Endymion - Benjamin Disraeli
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"Indeed!" said Endymion. "My father was in parliament, and so was my
grandfather, but I confess I do not very well see my way there."
"You must connect yourself with a party," said Mr. Bertie Tremaine, "and
you will soon enter; and being young, you should connect yourself with
the party of the future. The country is wearied with the present men,
who have no philosophical foundation, and are therefore perpetually
puzzled and inconsistent, and the country will not stand the old men, as
it is resolved against retrogression. The party of the future and of the
speedy future has its headquarters under this roof, and I should like to
see you belong to it."
"You are too kind," murmured Endymion.
"Yes, I see in you the qualities adapted to public life, and which may
be turned to great account. I must get you into parliament as soon as
you are eligible," continued Mr. Bertie Tremaine in a musing tone. "This
death of the King was very inopportune. If he had reigned a couple
of years more, I saw my way to half a dozen seats, and I could have
arranged with Lord Durham."
"That was unfortunate," said Endymion.
"What do you think of Hortensius?" inquired Mr. Bertie Tremaine.
"I think him the most brilliant speaker I know," said Endymion. "I never
met him in private society before; he talks well."
"He wants conduct," said Mr. Bertie Tremaine. "He ought to be my
Lord Chancellor, but there is a tone of levity about him which is
unfortunate. Men destined to the highest places should beware of
badinage."
"I believe it is a dangerous weapon."
"All lawyers are loose in their youth, but an insular country subject
to fogs, and with a powerful middle class, requires grave statesmen. I
attribute a great deal of the nonsense called Conservative Reaction to
Peel's solemnity. The proper minister for England at this moment would
be Pitt. Extreme youth gives hope to a country; coupled with ceremonious
manners, hope soon assumes the form of confidence."
"Ah!" murmured Endymion.
"I had half a mind to ask Jawett to dinner to-day. His powers are
unquestionable, but he is not a practical man. For instance, I think
myself our colonial empire is a mistake, and that we should disembarrass
ourselves of its burthen as rapidly as is consistent with the dignity of
the nation; but were Jawett in the House of Commons to-morrow, nothing
would satisfy him but a resolution for the total and immediate abolition
of the empire, with a preamble denouncing the folly of our fathers in
creating it. Jawett never spares any one's self-love."
"I know him very well," said Endymion; "he is in my office. He is very
uncompromising."
"Yes," said Mr. Bertie Tremaine musingly; "if I had to form a
government, I could hardly offer him the cabinet." Then speaking more
rapidly, he added, "The man you should attach yourself to is my brother
Augustus--Mr. Tremaine Bertie. There is no man who understands foreign
politics like Augustus, and he is a thorough man of the world."
CHAPTER XXXVIII
When parliament reassembled in February, the Neuchatels quitted Hainault
for their London residence in Portland Place. Mrs. Neuchatel was
sadly troubled at leaving her country home, which, notwithstanding its
distressing splendour, had still some forms of compensatory innocence
in its flowers and sylvan glades. Adriana sighed when she called to mind
the manifold and mortifying snares and pitfalls that awaited her, and
had even framed a highly practical and sensible scheme which would
permit her parents to settle in town and allow Myra and herself to
remain permanently in the country; but Myra brushed away the project
like a fly, and Adriana yielding, embraced her with tearful eyes.
The Neuchatel mansion in Portland Place was one of the noblest in that
comely quarter of the town, and replete with every charm and convenience
that wealth and taste could provide. Myra, who, like her brother, had a
tenacious memory, was interested in recalling as fully and as accurately
as possible her previous experience of London life. She was then indeed
only a child, but a child who was often admitted to brilliant circles,
and had enjoyed opportunities of social observation which the very
youthful seldom possess. Her retrospection was not as profitable as she
could have desired, and she was astonished, after a severe analysis of
the past, to find how entirely at that early age she appeared to
have been engrossed with herself and with Endymion. Hill Street and
Wimbledon, and all their various life, figured as shadowy scenes; she
could realise nothing very definite for her present guidance; the past
seemed a phantom of fine dresses, and bright equipages, and endless
indulgence. All that had happened after their fall was distinct and full
of meaning. It would seem that adversity had taught Myra to feel and
think.
Forty years ago the great financiers had not that commanding, not to say
predominant, position in society which they possess at present, but
the Neuchatels were an exception to this general condition. They were
a family which not only had the art of accumulating wealth, but of
expending it with taste and generosity--an extremely rare combination.
