“No, I think not at present,” Lord Warnham answered. “If you have any further statement to make, I shall hold myself in readiness,” he said, the journalistic spirit of greed being aroused to have the whole of this exclusive information to himself.
“We will send for you if we have anything further to communicate,” Lord Warnham answered, and wishing him good evening, intimated that at least for the present the interview was at an end.
After he had left, it was desired, upon the suggestion of the Premier, to slightly amend one of the sentences used by Lord Warnham, and with that object I rushed after the excited interviewer. After a little search I found him in the small room behind the Press Gallery, dictating in breathless haste to the clerk, who sat resting his head on one hand while with the other he worked the telegraph-key. As I approached, I heard him exclaim in broad Scotch,—“Now, then, Ford, look sharp, my lad, look sharp! Send this along, ‘Our representative has just interviewed the Marquis of Maybury and the Earl of Warnham on the situation. The exclusive information imparted is of the greatest possible importance, as it shows’—”
Here I interrupted him, and having requested him to reconstruct the sentence, as desired by Lord Warnham, left him, and returned to where the two Ministers were still in earnest consultation.
Having busied myself with some correspondence lying upon the Foreign Minister’s table, while the pair discussed a critical point as to the instructions to be sent to Lord Worthorpe in Paris, there presently came another loud knock at the door. One of the clerks, who had rushed over from the Foreign Office, entered, bearing a telegraphic dispatch.
“Where from?” inquired Lord Warnham, noticing the paper in his hand as he came in.
“From St Petersburg, your Lordship,” he answered, handing him the telegram.
The Premier and Foreign Secretary read it through together in silence, expressions of satisfaction passing at once across both their countenances.
“Then we need have no further apprehension,” exclaimed the Premier at last, looking up at his colleague.
“Apparently not,” observed Lord Warnham. “This is certainly sufficient confirmation of Worthorpe’s dispatch,” and he tossed it across to the table whereat I sat, at the same time dismissing the clerk who had brought it.