“I have no doubt, madam, that Captain Forester, whose age and profession are more in accordance with gallantry, will respond to your desire.”
“If I could really fancy that I was not yielding to my own wishes only,” stammered out Forester.
“Nay, I make it a request.”
“There, sir, how happy to be entreated to what one's wishes incline them,” added Daly; “you may go through a deal of life without being twice so fortunate. I should apologize for so brief a notice of my departure, Lady Eleanor, but the intelligence I have received is pressing.” Here he dropped his voice to a whisper. “The Ministers have hurried forward their bill, and I shall scarcely be in time for the second reading.”
“All accounts agree in saying that the Government majority is certain,” observed Lady Eleanor, calmly.
“It is to be feared, madam, that such rumors are well founded, but the party who form the forlorn hope have their devoirs also.”
“I am a very indifferent politician, Mr. Daly, but it strikes me that a body so manifestly corrupt, give the strongest possible reasons for their own destruction.”
“Were they all so, madam, I should join in the sentiment as freely as you utter it,” replied Daly, proudly; “but it is a heavy sentence that would condemn the whole crew because there was a mutiny in the steerage; besides, these rights and privileges are held only in trust; no man can in honor or justice vote away that of which he is only the temporary occupant; forgive me, I beg, for daring to discuss the topic, but I thought the Knight had made you a convert to his own opinions.”
“We have never spoken on the subject, Mr. Daly,” replied Lady Eleanor, coldly; “the Knight dislikes the intrusion of a political matter within the circle of his family, and for that reason, perhaps,” added she, with a smile, “my daughter and myself feel for it all the temptation of a forbidden pleasure.”
“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Helen, who heard the last few words of her mother's speech, “I am as violent a partisan as Mr. Daly could ask for; indeed, I am not certain if all my doctrines are not of his own teaching; I fear the Premier, distrust the Cabinet, and put no faith in the Secretary for Ireland; is not that the first article of our creed?—nay, nay, fear was no part of your instruction.”