During breakfast he tried to be gracious, and condescended to ask a question about Prime Minister. Racing was an amusement to which English noblemen had been addicted for many ages, and had been held to be serviceable rather than disgraceful, if conducted in a noble fashion. He did not credit Tifto with much nobility. He knew but little about the Major. He would much have preferred that his son should have owned a horse alone, if he must have anything to do with ownership. 'Would it not be better to buy the other share?' asked the Duke.
'It would take a deal of money, sir. The Major would ask a couple of thousand, I should think.'
'That is a great deal.'
'And then the Major is a very useful man. He thoroughly understands the turf.'
'I hope he doesn't live by it?'
'Oh no, he doesn't live by it. That is, he has a great many irons in the fire.'
'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.'
'Nothing to speak of is so apt to grow into that which has to be spoken of.' So much that 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. 'Silverbridge,' he said, 'I hope you have thought better of what we were talking about as to these coming elections.'
'Well, sir,--of course I have thought about it.'
'And can you do as I would have you?'
'You see, sir, a man's political opinion is a kind of thing he can't get rid of.'
'You can hardly as yet have any confirmed political opinion. You are still young, and I do not suppose that you have thought much about politics.'
'Well, sir; I think I have. I've got my own ideas. We've got to protect our position as well as we can against the Radicals and Communists.'
'I cannot admit that at all, Silverbridge. There is no great political party in this county anxious either for communism or for revolution. But, putting all that aside for the present, do you think that a man's political opinions should be held in regard to his own individual interests, or to the much wider interests of others, whom we call the public?'
'To his own interest,' said the young man with decision.
'It is simply self-protection then?'
'His own and his class. The people will look after themselves, and we must look after ourselves. We are so few and they are so many, that we shall have quite enough to do.'
Then the Duke gave his son a somewhat lengthy political lecture, which was intended to teach him that the greatest benefit of the greatest number was the object to which all political studies should tend. The son listened with attention, and when it was over, expressed his opinion that there was a great deal in what his father had said. 'I trust, if you will consider it,' said the Duke, 'that you will not find yourself obliged to desert the school of politics in which your father has not been an inactive supporter, and to which your family has belonged for many years.'
'I could not call myself a Liberal,' said the young politician.
'Why not?'
'Because I am a Conservative.'
'And you won't stand for the county on the Liberal interest?'
'I should be obliged to tell them that I should always give a Conservative vote.'
'Then you refuse to do as I ask?'
'I do not know how I can help refusing it. If you wanted me to grow a couple of inches taller, I couldn't do it, even though I should be ever so anxious to oblige you.'
'But a very young man, as you are, may have so much deference for his elders as to be induced to believe that he has been in error.'
'Oh yes; of course.'
'You cannot but be aware that the political condition of the country is the one subject to which I have devoted the labour of my life.'
'I know that very well; and of course, I know how much they all think of you.'
'Then my opinion might go for something with you?'
'So it does, sir; I shouldn't have doubted at all only for that.
Still, you see, as the thing is,--how am I to help myself?'
'You believe that you must be right,--you who have never given an hour's study to the subject.'
'No, sir. In comparison with a great many men, I know that I am a fool. Perhaps it is because I know that, that I am a Conservative.