The Duke’s Children quotes

No one, probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died.

When this sad event happened he had ceased to be Prime Minister. During the first nine months after he had left office he and the Duchess remained in England. Then they had gone abroad, taking with them their three children.

It was not only that his heart was torn to pieces, but that he did not know how to look out into the world.

It was as though a man should be suddenly called upon to live without hands or even arms.

He was helpless, and knew himself to be helpless. Hitherto he had never specially acknowledged to himself that his wife was necessary to him as a component part of his life.

“Sir,” he said, speaking quite at once, as soon as the door was closed behind him, but still speaking very slowly, looking beautiful as Apollo as he stood upright before his wished-for father-in-law—

“Sir, I have come to you to ask you to give me the hand of your daughter.”

The few words had been all arranged beforehand, and were now spoken without any appearance of fear or shame.

He would boast, too, about other matters—much to his own disadvantage. He was, too, very “deep,” and some men, who could put up with his other failings, could not endure that. Whatever he wanted to do he would attempt round three corners.

Though he could ride straight, he could do nothing else straight.

He was full of mysteries. If he wanted to draw Charter Wood he would take his hounds out of the street at Egham directly in the other direction.

“I do not mind a young man owning a horse, if he can afford the expense—as you perhaps can do; but I hope you don’t bet.”

“Nothing to speak of is so apt to grow into that which has to be spoken of.”

So much the father said at breakfast, hardly giving his mind to the matter discussed—his mind being on other things. But when their breakfast was eaten, then it was necessary that he should begin.

But it was difficult to snub Frank.

“I know a gentleman when I see him, I think,”

he said. “Of course Silverbridge is right to be a Conservative. Nobody has a stronger opinion about that than I have. But the Duke is behaving so well that if I were he I should almost regret it.”

“I do not think you are false. I would do anything to help you if there were anything I could do. But when you spoke so like a Romeo of your love—”

“Why not like a Romeo, if I feel like a Romeo?”

“But I doubt whether Romeo talked much to Rosaline of his love for Juliet. But you shall talk to me of yours for Lady Mary, and I will listen to you patiently and encourage you, and will not even think of those former vows.”

And when in his heart he declared that it should have been Mrs. Finn’s first care to save him from disgrace, Lady Mary did break out.

“Papa, there could be no disgrace.”

“That for a moment shall be laid aside,” he said, with that manner by which even his peers in council had never been able not to be awed, “but if you communicate with Mrs.

“If he sees that her happiness really depends on it he will give his leave. It all depends on that. If I judge your father rightly, he’s just as softhearted as other people.

The man who holds out is not the man of the firmest opinion, but the man of the hardest heart.

”

“My father wishes me to be in the House, and that he has not quarrelled with me you may know by the fact that had there been a contest he would have paid my expenses.”

“A father generally has to do that whether he approves of what his son is about or not,”

said the caustic old gentleman.

Major Tifto had therefore been obliged to look after the affair alone. “A very useful mare,” as Tifto had been in the habit of calling a leggy, thoroughbred, meagre-looking brute named Coalition, was on this occasion confided to the Major’s sole care and judgment.

But Coalition failed, as coalitions always do, and Tifto had to report to his noble patron that they had not pulled off the event.

It had been a match for four hundred pounds, made indeed by Lord Silverbridge, but made at the suggestion of Tifto;—and now Tifto wrote in a very bad humour about it.

“What the ⸻ is the good of that?” said Dolly from the coach-box.

“Take your licking and don’t squeal.”

“That’s all very well. I can take my licking as well as another man. But one has to look to the causes of these things. I never saw Peppermint ride so badly.

Jones as for the Duke of Omnium; but were he to do it, it would be said of him that it had been done because the man was Duke of Omnium.

There are positions exalted beyond the reach of benevolence, because benevolence would seem to be self-seeking.

“Your father, if he were here,” said he, “would know that I could not interfere.”

There were men the very sound of whose voices was already odious to him. There had come upon him a feeling in regard to certain orators, that when once they had begun there was no reason why they should ever stop.

Words of some sort were always forthcoming, like spiders’ webs.

He did not think that he could learn to take a pleasure in sitting in the House; but he hoped that he might be man enough to do it, though it was not pleasant. He would begin today, instead of going to the Oaks.

