MY LORD DUKE, I consider myself entitled to complain to your Grace of the conduct with which I am treated at the last election at Silverbridge, whereby I was led into very heavy expenditure without the least chance of being returned for the borough.I am aware that I had no direct conversation with your Grace on the subject, and that your Grace can plead that, as between man and man, I had no authority from yourself for supposing that I should receive your Grace's support.But I was distinctly asked by the Duchess to stand, and was assured by her that if Idid so I should have all the assistance that your Grace's influence could procure for me;--and it was also explained to me that your Grace's official position made it inexpedient that your Grace on this special occasion should have any personal conference with your own candidate.Under these circumstances I submit to your Grace that I am entitled to complain of the hardship Ihave suffered.
I had not been long in the borough before I found that my position was hopeless.Influential men in the town who had been represented to me as being altogether devoted to your Grace's interests started a third candidate,--a Liberal as myself,--and the natural consequence was that neither of us succeeded, though my return as your Grace's candidate would have been certain had not this been done.
That all this was preconcerted there can be no doubt, but, before the mine was sprung on me,--immediately, indeed, on my arrival, if I remember rightly,--an application was made to me for 500 pounds, so that the money might be exacted before the truth was known to me.
Of course I should not have paid the 500 pounds had Iknown that your Grace's usual agents in the town,--I may name Mr Sprout especially,--were prepared to act against me.But I did pay the money, and I think your Grace will agree with me that a very opprobrious term might be applied without injustice to the transaction.
My Lord Duke, I am a poor man,--ambitious I will own, whether that be a sin or a virtue,--and willing, perhaps to incur expenditure which can hardly be justified in pursuit of certain public objects.But I do not feel inclined to sit down tamely under such a loss as this.Ishould not have dreamed of interfering in the election at Silverbridge had not the Duchess exhorted me to do so.Iwould not even run the risk of a doubtful contest.But Icame forward at the suggestion of the Duchess, backed by the personal assurance that the seat was certain as being in your Grace's hands.It was no doubt understood that your Grace would not yourself interfere, but it was equally well understood that your Grace's influence was for the time deputed to the Duchess.The Duchess herself will, I am sure, confirm my statement that I had her distinct authority for regarding myself as your Grace's candidate.
I can of course bring an action against Mr Wise, the gentleman to whom I paid the money, but I feel that as a gentleman I should not do so without reference to your Grace, as circumstances might possibly be brought out in evidence,--I will not say prejudicial to your Grace,-but which would be unbecoming.I cannot, however, think that your Grace will be willing that a poor man like myself, in search for an entrance into public life, should be mulcted to so heavy an extent in consequence of an error on the part of the Duchess.Should your Grace be able to assist me in my view of getting into Parliament for any other seat I shall be willing to abide by the loss I have incurred.I hardly, however, dare to hope for such assistance.In this case I think your grace ought to see that I am reimbursed.
I have the honour to be, My Lord Duke, Your Grace's faithful Servant FERDINAND LOPEZThe Duke stood over her in her own room upstairs, with his back to the fireplace and his eyes fixed upon her while she was reading this letter.He gave her ample time, and she did not read it very quickly.Much of it indeed she perused twice, turning very red in the face as she did so.She was thus studious partly because the letter astounded even her, and partly because she wanted time to consider how she would meet his wrath.
'Well,' said he, 'what do you say to that?'
'The man is a blackguard,--of course.'
'He is so;--though I do not know that I wish to hear him called such a name by your lips.Let him be what he may he was your friend.'
'He was my acquaintance.'
'He was the man whom you selected to be your candidate for the borough in opposition to my wishes, and whom you continued to support in direct disobedience to my orders.'
'Surely, Plantagenet, we had all that about disobedience out before.'
'You cannot have such things "out",--as you call it.Evil-doing will not bury itself out of the way and be done with.Do you feel no shame at having your name mentioned a score of times with reprobation as that man mentions it,--at being written about by such a man as that?'
'Do you want me to roll in the gutter because I mistook him for a gentleman?'
'That was not all,--nor half.In your eagerness to serve such a miserable creature as this your forgot me entreaties, my commands, my position! I explained to you why, I, of al men, and you, of all women, as part of me, should not do this thing, and yet you did it, mistaking such a cur for a man! What am I to do?
How am I to free myself from the impediments which you make for me? My enemies I can overcome,--but I cannot escape the pitfalls which are made for me by my own wife.I can only retire into private life and hope to console myself with my children and my books.'
There was a reality of tragedy about him which for the moment overcame her.She had no joke ready, no sarca**, no feminine counter-grumble.Little as she agreed with him when he spoke of the necessity of retiring into private life because a man had written to him such a letter as this, incapable as she was of understanding fully the nature of the irritation which tormented him, still she knew that he was suffering, and acknowledged to herself that she had been the cause of the agony.'I am sorry,'