A CHANGE IN THE CABINET

First Published in 1909

TO
MISS ALICE BEARDSLEY

SIR—or to speak more correctly, the Right HonourableSir T. Charles Repton, Bart., M.V.O., O.M.,Warden of the Court of Dowry, a man past middleage but in the height of industry, sat at breakfast inhis house: a large house overlooking Hyde Park fromthe North, close to the corner of the Edgware Road,and therefore removed by at least a hundred yardsfrom the graphic representation which marks thesite of the old Permanent Gallows that once stoodat Tyburn.

I have said that he was Warden of the Court ofDowry, and the reader, if she has any acquaintancewith parliamentary affairs, will remember that at thetime of which I speak, the month of March, 1915,that post commonly carried with it Cabinet rank.The experienced in political matters will certainlyinduce that he was also in the House of Commons.[2]He sat there for Pailton, a borough which had beenthe last to elect him after previous experiences inMerionethshire, Kirkby, Bruton, Powkeley and theWymp division of Dorset, in which last his somewhatconstrained and cold manner had perhaps ledto his defeat.

It was not his first experience of office, but hehad never stood so high in the Councils of theNation, nor had his presence in the Cabinet evermore weighed with the young and popular PrimeMinister (who was suffering slightly from his leftlung) than at this moment. For though CharlesRepton did not belong by birth to the group offamilies from which the Prime Minister had sprung,he was of those who, as they advance through life,accumulate an increasing number of clients, of dependentsand of friends who dare not trifle with suchfriendships.

In figure he was tall and somewhat lean; he wasclean-shaven; his brilliant white hair was wellgroomed; his brown eyes were singularly piercing,and, in contrast with his head, two thick, very darkand strongly arched eyebrows emphasized hisexpression. He was by persuasion at this time ofhis life a Second Day Wycliffite, and had indeedprofessed his connection with that body since at leasthis fortieth year, before which period in his career hehad permanently resided in a suburb of Leicester, towhich in turn he had removed from Newcastle.

By profession he was, or rather had been, a[3]solicitor, in which calling he had ever advised thoseclients who had the wisdom to accumulate wealthto leave the investment of it at his discretion,nor were they disappointed in the regular receiptof a moderate but secure income calculated at areasonable rate; while to those who (for whateverreason) lay under the necessity of borrowing, he wasever ready to advance at a somewhat higher ratesuch sums as he had at his disposal.