Lord Earlybird! An old woman! One whom no other man in England would have thought of ****** a Knight of the Garter! It was not, he said, personal disappointment in himself.There were half-a-dozen peers whom he would have willingly have seen so graced without the slightest chagrin.But this must have been done simply to show the Duke's power, and to let the world understand that he owed nothing and would pay nothing to his supporters.It was almost a disgrace, said Lord Drummond, to belong to a Government the Head of which could so commit himself! The Session was nearly at an end, and Lord Drummond thought that no step could be conveniently taken now.But it was quite clear to him that this state of things could not be continued.It was observed that Lord Drummond and the Prime Minister never spoke to each other in the House, and that the Secretary of State for Colonies,--that being the office which he held,--never rose in his place after Lord Earlybird's nomination, unless to say a word or two as to his own peculiar duties.It was very soon known to all the world that there was war to the knife between Lord Drummond and the Prime Minister.
And, strange to say, there seemed to be some feeling of general discontent on this very trifling subject.When Aristides had been much too just the oyster-shells became numerous.It was said that the Duke had been guilty of pretentious love of virtue in taking Lord Earlybird out of his own path of life and forcing him to write K.G.after his name.There came out an article, of course in the "People's Banner", headed, "Our Prime Minister's Good Works", in which poor Lord Earlybird was ridiculed in a very unbecoming manner, and in which it was asserted that the thing was done as a counterpoise to the iniquity displayed in 'hounding Ferdinand Lopez to his death'.Whenever Ferdinand Lopez was mentioned he had always been hounded.And then the article went on to declare that either the Prime Minister had quarrelled with all his colleagues, or else that all his colleagues had quarrelled with the Prime Minister.Mr Slide did not care which it might be, but, whichever it might be, the poor country had to suffer when such a state of things was permitted.It was notorious that neither the Duke of St Bungay nor Lord Drummond would now even speak to their own chief, so thoroughly were they disgusted with his conduct.Indeed it seemed that the only ally the Prime Minister had in his own Cabinet was the Irish adventurer, Mr Phineas Finn.Lord Earlybird never read a word of all this, and was altogether undisturbed as he sat in his chair in Exeter Hall,--or just at this time of the year more frequently in the provinces.But the Duke of Omnium read it all.
After what had passed he did not dare show it to his brother Duke.He did not dare to tell his friend that it was said in the newspapers that they did not speak to each other.But every word from Mr Slide's pen settled on his own memory, and added to his torments.It came to be a fixed idea in the Duke's mind that Mr Slide was a gadfly sent to the earth for the express purpose of worrying him.
And as a matter of course the Prime Minister in his own mind blamed himself for what he had done.It is the chief torment of a person constituted as he was that strong as may be the determination to do a thing, fixed as may be the conviction that the thing ought to be done, no sooner has it been perfected than the objections of others, which before had been inefficacious become suddenly endowed with truth and force.He did not like being told by Mr Slide that he ought not to have set his cabinet against him, but when he had in fact done so, then he believed what Mr Slide told him.As soon almost as the irrecoverable letter had been winged on its way to Lord Earlybird, he saw the absurdity of sending it.Who was he that he should venture to set aside all the traditions of office? A Pitt or a Peel or a Palmerston might have done so, because they had been abnormally strong.They had been Prime Ministers by the work of their own hands, holding their powers against the whole world.But he,--he told himself daily he was only there by sufferance, because at the moment no one else could be found to take it.In such a condition should he have not have been bound by the traditions of office, bound by the advice of one so experienced and so true as the Duke of St Bungay? And for whom had he broken through these traditions and thrown away this advice? For a man who had no power whatever to help him or any other Minister of the Crown;--for one whose every pursuit in life was at variance with the acquisition of such honours as that now thrust upon him! He could see his own obstinacy, and could even hate the pretentious love of virtue which he himself had displayed.
'Have you seen Lord Earlybird with his ribbon?' his wife said to him.
'I do not know Lord Earlybird by sight,' he replied angrily.
'Nor anyone else either.But he would have come down and shown it himself to you, if he had a spark of gratitude in his composition.As far as I can learn you have sacrificed the Ministry for his sake.'
'I did my duty as best I knew how to do it,' said the Duke, almost with ferocity, 'and it little becomes you to taunt me with my deficiency.'
'Plantagenet!'
'I am driven,' he said, 'almost beyond myself, and it kills me when you take part against me.'
'Take part against you! Surely there was very little in what Isaid.' And yet, as she spoke, she repented bitterly that she had at the moment allowed herself to relapse into the sort of badinage which had been usual with her before she had understood the extent of his sufferings.'If I trouble you by what I say, Iwill certainly hold my tongue.'
'Don't repeat to me what that man says in the newspaper.'
'You shouldn't regard the man, Plantagenet.You shouldn't allow the paper to come into your hands.'