Lady Rosina came and no doubt did think it odd.But she did not say so, and it really did seem to the Duchess as though all her vengeance had been blown away by the winds.And she too laughed at the matter,--to herself and began to feel less cross and less perverse.The world did not come to an end because she and her husband with Lady Rosina and her boy and the private Secretary sat down to dinner every day together.The parish clergyman with the neighbouring squire and his wife and daughter did come one day,--to the relief of M.Millepois, who had begun to feel that the world had collapsed.And every day at a certain hour the Duke and Lady Rosina walked together for an hour and a half in the Park.The Duchess would have enjoyed it, instead of suffering, could she only have had her friend, Mrs Finn, to hear her jokes.'Now, Plantagenet,'she said, 'do tell me one thing.
What does she talk about?'
'The troubles of her family generally, I think.'
'That can't last for ever.'
'She wears cork soles to her boots and she thinks a good deal about them.'
'And you listen to her?'
'Why not? I can talk about cork soles as well as anything else.
Anything that may do material good to the world at large, or even to yourself privately, is a fit subject for conversation to rational people.'
'I suppose I never was one of them.'
'But I can talk upon anything,' continued the Duke, 'as long as the talker talks in good faith and does not say things that should not be said, or deal with matters that are offensive.Icould talk for an hour about bankers' accounts, but I should not expect a stranger to ask me the state of my own.She almost persuaded me to send to Mr Sprout of Silverbridge and get some cork soles of my own.'
'Don't do anything of the kind,' said the Duchess with animation;--as though she had secret knowledge that cork soles were specially fatal to the family of the Pallisers.
'Why not, my dear?'
'He was a man who especially, above all others, threw me over at Silverbridge.' Then again there came upon his brow that angry frown which during the last few days had been dissipated by the innocence of Lady Rosina's conversation.'Of course I don't mean to ask you to take any interest in the borough again.You have said that you wouldn't, and you are always as good as your word.'
'I hope so.'
'But I certainly would not employ a tradesman just at your elbow who has directly opposed what was generally understood in the town to be your interests.'
'What did Mr Sprout do? This is the first I have heard of it.'
'He got Mr Du Boung to stand against Mr Lopez.'
'I am very glad for the sake of the borough that Mr Lopez did not get in.'
'So am I.But that has nothing to do with it.Mr Sprout knew at any rate what my wishes were, and went directly against them.'
'You were not entitled to have wishes in the matter, Glencora.'
'That's all very well;--but I had, and he knew it.As for the future, of course the thing is over.But you have done everything for the borough.'
'You mean the borough has done much for me.'
'I know what I mean very well;--and I shall take it very ill if a shilling out of the Castle ever goes into Mr Sprout's pocket again.'
It is needless to trouble the reader at length with the sermon which he preached her on the occasion,--showing the utter corruption which must come from the mixing up of politics with trade, or with the scorn which she threw into the few words with which she interrupted him from time to time.'Whether a man makes good shoes, at a reasonable price, and charges for them honestly,--that is what you have to consider,' said the Duke impressively.
'I'd rather pay double for bad shoes to a man who did not thwart me.'
'You should not condescend to be thwarted in such a matter.You lower yourself by admitting such a feeling.' And yet he writhed himself under the lashes of Mr Slide!
'I know an enemy when I see him,' said the Duchess, 'and as long as I live I'll treat an enemy as an enemy.'
There was ever so much of it, in the course of which the Duke declared his purpose of sending at once to Mr Sprout for ever so many cork soles, and the Duchess,--most imprudently,--declared her purpose of ruining Mr Sprout.There was something in this threat which grated terribly against the Duke's sense of honour;--that his wife should threaten to ruin a poor tradesman, that she should do so in reference to the political affairs of the borough which he all but owned, that she should do so in declared opposition to him! Of course he ought to have known that her sin consisted simply in her determination to vex him at the moment.
A more good-natured woman did not live;--or one less prone to ruin anyone.But any reference to the Silverbridge election brought back upon him the remembrance of the cruel attacks which had been made upon him, and rendered him for the time moody, morose, and wretched.So they again parted ill friends, and hardly spoke when they met at dinner.
The next morning there reached Matching a letter which greatly added to his bitterness of spirit against the world in general and against her in particular.The letter, though marked 'private', had been opened, as were all letters, by Mr Warburton, but the private Secretary thought it necessary to show the letter to the Prime Minister.He, when he had read it, told Warburton that it did not signify, and maintained for half an hour an attitude of quiescence.Then he walked forth, having the letter hidden in his hand, and finding his wife alone, gave it her to read.'See what you have brought upon me,' he said, 'by your interference and disobedience.' The letter was as follows:
Manchester Square, August 3, 187-