Angels Ministers | Page 7

policies which, for the welfare of my beloved country, I confide to the care of a Sovereign whom I revere and love....I am not unhappy in my life, Madam; far less in my fortune; only, as age creeps on, I find myself so lonely, so solitary, that sometimes I have doubt whether I am really alive, or whether the voice, with which now and then I seek to reassure myself, be not the voice of a dead man.
QUEEN (_almost tearfully_). No, no, my dear Lord Beaconsfield, you mustn't say that!
LORD B.(_gallantly_). I won't say anything, Madam, that you forbid, or that you dislike. You invited me to speak to you as a friend; so I have done, so I do. I apologise that I have allowed sadness, even for a moment, to trouble the harmony-the sweetness--of our conversation.
QUEEN. Pray, do not apologise! It has been a very great privilege; I beg that you will go on! Tell me--you spoke of bereavement--I wish you would tell me more--about your wife.
(_The sudden request touches some latent chord; and it is with genuine emotion that he answers_.)
LORD B. Ah! My wife! To her I owed everything.
QUEEN. She was devoted to you, wasn't she?
LORD B. I never read the depth of her devotion-till after her death. Then, Madam--this I have told to nobody but yourself--then I found among her papers--addressed "to my dear husband"--a message, written only a few days before her death, with a hand shaken by that nerve-racking and fatal malady which she endured so patiently--begging me to marry again.
(_The Queen is now really crying, and finds speech difficult._)
QUEEN. And you, you--? Dear Lord Beaconsfield; did you mean--had you ever meant----?
LORD B. I did not then, Madam; nor have I ever done so since. It is enough if I allow myself--to love.
QUEEN. Oh, yes, yes; I understand--better than others would. For that has always been my own feeling.
LORD B. In the history of my race, Madam, there has been a great tradition of faithfulness between husbands and wives. For the hardness of our hearts, we are told, Moses permitted us to give a writing of divorcement. But we have seldom acted on it. In my youth I became a Christian; I married a Christian. But that was no reason for me to desert the nobler traditions of my race--for they are in the blood and in the heart. When my wife died I had no thought to marry again; and when I came upon that tender wish, still I had no thought for it; my mind would not change. Circumstances that have happened since have sealed irrevocably my resolution-never to marry again.
QUEEN. Oh, I think that is so wise, so right, so noble of you!
(_The old Statesman rises, pauses, appears to hesitate, then in a voice charged with emotion says_)
LORD B. Madam, will you permit me to kiss your hand?
(_The hand graciously given, and the kiss fervently implanted, he falls back once more to a respectful distance. But the emotional excitement of the interview has told upon him, and it is in a wavering voice of weariness that he now speaks_.)
LORD B. You have been very forbearing with me, Madam, not to indicate that I have outstayed either my welcome or your powers of endurance. Yet so much conversation must necessarily have tired you. May I then crave permission, Madam, to withdraw. For, to speak truly, I do need some rest.
QUEEN. Yes, my dear friend, go and rest yourself! But before you go, will you not wait, and take a glass of wine with me?
(_He bows, and she rings_.)
And there is just one other thing I wish to say before we part.
LORD B. Speak, Madam, for thy servant heareth.
(_The other servant is now also standing to attention, awaiting orders_.)
QUEEN. Bring some wine. (The Attendant GOES.)
That Order of the Garter which I had intended to onfer upon the Sultan-- have you, as Prime Minister, any objection if I bestow it nearer home, on one to whom personally--I cannot say more--on yourself, I mean.
(_At that pronouncement of the royal favour, the Minister stands, exhausted of energy, in an attitude of drooping humility. The eloquent silence is broken presently by the Queen_.)
QUEEN. Dear Lord Beaconsfield, I want your answer.
LORD B. Oh, Madam! What adequate answer can these poor lips make to so magnificent an offer? Yet answer I must. We have spoken together briefly to-day of our policies in the Near East. Madam, let me come to you again when I have saved Constantinople, and secured once more upon a firm basis the peace of Europe. Then ask me again whether I have any objection, and I will own--"I have none!"
(RE-ENTERS _Attendant. He deposits a tray with decanter and glasses, and retires again_.)
QUEEN. Very well, Lord Beaconsfield. And if you do not remind me, I