappy, saturnine, and generally silent except when closeted with his ancient mentor. And he knew that he was saturnine and silent, and that it behoved him as a leader of men to be genial and communicative, – listening to counsel even if he did not follow it, and at any rate appearing to have confidence in his colleagues.

  During this time Mr Slide was not inactive, and in his heart of hearts the Prime Minister was more afraid of Mr Slide’s attacks than of those made upon him by Sir Orlando Drought. Now that Parliament was sitting, and the minds of men were stirred to political feeling by the renewed energy of the House, a great deal was being said in many quarters about the last Silverbridge election. The papers had taken the matter up generally, some accusing thze Prime Minister and some defending. But the defence was almost as unpalatable to him as the accusation. It was admitted on all sides that the Duke, both as a peer and as a Prime Minister, should have abstained from any interference whatever in the election. And it was also admitted on all sides that he had not so abstained, – if there was any truth at all in the allegation that he had paid money for Mr Lopez. But it was pleaded on his behalf that the Dukes of Omnium had always interfered at Silverbridge, and that no Reform Bill had ever had any effect in reducing their influence in that borough. Frequent allusion was made to the cautious Dod14 who, year after year, had reported that the Duke of Omnium exercised considerable influence in the borough. And then the friendly newspapers went on to explain that the Duke had in this instance stayed his hand, and that the money, if paid at all, had been paid because the candidate who was to have been his nominee had been thrown over, when the Duke at the last moment made up his mind that he would abandon the privilege which had hitherto been always exercised by the head of his family, and which had been exercised more than once or twice in his own favour. But Mr Slide, day after day, repeated his question, ‘We want to know whether the Prime Minister did or did not pay the election expenses of Mr Lopez at the last Silverbridge election; and if so, why he paid them. We shall continue to ask this question till it has been answered, and when asking it we again say that the actual correspondence on the subject between the Duke and Mr Lopez is in our own hands.’ And then, after a while, allusions were made to the Duchess; – for Mr Slide had learned all the facts of the case from Lopez himself. When Mr Slide found how hard it was ‘to draw his badger’, as he expressed himself concerning his own operations, he at last openly alluded to the Duchess, running the risk of any punishment that might fall upon him by action for libel or by severe reprehension from his colleagues of the Press. ‘We have as yet,’ he said, ‘received no answers to the questions which we have felt ourselves called upon to ask in reference to the conduct of the Prime Minister at the Silverbridge election. We are of opinion that all interference by peers with the constituencies of the country should be put down by the strong hand of the law as thoroughly and unmercifully as we are putting down ordinary bribery. But when the offending peer is also the Prime Minister of this great country, it becomes doubly the duty of those who watch over the public safety,’ – Mr Slide was always speaking of himself as watching over the public safety, – ‘to animadvert upon his crime till it has been assoiled, or at any rate repented. From what we now hear we have reason to believe that the crime itself is acknowledged. Had the payment on behalf of Mr Lopez not been made, – as it certainly was made, or the letters in our hand would be impudent forgeries, – the charge would long since have been denied. Silence in such a matter amounts to confession. But we understand that the Duke intends to escape under the plea that he has a second self, powerful as he is to exercise the baneful influence which his territorial wealth unfortunately gives him, but for the actions of which second self he, as a Peer of Parliament and as Prime Minister, is not responsible. In other words we are informed th
at the privilege belonging to the Palliser family at Silverbridge was exercised, not by the Duke himself, but by the Duchess; – and that the Duke paid the money when he found that the Duchess had promised more than she could perform. We should hardly have thought that even a man so notoriously weak as the Duke of Omnuim would have endeavoured to ride out of responsibility by throwing the blame upon his wife; but he will certainly find that the attempt, if made, will fail.

  ‘Against the Duchess herself we wish to say not a word. She is known as exercising a wide if not a discriminate hospitality. We believe her to be a kind-hearted, bustling, ambitious lady, to whom any little faults may be easily forgiven on account of her good-nature and generosity. But we cannot accept her indiscretion as an excuse for a most unconstitutional act performed by the Prime Minister of this country.’

  Latterly the Duchess had taken in her own copy of the People’s Banner. Since she had found that those around her were endeavouring to keep from her what was being said of her husband in regard to the borough, she had been determined to see it all. She therefore read the article from which two or three paragraphs have just been given, – and having read it she handed it to her friend Mrs Finn. ‘I wonder that you trouble yourself with such trash,’ her friend said to her.

  ‘That is all very well, my dear, for you; but we poor wretches who are the slaves of the people have to regard what is said of us in the People’s Banner.’

  ‘It would be much better for you to neglect it.’

  ‘Just as authors are told not to read the criticisms; – but I never would believe any author who told me that he didn’t read what was said about him. I wonder when the man found out that I was good-natured. He wouldn’t find me good-natured if I could get hold of him.’

  ‘You are not going to allow it to torment you!’

  ‘For my own sake, not a moment. I fancy that if I might be permitted to have my own way I could answer him very easily: Indeed with these dregs of the newspapers, these gutter-slanderers, if one would be open and say all the truth aloud, what would one have to fear? After all, what is it that I did? I disobeyed my husband because I thought that he was too scrupulous. Let me say as much, out loud to the public, – saying also that I am sorry for it, as I am, – and who would be against me? Who would have a word to say after that? I should be the most popular woman in England for a month, – and, as regards Plantagenet, Mr Slide and his articles would all sink into silence. But even though he were to continue this from day to day for a twelvemonth it would not hurt me, – but that I know how it scorches him. This mention of my name will make it more intolerable to him than ever. I doubt that you know him even yet.’