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_ BOOK I CHAPTER XV
The historian records the attachment to public business which
distinguishes the British legislator.--Touching instance of the
regret which ever in patriotic bosoms attends the neglect of a
public duty.
From the dusty height of a rumble-tumble affixed to Lady Selina Vipont's
barouche, and by the animated side of Sir Gregory Stollhead, Vance
caught sight of Lionel and Sophy at a corner of the spacious green
near the Palace. He sighed; he envied them. He thought of the boat,
the water, the honeysuckle arbour at the little inn,--pleasures he had
denied himself,--pleasures all in his own way. They seemed still more
alluring by contrast with the prospect before him; formal dinner at the
Star and Garter, with titled Prymmes, Slowes, and Frosts, a couple of
guineas a head, including light wines, which he did not drink, and the
expense of a chaise back by himself. But such are life and its social
duties,--such, above all, ambition and a career. Who that would leave
a name on his tombstone can say to his own heart, "Perish Stars
and Garters: my existence shall pass from day to day in honeysuckle
arbours!"
Sir Gregory Stollhead interrupted Vance's revery by an impassioned
sneeze. "Dreadful smell of hay!" said the legislator, with watery
eyes. "Are you subject to the hay fever? I am! A-tisha-tisha-tisha
[sneezing]--country frightfully unwholesome at this time of year. And
to think that I ought now to be in the House,--in my committee-room; no
smell of hay there; most important committee."
VANCE (rousing himself).--"Ah--on what?"
SIR GREGORY (regretfully).--"Sewers." _
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