“Faith, he might have worse, far worse. An Encumbered Estate Court would do all his work for him well, and the dirty word 'Confiscation' need never be uttered!”
“He knows the road he wants to go,” said Dunn, curtly.
“So he may; but that does n't prove it 's the best way.”
“Whichever path he takes he'll tread it firmly, father, and that's more than half the battle. If you only saw what a city he has made Paris—”
“That's just what I don't like. What's the good of beautifying and gilding or ornamenting what you 're going to riddle with grape and smash with round shot? It's like dressing a sweep in a field-marshal's uniform, And we all know where it will be to-morrow or next day.”
“That we don't, sir. You 're not aware that these spacious thoroughfares, these wide squares, these extended terraces, are so contrived that columns may march and manoeuvre in them, squadrons charge, and great artillery act through them. The proudest temples of that splendid city serve as bastions; the great Louvre itself is less a palace than a fortress.”
“Ay, ay, ay,” cackled the old man, to whom these revelations opened a new vista of thought. “But what's the use of it, after all, Davy? He must trust somebody; and when it comes to that with anybody in life, where 's his security, tell me that? But let us talk about home. Is it true the Ministry is going out?”
“They're safer than ever; take my word for it, father, that these fellows know the trick of it better than all that went before them. They 'll just do whatever the nation and the 'Times' dictate to them; a little slower, mayhap, than they are ordered, but they 'll do it They have no embarrassments of a policy of any kind; and the only pretence of a principle they possess is to sit on the Treasury benches.”
“And they 're right, Davy,—they 're right,” said the old man, energetically.
“I don't doubt but they are, sir; the duty of the pilot is to take charge of the ship, but not to decide the port she sails for.”