place,--on her husband's
bosom; and Violante, beautiful peacemaker, stood smiling awhile at both,
and then lifted her eyes gratefully to heaven and stole away.

CHAPTER XIII.

On Randal's return to town, he heard mixed and contradictory rumours
in the streets, and at the clubs, of the probable downfall of the
Government at the approaching session of parliament. These rumours had
sprung up suddenly, as if in an hour. True that, for some time, the
sagacious had shaken their heads and said, "Ministers could not last."
True, that certain changes in policy, a year or two before, had divided
the party on which the Government depended, and strengthened that which
opposed it. But still the more important members of that Government
had been so long identified with official station, and there seemed so
little power in the Opposition to form a Cabinet of names familiar to
official ears, that the general public had anticipated, at most, a few
partial changes. Rumour now went far beyond this. Randal, whose whole
prospects at present were but reflections from the greatness of
his patron, was alarmed. He sought Egerton, but the minister was
impenetrable, and seemed calm, confident, and imperturbed. Somewhat
relieved, Randal then set himself to work to find a safe home for
Riccabocca; for the greater need to succeed in obtaining fortune there,
if he failed in getting it through Egerton. He found a quiet house,
detached and secluded, in the neighbourhood of Norwood. No vicinity
more secure from espionage and remark. He wrote to Riccabocca, and
communicated the address, adding fresh assurances of his own power to
be of use. The next morning he was seated in his office, thinking
very little of the details, that he mastered, however, with mechanical
precision, when the minister who presided over that department of the
public service sent for him into his private room, and begged him to
take a letter to Egerton, with whom he wished to consult relative to a
very important point to be decided in the Cabinet that day. "I want you
to take it," said the minister, smiling (the minister was a frank homely
man), "because you are in Mr. Egerton's confidence, and he may give
you some verbal message besides a written reply. Egerton is often over
cautious and brief in the litera scripta."

Randal went first to Egerton's neighbouring office--Egerton had not been
there that day. He then took a cabriolet and drove to Grosvenor Square.
A quiet-lo