Chapter 126: Arthur’s Cheap Drudgery
Chapter 126 – Arthur’s Cheap Drudgery
“This is a great age of change and conservatism, and the Whigs and Tories represent interests that are their own. I, alone, represent all the great people of the whole of Great Britain. Remember my name, Benjamin Disraeli, Parliamentary Candidate for Westminster Constituency No. 8, and a vote for me is a vote for yourself!”
As Disraeli spoke, he looked up at the sky, colored golden by the setting sun, and couldn’t help but twist his back, which was slightly sore from standing all afternoon.
Seeing this, the few listeners gathered under the stage, one by one went up to him and said: “Mr. Disraeli, can you settle the payment for today’s work. You agreed with us before that it would be six pence an hour, and the five of us stayed three hours, and the total was seven shillings and six pence.”
Disraeli gave a helpless grimace, “What’s the rush, it’s not like I’m going to owe you guys a paycheck ……”
He muttered as he took his wallet out of his pocket and fished out a few coins and handed them over.
The men received the money, and each of them smiled as they opened their mouths and asked, “Sir, will you come back tomorrow?”
Disraeli took out his handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat from the side of his face, and returned rather unpleasantly, “Not coming, I have been lecturing here for days. However, besides you, there are very few people who are willing to listen to me at all. At this rate, I don’t know when and how long it will take for me to get enough votes to be elected as a councilor.”
Disraeli had just finished speaking when out of the corner of his eye he noticed a young dark-haired man standing outside the park’s guardrail looking at him with a face full of concentration.
Behind the young man, there were also three figures following him closely, carrying large bags in their hands that looked like his servants.
All in all, this person knew that he had the right to vote as soon as he looked at them.
Disraeli’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly put away his handkerchief and stepped forward, offering Arthur a small smile across the parapet.
“This gentleman, you are interested in my speech?”
Arthur looked a little hesitant, but after he twisted his head to look at the piles of luggage behind him, he nodded again with a serious face.
“I am indeed interested, but I really don’t have the time to listen to you explain your political views in detail. As you can tell from a quick glance, I’m busy moving right now.”
“You are moving? I wonder where your new home is?”
“Not far ahead, Lancaster Gate in Bayswater.”
“Lancaster Gate?!”
The smile on Disraeli’s face grew a little thicker when he heard the name of the place.
He craned his head around for a moment until he was sure there were no police nearby, and then the gentleman in the fancy black tuxedo actually leapt up and deftly tumbled right over the carved decoration on the railing.
He patted his dust-stained palms while smiling and opened his mouth: ”You just arrived in London not long ago, right? This is an unfamiliar place, I guess you don’t recognize how to get to Lancaster Gate, let me lead the way for you.”
He just finished saying this, and did not wait for Arthur to agree, he took it upon himself to take the suitcase from Arthur’s hand, and used all his strength to carry the large storage box that was placed on the shoulder of the road that no one was willing to move on his shoulders.
Disraeli’s face turned red, but he still did not forget to maintain his demeanor and asked in a smiling and kind tone, “What number do you live in?”
Arthur bowed slightly with full apology, “36 Lancaster Gate, what a labor of love.”
“A small favor, you don’t have to be so polite. A councilor who aspires to serve the public is one who should do his best to help the public. You will soon get to know me, and after I finish helping you carry your things in a while, I can give you a good lecture on my election philosophy ……”
Disraeli carried the boxes forward as he rattled off a statement of his great vision and promises for his election.
Arthur, on the other hand, stood still and didn’t move a step as he lit his pipe and took a drag, then rushed towards Elder and held out his hand, “One shilling, I won the bet.”
Elder pulled the money out of his pocket with a displeased face, “Damn! There really is this kind of fool under the sky who is willing to carry something for you for no reason at all without a penny. Look at that look on his face, as if he has to thank you after carrying things for you!”
Darwin shook his head, “Isn’t he thinking about Arthur’s votes? Moving some stuff and getting a favor, that’s a cheap deal indeed.”
“Votes?” Elder squeezed a breath out of his nose, “Charles, have you forgotten? Arthur is a Scotland Yard policeman, he doesn’t get to vote. That boy is pure mindless drudgery that he tricked into coming here.”
Hearing this, Arthur hurriedly put up a finger and whispered at Elder, “Shhh!”
Disraeli’s mouth went dry as he spoke, yet half the time he didn’t hear Arthur’s response, he then couldn’t help but put down the box on his shoulder and froze back, “What’s wrong? Why don’t you go forward?”
Dumas heard this, immediately feigned physical exhaustion, he scattered the suitcase covering his left leg half crouched on the ground: “Alas can not, the foot is broken.”
Seeing this, Arthur couldn’t help but glare at this fat man, and then had to cooperate by covering his mouth in surprise.
