"And all will be arranged,I trust?Brown says you have long wished to take the mills;I shall be most happy to have you for a tenant.""My lord,as I told your agent,it is impossible.We will say no more about it."John crossed over to his wife with a cheerful air.She sat looking grave and sad.
Lord Luxmore had the reputation of being a keen-witted,diplomatic personage;undoubtedly he had,or could assume,that winning charm of manner which had descended in perfection to his daughter.Both qualities it pleased him to exercise now.He rose,addressing with kindly frankness the husband and wife.
"If I may ask--being a most sincere well-wisher of yours,and a sort of connection of Mrs.Halifax's,too--why is it impossible?""I have no wish to disguise the reason:it is because I have no capital."Lord Luxmore looked surprised."Surely--excuse me,but I had the honour of being well acquainted with the late Mr.March--surely,your wife's fortune--"Ursula rose,in her old impetuous way--"His wife's fortune!(John,let me say it!--I will,I must!)--of his wife's fortune,Lord Luxmore,he has never received one farthing.Richard Brithwood keeps it back;and my husband would work day and night for me and our children rather than go to law.""Oh!on principle,I suppose?I have heard of such opinions,"said the earl,with the slightest perceptible sneer."And you agree with him?""I do,heartily.I would rather we lived poor all our days than that he should wear his life out,trouble his spirit,perhaps even soil his conscience,by squabbling with a bad man over money matters."It was good to see Ursula as she spoke;good to see the look that husband and his wife interchanged--husband and wife,different in many points,yet so blessedly,so safely ONE!Then John said,in his quiet way,"Love,perhaps another subject than our own affairs would be more interesting to Lord Luxmore.""Not at all--not at all!"And the earl was evidently puzzled and annoyed."Such extraordinary conduct,"he muttered:"so very--ahem!--unwise.If the matter were known--caught up by those newspapers--I must really have a little conversation with Brithwood."The conversation paused,and John changed it entirely by making some remarks on the present minister,Mr.Perceval.
"I liked his last speech much.He seems a clear-headed,honest man,for all his dogged opposition to the Bill.""He will never oppose it more."
"Nay,I think he will,my lord--to the death.""That may be--and yet--"his lordship smiled."Mr.Halifax,I have just had news by a carrier pigeon--my birds fly well--most important news for us and our party.Yesterday,in the lobby of the House of Commons,Mr.Perceval was shot."We all started.An hour ago we had been reading his speech.Mr.
Perceval shot!
"Oh,John,"cried the mother,her eyes full of tears;"his poor wife--his fatherless children!"
And for many minutes they stood,hearing the lamentable history,and looking at their little ones at play in the garden;thinking,as many an English father and mother did that day,of the stately house in London,where the widow and orphans bewailed their dead.He might or might not be a great statesman,but he was undoubtedly a good man;many still remember the shock of his untimely death,and how,whether or not they liked him living,all the honest hearts of England mourned for Mr.Perceval.
Possibly that number did not include the Earl of Luxmore.
"Requiescat in pace!I shall propose the canonization of poor Bellingham.For now Perceval is dead there will be an immediate election;and on that election depends Catholic Emancipation.Mr.
Halifax,"turning quickly round to him,"you would be of great use to us in parliament.""Should I?"
"Will you--I like plain speaking--will you enter it?"Enter parliament!John Halifax in parliament!His wife and I were both astounded by the suddenness of the possibility;which,however,John himself seemed to receive as no novel idea.
Lord Luxmore continued."I assure you nothing is more easy;I can bring you in at once,for a borough near here--my family borough.""Which you wish to be held by some convenient person till Lord Ravenel comes of age?So Mr.Brown informed me yesterday."Lord Luxmore slightly frowned.Such transactions,as common then in the service of the country as they still are in the service of the Church,were yet generally glossed over,as if a certain discredit attached to them.The young lord seemed to feel it;at sound of his name he turned round to listen,and turned back again,blushing scarlet.Not so the earl,his father.
"Brown is--(may I offer you a pinch,Mr.Halifax?--what,not the Prince Regent's own mixture?)--is indeed a worthy fellow,but too hasty in his conclusions.As it happens,my son is yet undecided between the Church--that is,the priesthood,and politics.But to our conversation--Mrs.Halifax,may I not enlist you on my side?We could easily remove all difficulties,such as qualification,etc.