It is a good and soothfast saw;
Half-roasted never will be raw;
No dough is dried once more to meal,
No crock new-shapen by the wheel;
You can't turn curds to milk again,
Nor Now, by wishing, back to Then;
And having tasted stolen honey,
You can't buy innocence for money.
Jermyn was not particularly pleased that some chance had apparently
hindered Harold Transome from making other canvassing visits immediately
after leaving Mr. Lyon, and so had sent him back to the office earlier
than he had been expected to come. The inconvenient chance he guessed at
once to be represented by Felix Holt, whom he knew very well by Trebian
report to be a young man with so little of the ordinary Christian
motives as to making an appearance and getting on in the world, that he
presented no handle to any judicious and respectable person who might be
willing to make use of him.
Harold Transome, on his side, was a great deal annoyed at being worried
by Felix in an enquiry about electioneering details. The real dignity
and honesty there was in him made him shrink from this necessity of
satisfying a man with a troublesome tongue; it was as if he were to show
indignation at the discovery of one barrel with a false bottom, when he
had invested his money in a manufactory where a larger or smaller
number of such barrels had always been made. A practical man must seek a
good end by the only possible means; that is to say, if he is to get
into Parliament he must not be too particular. It was not disgraceful to
be neither a Quixote nor a theorist, aiming to correct the moral rules
of the world: but whatever actually was, or might prove to be,
disgraceful, Harold held in detestation. In this mood he pushed on
unceremoniously to the inner office without waiting to ask questions;
and when he perceived that Jermyn was not alone he said, with haughty
quickness--
"A question about the electioneering at Sproxton. Can you give your
attention to it at once? Here is Mr. Holt, who has come to me about the
business."
"A--yes--a--certainly," said Jermyn, who, as usual, was the more cool
and deliberate because he was vexed. He was standing, and, as he turned
round, his broad figure concealed the person who was seated writing at
the bureau. "Mr. Holt--a--will doubtless--a--make a point of saving a
busy man's time. You can speak at once. This gentleman"--here Jermyn
made a slight backward movement of the head--"is one of ourselves; he is
a true-blue."
"I have simply to complain," said Felix, "that one of your agents has
been sent on a bribing expedition to Sproxton--with what purpose you,
sir, may know better than I do. Mr. Transome, it appears, was ignorant
of the affair, and does not approve it."
Jermyn, looking gravely and steadily at Felix while he was speaking, at
the same time drew forth a small sheaf of papers from his side pocket,
and then, as he turned his eyes slowly on Harold, felt in his
waistcoat-pocket for his pencil-case.
"I don't approve of it at all," said Harold, who hated Jermyn's
calculated slowness and conceit in his own impenetrability. "Be good
enough to put a stop to it, will you?"
"Mr. Holt, I know, is an excellent Liberal," said Jermyn, just inclining
his head to Harold, and then alternately looking at Felix and docketing
his bills; "but he is perhaps too inexperienced to be aware that no
canvass--a--can be conducted without the action of able men, who
must--a--be trusted, and not interfered with. And as to any possibility
of promising to put a stop--a--to any procedure--a--that depends. If he
had ever held the coachman's ribbons in his hands, as I have in my
younger days--a--he would know that stopping is not always easy."
"I know very little about holding ribbons," said Felix; "but I saw
clearly enough at once that more mischief had been done than could be
well mended. Though I believe, if it were heartily tried, the treatment
might be reduced and something might be done to hinder the men from
turning out in a body to make a noise, which might end in worse."
"They might be hindered from making a noise on our side," said Jermyn,
smiling. "That is perfectly true. But if they made a noise on the
other--would your purpose be answered better, sir?"
Harold was moving about in an irritated manner while Felix and Jermyn
were speaking. He preferred leaving the talk to the attorney, of whose
talk he himself liked to keep as clear as possible.
"I can only say," answered Felix, "that if you make use of those heavy
fellows when the drink is in them, I shouldn't like your responsibility.
You might as well drive bulls to roar on our side as bribe a set of
colliers and navvies to shout and groan."
"A lawyer may well envy your command of language, Mr. Holt," said
Jermyn, pocketing his bills again, and shutting up his pencil; "but he
would not be satisfied with the accuracy--a--of your terms. You must
permit me to check your use of the word 'bribery.' The essence of
bribery is, that it should be legally proved; there is not such a
thing--a--_in rerum natura_--a--as unproved bribery. There has been no
such thing as bribery at Sproxton, I'll answer for it. The presence of a
body of stalwart fellows on--a--the Liberal side will tend to preserve
order; for we know that the benefit clubs from the Pitchley district
will show for Debarry. Indeed, the gentleman who has conducted the
canvass at Sproxton is experienced in Parliamentary affairs, and would
not exceed--a--the necessary measures that a rational judgment would
dictate."
"What! you mean the man who calls himself Johnson?" said Felix, in a
tone of disgust.
