CHAPTER XI.
The Crisis—Public and Private.
Lady Montfort's carriage stopped at Colonel Morley's door just as Carr Vipont was coming out. Carr, catching sight of her, bustled up to the carriage-window.
"My dear Lady Montfort!—not seen you for an age! What times we live in! How suddenly The Crisis has come upon us! Sad loss in poor dear Montfort; no wonder you mourn for him! Had his failings, true—who is not mortal?—but always voted right; always to be relied on in times of Crises! But this crotchety fellow, who has so unluckily, for all but himself, walked into that property, is the loosest fish! And what is a House divided against itself! Never was the Constitution in such peril!—I say it deliberately!—and here is the Head of the Viponts humming and haaing, and asking whether Guy Darrell will join the Cabinet. And if Guy Darrell will not, we have no more chance of the Montfort interest than if we were Peep-o'-Day Boys. But excuse me—I must be off; every moment is precious in times of Crises. Think, if we can't form a Cabinet by to-morrow night—only think what may happen; the other fellows will come in, and then—The Deluge!"
Carr is gone to find mops and Dame Partingtons to stave off the Deluge. Colonel Morley has obeyed Lady Montfort's summons, and has entered the carriage. Before she can speak, however, he has rushed into the subject of which he himself is full. "Only think—I knew it would be so when the moment came; all depends upon Guy Darrell! Montfort, who seems always in a fright lest a newspaper should fall on his head and crush him, says that if Darrell, whom he chooses to favor just because the newspapers do, declines to join, the newspapers will say the Crisis is a job! Fancy!—a job—the Crisis! Lord Mowbray de l'Arco and Sir Josiah Snodge, who are both necessary to a united government, but who unluckily detest each other, refuse to sit in the same Cabinet, unless Darrell sit between—to save them, I suppose, from the fate of the cats of Kilkenny. Sir John Cautly, our crack county member, declares that if Darrell does not come in, 'tis because the Crisis is going too far! Harry Bold, our most popular speaker, says, if Darrell stay out, 'tis a sign that the Crisis is a retrograde movement! In short, without Darrell, the Crisis will be a failure, and the
