"Sir--Pray, sir!--My new invention for rifling cannon--Ordnance department!--Sir, I did apply--War-office, too, sir!--It's very hard I can't get an answer--bandied about!--Sir, I can't think myself well used--Government shall hear more."

"One word, Mr. Temple, if you please, about t.i.thes. I've an idea--"

"Temple, don't forget the Littleford turnpike bill."

"Mr. Temple, who is to second the motion on Indian affairs?"

"Temple, my good friend, did you speak to Lord Oldborough about my little affair for Tom?"

"Mr. Temple, a word in your ear--the member for the borough, _you know_, is dead; letters must be written directly to the corporation."

"Temple, my dear friend, before you go, give me a frank."

At last Mr. Temple got away from memorialists, pet.i.tioners, grievances, men of business, idle men, newsmen, and dear friends, then hastened to Alfred to unburden his mind--and to rest his exhausted spirits.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

The moment that Mr. Temple reached his friend's chambers, he threw himself into a chair.

"What repose--what leisure--what retirement is here!" cried he. "A man can think and feel a moment for himself."

"Not well, I fear, in the midst of the crackling of these parchments,"

said Alfred, folding up the deeds at which he had been at work.

"However, I have now done my business for this day, and I am your man for what you please--if you are not engaged by some of your great people, we cannot do better than dine together."

"With all my heart," said Mr. Temple.

"And where shall we dine?" said Alfred.

"Any where you please. But I have a great deal to say to you, Alfred--don't think of dining yet."

"At the old work!" cried Alfred.

"'You think of convincing, while I think of dining.'"

But, as he spoke, Alfred observed his friend's agitated countenance, and immediately becoming serious, he drew a chair beside Mr. Temple, and said, "I believe, Temple, you have something to say that you are anxious about. You know that if there is any thing I can do, head, hand, and heart are at your service."

"Of that I am quite sure, else I should not come here to open my heart to you," replied Mr. Temple. Then he related all that had just pa.s.sed between Lord Oldborough and himself, and ended by asking Alfred, whether he thought there was any chance of success for his love?

"You have not told me who the lady is," said Alfred.

"Have not I?--but, surely, you can guess."

"I have guessed--but I wish to be mistaken--Lady Frances Arlington?"

"Quite mistaken. Guess again--and nearer home."

"Nearer home!--One of my sisters!--Not Caroline, I hope?"

"No."

"Then it must be as I once hoped. But why did you never mention it to me before?"

Mr. Temple declared that he had thought there was so little chance of his ever being in circ.u.mstances in which he could marry, especially a woman who had not some fortune of her own, that he had scarcely ventured to avow, even to himself, his attachment.

"I thought my love would wear itself out," added he. "Indeed I did not know how serious a business it was, till this sudden proposal was made to me of leaving England: then I felt that I should drag, at every step, a lengthening chain. In plain prose, I cannot leave England without knowing my fate. But don't let me make a fool of myself, Alfred. No man of sense will do more than hazard a refusal: that every man ought to do, or he sacrifices the dignity of the woman he loves to his own false pride. I know that in these days gentlemen-suitors are usually expert in _sounding_ the relations of the lady they wish to address. To inquire whether the lady is engaged or not is, I think, prudent and honourable: but beyond this, I consider it to be treacherous and base to endeavour, by any indirect means, to engage relations to say what a lover should learn only from the lady herself. Therefore, my dear friend, all I ask is whether you have reason to believe that your sister Rosamond's heart is pre-engaged; or if you think that there is such a certainty of my being rejected, as ought, in common prudence, to prevent my hazarding the mortification of a refusal?"

Alfred a.s.sured his friend, that, to the best of his belief, Rosamond's heart was disengaged. "And," continued he, "as a witness is or ought to be prepared to tell his cause of belief, I will give you mine. Some time since I was commissioned by a gentleman, who wished to address her, to make the previous inquiry, and the answer was, quite disengaged. Now as she did not accept of this gentleman, there is reason to conclude that he did not engage her affections--"

"Was he rich or poor, may I ask?" interrupted Mr. Temple.

