About noon on the following day, Sir Horace Upton and the Colonel drove
up to the gate of the villa at Sorrento, and learned, to their no small
astonishment, that the Princess had taken her departure that morning for
Como. If Upton heard these tidings with a sense of pain, nothing in his
manner betrayed the sentiment; on the contrary, he proceeded to do the
honors of the place like its owner. He showed Harcourt the grounds and
the gardens, pointed out all the choice points of view, directed his
attention to rare plants and curious animals; and then led him within
doors to admire the objects of art and luxury which abounded there.
“And that, I conclude, is a portrait of the Princess,” said Harcourt, as
he stood before what had been a flattering likeness twenty years back.
“Yes, and a wonderful resemblance,” said Upton, eying it through
his glass. “Fatter and fuller now, perhaps; but it was done after an
illness.”
“By Jove!” muttered Harcourt, “she must be beautiful; I don't think I
ever saw a handsomer woman!”
“You are only repeating a European verdict. She is the most perfectly
beautiful woman of the Continent.”
“So there is no flattery in that picture?”
“Flattery! Why, my dear fellow, these people, the very cleverest of
them, can't imagine anything as lovely as that. They can imitate,--they
never invent real beauty.”
“And clever, you say, too?”
“_Esprit_ enough for a dozen reviewers and fifty fashionable novelists.”
And as he spoke he smiled and coquetted with the portrait, as though to
say, “Don't mind my saying all this to your face.”
“I suppose her history is a very interesting one.”
“Her history, my worthy Harcourt! She has a dozen histories. Such women
have a life of politics, a life of literature, a life of the _salons_,
a life of the affections, not to speak of the episodes of jealousy,
ambition, triumph, and sometimes defeat, that make up the brilliant
web of their existence. Some three or four such people give the whole
character and tone to the age they live in. They mould its interests,
sway its fashions, suggest its tastes, and they finally rule those who
fancy that they rule mankind.”
“Egad, then, it makes one very sorry for poor mankind,” muttered
Harcourt, with a most honest sincerity of voice.
“Why should it do so, my good Harcourt? Is the refinement of a woman's
intellect a worse guide than the coarser instincts of a man's nature?
Would you not yourself rather trust your destinies to the fair creature
yonder than be left to the legislative mercies of that old gentleman
there, Hardenberg, or his fellow on the other side, Metternich?”
“Grim-looking fellow the Prussian; the other is much better,” said
Harcourt, rather evading the question.
“I confess I prefer the Princess,” said Upton, as he bowed before the
portrait in deepest courtesy. “But here comes breakfast. I have ordered
them to give it to us here, that we may enjoy that glorious sea view
while we eat.”
“I thought your cook a man of genius, Upton, but this fellow is his
master,” said Harcourt, as he tasted his soup.
“They are brothers,--twins, too; and they have their separate gifts,”
said Upton, affectedly. “My fellow, they tell me, has the finer
intelligence; but he plays deeply, speculates on the Bourse, and it
spoils his nerve.”
Harcourt watched the delivery of this speech to catch if there were
any signs of raillery in the speaker; he felt that there was a kind of
mockery in the words; but there was none in the manner, for there was
not any in the mind of him who uttered them.
“My _chef_,” resumed Upton, “is a great essayist, who must have time for
his efforts. This fellow is a _feuilleton_ writer, who is required to
be new and sparkling every day of the year,--always varied, never
profound.”
“And is this your life of every day?” said Harcourt, as he surveyed the
splendid room, and carried his glance towards the terraced gardens that
flanked the sea.
“Pretty much this kind of thing,” sighed Upton, wearily.
“And no great hardship either, I should call it.”
“No, certainly not,” said the other, hesitatingly. “To one like myself,
for instance, who has no health for the wear and tear of public life,
and no heart for its ambitions, there is a great deal to like in the
quiet retirement of a first-class mission.”
“Is there really, then, nothing to do?” asked Harcourt, innocently.
“Nothing, if you don't make it for yourself. You can have a harvest if
you like to sow. Otherwise, you may lie in fallow the year long.
