Sir Brook Fossbrooke Volume I Part 58

"I a.s.sure you, sir, I never so much as suspected my own powers."

"True as I am here; the simple fact is, I have come to say so."

"You have come to say so! What do you mean?"

With this he proceeded to explain that her Excellency had deputed him to invite Lady Lendrick to join the picnic on the island. "It was so completely a home party, that, except himself and a few of the household, none had even heard of it. None but those really intimate will be there," said he; "and for once in our lives we shall be able to discuss our absent friends with that charming candor that gives conversation its salt. When we had written down all the names, it was her Excellency said, 'I 'd call this perfect if I could add one more to the list.' 'I'll swear I know whom you mean,' said his Excellency; and he took his pencil and wrote a line on a card. 'Am I right?' asked he.

She nodded, and said, 'Balfour, go and ask her to come. Be sure you explain what the whole thing is, how it was got up, and that it must not be talked of.' Of course, do what one will, these things do get about.

Servants will talk of them, and tradespeople talk of them, and we must expect a fair share of ill-nature and malice from that outer world which was not included in the civility; but it can't be helped. I believe it's one of the conditions of humanity, that to make one man happy you may always calculate on making ten others miserable."

This time Lady Lendrick had something else to think of besides Mr.

Balfour's ethics, and so she only smiled and said nothing.

"I hope I 'm to bring back a favorable answer," said he, rising to take leave. "Won't you let me say that we 're to call for you?"

"I really am much flattered. I don't know how to express my grateful sense of their Excellencies' recollection of me. It is for Wednesday, you say?"

"Yes, Wednesday. We mean to leave town by two o'clock, and there will be a carriage here for you by that hour. Will that suit you?"

"Perfectly."

"I am overjoyed at my success. Good-bye till Wednesday, then." He moved towards the door, and then stopped. "What was it? I surely had something else to say. Oh, to be sure, I remember. Tell me, if you can, what are Sir William's views about retirement: he is not quite pleased with us just now, and we can't well approach him; but we really would wish to meet his wishes, if we could manage to come at them." All this he said in a sort of careless, easy way, as though it were a matter of little moment, or one calling for very slight exercise of skill to set right.

"And do you imagine he has taken me into his confidence, Mr. Balfour?"

asked she, with a smile.

"Not formally, perhaps,--not what we call officially; but he may have done so in that more effective way termed 'officiously.'"

"Not even that. I could probably make as good a guess about your own future intentions as those of the Chief Baron."

"You have heard him talk of them?"

"Scores of times."

"And in what tone,--with what drift?"

"Always as that of one very ill-used, hardly treated, undervalued, and the like."

"And the remedy? What was the remedy?"

"To make him a peer,--at least, so his friends say."

"But taking that to be impossible, what next?"

"He becomes 'impossible' also," said she, laughing.

"Are we to imagine that a man of such intelligence as he possesses cannot concede something to circ.u.mstances,--cannot make allowances for the exigencies of 'party,'--cannot, in fact, take any other view of a difficulty but the one that must respond to his own will?"

"Yes; I think that is exactly what you are called on to imagine. You are to persuade yourself to regard this earth as inhabited by the Chief Baron, and some other people not mentioned specifically in the census."

"He is most unreasonable, then."

"Of course he is; but I wouldn't have you tell him so. You see, Mr.

Balfour, the Chief imagines all this while that he is maintaining and upholding the privileges of the Irish Bar. The burden of his song is, 'There would have been no objection to my claim had I been the Chief Baron of the English Court.'"

"Possibly," murmured Balfour; and then, lower again, "Fleas are not--"

"Quite true," said she, for her quick ear caught his words,--"quite true. Fleas are not lobsters,--bless their souls! But, as I said before, I 'd not remind them of that fact. 'The Fleas' are just sore enough upon it already."

Balfour for once felt some confusion. He saw what a slip he had made, and now it had damaged his whole negotiation. Nothing but boldness would avail now, and he resolved to be bold.

"There is a thing has been done in England, and I don't see why we might not attempt it in the present case. A great lawyer there obtained a peerage for his wife--"

She burst out into a fit of laughter at this, at once so hearty and so natural that at last he could not help joining, and laughing too.

"I must say, Mr. Balfour," said she, as soon as she could speak,--"I must say there is ingenuity in your suggestion. The relations that subsist between Sir William and myself are precisely such as to recommend your project."

"I am not so sure that they are obstacles to it. I have always heard that he had a poor opinion of his son, who was a common-place sort of man that studied medicine. It could be no part of the Chief Baron's plan to make such a person the head of a house. Now, he likes Sewell, and he dotes on that boy,--the little fellow I saw at the Priory. These are all elements in the scheme. Don't you think so?"

"Let me ask you one question before I answer yours: Does this thought come from yourself alone, or has it any origin in another quarter?"

"Am I to be candid?"

"You are."

"And are _you_ to be confidential?"

"Certainly."

"In that case," said he, drawing a long breath, as though about to remove a perilous weight off his mind, "I will tell you frankly, it comes from authority. Now, don't ask me more,--not another question. I have already avowed what my instructions most imperatively forbid me to own,--what, in fact, would be ruin to me if it were known that I revealed. What his Excellency--I mean, what the other person said was, 'Ascertain Lady Lendrick's wishes on this subject; learn, if you can,--but, above all, without compromising yourself,--whether she really cares for a step in rank; find out, if so, what aid she can or will lend us.' But what am I saying? Here am I entering upon the whole detail?

What would become of me if I did not know I might rely upon you?"

"It's worth thinking over," said she, after a pause.

"I should think it is. It is not every day of our lives such a brilliant offer presents itself. All I ask, all I stipulate for, is that you make no confidences, ask no advice from any quarter. Think it well over in your own mind, but impart it to none, least of all to Sewell."

"Of course not to _him_," said she, resolutely, for she knew well to what purposes he would apply the knowledge.

"Remember that we want to have the resignation before Parliament meets,--bear that in mind. Time is all-important with us; the rest will follow in due course." With this he said "Good-bye," and was gone.

"The rest will follow in due course," said she to herself, repeating his last words as he went. "With your good leave, Mr. Balfour, the 'rest'

shall precede the beginning."

Was n't it Bolingbroke that said const.i.tutional government never could go on without lying,--audacious lying too? If the old Judge will only consent to go, her Ladys.h.i.+p's peerage will admit of a compromise. Such was Mr. Balfour's meditation as he stepped into his cab.

CHAPTER XLIV. AFTER-DINNER THOUGHTS

Her Majesty's--th had got their orders for Malta, and some surmised for India, though it was not yet known; but all agreed it was hard,--"confoundedly hard," they called it. "Had n't they had their turn of Inidan service?--how many years had that grim old major pa.s.sed in the Deccan,--what weary winters had the bronzed bald captain there spent at Rangoon!"