e decidedly true blue than that
Framley district; and, indeed, up to the present day, the dowager is
able to give an occasional helping hand.

Chaldicotes is the seat of Nathaniel Sowerby, Esq., who, at the
moment supposed to be now present, is one of the members for the
Western Division of Barsetshire. But this Western Division can boast
none of the fine political attributes which grace its twin brother.
It is decidedly Whig, and is almost governed in its politics by one
or two great Whig families. It has been said that Mark Robarts was
about to pay a visit to Chaldicotes, and it has been hinted that his
wife would have been as well pleased had this not been the case. Such
was certainly the fact; for she, dear, prudent, excellent wife as she
was, knew that Mr. Sowerby was not the most eligible friend in the
world for a young clergyman, and knew, also, that there was but one
other house in the whole county the name of which was so distasteful
to Lady Lufton. The reasons for this were, I may say, manifold. In
the first place, Mr. Sowerby was a Whig, and was seated in Parliament
mainly by the interest of that great Whig autocrat the Duke of
Omnium, whose residence was more dangerous even than that of Mr.
Sowerby, and whom Lady Lufton regarded as an impersonation of Lucifer
upon earth. Mr. Sowerby, too, was unmarried--as indeed, also, was
Lord Lufton, much to his mother's grief. Mr. Sowerby, it is true,
was fifty, whereas the young lord was as yet only twenty-six, but,
nevertheless, her ladyship was becoming anxious on the subject. In
her mind every man was bound to marry as soon as he could maintain a
wife; and she held an idea--a quite private tenet, of which she was
herself but imperfectly conscious--that men in general were inclined
to neglect this duty for their own selfish gratifications, that the
wicked ones encouraged the more innocent in this neglect, and that
many would not marry at all, were not an unseen coercion exercised
against them by the other sex. The Duke of Omnium was the very head
of all such sinners, and Lady Lufton greatly feared that her son
might be made subject to the baneful Omnium influence, by means of
Mr. Sowerby and Chaldicotes. And then Mr. Sowerby was known to be a
very poor man, with a very large estate. He had wasted, men said,
much on electioneering, and more in gambling. A considerable portion
of his property had already gone into the hands of the duke, who, as
a rule, bought up everyt