Lord Silverbridge was informed that it would be right that he should go down to Silverbridge a few days before the election, to make himself known to the electors. As the day for the election drew near it was understood that there would be no other candidate. The Conservative side was the popular side among the tradesmen of Silverbridge. Silverbridge had been proud to be honoured by the services of the heir of the House of Omnium, even while that heir had been a Liberal,--had regarded it as so much a matter of course that the borough should be at his disposal that no question as to politics had ever arisen while he retained the seat. And had the Duke chosen to continue to send them Liberals, one after another, when he went into the House of Lords, there would have been no question as to the fitness of the man, or men so sent. Silverbridge had been supposed to be a Liberal as a matter of course;--because the Pallisers were Liberals. But when the matter was remitted to themselves;--when the Duke declared that he would not interfere any more, for it was thus that the borough had obtained its freedom;--then the borough began to feel conservative predilections. 'If his Grace really does mean us to do just what we please ourselves which is a thing we never thought of asking from his Grace, then we find, having turned the matter over among ourselves, that we are upon the whole Conservative.'
In this spirit the borough had elected a certain Mr Fletcher; but in doing so the borough had still a shade of fear that it would offend the Duke. The House of Palliser, Gatherum Castle, the Duke of Omnium, and this special Duke himself, were all so great in the eyes of the borough, that the first and only strong feeling in the borough was the one of duty. The borough did not altogether enjoy being enfranchised. But when the Duke had spoken once, twice, and thrice, then with a hesitating heart the borough returned Mr Fletcher. Now Mr Fletcher was wanted elsewhere, having been persuaded to stand for the county, and it was a comfort to the borough that it could resettle itself beneath the warmth of the wings of the Pallisers.
So the matter stood when Lord Silverbridge was told that his presence in the borough for a few hours would be taken as a compliment. Hitherto no one knew him at Silverbridge. During his boyhood he had not been much at Gatherum Castle, and had done his best to eschew the place since he had ceased to be a boy. All the Pallisers took a pride in Gatherum Castle, but they all disliked it. 'Oh yes, I'll go down,' he said to Mr Morton, who was up in town. 'I needn't go to the great barrack I suppose.' The great barrack was the Castle. 'I'll put up at the Inn.' Mr Morton begged the heir to come to his own house; but Silverbridge declared that he would prefer the Inn, and so the matter was settled. He was to meet sundry politicians,--Mr Spurgeon and Mr Sprout and Mr Du Boung,--who would like to be thanked for what they had been done.
But who was to go with him? He would naturally have asked Tregear, but from Tregear he had for the last week or two been, not perhaps estranged, but separated. He had been much taken up with racing.
He had gone down to Chester with Major Tifto, and under the Major's auspicious influences had won a little money;--and now he was very anxiously preparing himself for the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting. He had therefore passed much of his time with Major Tifto. And when this visit to Silverbridge was pressed on him he thoughtlessly asked Tifto to go with him. Tifto was delighted. Lord Silverbridge was to be met at Silverbridge by various well-known politicians from the neighbourhood, and Major Tifto was greatly elated by the prospect of such an introduction into the political world.
But no sooner had the offer been made by Lord Silverbridge than he saw his own indiscretion. Tifto was very well for Chester or Newmarket, very well perhaps for the Beargarden, but not very well for an electioneering expedition. An idea came to the young nobleman that if it should be his fate to represent Silverbridge in Parliament for the next twenty years, it would be well that Silverbridge should entertain respecting him some exalted estimation,--that Silverbridge should be taught to regard him as a fit son of his father and a worthy specimen of the British political nobility. Struck by serious reflection of this nature he did open his mind to Tregear. 'I am very fond of Tifto,' he said, 'but I don't know whether he's just the sort of fellow to take down to an election.'
'I should think not,' said Tregear very decidedly.
'He's a very good fellow, you know,' said Silverbridge. 'I don't know an honester man than Tifto anywhere.'
'I dare say. Or rather, I don't dare say. I know nothing about the Major's honesty, and I doubt whether you do. He rides very well.'
'What has that to do with it?'
'Nothing on earth. Therefore I advise you not to take him to Silverbridge.'
'You needn't preach.'
'You may call it what you like. Tifto would not hold his tongue, and there is nothing he could say there which would not be to your prejudice.'
'Will you go?'
'If you wish it,' said Tregear.
'What will the governor say?'
'That must be your look out. In a political point of view I shall not disgrace you. I shall hold my tongue and look like a gentleman,--neither of which is in Tifto's power.'
And so it was settled, that on the day but one after this conversation Lord Silverbridge and Tregear should go together to Silverbridge. But the Major, when on that same night his noble friend's altered plans were explained to him, did not bear the disappointment with equanimity. 'Isn't that a little strange?' he said, becoming very red in the face.
'What do you call strange?' said the Lord.
'Well;--I'd made all my arrangements. When a man has been asked to do a thing like that, he doesn't like to be put off.'
