第41章

It isn't in human nature to listen hour after hour to such platitudes.I believe they fall into habit of half-wakeful sleeping, which carries them through the hours; but even that can't be pleasant.I look upon the Treasury Bench in July as a sort of casual-ward, which we know to be necessary, but is almost too horrid to be contemplated.'

'Men do get bread and skilly there certainly; but, Mrs Finn, we can go into the library and smoking-room.'

'Oh, yes;--and a clerk in an office can read the newspapers instead of doing his duty.But there is a certain surveillance exercised, and a certain quantity of work exacted.I have met Lords of the Treasury out at dinner on Mondays and Thursdays, but we all regard them as boys who have shirked out of school.Ithink upon the whole, Mr Erle, we women have the best of it.'

'I don't suppose you will go in for your "rights".'

'Not by Act of Parliament, or by platform meeting.I have a great idea of a woman's rights; but that is the way, I think, to throw them away.What do you think of the Duchess's evenings?'

'Lady Glen is in her way as great a woman as you are,--perhaps greater, because nothing ever stops her.'

'Whereas I have scruples.'

'Her Grace has none.She has feelings and convictions which keep her straight, but no scruples.Look at her now talking to Sir Orlando Drought, a man she both hates and despises.I am sure she is looking forward to some happy time in which the Duke may pitch Sir Orlando overboard, and rule supreme, with me or some other subordinate leading the House of Commons simply as lieutenant.Such a time will never come, but that is her idea.

But she is talking to Sir Orlando now as if she were pouring her full confidence into his ear; and Sir Orlando is believing her.

Sir Orlando is in a seventh heaven, and she is measuring his credulity inch by inch.'

'She makes the place very bright.'

'And is spending an enormous deal of money,' said Barrington Erle.

'What does it matter?'

'Well, no;--if the Duke likes it.I had an idea that the Duke would not like the display of the thing.There he is.Do you see him in the corner with his brother duke.He doesn't look as if he were happy; does he? No one would think he was the master of everything here.He has got himself hidden almost behind the screen.I'm sure he doesn't like it.'

'He tries to like whatever she likes,' said Mrs Finn.

As her husband was away in Ireland, Mrs Finn was staying in the house in Carlton Gardens.The Duchess at present required so much of her time that this was found to be convenient.When, therefore, the guests on the present occasion had all gone, the Duchess and Mrs Finn were left together.'Did you ever see anything so hopeless as he is?' said the Duchess.

'Who is hopeless?'

'Heaven and earth! Plantagenet;--who else? Is there another man in the world would come in his own house, among his own guests, and speak only to one person? And, then, think of it!

Popularity is the staff on which alone Ministers can lean in this country with security.'

'Political but not social security.'

'You know as well as I do that the two go together.We've seen enough of that even in our day.What broke up Mr Gresham's Ministry? If he had stayed away people might have thought that he was reading blue-books, or calculating coinage, or preparing a speech.That would have been much better.But he comes in and sits for half an hour whispering to another duke! I hate dukes!'

'He talks to the Duke of St Bungay because there is no one he trusts so much.A few years ago it would have been Mr Mildmay.'

'My dear,' said the Duchess angrily, 'you treat me as though Iwere a child.Of course I know why he chooses that old man out of all the crowd.I don't suppose he does from any stupid pride of rank.I know very well what set of ideas govern him.But that isn't the point.He has to reflect what others think of it, and to endeavour to do what will please them.There was Itelling tarradiddles by the yard to that old oaf Sir Orlando Drought, when a confidential word from Plantagenet would have had ten times more effect.And why can't he speak a word to the people's wives? They wouldn't bit him.He has got to say a few words to you sometimes,--to whom it doesn't signify, my dear.'

'I don't know about that.'

'But he never speaks to another woman.He was here this evening for exactly forty minutes, and he didn't open his lips to a female creature.I watched him.How on earth am I to pull him through if he goes on in that way? Yes, Locock, I'll go to bed, and I don't think I'll get up for a week.'