 Chapter 52 of the Prime Minister. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop, Chapter 52. I can sleep here tonight, I suppose. The scheme of going to Guatemala had been in the first instance, propounded by Lopez with the object of frightening Mr. Wharton into terms. There had indeed been some previous thoughts on the subject, some planned projected before his marriage, but it had been resuscitated mainly with the hope that it might be efficacious to extract money. When, by degrees, the son-in-law began to feel that even this would not be operative on his father-in-law's purse, when, under this threat, neither Wharton nor Emily gave way, and when, with the view of strengthening his threat, he renewed his inquiries as to Guatemala and found that there might still be an opening for him in that direction. The threat took the shape of a true purpose, and he began to think that he would, in real earnest, try his fortunes in a new world. From day to day, things did not go well with him, and from day to day, Sexty Parker became more unendurable. It was impossible for him to keep from his partner this plan of emigration, but he endeavored to make Parker believe that the thing, if done at all, was not to be done till all his affairs were settled, or in other words, all his embarrassments cleared by downright money payments, and that Mr. Wharton was to make these payments on the condition that he thus expatriated himself, but Mr. Wharton had made no such promise. Though the threatened day came nearer and nearer, he could not bring himself to purchase a short respite for his daughter by paying money to a scoundrel, which payment he felt sure would be of no permanent service. During all this time, Mr. Wharton was very wretched. If he could have freed his daughter from her marriage by half his fortune, he would have done it without a second thought. If he could have assuredly purchased the permanent absence of her husband, he would have done it at a large price. But let him pay what he would, he could see his way to no security. From day to day, he became more strongly convinced of the rascality of this man who was his son-in-law and who was still an inmate in his own house. Of course, he had accusations enough to make within his own breast against his daughter, who, when the choice was open to her, would not take the altogether fitting husband provided for her, but had declared herself to be broken-hearted forever unless she were allowed to throw herself away upon this wretched creature. But he blamed himself almost as much as he did her. Why had he allowed himself to be so enervated by her prayers at last as to surrender everything as he had done? How could he presume to think that he should be allowed to escape when he had done so little to prevent this misery? He spoke to Emily about it, not often indeed, but with great earnestness. I have done it myself, she said, and I will bear it. Tell him you cannot go till you know to what home you are going. That is for him to consider. I have begged him to let me remain, and I can say no more. If he chooses to take me, I shall go. Then he spoke to her about money. Of course I have money, he said. Of course I have enough both for you and Everett. If I could do any good by giving it to him, he should have it. Papa, she answered, I will never again ask you to give him a single penny that must be altogether between you and him. He is what they call a speculator. Money is not safe with him. I shall have to send it to you when you are in want. When I am dead, there will be no more to be sent. Do not look like that, Papa. I know what I have done, and I must bear it. I have thrown away my life. It is just that. If baby had lived, it would have been different. This was about the end of January, and then Mr. Wharton had heard of the great attack made by Mr. Quintus Slide against the Prime Minister and heard, of course, of the payment alleged to have been made to Ferdinand Lopez by the Duke on the score of the election at Silverbridge. Some person spoke to him on the subject. One or two friends at the club asked him what he supposed to be the truth in the matter, and Mrs. Robie inquired of him on the subject. I have asked Lopez, she said, and I am sure from his manner that he did get the money. I don't know anything about it, said Mr. Wharton. If he did get it, I think he was very clever. It was well known at this time to Mrs. Robie that the Lopez marriage had been a failure, that Lopez was not a rich man, and that Emily, as well as her father, was discontented and unhappy. She had laterally heard of the Guatemala scheme and had, of course, expressed her horror. But she sympathized with Lopez rather than with his wife, thinking that if Mr. Wharton would only open his pockets wide enough, things might still be right. It was all the duchesses' fault you know, she said to the old man. I know nothing about it, and when I want to know, I certainly shall not come to you. The misery he has brought upon me is so great that it makes me wish that I had never seen anyone who knew him. It was Everett who introduced him to your house. It was you who introduced him to Everett. There you are wrong. As you so often are, Mr. Wharton, Everett met him first at the club. What's the use of arguing about it? It was at your house that Emily met him. It was you that did it. I wonder you can have the face to mention his name to me. And the man living all the time in your own house. Up to this time, Mr. Wharton had not mentioned to a single person the fact that he had paid his son-in-law's election expenses at Silverbridge. He had given him the check without much consideration. With the feeling that by doing so, he would in some degree benefit his daughter, and had since regretted the act, finding that no such payment from him could be of any service to Emily. But the thing had been done, and there had been so far an end of it. In no subsequent discussion would Mr. Wharton have alluded to it. Had not circumstances now as it were driven it back upon his mind. And since the day on which he had paid that money, he had been, as he declared to himself, swindled over and over again by his son-in-law. There was the dinner in Manchester Square, and after that the Broham, and the rent, and a score of bills, some of which he had paid, and some declined to pay. And yet he had said but little to the man himself of all these injuries. Of what use was it to say anything? Lopez would simply reply that he had asked him to pay nothing. What is it all, Lopez had once said, to the fortune I had a right to expect with your daughter. You had no right to expect a shilling, Wharton had said. Then Lopez had shrugged his shoulders, and there had been an end of it. But now, if this rumor were true, there had been positive dishonesty, from which ever source the man might have got the money first. If the money had been twice got, the second payment had been fraudulently obtained. Surely, if the accusation had been untrue, Lopez would have come to him and declared it to be false, knowing what must otherwise be his thoughts. Lately, in the daily worry of his life, he had avoided all conversation with the man. He would not allow his mind to contemplate clearly what was coming. He entertained some irrational undefined hope that something would at last save his daughter from the threatened banishment. It might be, if he held his own hand tight enough, that there would not be money enough even to pay for her passage out. As for her outfit, Lopez would of course order what he wanted and have the bill sent to Manchester Square. Whether or not this was being done, neither he nor Emily knew. And thus matters went on without much speech between the two men. But now the old barrister thought that he was bound to speak. He therefore waited on a certain morning till Lopez had come down, having previously desired his daughter to leave the room. Lopez, he asked, what is this that the newspapers are saying about your expenses at Silverbridge? Lopez had expected the attack and had endeavored to prepare himself for it. I should have thought, sir, that you would not have paid much attention to such statements in a newspaper. When they concerned myself, I do. I paid your lectioneering expenses. You certainly subscribed 500 pounds towards them, Mr. Wharton. I subscribed nothing, sir. There was no question of a subscription, by which you intend to imply contribution from various sources. You told me that the contest cost you 500 pounds and that sum I handed to you with the full understanding in your part as well as on mine that I was paying for the whole. Was that so? Have it your own way, sir. If you are not more precise, I shall think that you have defrauded me. Defrauded you? Yes, sir. Defrauded me, or the Duke of Omnium? The money is gone and it matters little which. But if that be so, I shall know that either from him or from me you have raised money under false pretenses. Of course, Mr. Wharton, from you I must bear whatever you may choose to say. Is it true that you have applied to the Duke of Omnium for money on account of your expenses at Silverbridge? And is it true that he has paid you money on that score? Mr. Wharton, as I said just now, I am bound to hear and to bear from you anything that you may choose to say. Your connection with my wife and your age alike restrained my resentment. But I am not bound to answer your questions when they are accompanied by such language as you have chosen to use. And I refuse to answer any further questions on this subject. Of course, I know that you have taken money from the Duke. Then why do you ask me? And of course, I know that you are as well aware as I am of the nature of the transaction that you can brazen it out without a blush only proves to me that you have got beyond the reach of shame. Very well, sir. And you have no further explanation to make. What do you expect me to say without knowing any of the facts of the case, except the one that you contributed 500 pounds to my election expenses? You take upon yourself to tell me that I am a shameless, fraudulent swindler and then you ask for a further explanation. In such a position, is it likely that I shall explain anything that I can be in a humor to be explanatory? Just turn it all over in your mind and ask yourself the question. I have turned it over in my own mind and I have asked myself the question and I do not think it probable that you should wish to explain anything. I shall take steps to let the Duke know that I, as your father-in-law, have paid the full sum which you had stated that you had spent at Silverbridge. Much the Duke will care about that. And after what has passed I am obliged to say that the sooner you leave this house the better I shall be pleased. Very well, sir. Of course I shall take my wife with me. That must be as she pleases. No, Mr. Wharton. That must be as I please. She belongs to me, not to you or to herself. Under your influence she has forgotten much of what belongs to the duty of a wife but I do not think that she will so far have forgotten herself as to give me more trouble than to bid her come with me