At a
dinner-table to refuse is possible:--or in any assembly convened
for any private purpose, a gentleman may declare that he is not
prepared for the occasion. But in such an emergency as this, a
man,--and a member of Parliament,--cannot plead that he is not
prepared. A son of a former Prime Minister who had already taken
so strong a part in politics as to have severed himself from his
father, not prepared to address the voters of a borough whom he
had come to canvass! The plea was so absurd, that he was thrust
on to his feet before he knew what he was about.
It was in truth his first public speech. At Silverbridge he had
attempted to repeat a few words, and in his failure had been
covered by the Sprugeons and the Sprouts. But now he was on his
legs in a great room, in an unknown town, with all the aristocracy
of the place before him! His eyes at first swam a little, and
there was a moment in which he thought he would run away. But, on
that morning, as he was dressing, there had come to his mind the
idea of the possibility of such a moment as this, and a few words
had occurred to him.
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