bear the discomfort of the one person in the world who seemed to
him to be near to him. He had expressly asked her for her sympathy
in the business he had on hand,--thereby going much beyond his usual
coldness of manner. She, with an eagerness which might have been
expected from her, had promised that she would slave for him, if
slavery were necessary. Then she had made her request, had been
refused, and was now moody. "The Duchess of ---- is to be Mistress
of the Robes," he said to her one day. He had gone to her, up to her
own room, before he dressed for dinner, having devoted much more time
than as Prime Minister he ought to have done to a resolution that he
would make things straight with her, and to the best way of doing it.

"So I am told. She ought to know her way about the place, as I
remember she was at the same work when I was a girl of eleven."

"That's not so very long ago, Cora."

"Silverbridge is older now than I was then, and I think that makes it
a very long time ago." Lord Silverbridge was the Duke's eldest son.

"But what does it matter? If she began her career in the time of
George the Fourth, what is it to you?"

"Nothing on earth,--only that she did in truth begin her career
in the time of George the Third. I'm sure she's nearer sixty than
fifty."

"I'm glad to see you remember your dates so well."

"It's a pity she should not remember hers in the way she dresses,"
said the Duchess.

This was marvellous to him,--that his wife, who as Lady Glencora
Palliser had been so conspicuous for a wild disregard of social rules
as to be looked upon by many as an enemy of her own class, should be
so depressed by not being allowed to be the Queen's head servant as
to descend to personal invective! "I'm afraid," said he, attempting
to smile, "that it won't come within the compass of my office to
effect or even to propose any radical change in her Grace's apparel.
But don't you think that you and I can afford to ignore all that?"

"I can certainly. She may be an antiquated Eve for me."

"I hope, Cora, you are not still disappointed because I did not agree
with you when you spoke about the place for yourself."

"Not because you did not agree with me,--but because you did not
think me fit to be trusted with any judgment of my own. I don't know
why I'm always to be looked upon as different from other women,--as
though I were half a savage."

"You are what you have made yourself, and I have always rejoic