第77章

ST JAMES'S PARK.

Towards the end of September Everett Wharton and Ferdinand Lopez were in town together, and as no one else was in town,--so at least they professed to say,--they saw a good deal of each other.Lopez, as we know, had spent a portion of the preceding month at Gatherum Castle, and had made good use of his time, but Everett Wharton had been less fortunate.He had been a little cross with his father, and perhaps a little cross with all the Whartons generally, who did not, he thought, make quite enough of him.In the event of 'anything happening' to that ne'er-do-well nephew, he himself would be the heir; and he reflected no unfrequently that something very probably might happen to the nephew.He did not often see this particular cousin, but he always heard of him as being drunk, overwhelmed with debt and difficulty, and altogether in that position in life in which it is probable that something will 'happen'.There was always of course the danger that the young man might marry and have a child;--but in the meantime surely he, Everett Wharton, should have been as much thought of on the banks of the Wye as Arthur Fletcher.He had been asked down to Wharton Hall,--but he had been asked in a way which he had no thought to be flattering and declined to go.Then there had been a plan for joining Arthur Fletcher in a certain shooting, but that had failed in consequence of a few words between himself and Arthur respecting Lopez.Arthur had wanted him to say that Lopez was an unpardonable intruder,--but he had taken the part of Lopez, and therefore, when the time came round, he had nothing to do with the shooting.He had stayed in town till the middle of August, and had then started by himself across the continent with some keen intention of studying German politics; but he had found perhaps that German politics do not manifest themselves in the autumn, or that a foreign country cannot be well studied in solitude,--and he had returned.

Late in the summer, just before his father and sister had left town, he had had some words with the old barrister.There had been a few bills to be paid, and Everett's allowance had been insufficient.It often was insufficient, and then ready money for his German tour was absolutely necessary.Mr Wharton might probably have said less about the money had not his son accompanied his petition by a further allusion to Parliament.

'There are some fellows at last really getting themselves together at the Progress, and of course it will be necessary to know who will be ready to come forward at the next general election.'

'I think I know one who won't,' said the father, 'judging from the manner in which he seems at present to manage his own money affairs.' There was more severity in this than the old man had intended, for he had often thought within his own bosom whether it would not be well that he should encourage his son to stand for some seat.And the money that he had now been asked to advance had not been very much,--not more, in truth, than he expected to be called upon to pay in addition to the modest sum which he professed to allow his son.He was a rich man, who was not in truth made unhappy by parting with his money.But there had been, he thought, an impudence in the conjoint attack which it was his duty to punish.Therefore he had given his son very little encouragement.

'Of course, sir, if you tell me that you are not inclined to pay anything beyond the allowance you make me, there is an end of it.'

'I rather think that you just asked me to pay a considerable sum beyond your allowance, and that I have consented.' Everett argued the matter no further, but he permitted his mind to entertain an idea that he was ill-used by his father.The time would come when he would probably be heir not only to his father's money, but also to the Wharton title and the Wharton property,--when his position in the country would really be, as he frequently told himself, quite considerable.Was it possible that he should refrain from blaming his father for not allowing him to obtain, early in life, that parliamentary education which would fit him to be an ornament to the House of Commons, and a safeguard to his country in future years?

Now he and Lopez were at the Progress together, and they were almost the only men in the club.Lopez was quite contented with his own present sojourn in London, he had not only been at Gatherum Castle but he was going there again.And then he had brilliant hopes before him,--so brilliant that they began, he thought, to assume the shape of certainties.He had corresponded with the Duchess, and he had gathered from her somewhat dubious words that the Duke would probably accede to her wishes in the matter of Silverbridge.The vacancy had not yet been declared.

Mr Grey was deterred, no doubt by certain high State purposes, from applying for the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, and thereby releasing himself from his seat in Parliament, and enabling himself to perform, with a clear conscience, duties in a distant part of the world which he did not feel to be compatible with that seat.The seekers after seats were, no doubt, already on the track; but the Duchess had thought that as far as the Duke's good word went, it might possibly be given in favour of Mr Lopez.The happy aspirant had taken this to be almost as good as a promise.There were also certain pecuniary speculations on foot, which could not be kept quiet even in September, as to which he did not like to trust entirely to the unaided energy of Mr Sextus Parker, or to the boasted alliance of Mr Mills Happerton.Sextus Parker's whole heart and soul were now in the matter, but Mr Mills Happerton, an undoubted partner in Husky and Sons, had blown a little coldly on the affair.But in spite of this Ferdinand Lopez was happy.Was it probable that Mr Wharton should continue his opposition to a marriage which would make his daughter the wife of a member of Parliament and of a special friend of the Duchess of Omnium?