"
"I can make a Peer," said Mr Hatton, leaning back in his chair
and playing with his seals, "but I do not pretend to make
Baronets. I can place a coronet with four balls on a man's
brow; but a coronet with two balls is an exercise of the
prerogative with which I do not presume to interfere."
"I mention it in the utmost confidence," said Sir Vavasour in
a whisper; "but Lady Firebrace has a sort of promise that in
the event of a change of government, we shall be in the first
batch of peers."
Mr Hatton shook his head with a slight smile of contemptuous
incredulity.
"Sir Robert," he said, "will make no peers; take my word for
that. The whigs and I have so deluged the House of Lords,
that you may rely upon it as a secret of state, that if the
tories come in, there will be no peers made. I know the Queen
is sensitively alive to the cheapening of all honours of late
years. If the whigs go out to-morrow, mark me, they will
disappoint all their friends. Their underlings have promised
so many, that treachery is inevitable, and if they deceive
some they may as well deceive all. Perhaps they may
distribute a coronet or two among themselves: and I shall this
year make three: and those are the only additions to the
peerage which will occur for many years.
Pages:
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419