arr is gone to find mops and Dame Partingtons to stave off the deluge.
Colonel Morley has obeyed Lady Montfort's summons, and has entered the
carriage. Before she can speak, however, he has rushed into the subject
of which he himself is full. "Only think--I knew it would be so when the
moment came; all depends upon Guy Darrell; Montfort, who seems always
in a fright lest a newspaper should fall on his head and crush him, says
that if Darrell, whom he chooses to favour just because the newspapers
do, declines to join, the newspapers will say the CRISIS is a job!
Fancy!--a job--the CRISIS! Lord Mowbray de l'Arco and Sir Josiah Snodge,
who are both necessary to a united government, but who unluckily detest
each other, refuse to sit in the same Cabinet, unless Darrell sit
between--to save them, I suppose, from the fate of the cats of Kilkenny.
Sir John Cautly, our crack county member, declares that if Darrell does
not come in, 'tis because the CRISIS is going too far! Harry Bold, our
most popular speaker, says, if Darrell stay out, 'tis a sign that the
CRISIS is a retrograde movement! In short, without Darrell the
CRISIS will be a failure, and the House of Vipont smashed--Lady
Montfort--smashed! I sent a telegram (oh, that I should live to see such
a word introduced into the English language!--but, as Carr says, what
times these are!) to Fawley this morning, entreating Guy to come up to
town at once. He answers by a line from Horace, which means, 'that he
will see me shot first.' I must go down to him; only waiting to know
the result of certain negotiations as to measures. I have but one hope.
There is a measure which Darrell always privately advocated--which
he thoroughly understands--which, placed in his hands, would be
triumphantly carried; one of those measures, Lady Montfort, which, if
defective, shipwreck a government; if framed as Guy Darrell could frame
it, immortalise the minister who concocts and carries them. This is all
that Darrell needs to complete his fame and career. This is at length an
occasion to secure a durable name in the history of his country; let
him reject it, and I shall tell him frankly that his life has been but
a brilliant failure. Since he has not a seat in Parliament, and usage
requires the actual possession of that qualification for a seat in the
Cabinet, we must lose his voice in the Commons. But we can arrange that;
for if Darrell will but join the government, and go--to the Lords,
Sir Josia