Their great riches, their political influence, their high integrity and
their social accomplishments, combined to render their house not only
splendid, but interesting and agreeable, and gave them a great hold upon
the world. At first the fine ladies of their political party called on
them as a homage of condescending gratitude for the public support which
the Neuchatel family gave to their sons and husbands, but they soon
discovered that this amiable descent from their Olympian heights on
their part did not amount exactly to the sacrifice or service which they
had contemplated. They found their host as refined as themselves, and
much more magnificent, and in a very short time it was not merely the
wives of ambassadors and ministers of state that were found at the
garden fetes of Hainault, or the balls, and banquets, and concerts
of Portland Place, but the fitful and capricious realm of fashion
surrendered like a fair country conquered as it were by surprise. To
visit the Neuchatels became the mode; all solicited to be their guests,
and some solicited in vain.
Although it was only February, the world began to move, and some of the
ministers' wives, who were socially strong enough to venture on such a
step, received their friends. Mr. Neuchatel particularly liked this
form of society. "I cannot manage balls," he used to say, "but I like a
ministerial reception. There is some chance of sensible conversation and
doing a little business. I like talking with ambassadors after dinner.
Besides, in this country you meet the leaders of the opposition,
because, as they are not invited by the minister, but by his wife,
anybody can come without committing himself."
Myra, faithful to her original resolution, not to enter society while
she was in mourning, declined all the solicitudes of her friends to
accompany them to these assemblies. Mrs. Neuchatel always wished Myra
should be her substitute, and it was only at Myra's instance that
Adriana accompanied her parents. In the meantime, Myra saw much of
Endymion. He was always a welcome guest by the family, and could call
upon his sister at all the odds and ends of time that were at his
command, and chat with her at pleasant ease in her pretty room.
Sometimes they walked out together, and sometimes they went together to
see some exhibition that everybody went to see. Adriana became almost
as intimate with Endymion as his sister, and altogether the Neuchatel
family became by degrees to him as a kind of home. Talking with
Endymion, Myra heard a good deal of Colonel Albert, for he was her
brother's hero--but she rarely saw that gentleman. She was aware from
her brother, and from some occasional words of Mr. Neuchatel, that the
great banker still saw Colonel Albert and not unfrequently, but the
change of residence from Hainault to London made a difference in their
mode of communication. Business was transacted in Bishopsgate Street,
and no longer combined with a pleasant ride to an Essex forest. More
than once Colonel Albert had dined in Portland Place, but at irregular
and miscellaneous parties. Myra observed that he was never asked to
meet the grand personages who attended the celebrated banquets of Mr.
Neuchatel. And why not? His manners were distinguished, but his whole
bearing that of one accustomed to consideration. The irrepressible
curiosity of woman impelled her once to feel her way on the subject with
Mr. Neuchatel, but with the utmost dexterity and delicacy.
"No," said Mr. Neuchatel with a laughing eye, and who saw through
everybody's purpose, though his own manner was one of simplicity
amounting almost to innocence, "I did not say Colonel Albert was going
to dine here on Wednesday; I have asked him to dine here on Sunday. On
Wednesday I am going to have the premier and some of his colleagues.
I must insist upon Miss Ferrars dining at table. You will meet Lord
Roehampton; all the ladies admire him and he admires all the ladies. It
will not do to ask Colonel Albert to meet such a party, though perhaps,"
added Mr. Neuchatel with a merry smile, "some day they may be asked to
meet Colonel Albert. Who knows, Miss Ferrars? The wheel of Fortune turns
round very strangely."
"And who then is Colonel Albert?" asked Myra with decision.
"Colonel Albert is Colonel Albert, and nobody else, so far as I know,"
replied Mr. Neuchatel; "he has brought a letter of credit on my house
in that name, and I am happy to honour his drafts to the amount in
question, and as he is a foreigner, I think it is but kind and courteous
occasionally to ask him to dinner."
Miss Ferrars did not pursue the inquiry, for she was sufficiently
acquainted with Mr. Neuchatel to feel that he did not intend to gratify
her curiosity.
The banquet of the Neuchatels to the premier, and some of the principal
ambassadors and their wives, and to those of the premier's colleagues
who were fashionable enough to be asked, and to some of the dukes and
duchesses and other ethereal beings who supported the ministry, was the
first event of the season. The table blazed with rare flowers and rarer
porcelain and precious candelabra of sculptured beauty glittering with
light; the gold plate was less remarkable than the delicate ware that
had been alike moulded and adorned for a Du Barri or a Marie Antoinette,
and which now found a permanent and peaceful home in the proverbial
land of purity and order; and amid the stars and ribbons, not the least
remarkable feature of the whole was Mr. Neuchatel himself, seated at
the centre of his table, alike free from ostentation or over-deference,
talking to the great ladies on each side of him, as if he had nothing to
do in life but whisper in gentle ears, and partaking of his own dainties
as if he were eating bread and cheese at a country inn.
