第24章

He had said something about the Queen, expressing gracious wishes for the comfort of her Majesty in all these matters, something of the inconvenience of these political journeys to and fro, something also of the delicacy and difficulty of the operations on hand which were enhanced by the necessity of bringing together as cordial allies who had hitherto acted with bitter animosity one to another, before the younger Duke said a word.'We may as well,' said the elder, 'make out some small provisional list, and you can ask those you name to be with you early tomorrow.But perhaps you have already made a list.'

'No indeed.I have not even had a pencil in my hand.'

'We may as well begin then,' said the elder facing the table when he saw that his less-experienced companion made no attempt at beginning.

'There is something horrible to me in the idea of writing down men's names for such a work as this, just as boys at school used to draw out the elevens for a cricket match.' The old stager turned round and stared at the younger politician.'The thing itself is so momentous that one ought to have aid from heaven.'

Plantagenet Palliser was the last man from whom the Duke of St Bungay would have expected romance at any time, and, least of all, at such a time as this.'Aid from heaven you may have,' he said, 'by saying your prayers; and I don't doubt you ask for this and all other things generally.But an angel won't come to tell you who ought to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.'

'No angel will, and therefore I wish I could wash my hands of it.' His old friend stared at him.'It is like sacrilege to me, attempting this without feeling one's own fitness for the work.

It unmans me,--this necessity of doing that which I know Icannot do with fitting judgement.'

'You mind has been a little too hard at work to-day.'

'It hasn't been at work at all.I've had nothing to do, and have been unable really to think of work.But I feel that chance circumstances have put me into a position for which I am unfit, and which yet I have been unable to avoid.How much better would it be that you should do this alone,--you yourself.'

'Utterly out of the question.I do know and think that I always have known my own powers.Neither has my aptitude in debate nor my capacity for work justified me in looking to the premiership.

But that, forgive me, is now not worthy of consideration.It is because you do work and can work, and because you have fitted yourself for that continued course of lucid explanation which we now call debate, that men on both sides have called upon you as the best man to come forward in this difficulty.Excuse me, my friend, again, if I say that I expect to find your manliness equal to your capacity.'

'If I could only escape from it!'

'Psha;--nonsense!' said the Duke, getting up.'There is such a thing as conscience with so fine an edge that it will allow a man to do nothing.You've got to serve your country.On such assistance as I can give you you know that you may depend with absolute assurance.Now let us get to work.I suppose you would wish that I should take the chair at the Council.'

'Certainly;--of course,' said the Duke of Omnium, turning to the table.The once practical suggestion had fixed him, and from that moment he gave himself to the work in hand with all his energies.It was not very difficult, nor did it take them a very long time.If the future Prime Minister had not his names at his fingers' ends, the future President of the Council had them.

Eight men were soon named whom it was thought well that the Duke of Omnium should consult early in the morning as to their willingness to fill certain places.

'Each one of them may have some other one or some two whom he may insist on bringing with him,' said the elder Duke; 'and though of course you cannot yield to the pressure in every such case, it will be wise to allow yourself scope for some amount of concession.You'll find they'll shake down after the usual amount of resistance and compliance.No;--don't leave your house to-morrow to see anybody unless it be Mr Daubney or Her Majesty.I'll come to you at two, and if her Grace will give me luncheon, I'll lunch with her.Good night, and don't think too much of the bigness of the thing.I remember dear old Lord Brock telling me how much more difficult it was to find a good coachman than a good Secretary of State.'

The Duke of Omnium, as he sat thinking of things for the next hour in his chair, succeeded in proving to himself that Lord Brock never ought to have been Prime Minister of England after having ventured to make so poor a joke on so solemn a subject.