'Yes, ma'am, yes. His Majesty the Emperor has been pleased to intimate that he has been much gratified.'--Had the Emperor in truth said so, no one who looked at him could have believed his imperial word.--'Can you tell me, Mr Beauchamp, why those other gentlemen are not here? It looks very odd; does it not?'
'Ah; you mean Killegrew.'
'Yes; Mr Killegrew and Sir David Boss, and the whole lot. I made a particular point of their coming. I said I wouldn't have the dinner at all unless they were to be asked. They were going to make it a Government thing; but I said no. I insisted on the leaders of our own party; and now they're not here. I know the cards were sent and, by George, I have their answers, saying they'd come.'
'I suppose some of them are engaged,' said Mr Beauchamp.
'Engaged! What business has a man to accept one engagement and then take another? And, if so, why shouldn't he write and make his excuses? No, Mr Beauchamp, that won't go down.'
'I'm here, at any rate,' said Beauchamp, making the very answer that had occurred to Mr Todd.
'Oh, yes, you're here. You're all right. But what is it, Mr Beauchamp? There's something up, and you must have heard.' And so it was clear to Mr Beauchamp that the man knew nothing about it himself. If there was anything wrong, Melmotte was not aware that the wrong had been discovered. 'Is it anything about the election to-morrow?'
'One never can tell what is actuating people,' said Mr Beauchamp.
'If you know anything about the matter I think you ought to tell me.'
'I know nothing except that the ballot will be taken to-morrow. You and I have got nothing more to do in the matter except to wait the result.'
'Well; I suppose it's all right,' said Melmotte, rising and going back to his seat. But he knew that things were not all right. Had his political friends only been absent, he might have attributed their absence to some political cause which would not have touched him deeply. But the treachery of the Lord Mayor and of Sir Gregory Gribe was a blow. For another hour after he had returned to his place, the Emperor sat solemn in his chair; and then, at some signal given by some one, he was withdrawn. The ladies had already left the room about half an hour. According to the programme arranged for the evening, the royal guests were to return to the smaller room for a cup of coffee, and were then to be paraded upstairs before the multitude who would by that time have arrived, and to remain there long enough to justify the invited ones in saying that they had spent the evening with the Emperor and the Princes and the Princesses. The plan was carried out perfectly. At half-past ten the Emperor was made to walk upstairs, and for half an hour sat awful and composed in an arm-chair that had been prepared for him. How one would wish to see the inside of the mind of the Emperor as it worked on that occasion!