CHAPTER XV
MR LESSINGHAM SPEAKS
The House was full. Percy and I went upstairs,--to the gallery which istheoretically supposed to be reserved for what are called'distinguished strangers,'--those curious animals. Trumperton was up,hammering out those sentences which smell, not so much of the lamp asof the dunderhead. Nobody was listening,--except the men in the PressGallery; where is the brain of the House, and ninety per cent, of itswisdom.
It was not till Trumperton had finished that I discovered Lessingham.The tedious ancient resumed his seat amidst a murmur of sounds which, Ihave no doubt, some of the press-men interpreted next day as 'loud andcontinued applause.' There was movement in the House, possiblyexpressive of relief; a hum of voices; men came flocking in. Then, fromthe Opposition benches, there rose a sound which was applause,--and Iperceived that, on a cross bench close to the gangway, Paul Lessinghamwas standing up bareheaded.
I eyed him critically,--as a collector might eye a valuable specimen,or a pathologist a curious subject. During the last four and twentyhours my interest in him had grown apace. Just then, to me, he was themost interesting man the world contained.
When I remembered how I had seen him that same morning, a nerveless,terror-stricken wretch, grovelling, like some craven cur, upon thefloor, frightened, to the verge of imbecility, by a shadow, and lessthan a shadow, I was confronted by two hypotheses. Either I hadexaggerated his condition then, or I exaggerated his condition now. Sofar as appearance went, it was incredible that this man could be thatone.
I confess that my feeling rapidly became one of admiration. I love thefighter. I quickly recognised that here we had him in perfection. Therewas no seeming about him then,--the man was to the manner born. To hisfinger-tips a fighting man. I had never realised it so clearly before.He was coolness itself. He had all his faculties under completecommand. While never, for a moment, really exposing himself, he wouldbe swift in perceiving the slightest weakness in his opponents'defence, and, so soon as he saw it, like lightning, he would slip in atelling blow. Though defeated, he would hardly be disgraced; and onemight easily believe that their very victories would be so expensive tohis assailants, that, in the end, they would actually conduce to hisown triumph.
'Hang me!' I told myself, 'if, after all, I am surprised if Marjoriedoes see something in him.' For I perceived how a clever andimaginative young woman, seeing him at his best, holding his own, likea gallant knight, against overwhelming odds, in the lists in which hewas so much at home, might come to think of him as if he were alwaysand only there, ignoring altogether the kind of man he was when thejoust was finished.
It did me good to hear him, I do know that,--and I could easily imaginethe effect he had on one particular auditor who was in the Ladies'Cage. It was very far from being an 'oration' in the American sense; ithad little or nothing of the fire and fury of the French Tribune; itwas marked neither by the ponderosity nor the sentiment of the eloquentGerman; yet it was as satisfying as are the efforts of either of thethree, producing, without doubt, precisely the effect which the speakerintended. His voice was clear and calm, not exactly musical, yetdistinctly pleasant, and it was so managed that each word he utteredwas as audible to every person present as if it had been addressedparticularly to him. His sentences were short and crisp; the wordswhich he used were not big ones, but they came from him with anagreeable ease; and he spoke just fast enough to keep one's interestalert without invoking a strain on the attention.
He commenced by making, in the quietest and most courteous manner,sarcastic comments on the speeches and methods of Trumperton and hisfriends which tickled the House amazingly. But he did not make themistake of pushing his personalities too far. To a speaker of a certainsort nothing is easier than to sting to madness. If he likes, his everyword is barbed. Wounds so given fester; they are not easilyforgiven;--it is essential to a politician that he should have hisfirmest friends among the fools; or his climbing days will soon beover. Soon his sarcasms were at an end. He began to exchange them forsweet-sounding phrases. He actually began to say pleasant things to hisopponents; apparently to mean them. To put them in a good conceit withthemselves. He pointed out how much truth there was in what they said;and then, as if by accident, with what ease and at how little cost,amendments might be made. He found their arguments, and took them forhis own, and flattered them, whether they would or would not, byshowing how firmly they were founded upon fact; and grafted otherarguments upon them, which seemed their natural sequelae; andtransformed them, and drove them hither and thither; and broughtthem--their own arguments!--to a round, irrefragable conclusion, whichwas diametrically the reverse of that to which they themselves hadbrought them. And he did it all with an aptness, a readiness, a grace,which was incontestable. So that, when he sat down, he had performedthat most difficult of all feats, he had delivered what, in a House ofCommons' sense, was a practical, statesmanlike speech, and yet onewhich left his hearers in an excellent humour.
It was a great success,--an immense success. A parliamentary triumph ofalmost the highest order. Paul Lessingham had been coming on by leapsand bounds. When he resumed his seat, amidst applause which, this time,really was applause, there were, probably, few who doubted that he wasdestined to go still farther. How much farther it is true that timealone could tell; but, so far as appearances went, all the prizes,which are as the crown and climax of a statesman's career, were wellwithin his reach.
For my part, I was delighted. I had enjoyed an intellectualexercise,--a species of enjoyment not so common as it might be. TheApostle had almost persuaded me that the political game was one worthplaying, and that its triumphs were things to be desired. It issomething, after all, to be able to appeal successfully to the passionsand aspirations of your peers; to gain their plaudits; to prove yourskill at the game you yourself have chosen; to be looked up to andadmired. And when a woman's eyes look down on you, and her ears drinkin your every word, and her heart beats time with yours,--each man tohis own temperament, but when that woman is the woman whom you love, toknow that your triumph means her glory, and her gladness, to me thatwould be the best part of it all.
In that hour,--the Apostle's hour!--I almost wished that I were apolitician too!
