“No; they've taken me off the saddle, and given me a staff appointment at Corfu. I 'm going out second in command there; and whether it was to prevent my teasing them for something else, or that there was really some urgency in the matter, they ordered me off at once.”
“Are they reinforcing the garrison there?” asked Upton.
“No; not so far as I have heard.”
“It were better policy to do so than to send out a 'commander-in-chief and a drummer of great experience,'” muttered Upton to himself; but Harcourt could not catch the remark. “Have you any news stirring in England? What do the clubs talk about?” asked Sir Horace.
“Glencore's business occupied them for the last week or so; now, I think, it is yourself furnishes the chief topic for speculation.”
“What of me?” asked Upton, eagerly.
“Why, the rumor goes that you are to have the Foreign Office; Adderley, they say, goes out, and Conway and yourself are the favorites, the odds being slightly on his side.”
“This is all news to me, George,” said Upton, with a degree of animation that had nothing fictitious about it; “I have had a note from Adderley in the last bag, and there's not a word about these changes.”
“Possibly; but perhaps my news is later. What I allude to is said to have occurred the day I started.”
“Ah, very true; and now I remember that the messenger came round by Vienna, sent there by Adderley, doubtless,” muttered he, “to consult Conway before seeing me; and, I have little doubt, with a letter for me in the event of Conway declining.”