MR SLIDE'S REVENGE.
'Do you mean to say, my lady, that the Duke paid his electioneering bill down at Silverbridge?'
'I do mean to say so, Mr Slide,' Lady Eustace nodded her head, and Mr Quintus Slide opened his mouth.
'Goodness gracious!' said Mrs Leslie, who was sitting with them.
They were in Lady Eustace's drawing-room, and the patriotic editor of the "People's Banner" was obtaining from a new ally information which might be useful to the country.
'But 'ow do you know, Lady Eustace? You'll pardon the persistency of my inquiries, but when you come to public information accuracy is everything.I never trust myself to mere report, I always travel up to the very fountain 'ead of truth.'
'I know it,' said Lizzy Eustace oracularly.
'Um--m! The Editor as he ejaculated the sound looked at her ladyship with admiring eyes,--with eyes that were intended to flatter.But Lizzie had been looked at so often in so many ways, and was so well accustomed to admiration, that this had no effect on her at all.'He didn't tell you himself, did 'e now?'
'Can you tell me the truth as to trusting him with my money?'
'Yes, I can.'
'Shall I be safe if I take the papers which he calls bills of sale?'
'One good turn deserves another, my lady.'
'I don't want to make a secret of it, Mr Slide.Pountney found it out.You know the Major?'
'Yes, I know Major Pountney.He was at Gatherum 'imself, and got a little bit of a cold shoulder,--didn't he?'
'I dare say he did.What has that to do with it? You may be sure that Lopez applied to the Duke for his expenses at Silverbridge, and that the Duke sent him the money.'
'There's no doubt about it, Mr Slide,' said Mrs Leslie.'We got it all from Major Pountney.There was some bet between him and Pountney, and he had to show Pountney the cheque.'
'Pountney saw the money,' said Lady Eustace.
Mr Slide stroked his had over his mouth and chin as he sat thinking of the tremendous national importance of this communication.The man who had paid the money was the Prime Minister of England,--and was, moreover, Mr Slide's enemy!
'When the right 'and of fellowship had been rejected, I never forgive!' Mr Slide has been heard to say.Even Lady Eustace, who was not particular as to the appearance of people, remarked afterwards to her friend that Mr Slide looked like the devil as he was stroking his face.'It's very remarkable,' said Mr Slide;'very remarkable.'
'You won't tell the Major that we told you,' said her Ladyship.
'Oh dear not.I only wanted to 'ear how it was.And as to embarking your money, my lady, with Ferdinand Lopez,--I wouldn't do it.'
'Not if I get the bills of sale? It's for rum, and they say rum will go up to any price.'
'Don't Lady Eustace.I can't say any more,--but don't.I never mention names.But don't.'
Then Mr Slide went out in search of Major Pountney, and having found the major at his club extracted from him all that he knew about the Silverbridge payment.Pountney had really seen the Duke's cheque for 500 pounds.'There was some bet,--eh, Major?'
asked Mr Slide.
'No, there wasn't.I know who had been telling you.That's Lizzie Eustace, and just like her mischief.They way of it was this,--Lopez, who was very angry, had boasted that he would bring the Duke down on his marrow-bones.I was laughing at him as we sat at dinner on day afterwards, and he took out the cheque and showed it me.There was the Duke's own signature for 500pounds,--"Omnium", as plain as letters could make it.' Armed with this full information, Mr Slide felt that he had done all that the punctilious devotion to accuracy could demand of him, and immediately shut himself up in his cage at the "People's Banner" office and went to work.
This occurred about the first week of January.The Duke was then at Matching with his wife and a very small party.The singular arrangement which had been effected by the Duchess in the early autumn had passed off without any wonderful effects.It had been done by her in pique, and the result had been apparently so absurd that it had at first frightened her.But in the end it answered very well.The Duke took great pleasure in Lady Rosina's company, and enjoyed the apparent solitude which enabled him to work all day without interruption.His wife protested that it was just what she liked, though it must be feared that she soon became weary of it.To Lady Rosina it was of course Paradise on earth.In September, Phineas Finn and his wife came to them, and in October there were other relaxations and other business.The Prime Minister and his wife visited their Sovereign, and he made some very useful speeches through the country on his old favourite subject of decimal coinage.At Christmas, for a fortnight, they went to Gatherum Castle and entertained the neighbourhood,--the nobility and squirearchy dining there on one day, and the tenants and other farmers on another.All this went very smoothly, and the Duke did not become outrageously unhappy because the "People's Banner" made sundry severe remarks on the absence of Cabinet Councils through the autumn.
After Christmas they returned to Matching, and had some of their old friends with them.There was the Duke of St Bungay and the Duchess, and Phineas Finn and his wife, and Lord and Lady Cantrip, Barrington Erle, and one or two others.But at this period there came a great trouble.One morning as the Duke sat in his own room after breakfast he read an article in the "People's Banner", of which the following sentences are a part.
"We wish to know by whom were paid the expenses incurred by Mr Ferdinand Lopez during the late contest at Silverbridge.It may be that they were paid by that gentleman himself,--in which case we shall have nothing further to say, not caring at the present moment to inquire whether those expenses were or were not excessive.It may be that they were paid by subscription among his political friends,--and if so, again we shall be satisfied.