A thunderstorm overtook them; and Oswald took refuge from the elements at the castle.  There, as they sat together, pledging their faithful friendship, the door opened, and Mr. Rigby appeared.

IV.—­Coningsby’s Political Faith

Lord Monmouth banished the Princess Colonna from his presence, and married Lucretia.  Coningsby returned to Cambridge, and continued to enjoy his grandfather’s hospitality whenever Lord Monmouth was in London.

Mr. Millbank had, in the meantime, become a member of parliament, having defeated Mr. Rigby in the contest for the representation of Dartford.

In the year 1840 a general election was imminent, and Lord Monmouth returned to London.  He was weary of Paris; every day he found it more difficult to be amused.  Lucretia had lost her charm:  they had been married nearly three years.  The marquess, from whom nothing could be concealed, perceived that often, while she elaborately attempted to divert him, her mind was wandering elsewhere.

He fell into the easy habit of dining in his private rooms, sometimes tete-a-tete with Villebecque, his private secretary, a cosmopolitan theatrical manager, whose tales and adventures about a kind of society which Lord Monmouth had always preferred to the polished and somewhat insipid circles in which he was born, had rendered him the prime favourite of his great patron.  Villebecque’s step-daughter Flora, a modest and retiring maiden, waited on Lucretia.

Back in London, Lord Monmouth, on the day of his arrival, welcomed Coningsby to his room, and at a sign from his master Villebecque left the apartment.

“You see, Harry,” said Lord Monmouth, “that I am much occupied to-day, yet the business on which I wish to communicate with you is so pressing that it could not be postponed.  These are not times when young men should be out of sight.  Your public career will commence immediately.  The government have resolved on a dissolution.  My information is from the highest quarter.  The Whigs are going to dissolve their own House of Commons.  Notwithstanding this, we can beat them, but the race requires the finest jockeying.  We can’t give a point.  Now, if we had a good candidate, we could win Dartford.  But Rigby won’t do.  He is too much of the old clique used up a hack; besides, a beaten horse.  We are assured the name of Coningsby would be a host; there is a considerable section who support the present fellow who will not vote against a Coningsby.  They have thought of you as a fit person; and I have approved of the suggestion.  You will, therefore, be the candidate for Dartford with my entire sanction and support; and I have no doubt you will be successful.”

To Coningsby the idea was appalling.  To be the rival of Mr. Millbank on the hustings of Dartford!  Vanquished or victorious, equally a catastrophe.  He saw Edith canvassing for her father and against him.  Besides, to enter the House of Commons a slave and a tool of party!  Strongly anti-Whig, Coningsby distrusted the Conservative party, and looked for a new party of men who shared his youthful convictions and high political principles.