when I desire it. Let that be as it may. I must request that you, sir, will absent yourself. I will not entertain as my guest a man who has acted as you have done in this matter even though he be my son-in-law. I can sleep here tonight, I suppose. Or tomorrow if it suits you. As for Emily she can remain here. If you will allow her to do so. That will not suit me, said Lopez. In that case, as far as I am concerned I shall do whatever she may ask me to do. Good morning. Mr. Wharton left the room but did not leave the house. Before he did so he would see his daughter and thinking it probable that Lopez would also choose to see his wife. He prepared to wait in his own room. But in about ten minutes Lopez started from the whole door in a cab and did so without going upstairs. Mr. Wharton had reason to believe that his son-in-law was almost destitute of money for immediate purposes. Whatever he might have would at any rate be serviceable to him before he started. Any home for Emily must be expensive and no home in their present circumstances could be so reputable for her as one under her father's roof. He therefore almost hoped that she might still be left with him till that horrid day should come if it ever did come in which she would be taken away from him forever. Of course, Papa, I shall go if he bids me, she said, when he told her all that he thought right to tell her of that morning's interview. I hardly know how to advise you, said the father, meaning in truth to bring himself round to the giving of some advice adverse to her husband's will. I want no advice, Papa. Want no advice? I never knew a woman who wanted it more. No, Papa. I am bound to do as he tells me. I know what I've done. When some poor wretch has got himself into perpetual prison by his misdeeds, no advice can serve him then. So it is with me. You cannot, at any rate, escape from your prison. No. No. I have a feeling of pride which tells me that as I chose to become the wife of my husband, as I insisted on it in opposition to all my friends, as I would judge for myself, I am bound to put up with my choice. If this had come upon me through the authority of others, if I had been constrained to marry him, I think I could have reconciled myself to deserting him. But I did it myself, and I will abide by it. When he bids me go, I shall go. Poor Mr. Wharton went to his chambers and sat there the whole day without taking a book or a paper into his hands. Could there be no rescue, no protection, no relief? He turned over in his head various plans, but in a vague and useless manner. What if the Duke were to prosecute Lopez for the fraud? What if he could induce Lopez to abandon his wife, but some did not return to her for, say, 20 or even 30,000 pounds? What if he himself were to carry his daughter away to the continent, half-forcing and half-persuading her to make the journey? Surely there might be some means found by which the man might be frightened into compliance. But there he sat and did nothing. And in the evening, he ate a solitary mutton chop at the jolly blackbird club and then returned to his chambers to the great disgust of the old woman who had them in charge at nights. And at about midnight, he crept away to his own house, a wretched old man. Lopez, when he left Manchester Square, did not go in search of a new home for himself and his wife, nor during the whole of the day did he trouble himself on that subject. He spent most of the day at the rooms in Coleman Street where he was being associated, of which Mr. Mills-Happerton had once been chairman. There was now another chairman and other directors, but Mr. Mills-Happerton's influence had so far remained with the company as to enable Lopez to become well known in the company's offices and acknowledged as a claimant for the office of resident manager at San Juan in Guatemala. Now the present project was this, that Lopez was to start early in May that the company was to pay his own personal expenses out to Guatemala, and that they should allow him while there a salary of a thousand pounds a year for managing the affairs of the mine. As far as this offer went, the thing was true enough. It was true that Lopez had absolutely secured the place, but he had done so subject to the burden of one very serious stipulation. He was to become proprietor of 50 shares in the mine and to pay up a hundred pounds each on those shares. It was considered that the man who was to get a thousand pounds a year in Guatemala for managing the affair should at any rate assist the affair and show his confidence in the affair to an extent as great as that. Of course the holder of those 50 shares would be as fully entitled as any other shareholder to that 20%, which those who promoted the mine promised as the immediate result of the speculation. At first, Lopez had hoped that he might be enabled to defer the actual payment of the five thousand pounds till after he had sailed. When once out in Guatemala as manager, as manager he would doubt this remain. But by degrees he found that the payment must actually be made in advance. Now there was nobody to whom he could apply, but Mr. Wharton. He was indeed forced to declare at the office that the money was to come from Mr. Wharton and had given some excellent but fictitious reason why Mr. Wharton would not pay the money till February. And in spite of all that had come and gone, he still did hope that if the need to go were actually there, he might even yet get the money from Mr. Wharton. Surely Mr. Wharton would sooner pay such a sum than be troubled at home with such a son-in-law. Should the worst come to the worst, of course he could raise the money by consenting to leave his wife at home. But this was not part of his plan if he could avoid it. Five thousand pounds would be a very low price at which to sell his wife and all that he might get from his connection with her. As long as he had kept her with him, he was in possession at any rate of all that Mr. Wharton would do for her. He had not therefore as yet made his final application to his father in law for the money, having found it possible to postpone the payment till the middle of February. His quarrel with Mr. Wharton this morning, he regarded as having little or no effect upon his circumstances. Mr. Wharton would not give him the money because he loved him, nor yet from personal respect, nor from any sense of duty as to what he might owe to a son-in-law. It would be simply given as the price by which his absence might be purchased, and his absence would not be the less desirable because of this morning's quarrel. But even yet, he was not quite resolved as to go into Guatemala. Sexty Parker had been sucked nearly dry and was in truth at this moment so violent with indignation and fear and remorse that Lopez did not dare to show himself in little tankard yard, but still there were, even yet, certain hopes in that direction from which great results might come. If a certain new spirit which had just been concocted from the bark of trees in Central Africa and which was called Bios could only be made to go up in the market, everything might be satisfactorily arranged. The hoardings of London were already telling the public that if it wished to get drunk without any of the usual troubles of intoxication, it must drink Bios. The public, no doubt, does read the literature of the hoardings, but then it reads so slowly. This Bios had hardly been 12 months on the boards as yet, but now increasing the size of the letters and the advertisements and the jacundity of the pictures and a thing might be done. There was, to another hope, another hope of instant monies by which Guatemala might be staved off as to which further explanation shall be given in a further chapter. I suppose I shall find Dixon, a decent sort of fellow, said Lopez to the secretary of the association in Coleman Street. Mr. Dixon was a fellow, but honest? Oh yes, he's all that. If he's honest and what I call loyal, I don't care a straw for anything else. One doesn't expect West End manners in Guatemala, but I shall have a deal to do with him, and I hate a fellow that you can't depend on. Mr. Happeton used to think a great deal of Dixon. That's all right, said Lopez. He went out at the San Juan mine and was perhaps as anxious for a loyal and honest colleague as was Mr. Lopez. If so, Mr. Dixon was very much in the way to be disappointed. Lopez stayed at the office all the day studying the affairs of the San Juan mine and then went to the progress for his dinner. Hitherto he had taken no steps whatever as to getting lodgings for himself or for his wife. Chapter 53 of the Prime Minister This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop, Chapter 53 Mr. Hartlepod When the time came at which Lopez should have left Manchester Square, he was still there. It was very important in discussing the matter with his daughter when wishing to persuade her that she might remain in his house even in opposition to her husband had not told her that he had actually desired Lopez to leave it. He had then felt sure that the man would go and would take his wife with him but he did not even yet know the objuracy and the cleverness and the impregnability of his son-in-law. When the time came when he saw his daughter in the morning after the notice had been given he could not bring himself even yet to say to her that he had issued an order for his banishment. Days went by and Lopez was still there and the old barrister said no further word on the subject. The two men never met or met simply in the hall or passages. Wharton himself studiously avoided such meetings thus denying himself the commonest uses of his own house. At last Emily told him that her husband had fixed the day for her departure. The next Indian mail packet by which they would leave England would start from Southampton on the 2nd of April and she was to be ready to go on that day. How is it to be till then? The father asked in a low uncertain voice I suppose I may remain with you and your husband he will be here too I suppose such a misery such a destruction of everything no man ever heard of before said Mr. Wharton to this she made no reply but continued working at some necessary preparation for her final departure Emily he said I will make any sacrifice to prevent it what can be done short of enduring Everett's interests I will do anything I do not know she said you must understand something of his affairs nothing whatever he has told me nothing of them in earlier days soon after our marriage he bade me get money from you when you wrote to me for money from Italy and after that I have refused to do anything to say a word I told them it must be between you and him what else could I say and now he tells me nothing I cannot think that he should want then there was again a pause is it because he loves you not that papa why then should he burden himself with a companion his money whatever he has would go further without such impediment perhaps he thinks papa that while I am with him he has a hold upon you he shall have a stronger hold by leaving you what is he to gain if I could only know his price I ask him