s
hopeless condition, and after extracting my political views, which were
for the nonce those of a happy subserviency, he expressed his belief
that the new writ for the borough of Chippenden might be out, and myself
seated on the Government benches, within a very short period. Nor would
it be necessary, he thought, for the Government nominee to spend money:
'though that does not affect you, Mr. Richmond!' My supposed wealth gave
me currency even in political circles.

CHAPTER XLIII. I BECOME ONE OF THE CHOSEN OF THE NATION

An entire revulsion in my feelings and my way of thinking was caused by
this sudden change of prospect. A member of our Parliament, I could then
write to Ottilia, and tell her that I had not wasted time. And it was
due to my father, I confessed, when he returned from his ball at dawn,
that I should thank him for speaking to Graf Kesensky. 'Oh!' said he,
'that was our luck, Richie. I have been speaking about you to hundreds
for the last six months, and now we owe it to a foreigner!' I thanked
him again. He looked eminently handsome in his Henry III. costume, and
was disposed to be as luxurious as his original. He had brought Count
Lika, Secretary of Legation to the Austrian Embassy, dressed as an
Albanian, with him. The two were stretched on couches, and discoursing
of my father's reintroduction of the sedan chair to society. My father
explained that he had ordered a couple of dozen of these chairs to be
built on a pattern of his own. And he added, 'By the way, Richie,
there will be sedaniers--porters to pay to-day. Poor men should be paid
immediately.' I agreed with the monarch. Contemplating him, I became
insensible to the sting of ridicule which had been shooting through me,
agonizing me for the last eight-and-forty hours. Still I thought: can I
never escape from the fascination?--let me only get into Parliament! The
idea in me was that Parliament lifted me nearer to Ottilia, and would
prompt me to resolute action, out of his tangle of glittering cobwebs.
I told him of my interview with Beauchamp Hill. 'I have never known
Kesensky wrong yet,' said he; 'except in his backing of Falmouth's
horses.' Count Lika murmured that he hoped his Chief would be wrong in
something else: he spoke significantly. My father raised his eyebrows.
'In his opinion,' Lika accepted the invitation to pursue, 'Prince Ernest
will not let that announcement stand uncontradicted.'

My father's eyes dwelt on him. 'Are we