THE PRIME MINISTER'S POLITICAL CREED.
The Duke, before he went to Matching, twice reminded Phineas Finn that he was expected there in a day or two.'The Duchess says that your wife is coming to-morrow,' said the Duke on the day of his departure.But Phineas could not go then.His services to the country were required among the dockyards and ships, and he postponed his visit till the end of September.Then he started for Matching, having the double pleasure before him of meeting his wife and his noble host and hostess.He found a small party there, but not so small as the Duchess had once suggested to him.
'Your wife will be there, of course, Mr Finn.She is too good to desert me in my troubles.And there will probably be Lady Rosina De Courcy.Lady Rosina is to the Duke what your wife is to me.
I don't suppose there will be anybody else,--except, perhaps Mr Warburton!' But Lady Rosina was not there.In place of Lady Rosina there were the Duke and Duchess of St Bungay, with their daughters, two or three Palliser offshoots, with their wives, and Barrington Erle.There were, too, the Bishop of the diocese with his wife, three or four others, coming and going, so that the party never seemed to be too small.'We asked Mr Rattler,' said the Duchess in a whisper to Phineas, 'but he declined, with a string of florid compliments.When Mr Rattler won't come to the Prime Minister's house, you may depend that something is going to happen.It is like pigs carrying straws in their mouths.Mr Rattler is my pig.' Phineas only laughed and said that he did not believe Rattler to be a better pig than anybody else.
It was soon apparent to Phineas that the Duke's manner to him was entirely altered, so much so that he was compelled to acknowledge to himself that he had not hitherto read the Duke's character aright.Hitherto he had never found the Duke pleasant in conversation.Looking back he could hardly remember that he had in truth ever conversed with the Duke.The man had seemed to shut himself up as soon as he had uttered certain words which the circumstances of the moment had demanded.Whether it was arrogance or shyness Phineas had not known.His wife had said that the Duke was shy.Had he been arrogant the effect would have been the same.He was unbending, hard, and lucid only when he spoke on some detail of business, or on some point of policy.
But now he smiled, and, though hesitating a little at first, very soon fell into the ways of a pleasant country host.'You shoot,'
said the Duke.Phineas did shoot, but cared very little about it.'But you hunt.' Phineas was very fond of riding to hounds.
'I am beginning to think,' said the Duke, 'that I have made a mistake in not caring for such things.When I was very young Igave them up, because it appeared that other men devoted too much time to them.One might as well not eat because men are gluttons.'
'Only that you would die if you did not eat.'
'Bread, I suppose, would keep me alive, but still one eats meat without being a glutton.I very often regret the want of amusements, and particularly of those which would throw me more among my fellow-creatures.A man is alone when reading, alone when writing, alone when thinking.Even sitting in Parliament he is very much alone, though there be a crowd around him.Now a man can hardly be thoroughly useful unless he knows his fellow-men, and how is he to know them if he shuts himself up? If I had to begin again I think I would cultivate the amusements of the time.'
Not long after this the Duke asked him whether he was going to join the shooting men on that morning.Phineas declared that his hands were too full of business for any amusement before lunch.
'Then,' said the Duke, 'will you walk with me this afternoon?
There is nothing I really like so much as a walk.There are some very pretty points where the river skirts the park.And I will show you the spot on which Sir Guy de Palliser performed the feat for which the king gave him this property.It was a grand time when a man could get half-a-dozen parishes because he tickled the king's fancy.'
'But suppose he didn't tickle the king's fancy?'
'Ah, then indeed, it might go otherwise with him.But I am glad to say that Sir Guy was an accomplished courtier.'
The walk was taken, and the pretty bends of the river were seen;but they were looked at without much earnestness, and Sir Guy's great deed was not again mentioned.The conversation went away to other matters.Of course it was not long before the Prime Minister was deep in discussing the probabilities of the next Session.It was soon apparent to Phineas that the Duke was no longer desirous of resigning, though he spoke very freely of the probable necessity there might be for him to do so.At the present moment he was in his best humour.His feet were on his own property.He could see the prosperity around him.The spot was the one which he loved the best in the world.He liked his present companion, who was one to whom he was entitled to speak with freedom.But there was still present to him the sense of some injury from which he could not free himself.Of course he did not know that he had been haughty to Sir Orlando, to Sir Timothy, and others.But he did know that he had intended to be true, and he thought that they had been treacherous.Twelve months ago there had been a goal before him which he might attain, a winning-post which was still within his reach.There was in store for him the tranquillity of retirement which he would enjoy as soon as a sense of duty would permit him to seize it.But now the prospect of that happiness had gradually vanished from him.That retirement was no longer a winning-post for him.The poison of place and power and dignity had got into his blood.As he looked forward he feared rather than sighed for retirement.'You think it will go against us?' he said.
