On arriving in Dublin, Sewell repaired at once to Balfour's office in
the Castle yard; he wanted to “hear the news,” and it was here that
every one went who wanted to “hear the news.” There are in all cities,
but more especially in cities of the second order, certain haunts where
the men about town repair; where, like the changing-houses of bankers,
people exchange their “credits,”--take up their own notes, and give up
those of their neighbors.
Sewell arrived before the usual time when people dropped in, and found
Balfour alone and at breakfast. The Under-Secretary's manner was dry, so
much Sewell saw as he entered; he met him as though he had seen him the
day before, and this, when men have not seen each other for some time,
has a certain significance. Nor did he ask when he had come up, nor
in any way recognize that his appearance was matter of surprise or
pleasure.
“Well, what's going on here?” said Sewell, as he flung himself into an
easy-chair, and turned towards the fire. “Anything new?”
“Nothing particular. I don't suppose you care for the Cattle Show or the
Royal Irish Academy?”
“Not much,--at least, I can postpone my inquiries about them. How about
my place here? Are you going to give me trouble about it?”
“Your place,--your place?” muttered the other, once or twice; and then,
standing up with his back to the fire, and his skirts over his arms,
he went on. “Do you want to hear the truth about this affair, or are we
only to go on sparring with the gloves, eh?”
“The truth, of course, if such a novel proceeding should not be too much
of a shock to you.”
“No, I suspect not. I do a little of everything every day just to keep
my hand in.”
“Well, go on now, out with this truth.”
“Well, the truth is,--I am now speaking confidentially,--if I were you I
'd not press my claim to that appointment,--do you perceive?”
“I do not; but perhaps I may when you have explained yourself a little
more fully.”
“And,” continued he, in the same tone, and as though no interruption had
occurred, “that's the opinion of Halkett, and Doyle, and Jocelyn, and
the rest.”
“Confidentially, of course,” said Sewell, with a sneer so slight as not
to be detected.
“I may say confidentially, because it was at dinner we talked it
over, and we were only the household,--no guests but Byam Herries and
Barrington.”
“And you all agreed?”
“Yes, there was not a dissentient voice but Jocelyn's, who said, if he
were in your place, he'd insist on having all the papers and letters
given up to him. His view is this: 'What security have I that the same
charges are not to be renewed again and again? I submit now, but am I
always to submit? Are my Indian'--(what shall I call them? I forget what
he called them; I believe it was escapades)--'my Indian escapades to
declare me unfit to hold anything under the Crown?' He said a good deal
in that strain, but we did not see it. It was hard, to be sure, but we
did not see it. As Halkett said, 'Sewell has had his innings already in
India. If, with a pretty wife and a neat turn for billiards, he did not
lay by enough to make his declining years comfortable, I must say that
he was not provident.' Doyle, however, remarked that after that affair
with Loftus up at Agra--wasn't it Agra?”--Sewell nodded--“it was n't
so easy for you to get along as many might think, and that you were
a devilish clever fellow to do what you had done. Doyle likes you,
I think.” Sewell nodded again, and, after a slight pause, Balfour
proceeded: “And it was Doyle, too, said, 'Why not try for something in
the colonies? There are lots of places a man can go and nothing be ever
heard of him. If I was Sewell, I 'd say, Make me a barrackmaster in the
Sandwich Islands, or a consul in the Caraccas.'
“They all concurred in one thing, that you never did so weak a thing in
your whole life as to have any dealings with Trafford. It was his mother
went to the Duke--ay, into the private office at the Horse Guards--and
got Clifford's appointment cancelled, just for a miserable five hundred
pounds Jack won off the elder brother,--that fellow who died last year
at Madeira. She's the most dangerous woman in Europe. She does not care
what she says, nor to whom she says it. She 'd go up to the Queen at a
drawing-room and make a complaint as soon as she 'd speak to you or
me. As it is, she told their Excellencies here all that went on in your
house, and I suppose scores of things that did not go on either, and
said, 'And are you going to permit this man to be'--she did not remember
what, but she said--'a high official under the Crown? and are you going
to receive his wife amongst your intimates?' What a woman she is! To
hear her you 'd think her 'dear child,' instead of being a strapping
fellow of six feet two, was a brat in knickerbockers, with a hat and
feather. The fellow himself must be a consummate muff to be bullied
by her; but then the estate is not entailed, they say, and there's a
younger brother may come into it all. His chances look well just now,
for Lionel has got a relapse, and the doctors think very ill of him.”
“I had not heard that,” said Sewell, calmly.
