e more loyal
to a falling than to a rising friend? Such is perhaps the nature
of each one of us. But when any large number of men act together,
the falling friend is apt to be deserted. There was a general
feeling among politicians that Lord Drummond's ministry,--or Sir
Timothy's--was failing, and the Liberals, though they could not yet
count the votes by which they might hope to be supported in power,
nevertheless felt that they ought to be looking to their arms.

There had been a coalition. They who are well read in the political
literature of their country will remember all about that. It had
perhaps succeeded in doing that for which it had been intended. The
Queen's government had been carried on for two or three years. The
Duke of Omnium had been the head of that Ministry; but during those
years had suffered so much as to have become utterly ashamed of the
coalition,--so much as to have said often to himself that under no
circumstances would he again join any Ministry. At this time there
was no idea of another coalition. That is a state of things which
cannot come about frequently,--which can only be reproduced by men
who have never hitherto felt the mean insipidity of such a condition.
But they who had served on the Liberal side in that coalition must
again put their shoulders to the wheel. Of course it was in every
man's mouth that the Duke must be induced to forget his miseries and
once more to take upon himself the duties of an active servant of the
State.

But they who were most anxious on the subject, such men as Lord
Cantrip, Mr. Monk, our old friend Phineas Finn, and a few others,
were almost afraid to approach him. At the moment when the coalition
was broken up he had been very bitter in spirit, apparently almost
arrogant, holding himself aloof from his late colleagues,--and since
that, troubles had come to him, which had aggravated the soreness of
his heart. His wife had died, and he had suffered much through his
children. What Lord Silverbridge had done at Oxford was matter of
general conversation, and also what he had not done.

That the heir of the family should have become a renegade in politics
was supposed greatly to have affected the father. Now Lord Gerald had
been expelled from Cambridge, and Silverbridge was on the turf in
conjunction with Major Tifto! Something, too, had oozed out into
general ears about Lady Mary,--something which should have been
kept secret as the grave. It had therefore