The subordinates take the petty miseries of diplomacy for _their_
share,--the sorrows of insulted Englishmen, the passport difficulties,
the custom-house troubles, the police insults. The Secretary calls at
the offices of the Government, carries messages and the answers; and I,
when I have health for it, make my compliments to the King in a cocked
hat on his birthday, and have twelve grease-pots illuminated over my
door to honor the same festival.”
“And is that all?”
“Very nearly. In fact, when one does anything more, they generally do
wrong; and by a steady persistence in this kind of thing for
thirty years, you are called 'a safe man, who never compromised his
Government,' and are certain to be employed by any party in power.”
“I begin to think I might be an envoy myself,” said Harcourt.
“No doubt of it; we have two or three of your calibre in Germany this
moment,--men liked and respected; and, what is of more consequence, well
looked upon at 'the Office.'”
“I don't exactly follow you in that last remark.”
“I scarcely expected you should; and as little can I make it clear to
you. Know, however, that in that venerable pile in Downing Street called
the Foreign Office, there is a strange, mysterious sentiment,--partly
tradition, partly prejudice, partly toadyism,--which bands together all
within its walls, from the whiskered porter at the door to the essenced
Minister in his bureau, into one intellectual conglomerate, that judges
of every man in 'the Line'--as they call diplomacy--with one accord.
By that curious tribunal, which hears no evidence, nor ever utters a
sentence, each man's merits are weighed; and to stand well in the
Office is better than all the favors of the Court, or the force of great
abilities.”
“But I cannot comprehend how mere subordinates, the underlings of
official life, can possibly influence the fortunes of men so much above
them.”
“Picture to yourself the position of an humble guest at a great man's
table; imagine one to whose pretensions the sentiments of the servants'
hall are hostile: he is served to all appearance like the rest of the
company; he gets his soup and his fish like those about him, and
his wine-glass is duly replenished,--yet what a series of petty
mortifications is he the victim of; how constantly is he made to
feel that he is not in public favor; how certain, too, if he incur an
awkwardness, to find that his distresses are exposed. The servants'
hall is the Office, my dear Harcourt, and its persecutions are equally
polished.”
“Are you a favorite there yourself?” asked the other, slyly.
“A prime favorite; they all like _me!_” said he, throwing himself back
in his chair, with an air of easy self-satisfaction; and Harcourt stared
at him, curious to know whether so astute a man was the dupe of his own
self-esteem, or merely amusing himself with the simplicity of another.
Ah, my good Colonel, give up the problem; it is an enigma far above your
powers to solve. That nature is too complex for _your_ elucidation; in
its intricate web no one thread holds the clew, but all is complicated,
crossed, and entangled.
“Here comes a cabinet messenger again,” said Upton, as a courier's
_calèche_ drove up, and a well-dressed and well-looking fellow leaped
out.
“Ah, Stanhope, how are you?” said Sir Horace, shaking his hand with what
from him was warmth. “Do you know Colonel Harcourt? Well, Frank, what
news do you bring me?”
“The best of news.”
“From F. O., I suppose,” said Upton, sighing.
“Just so. Adderley has told the King you are the only man capable to
succeed him. The Press says the same, and the clubs are all with you.”
“Not one of them all, I'd venture to say, has asked whether I have the
strength or health for it,” said Sir Horace, with a voice of pathetic
intonation.
“Why, as we never knew you want energy for whatever fell to your lot to
do, we have the same hope still,” said Stanhope.
“So say I too,” cried Harcourt. “Like many a good hunter, he 'll do his
work best when he is properly weighted.”
“It is quite refreshing to listen to you both--creatures with crocodile
digestion--talk to a man who suffers nightmare if he over-eat a dry
biscuit at supper. I tell you frankly, it would be the death of me to
take the Foreign Office. I 'd not live through the season,--the very
dinners would kill me; and then, the House, the heat, the turmoil, the
worry of opposition, and the jaunting back and forward to Brighton or to
Windsor!”
While he muttered these complaints, he continued to read with great
rapidity the letters which Stanhope had brought him, and which, despite
all his practised coolness, had evidently afforded him pleasure in the
perusal.