papa I do not even know how I am to speak to him again then again there was a pause papa she said after a while I have done it myself let me go you will still have Everett and it may be that after a time I shall come back to you you will not kill me and it may be that I shall not die by God said Mr. Wharton rising from his chair suddenly should be made by it I believe that he would murder you without scruple thus it was that within 18 months of her marriage the father spoke to his daughter of her husband what am I to take with me she said to her husband a few days later you had better ask your father why should I ask him Ferdinand how should he know and how should I I should have thought that you would interest yourself about it by word I have enough to interest me just at present without thinking of your finery I suppose you mean what clothes you should have I was not thinking of myself only you need think of nothing else ask him what he pleases to allow you to spend and then I will tell you what to get I will never ask him for anything Ferdinand then you may go without anything you might as well do it at once for you will have to do it sooner later or if you please go to his tradesmen and say nothing to him about it they will give you credit you see how it is my dear he has cheated me in a most rascally manner he has allowed me to marry his daughter and because I did not make a bargain with him as another man would have done he denies me the fortune I the right to expect with you you know that the Israelites despoiled the Egyptians and it was taken as a merit on their part your father is an Egyptian to me and I will despoil him you can tell him that I say so if you please and so the days went on till the first week of February had passed and Parliament had met both Lopez and his wife were still living in Manchester Square not another word had been said as to that notice to quit nor an allusion made to it it was supposed to be a settled thing that Lopez was to start with his wife for Guatemala in the first week in April Mr. Wharton had himself felt that difficulty as to his daughter's outfit and had told her that she might get whatever it pleased her on his credit for yourself my dear papa I will get nothing till he bids me but you can't go across the world without anything what are you to do in such a place as that unless you have the things you want what do poor people do worth to go what should I do if you had cast me off because of my disobedience but I have not cast you off tell him that you will give him so much and then if he bids me I will spend it let it be so I will tell him upon that Mr. Wharton did speak to his son-in-law coming upon him suddenly one morning in the dining room Emily will want an outfit if she is to go to this place like other people she wants many things that she cannot get I will tell my tradesman to furnish her with what she wants up to well suppose I say 200 pounds I have spoken to her and she wants your sanction my sanction for spending your money she can have that very quickly you can tell her so or I will do so upon that Mr. Wharton was going but Lopez stopped him it was now essential that the money for the shares in the son-in-law should be paid up and his father-in-law's pocket was still the source from which the enterprising son-in-law hoped to procure it Lopez had fully made up his mind to demand it and thought that the time had now come and he was resolved that he would not ask it as a favor on bended knee he was beginning to feel his own power and trusted that he might prevail by other means than begging Mr. Wharton, he said you and I have not been very good friends lately no indeed there was a time, a very short time during which I thought that we might hit it off together and I did my best you do not I fancy like men of my class well well you had better go on if there be anything to say I have much to say and I will go on you are a rich man and I am your son-in-law Mr. Wharton put his left hand up to his forehead brushing the few hairs back from his head but he said nothing had I received from you during the last most vital year that assistance which I think I had a right to expect I also might have been a rich man now it is no good going back to that then he paused but still Mr. Wharton said nothing now you know what has come to me and to your daughter we are to be expatriated is that my fault I think it is but I mean to say nothing further of that this company which is sending me out and which will probably be the most thriving thing of the kind which has come up within these 20 years is to pay me a salary of 1,000 pounds a year as resident manager at San Juan so I understand the salary alone would be a beggarly thing Guatemala I take it the best country in the world in which a man can live but I am to go out as the owner of 50 shares on which 100 pounds each must be paid up and I am entitled to draw another 1,000 pounds a year as dividend on the profit of those shares that will be 20% exactly and will double your salary just so but there is one little ceremony to be perfected before I can be allowed to enter upon so soon a state of existence the 100 pounds a share must be paid up Mr. Wharton simply stared at him I must have the 5,000 pounds to invest in the undertaking before I can start well now I have not got the 5,000 pounds myself nor any part of it you do not wish I suppose to see either me or your daughter starve and as for me I wonder myself when I say that you are very anxious to be rid of me 5,000 pound is not very much for me to ask of you as I regard it such consummate impudence I never met in my life before nor perhaps so much unprevaricating downright truth at any rate such as the condition of my affairs if I am to go the money must be paid this week I have perhaps foolishly put off mentioning the matter till I was sure that I could not raise the sum elsewhere though I feel my claim on you to be good Mr. Wharton it is not pleasant to me to make it you are asking me for 5,000 pounds down certainly I am what security might I have security yes that if I pay it I shall not be troubled again by the meanest scoundrel that it has ever been my misfortune to meet how am I to know that you will not come back tomorrow how am I to know that you will go at all do you think it probable that I will give you 5,000 pounds on your own simple word then the scoundrel will stay in England and will generally find it convenient to live in Manchester Square if he does look here sir between you and me there can be a bargain and nothing but a bargain I will pay the 5,000 pounds on certain conditions I didn't doubt at all that you would pay it I will go with you to the office of this company and will pay for the shares if I can receive assurance there that the matter is as you say and that the shares will not be placed in your power before you have reached Guatemala you can come today sir and receive all that assurance and I must have a written undertaking from you a document which my daughter can show if it be necessary that you will never claim her society again or trouble her with any application you mistake me Mr. Wharton my wife goes with me to Guatemala then I will not pay one penny, where should I what is your presence or absence to me except as it concerns her do you think that I care for your threats of remaining here the police will set that right wherever I go my wife goes we'll see to that too if you want the money you must leave her good morning Mr. Wharton as he went to his chambers thought the matter over he was certainly willing to risk the five thousand pounds demanded if he could rid himself and his daughter of this terrible incubus even if it were only for a time if Lopez would but once go to Guatemala leaving his wife behind him it would be comparatively easy to keep them apart should he ever return the difficulty now was not in him but in her the man's conduct had been so outrageous so bare faced so cruel that the lawyer did not doubt but that he could turn the husband out of his house and keep the wife even now were it not that she was determined to obey the man whom she in opposition to all her friends had taken as her master I have done it myself and I will bear it was all the answer she would make when her father strove to persuade her to separate herself from her husband you have got over it she would say when a girl is married she is divided from her family and I am divided but she would willingly stay if Lopez would bid her stay it now seemed that he could not go without the five thousand pounds and when the pressure came upon him surely he would go with his wife in the course of that day Mr. Wharton went to the offices of the Sun One Mine and asked to see the director he was shown up into a half furnished room two stories high in Coleman Street where he found two clerks sitting upon stools and when he asked for the director was shown into the back room in which sat the secretary the secretary was a dark plump little man with a greasy face assuming an air of great importance as he twisted his chair round to face visitors who came to inquire about the Sun One Mining Company his name was Hartlepod and if the Sun One Mine turned out trumps as he intended that it should Mr. Hartlepod meant to be a great man in the city to Mr. Hartlepod Mr. Wharton with considerable embarrassment explained as much of the joint history of himself in Lopez as he found to be absolutely necessary he has only left the office about half an hour said Mr. Hartlepod of course you understand that he is my son-in-law he has mentioned your name to us Mr. Wharton before now and he is going out to Guatemala oh yes he's going out has he not told you as much himself certainly sir and he has told me that he is desirous of buying certain shares in the company before he starts probably Mr. Wharton indeed I believe that he cannot go unless he buys them that may be so Mr. Wharton no doubt he has told you all that himself the fact is Mr. Hartlepod I am willing under certain stipulations to advance him the money Mr. Hartlepod bowed I need not trouble you with private affairs my son-in-law again the secretary bowed but it seems to be for his interest that he should go a very great opening indeed Mr. Wharton I don't see how a man is to have a better opening a fine salary his expenses are paid one of the very best things that has come up for many years and as for the capital he is to embark on the affair he is as safe to get 20% on it as safe as the Bank of England he'll have the shares oh yes to scribble be handed to him at once and and if you mean about the mine Mr. Wharton you may take my word that it's all real it's not one of those sham things that melt away like snow and leave the shareholders nowhere there's the prospectus Mr. Wharton perhaps you have not seen that before take it away just your eye over it at your leisure Mr. Wharton put the somewhat lengthy pamphlet into his pocket look at the list of directors we have three members of parliament a baronet and one or two city names that are as good as good as the Bank of England if that prospectus won't make a man confident I don't