Now, in concert with Bluhme and a few other of the elder politicians, he
had formed a Conservative Fronde, opposed to the policy of the National
Liberals. One day as we two young men were sitting in his son's room,
drafting the rules for the freshmen's society of five members, the old
gentleman came through and asked us what we were writing. "Rules for a
society; we want to get them done as quickly as we can." "That is right.
That kind of constitution may very well be written out expeditiously.
There has not been very much more trouble or forethought spent on the
one we have in this country."
It was not, however, so much the internal policy of the National
Liberals that he objected to--it was only the Election Law that he was
dissatisfied with--as their attitude towards Germany. Whenever a step
was taken in the direction of the incorporation of Slesvig, he would
exclaim: "We are doing what we solemnly promised not to do. How can
anyone be so childish as to believe that it will turn out well!"
The son, whose home impressions in politics had been Conservative, was a
happy young man with a somewhat embarrassed manner, who sometimes hid
his uncertainty under the cloak of a carelessness that was not
altogether assumed. Behind him stood his family, to whom he hospitably
introduced those of his companions whom he liked, and though the family
were not gentle of origin, they belonged, nevertheless, to the highest
circles in the country and exercised their attraction through the son.
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