."

"More than that; much more than that. If you didn't care for politics
you couldn't have taken a line of your own." When she said this she
knew that he had been talked into what he had done by Tregear,--by
Tregear, who had ambition, and intelligence, and capacity for forming
an opinion of his own. "If you do not do it for your own sake, you
will for the sake of those who,--who,--who are your friends," she
said at last, not feeling quite able to tell him that he must do it
for the sake of those who loved him.

"There are not very many I suppose who care about it."

"Your father."

"Oh yes,--my father."

"And Tregear."

"Tregear has got his own fish to fry."

"Are there none others? Do you think we care nothing about it here?"

"Miss Cassewary?"

"Well;--Miss Cassewary! A man might have a worse friend than Miss
Cassewary;--and my father."

"I don't suppose Lord Grex cares a straw about me."

"Indeed he does,--a great many straws. And so do I. Do you think I
don't care a straw about it?"

"I don't know why you should."

"Because it is my nature to be earnest. A girl comes out into the
world so young that she becomes serious, and steady as it were, so
much sooner than a man does."

"I always think that nobody is so full of chaff as you are, Lady
Mab."

"I am not chaffing now in recommending you to go to work in the world
like a man."

As she said this they were sitting on the same sofa, but with some
space between them. When Miss Cassewary had left the room Lord
Silverbridge was standing, but after a little he had fallen into the
seat, at the extreme corner, and had gradually come a little nearer
to her. Now in her energy she put out her hand, meaning perhaps to
touch lightly the sleeve of his coat, meaning perhaps not quite to
touch him at all. But as she did so he put out his hand and took hold
of hers.

She drew it away, not seeming to allow it to remain in his grasp for
a moment; but she did so, not angrily, or hurriedly, or with any
flurry. She did it as though it were natural that he should take her
hand and as natural that she should recover it.

"Indeed I have hardly more than ten minutes left for dressing," she
said, rising from her seat.

"If you will say that you care about it, you yourself, I will do my
best." As he made this declaration blushes covered his cheeks and
forehead.

"I do care about it,--very much; I myself," said Lady Mabel, not
blushing at all. Then there was a kno