“I take it, sir, that you mean courteously and fairly by me. I feel certain that you have neither the wish nor the intention to pain me; but I am forced to own that you import into questions of a delicate nature a spirit of commercial profit and loss, which makes all discussion of them harsh and disagreeable. This is not, let me observe to you, a matter of coal, or a new cutting on a railroad.”
“And are you going to tell Tom Cutbill that out of his own line of business,—when he isn't up to his knees in earthworks, and boring a tunnel,—that he 's a fool and a nincompoop?”
“I should be sorry to express such a sentiment.”
“Ay, or feel it; why don't you say that?”
“I will go even so far, sir, and say I should be sorry to feel it.”
“That's enough. No offence meant; none is taken. Here's how it is now. Authorize me to see Joel about those bills of Norton's. Give me what the French call a carte blanche to negotiate, and I 'll promise you I'll not throw your ten-pound notes away. Not that it need ever come to ten-pound notes, for Rigby does these things for the pure fun of them; and if any good fellow drops in on him of a morning, and says, 'Don't raise a hue and cry about that poor beggar,' or 'Don't push that fellow over the cliff,' he 's just the man to say, 'Well, I 'll not go on. I 'll let it stand over;' or he 'll even get up and say, 'When I asked leave to put this question to the right honorable gentleman, I fully believed in the authentic character of the information in my possession. I have, however, since then discovered,'—this, that, and the other. Don't you know how these things always finish? There's a great row, a great hubbub, and the man that retracts is always cheered by both sides of the House.”
“Suppose, then, he withdraws his motion,—what then? The discussion in the Lords remains on record, and the mischief, so far as Lord Culduff is concerned, is done.”
“I know that. He 'll not have his appointment; he 'll take his pension and wait. What he says is this: 'There are only three diplomatists in all England, and short of a capital felony, any of the three may do anything. I have only to stand out and sulk,' says he, 'and they'll be on their knees to me yet.'”
“He yields, then, to a passing hurricane,” said Bramleigh, pompously.
“Just so. He 's taking shelter under an archway till he can call a hansom. Now you have the whole case; and as talking is dry work, might I ring for a glass of sherry and seltzer?”