He had said a word about his own prospect in reference to the marriage, but Everett had been at first far too full of his own affairs to attend much to a matter which was comparatively so trifling.
'Upon my word,' he said, 'I am beginning to feel angry with the governor, which is a kind of thing I don't like at all.'
'I can understand that when he's angry with you, you shouldn't like it.'
'I don't mind that half so much.He'll come round.However unjust he may be now, at the moment, he's the last man in the world to do an injustice in his will.I have thorough confidence in him.But I find myself driven into hostility to him by a conviction that he won't let me take any real step in life, till my life has been half frittered away.'
'You're thinking of Parliament.'
'Of course I am.I don't say to you ain't an Englishman, but you are not quite enough of an Englishman to understand what Parliament is to us.'
'I hope to be;--some of these days,' said Lopez.
'Perhaps you may.I won't say but what you may get yourself educated to it when you've been married a dozen years to an English wife, and have half-a-dozen English children of your own.
But, in the meantime, look at my position.I am twenty-eight years old.'
'I am four years your senior.'
'It does not matter a straw to you,' continued Everett.'But a few years are everything with me.I have a right to suppose that I may be able to represent the county,--say in twenty years.Ishall probably then be the head of the family and a rich man.
Consider what a parliamentary education would be to me! And then it is just the life for which I have laid myself out, and in which I could make myself useful.You don't sympathize with me, but you might understand me.'
'I do both.I think of going into the House myself.'
'You!'
'Yes, I do.'
'You must have changed your ideas very much then within the last month or two.'
'I have changed my ideas.My one chief object in life is, as you know, to marry your sister; and if I were a Member of Parliament I think that some difficulties would be cleared away.'
'But there won't be an election for the next three years at my rate,' said Everett Wharton, staring at his friend.'You don't mean to keep Emily waiting for a dissolution?'
'There are occasional vacancies,' said Lopez.
'Is there a chance of anything of that kind falling in your way?'
'I think there is.I can't quite tell you all the particulars because other people are concerned, but I don't think it improbable that I may be in the House before--; well, say in three months' time.'
'In three months' time!' exclaimed Everett, whose mouth was watering at the prospects of a friend.'That is what comes from going to stay with a Prime Minister, I suppose,' Lopez shrugged his shoulders.'Upon my word I can't understand you,' continued the other.'It was only the other day you were arguing in this very room as to the absurdity of a parliamentary career,--pitching into me, by George, like the very mischief, because Ihad said something in its favour,--and now you are going in for it yourself in some sort of mysterious way that a fellow can't understand.' It was quite clear that Everett Wharton thought himself ill-used by his friend's success.
'There is no mystery;--only I can't tell people's names.'
'What is the borough?'
'I cannot tell you that at present.'
'Are you sure there will be a vacancy?'
'I think I am sure,'
'And that you will be invited to stand?'
'I am not sure of that.'
'Of course anybody can stand whether invited or not.'
'If I come forward for this place I shall do so on the very best interest.Don't mention it.I tell you because I already regard my connection with you as being so close as to call upon me to tell you anything of that kind.'
'And yet you do not tell me the details.'
'I tell you all that I can in honour tell.'
Everett Wharton certainly felt aggrieved by his friend's news, and plainly showed that he did so.It was so hard that if a stray seat in Parliament were going a-begging, it should be thrown in the way of this man who didn't care for it, and couldn't use it to any good purpose.Instead of in his own way!
Why should anyone want Ferdinand Lopez to be in Parliament?
Ferdinand Lopez had paid no attention to the great political questions of the Commonwealth.He knew nothing of Labour and Capital, of Unions, Strikes, and Lockouts.But because he was rich, and, by being rich, had made his way among great people, he was to have a seat in Parliament! As for the wealth, it might be at his own command also,--if only his father could be got to see the matter in a proper light.And as for the friendship of great people,--Prime Ministers, Duchesses, and such like,--Everett Wharton was quite confident that he was at any rate as well qualified to shine among them as Ferdinand Lopez.He was of too good a nature to be stirred to injustice against his friend by the soreness of this feeling.He did not wish to rob his friend of his wealth, of his Duchesses, or of his embryo seat in Parliament.But for the moment there came upon him a doubt whether Ferdinand was so very clever, or so peculiarly gentlemanlike or in any way very remarkable, and almost a conviction that he was very far from being good-looking.