"Has there been a change?"
"I suppose so. Everything has become so quiet that I cannot imagine that Plantagenet is still in office. Do you know what anybody is doing?"
"The world is going on very smoothly20, I take it."
"I hate smoothness. It always means treachery and danger. I feel sure that there will be a great blow up before long. I smell it in the air. Don't you tremble for your husband?"
"Why should I? He likes being in office because it gives him something to do; but he would never be an idle man. As long as he has a seat in Parliament, I shall be contented21."
"To have been Prime Minister is something after all, and they can't rob him of that," said the Duchess, recurring22 again to her own husband. "I half fancy sometimes that the charm of the thing is growing upon him."
"Upon the Duke?"
"Yes. He is always talking of the delight he will have in giving it up. He is always Cincinnatus, going back to his peaches and his ploughs. But I fear he is beginning to feel that the salt would be gone out of his life if he ceased to be the first man in the kingdom. He has never said so, but there is a nervousness about him when I suggest to him the name of this or that man as his successor which alarms me. And I think he is becoming a tyrant23 with his own men. He spoke the other day of Lord Drummond almost as though he meant to have him whipped. It isn't what one expected from him;—is it?"
"The weight of the load on his mind makes him irritable24."
"Either that, or having no load. If he had really much to do he wouldn't surely have time to think so much of that poor wretch25 who destroyed himself. Such sensitiveness is simply a disease. One can never punish any fault in the world if the sinner can revenge himself upon us by rushing into eternity26. Sometimes I see him shiver and shudder27, and then I know that he is thinking of Lopez."
"I can understand all that, Lady Glen."
"It isn't as it should be, though you can understand it. I'll bet you a guinea that Sir Timothy Beeswax has to go out before the beginning of next Session."
"I've no objection. But why Sir Timothy?"
"He mentioned Lopez' name the other day before Plantagenet. I heard him. Plantagenet pulled that long face of his, looking as though he meant to impose silence on the whole world for the next six weeks. But Sir Timothy is brass28 itself, a sounding cymbal29 of brass that nothing can silence. He went on to declare with that loud voice of his that the death of Lopez was a good riddance of bad rubbish. Plantagenet turned away and left the room and shut himself up. He didn't declare to himself that he'd dismiss Sir Timothy, because that's not the way of his mind. But you'll see that Sir Timothy will have to go."
"That, at any rate, will be a good riddance of bad rubbish," said Mrs. Finn, who did not love Sir Timothy Beeswax.
Soon after that the Duchess made up her mind that she would interrogate30 the Duke of St. Bungay as to the present state of affairs. It was then the end of June, and nearly one of those long and tedious months had gone by of which the Duke spoke so feelingly when he asked Phineas Finn to come down to Matching. Hope had been expressed in more than one quarter that this would be a short Session. Such hopes are much more common in June than in July, and, though rarely verified, serve to keep up the drooping31 spirits of languid senators. "I suppose we shall be early out of town, Duke," she said one day.
"I think so. I don't see what there is to keep us. It often happens that ministers are a great deal better in the country than in London, and I fancy it will be so this year."
"You never think of the poor girls who haven't got their husbands yet."
"They should make better use of their time. Besides, they can get their husbands in the country."
"It's quite true that they never get to the end of their labours. They are not like you members of Parliament who can shut up your portfolios32 and go and shoot grouse33. They have to keep at their work spring and summer, autumn and winter,—year after year! How they must hate the men they persecute34!"
"I don't think we can put off going for their sake."
"Men are always selfish, I know. What do you think of Plantagenet lately?" The question was put very abruptly35, without a moment's notice, and there was no avoiding it.
"Think of him!"
"Yes;—what do you think of his condition;—of his happiness, his health, his capacity of endurance? Will he be able to go on much longer? Now, my dear Duke, don't stare at me like that. You know, and I know, that you haven't spoken a word to me for the last two months. And you know, and I know, how many things there are of which we are both thinking in common. You haven't quarrelled with Plantagenet?"
"Quarrelled with him! Good heavens, no."
"Of course I know you still call him your noble colleague, and your noble friend, and make one of the same team with him and all that. But it used to be so much more than that."
"It is still more than that;—very much more."
"It was you who made him Prime Minister."
"No, no, no;—and again no. He made himself Prime Minister by obtaining the confidence of the House of Commons. There is no other possible way in which a man can become Prime Minister in this country."
"If I were not very serious at this moment, Duke, I should make an allusion to the—Marines." No other human being could have said this to the Duke of St. Bungay, except the young woman whom he had petted all his life as Lady Glencora. "But I am very serious," she continued, "and I may say not very happy. Of course the big wigs36 of a party have to settle among themselves who shall be their leader, and when this party was formed they settled, at your advice, that Plantagenet should be the man."
