XLVII. As for Love!
Chapter XLVIII. “Has He Illtreated You?”
Chapter XLIX. “Where Is Guatemala?”
Chapter L. Mr. Slide’s Revenge
Chapter LI. Coddling the Prime Minister
Chapter LII. “I Can Sleep Here Tonight, I Suppose?”
Chapter LV. Mrs. Parker’s Sorrows
Chapter LVI. What the Duchess Thought of Her Husband
Chapter LVIII. “Quite Settled”
Chapter LIX. “The First and the Last”
Chapter LX. The Tenway Junction
Chapter LXI. The Widow and Her Friends
Chapter LXII. Phineas Finn Has a Book to Read
Chapter LXIII. The Duchess and Her Friend
Chapter LXV. “There Must Be Time”
Chapter LXVI. The End of the Session
Chapter LXVII. Mrs. Lopez Prepares to Move
Chapter LXVIII. The Prime Minister’s Political Creed
Chapter LXIX. Mrs. Parker’s Fate
Chapter LXXI. The Ladies at Longbarns Doubt
Chapter LXXII. “He Thinks That Our Days Are Numbered”
Chapter LXXIII. Only the Duke of Omnium
Chapter LXXIV. “I Am Disgraced and Shamed”
Chapter LXXV. The Great Wharton Alliance
Chapter LXXVI. Who Will It Be?
Chapter LXXVII. The Duchess in Manchester Square
Chapter LXXVIII. The New Ministry
Chapter LXXIX. The Wharton Wedding
Chapter LXXX. The Last Meeting at Matching
Volume I
Chapter I.
Ferdinand Lopez
It is certainly of service to a man to know who were his grandfathers and who were his grandmothers if he entertain an ambition to move in the upper circles of society, and also of service to be able to speak of them as of persons who were themselves somebodies in their time. No doubt we all entertain great respect for those who by their own energies have raised themselves in the world; and when we hear that the son of a washerwoman has become Lord Chancellor or Archbishop of Canterbury we do, theoretically and abstractedly, feel a higher reverence for such self-made magnate than for one who has been as it were born into forensic or ecclesiastical purple. But not the less must the offspring of the washerwoman have had very much trouble on the subject of his birth, unless he has been, when young as well as when old, a very great man indeed. After the goal has been absolutely reached, and the honour and the titles and the wealth actually won, a man may talk with some humour, even with some affection, of the maternal tub;—but while the struggle is going on, with the conviction strong upon the struggler that he cannot be altogether successful unless he be esteemed a gentleman, not to be ashamed, not to conceal the old family circumstances, not at any rate to be silent, is difficult. And the difficulty is certainly not less if fortunate circumstances rather than hard work and intrinsic merit have raised above his natural place an aspirant to high social position. Can it be expected that such a one when dining with a duchess shall speak of his father’s small shop, or bring into the light of day his grandfather’s cobbler’s awl? And yet it is difficult to be altogether silent! It may not be necessary for any of us to be always talking of our own parentage. We may be generally reticent as to our uncles and aunts, and may drop even our brothers and sisters in our ordinary conversation. But if a man never mentions his belongings among those with whom he lives, he becomes mysterious, and almost open to suspicion. It begins to be known that nobody knows anything of such a man, and even friends become afraid. It is certainly convenient to be able to allude, if it be but once in a year, to some blood relation.
Ferdinand Lopez, who in other respects had much in his circumstances on which to congratulate himself, suffered trouble in his mind respecting his ancestors such as I have endeavoured to describe. He did not know very much himself, but what little he did know he kept altogether to himself. He had no father or mother, no uncle, aunt, brother or sister, no cousin even whom he could mention in a cursory way to his dearest friend. He suffered, no doubt;—but with Spartan consistency he so hid his trouble from the world that no one knew that he suffered. Those with whom he lived, and who speculated often and wondered much as to who he was, never dreamed that the silent man’s reticence was a burden to himself. At