f?"

"He was born before the new ideas came into practical force; but
in proportion as they have done so, his beliefs have necessarily
disappeared. I don't suppose that he believes in much now, except the
two propositions: firstly, that if he accept the new ideas he will have
power and keep it, and if he does not accept them power is out of the
question; and, secondly, that if the new ideas are to prevail he is the
best man to direct them safely,--beliefs quite enough for a minister. No
wise minister should have more."

"Does he not believe that the motion he is to resist next week is a bad
one?"

"A bad one of course, in its consequences, for if it succeed it will
upset him; a good one in itself I am sure he must think it, for he would
bring it on himself if he were in opposition."

"I see that Pope's definition is still true, 'Party is the madness of
the many for the gain of the few.'"

"No, it is not true. Madness is a wrong word applied to the many: the
many are sane enough; they know their own objects, and they make use of
the intellect of the few in order to gain their objects. In each party
it is the many that control the few who nominally lead them. A man
becomes Prime Minister because he seems to the many of his party the
fittest person to carry out their views. If he presume to differ from
these views, they put him into a moral pillory, and pelt him with their
dirtiest stones and their rottenest eggs."

"Then the maxim should be reversed, and party is rather the madness of
the few for the gain of the many?

"Of the two, that is the more correct definition."

"Let me keep my senses and decline to be one of the few."

Kenelm moved away from his cousin's side, and entering one of the less
crowded rooms, saw Cecilia Travers seated there in a recess with Lady
Glenalvon. He joined them, and after a brief interchange of a few
commonplaces, Lady Glenalvon quitted her post to accost a foreign
ambassadress, and Kenelm sank into the chair she vacated.

It was a relief to his eye to contemplate Cecilia's candid brow; to
his ear to hearken to the soft voice that had no artificial tones, and
uttered no cynical witticisms.

"Don't you think it strange," said Kenelm, "that we English should so
mould all our habits as to make even what we call pleasure as little
pleasurable as possible? We are now in the beginning of June, the fresh
outburst of summer, when every day in the country is a delight to eye
and ear, an