“Adderley bore it,” continued he, “just because he was a mere machine,
wound up to play off so many despatches, like so many tunes; and then,
he permitted a degree of interference on the King's part I never could
have suffered; and he liked to be addressed by the King of Prussia as
'Dear Adderley.' But what do I care for all these vanities? Have I not
seen enough of the thing they call the great world? Is not this retreat
better and dearer to me than all the glare and crash of London, or all
the pomp and splendor of Windsor?”
“By Jove! I suspect you are right, after all,” said Harcourt, with an
honest energy of voice.
“Were I younger, and stronger in health, perhaps,” said Upton, “this
might have tempted me. Perhaps I can picture to myself what I might
have made of it; for you may perceive, George, these people have done
nothing: they have been pouring hot water on the tea-leaves Pitt left
them,--no more.”
“And you 'd have a brewing of your own, I 've no doubt,” responded the
other.
“I'd at least have foreseen the time when this compact, this Holy
Alliance, should become impossible; when the developed intelligence of
Europe would seek something else from their rulers than a well-concocted
scheme of repression. I 'd have provided for the hour when England
must either break with her own people or her allies; and I 'd have
inaugurated a new policy, based upon the enlarged views and extended
intelligence of mankind.”
“I 'm not certain that I quite apprehend you,” muttered Harcourt.
“No matter; but you can surely understand that if a set of mere
mediocrities have saved England, a batch of clever men might have done
something more. She came out of the last war the acknowledged head of
Europe: does she now hold that place, and what will she be at the next
great struggle?”
“England is as great as ever she was,” cried Harcourt, boldly.
“Greater in nothing is she than in the implicit credulity of her
people!” sighed Upton. “I only wish I could have the same faith in my
physicians that she has in hers! By the way, Stanhope, what of that new
fellow they have got at St. Leonard's? They tell me he builds you up in
some preparation of gypsum, so that you can't move or stir, and that
the perfect repose thus imparted to the system is the highest order of
restorative.”
“They were just about to try him for manslaughter when I left England,”
said Stanhope, laughing.
“As often the fate of genius in these days as in more barbarous times,”
said Upton. “I read his pamphlet with much interest. If you were going
back, Harcourt, I 'd have begged of you to try him.”
“And I 'm forced to say, I'd have refused you flatly.”
“Yet it is precisely creatures of robust constitution, like you, that
should submit themselves to these trials, for the sake of humanity.
Frail organizations, like mine, cannot brave these ordeals. What are
they talking of in town? Any gossip afloat?”
“The change of ministry is the only topic. Glencore's affair has worn
itself out.”
“What was that about Glencore?” asked Upton, half indolently.
“A strange story; one can scarcely believe it. They say that Glencore,
hearing of the King's great anxiety to be rid of the Queen, asked an
audience of his Majesty, and actually suggested, as the best possible
expedient, that his Majesty should deny the marriage. They add that he
reasoned the case so cleverly, and with such consummate craft and skill,
it was with the greatest difficulty that the King could be persuaded
that he was deranged. Some say his Majesty was outraged beyond
endurance; others, that he was vastly amused, and laughed immoderately
over it.”
“And the world, how do they pronounce upon it?”
“There are two great parties,--one for Glencore's sanity the other
against; but, as I said before, the cabinet changes have absorbed all
interest latterly, and the Viscount and his case are forgotten; and when
I started, the great question was, who was to have the Foreign Office.”
“I believe I could tell them one who will not,” said Upton, with a
melancholy smile. “Dine with me, both of you, to-day, at seven; no
company, you know. There is an opera in the evening, and my box is at
your service, if you like to go; and so, till then;” and with a little
gesture of the hand he waved an adieu, and glided from the room.
“I'm sorry he's not up to the work of office,” said Har-court; “there's
plenty of ability in him.”
“The best man we have,” said Stanhope; “so they say at the Office.”
“He's gone to lie down, I take it; he seemed much exhausted. What say
you to a walk back to town?”
“I ask nothing better,” said Stanhope; and they started for Naples.