The Way We Live Now (85 page)

At ten he walked down to the central committee-room at Whitehall Place. He thought that he would face the world better by walking than if he were taken in his own brougham. He gave orders that the carriage should be at the committee-room at eleven, and wait an hour for him if
he was not there. He went along Bond Street and Piccadilly, Regent Street and through Pall Mall to Charing Cross, with the blandly triumphant smile of a man who had successfully entertained the great guest of the day. As he got near the club he met two or three men whom he knew, and bowed to them. They returned his bow graciously enough, but not one of them stopped to speak to him. Of one he knew that he would have stopped, had it not been for the rumour. Even after the man had passed on he was careful to show no displeasure on his face. He would take it all as it would come and still be the blandly triumphant Merchant Prince – as long as the police would allow him. He probably was not aware how very different was the part he was now playing from that which he had assumed at the India Office.

At the committee-room he only found a few understrappers, and was informed that everything was going on regularly. The electors were balloting; but with the ballot – so said the leader of the understrappers – there never was any excitement. The men looked half-frightened – as though they did not quite know whether they ought to seize their candidate, and hold him till the constable came. They certainly had not expected to see him there. ‘Has Lord Alfred been here?' Melmotte asked, standing in the inner room with his back to the empty grate. No – Lord Alfred had not been there. ‘Nor Mr Grendall?' The senior understrapper knew that Melmotte would have asked for ‘his secretary', and not for Mr Grendall, but for the rumours. It is so hard not to tumble into Scylla when you are avoiding Charybdis. Mr Grendall had not been there. Indeed, nobody had been there. ‘In fact, there is nothing more to be done, I suppose?' said Mr Melmotte. The senior understrapper thought that there was nothing more to be done. He left word that his brougham should be sent away, and strolled out again on foot.

He went up into Covent Garden, where there was a polling booth. The place seemed to him, as one of the chief centres for a contested election, to be wonderfully quiet He was determined to face everybody and everything, and he went close up to the booth. Here he was recognized by various men, mechanics chiefly, who came forward and shook hands with him. He remained there for an hour conversing with people, and at last made a speech to a little knot around him. He did not allude to the rumour of yesterday, nor to the paragraph in the
Pulpit
to which his name had not been attached; but he spoke freely enough of the general accusations that had been brought against him previously. He wished the electors to understand that nothing which had been said against him made him ashamed to meet them here or elsewhere. He was
proud of his position, and proud that the electors of Westminster should recognize it He did not, he was glad to say, know much of the law, but he was told that the law would protect him from such aspersions as had been unfairly thrown upon him. He flattered himself that he was too good an Englishman to regard the ordinary political attacks to which candidates were, as a matter of course, subject at elections – and he could stretch his back to bear perhaps a little more than these, particularly as he looked forward to a triumphant return. But things had been said, and published, which the excitement of an election could not justify, and as to these things he must have recourse to the law. Then he made some allusion to the princes and the emperor, and concluded by observing that it was the proudest boast of his life to be an Englishman and a Londoner.

It was asserted afterwards that this was the only good speech he had ever been known to make; and it was certainly successful, as he was applauded throughout Covent Garden. A reporter for the
Breakfast Table
who was on duty at the place, looking for paragraphs as to the conduct of electors, gave an account of the speech in that paper, and made more of it, perhaps, than it deserved. It was asserted afterwards, and given as a great proof of Melmotte's cleverness, that he had planned the thing and gone to Covent Garden all alone having considered that in that way could he best regain a step in reputation; but in truth the affair had not been preconcerted. It was while in Whitehall Place that he had first thought of going to Covent Garden, and he had had no idea of making a speech till the people had gathered round him.

It was then noon, and he had to determine what he should do next. He was half inclined to go round to all the booths and make speeches. His success at Covent Garden had been very pleasant to him. But he feared that he might not be so successful elsewhere. He had shown that he was not afraid of the electors. Then an idea struck him that he would go boldly into the City – to his own offices in Abchurch Lane. He had determined to be absent on this day, and would not be expected. But his appearance there could not on that account be taken amiss. Whatever enmities there might be, or whatever perils, he would face them. He got a cab therefore and had himself driven to Abchurch Lane.