know what will why Mr. Wharton you don't think that your son-in-law would get those 50 shares at par going out as our general local manager the shares ain't to be had it's a large concern as far as capital goes you'll see if you look about a quarter of a million paid up but it's all in a box as one may say it's among ourselves the shares ain't in the market of course it's not for me to say what should be done between you and your son-in-law Lopez is a friend of mine and a man I esteem in all that nevertheless I shouldn't think of advising you to do this or that or not to do it but when you talk of safety Mr. Wharton why Mr. Wharton I don't scruple to tell you as a man who knows what these things are that this is an opportunity that doesn't come in a man's way perhaps twice in his life Mr. Wharton found that he had nothing more to say and went back to Lincoln's inn he knew very well that Mr. Hartlepott's assurances were not worth much Mr. Hartlepott himself and his belongings the clerks in his office the look of the rooms and the very nature of the praises which he had sung all of them inspired anything but confidence Mr. Wharton was a man of the world and though he knew nothing of city ways was quite aware that no man in his senses would lay out five thousand pounds on the mere word of Mr. Hartlepott but still he was inclined to make the payment if only he could secure the absence of Lopez if he could be sure that Lopez would in truth go to Guatemala and if also he could induce the man to go without his wife he would risk the money the money would of course be thrown away but he would throw it away Lopez no doubt had declared that he would not go without his wife even though the money were paid for him but the money was an alluring sum as the pressure upon the man became greater Mr. Wharton thought he would probably consent to leave his wife behind him in his emergency the barrister went to his attorney and told him everything the two lawyers were closeted together for an hour and Mr. Wharton's last words to his old friend were as follows I will risk the money walker or rather I will consent absolutely as it will be thrown away if it can be managed that he shall in truth go to this place without his wife End of Chapter 53 Chapter 54 of the Prime Minister this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollop Chapter 54 Lizzie it cannot be supposed that Ferdinand Lopez at this time was a very happy man he had at any rate once loved his wife and would have loved her still could he have trained her to think as he thought to share his wishes and to put herself into the same boat with him as he was want to describe the unison and sympathy which he required from her to give him his due he did not know that he was a villain when he was exhorting her to get round her father he was not aware that he was giving her lessons which must shock a well conditioned girl he did not understand that everything that she had discovered of his moral disposition since her marriage was of a nature to disgust her and not understanding all this he conceived that he was grievously wronged by her and that she adhered to her father rather than to him this made him unhappy and doubly disappointed him he had neither got the wife that he had expected nor the fortune but he still thought that the fortune must come if he would only hold on to the wife which he had got and then everything had gone badly with him since his marriage he was apt when thinking over his affairs to attribute all this to the fears and hesitation and parsimony of Sexty Parker none of his late ventures with Sexty Parker had been successful and now Sexty was in a bad condition very violent drinking hard declaring himself to be a ruined man and swearing that if this and that were not done he would have bitter revenge Sexty still believed in the wealth of his partner's father-in-law and still had some hope of salvation from that source Lopez would declare to him and up to this very time persevered in protesting that salvation was to be found in Bios if Sexty would only risk two or three thousand pounds more upon Bios or his credit to that amount failing the immediate money things might still be right Bios Bide said Sexty uttering a string of heavy implications on that morning he had been trusting to native produce rather than to the new African spirit but now as the Guatemala scheme really took form and loomed on Lopez's eyesight as a thing that might be real he endeavored to keep out of Sexty's way but in vain Sexty too had heard of Guatemala and in his misery hunted Lopez about the city Boy God, I believe you're afraid to come to little Tankard Yod he said one day having caught his victim under the equestrian statue in front of the exchange what is the good of my coming when you will do nothing when I am there I'll tell you what it is Lopez you're not going out of the country about this mining business if I knew it who said I was I'll put a spoke in your wheel there my man I'll give a written account of all the dealings between us to the directors Boy God, they shall know their man you're an ass Sexty and always were look here if I can carry on as though I were going to this place I can draw 5,000 pounds from Old Wharton he has already offered it he has treated me with a stinginess that I never knew equal had he done what I had a right to expect you and I would have been rich men now but at last I have got to hold upon him up to 5,000 pounds as you and I stand pretty nearly the whole of that will go to you but don't you spoil it all by making an ass of yourself Sexty who was three parts drunk looked up into his face for a few seconds and then made his reply I'm if I believe a word of it upon this Lopez affected to laugh and then made his escape all this as I have said did not tend to make his life happy though he had impudence enough and callousness of conscience enough to get his bills paid by Mr. Wharton as often as he could he was not quite easy in his mind while doing so his ambition had never been high but it had soared higher than that he had had great hopes he had lived with some high people he had dined with lords and ladies he had been the guest of a duchess he had married the daughter of a gentleman he had nearly been a member of parliament he still belonged to what he considered to be a first-rate club from a great altitude he looked down upon Sexty Parker and men of Sexty's class because of his social successes and because he knew how to talk and to look like a gentleman it was unpleasant to him therefore to be driven to the life he was now living and the idea of going out to Guatemala and burying himself in a mine in Central America was not to him a happy idea in spite of all that he had done he had still some hope that he might avoid that banishment he had spoken the truth to Sexty Parker in saying that he intended to get the 5,000 pounds from Mr. Wharton without that terrible personal sacrifice though he had hardly spoken the truth when he assured his friend that the greater portion of that money would go to him there were many schemes fluctuating through his brain and all accompanied by many doubts if he could get Mr. Wharton's money by giving up his wife should he consent to give her up in either case should he stay or should he go should he run one further great chance with Beos and if so by whose assistance would at last decide that he would do so by the aid of a certain friend that was yet left to him should he throw himself at that friend's feet the friend being a lady and propose to desert his wife and begin the world again with her for the lady in question was a lady in possession as he believed of very large means or should he cut his throat and have done at once with all his troubles acknowledging to himself that his career had been a failure and that therefore it might be brought with advantage to an end after all he said to himself that may be the best way of winding up a bankrupt concern our old friend Lady Eustace in these days lived in a very small house in a very small street bordering upon Mayfair but the street though very small and having disagreeable relations with the news still had an air of fashion about it and with her lived the widow Mrs Leslie who had introduced her to Mrs Dick Robie and through Mrs Robie to Ferdinand Lopez Lady Eustace was in the enjoyment of a handsome income as I hope that some of my readers may remember and this income during the last year or two she had learned to foster if not with much discretion and with great zeal during her short life she had had many aspirations love poetry sport religion fashion but in each crisis there had been a certain care for wealth which had saved her from the folly of squandering what she had won by her early energies in the pursuit of her then prevailing passion she had given her money to no lover had not lost it on race courses or in building churches nor even had she materially damaged her resources by servants and equipages at the present time she was still young and still pretty though her hair and complexion took rather more time than in the days when she won Sir Florian Eustace she still liked the lover or perhaps too though she had thoroughly convinced herself that the lover may be bought too dear she could still ride a horse though hunting regularly was too expensive for her she could talk religion if she could find herself close to a well-got-up clergyman being quite indifferent as to the denomination of the religion but perhaps a wild dash for a time into fast vulgarity was what in her heart of hearts she liked best only that it was so difficult to enjoy that pleasure without risk of losing everything and then together with these passions and perhaps above them all there had lately sprung up in the heart of Lady Eustace a desire to multiply her means by successful speculation this was the friend with whom Lopez had lately become intimate and by whose aid he hoped to extricate himself from some of his difficulties poor as he was he had contrived to bribe Mrs Leslie and some presents out of Bond Street for as he still lived in Manchester Square and was the undoubted son-in-law of Mr Wharton his credit was not altogether gone in the giving of these gifts no purport was of course named but Mrs Leslie was probably aware that her good word with her friend was expected I only know what I used to hear from Mrs Robie Mrs Leslie said to her friend she was mixed up with hunkies people who roll in money old Wharton wouldn't have given him his daughter if he had not been doing well it's very hard to be sure said Lazy Eustace he looks like a man who'd know how to feather his own nest said Mrs Leslie don't you think he's very handsome I don't know that he's likely to do the better for that well no but there are men whom you are sure to look at them that they'll be successful I don't suppose he was anything to begin with but see where he is now I believe you are in love with him my dear said Lazy Eustace not exactly I don't know that he has given me any provocation but I don't see why a woman shouldn't be in love with him if she likes he is a deal nicer than those