That these opponents should have blundered and quarrelled, being men active and in earnest, was to have been expected. Such blunderings and quarrellings have been a matter of course since politics have been politics, and since religion has been religion.

When men combine to do nothing, how should there be disagreement? When men combine to do much, how should there not be disagreement?

Thirty men can sit still, each as like the other as peas. But put your thirty men up to run a race, and they will soon assume different forms. And in doing nothing, you can hardly do amiss.

All these dangers Sir Timothy had seen and studied, and for each of them he had hoped to be able to provide an antidote. Love cannot do all. Fear may do more.

Fear acknowledges a superior. Love desires an equal.

Love is to be created by benefits done, and means gratitude, which we all know to be weak. But hope, which refers itself to benefits to come, is of all our feelings the strongest.

But hope, which refers itself to benefits to come, is of all our feelings the strongest. And Sir Timothy had parliamentary doctrines concealed in the depths of his own bosom more important even than these.

The Statesman who falls is he who does much, and thus injures many. The Statesman who stands the longest is he who does nothing and injures no one.

He soon knew that the work which he had taken in hand required all the art of a great conjuror. He must be possessed of tricks so marvellous that not even they who sat nearest to him might know how they were performed.

And should you also be made to believe that the same young woman had direct communication with Abraham, by means of some invisible wire, you would be apt to do a great many things as that young woman might tell you.

Conjuring, when not known to be conjuring, is very effective.

Much, no doubt, of Sir Timothy’s power had come from his praiseworthy industry. Though he cared nothing for the making of laws, though he knew nothing of finance, though he had abandoned his legal studies, still he worked hard.

Was it his fault that he was so thin-skinned that all things hurt him? When some coarse man said to him that which ought not to have been said, was it his fault that at every word a penknife had stabbed him?

Other men had borne these buffets without shrinking, and had shown themselves thereby to be more useful, much more efficacious; but he could no more imitate them than he could procure for himself the skin of a rhinoceros or the tusk of an elephant.

And this shrinking was what men called pride—was the pride of which his old friend wrote! “Have I ever been haughty, unless in my own defence?” he asked himself, remembering certain passages of humility in his life—and certain passages of haughtiness also.

“

I’d have changed it. But is it not very impudent in me to be finding fault with you the first time I have ever seen you?

Shall you have a horse at Ascot?”

“Though one knows a Lady Mabel Grex, one may become acquainted with a Miss Boncassen.”

There are moments in which stupid people say clever things, obtuse people say sharp things, and good-natured people say ill-natured things.

“Lord Silverbridge,” she said, “I did not expect that from you.”

… high in the heavens and the world around her was all asleep, Lady Mabel again wandered out to the lake, and again seated herself on the same rock, and there she sat thinking of her past life and trying to think of that before her.

It is so much easier to think of the past than of the future⁠—to remember what has been than to resolve what shall be!

She had reminded him of the offer which he had made and repeated to her more than once—to share with her all his chances in life. There would have been almost no income for them. All the world would have been against her.

They had travelled very slowly, for Lady Mary had been ill, and the Duke had expressed his determination to see a doctor at Ischl.

There is no greater mistake than in supposing that only the young blush.

But the blushes of middle life are luckily not seen through the tan which has come from the sun and the gas and the work and the wiles of the world. Both the Duke and Phineas blushed;

There had been no deceit in that. But then Silverbridge had promised that he would not “plunge.” There are, however, promises which from their very nature may be broken without falsehood.

Plunging is a doubtful word, and the path down to it, like all doubtful paths⁠—is slippery and easy!

If that assurance with which Mr. Moreton ended his letter could only be made true, he could bring himself to forgive even this offence. The boy must be made to settle himself in life.

“I told him that he must ask his friends;—that I would not be his wife to be rejected by them all. Nor will I.

Though it be heaven I will not creep there through a hole. If I cannot go in with my head upright, I will not go even there.

” Then she turned round as though she were prepared in her emotion to walk back to the house alone. But Lady Mary ran after her, and having caught her, put her arm round her waist and kissed her.

“So I do. I love him entirely. I have said not a word of that to him;—but I do, if I know at all what love is.

But if you love a star, the pride you have in your star will enhance your love.

Though you know that you must die of your love, still you must love your star.”

On the next day the Major had his hounds out, and some of the London men, with a few of the neighbours, joined him. Gates were locked; but the hounds ran, and those who chose to ride managed to follow them.

