第39章

But the Duchess did not care much for the Rattlers attached to her husband's Government.They were men whose services could be had for a certain payment,--and when paid for were, the Duchess thought, at the Premier's command without further trouble.Of course they came to the receptions, and were entitled to a smile apiece when they entered.But they were entitled to nothing more, and on this occasion, Rattler had felt himself to be snubbed.It did not occur to him to abuse the Duchess.The Duchess was too necessary for abuse,--just at present.But any friend of the Duchess,--and favourite for the moment,--was of course open to remark.

'He is a man named Lopez,' said Roby, 'a friend of Happerton;--a very clever fellow they say.'

'Did you ever see him anywhere else?'

'Well, yes,--I have met him at dinner.'

'He was never in the House.What does he do?' Rattler was distressed to think that any drone should have made it way into the hive of working bees.'

'Oh;--money, I fancy.'

'He's not a partner at Hunky's, is he?'

'I fancy not.I think I should have known if he was.'

'She ought to remember that people make use of coming here,' said Rattler.She was, of course, the Duchess.'It's not like a private house.And whatever influence outsiders get by coming, so much she loses.Somebody ought to explain that to her.'

'I don't think you or I could do that,' replied Mr Roby.

'I'll tell the Duke in a minute,' said Rattler.Perhaps he thought he could tell the Duke, but we may be allowed to doubt whether his prowess would not have fallen below the necessary pitch when he met the Duke's eye.

Lopez was there for the third time, about the middle of June, and had certainly contrived to make himself personally known to the Duchess.There had been a deputation from the City to the Prime Minister asking for a subsidized mail, via San Francisco, to Japan.And Lopez, though he had no interest in Japan, had contrived to be one of the number.He had contrived also, as the deputation was departing, to say a word on his own account to the Minister, and had ingratiated himself.The Duke had remembered him, and had suggested that he should have a card.And now he was among the flowers and the greatness, the beauty, the politics, and the fashion of the Duchess's gatherings for the third time.'It is very well done,--very well, indeed,'said Mr Boffin to him.Lopez had been dining with Mr and Mrs Boffin, and had now again encountered his late host and hostess.Mr Boffin was a gentleman who had belonged to the late Ministry, but had somewhat out-Heroded Herod in his Conservatism, so as to have been considered to be unfit for the Coalition.Of course, he was proud of his own staunchness, and a little inclined to criticize the lax principles of men who, for the sake of carrying on her Majesty's Government, could be Conservatives one day and Liberals the next.He was a labourious, honest man,--but hardly of calibre sufficient not to regret his own honesty in such an emergency as the present.It is easy for most of us to keep our hands from picking and stealing when picking and stealing plainly lead to prison diet and prison garments.But when silks and satins come of it, and with the silks and satins general respect, the net result of honesty does not seem to be so secure.Whence will come the reward, and when? On whom the punishment, and where? A man will not, surely, be damned for belonging to a Coalition Ministry? Boffin was a little puzzled as he thought on all this, but in the meantime was very proud of his own constancy.

'I think it so lovely,' said Mrs Boffin.'You look down through an Elysium of rhododendrons into a Paradise of mirrors.I don't think there was anything like it in London before.'

'I don't know that we ever had anybody at the same time, rich enough to do this kind of thing as it is done now,' said Boffin, 'and powerful enough to get such people together.If the country can be ruled by flowers and looking-glasses, of course it is very well.'

'Flowers and looking-glasses won't prevent the country being ruled well,' said Lopez.

'I'm not so sure of that,' continued Boffin.'We all know what the bread and games came to in Rome.'

'What did they come to?' asked Mrs Boffin.

'To a man burning in Rome, my dear, for his amusement, dressed in a satin petticoat and a wreath of roses.'

'I don't think the Duke will dress himself like that,' said Mrs Boffin.

'And I don't think,' said Lopez, 'that the graceful expenditure of wealth in a rich man's house has any tendency to demoralize the people.'

'The attempt here,' said Boffin severely, 'is to demoralize the rulers of the people.I am glad to have come once to see how the thing is done; but as an independent member of the House of Commons I should not wish to be known to frequent the saloon of the Duchess.' Then Mr Boffin took away Mrs Boffin, much to that lady's regret.

'This is fairy land,' said Lopez to the Duchess, as he left the room.

'Come and be a fairy then,' she answered, very graciously.'We are always on the wing about this hour on Wednesday night.' The words contained a general invitation for the season, and were esteemed by Lopez as an indication of great favour.It must be acknowledged of the Duchess that she was prone to make favourites, perhaps without adequate cause; though it must be conceded to her that she rarely altogether threw off from her anyone whom she had once taken to her good graces.It must also be confessed that when she had allowed herself to hate either a man or a woman, she generally hated on to the end.No Paradise could be too charming for her friends; no Pandemonium too frightful for her enemies.In reference to Mr Lopez she would have said, if interrogated, that she had taken the man up in obedience to her husband.But in truth she had liked the look and the voice of the man.Her husband before now had recommended men to her notice and kindness, whom at the first trial she had rejected from her good-will, and whom she had continued to reject ever afterwards, let her husband's urgency be what it might.