hose we owe to you."

"And why am I refused this, then?"

"If you wanted other reasons than those I have given you, I might
be able to adduce them--not willingly indeed--but under pressure,
and especially in strict confidence." "Reasons against my having the
mission?"

"Reasons against your having the mission."

"You amaze me, my Lord. I almost doubt that I have heard you aright I
must, however, insist on your explaining yourself. Am I to understand
that there are personal grounds of unfitness?"

The other bowed in assent.

"Have the kindness to let me know them."

"First of all, Culduff, this is to be a family mission--the duchess is
a connection of our own royal house--and a certain degree of display
and consequent expense will be required. Your fortune does not admit of
this."

"Push on to the more cogent reason, my Lord," said Culduff, stiffly.

"Here, then, is the more cogent reason. The court has not
forgotten--what possibly the world may have forgotten--some of those
passages in your life for which you, perhaps, have no other remorse than
that they are not likely to recur; and as you have given no hostages for
good behavior, in the shape of a wife, the court, I say, is sure to veto
your appointment. You see it all as clearly as I do."

"So far as I do see," said Culduff, slowly: "the first objection is my
want of fortune, the second, my want of a wife?"

"Exactly so."

"Well, my Lord, I am able to meet each of these obstacles; my agent has
just discovered coal on one of my Irish estates, and I am now in town to
make arrangements on a large scale to develop the source of wealth.
As to the second disability, I shall pledge myself to present the
Viscountess Culduff at the next drawing-room."

"Married already?"

"No, but I may be within a few weeks. In fact, I mean to place myself
in such a position, that no one holding your office can pass me over by
a pretext, or affect to ignore my claim by affirming that I labor under
a disability."

"This sounds like menace, does it not?" said the other as he threw his
cigar impatiently from him.

"A mere protocol, my Lord, to denote intention."

"Well, I'll submit your name. I'll go further,--I'll support it. Don't
leave town for a day or two. Call on Beadlesworth and see Repsley; tell
him what you 've said to me. If you could promise it was one of his old
maiden sisters that you thought of making Lady Culduff, the thing could
be clenched at once. But I