"My dear Lady Glen, I cannot allow that to pass without contradiction."
"Do not suppose that I am finding fault, or even that I am ungrateful. No one rejoiced as I rejoiced. No one still feels so much pride in it as I feel. I would have given ten years of my life to make him Prime Minister, and now I would give five to keep him so. It is like it was to be king, when men struggled among themselves who should be king. Whatever he may be, I am ambitious. I love to think that other men should look to him as being above them, and that something of this should come down upon me as his wife. I do not know whether it was not the happiest moment of my life when he told me that the Queen had sent for him."
"It was not so with him."
"No, Duke,—no! He and I are very different. He only wants to be useful. At any rate, that was all he did want."
"He is still the same."
"A man cannot always be carrying a huge load up a hill without having his back bent38."
"I don't know that the load need be so heavy, Duchess."
"Ah, but what is the load? It is not going to the Treasury Chambers39 at eleven or twelve in the morning, and sitting four or five times a week in the House of Lords till seven or eight o'clock. He was never ill when he would remain in the House of Commons till two in the morning, and not have a decent dinner above twice in the week. The load I speak of isn't work."
"What is it then?" said the Duke, who in truth understood it all nearly as well as the Duchess herself.
"It is hard to explain, but it is very heavy."
"Responsibility, my dear, will always be heavy."
"But it is hardly that;—certainly not that alone. It is the feeling that so many people blame him for so many things, and the doubt in his own mind whether he may not deserve it. And then he becomes fretful, and conscious that such fretfulness is beneath him and injurious to his honour. He condemns40 men in his mind, and condemns himself for condescending42 to condemn41 them. He spends one quarter of an hour in thinking that as he is Prime Minister he will be Prime Minister down to his fingers' ends, and the next in resolving that he never ought to have been Prime Minister at all." Here something like a frown passed across the old man's brow, which was, however, no indication, of anger. "Dear Duke," she said, "you must not be angry with me. Who is there to whom I can speak but you?"
"Angry, my dear! No, indeed!"
"Because you looked as though you would scold me." At this he smiled. "And of course all this tells upon his health."
"Do you think he is ill?"
"He never says so. There is no special illness. But he is thin and wan37 and careworn43. He does not eat and he does not sleep. Of course I watch him."
"Does his doctor see him?"
"Never. When I asked him once to say a word to Sir James Thorax,—for he was getting hoarse44, you know,—he only shook his head and turned on his heels. When he was in the other House, and speaking every night, he would see Thorax constantly, and do just what he was told. He used to like opening his mouth and having Sir James to look down it. But now he won't let any one touch him."
"What would you have me do, Lady Glen?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think that he is so far out of health that he ought to give it up?"
"I don't say that. I don't dare to say it. I don't dare to recommend anything. No consideration of health would tell with him at all. If he were to die to-morrow as the penalty of doing something useful to-night, he wouldn't think twice about it. If you wanted to make him stay where he is, the way to do it would be to tell him that his health was failing him. I don't know that he does want to give up now."
"The autumn months will do everything for him;—only let him be quiet."
"You are coming to Matching, Duke?"
"I suppose so,—if you ask me,—for a week or two."
"You must come. I am quite nervous if you desert us. I think he becomes more estranged45 every day from all the others. I know you won't do a mischief46 by repeating what I say."
"I hope not."
"He seems to me to turn his nose up at everybody. He used to like Mr. Monk47; but he envies Mr. Monk, because Mr. Monk is Chancellor48 of the Exchequer49. I asked him whether we shouldn't have Lord Drummond at Matching, and he told me angrily that I might ask all the Government if I liked."
"Drummond contradicted him the other day."
"I knew there was something. He has got to be like a bear with a sore head, Duke. You should have seen his face the other day, when Mr. Rattler made some suggestion to him about the proper way of dividing farms."
"I don't think he ever liked Rattler."
"What of that? Don't I have to smile upon men whom I hate like poison;—and women too, which is worse? Do you think that I love old Lady Ramsden, or Mrs. MacPherson? He used to be so fond of Lord Cantrip."
"I think he likes Lord Cantrip," said the Duke.
"He asked his lordship to do something, and Lord Cantrip declined."
"I know all about that," said the Duke.
"And now he looks gloomy at Lord Cantrip. His friends won't stand that kind of thing, you know, for ever."
"He is always courteous50 to Finn," said the Duke.