Before Jermyn chose to answer, Harold broke in, saying, quickly and
peremptorily, "The long and short of it is this, Mr. Holt: I shall
desire and insist that whatever can be done by way of remedy shall be
done. Will that satisfy you? You see now some of the candidate's
difficulties?" said Harold, breaking into his most agreeable smile. "I
hope you will have some pity for me."
"I suppose I must be content," said Felix, not thoroughly propitiated.
"I bid you good-morning, gentlemen."
When he was gone out, and had closed the door behind him, Harold,
turning round and flashing, in spite of himself, an angry look at
Jermyn, said--
"And who is Johnson? an _alias_, I suppose. It seems you are fond of the
name."
Jermyn turned perceptibly paler, but disagreeables of this sort between
himself and Harold had been too much in his anticipations of late for
him to be taken by surprise. He turned quietly round and just touched
the shoulder of the person seated at the bureau, who now rose.
"On the contrary," Jermyn answered, "the Johnson in question is this
gentleman, whom I have the pleasure of introducing to you as one of my
most active helpmates in electioneering business--Mr. Johnson, of
Bedford Row, London. I am comparatively a novice--a--in these matters.
But he was engaged with James Putty in two hardly-contested elections,
and there could scarcely be a better initiation. Putty is one of the
first men of the country as an agent--a--on the Liberal side--a--eh,
Johnson? I think Makepiece is--a--not altogether a match for him, not
quite of the same calibre--a--_haud consimili ingenio_--a--in
tactics--a--and in experience?"
"Makepiece is a wonderful man, and so is Putty," said the glib Johnson,
too vain not to be pleased with an opportunity of speaking, even when
the situation was rather awkward. "Makepiece for scheming, but Putty for
management. Putty knows men, sir," he went on, turning to Harold: "it's
a thousand pities that you have not had his talents employed in your
service. He's beyond any man for saving a candidate's money--does half
the work with his tongue. He'll talk of anything, from the Areopagus,
and that sort of thing, down to the joke about 'Where are you going,
Paddy?'--you know what I mean, sir! 'Back again, says Paddy'--an
excellent electioneering joke. Putty understands these things. He has
said to me, 'Johnson, bear in mind there are two ways of speaking an
audience will always like: one is to tell them what they don't
understand; and the other is, to tell them what they're used to.' I
shall never be the man to deny that I owe a great deal to Putty. I
always say it was a most providential thing in the Mugham election last
year that Putty was not on the Tory side. He managed the women; and, if
you'll believe me, sir, one-fourth of the men would never have voted if
their wives hadn't driven them to it for the good of their families. And
as for speaking--it's currently reported in our London circles that
Putty writes regularly for the _Times_. He has that kind of language;
and I needn't tell you, Mr. Transome, that it's the apex, which, I take
it, means the tiptop--and nobody can get higher than that, I think. I've
belonged to a political debating society myself; I've heard a little
language in my time; but when Mr. Jermyn first spoke to me about having
the honor to assist in your canvass of North Loamshire"--here Johnson
played with his watch-seals and balanced himself a moment on his
toes--"the very first thing I said was, 'And there's Garstin has got
Putty! No Whig could stand against a Whig,' I said, 'who had Putty on
his side: I hope Mr. Transome goes in for something of a deeper color.'
I don't say that, as a general rule, opinions go for much in a return,
Mr. Transome; it depends on who are in the field before you, and on the
skill of your agents. But as a Radical, and a moneyed Radical, you are
in a fine position, sir; and with care and judgment--with care and
judgment----"
It had been impossible to interrupt Johnson before, without the most
impolitic rudeness. Jermyn was not sorry that he should talk, even if he
made a fool of himself; for in that solid shape, exhibiting the average
amount of human foibles, he seemed less of the _alias_ which Harold had
insinuated him to be, and had all the additional plausibility of a lie
with a circumstance.
Harold had thrown himself with contemptuous resignation into a chair,
had drawn off one of his buff gloves, and was looking at his hand. But
when Johnson gave his iteration with a slightly slackened pace, Harold
looked up at him and broke in--
"Well then, Mr. Johnson, I shall be glad if you will use your care and
judgment in putting an end, as well as you can, to this Sproxton affair;
else it may turn out an ugly business."
"Excuse me, sir; I must beg you to look at the matter a little more
closely. You will see that it is impossible to take a single step
backward at Sproxton. It was a matter of necessity to get the Sproxton
men; else I know to a certainty the other side would have laid hold of
them first, and now I've undermined Garstin's people. They'll use their
authority, and give a little shabby treating, but I've taken all the
wind out of their sails. But if, by your orders, I or Mr. Jermyn here
were to break promise with the honest fellows, and offend Chubb the
publican, what would come of it? Chubb would leave no stone unturned
against you, sir; he would egg on his customers against you; the
colliers and navvies would be at the nomination and the election all the
same, or rather not all the same, for they would be there against us;
and instead of hustling people good-humoredly by way of a joke, and
counterbalancing Debarry's cheers, they'd help to kick the cheering and
voting out of our men, and instead of being, let us say, half-a-dozen
ahead of Garstin, you'd be half-a-dozen behind him, that's all. I speak
plain English to you, Mr. Transome, though I've the highest respect for
you as a gentleman of first-rate talents and position. But, sir, to
judge of these things a man must know the English voter and the English
publican; and it would be a poor tale indeed"--here Mr. Johnson's mouth
took an expression at once bitter and pathetic--"that a gentleman like
you, to say nothing of the good of the country, should have gone to the
expense and trouble of a canvass for nothing but to find himself out of
Parliament at the end of it. I've seen it again and again; it looks bad
in the cleverest man to have to sing small."