fair-haired men who haven't got a word to say to you look as though you ought to jump down their mouths like that fellow you were trying to talk to last night that Mr Fletcher he could just jerk out three words at a time and yet he was proud as Lucifer I like a man who if he likes me is neither ashamed nor afraid to say so there is a romance there you know Mr Fletcher was in love with Emily Wharton and she threw him over for Lopez they say he has not held up his head since she was quite right said Mrs Leslie but she is one of those stiff-necked creatures who are set up with pride though they have nothing to be proud of I suppose she had a lot of money Lopez would never have taken her without when therefore Lopez called one day at the little house in the little street he was not an unwelcome visitor Mrs Leslie was in the drawing room but soon left it after his arrival he had of late been often there and when he at once introduced a subject on which he was himself intent it was not unexpected £7,500 said Lizzie after listening to the proposition which he had come to make that is a very large sum of money yes it is a large sum of money it's a large affair I'm in it to rather more than that I believe how are you going to get people to drink it she asked after a pause by telling them that they ought to drink it advertise it it has become a certainty now that if you will only advertise sufficiently you may make a fortune by selling anything only the interest on the money expended increases in so large a ratio in accordance with the magnitude of the operation if you spend a few hundreds in advertising you throw them away £100,000 well laid out makes a certainty of anything what am I to get to show for my money I mean immediately you know registered shares in the company the BIOS company no we did propose to call ourselves Parker & Company Limited I think we shall change the name they will probably use my name Lopez & Company Limited but it's all for BIOS oh yes all for BIOS and it's to come from Central Africa it will be rectified in London you know some English spirit will perhaps be mixed but I must not tell you the secrets of the trade till you join us that BIOS is distilled from the bark of the doffer tree is a certainty have you drank any I've tasted it nice very nice rather sweet you know and will be the better for mixing gin suggested her ladyship perhaps so or risky I think I may say that you can't do very much better with your money you know I would not say this to you were it not true in such a matter I treat you just as if as if you were my sister I know how good you are but £7,500 I couldn't raise so much as that just at present there are to be six shares said Lopez making £45,000 capital would you consent to take a share jointly with me that would be £3,750 but you have a share already said Lizzie suspiciously I should then divide that with Mr Parker we intend to register at any rate as many as nine partners would you object to hold it with me Lopez as he asked the question looked at her as though he were offering her half his heart no said Lizzie slowly I don't suppose I should object to that I should be doubly eager about the affair if I were in partnership with you it's such a venture nothing venture nothing have but I've got something as it is Mr Lopez and I don't want to lose it all there's no chance of that if you join us you think Bios is so sure quite safe said Lopez you must give me a little more time to think about it said Lady Eustace at last panting with anxiety struggling with herself anxious for the excitement which would come to her from dealing in Bios but still fearing to risk her money this had taken place immediately after Mr Wharton's offer of the five thousand pounds in making which he had stipulated that Emily should be left at home then a few days went by and Lopez was pressed for his money at the office of the San Juan mine did he or did he not mean to take up the mining shares allotted to him if he did mean to do so he must do it at once he swore by all his gods that of course he meant to take them up had not Mr Wharton himself been at the office saying that he intended to pay for them was not that sufficient guarantee they knew well enough that Mr Wharton was a man to whom the raising of five thousand pounds could be a matter of no difficulty but they did not know never could know how impossible it was to get anything done by Mr Wharton but Mr Wharton had promised to pay for the shares and when money was concerned his word would surely suffice Mr Hartlepod backed by two of the directors said that if the thing was to go on at all the money must really be paid at once but the conference was ended by allowing the new local manager another fortnight in which to complete the arrangement Lopez allowed four days to pass by during each of which Lopez closeted for a time with Lady Eustace and then made an attempt to get at Mr Wharton through his wife your father has said that he will pay the money for me said Lopez if he has said so he will certainly do it but he has promised it on the condition that you should remain at home do you wish to desert your husband to this she made no immediate answer are you already anxious to be rid of me I should prefer to remain at home she said in a very low voice then you do wish to desert your husband what is the use of all this Ferdinand you do not love me you did not marry me because I loved you by heaven I did for that and that only and how have you treated me what have I done to you but I do not mean to make accusations Ferdinand I should only add to our miseries by that we should be happier apart not I nor is that my idea of marriage tell your father that you wish to go with me and then he will let us have the money I will tell him no lie Ferdinand if you bid me go I will go where you find a home I must find one too if it be your pleasure to take me but I will not ask my father to give you money because it is my pleasure to go were I to say so he would not believe me it is you who have told him to give it me only on the condition of your staying I have told him nothing he knows that I do not wish to go he cannot but know that but he knows that I mean to go if you require it and you will do nothing for me nothing in regard to my father he raised his fist with the thought of striking her and she saw the motion but his arm fell again to his side he had not quite come to that yet surely you will have the charity to tell me whether I am to go if it be fixed she said have I not told you so twenty times then it is fixed yes it is fixed your father will tell you about your things he has promised you some beggarly some about as much as a tallow chandler would give his daughter whatever he does will be sufficient for me I am not afraid of my father Ferdinand you shall be afraid of me before I have done with you said he leaving the room then as he sat at his club dining there alone there came across his mind ideas of what the world would be like to him if he could leave his wife at home and take Lizzie Eustace with him to Guatemala Guatemala was very distant and it would matter little there whether the woman he brought with him was his wife or no it was clear enough to him that his wife desired no more of his company what were the conventions of the world to him this other woman had money at her own command he could not make it his own because he could not marry her but he fancied that it might be possible to bring her so far under his control as to make the money almost as good as his own Mr. Wharton's money was very hard to reach and would be as hard to reach perhaps harder when Mr. Wharton was dead as now during his life he had said a good deal to the lady since the interview of which a report has been given she had declared herself to be afraid of Bios she did not in the least doubt that great things might be ultimately done with Bios but she did not quite see the way with her small capital thus humbly did she speak of her wealth to be one of those who should take the initiative in the matter Bios evidently required a great deal of advertisement and Lizzie Eustace had a short-sighted objection to expand what money she had saved on the hoardings of London then he opened to her the glories of Guatemala not contending himself with describing the certainty of the 20% but enlarging on the luxurious happiness of life in a country so golden so green, so gorgeous and so grand it had been the very apple of the eye of the old Spaniards in Guatemala he said Cortez and Pizarro had met and embraced they might have done so for anything Lizzie Eustace knew to the contrary and here our hero took advantage of his name Don Diego de Lopez had been the first to raise the banner of freedom in Guatemala when the kings of Spain became American subjects all his fair and love and war and Lizzie amidst the hard business of her life still loved the dash of romance yes, he was about to change the scene and try his fortune in that golden, green and gorgeous country you will take your wife of course Lady Eustace had said then Lopez had smiled and shrugging his shoulders had left the room it was certainly the fact that he would not eat him other men before Lopez have had to pick up what courage they could in their attacks upon women by remembering that fact she had flirted with him in a very pleasant way mixing up her prettiness and her percentages in a manner that was peculiar to herself he did not know her and he knew that he did not know her but still there was the chance she had thrown his wife more than once in his face in the fashion of women when they are wooed by married men since the days of Cleopatra downwards but he had taken that simply as encouragement he had already let her know that his wife was a vixen who troubled his life Lizzie had given him her sympathy and had almost given him a tear but I am not a man to be broken hearted because I have made a mistake said Lopez marriage vows are very well they may be very ill Lizzie had replied remembering certain passages in her own life there was no doubt about her money and certainly she could not eat him the fortnight allowed him by the San Juan mining company had nearly gone by when he called at the little house in the little street resolved to push his fortune in that direction without fear and without hesitation Mrs. Leslie again took her departure leaving them together and Lizzie allowed her friend to go although the last words that Lopez had spoken had been, as he thought a fair prelude to the words he intended to speak today and what do you think of it he said taking both her hands in his think of what of our Spanish venture have you given up bios have you given up bios my friend no certainly not said Lopez seating himself beside her I have not taken the other half share but I have kept my old venture in the scheme I believe in bios you know ah it is so nice to believe but I believe more firmly in the country to which I am going you are going then yes my friend I am going the allurements are too strong to be resisted think of that climate and of this he probably had not heard of the mosquitoes of Central