The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ something that almost verged on an animated discussion ensued as to what was and what was not the real province of diplomacy; a majority inclining to the opinion that it was derogatory to the high dignity of the calling to meddle with what, at best, was the function of the mere courtier.

      “Is that Culduff driving away in that cab?” cried one, as he stood at the window.

      “He has carried away my hat, I see, by mistake,” said another. “What is he up to at this hour of the morning?”

      “I think I can guess,” said the grim individual who had corrected him in the matter of genealogy; “he’s off to F. O. to ask for the special mission he has just declared that none of us should stoop to accept.”

      “You ‘ve hit it, Grindesley,” cried another. “I ‘ll wager a pony you ‘re right.”

      “It’s so like him.”

      “After all, it’s the sort of thing he’s best up to. La Ferronaye told me he was the best master of the ceremonies in Europe.”

      “Why come amongst us at all, then? Why not get himself made a gold-stick, and follow the instincts of his genius?”

      “Well, I believe he wants it badly,” said one who affected a tone of half kindliness. “They tell me he has not eight hundred a year left him.”

      “Not four. I doubt if he could lay claim to three.”

      “He never had in his best day above four or five thousand, though he tells you of his twenty-seven or twenty-eight.”

      “He had originally about six; but he always lived at the rate of twelve or fifteen, and in mere ostentation too.”

      “So I ‘ve always heard.” And then there followed a number of little anecdotes of Culduff’s selfishness, his avarice, his meanness, and such like, told with such exactitude as to show that every act of these men’s lives was scrupulously watched, and when occasion offered mercilessly recorded.

      While they thus sat in judgment over him, Lord Culduff himself was seated at a fire in a dingy old room in Downing Street, the Chief Secretary for Foreign Affairs opposite him. They were talking in a tone of easy familiarity, as men might who occupied the same social station, a certain air of superiority, however, being always apparent in the manner of the Minister towards the subordinate.

      “I don’t think you can ask for this, Culduff,” said the great man, as he puffed his cigar tranquilly in front of him. “You’ve had three of these special missions already.”

      “And for the simple reason that I was the one man in England who knew how to do them.”

      “We don’t dispute the way you did them; we only say all the prizes in the wheel should not fall to the same man.”

      “You have had my proxy for the last five years.”

      “And we have acknowledged the support – acknowledged it by more than professions.”

      “I can only say this, that if I had been with the other side, I ‘d have met somewhat different treatment.”

      “Don’t believe it, Culduff. Every party that is in power inherits its share of obligations. We have never disowned those we owe to you.”

      “And why am I refused this, then?”

      “If you wanted other reasons than those I have given you, I might be able to adduce them – not willingly indeed – but under pressure, and especially in strict confidence.” “Reasons against my having the mission?”

      “Reasons against your having the mission.”

      “You amaze me, my Lord. I almost doubt that I have heard you aright I must, however, insist on your explaining yourself. Am I to understand that there are personal grounds of unfitness?”

      The other bowed in assent.

      “Have the kindness to let me know them.”

      “First of all, Culduff, this is to be a family mission – the duchess is a connection of our own royal house – and a certain degree of display and consequent expense will be required. Your fortune does not admit of this.”

      “Push on to the more cogent reason, my Lord,” said Culduff, stiffly.

      “Here, then, is the more cogent reason. The court has not forgotten – what possibly the world may have forgotten – some of those passages in your life for which you, perhaps, have no other remorse than that they are not likely to recur; and as you have given no hostages for good behavior, in the shape of a wife, the court, I say, is sure to veto your appointment. You see it all as clearly as I do.”

      “So far as I do see,” said Culduff, slowly: “the first objection is my want of fortune, the second, my want of a wife?”

      “Exactly so.”

      “Well, my Lord, I am able to meet each of these obstacles; my agent has just discovered coal on one of my Irish estates, and I am now in town to make arrangements on a large scale to develop the source of wealth. As to the second disability, I shall pledge myself to present the Viscountess Culduff at the next drawing-room.”

      “Married already?”

      “No, but I may be within a few weeks. In fact, I mean to place myself in such a position, that no one holding your office can pass me over by a pretext, or affect to ignore my claim by affirming that I labor under a disability.”

      “This sounds like menace, does it not?” said the other as he threw his cigar impatiently from him.

      “A mere protocol, my Lord, to denote intention.”

      “Well, I’ll submit your name. I’ll go further, – I’ll support it. Don’t leave town for a day or two. Call on Beadlesworth and see Repsley; tell him what you ‘ve said to me. If you could promise it was one of his old maiden sisters that you thought of making Lady Culduff, the thing could be clenched at once. But I take it you have other views?”

      “I have other views,” said he, gravely.

      “I’m not indiscreet, and I shall not ask you more on that head. By the way, is n’t your leave up, or nearly up?”

      “It expired on Wednesday last, and I want it renewed for two months.”

      “Of course, if we send you on this mission, you ‘ll not want the leave. I had something else to say. What was it?”

      “I have not the very vaguest idea.”

      “Oh! I remember. It was to recommend you not to take your wife from the stage. There’s a strong prejudice in a certain quarter as to that – in fact, I may say it couldn’t be got over.”

      “I may relieve you of any apprehensions on that score. Indeed, I don’t know what fact in my life should expose me to the mere suspicion.”

      “Nothing, nothing – except that impulsive generosity of your disposition, which might lead you to do what other men would stop short to count the cost of.”

      “It would never lead me to derogate, my Lord,” said he, proudly, as he took his hat, and bowing haughtily left the room.

      “The СКАЧАТЬ