Perhaps Mrs. Neuchatel might have afforded a companion picture. Partly
in deference to their host, and partly because this evening the first
dance of the season was to be given, the great ladies in general wore
their diamonds, and Myra was amused as she watched their dazzling tiaras
and flashing rivieres, while not a single ornament adorned the graceful
presence of their hostess, who was more content to be brilliant only by
her conversation. As Mr. Neuchatel had only a few days before presented
his wife with another diamond necklace, he might be excused were he
slightly annoyed. Nothing of the sort; he only shrugged his shoulders,
and said to his nephew, "Your aunt must feel that I give her diamonds
from love and not from vanity, as she never lets me have the pleasure
of seeing them." The sole ornament of Adriana was an orchid, which had
arrived that morning from Hainault, and she had presented its fellow to
Myra.
There was one lady who much attracted the attention of Myra, interested
in all she observed. This lady was evidently a person of importance, for
she sate between an ambassador and a knight of the garter, and they vied
in homage to her. They watched her every word, and seemed delighted with
all she said. Without being strictly beautiful, there was an expression
of sweet animation in her physiognomy which was highly attractive: her
eye was full of summer lightning, and there was an arch dimple in her
smile, which seemed to irradiate her whole countenance. She was quite a
young woman, hardly older than Myra. What most distinguished her was the
harmony of her whole person; her graceful figure, her fair and finely
moulded shoulders, her pretty teeth, and her small extremities, seemed
to blend with and become the soft vivacity of her winning glance.
"Lady Montfort looks well to-night," said the neighbour of Myra.
"And is that Lady Montfort? Do you know, I never saw her before."
"Yes; that is the famous Berengaria, the Queen of Society, and the
genius of Whiggism."
In the evening, a great lady, who was held to have the finest voice in
society, favoured them with a splendid specimen of her commanding skill,
and then Adriana was induced to gratify her friends with a song, "only
one song," and that only on condition that Myra should accompany her.
Miss Neuchatel had a sweet and tender voice, and it had been finely
cultivated; she would have been more than charming if she had only taken
interest in anything she herself did, or believed for a moment that
she could interest others. When she ceased, a gentleman approached
the instrument and addressed her in terms of sympathy and deferential
praise. Myra recognised the knight of the garter who had sat next to
Lady Montfort. He was somewhat advanced in middle life, tall and of a
stately presence, with a voice more musical even than the tones which
had recently enchanted every one. His countenance was impressive,
a truly Olympian brow, but the lower part of the face indicated not
feebleness, but flexibility, and his mouth was somewhat sensuous. His
manner was at once winning; natural, and singularly unaffected, and
seemed to sympathise entirely with those whom he addressed.
"But I have never been at Hainault," said the gentleman, continuing
a conversation, "and therefore could not hear the nightingales. I am
content you have brought one of them to town."
"Nightingales disappear in June," said Miss Ferrars; "so our season will
be short."
"And where do they travel to?" asked the gentleman.
"Ah! that is a mystery," said Myra. "You must ask Miss Neuchatel."
"But she will not tell me," said the gentleman, for in truth Miss
Neuchatel, though he had frequently addressed her, had scarcely opened
her lips.
"Tell your secret, Adriana," said Miss Ferrars, trying to force her to
converse.
"Adriana!" said the gentleman. "What a beautiful name! You look with
that flower, Miss Neuchatel, like a bride of Venice."
"Nay," said Myra; "the bride of Venice was a stormy ocean."
"And have you a Venetian name?" asked the gentleman.
There was a pause, and then Miss Neuchatel, with an effort, murmured,
"She has a very pretty name. Her name is Myra."
"She seems to deserve it," said the gentleman.
"So you like my daughter's singing," said Mr. Neuchatel, coming up to
them. "She does not much like singing in public, but she is a very good
girl, and always gives me a song when I come home from business."
"Fortunate man!" said the gentleman. "I wish somebody would sing to me
when I come home from business."
"You should marry, my lord," said Mr. Neuchatel, "and get your wife to
sing to you. Is it not so, Miss Ferrars? By the by, I ought to introduce
you to--Lord Roehampton."