America when he so spoke remember that an income which gives you comfort here will there produce for you every luxury which wealth can purchase it is to be a king there or to be but very common among commoners here and yet England is a dear old country have you found it so think of the wrongs which you have endured of the injuries which you have suffered yes indeed for Lizzie Eustace had gone through hard days in her time I will certainly fly from such a country to those golden shores on which man may be free and unshackled and your wife oh Lizzie it was the first time that he had called her Lizzie and she was apparently neither shocked nor abashed perhaps he thought too much of this not knowing how many men had called her Lizzie in her time do not you at least understand that a man or a woman may undergo that tie and yet be justified in disregarding it all together oh yes if there has been bigamy or divorce or anything of that kind now Lizzie had convicted her second husband of bigamy and had freed herself after that fashion two with their prurient laws said Lopez rising suddenly from his chair I will neither appeal to them nor will I obey them and I expect from you as little subservience as I myself am prepared to pay Lizzie Eustace will you go with me to that land of the sun where the rage of the vulture the love of the turtle now melt into sorrow now mad into crime will you dare to escape with me from the cold conventionalities from the miserable thralldom of this country bound in swaddling cloths Lizzie Eustace if you will say the word I will take you to that land of glorious happiness but Lizzie Eustace had four thousand pounds a year and a balance at her bankers Mr Lopez she said what answer have you to make me Mr Lopez I think you must be a fool he did at last succeed in getting himself into the street and at any rate she had not eaten him end of chapter 54 chapter 55 of the prime minister this is a labor vox recording all labor vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit labor vox dot org the prime minister by anthony trollop chapter 55 mrs parker's sorrows the end of february had come and as far as mrs. lopez knew mrs. lopez as far as mrs. lopez knew she was to start for guatemala in a month's time and yet there was so much of indecision in her husband's manner and apparently so little done by him in regard to personal preparation that she could hardly bring herself to feel certain that she would have to make the journey from day to day her father would ask her whether she had made her intended purchases and she would tell him that she had still postponed the work then he would say no more for he himself was hesitating doubtful what he would do and still thinking that when it last came he would buy his daughter's release at any price that might be demanded mrs. walker the attorney had as yet been able to manage nothing he had seen lopez more than once and had also seen mrs. hardlapod mrs. hardlapod had simply told him that he would be very happy to register the shares on behalf of lopez as soon as the money was paid lopez had been almost insolent in his bearing did mr. worton think he asked that he is going to sell his wife for five thousand pounds i think you'll have to raise your offer mr. walker had said to mr. worton that is all very well mr. worton mr. worton was willing enough to raise his offer he would have doubled his offer could he thereby have secured the annihilation of lopez i will raise it if he will go without his wife and give her a written assurance that he will never trouble her again but the arrangement was one which mr. walker found it very difficult to carry out so things went on till the end of february had come and during all this time lopez was still resident in mr. worton's house papa she said to him one day this is the cruelest thing of all why don't you tell him that he must go because he would take you out of him it would be better so i could come to see you i did tell him to go in my passion i repented of it instantly because i should have lost you but what did my telling matter to him he was very indignant and yet he is still here you told him to go yes i am glad that he did not obey me there must be an end to this soon i suppose i do not know papa do you think that he will not go i feel that i know nothing papa you must not let him stay here always you know and what will become of you when he goes i must go with him why should you be sacrificed also i will tell him that he must leave the house i am not afraid of him papa not yet my dear not yet we will see at this time lopez declared his purpose one day of dining at the progress and mr. warden took advantage of the occasion to remain at home with his daughter everett was now expected and there was a probability that he might come on this evening mr. warden therefore returned from his chambers early but when he reached the house he was told that there was a woman in the dining room with mrs. lopez the servant did not know what woman she had asked to see mrs. lopez and mrs. lopez had gone down to her the woman in the dining room was mrs. parker she had called at the house at about half past five and emily had at once come down when summoned by tidings that a lady wanted to see her servants have a way of announcing a woman as a lady which clearly expresses their own opinion that the person in question is not a lady so it had been on this present occasion but mrs. lopez had at once gone to her visitor oh mrs. parker i am so glad to see you i hope you are well indeed then mrs. lopez i am very far from well no poor woman who is the mother of five children was ever farther from being well than i am is anything wrong wrong ma'am everything is wrong when is mrs. lopez going to pay my husband all the money he has took from him has he taken money taken taken he has taken everything he has shorned my husband as bare as a board we are ruined mrs. lopez and it is your husband has done it when we were at dover court i told you how it was going to be his business has left him and now there is nothing what are we to do the woman was seated on a chair leaning forward with her two hands on her knees the day was wet the streets were half mud and half snow and the poor woman who had made her way through the slush was soiled and wet i looked to you to tell me what me and my children is to do he is your husband mrs. lopez yes mrs. parker he is my husband why couldn't he let sexy alone why should the like of him be taking the bread out of my children's mouths what had we ever done to him you are rich indeed i am not mrs. parker yes you are you're living here in a grand house and your father's made of money you'll know nothing of want let the worst come to the worst what are we to do mrs. lopez i'm the wife of that poor creature and you're the wife of the man that has ruined him what are we to do mrs. lopez i do not understand my husband's business mrs. parker you're one with him ain't you if anybody had ever come to me and said my husband had robbed him i'd never have stopped till i knew the truth of it if any woman had ever said to me that parker had taken the bread out of her children's mouths do you think that i'd sit as you were sitting i'd tell you that lopez has robbed us has robbed us and taken everything what can i say mrs. parker what can i do where is he he is not here he is dining at his club where is that i will go there and shame him before them all don't you feel no shame because you've got things comfortable here i suppose it's all nothing to you you don't care that my children were starving in the gutter as they will do if you knew me mrs. parker you wouldn't speak to me like that know you of course i know you you're a lady and your father's a rich man and your husband thinks no end of himself and we're poor people so it don't matter whether we're robbed and ruined or not that's about it if i had anything i'd give you all that i had and he's taking to drinking that hard that he's never rightly sober from morning to night as she told this story of her husband's disgrace the poor woman burst into tears who's to trust him with business now he's that broken hearted that he don't know which way to turn only to the bottle and lopez has done it all done it all i haven't got a father ma'am i'm going to cross over his head for me and my babies only think if you was turned out into the street with your baby as i am like to be i have no baby said the wretched woman through her tears and sobs haven't you mrs. lopez oh dear exclaimed the soft hearted woman reduced at once to pity how was it then he died mrs. parker just a few days after he was born did he now well well we all have our troubles i suppose i have mine i know said emily and very very heavy they are i cannot tell you what you have to suffer isn't he good to you i cannot talk about it mrs. parker what you tell me about yourself has added greatly to my sorrows my husband is talking of going away to live out of england yes at a place they call i forget what they call it but i heard it in amala in america i know sexty told me he has no business to go anywhere while he owes sexty such a lot of money he has taken everything and now he's going to catty molly at this moment mrs. worton knocked at the door and entered the room as he did so mrs. parker got up and curtsied this is my father mrs. parker said emily papa this is mrs. parker she is the wife of mrs. parker who was ferdinand's partner she has come here with bad news very bad news indeed sir said mrs. parker curtsying again mr. worton frowned not as being angry with the woman but feeling that some further horror was to be told him of his son-in-law i can't help coming sir continued mrs. parker where am i to go if i don't come mr. lopez sir has ruined us root and branch root and branch that at any rate is not my fault said mr. worton but she is his wife sir where am i to go if not to where he lives am i to put up with everything gone and my poor husband in the right way to go to bedlam and not to say a word about it to the grand relations of him who did it all he is a bad man said mr. worton i cannot make him otherwise will he do nothing for us i will tell you all i know about him then mr. worton did tell her all that he knew as to the appointment at guatemala and the amount of salary which was to be attached to it whether he will do anything for you i cannot say i should think not unless he be forced i should advise you to go to the offices of the company in colman street and try to make some terms there but i fear i fear it will be all useless then we may starve it is not her fault said mr. worton pointing to his daughter she has had no hand in it she knows less of it all than you do it is my fault said emily bursting out into self reproach my fault that i married him whether married or single he would have prayed upon mr. parker to the same extent like enough said the poor women he'd pray upon anybody as he could get a hold of and so mr. worton you think that you can do nothing for me if you want be immediate i can relieve it said the barrister mrs. parker did not like the idea of accepting direct charity