ke very urgent."

"I must then express my great sorrow that I cannot oblige the Duke. I
trust I need hardly say that the Duke has no colleague more devoted
to his interest than I am. Were he to wish me to change my office, or
to abandon it, or to undertake any political duty within the compass
of my small powers, he would find me ready to obey his behests. But
in this matter others are concerned, and I cannot make my judgment
subordinate to his." The private Secretary looked very serious, and
simply said that he would do his best to explain these objections to
his Grace.

That the Duke would take his refusal in bad part Phineas felt nearly
certain. He had been a little surprised at the coldness of the
Minister's manner to him after the statement he had made in the
klouse, and had mentioned the matter to his wife. "You hardly know
him," she had said, "as well as I do."

"Certainly not. You ought to know him very intimately, and I have had
but little personal friendship with him. But it was a moment in which
the man might, for the moment, have been cordial."

"It was not a moment for his cordiality. The Duchess says that if you
want to get a really genial smile from him you must talk to him about
cork soles. I know exactly what she means. He loves to be simple, but
he does not know how to show people that he likes it. Lady Rosina
found him out by accident."

"Don't suppose that I am in the least aggrieved," he had said. And
now he spoke again to his wife in the same spirit. "Warburton clearly
thinks that he will be offended, and Warburton, I suppose, knows his
mind."

"I don't see why he should. I have been reading it longer, and I
still find it very difficult. Lady Glen has been at the work for the
last fifteen years, and sometimes owns that there are passages she
has not mastered yet. I fancy Mr. Warburton is afraid of him, and is
a little given to fancy that everybody should bow down to him. Now if
there is anything certain about the Duke it is this,--that he doesn't
want any one to bow down to him. He hates all bowing down."

"I don't think he loves those who oppose him."

"It is not the opposition he hates, but the cause in the man's mind
which may produce it. When Sir Orlando opposed him, and he thought
that Sir Orlando's opposition was founded on jealousy, then he
despised Sir Orlando. But had he believed in Sir Orlando's belief in
the new ships, he would have been capable of pressing Sir Orlando to
his