CHAPTER XXXIX
The Earl of Roehampton was the strongest member of the government,
except, of course, the premier himself. He was the man from whose
combined force and flexibility of character the country had confidence
that in all their councils there would be no lack of courage, yet
tempered with adroit discretion. Lord Roehampton, though an Englishman,
was an Irish peer, and was resolved to remain so, for he fully
appreciated the position, which united social distinction with the power
of a seat in the House of Commons. He was a very ambitious, and, as it
was thought, worldly man, deemed even by many to be unscrupulous, and
yet he was romantic. A great favourite in society, and especially
with the softer sex, somewhat late in life, he had married suddenly
a beautiful woman, who was without fortune, and not a member of the
enchanted circle in which he flourished. The union had been successful,
for Lord Roehampton was gifted with a sweet temper, and, though people
said he had no heart, with a winning tenderness of disposition, or at
least of manner, which at the same time charmed and soothed. He had been
a widower for two years, and the world was of opinion that he ought to
marry again, and form this time a becoming alliance. In addition to his
many recommendations he had now the inestimable reputation, which no one
had ever contemplated for him, of having been a good husband.
Berengaria, Countess of Montfort, was a great friend of Lord Roehampton.
She was accustomed to describe herself as "the last of his conquests,"
and though Lord Roehampton read characters and purposes with a glance,
and was too sagacious to be deceived by any one, even by himself,
his gratified taste, for he scarcely had vanity, cherished the bright
illusion of which he was conscious, and he responded to Lady Montfort
half sportively, half seriously, with an air of flattered devotion. Lord
Roehampton had inherited an ample estate, and he had generally been in
office; for he served his apprenticeship under Perceval and Liverpool,
and changed his party just in time to become a member of the Cabinet of
1831. Yet with all these advantages, whether it were the habit of his
life, which was ever profuse, or that neglect of his private interests
which almost inevitably accompanies the absorbing duties of public life,
his affairs were always somewhat confused, and Lady Montfort, who
wished to place him on a pinnacle, had resolved that he should marry
an heiress. After long observation and careful inquiry and prolonged
reflection, the lady she had fixed upon was Miss Neuchatel; and she
it was who had made Lord Roehampton cross the room and address Adriana
after her song.
"He is not young," reasoned Lady Montfort to herself, "but his mind and
manner are young, and that is everything. I am sure I meet youth every
day who, compared with Lord Roehampton, could have no chance with my
sex--men who can neither feel, nor think, nor converse. And then he is
famous, and powerful, and fashionable, and knows how to talk to women.
And this must all tell with a banker's daughter, dying, of course, to
be a _grande dame_. It will do. He may not be young, but he is
irresistible. And the father will like it, for he told me in confidence,
at dinner, that he wished Lord Roehampton to be prime minister; and with
this alliance he will be."
The plot being devised by a fertile brain never wanting in expedients,
its development was skilfully managed, and its accomplishment
anticipated with confidence. It was remarkable with what dexterity the
Neuchatel family and Lord Roehampton were brought together. Berengaria's
lord and master was in the country, which he said he would not quit; but
this did not prevent her giving delightful little dinners and holding
select assemblies on nights when there was no dreadful House of Commons,
and Lord Roehampton could be present. On most occasions, and especially
on these latter ones, Lady Montfort could not endure existence without
her dear Adriana. Mr. Neuchatel, who was a little in the plot, who at
least smiled when Berengaria alluded to her enterprise, was not wanting
in his contributions to its success. He hardly ever gave one of his
famous banquets to which Lord Roehampton was not invited, and, strange
to say, Lord Roehampton, who had the reputation of being somewhat
difficult on this head, always accepted the invitations. The crowning
social incident, however, was when Lord Roehampton opened his own house
for the first time since his widowhood, and received the Neuchatels at
a banquet not inferior to their own. This was a great triumph for Lady
Montfort, who thought the end was at hand.
"Life is short," she said to Lord Roehampton that evening. "Why not
settle it to-night?"
"Well," said Lord Roehampton, "you know I never like anything
precipitate. Besides, why should the citadel surrender when I have
hardly entered on my first parallel?"
"Ah! those are old-fashioned tactics," said Lady Montfort.
"Well, I suppose I am an old-fashioned man."
"Be serious, now. I want it settled before Easter. I must go down to my
lord then, and even before; and I should like to see this settled before
we separate."
"Why does not Montfort come up to town?" said Lord Roehampton. "He is
wanted."
"Well," said Lady Montfort, with half a sigh, "it is no use talking
about it. He will not come. Our society bores him, and he must be
amused. I write to him every day, and sometimes twice a day, and pass my
life in collecting things to interest him. I would never leave him for a
moment, only I know then that he would get wearied of me; and he thinks
now--at least, he once said so--that he has never had a dull moment in
my company."