but nevertheless on going away did take the five sovereigns which mr. worton offered to her after such an interview as that the dinner between the father and the daughter was not very happy she was eaten up by remorse gradually she had learned how frightful was the thing she had done in giving herself to a man of whom she had known nothing and it was not only that she degraded herself by loving such a man but that she had been persistent in clinging to him though her father and all his friends had told her of the danger which she was running and now it seemed that she had destroyed her father as well as herself all that she could do was to be persistent in her prayer that he would let her go i have done it she said that night and i could bear it better if you would let me bear it alone but he only kissed her and sobbed over her and held her close to his heart with his clinging arms in a manner in which he had never held her in their old happy days he took himself to his own rooms before lopez returned but she of course had to bear her husband's presence as she had disclosed to her father more than once she was not afraid of him even though he should strike her though he should kill her she would not be afraid of him he had already done worse to her than anything that could follow mrs parker has been here today she said to him that night and what had mrs parker to say that you had ruined her husband exactly when a man speculates and doesn't win of course he throws the blame on someone else and when he is too much of a cur to come himself he sends his wife she says you owe him money what business have you to listen to what she says if she comes again do not see her do you understand me yes I understand she saw papa also if you owe him money should it not be paid my dearest love everybody who owes anything to anybody should always pay it that is so self evident that one would almost suppose that it might be understood without being enunciated but the virtue of paying your debts is incompatible with an absence of money now if you please we will not say anything more about mrs parker she is not at any rate a fit companion for you it was you who introduced me to her hold your tongue about her and let that be an end of it I little knew what a world of torment I was preparing for myself when I allowed you to come and live in your father's house end of chapter 55 recorded by frank adams messina february 3 2010 chapter 56 of the prime minister this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org the prime minister by anthony trollop chapter 56 what the duchess thought of her husband when the session began it was understood in the political world that a very strong opposition was to be organized against the government under the guidance of sir orlando drought and that the great sin to be imputed to the cabinet was an utter indifference to the safety and honor of great britain as manifested by the neglect of the navy all the world knew that sir orlando had deserted the coalition because he was not allowed to build new ships and of course sir orlando would make the most of his grievance with him was joined mr boffin the patriotic conservative to the voice of the seducer and the staunch remainder of the old tori party and with them the more violent of the radicals were prepared to act not desirous indeed that new ships should be built or that a conservative government should be established or indeed that anything should be done but animated by intense disgust that so mild the politician as the duke of omnium should be prime minister the fight began at once so orlando objecting violently to certain passages in the queen's speech it was all very well to say that the country was at present at peace with all the world but how was peace to be maintained without a fleet then sir orlando paid a great many compliments to the duke and ended his speech by declaring him to be the most absolutely fainting minister that had disgraced the country since the days of the duke of new castle mr monk defended the coalition and assured the house that the navy was not only the most powerful navy existing but that it was the most powerful that had ever existed in the possession of this or any other country and was probably an absolute efficiency superior to the combined navies of all the world the house was not shocked by statements so absolutely at variance with each other coming from two gentlemen who had lately been members of the same government and who must be supposed to know what they were talking about but upon the whole sir orlando had done his duty for though there was complete confidence in the navy as a navy and though a very small minority would have voted for any considerable increased expense still it was well that there should be an opposition and how can there be an opposition without some subject for grumbling some matter on which a minister may be attacked no one really thought that the Prussians and French combined would invade our shores to the state our fields and plunder London and carry our daughters away into captivity the state of the funds showed very plainly that there was no such fear but a good cry is a very good thing and it is always well to rub up the officials of the Admiralty by a little wholesome abuse sir orlando was thought to have done his business well of course he did not risk a division upon the address had he done so he would have been nowhere but as it was he was proud of his achievement the ministers generally would have been indifferent to the very hard words that were said of them knowing what they were worth and feeling aware that a ministry which had everything too easy must lose its interest in the country had it not been that their chief was very sore on the subject the old Duke's work at this time consisted almost altogether in nursing the younger Duke it did sometimes occur to his elder grace that it might be well to let his brother retire and that a prime minister could not be a successful prime minister or a useful one but if the Duke of Omnium went the coalition must go too and the coalition had been the offspring of the old statesman the country was thriving under the coalition and there was no real reason why it should not last for the next 10 years it continued therefore his system of coddling and was ready at any moment or at every moment to pour if not comfort at any rate consolation into the ears of his unhappy friend in the present emergency it was the falsehood and general baseness of Sir Orlando which nearly broke the heart of the prime minister how is one to live he said if one has to do with men of that kind but you haven't to do with him any longer said the Duke of Bange when I see a man who is supposed to have earned the name of a statesman and been high in the councils of his sovereign induced by personal jealousy to do as he is doing it makes me feel that an honest man should not place himself where he may have to deal with such persons according to that the honest men are to desert their country in order that the dishonest men may have everything their own way or Duke could not answer this and therefore for the moment he yielded but he was unhappy, saturned and generally silent except when closeted with his ancient mentor and he knew that he was saturned and silent and that it behoved him as a leader of men to be genial and communicative listening to council even if he did not follow it and at any rate appearing to have confidence in his colleagues during this time Mr. Slide was not inactive and in his heart of hearts the prime minister was more afraid of Mr. Slide's attacks than of those made upon him by Sir Orlando Drought now that parliament was hitting and the minds of men were stirred to political feeling by the renewed energy of the house a great deal was being said in many quarters about the last silver bridge election the papers had taken the matter up generally some accusing the prime minister and some defending but the defense was almost as unpalatable to him as the accusation it was admitted on all sides that the Duke both as a peer and as a prime minister should have abstained from any interference whatever in the election and it was also admitted on all sides that he had not so abstained if there was any truth at all in the allegation that he had paid money but it was pleaded on his behalf that the Dukes of Omnium had always interfered at Silverbridge and that no reform bill had ever had any effect in reducing their influence in that borough frequent illusion was made to the cautious Dodd who year after year had reported that the Duke of Omnium exercised considerable influence in the borough and then the friendly newspapers went on to explain that the Duke had in this instance stayed his hand and that the money, if paid at all had been paid because the candidate who was to have been his nominee had been thrown over when the Duke at the last moment made up his mind that he would abandon the privilege which had hitherto been always exercised by the head of his family and which had been exercised more than once or twice in his own favor but Mr. Slye day after day repeated his question we want to know whether the Prime Minister did or did not pay the election expenses of Mr. Lopez at the last Silverbridge election and if so why he paid them we shall continue to ask this question till it has been answered and when asking it we again say that the actual correspondence on the subject between the Duke and Mr. Lopez is in our own hands and then after a while illusions were made to the Duchess for Mr. Slye had learned all the facts of the case from Lopez himself when Mr. Slye found how hard it was to draw his badger as he expressed himself concerning his own operations he at last openly alluded to the Duchess running the risk of any punishment that might fall upon him by action for libel or by severe reprehension from his colleagues of the press we have as yet he said received no answers to the questions which we have ourselves felt called upon to ask in reference to the conduct of the Prime Minister at the Silverbridge election we are of opinion that all interference by peers with the constituencies of the country should be put down by the strong hand of the law as thoroughly and unmercifully as we are putting down ordinary bribery but when the offending peer is also the Prime Minister of this great country it becomes doubly the duty of those who watch over the public safety Mr. Slye was always speaking of himself as watching over the public safety to animadvert upon this crime till it has been assoiled or at any rate repented from what we now hear we have reason to believe that the crime itself is acknowledged had the payment on behalf of Mr. Lopez not been made as it certainly was made or the letters in our hand would be imprudent forgeries long since have been denied silence in such a matter amounts to confession but we understand that the Duke intends to escape under the plea that he has a second self powerful as he is to exercise the baneful influence which his territorial wealth unfortunately gives him but for the actions of which second self he as