'I trust your Grace's answer may be favourable to us,' said Mr Gresham,--who indeed did not doubt much that it would be so, seeing that Mr Monk had accompanied him.
'I do not think it would be unfavourable, though I cannot do as my friend has proposed.'
'Any practicable arrangement--' began Mr Gresham, with a frown, however, on his brow.
'The most practicable arrangement, I am sure, will be for you to form your Government, without hampering yourself with a beaten predecessor.'
'Not beaten,' said Lord Cantrip.
'Certainly not,' said the other Duke.
'It is because of your success that I ask your services,' said Mr Gresham.
'I have none to give,--none that I cannot better bestow out of office than in.I must ask you, gentlemen, to believe that I am quite fixed.Coming here with my friend Mr Monk, I did not state my purpose to him; but I begged him to accompany me, fearing lest in my absence he should feel it incumbent on himself to sail in the same boat as his late colleague.'
'I should prefer to do so,' said Mr Monk.
'Of course it is not for me to say what may be Mr Gresham's ideas, but as my friend here suggested to me that, were I to return to office, Mr Monk would do so also, I cannot be wrong in surmising that his services are desired.' Mr Gresham bowed assent.'I shall therefore take the liberty of telling Mr Monk that I think he is bound to give his aid in the present emergency.Were I as happily placed as he is in being the possessor of a seat in the House of Commons, I too should hope that I might do something.'
The four gentlemen, with eager pressure, begged the Duke to reconsider his decision.He could take this office and do nothing in it,--there being, as we know, offices the holders are not called upon for work,--or he could take that place which required him to labour like a galley slave.Would he be Privy Seal? Would he undertake the India Board? But the Duke of Omnium was at last resolute.Of this administration he would not at any rate be a member.Whether Caesar might or might not at some future time condescend to command a legion he could not do so when the purple had been but that moment stripped from his shoulders.He soon afterwards left the house with a repeated request to Mr Monk that he should not follow his late chief's example.
'I regret it greatly,' said Mr Gresham when he was gone.
'There is no man,' said Lord Cantrip, 'whom all who know him more thoroughly respect.'
'He has been worried,' said the old Duke, 'and must take time to recover himself.He has but one fault,--he is a little too conscientious, a little too scrupulous.' Mr Monk, of course, did join them, making one or two stipulations as he did so.He required that his friend Phineas Finn should be included in the Government.Mr Gresham yielded, though poor Phineas was not among the most favoured friends of that statesman.And so the Government was formed, and the crisis was again over, and the lists which the newspapers had been publishing for the last three days were republished in an amended and nearly correct condition.
The triumph of the "People's Banner", as to the omission of the Duke, was of course complete.The editor had no hesitation in declaring that he, by his own sagacity and persistency, had made certain the exclusion of that very unfit and very pressing candidate for office.
The list was filled up after the usual fashion.For a while the dilettanti politicians of the clubs, and the strong-minded women who take an interest in such things, and the writers in newspapers, had almost doubted whether in the emergency which had been supposed to be so peculiar, any Government could be formed.
There had been,--so they had said,--peculiarities so peculiar that it might be that the much-dreaded deadlock had come at last.
A Coalition had been possible, and, though antagonistic to British feelings generally, had carried on the Government.But what might succeed the Coalition, nobody had known.The Radicals and Liberals together would be too strong for Mr Daubney and Sir Orlando.Mr Gresham had no longer a party of his own at his back, and a second Coalition would be generally spurned.In this way there had been much political excitement, and a fair amount of consequent enjoyment.But after a few days the old men had rattled into their old places,--or, generally, old men into new places.And it was understood that Mr Gresham would again be supported by a majority.
