At this point, Eld turned to Disraeli and said, "Diz, you'd better work hard. If you ask me, you may not be Prime Minister yet, but at the very least you already have the social circle required to become one."
Disraeli gave him a sideways look. "I'm a free Conservative, not a conservative Whig. Kindly recognize the political gulf between me and the Prime Minister."
Arthur let out a quiet chuckle and didn't join in, only lazily tamped some tobacco into his pipe.
Darwin, however, seized the pause and forcibly dragged the topic back.
"Let's talk business." He looked at Arthur, his tone clearly more serious. "Your recommenders—do you really have no leads at all? If you need, I can write a few letters for you. Over at Cambridge… at least academically, they won't make things hard for you because of the New Poor Law affair. Whether at Trinity or St John's College, there must be people who've both seen your experimental reports and read your papers."