a peer of parliament and as Prime Minister is not responsible in other words we are informed that the privilege belonging to the palace of family at Silverbridge was exercised not by the Duke himself but by the Duchess and that the Duke paid the money when he found that the Duchess had promised more than she could perform we should hardly have thought that even a man so notoriously weak as the Duke of Omnium would have endeavored to ride out of responsibility by throwing the blame upon his wife we will certainly find that the attempt if made will fail against the Duchess herself we wish to say not a word she is known as exercising a wide if not a discriminate hospitality we believe her to be a kind hearted bustling ambitious lady to whom any little faults may easily be forgiven on account of her good nature and generosity but we cannot accept her in discretion as an excuse for a most unconstitutional act performed by the Prime Minister of this country laterally the Duchess had taken in her own copy of the people's banner since she had found that those around her were endeavoring to keep from her what was being said of her husband in regard to the borough she had been determined to see it all she therefore read the article from which two or three paragraphs have just been given she handed it to her friend Mrs Finn I wonder that you trouble yourself with such trash her friend said to her that is all very well my dear from you but we poor wretches who are the slaves of the people have to regard what is said of us in the people's banner it would be much better for you to neglect it just as authors are told not to read criticisms but I never would believe any author who told me that he didn't read him I wonder when the man found out that I was good nature he wouldn't find me good natured if I could get hold of him you are not going to allow it to torment you for my own sake not a moment I fancy that if I might be permitted to have my own way I could answer him very easily indeed with these dregs of the newspapers these gutters slanderers if one would be open and say all the loud what would one have to fear after all what is it that I did I disobeyed my husband because I thought that he was too scrupulous let me say as much out loud to the public saying also that I am sorry for it as I am and who would be against me who would have a word to say after that I should be the most popular woman in England for a month and as regards Plantagenet Mr. Slide and his articles would all sink into silence but even though he were to continue this from day to day for a 12th month it would not hurt me but that I know how it scorches him this mention of my name will make it more intolerable to him than ever I doubt that you know him even yet I thought that I did though in manner he is as dry as a stick though all his pursuits are opposite to the very idea of romance though he passes his days and nights and thinking how he may take a half penny in the pound off the taxes of the people without robbing the revenue there is a dash of chivalry about him worthy of the old poets to him a woman particularly his own woman is a thing so fine and so precious that the winds of heaven should hardly be allowed to blow upon her it cannot bear to think that people should even talk of his wife and yet heaven knows poor fellow I have given people occasion enough to talk of me and he has a much higher chivalry than that of the old poets they or their heroes watched their women because they did not want to have trouble about them shut them up in castles kept them in ignorance and held them as far as they could out of harm's way I hardly think they succeeded as Finn but in pure selfishness they tried all they could but he is too proud to watch if you and I were hatching trees and against him in the dark and Chance had brought him there he would stop his ears with his fingers he is all trust even when he knows that he is being deceived he is honor complete from head to foot ah it was before you knew me when I tried him the hardest I could never quite tell you that story and I won't try it now but he behaved like a god could never tell him what I felt but I felt it you ought to love him I do but what's the use of it he is a god but I am not a goddess and then though he is a god he is a dry, silent uncongenial and uncomfortable god it would have suited me much better to have married a sinner but then the sinner I would have married was so irredeemable escape grace I do not believe in a woman marrying a bad man in the hope of making him good especially not when the woman is naturally inclined to evil herself it will huff kill him when he reads all this about me he has read it already and it has already huff killed him for myself I do not mind it in the least but for his sake I mind it much it will rob him of his only possible answer to the accusation the very thing which this wretch in the newspaper says he will say and that he will be disgraced by saying is the very thing that he ought to say and there would be no disgrace in it beyond what I might well bear for my little fault in which I could bear so easily shall you speak to him about it now I dare not in this matter it has gone beyond speaking I suppose he does talk it over with the old duke but he will say nothing to me about it unless you were to tell me that he had resigned and that we were to start off and live in Menorca for the next 10 years I was so proud when they made him prime minister but I think that I am beginning to regret it now then there was a pause and the Duchess went on with her newspapers but she soon resumed her discourse her heart was full and out of a full heart the mouth speaks they should have made me prime minister and have let him be chancellor of the Exchequer I begin to see the ways of government now I could have done all the dirty work I could have given away garters and ribbons and made my bargains while giving them I could select sleek easy bishops who wouldn't be troublesome I could give pensions or withhold them and make the stupid men peers I could have the big nobleman at my feet praying to be lieutenants of counties I could dole out secretary ships and lord ships and never a one without getting something in return I could brazen out the job and let the people's banners and the slides make their worst of it and I think I could make myself popular with my party and do the high flowing patriotic talk for the benefit of the provinces a man at a regular office has to work that's what Patagenet is fit for he wants always to be doing something that shall really be useful and a man has to toil at that and really to know things but a prime minister should never go beyond generalities about commerce agriculture, peace and general philanthropy of course he should have the gift of the gab and that Plantagenet hasn't got he never wants to say anything unless he has got something to say I could do a mansion house dinner to a marvel I don't doubt that you could speak at all times Lady Glen oh I do so wish that I had the opportunity said the duchess of course the Duke had read the article in the privacy of his own room and of course the article had nearly maddened him with anger and grief as the duchess had said the article had taken from him the very ground on which his friends had told him that he could stand he had never consented and never would consent to lay the blame publicly on his wife but he had begun to think that he must take notice of the charge made against him and deputize someone to explain for him in the house of commons that the injury had been done by the indiscretion of an agent who had not fulfilled his employer's intentions and that the Duke had thought of it right afterwards to pay the money in consequence of this indiscretion he had not agreed to this but he had brought himself to think that he must agree to it but now of course the question would follow who was the indiscreet agent was the duchess the person for whose indiscretion he had given his hands to Mr Lopez and in this matter did he not find himself in accord even with Mr Slide we should hardly have thought that even a man so notoriously weak as the Duke of Omnium would have endeavored to ride out of responsibility by throwing the blame upon his wife he read and re-read these words till he knew them by heart for a few moments it seemed to him to be an evil in the constitution that the Prime Minister should not have the power of instantly crucifying so foul a slanderer and yet it was the very truth of the words that crushed him he was weak, he told himself notoriously weak it must be and it would be most mean in him to ride out of responsibility by throwing blame upon his wife but what else was he to do there seemed to him to be but one course to the House of Lords and declare that he paid the money because he had thought it right to do so under circumstances which he could not explain and to declare that it was not his intention to say another word on the subject or to have another word said on his behalf there was a cabinet council held that day but no one ventured to speak to the Prime Minister as to the accusation though he considered himself to be weak his colleagues were all more or less afraid of him there was a certain dignity about the man which had saved him from the evils as it also debod him from the advantages of familiarity he had spoken on the subject of Mr. Monk and Tofinius Finn and as the reader knows very often to his old mentor he had also mentioned it to his friend Lord Cantrip who was not in the cabinet coming away from the cabinet he took Mr. Monk's arm and led him away to his own room in the treasury chambers have you happened to see an article in the People's Banner this morning? he asked I never see the People's Banner said Mr. Monk there it is, just look at that whereupon Mr. Monk read the article you understand what people call constitutional practice as well as anyone I know as I told you before I did pay that man's expenses unconstitutional that would depend Duke upon the circumstances if you were to back a man up by your wealth in an expensive contest I think it would be unconstitutional if you set yourself to work in that way and cared not what you spent you might materially influence the elections and buy parliamentary support for yourself but in this case the payment was made after the man had failed and certainly had not been promised either by me or by anyone on my behalf I think it was unfortunate said Mr. Monk certainly certainly but I am not asking as to that said the Duke impatiently the man had been injured by indiscreet persons acting on my behalf and in opposition to my wishes he said not a word about the Duchess but Mr. Monk no doubt knew that her grace had been at any rate one of the indiscreet persons he applied to me for the money alleging that he had been injured by my agents that being so presuming that my story be correct did I act unconstitutionally I think not said Mr. Monk and I think that the circumstances when explained will bear you harmless thank you thank you I did not want to trouble you about that just at present End of chapter 56