Alice, or the Mysteries — Book 03

								

atrocious measure.  I know the vain, stiff mind of the premier; he will
lose temper, he will tender his resignation; to his astonishment, it will
be accepted.  You will be sent for; we will dissolve parliament; we will
strain every nerve in the elections; we shall succeed, I know we shall.
But be silent in the meanwhile, be cautious: let not a word escape you,
let them think us beaten; lull suspicion asleep; let us lament our
weakness, and hint, only hint at our resignation, but with assurances of
continued support.  I know how to blind them, if you leave it to me."
The weak mind of the old earl was as a puppet in the hands of his bold
kinsman.  He feared one moment, hoped another; now his ambition was
flattered, now his sense of honour was alarmed.  There was something in
Lumley's intrigue to oust the government with which he served that had an
appearance of cunning and baseness, of which Lord Saxingham, whose
personal character was high, by no means approved.  But Vargrave talked
him over with consummate address, and when they parted, the earl carried
his head two inches higher,--he was preparing himself for his rise in
life.
"That is well! that is well!" said Lumley, rubbing his hands when he was
left alone: "the old driveller will be my locum tenens, till years and
renown enable me to become his successor.  Meanwhile, I shall be really
what he will be in name."
Here Lord Vargrave's well-fed servant, now advanced to the dignity of own
gentleman and house-steward, entered the room with a letter; it had a
portentous look; it was wafered, the paper was blue, the hand clerklike,
there was no envelope; it bore its infernal origin on the face of it,--IT
WAS A DUN'S.
Lumley opened the epistle with an impatient pshaw!  The man, a
silversmith (Lumley's plate was much admired!) had applied for years in
vain; the amount was large, and execution was threatened!  An
execution!--it is a trifle to a rich man; but no trifle to one suspected
of being poor, one straining at that very moment at so high an object,
one to whom public opinion was so necessary, one who knew that nothing
but his title, and scarcely that, saved him from the reputation of an
adventurer!  He must again have recourse to the money-lenders,--his small
estate was long since too deeply mortgaged to afford new security.
Usury, usury, again!--he knew its price, and he sighed--but what was to
be done?
"It is but for a few months, a few months, and Evelyn must be mine.
Saxingham has already lent me what he can; but he is embarrassed.  This
d-----d office, what a tax it is! and the rascals say we are too well
paid!  I, too, who could live happy in a garret, if this purse-proud
England would but allow one to exist within one's income.  My
fellow-trustee, the banker, my uncle's old correspondent--all, well
thought of!  He knows the conditions of the will; he knows that, at the
worst, I must have thirty thousand pounds, if I live a few months longer.