"How can he find amusement in the country?" said Lord Roehampton. "There
is no sport now, and a man cannot always be reading French novels."
"Well, I send amusing people down to him," said Berengaria. "It
is difficult to arrange, for he does not like toadies, which is so
unreasonable, for I know many toadies who are very pleasant. Treeby is
with him now, and that is excellent, for Treeby contradicts him, and is
scientific as well as fashionable, and gives him the last news of the
Sun as well as of White's. I want to get this great African traveller to
go down to him; but one can hardly send a perfect stranger as a guest.
I wanted Treeby to take him, but Treeby refused--men are so selfish.
Treeby could have left him there, and the traveller might have remained
a week, told all he had seen, and as much more as he liked. My lord
cannot stand Treeby more than two days, and Treeby cannot stand my lord
for a longer period, and that is why they are such friends."
"A sound basis of agreement," said Lord Roehampton. "I believe absence
is often a great element of charm."
"But, _a nos moutons_," resumed Lady Montfort. "You see now why I am so
anxious for a conclusion of our affair. I think it is ripe?"
"Why do you?" said Lord Roehampton.
"Well, she must be very much in love with you."
"Has she told you so?"
"No; but she looks in love."
"She has never told me so," said Lord Roehampton.
"Have you told her?"
"Well, I have not," said her companion. "I like the family--all of them.
I like Neuchatel particularly. I like his house and style of living.
You always meet nice people there, and bear the last thing that has been
said or done all over the world. It is a house where you are sure not to
be dull."
"You have described a perfect home," said Lady Montfort, "and it awaits
you."
"Well, I do not know," said Lord Roehampton. "Perhaps I am fastidious,
perhaps I am content; to be noticed sometimes by a Lady Montfort should,
I think, satisfy any man."
"Well, that is gallant, but it is not business, my dear lord. You can
count on my devotion even when you are married; but I want to see you on
a pinnacle, so that if anything happens there shall be no question who
is to be the first man in this country."
CHAPTER XL
The meeting of parliament caused also the return of Waldershare to
England, and brought life and enjoyment to our friends in Warwick
Street. Waldershare had not taken his seat in the autumn session. After
the general election, he had gone abroad with Lord Beaumaris, the young
nobleman who had taken them to the Derby, and they had seen and
done many strange things. During all their peregrinations, however,
Waldershare maintained a constant correspondence with Imogene,
occasionally sending her a choice volume, which she was not only to
read, but to prove her perusal of it by forwarding to him a criticism of
its contents.
Endymion was too much pleased to meet Waldershare again, and told him of
the kind of intimacy he had formed with Colonel Albert and all about
the baron. Waldershare was much interested in these details, and it was
arranged that an opportunity should be taken to make the colonel and
Waldershare acquainted.
This, however, was not an easy result to bring about, for Waldershare
insisted on its not occurring formally, and as the colonel maintained
the utmost reserve with the household, and Endymion had no room of
reception, weeks passed over without Waldershare knowing more of Colonel
Albert personally than sometimes occasionally seeing him mount his
horse.
In the meantime life in Warwick Street, so far as the Rodney family were
concerned, appeared to have re-assumed its pleasant, and what perhaps
we are authorised in styling its normal condition. They went to the
play two or three times a week, and there Waldershare or Lord Beaumaris,
frequently both, always joined them; and then they came home to supper,
and then they smoked; and sometimes there was a little singing, and
sometimes a little whist. Occasionally there was only conversation, that
is to say, Waldershare held forth, dilating on some wondrous theme,
full of historical anecdote, and dazzling paradox, and happy phrase. All
listened with interest, even those who did not understand him. Much of
his talk was addressed really to Beaumaris, whose mind he was forming,
as well as that of Imogene. Beaumaris was an hereditary Whig, but had
not personally committed himself, and the ambition of Waldershare was
to transform him not only into a Tory, but one of the old rock, a
real Jacobite. "Is not the Tory party," Waldershare would exclaim, "a
succession of heroic spirits, 'beautiful and swift,' ever in the van,
and foremost of their age?--Hobbes and Bolingbroke, Hume and Adam Smith,
Wyndham and Cobham, Pitt and Grenville, Canning and Huskisson?--Are not
the principles of Toryism those popular rights which men like Shippen
and Hynde Cotton flung in the face of an alien monarch and his mushroom
aristocracy?--Place bills, triennial bills, opposition to standing
armies, to peerage bills?--Are not the traditions of the Tory party the
noblest pedigree in the world? Are not its illustrations that glorious
martyrology, that opens with the name of Falkland and closes with the
name of Canning?"