The division was over. The business of the night was practically done.I was back again in the lobby! The theme of conversation was theApostle's speech,--on every side they talked of it.
Suddenly Marjorie was at my side. Her face was glowing. I never saw herlook more beautiful,--or happier. She seemed to be alone.
'So you have come, after all!--Wasn't it splendid?--wasn't itmagnificent? Isn't it grand to have such great gifts, and to use themto such good purpose?--Speak, Sydney! Don't feign a coolness which isforeign to your nature!'
I saw that she was hungry for me to praise the man whom she delightedto honour. But, somehow, her enthusiasm cooled mine.
'It was not a bad speech, of a kind.'
'Of a kind!' How her eyes flashed fire! With what disdain she treatedme! 'What do you mean by "of a kind?" My dear Sydney, are you not awarethat it is an attribute of small minds to attempt to belittle thosewhich are greater? Even if you are conscious of inferiority, it'sunwise to show it. Mr Lessingham's was a great speech, of any kind;your incapacity to recognise the fact simply reveals your lack of thecritical faculty.'
'It is fortunate for Mr Lessingham that there is at least one person inwhom the critical faculty is so bountifully developed. Apparently, inyour judgment, he who discriminates is lost.'
I thought she was going to burst into passion. But, instead, laughing,she placed her hand upon my shoulder.
'Poor Sydney!--I understand!--It is so sad!--Do you know you are like alittle boy who, when he is beaten, declares that the victor has cheatedhim. Never mind! as you grow older, you will learn better.'
She stung me almost beyond bearing,--I cared not what I said.
'You, unless I am mistaken, will learn better before you are older.'
'What do you mean?'
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br /> Before I could have told her--if I had meant to tell; which I didnot--Lessingham came up.
'I hope I have not kept you waiting; I have been delayed longer than Iexpected.'
'Not at all,--though I am quite ready to get away; it's a littletiresome waiting here.'
This with a mischievous glance towards me,--a glance which compelledLessingham to notice me.
'You do not often favour us.'
'I don't. I find better employment for my time.'
'You are wrong. It's the cant of the day to underrate the House ofCommons, and the work which it performs; don't you suffer yourself tojoin in the chorus of the simpletons. Your time cannot be betteremployed than in endeavouring to improve the body politic.'
'I am obliged to you.--I hope you are feeling better than when I sawyou last.'
A gleam came into his eyes, fading as quickly as it came. He showed noother sign of comprehension, surprise, or resentment.
'Thank you.--I am very well.'
Marjorie perceived that I meant more than met the eye, and that what Imeant was meant unpleasantly.
'Come,--let us be off. It is Mr Atherton to-night who is not well.'
She had just slipped her arm through Lessingham's when her fatherapproached. Old Lindon stared at her on the Apostle's arm, as if hecould hardly believe that it was she.
'I thought that you were at the Duchess'?'
'So I have been, papa; and now I'm here.'
'Here!' Old Lindon began to stutter and stammer, and to grow red in theface, as is his wont when at all excited. 'W--what do you mean byhere?--wh--where's the carriage?'
'Where should it be, except waiting for me outside,--unless the horseshave run away.'
'I--I--I'll take you down to it. I--I don't approve of y--yourw--w--waiting in a place like this.'
'Thank you, papa, but Mr Lessingham is going to take me down.--I shallsee you afterwards.--Good bye.'
Anything cooler than the way in which she walked off I do not think Iever saw. This is the age of feminine advancement. Young women thinknothing of twisting their mothers round their fingers, let alone theirfathers; but the fashion in which that young woman walked off, on theApostle's arm, and left her father standing there, was, in its way, astudy.
Lindon seemed scarcely able to realise that the pair of them had gone.Even after they had disappeared in the crowd he stood staring afterthem, growing redder and redder, till the veins stood out upon hisface, and I thought that an apoplectic seizure threatened. Then, with agasp, he turned to me.
'Damned scoundrel!' I took it for granted that he alluded to thegentleman,--even though his following words hardly suggested it. 'Onlythis morning I forbade her to have anything to do with him, and n--nowhe's w--walked off with her! C--confounded adventurer! That's what heis, an adventurer, and before many hours have passed I'll take theliberty to tell him so!'
Jamming his fists into his pockets, and puffing like a grampus indistress, he took himself away,--and it was time he did, for his wordswere as audible as they were pointed, and already people were wonderingwhat the matter was. Woodville came up as Lindon was going,--just assorely distressed as ever.
'She went away with Lessingham,--did you see her?'
'Of course I saw her. When a man makes a speech like Lessingham's anygirl would go away with him,--and be proud to. When you are endowedwith such great powers as he is, and use them for such lofty purposes,she'll walk away with you,--but, till then, never.'
He was at his old trick of polishing his eyeglass.
'It's bitter hard. When I knew that she was there, I'd half a mind tomake a speech myself, upon my word I had, only I didn't know what tospeak about, and I can't speak anyhow,--how can a fellow speak whenhe's shoved into the gallery?'
'As you say, how can he?--he can't stand on the railing andshout,--even with a friend holding him behind.'
'I know I shall speak one day,--bound to; and then she won't be there.'
'It'll be better for you if she isn't.'
'Think so?--Perhaps you're right. I'd be safe to make a mess of it, andthen, if she were to see me at it, it'd be the devil! 'Pon my word,I've been wishing, lately, I was clever.'
He rubbed his nose with the rim of his eyeglass, looking the mostcomically disconsolate figure.
'Put black care behind you, Percy!--buck up, my boy! The division'sover--you are free--now we'll go "on the fly."'
And we did 'go on the fly.'