ut also to
the Wharton title and the Wharton property,--when his position in
the country would really be, as he frequently told himself, quite
considerable. Was it possible that he should refrain from blaming
his father for not allowing him to obtain, early in life, that
parliamentary education which would fit him to be an ornament to the
House of Commons, and a safeguard to his country in future years?

Now he and Lopez were at the Progress together, and they were almost
the only men in the club. Lopez was quite contented with his own
present sojourn in London. He had not only been at Gatherum Castle
but was going there again. And then he had brilliant hopes before
him,--so brilliant that they began, he thought, to assume the shape
of certainties. He had corresponded with the Duchess, and he had
gathered from her somewhat dubious words that the Duke would probably
accede to her wishes in the matter of Silverbridge. The vacancy had
not yet been declared. Mr. Grey was deterred, no doubt by certain
high State purposes, from applying for the stewardship of the
Chiltern Hundreds, and thereby releasing himself from his seat in
Parliament, and enabling himself to perform, with a clear conscience,
duties in a distant part of the world which he did not feel to be
compatible with that seat. The seekers after seats were, no doubt,
already on the track; but the Duchess had thought that as far as the
Duke's good word went, it might possibly be given in favour of Mr.
Lopez. The happy aspirant had taken this to be almost as good as a
promise. There were also certain pecuniary speculations on foot,
which could not be kept quite quiet even in September, as to which he
did not like to trust entirely to the unaided energy of Mr. Sextus
Parker, or to the boasted alliance of Mr. Mills Happerton. Sextus
Parker's whole heart and soul were now in the matter, but Mr. Mills
Happerton, an undoubted partner in Hunky and Sons, had blown a little
coldly on the affair. But in spite of this Ferdinand Lopez was happy.
Was it probable that Mr. Wharton should continue his opposition to
a marriage which would make his daughter the wife of a member of
Parliament and of a special friend of the Duchess of Omnium?

He had said a word about his own prospects in reference to the
marriage, but Everett had been at first too full of his own affairs
to attend much to a matter which was comparatively so trifling. "Upon
my word," he said, "I am beginning to feel a