"That is a leading question," said Alfred.

"I do not want you to tell me who the gentleman was--I know that would not be a fair question, and I trust I should be as far from asking, as you from answering it. But there are so many rich as well as so many poor men in the world, that in answering to the inquiry rich or poor, what city or court man do you name? I want only to draw a general inference as to your sister's taste for wealth."

"Her taste is a.s.suredly not exclusively for wealth; for her last admirer was a gentleman of very large fortune."

"I am happy, at least, in that respect, in not resembling him," said Mr.

Temple. "Now for my other question--what chance for myself?"

"Of that, my good friend, you must judge for yourself. By your own rule all you have a right to hear is, that I, Rosamond's brother, have no reason for believing that she has such a repugnance to you as would make a refusal certain. And that you may not too much admire my discretion, I must add, that if I had a mind to tell you more, I could not. All I know is, that Rosamond, as well as the rest of my family, in their letters spoke of you with general approbation, but I do not believe the idea of considering you as her lover ever entered into her head or theirs."

"But now the sooner it enters the better," cried Mr. Temple. "Will you--can you--Have not you business to do for Lord Oldborough at Clermont-park?"

"Yes--and I am glad of it, as it gives me an opportunity of indulging myself in going with you, my dear Temple. I am ready to set out at any moment."

"G.o.d bless you! The sooner the better, then. This night in the mail, if you please. I'll run and take our places," said he, s.n.a.t.c.hing up his hat.

"Better send," cried Alfred stopping him: "my man can run and take places in a coach as well as you. Do you stay with me. We will go to the coffee-house, dine, and be ready to set off."

Mr. Temple acceded.

"In the mean time," said Alfred, "you have relations and connexions of your own who should be consulted."

Mr. Temple said he was sure that all his relations and connexions would highly approve of an alliance with the Percy family. "But, in fact,"

added he, "that is all they will care about the matter. My relations, though high and mighty people, have never been of any service to me: they are too grand, and too happy, to mind whether a younger son of a younger son sinks or swims; whether I live in single wretchedness or double blessedness. Not one relation has nature given, who cares for me half as much as the friend I have made for myself."

Sincerely as Alfred was interested for his success, yet he did not let this friendship interfere with the justice due to his sister, of leaving _her_ sole arbitress of a question which most concerned her happiness.

During the last stage of their journey, they were lucky enough to have the coach to themselves, and Mr. Temple made himself amends for the restraint under which he had laboured during the preceding part of the journey, whilst he had been oppressed by the presence of men, whose talk was of the lower concerns of life. After he had descanted for some time on the perfections of his mistress, he ended with expressing his surprise that his friend, who had often of late rallied him upon his being in love, had not guessed sooner who was the object of his pa.s.sion.

Alfred said that the idea of Rosamond had occurred to him, because his friend's absence of mind might be dated from the time of his last visit to Clermont-park; "but," said Alfred, "as Lady Frances Arlington was there, and as I had formerly fancied that her ladyship's wish to captivate or dazzle you, had not been quite without effect, I was still in doubt, and thought even your praises of Rosamond's disposition and temper, compared with her ladyship's, might only be _ruse de guerre_, or _ruse d'amour_."

"There was no _ruse_ in the case," said Mr. Temple; "I confess that when I first emerged from my obscurity into all the light and life of the world of fashion, my eyes were dazzled, and before I recovered the use of them sufficiently to compare the splendid objects by which I found myself surrounded, I was wonderfully struck with the appearance of Lady Frances Arlington, and did not measure, as I ought, the immense difference between Lord Oldborough's secretary, and the niece of the Duke of Greenwich. Lady Frances, from mere _gaiete de coeur_ likes to break hearts; and she continually wishes to add one, however insignificant, to the number of her conquests. I, a simple man of literature, unskilled in the wicked ways of the fair, was charmed by her ladyship's innocent navete and frank gaiety, and all that was