ou
can manage L25,000 for me by Monday?' Mr Cohenlupe said that he would
try, but intimated his opinion that there would be considerable
difficulty in the operation.

CHAPTER LIV - THE INDIA OFFICE

The Conservative party at this particular period was putting its
shoulder to the wheel,--not to push the coach up any hill, but to
prevent its being hurried along at a pace which was not only
dangerous, but manifestly destructive. The Conservative party now and
then does put its shoulder to the wheel, ostensibly with the great
national object above named; but also actuated by a natural desire to
keep its own head well above water and be generally doing something,
so that other parties may not suppose that it is moribund. There are,
no doubt, members of it who really think that when some object has
been achieved,--when, for instance, a good old Tory has been squeezed
into Parliament for the borough of Porcorum, which for the last three
parliaments has been represented by a Liberal,--the coach has been
really stopped. To them, in their delightful faith, there comes at
these triumphant moments a conviction that after all the people as a
people have not been really in earnest in their efforts to take
something from the greatness of the great, and to add something to the
lowliness of the lowly. The handle of the windlass has been broken,
the wheel is turning fast the reverse way, and the rope of Radical
progress is running back. Who knows what may not be regained if the
Conservative party will only put its shoulder to the wheel and take
care that the handle of the windlass be not mended! Sticinthemud,
which has ever been a doubtful little borough, has just been carried
by a majority of fifteen! A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull
altogether,--and the old day will come back again. Venerable patriarchs
think of Lord Liverpool and other heroes, and dream dreams of
Conservative bishops, Conservative lord-lieutenants, and of a
Conservative ministry that shall remain in for a generation.

Such a time was now present. Porcorum and Sticinthemud had done their
duty valiantly,--with much management. But Westminster! If this special
seat for Westminster could be carried, the country then could hardly
any longer have a doubt on the matter. If only Mr Melmotte could be
got in for Westminster, it would be manifest that the people were
sound at heart, and that all the great changes which had been effected
during the last forty ye