Did he not owe himself to his country? And then, again, what might not
London do for him? Men who had begun as he begun had lived to rule
over Cabinets, and to sway the Empire. He had been happy for a short
twelvemonth with his young bride,--for a short twelvemonth,--and then
she had been taken from him. Had she been spared to him he would
never have longed for more than Fate had given him. He would never
have sighed again for the glories of Westminster had his Mary not gone
from him. Now he was alone in the world; and, though he could look
forward to possible and not improbable events which would make that
future disposition of himself a most difficult question for him, still he
would dare to try.
As the first result of Erle's letter Phineas was over in London early in
August. If he went on with this matter, he must, of course, resign the
office for holding which he was now paid a thousand a year. He could
retain that as long as he chose to earn the money, but the earning of it
would not be compatible with a seat in Parliament. He had a few
thousand pounds with which he could pay for the contest at Tankerville,
for the consequent petition which had been so generously suggested to
him, and maintain himself in London for a session or two should he be
so fortunate as to carry his election. Then he would be penniless, with
the world before him as a closed oyster to be again opened, and he
knew,--no one better,--that this oyster becomes harder and harder in the
opening as the man who has to open it becomes older. It is an oyster
that will close to again with a snap, after you have got your knife well
into it, if you withdraw your point but for a moment. He had had a
rough tussle with the oyster already, and had reached the fish within the
shell. Nevertheless, the oyster which he had got was not the oyster
which he wanted. So he told himself now, and here had come to him
the chance of trying again.
Early in August he went over to England, saw Mr. Molescroft, and
made his first visit to Tankerville. He did not like the look of
Tankerville; but nevertheless he resigned his place before the month
was over. That was the one great step, or rather the leap in the
dark,--and that he took. Things had been so arranged that the election at
Tankerville was to take place on the 20th of October. When the
dissolution had been notified to all the world by Mr. Daubeny an earlier
day was suggested; but Mr. Daubeny saw reasons for postponing it for
a fortnight. Mr. Daubeny's enemies were again very ferocious. It was
all a trick. Mr. Daubeny had no right to continue Prime Minister a day
after the decided expression of opinion as to unfitness which had been
pronounced by the House of Commons. Men were waxing very wrath.
Nevertheless, so much power remained in Mr. Daubeny's hand, and the
election was delayed. That for Tankerville would not be held till the
20th of October. The whole House could not be chosen till the end of
the month,--hardly by that time--and yet there was to be an autumn
Session. The Ratlers and Bonteens were at any rate clear about the
autumn Session. It was absolutely impossible that Mr. Daubeny should
be allowed to remain in power over Christmas, and up to February.
Mr. Molescroft, whom Phineas saw in London, was not a comfortable
counsellor. "So you are going down to Tankerville?" he said.
"They seem to think I might as well try."
"Quite right;--quite right. Somebody ought to try it, no doubt. It would
be a disgrace to the whole party if Browborough were allowed to walk
over. There isn't a borough in England more sure to return a Liberal
than Tankerville if left to itself. And yet that lump of a legislator has sat
there as a Tory for the last dozen years by dint of money and brass."
"You think we can unseat him?"
"I don't say that. He hasn't come to the end of his money, and as to his
brass that is positively without end."
"But surely he'll have some fear of consequences after what has been
done?"
"None in the least. What has been done? Can you name a single
Parliamentary aspirant who has been made to suffer?"
"They have suffered in character," said Phineas. "I should not like to
have the things said of me that have been said of them."
"I don't know a man of them who stands in a worse position among his
own friends than he
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