“Very good! Very good! Of course,” he continued with importance, “the news was brought to me at once, and his lordship knew it before he slept.”
“Oh!”
“Yes, indeed. Yes. And he wrote to me this morning—in his dressing gown, I don’t doubt. He commanded me to tell you——”
But here Vaughan stopped him—somewhat rudely. “One minute, Mr. Pybus,” he said, “I don’t wish to know what Lord Lansdowne said or did—because it will not affect my conduct. I am here because you requested me to grant you an interview. But if your purpose be merely to convey to me Lord Lansdowne’s approval—or disapproval,” in a tone a little more contemptuous than was necessary, “be good enough to understand that they are equally indifferent to me. I have done what I have done without regard to my cousin’s—to Sir Robert Vermuyden’s feelings. You may take it for certain,” he added loftily, “that I shall not be led beyond my own judgment by any regard for his lordship’s.”
“But hear me out!” the little man cried, dancing to and fro in his eagerness; so that, in the shifting lights under the great chestnut tree, he looked like a pert, bright-coloured bird. “Hear me out, and you’ll not say that!”
“I shall say, Mr. Pybus——”
“I beg you to hear me out!”
Vaughan shrugged his shoulders.
“Go on!” he said. “I have said my say, and I suppose you understand me.”
“I shall hold it unsaid,” Mr. Pybus rejoined warmly, “until I have spoken!” And he waved an agitated finger in the air. “Observe, Mr. Vaughan—his lordship bade me take you entirely into confidence, and I do so. We’ve only one candidate—Mr. Wrench. Colonel Petty is sure of his election in Ireland and we’ve no mind to stand a second contest to fill his seat: in fact we are not going to nominate him. Lord Kerry, my lord’s eldest son thought of it, but it is not a certainty, and my lord wishes him to wait a year or two and sit for Calne. I say it’s not a certainty. But it’s next door to a certainty since you have declared yourself. And my lord’s view, Mr. Vaughan, is that he who hits the buck should have the haunch. You take me?”