Plantagenet Palliser

So much passed between the uncle and the nephew— and what the uncle told to the nephew, the nephew, of course, told to his wife.

"'He was with her again yesterday,' said Lady Glencora, "'for more than an hour, and he had been half the morning dressing himself before he went to her.' "'He is not engaged to her, or he would have told me,' said Plantagenet Palliser.

"'I think he would, but there is no knowing.' At the present moment I have only one doubt, whether to act upon him or upon her.

I do not see that you can do good

For, hitherto, whatever may have been the Duke's weaknesses, he certainly had known no master.

His heir, Plantagenet Palliser, had been always subject to him.

His other relations had been kept at such a distance as hardly to be more than recognized.

And though his grace no doubt had had his intimacies, they who had been intimate with him had either never tried to obtain ascendancy, or had failed.

THE DUKE By the middle of September there was assembled a large party at Matching Priory.

a country mansion belonging to Mr. Plantagenet Palliser.

The men had certainly been chosen in reference to their political feelings and position, for there was not a guest in the house who had voted for Mr. Turnbull's clause, or the wife or daughter or sister of any one who had so voted.

Indeed, in these days politics ran so high, that among politicians all social gatherings were brought together with some reference to the state of parties.

Mr. Gresham was in earnest.

Plantagenet Palliser was in earnest.

That exceedingly intelligent young nobleman, Lord Cantrip, was in earnest.

Mr. Mildmay threw, perhaps, as much of the earnestness into the matter as was compatible with his age, and his full appreciation of the manner in which the present cry of reform had been aroused.

He has, probably, the virtue of being true to Mr. Mildmay, and of being duly submissive to one whom he recognizes as his superior.

Within two minutes afterwards the Duke followed, with Plantagenet Palliser.

The Duke, as all the world knows, was the Duke of St. Bungay.

the very front and head of the aristocratic old whigs of the country, a man who has been thrice spoken of as Prime Minister, and who really might have filled the office had he not known himself to be unfit for it.

a fussy, popular, clever, conscientious man, whose digestion has been too good to make politics a burden to him, but who has thought seriously about his country, and is one who will be sure to leave memoirs behind him.

he was born in the semi-purple of ministerial influences, and men say of him that he is honester than his uncle, who was Canning's friend, but not so great a man as his grandfather, with whom Fox once quarreled, and whom Burke loved.

Plantagenet Palliser, himself the heir to a dukedom, was the young chancellor of the exchequer, of whom some statesmen thought much as the rising star of the age.

If industry, rectitude of purpose, and a certain clearness of intellect may prevail, Planty Pal, as he is familiarly called, may become a great minister.

Lord Brentford had become intimate with him.

He was on pleasant terms with Mr. Palliser and Mr. Gresham.

And as for Mr. Kennedy, he and Mr. Kennedy were almost bosom friends." It seemed to him that he had quite surpassed the Rattlers, Fitzgibbons, and Bonteens in that politico-social success which goes so far towards downright political success, and which in itself is so pleasant.

He had surpassed these men in spite of their offices and their acquired positions, and could not but think that even Mr. Lowe, if he knew it all, would confess that he had been right.

"'I'm glad of that,' said Phineas.

"'I suppose you heard all about it down at Loughlander?' Now, in truth, Phineas had heard very little of any settled plan down at Loughlinter.

He played a game of chess with Mr. Gresham, and had shot a stag with Mr. Palliser, and had discussed sheep with Lord Brentford, but had hardly heard a word about politics from any one of these influential gentlemen.

From Mr. Monk he had heard much of a coming reform bill, but his communications with Mr. Monk had rather been private discussions, in which he had learned Mr. Monk's views on certain points, then revelations on the intention of the party to which Mr Monk belonged.

There was nobody in the house—at least they found nobody—and within half an hour Phineas was walking about the grounds by himself.

Mr. Rattler had declared himself to be delighted at having an opportunity of writing letters, and no doubt was writing them by the dozen, all dated from La Flinter, and all detailing the facts that Mr. Gresham and Mr. Monk and Plantagenet Palliser and Lord Brentford were in the same house with him.

phineas had no letters to write and therefore rushed down across the broad lawn to the river of which he heard the noisy tumbling waters there was something in the air which immediately filled him with high spirits and in his desire to investigate the glories of the place he forgot that he was going to dine with four cabinet ministers in a row He soon reached the stream, and began to make his way up it through the ravine.

There was waterfall over waterfall, and there were little bridges here and there which looked to be half natural and half artificial, and a path which required that you should climb, but which was yet a path, and all was so arranged that not a pleasant splashing rush of the waters was lost to the visitor.

Then sit at no man's feet.

Is it not astonishing that the price generally put upon any article by the world is that which the owner puts on it, and that this is especially true of a man's own self? If you herd with Rattler, men will take it for granted that you are a Rattlerite, and no more.

If you consort with Greshams and Pallisers, you will equally be supposed to know your own place.

"'I never knew a mentor,' said Phineas, so apt as you are to fill his Telemachus with pride.

and was third cousin to Barrington Earl.

The late President of the Council, the Duke of St. Bungay, and Lord Brentford had married sisters, and the St. Bungay people, and the Mildmay people, and the Brentford people had all some sort of connection with the Palliser people, of whom the heir and coming chief, Plantagenet Palliser, would certainly be Chancellor of the Exchequer in the next government.

simply as an introduction into official life nothing could be more conducive to chances of success than a matrimonial alliance with lady laura not that he would have thought of such a thing on that account no he thought of it because he loved her honestly because he loved her he swore to that half a dozen times, for his own satisfaction.

But, loving her as he did, and resolving that in spite of all difficulties, she should become his wife, there could be no reason why he should not, on her account as well as on his own, take advantage of any circumstances that there might be in his favour.

CHAPTER 76 THE LANDLORD'S BILL You are in trouble, Mr. Fitzgerald, I fear.

CHAPTER 77 said Mr. Palliser, standing over Burgo as he lay upon the ground.

They were now altogether beyond the gas-lights, and the evening was dark.

Burgo, too, was lying with his face to the ground, expecting that the footsteps which he had heard would pass by him.

"'Who is that?' said he, turning round suddenly." But still he was not at once able to recognize Mr.

Palliser, whose voice was hardly known to him.

"'Perhaps I have been wrong in following you,' said Mr. Palliser.

"'But I thought you were in distress, and that probably I might help you.

It's a novel about a certain class of British person, upper class, bumping into the nobility.

Well, sometimes it is about the nobility when it's about Planty Pal, Plantagenet Palliser and his ilk.

Um, and it's about their, the drama of their interrelated lives and their society and their societal rules and norms, and it, like I've said many times, it seems like when you're thinking about it, you're like, "What has happened?" And yet it is a page-turner because of the way he really does render the kind of interpersonal drama of daily life, you know, in a corresponding way on the page, right? He does it, and he also is, it's also a little snarky.

[laughs] It's quite snarky.