There are men who will stick to their sport though Apollyon himself should carry the horn.

Who cares whether the lady who fills a theatre be or be not a moral young woman, or whether the bandmaster who keeps such excellent time in a ball has or has not paid his debts?

He betrayed nothing by his face as this was said to him. But as he got into the carriage he was a miserable man.

It is very well to tell a man that he should yield, but there is nothing so wretched to a man as yielding.

Young people and women have to yield—but for such a man as this, to yield is in itself a misery. In this matter the Duke was quite certain of the propriety of his judgment.

“With all my heart I do.”

“Then I am as proud as a queen. You will tell him soon?”

“As soon as you are gone. As soon as we are alone together. I will;—and then I will follow you to London. Now shall we not say, Goodbye?”

“Of course she has.

The venom out of the snake’s tooth will poison all the blood; but still the poor bitten wretch does not always die.

”

Newcomb the curate, Mr. Pinebott the conservative attorney, with four or five followers who were armed with books and pencils, and who ticked off on the list of the voters the names of the friendly, the doubtful, and the inimical.

Parliamentary canvassing is not a pleasant occupation.

Perhaps nothing more disagreeable, more squalid, more revolting to the senses, more opposed to personal dignity, can be conceived.

Here there was a very grave memorandum.

Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners.

But of course it was all bosh.

“I suppose we are—after a fashion. She might wait for you perhaps.”

“I think she would⁠—if I could go there.”

“You are much thicker with her than I ever was. You went to see her at Grex—when nobody else was there.”

He had never dropped it out of his mind for a moment. But when he found that the girl was leaving his house without any explanation, then he became restless and inquisitive.

They say that perfect love casteth out fear. If it be so the love of children to their parents is seldom altogether perfect⁠—and perhaps had better not be quite perfect.

With this young man it was not that he feared anything which his father could do to him, that he believed that in consequence of the declaration which he had to make his comforts and pleasures would be curtailed, or his independence diminished.

but this was certain—that when a young man had promised a young woman he ought to keep his word. And he thought that there were certain changes going on in the management of the world which his father did not quite understand.

Fathers never do quite understand the changes which are manifest to their sons.

Some years ago it might have been improper that an American girl should be elevated to the rank of an English Duchess; but now all that was altered.

I’m sure it was a vixen by her running. We ought to have killed that fox, my Lord.” Then Mrs. Spooner made her obeisance to her hostess. Perhaps she was rather slow in doing this, but the greatness of the subject had been the cause.

These are matters so important, that the ordinary civilities of the world should not stand in their way.

“What do you say, Chiltern?” asked the husband.

The A.R.U. had lost their Master. One Captain Glomax was going, and the county had been driven to the necessity of advertising for a successor. “When hunting comes to that,” said Lord Chiltern, “one begins to think that it is in a bad way.”

It may always be observed that when hunting-men speak seriously of their sport, they speak despondingly.

Everything is going wrong. Perhaps the same thing may be remarked in other pursuits. Farmers are generally on the verge of ruin. Trade is always bad. The Church is in danger. The House of Lords isn’t worth a dozen years’ purchase. The throne totters.

It may always be observed that when hunting-men speak seriously of their sport, they speak despondingly. Everything is going wrong. Perhaps the same thing may be remarked in other pursuits.

Farmers are generally on the verge of ruin. Trade is always bad. The Church is in danger. The House of Lords isn’t worth a dozen years’ purchase. The throne totters.

“An itinerant Master with a carpetbag never can carry on a country,” said Mr. Spooner.

“Nor would you take it.

There is nothing so comfortable as money⁠—but nothing so defiling if it be come by unworthily

; nothing so comfortable, but nothing so noxious if the mind be allowed to dwell upon it constantly. If a man have enough, let him spend it freely. If he wants it, let him earn it honestly.

“Oh, Silverbridge—that is such a fault! So much is included in that which is unstatesmanlike, unpatriotic, almost dishonest! Do you mean to say that you would be this or that in politics according to your personal liking for an individual?”

“When you don’t trust the leader, you can’t believe very firmly in the followers,” said Silverbridge doggedly.

“I won’t say, sir, what I may do. Though I dare say that what I think is not of much account, I do think a good deal about it.”

“Isabel, if you are so formal, you will kill me.”

“Lord Silverbridge, if you are so forward, you will offend me.”