"Yes;—just now he is on good terms with Mr. Finn. He would never be harsh to Mr. Finn, because he knows that Mrs. Finn is the one really intimate female friend whom I have in the world. After all, Duke, besides Plantagenet and the children, there are only two persons in the world whom I really love. There are only you and she. She will never desert me;—and you must not desert me either." Then he put his hand behind her waist, and stooped over her and kissed her brow, and swore to her that he would never desert her.
But what was he to do? He knew, without being told by the Duchess, that his colleague and chief was becoming, from day to day, more difficult to manage. He had been right enough in laying it down as a general rule that Prime Ministers are selected for that position by the general confidence of the House of Commons;—but he was aware at the same time that it had hardly been so in the present instance. There had come to be a dead-lock in affairs, during which neither of the two old and well-recognised leaders of parties could command a sufficient following for the carrying on of the Government. With unusual patience these two gentlemen had now for the greater part of three Sessions sat by, offering but little opposition51 to the Coalition, but of course biding52 their time. They, too, called themselves,—perhaps thought themselves,—Cincinnatuses. But their ploughs and peaches did not suffice to them, and they longed again to be in every mouth, and to have, if not their deeds, then even their omissions53 blazoned54 in every paragraph. The palate accustomed to Cayenne pepper can hardly be gratified by simple salt. When that dead-lock had come, politicians who were really anxious for the country had been forced to look about for a Premier,—and in the search the old Duke had been the foremost. The Duchess had hardly said more than the truth when she declared that her husband's promotion55 had been effected by their old friend. But it is sometimes easier to make than to unmake. Perhaps the time had now in truth come, in which it would be better for the country that the usual state of things should again exist. Perhaps,—nay, the Duke now thought that he saw that it was so,—Mr. Gresham might again have a Liberal majority at his back if the Duke of Omnium could find some graceful56 mode of retiring. But who was to tell all this to the Duke of Omnium? There was only one man in all England to whom such a task was possible, and that was the old Duke himself,—who during the last two years had been constantly urgent with his friend not to retire! How often since he had taken office had the conscientious57 and timid Minister begged of his friend permission to abandon his high office! But that permission had always been refused, and now, for the last three months, the request had not been repeated. The Duchess probably was right in saying that her husband "didn't want to give it up now."
But he, the Duke of St. Bungay, had brought his friend into the trouble, and it was certainly his duty to extricate58 him from it. The admonition might come in the rude shape of repeated minorities in the House of Commons. Hitherto the number of votes at the command of the Ministry59 had not been very much impaired60. A few always fall off as time goes on. Aristides becomes too just, and the mind of man is greedy of novelty. Sir Orlando, also, had taken with him a few, and it may be that two or three had told themselves that there could not be all that smoke raised by the "People's Banner" without some fire below it. But there was a good working majority,—very much at Mr. Monk's command,—and Mr. Monk was moved by none of that feeling of rebellion which had urged Sir Orlando on to his destruction. It was difficult to find a cause for resignation. And yet the Duke of St. Bungay, who had watched the House of Commons closely for nearly half a century, was aware that the Coalition which he had created had done its work, and was almost convinced that it would not be permitted to remain very much longer in power. He had seen symptoms of impatience61 in Mr. Daubeny, and Mr. Gresham had snorted once or twice, as though eager for the battle.
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1
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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goaded
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| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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9
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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11
delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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fatiguing
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| a.使人劳累的 | |
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13
multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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14
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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15
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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coalition
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| n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合 | |
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17
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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19
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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27
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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28
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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29
cymbal
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| n.铙钹 | |
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30
interrogate
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| vt.讯问，审问，盘问 | |
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31
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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32
portfolios
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| n.投资组合( portfolio的名词复数 )；（保险）业务量；（公司或机构提供的）系列产品；纸夹 | |
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33
grouse
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| n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦 | |
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34
persecute
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| vt.迫害，虐待；纠缠，骚扰 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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36
wigs
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| n.假发，法官帽( wig的名词复数 ) | |
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37
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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39
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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40
condemns
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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41
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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42
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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43
careworn
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| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
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44
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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45
estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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46
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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47
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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48
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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49
exchequer
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| n.财政部；国库 | |
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50
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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51
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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52
biding
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| v.等待，停留( bide的现在分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待；面临 | |
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53
omissions
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| n.省略( omission的名词复数 )；删节；遗漏；略去或漏掉的事（或人） | |
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54
blazoned
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| v.广布( blazon的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布；夸示；装饰 | |
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55
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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56
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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57
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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58
extricate
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| v.拯救，救出；解脱 | |
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59
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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60
impaired
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| adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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