The clerks were hanging about doing nothing, as though it were a holiday. The dinner, the election, and the rumour together had altogether demoralized them. But some of them at least were there, and they showed no signs of absolute insubordination. ‘Mr Grendall has not been here?' he asked. No; Mr Grendall had not been there; but Mr
Cohenlupe was in Mr Grendall's room. At this moment he hardly desired to see Mr Cohenlupe. That gentleman was privy to many of his transactions, but was by no means privy to them all. Mr Cohenlupe knew that the estate at Pickering had been purchased, and knew that it had been mortgaged. He knew also what had become of the money which had so been raised. But he knew nothing of the circumstances of the purchase, although he probably surmised that Melmotte had succeeded in getting the title-deeds on credit, without paying the money. He was afraid that he could hardly see Cohenlupe and hold his tongue, and that he could not speak to him without danger. He and Cohenlupe might have to stand in a dock together; and Cohenlupe had none of his spirit. But the clerks would think, and would talk, were he to leave the office without seeing his old friend. He went therefore into his own room, and called to Cohenlupe as he did so.

‘Ve didn't expect you here to-day,' said the member for Staines.

‘Nor did I expect to come. But there isn't much to do at Westminster while the ballot is going on; so I came up, just to look at the letters. The dinner went off pretty well yesterday, eh?'

‘Uncommon; – nothing better. Vy did the Lord Mayor stay away, Melmotte?'

‘Because he's an ass and a cur,' said Mr Melmotte with an assumed air of indignation. ‘Alf and his people had got hold of him. There was ever so much fuss about it at first – whether he would accept the invitation. I say it was an insult to the City to take it and not to come. I shall be even with him some of these days.'

‘Things will go on just the same as usual, Melmotte?'

‘Go on. Of course they'll go. What's to hinder them?'

‘There's ever so much been said,' whispered Cohenlupe.

‘Said – yes,' ejaculated Melmotte very loudly. ‘You're not such a fool, I hope, as to believe every word you hear. You'll have enough to believe, if you do.'

‘There's no knowing vat anybody does know, and vat anybody does not know,' said Cohenlupe.

‘Look you here, Cohenlupe' – and now Melmotte also sank his voice to a whisper – ‘keep your tongue in your mouth; go about just as usual, and say nothing. It's all right. There has been some heavy pulls upon us.'

‘Oh dear, there has indeed!'

‘But any paper with my name to it will come right.'

‘That's nothing – nothing at all,' said Cohenlupe.

‘And there is nothing – nothing at all! I've bought some property and
have paid for it; and I have bought some, and have not yet paid for it. There's no fraud in that.'

‘No, no – nothing in that.'

‘You hold your tongue, and go about your business. I'm going to the bank now.' Cohenlupe had been very low in spirits, and was still low in spirits; but he was somewhat better after the visit of the great man to the City.

Mr Melmotte was as good as his word and walked straight to the bank. He kept two accounts at different banks, one for his business, and one for his private affairs. The one he now entered was that which kept what we may call his domestic account. He walked straight through, after his old fashion, to the room behind the bank in which sat the manager and the manager's one clerk, and stood upon the rug before the fireplace just as though nothing had happened – or as nearly as though nothing had happened as was within the compass of his powers. He could not quite do it. In keeping up an appearance intended to be natural he was obliged to be somewhat milder than his wont. The manager did not behave nearly as well as he did, and the clerks manifestly betrayed their emotion. Melmotte saw that it was so – but he had expected it, and had come there on purpose to ‘put it down'.

‘We hardly expected to see you in the City to-day, Mr Melmotte.'

‘And I didn't expect to see myself here. But it always happens that when one expects that there's most to be done, there's nothing to be done at all. They're all at work down at Westminster, balloting; but as I can't go on voting for myself, I'm of no use. I've been at Covent Garden this morning, making a stump speech, and if all that they say there is true, I haven't much to be afraid of.'

‘And the dinner went off pretty well?' asked the manager.

‘Very well, indeed. They say the emperor liked it better than anything that has been done for him yet' This was a brilliant flash of imagination. ‘For a friend to dine with me every day, you know, I should prefer somebody who had a little more to say for himself. But then, perhaps, you know, if you or I were in China we shouldn't have much to say for ourselves – eh?' The manager acceded to this proposition. ‘We had one awful disappointment. His lordship from over the way didn't come.'

‘The Lord Mayor, you mean.'

‘The Lord Mayor didn't come! He was frightened at the last moment – took it into his head that his authority in the City was somehow compromised. But the wonder was that the dinner went on without him.' Then Melmotte referred to the purport of his call there that day. He
would have to draw large cheques for his private wants. ‘You don't give a dinner to an Emperor of China for nothing, you know.' He had been in the habit of overdrawing on his private account – making arrangements with the manager. But now, in the manager's presence, he drew a regular cheque on his business account for a large sum, and then, as a sort of afterthought, paid in the £250 which he had received from Mr Broune on account of the money which Sir Felix had taken from Marie.

