London would be reading his effusion when his book appeared to-morrow—reading it and talking about it. “The curs!” he said to himself, as he walked fiercely down the Strand.
The cry of the newsboy ahead came back to him like a dulled refrain. He turned into Whitehall at Charing Cross, and looked up to find himself opposite Melbourne House. He remembered suddenly the clear-eyed girl to whom he had offered his Satire and whose coin was still in his waistcoat pocket; she had said “Melbourne House” that day to the coachman. He wondered with a curious levity whether she would read the Scourge.
Before the Houses of Parliament stood a double line of carriages.
“It’s the debate in the Lords on the Frame-Breakers bill,” he heard one passer-by inform another, as he stared frowning at the high Gothic entrance. That was the measure against which Shelley’s pamphlet had been written.
The pain was dulling and the old unyielding devil of challenge and fight was struggling uppermost. “‘The illegitimate descendant of a murderer!’”—Gordon muttered—“‘a scribbler of doggerel and a bear-leader!’”
Then suddenly he raised his head. His eyes struck fire like gray flint. “I am a peer,” he said through his teeth, and strode through the door which he had never entered in his life, but once.
An hour later there was a sensation in John Murray’s shop, where Dallas still sat. It was furnished by Sheridan, who came in taking snuff and shaking his gray head with delight.
“Heard the news?” he cried, chuckling. “George Gordon just made a great speech—best speech by a lord since the Lord knows when! I was in the gallery with Lady Melbourne and Lady Caroline Lamb. He opposed the Frame-Breakers bill. They say it means the death of the measure. You should have seen the big-wigs flock to offer congratulations! Why, even the Lord Chancellor came down from the woolsack to shake hands with him!” He paused out of breath, with a final “What d’ye think of that?”
“Well, well!” ejaculated the publisher, taking off his glasses and polishing them with vigor. He looked at Dallas.