The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-10-23
coldly. you're either under delusion

MY grandfather was Chilcote OF
Westmoreland. He was one of the
first of his day and his class to recog
nize that there was a future in trade
SO, breaking his own letle twig from
the family tree, he went south to Wark
and entered a shipowning firm. In
thirty years time he died, the owner
of one of the biggest trades in England
having married the daughter of his
chief My father was twenty-four and
| still at Oxford when he inherited. Al
most his first act was to reverse my
| grandfather's early move by going
north and piecing together the family
friendship. He married his first cousin,
and then, with the Chilcote prestige re-
vived and the shipping money to back
it, he entered on his ambition, which
was to represent East Wark in the Con
servative interest. 1t was a big fight,
! but he won-as much by personal in
/ fiuence as by any other. He was an
/ aristocrat, but he was q keen business
/ man as well. The combination carries
weight with your lower classes. He
| never did much in the house, but he
was a power to his party in Wark.
/ They still use his name there to con-
| jure with
| Loder leaned forward interestedly.
! robert Chilcote?" he said II have
| heard of him. One of those fine, unos-
tentatious figures in action, a
| little narrow in outlook, perhaps, but
essential to country's staying power.
You have every reason to be proud of
your father"
Chilcote laughed suddenly. "How
easily we sum up when a matter Is i'm
personal. My father may have been
fine figure, but he shouldn't have left
me to climb to his pedestal.
Loder's eyes questioned. In his new
ly awakened interest he had let his
pipe go out
Don't you grasp my meaning"
Chilcote went on. MY father died and
was elected for East Wark. You may
say that if had no real inclination for
the position / could have kicked, but 1
tell you 1 couldn't. Every local inter-
est, political and commercial, hung up
on the candidate being a Chilcote. 1
did what eight men out of ten would
have done. 1 yielded to pressure"
ct was a fine openingr' The words.
escaped Loder.
Most prisons have wide gates"
Chilcote laughed again unpleasantly.
"That was six years ago. l had started
on the morphia track four years earlier,
but up to my fathers death 1 had it I'M
der my thumb, or believed L had, and
in the realization of my new response
bilities and the excitement of the po-
Iitical fight L almost put it aside. For
T
ment 1 worked. l believe l made one
speech that marked me as a coming
man." He laughed derisively. 81 even
married.
..Iarried?"
"Yes-a girl of nineteen, the ward
of a great politician. 1t was brilliant
marriage, politically as we'll as socially,
but it didn't work. / was born without
the capacity for love. First the social
life palled on me, then my work grew
irksome. There was only one factor to
make life endurable-morphia. Before
six months were out 1 had fully admit
ted that
But your wife?'
"Oh, my wife knew nothing-knows
nothing. 1t is the political business,
the beastly routine of the political life,
that is wearing me out" He stopped
nervously, then hurried on again. II
tell you it's hard to see the same faces, /
to sit in the same seat day in, day out,
knowing all the time that you must |
hold yourself in hand, must keep your
grip on the reins'-
ut is always possible to apply for
the Chiltern Hundreds
4
Chilcote broke into a loud, sarcastic |
laugh. You don't know what the To-
cal pressure of place like Wark |
stands for. Twenty times l have been |
within an ace of chucking the whole
thing. Once last year 1 wrote private
~ to Vale one of our big men there, |
and limited that my health was bad. |
Two hours after he had read my letter
he was in my study. Had / been in
Greenland the result would have been
the same. No; resignation is mean
ingless word to a man like me-"
Loder looked down. Il see,'' he said
slowly; II see'
Then you see everything-the diff
ficulty, the isolation of the position.
Five years ago-three-even two years
agoI was able to endure it. Now it
gets more unbearable with every
month. The day is bound to come
when - when - he paused. hesitating
nervously-"when it will be physically
impossible for me to be at my post"
Loder remained silent.
physically impossible Chilcote re-
peated excitedly Until lately 1 was
able to calculate-to count upon my
self to some extent-but yesterday 1
received a shock-yesterday 1 discov-
cred hat-that''-again he hesitated
painfully - that l have passed the
stage when one may calculate"
The situation was growing more en-
To hide its awkwardness,
Loder moved back to the CRATE and
rebuilt the fire, which had fallen low.
Chilcote, still excited by his unusual
followed him, taking up a
position by the mantelpiece.
..Well:' he said. looking down.
Very slowly Loder rose frCa his
task 'Well?' he reiterated.