‘There don't seem much the matter with him,' said the manager, when Melmotte had left the room.

‘He brazens it out, don't he,' said the senior clerk. But the feeling of the room after full discussion inclined to the opinion that the rumours had been a political manoeuvre. Nevertheless, Mr Melmotte would not now have been allowed to overdraw at the present moment.

Mr Alf's central committee-room was in Great George Street, and there the battle was kept alive all the day. It had been decided, as the reader has been told, that no direct advantage should be taken of that loud blast of accusation which had been heard throughout the town on the previous afternoon. There had not been sufficient time for inquiry as to the truth of that blast If there were just ground for the things that had been said, Mr Melmotte would no doubt soon be in gaol, or would be – wanted. Many had thought that he would escape as soon as the dinner was over, and had been disappointed when they heard that he had been seen walking down towards his own committee-room on the following morning. Others had been told that at the last moment his name would be withdrawn – and a question arose as to whether he had the legal power to withdraw his name after a certain hour on the day before the ballot. An effort was made to convince a portion of the electors that he had withdrawn, or would have withdrawn, or should have withdrawn. When Melmotte was at Covent Garden, a large throng of men went to Whitehall Place with the view of ascertaining the truth. He certainly had made no attempt at withdrawal. They who propagated this report certainly damaged Mr Alf's cause. A second reaction set in, and there
grew a feeling that Mr Melmotte was being ill-used. Those evil things had been said of him – many at least so declared – not from any true motive, but simply to secure Mr Alf's return. Tidings of the speech in Covent Garden were spread about at the various polling places, and did good service to the so-called Conservative cause. Mr Alf's friends, hearing all this, instigated him also to make a speech. Something should be said, if only that it might be reported in the newspapers, to show that they had behaved with generosity, instead of having injured their enemy by false attacks. Whatever Mr Alf might say, he might at any rate be sure of a favourable reporter.

About two o'clock in the day, Mr Alf did make a speech – and a very good speech it was, if correctly reported in the
Evening Pulpit.
Mr Alf was a clever man, ready at all points, with all his powers immediately at command, and, no doubt, he did make a good speech. But in this speech, in which we may presume that it would be his intention to convince the electors that they ought to return him to Parliament, because, of the two candidates, he was the fittest to represent their views, he did not say a word as to his own political ideas, nor, indeed, a word that could be accepted as manifesting his own fitness for the place which it was his ambition to fill. He contented himself with endeavouring to show that the other man was not fit – and that he and his friends, though solicitous of proving to the electors that Mr Melmotte was about the most unfit man in the world, had been guilty of nothing shabby in their manner of doing so. ‘Mr Melmotte,' he said, ‘comes before you as a Conservative, and has told us, by the mouths of his friends – for he has not favoured us with many words of his own – that he is supported by the whole Conservative party. That party is not my party, but I respect it. Where, however, are these Conservative supporters? We have heard, till we are sick of it, of the banquet which Mr Melmotte gave yesterday. I am told that very few of those whom he calls his Conservative friends could be induced to attend that banquet. It is equally notorious that the leading merchants of the City refused to grace the table of this great commercial prince. I say that the leaders of the Conservative party have at last found their candidate out, have repudiated him – and are seeking now to free themselves from the individual shame of having supported the candidature of such a man by remaining in their own houses instead of clustering round the polling booths. Go to Mr Melmotte's committee-room and inquire if those leading Conservatives be there. Look about, and see whether they are walking with him in the streets, or standing with him in public places, or taking the air with him in the parks. I
respect the leaders of the Conservative party; but they have made a mistake in this matter and they know it' Then he ended by alluding to the rumours of yesterday. ‘I scorn,' said he, ‘to say anything against the personal character of a political opponent, which I am not in a position to prove. I make no allusion, and have made no allusion, to reports which were circulated yesterday about him, and which I believe were originated in the City. They may be false or they may be true. As I know nothing of the matter, I prefer to regard them as false, and I recommend you to do the same. But I declared to you long before these reports were in men's mouths, that Mr Melmotte was not entitled by his character to represent you in Parliament, and I repeat that assertion. A great British merchant, indeed! How long, do you think, should a man be known in this city before that title be accorded to him? Who knew aught of this man two years since – unless, indeed, it be some one who had burnt his wings in trafficking with him in some continental city? Ask the character of this great British merchant in Hamburg and Vienna; ask it in Paris – ask those whose business here has connected them with the assurance companies of foreign countries, and you will be told whether this is a fit man to represent Westminster in the British Parliament!' There was much more yet; but such was the tone of the speech which Mr Alf made with the object of inducing the electors to vote for himself.