Endymion had now passed three years of his life in London, and
considering the hard circumstances under which he had commenced
this career, he might on the whole look back to those years without
dissatisfaction. Three years ago he was poor and friendless, utterly
ignorant of the world, and with nothing to guide him but his own good
sense. His slender salary had not yet been increased, but with the
generosity and aid of his sister and the liberality of Mr. Vigo, he was
easy in his circumstances. Through the Rodneys, he had become acquainted
with a certain sort of miscellaneous life, a knowledge of which is
highly valuable to a youth, but which is seldom attained without risk.
Endymion, on the contrary, was always guarded from danger. Through
his most unexpected connection with the Neuchatel family, he had seen
something of life in circles of refinement and high consideration, and
had even caught glimpses of that great world of which he read so much
and heard people talk more, the world of the Lord Roehamptons and the
Lady Montforts, and all those dazzling people whose sayings and doings
form the taste, and supply the conversation, and leaven the existence of
admiring or wondering millions.
None of these incidents, however, had induced any change in the scheme
of his existence. Endymion was still content with his cleanly and airy
garret; still dined at Joe’s; was still sedulous at his office, and
always popular with his fellow clerks. Seymour Hicks, indeed, who
studied the “Morning Post” with intentness, had discovered the name
of Endymion in the elaborate lists of attendants on Mrs. Neuchatel’s
receptions, and had duly notified the important event to his colleagues;
but Endymion was not severely bantered on the occasion, for, since the
withdrawal of St. Barbe from the bureau, the stock of envy at Somerset
House was sensibly diminished.
His lodging at the Rodneys’, however, had brought Endymion something
more valuable than an innocuous familiarity with their various and
suggestive life. In the friendship of Waldershare he found a rich
compensation for being withdrawn from his school and deprived of his
university. The care of his father had made Endymion a good classical
scholar, and he had realised a degree of culture which it delighted
the brilliant and eccentric Waldershare to enrich and to complete.
Waldershare guided his opinions, and directed his studies, and formed
his taste. Alone at night in his garret, there was no solitude, for he
had always some book or some periodical, English or foreign, with which
Waldershare had supplied him, and which he assured Endymion it was
absolutely necessary that he should read and master.
Nor was his acquaintance with Baron Sergius less valuable, or less
fruitful of results. He too became interested in Endymion, and poured
forth to him, apparently without reserve, all the treasures of his vast
experience of men and things, especially with reference to the conduct
of external affairs. He initiated him in the cardinal principles of the
policies of different nations; he revealed to him the real character
of the chief actors in the scene. “The first requisite,” Baron Sergius
would say, “in the successful conduct of public affairs is a personal
acquaintance with the statesmen engaged. It is possible that events
may not depend now, so much as they did a century ago, on individual
feeling, but, even if prompted by general principles, their application
and management are always coloured by the idiosyncrasy of the chief
actors. The great advantage which your Lord Roehampton, for example, has
over all his colleagues in _la haute politique_, is that he was one of
your plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Vienna. There he learned to
gauge the men who govern the world. Do you think a man like that, called
upon to deal with a Metternich or a Pozzo, has no advantage over an
individual who never leaves his chair in Downing Street except to kill
grouse? Pah! Metternich and Pozzo know very well that Lord Roehampton
knows them, and they set about affairs with him in a totally different
spirit from that with which they circumvent some statesman who has
issued from the barricades of Paris.”
Nor must it be forgotten that his debating society and the acquaintance
which he had formed there, were highly beneficial to Endymion. Under
the roof of Mr. Bertie Tremaine he enjoyed the opportunity of forming
an acquaintance with a large body of young men of breeding, of high
education, and full of ambition, that was a substitute for the society,
becoming his youth and station, which he had lost by not going to the
university.
With all these individuals, and with all their circles, Endymion was a
favourite. No doubt his good looks, his mien--which was both cheerful
and pensive--his graceful and quiet manners, all told in his favour,
and gave him a good start, but further acquaintance always sustained
the first impression. He was intelligent and well-informed, without any
alarming originality, or too positive convictions. He listened not only
with patience but with interest to all, and ever avoided controversy.
Here are some of the elements of a man’s popularity.
What was his intellectual reach, and what his real character, it was
difficult at this time to decide. He was still very young, only on
the verge of his twentieth year; and his character had no doubt been
influenced, it might be suppressed, by the crushing misfortunes of his
family. The influence of his sister was supreme over him. She had never
reconciled herself to their fall. She had existed only on the solitary
idea of regaining their position, and she had never omitted an occasion
to impress upon him that he had a great mission, and that, aided by her
devotion, he would fulfil it. What his own conviction on this subject
was may be obscure. Perhaps he was organically of that cheerful and easy
nature, which is content to enjoy the present, and not brood over the
past. The future may throw light upon all these points; at present it
may be admitted that the three years of seemingly bitter and mortifying
adversity have not been altogether wanting in beneficial elements in the
formation of his character and the fashioning of his future life.