He put the glass to the table, still holding the stem between his fingers. He looked at it thoughtfully, shaking his head the while.
“My husband is a power you can’t neglect,” she continued. “He always votes straight for your party.”
“Yes, he is one of us,” the Minister admitted softly, with a gentle emphasis on the numeral.
“So far. But he has his principles to consider. He might find it necessary, from the dictates of his conscience, to separate himself from you on one or two matters in the next session. I’m afraid his following would go with him. You know he has vast influence with a certain class.”
The Minister stretched out lazy fingers, and took a saltspoon, and made two little neat heaps of salt on the table-cloth; and, after consideration, added a third.
“Pooh!” said Mrs. Shelf, “there are five certain, and I could tell you their names if you didn’t know them already. My husband makes six. That counts twelve votes on a division. But, of course, the Government is strong enough to stand it.”
The Minister thoughtfully built four salted almonds into an arch, and piled two more at the back of them. “Cave!” he murmured, and then with a tap of the finger sprawled them on the table-cloth. “There’s nothing certain in this life,” he said.
“There are caves and caves; and some bring down Governments. My husband and his followers are extreme men, and, as I have heard you say yourself, there is no class of creature so resolute and bigoted as a fanatic. If once an extreme man makes up his mind, all the argument on earth will not change him. But perhaps you don’t mind a dissolution? Perhaps you’ve done so well, and passed so many popular measures since you’ve been in power, that you’d like to meet the country at once?”
The Minister grinned like a man in pain. “A knighthood,” he said, “is a very fascinating thing. It is the reward of the faithful. I think—I say I think—I could lay my hands upon one spare knighthood, and might give it away if I saw an adequate return.”
Mrs. Shelf smiled amusedly at the diamonds on her comely wrist.