Then it turned out that no letter from him had reached the house; and as the letter had been addressed to Bruton Street instead of Brook Street, the failure on the part of the post-office was not surprising.

“I think much more of her love, Mr. Boncassen, than I do of anything else in the world.”

“But love, my Lord, may be a great misfortune.”

As he said this the tone of his voice was altered, and there was a melancholy solemnity not only in his words but in his countenance. “I take it that young people when they love rarely think of more than the present moment.

When anybody of statesmen make public asseverations by one or various voices, that there is no discord among them, not a dissentient voice on any subject, people are apt to suppose that they cannot hang together much longer.

It is the man who has no peace at home that declares abroad that his wife is an angel.

He who lives on comfortable terms with the partner of his troubles can afford to acknowledge the ordinary rubs of life. Old Mr.

“We who wear black coats could not bring ourselves readily to put on scarlet garments; nor should we sit comfortably with our legs crossed like Turks.”

“I am your scarlet coat and your cross-legged Turk,” she said, with feigned self-reproach in her voice, but with a sparkle of mirth in her eye.

“But when I have once got into my scarlet coat I can be very proud of it, and when I am once seated in my divan I shall find it of all postures the easiest. Do you understand me?”

But all that will not make love. It does not come to a man that to be separated from a woman is to be dislocated from his very self.

A man has but one centre, and that is himself. A woman has two.

Though the second may never be seen by her, may live in the arms of another, may do all for that other that man can do for woman—still, still, though he be half the globe asunder from her, still he is to her the half …

Though I have so hated those men as to be unable to endure them, still I want some man’s house, and his name—some man’s bread and wine—some man’s jewels and titles and woods and parks and gardens—if I can get them.

Time can help a man in his sorrow.

If he begins at forty to make speeches, or to win races, or to breed oxen, he can yet live a prosperous life. Time is but a poor consoler for a young woman who has to be married.”

Time can help a man in his sorrow. If he begins at forty to make speeches, or to win races, or to breed oxen, he can yet live a prosperous life.

Time is but a poor consoler for a young woman who has to be married.

”

“Nevertheless, my Lord, I’ve got to tell it. It was Green who put me up to it. He did it just for the plunder. As God is my judge it was not for the money I did it.”

“Then it was revenge.”

“It was the devil got hold of me, my Lord. Up to that I had always been square—square as a die! I got to think that your Lordship was upsetting.

There are men who look as though they were born to wear blue ribbons. It has come, probably, from study, but it seems to be natural. Sir Timothy did not impose on those who looked at him as do these men.

You could see a little of the paint, you could hear the crumple of the starch and the padding; you could trace something of uneasiness in the would-be composed grandeur of the brow.

“Turveydrop!” the spectator would say to himself. But after all it may be a question whether a man be open to reproach for not doing that well which the greatest among us—if we could find one great enough—would not do at all.

You could see a little of the paint, you could hear the crumple of the starch and the padding; you could trace something of uneasiness in the would-be composed grandeur of the brow. “Turveydrop!” the spectator would say to himself.

But after all it may be a question whether a man be open to reproach for not doing that well which the greatest among us⁠—if we could find one great enough⁠—would not do at all.

For I think we must hold that true personal dignity should be achieved—must, if it be quite true, have been achieved—without any personal effort.

In regard to speech a man may study all that which may make him suasive, but if he go beyond that he will trench on those histrionic efforts which he will know to be wrong because he will be ashamed to acknowledge them.

It is good to be beautiful, but it should come of God and not of the hairdresser.

And personal dignity is a great possession; but a man should struggle for it no more than he would for beauty.

They, too, heard the crackle of the buckram, and were aware that the last touch of awe had come upon that brow just as its owner was emerging from the shadow of the Speaker’s chair;—but to them it was a thing of course.

A real Caesar is not to be found every day, nor can we always have a Pitt to control our debates.

That kind of thing, that last touch has its effect. Of course it is all paint—but how would the poor girl look before the gaslights if there were no paint? The House of Commons likes a little deportment on occasions.

A real Caesar is not to be found every day, nor can we always have a Pitt to control our debates. That kind of thing, that last touch has its effect.

Of course it is all paint⁠—but how would the poor girl look before the gaslights if there were no paint?

The House of Commons likes a little deportment on occasions. If a special man looks bigger than you, you can console yourself by reflecting that he also looks bigger than your fellows.