Mr. Johnson's argument was not the less stringent because his idioms
were vulgar. It requires a conviction and resolution amounting to
heroism not to wince at phrases that class our foreshadowed endurance
among those common and ignominious troubles which the world is more
likely to sneer at than to pity. Harold remained a few minutes in angry
silence looking at the floor, with one hand on his knee and the other on
his hat, as if he were preparing to start up.
"As to undoing anything that's been done down there," said Johnson,
throwing in this observation as something into the bargain, "I must wash
my hands of it, sir. I couldn't work knowingly against your interest.
And that young man who is just gone out,--you don't believe that he need
be listened to, I hope? Chubb, the publican, hates him. Chubb would
guess he was at the bottom of your having the treating stopped, and he'd
set half-a-dozen of the colliers to duck him in the canal, or break his
head by mistake. I'm an experienced man, sir. I hope I've put it clear
enough."
"Certainly, the exposition befits the subject," said Harold, scornfully,
his dislike of the man Johnson's personality being stimulated by causes
which Jermyn more than conjectured. "It's a damned, unpleasant, ravelled
business that you and Mr. Jermyn have knit up between you. I've no more
to say."
"Then, sir, if you've no more commands, I don't wish to intrude. I shall
wish you good-morning, sir," said Johnson, passing out quickly.
Harold knew that he was indulging his temper, and he would probably have
restrained it as a foolish move if he had thought there was great danger
in it. But he was beginning to drop much of his caution and self-mastery
where Jermyn was concerned, under the growing conviction that the
attorney had very strong reasons for being afraid of him; reasons which
would only be reinforced by any action hostile to the Transome interest.
As for a sneak like this Johnson, a gentleman had to pay him, not to
please him. Harold had smiles at command in the right place, but he was
not going to smile when it was neither necessary nor agreeable. He was
one of those good-humored, yet energetic men, who have the gift of
anger, hatred, and scorn upon occasion, though they are too healthy and
self-contented for such feelings to get generated in them without
external occasion. And in relation to Jermyn the gift was coming into
fine exercise.
"A--pardon me, Mr. Harold," said Jermyn, speaking as soon as Johnson
went out, "but I am sorry--a--you should behave disobligingly to a man
who has it in his power to do much service--who, in fact, holds many
threads in his hands. I admit that--a--_nemo mortalium omnibus horis
sapit_, as we say--a----"
"Speak for yourself," said Harold. "I don't talk in tags of Latin, which
might be learned by a school-master's foot-boy. I find the King's
English expresses my meaning better."
"In the King's English, then," said Jermyn, who could be idiomatic
enough when he was stung, "a candidate should keep his kicks till he's a
member."
"Oh, I suppose Johnson will bear a kick if you bid him. You're his
principal, I believe."
"Certainly, thus far--a--he is my London agent. But he is a man of
substance, and----"
"I shall know what he is if it's necessary, I dare say. But I must jump
into the carriage again. I've no time to lose; I must go to Hawkins at
the factory. Will you go?"
When Harold was gone, Jermyn's handsome face gathered blackness. He
hardly ever wore his worst expression in the presence of others, and but
seldom when he was alone, for he was not given to believe that any game
would ultimately go against him. His luck had been good. New conditions
might always turn up to give him new chances; and if affairs threatened
to come to an extremity between Harold and himself, he trusted to
finding some sure resource.
"He means to see to the bottom of everything if he can, that's quite
plain," said Jermyn to himself. "I believe he has been getting another
opinion; he has some new light about those annuities on the estate that
are held in Johnson's name. He has inherited a deuced faculty for
business--there's no denying that. But I shall beg leave to tell him
that I've propped up the family. I don't know where they would have been
without me; and if it comes to balancing, I know into which scale the
gratitude ought to go. Not that he's likely to feel any--but he can feel
something else; and if he makes signs of setting the dogs on me, I shall
make him feel it. The people named Transome owe me a good deal more than
I owe them."
In this way Mr. Jermyn inwardly appealed against an unjust construction
which he foresaw that his old acquaintance the law might put on certain
items in his history.
I have known persons who have been suspected of under-valuing gratitude,
and excluding it from the list of virtues; but on closer observation it
has been seen that, if they have never felt grateful, it has been for
want of an opportunity; and that, far from despising gratitude, they
regard it as the virtue most of all incumbent--on others toward them.