‘The outcome? Why, I think we shall learn to content ourselves with our fate.’
Clichés, thought Sheridan. Could she really see a lusty young man being content with letters.
‘I think His Highness will become more and more insistent in his request for a meeting.’
‘I have advised him to consider his position.’
‘And I have come here to advise you to consider yours.’
‘That I am doing.’
‘I know you well. I shall never forget the day we met. I recognized your ability the moment I saw you and so did Garrick. God rest his soul.’
‘Poor Mr Garrick! Dear Mr Garrick! What I owe him! It is very sad to think he will never again coach ladies for the stage.’
A short pause to pay respects to Garrick who had died a few months before.
Garrick had said: ‘With looks like that, she’ll bring in the audiences. If we can teach her to act a little that could be a help.’
How right he was! How right he had always been! He was greatly missed.
‘But even now,’ went on Sheridan, ‘that you have your place in your profession, it could be easy to throw it away.’
‘Throw it away? How?’
‘By becoming the Prince’s mistress.’
She drew back at what she considered an unpleasant word. She would never see herself as the Prince’s mistress, no matter if he set her up in a house and openly visited her. His friend? wondered Sheridan. The lady whom he favours with his confidences? His wife in name only? Never mistress!
No, he would not give her a long hold on the fickle favour of a young Prince avid for experience, avid for life.
‘My dearest, let us face the facts. That is what is in the Prince’s mind.’
‘I appreciate your anxiety for me, dear Sherry, but I do not think you know the Prince.’
A little better than you do, he thought, for you my dear have not yet spoken to him face to face.
‘Listen to me,’ he said. ‘You know I speak for your good. If you become the Prince’s mistress you will lose your place on the stage. You have too much sensibility to become the mistress of a king or a prince. You are too romantic. It would be necessary for you to consider all sorts of propositions which would be distasteful to you.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Before entering into such an arrangement you should make sure that some provision was made for the days when it would be over. Tell me this, what would you do if you could no longer act? Don’t forget you have a child, a mother … and a husband to support.’
She turned away; he was forcing her to see the ugly truth; he was spoiling her romance. And she wanted to go on in her dream.
‘My dear Sherry,’ she said, ‘I know you speak out of your concern for me. But rest assured I shall never do anything which would make you ashamed of me.’
‘I should tremble less for you if I thought you would,’ he said.
‘You must have your quips.’ She swept away the unpleasant discussion with a wave of the hand. ‘Now, would you take a dish of tea, a dish of chocolate?’
He declined. Business at the theatre, he pleaded. He had no desire to drink tea or chocolate with a mistress of whom he had tired.
Mistress? he chided himself. No, lady friend … the lady whom I favoured with my confidences … once.
He took his leave, kissing her hand fervently to assure her that it was her good for which he was concerned and that she should consider very carefully before throwing away a career which had been built up to fame since that night when her Juliet had first enchanted his audiences.
Mr Fox chose a time when Mrs Robinson was out to call on her. He had his reasons for this. He had not been unaware of the lady’s maid. An extremely handsome woman he had noted, and he had a liking for handsome women; moreover, there was an air about this one which had specially intrigued him. Not only was she handsome but intelligent.
It was a matter of some importance to follow the course of Perdita’s romance with Florizel, because if the lady in fact became the Prince’s mistress and remained in that position when the Prince became a man of independence, Perdita could be a very significant person indeed.
Mr Fox had been present at the Oratorio and had witnessed the strange behaviour of the Prince; he had read the papers with those hints of the romance; he had heard rumours in Brooks’ and other clubs; and he had listened attentively.
But he wished to follow the affair more intimately and believed that if he had a friend inside Perdita’s establishment he could be completely in the picture and would not have to rely on hearsay.
A small matter in all his concerns? Not exactly. Because the Prince was destined to be in a position with relation to the Whigs that his father was with the Tories – and Mr Fox, being an ardent Whig and with nothing to hope for from the King or the Tory Party, was eager to bring back the Whigs to power – and who could be more helpful in this than the Prince of Wales?
The young man could not take his place in the Lords until he attained his real majority, that would be in 1783 – more than three years from now; but at eighteen he would gain his freedom and his own establishment and he must be drawn into the right circle before the time came for him to enter the Lords. Three years was not too long; and if Mr Fox was not ready, others would seize the advantage. Therefore the affair between the actress and the Prince was politics.
‘Madam is not at home.’ The young woman spoke coolly and none would have guessed that the sight of the famous politician had set her heart racing and her hopes soaring because she had a very strong notion that Mr Fox had been well aware that her mistress was not at home and that was why he had called.
Mr Fox had already entered.
‘Perhaps I could wait a while?’
‘I am sure that is what Madam would wish.’
‘And she would wish you to stay and have a civil word with me, I don’t doubt.’
‘It is my duty, sir, to be civil to all Madam’s friends.’
‘And mighty civil I am sure you are.’
Mrs Armistead curtsied and turned away, but he said: ‘Now, you promised to chat.’
‘I cannot imagine, sir, that a gentleman of your position would want to chat with a woman in mine.’
He smiled at her. ‘And I had imagined you to be a woman of … imagination.’
‘What would you wish of me, sir?’
‘To ask you first perhaps how a woman of your undoubted ability should be content to find herself a lady’s maid to an actress.’
‘I did not say I was content, sir.’
‘Ah.’ He smiled at her. He was a strangely fascinating man. She had thought him the most exciting of all those gentlemen who called on her mistress. Mr Charles James Fox who could make the King uneasy, who was said to be the most brilliant politician in Parliament, a rival to young Mr Pitt, to the Prime Minister, Lord North. He was scarcely attractive to the eye, for in this age of elegance he was noticeably slovenly. Now she could see the grease spots on his coat; he was too fat; he had a double chin and his paunch was obvious; he had not bothered to shave himself. She had heard that he thought nothing of losing twenty thousand guineas in a night’s gambling at Brooks’. But he was the great Charles James Fox and it excited her that he had noticed her.
‘Then I’ll swear that from your present post you are looking for a better one.’
‘Should not one always keep one’s eyes open for advantage, sir?’
‘Wise as well as beautiful.’ He moved closer to her and although she did not retreat she conveyed by her expression that she did not expect familiarities and for a moment her spirits sank, for she feared that he had come in merely for a quick physical encounter with the handsome lady’s maid who would be ready to serve Mr Fox in whatever capacity he thought fit for half an hour and then be forgotten. But that was not the intention of Mrs Armistead; nor must Mr Fox – famous as he might be – be deluded into thinking this could be.