d to her. She rang for the butler.

"Where is the <i>Times</i>?" she asked, when he appeared. The man replied
that it was no doubt in Mr. Ashe's room, and he would bring it.

"Kitty has probably not looked at it," thought the visitor. When the
paper arrived she turned at once to the Parliamentary report. It
contained an important speech by Ashe in the House the night before.
Lady Tranmore had been disturbed in the reading of it that morning, and
had still a few sentences to finish. She read them with pride, then
glanced again at the leading article on the debate, and at the
flattering references it contained to the knowledge, courtesy, and
debating power of the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

"Mr. Ashe," said the <i>Times</i>, "has well earned the promotion he is now
sure to receive before long. In those important rearrangements of some
of the higher offices which cannot be long delayed, Mr. Ashe is clearly
marked out for a place in the cabinet. He is young, but he has already
done admirable service; and there can be no question that he has a great
future before him."

Lady Tranmore put down the paper and fell into a reverie. A great
future? Yes--if Kitty permitted--if Kitty could be managed. At present
it appeared to William's mother that the caprices of his wife were
endangering the whole development of his career. There were wheels
within wheels, and the newspapers knew very little about them.

Three years, was it, since the marriage? She looked back to her dismay
when William brought her the news, though it seemed to her that in some
sort she had foreseen it from the moment of his first mention of Kitty
Bristol--with its eager appeal to her kindness, and that new and
indefinable something in voice and manner which put her at once on the
alert.

Ought she to have opposed it more strongly? She had, indeed, opposed it;
and for a whole wretched week she who had never yet gainsaid him in
anything had argued and pleaded with her son, attempting at the same
time to bring in his uncles to wrestle with him, seeing that his poor
paralyzed father was of no account, and so to make a stubborn family
fight of it. But she had been simply disarmed and beaten down by
William's sweetness, patience, and good-humor. Never had he been so
determined, and never so lovable.

It had been made abundantly plain to her that no wife, however exacting
and adorable, should ever rob her, his mother, of one tittle of his old
affection