“Whoops! Alexander! I spent so much money to ransom you, it’s fine if you don’t feel my favor. But now you’re actually telling me that it turns out you can’t fight with your shoulders or lift with your hands? If you keep this up, I’m going to have to consider sending you back to the plantation in Santo Domingo.”
When Dumas heard this, he almost burst into a fit of anger.
But when his mind calmed down, he still quickly realized that it was more practical to suffer less physically than to take advantage of his mouth; after all, the marble archway should still be at least a mile away from Arthur’s new residence. In response to Arthur’s taunts, Dumas chose to write down the debt for now, thirty years in the east and thirty years in the west.
He pretended to be in pain, “Mr. Hastings, this is an old disease of mine. It’s not that I don’t want to do my best, it’s really my legs that are out of order.”
Elder took a look at the fat man, then pestled Darwin beside him, “Charles, didn’t you work as a surgeon? Quick, put a hacksaw on him when we get to the place later.”
Dumas sniffed, finally couldn’t hold back, he was about to play a little French man’s arrogance, but unexpectedly Disraeli ran over to round up the scene.
“Gentlemen, why is this necessary? Isn’t it just a bit of luggage? I’m in good health, I’ll help you.”
With these words, Disraeli was about to reach out and lift the two suitcases that had been thrown to the ground by Dumas.
However, Arthur had already snatched the one on the left hand side and lifted it, and he smiled apologetically, “Mr. Disraeli, the one on the right will trouble you.”
Disraeli laughed twice, however his hand gripped the suitcase on the left and lifted it gently, yet it was this one that nearly took his breath away.
His face turned slightly green, “Sir, what do you have in this suitcase? Why does it weigh so much?”
Arthur smiled gently, “Ah, just a bit of insignificant personal property, a chest of gold.”
“Ah?!” Disraeli weighed the weight in his hand and couldn’t help but let out a long breath, “If you say so, I feel that the chest has become lighter all of a sudden.”
Disraeli gritted his teeth, his body tensed and tightened as he carried the ‘gold’ in one hand and the storage box on his other shoulder.
Along the way he didn’t even have the extra, used-for-talking strength, the always talkative Mr. Disraeli was speechless all the way, and the only thing that could be heard on the noisy Bayswater Road was him huffing and puffing.
Dumas limped all the way, but once he realized that Disraeli had no time for him, the fat Frenchman quickly recovered his vigor.
His back didn’t hurt, his legs weren’t sore, and he even had the appetite to eat an order of french fries bought from a roadside vendor.
Arriving at his destination with great difficulty, Disraeli was busy unloading the storage box from his shoulders.
He bent down and propped both hands on his knees to catch his breath.
Disraeli looked up at the three-story single-family house with a small garden attached in front of him and reassured himself, “To be able to live in a house like this, who would believe me if I say I don’t have the right to vote?”
He raised his hand and wiped the sweat on his chin with the back of his hand, and turned his head to look at Arthur behind him, who knew that he had searched for half a day, but he only saw that fat servant, while the other two servants and that mild and elegant young man who had just been there ran off somewhere.
He hurriedly inquired, “Several gentlemen, may I ask what your young master has done?”
Dumas covered his stomach and frowned, he felt that the portion of fries he had just eaten might have been a bit greasy: “I don’t know, we were just about to call the police. Sir, look there.”
Disraeli looked in the direction of his raised hand, Elder and Darwin were standing emotionally in front of a policeman in a Scotland Yard uniform saying something.
Disraeli was about to walk over to see what was going on when Dumas spoke up again, “Sir, I advise you not to go over there. The policeman said that he had seen someone suspected of disrupting public order by climbing over the railings in Hyde Park. He is looking all over the world for you, and you are not going over there now to throw yourself into a trap?”
“Huh?”
Hearing this, Disraeli immediately panicked, and he casually fished out a business card from his jacket pocket and shoved it into Dumas’s hand.
“Please inform your young master that I live nearby, and when the police get him back some other day, I will definitely pay a visit again.”
With those words, Disraeli hurriedly pressed down the brim of his hat and accelerated his pace to rush into the blind spot of the police’s perspective.
Elder glanced at him out of the corner of his eye until he was sure that he had gone far away, and only then did he raise his hand to remove the policeman’s hat in front of him.
The policeman didn’t really care about his behavior, but lightly dusted off the Bass Star shoulder patch, then calmly walked towards Dumas and clipped the business card from his hand and glanced at it.
–Leonel Rothschild, Consultant to the Rothschild Bank, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the London Property Buying Consultancy.
Elder came up to take a look and couldn’t help but frown, “Damn! The business cards are given to the wrong people, isn’t his name Benjamin Disraeli? This kind of person also wants to elect a councilor?”
Arthur, on the other hand, glanced in the direction Disraeli had fled.
He smiled slightly and put the business card into his coat pocket, “This one is also an investment target of the Rothschild family? I, it seems like I’m suddenly a bit interested in this gentleman.”
(End of chapter)