'Nobody else can do it.That is to say it must be done in your name.Of course it would be a Government matter, as far as the expense goes, and all that.'
'I am sorry the Duke should think so.'
'I don't see that it could hurt you.'
'I am sorry the Duke should think so,' repeated Phineas,--'because nothing can be done in my name.I have made up my mind about it.I think the Duke is wrong in wishing it, and I believe that were any action taken, we should only be playing into the hands of that wretched fellow, Quintus Slide.I have long been conversant with Mr Quintus Slide, and have quite made up my mind that I will never play upon his pipe.And you may tell the Duke that there are other reasons.The man referred to my past life, and in seeking to justify those remarks he would be enabled to drag before the public circumstances and stories, and perhaps persons, in a manner that I personally should disregard, but which, for the sake of others, I am bound to prevent it.You will explain all this to the Duke?'
'I am afraid you will find the Duke very urgent.'
'I must express my great sorrow that I cannot oblige the Duke.Itrust I need hardly say that the Duke has no colleague more devoted to his interest than I am.Were he to wish me to change my office, or to abandon it, or to undertake any political duty within the compass of my small powers, he would find me ready to obey his behest.But in this matter others are concerned, and Icannot make my judgement subordinate to his.' The private Secretary looked very serious, and simply said that he would do his best to explain these objections to his Grace.
That the Duke would take his refusal in bad part Phineas felt nearly certain.He had been a little surprised at the coldness of the Minister's manner to him after the statement he had made in the House, and had mentioned the matter to his wife.'You hardly know him,' she had said, 'as well as I do.'
'Certainly not.You ought to know him very intimately, and Ihave had but little personal friendship with him.But it was a moment in which the man might, for the moment, been cordial.'
'It was not a moment for his cordiality.The Duchess says that if you want to get a really genial smile from him you must talk to him about cork soles.I know exactly what she means.He loves to be simple, but he does not know how to show people that he likes it.Lady Rosina found him out by accident.'
'Don't suppose that I am in the least aggrieved,' he had said.
And now he spoke again to his wife in the same spirit.
'Warburton clearly thinks he will be offended, and Warburton, Isuppose, knows his mind.'
'I don't see why he should.I have been reading it longer, and Istill find it very difficult.Lady Glen has been at work for the last fifteen years, and sometimes owns that there are passages she has not mastered yet.I fancy Mr Warburton is afraid of him, and is a little given to fancy that everybody should bow down to him.Now if there is anything certain about the Duke it is this, --that he doesn't want anyone to bow down to him.He hates all bowing down.
'I don't think he loves those who oppose him.'
'It is not the opposition he hates, but the cause in the man's mind which may produce it.When Sir Orlando opposed him, and he thought that Sir Orlando's opposition was founded on jealousy, then he despised Sir Orlando.But had he believed in Sir Orlando's belief in the new ships, he would have been capable of pressing Sir Orlando to his bosom, although he might have been forced to oppose Sir Orlando's ships in the Cabinet.'