“Oh, he was getting on most favorably,--was able to sit up at the
window, and move a little about the room,--when, one morning Lady
Trafford had driven over to the Lodge to luncheon, he stepped downstairs
in his dressing-gown as he was, got into a cab, and drove off into the
country. All the cabman could tell was that he ordered him to take the
road to Rathfarnham, and said, 'I 'll tell you by and by where to;' and
at last he said, 'Where does Sir William Lendrick live?' and though the
man knew the Priory, he had taken a wrong turn and got down to ask
the road. Just at this moment a carriage drove by with two grays and a
postilion--A young lady was inside with an elderly gentleman, and the
moment Trafford saw her he cried out, 'There she is,--that is she!' As
hard as they could they hastened after; but they smashed a trace, and
lost several minutes in repairing it, and as many more in finding out
which way the carriage had taken. It was to Kingstown, and, as the
cabman suspected, to catch the packet for Holyhead; for just as they
drove up, the steamer edged away from the pier, and the carriage with
the grays drove off with only the old man, Trafford fell back in a
faint, and appeared to have continued so, for when they took him out of
the cab at Bilton's he was insensible.
“Beattie says he'll come through it, but Maclin thinks he 'll never be
the same man again; he 'll have a hardening or a softening--which is
it?--of the brain, and that he'll be fit for nothing.”
“Except a place in the viceregal household, perhaps. I don't imagine you
want gold-medallists for your gentlemen-in-waiting?”
“We have some monstrous clever fellows, let me tell you. Halkett made
a famous examination at Sandhurst, and Jocelyn wrote that article in
'Bell's Life,' 'The Badger Drawn at Last.'”
“To come back to where we were, how are you to square matters with the
Chief Baron? Are you going to law with him about this appointment, or
are you about to say that _I_ am the objection? Let me have a definite
answer to this question.”
“We have not fully decided; we think of doing either, and we sometimes
incline to do both. At all events, we are not to have it; that's the
only thing certain.”
“Have you got a cigar? No, not these things; I mean something that can
be smoked.”
“Try this,” said Balfour, offering his case.
“They 're the same as those on the chimney. I must say, Balfour, the
traditional hospitalities of the Castle are suffering in their present
hands. When I dined here the last time I was in town, they gave me two
glasses of bad sherry and one glass of a corked Gladstone; and I came
to dinner that day after reading in Barrington all about the glorious
festivities of the Irish Court in the olden days of Richmond and
Bedford.”
“Lady Trafford insists that your names--your wife's as well as your
own--are to be scratched from the dinner-list. Sir Hugh has three votes
in the House, and she bullies us to some purpose, I can tell you. I
can't think how you could have made this woman so much your enemy. It is
not dislike,--it is hatred.”
“Bad luck, I suppose,” said Sewell, carelessly.
“She seems so inveterate too; she'll not give you up, very probably.”
“Women generally don't weary in this sort of pursuit.”
“Couldn't you come to some kind of terms? Couldn't you contrive to let
her know that you have no designs on her boy? You've won money of him,
have n't you?”
“I have some bills of his,--not for a very large amount, though; you
shall have them a bargain.”
“I seldom speculate,” was the dry rejoinder.
“You are right; nor is this the case to tempt you.”
“They 'll be paid, I take it?”
“Paid! I'll swear they shall!” said Sewell, fiercely. “I'll stand a deal
of humbug about dinner invitations, and cold salutations, and such-like;
but none, sir, not one, about what touches a material interest.”
“It's not worth being angry about,” said Balfour, who was really glad to
see the other's imperturbability give way.
“I'm not angry. I was only a little impatient, as a man may be when he
hears a fellow utter a truism as a measure of encouragement. Tell your
friends--I suppose I must call them your friends--that they make an
egregious mistake when they push a man like me to the wall. It is
intelligible enough in a woman to do it; women don't measure their
malignity, nor their means of gratifying it; but _men_ ought to know
better.”
“I incline to think I'll tell my 'friends' nothing whatever on the
subject.”
“That's as you please; but remember this,--if the day should come that
I need any of these, details you have given me this morning, I'll quote
them, and you too, as their author; and if I bring an old house about
your ears, look out sharp for a falling chimney-pot! You gave me a piece
of advice awhile ago,” continued he, as he put on his hat before the
glass, and arranged his necktie. “Let me repay you with two, which you
will find useful in their several ways: Don't show your hand when
you play with as shrewd men as myself; and, Don't offer a friend such
execrable tobacco as that on the chimney;” and with this he nodded and
strolled out, humming an air as he crossed the Castle yard and entered
the city.