have," had been adopted as the motto of his life, and
more than once he had expressed to Captain Gunner his conviction
that,--"By George, if you've only cheek enough, there is nothing you
cannot get." On this emergency the Major certainly was not deficient
in cheek. "If I might be allowed to consider myself your Grace's
candidate, I should indeed be a happy man," said the Major.

"I think, sir," said the Duke, "that your proposition is the most
unbecoming and the most impertinent that ever was addressed to me."
The Major's mouth fell, and he stared with all his eyes as he looked
up into the Duke's face. "Good afternoon," said the Duke, turning
quickly round and walking away. The Major stood for a while
transfixed to the place, and, cold as was the weather, was bathed in
perspiration. A keen sense of having "put his foot into it" almost
crushed him for a time. Then he assured himself that, after all, the
Duke "could not eat him," and with that consolatory reflection he
crept back to the house and up to his own room.

To put the man down had of course been an easy task to the Duke, but
he was not satisfied with that. To the Major it seemed that the Duke
had passed on with easy indifference;--but in truth he was very far
from being easy. The man's insolent request had wounded him at many
points. It was grievous to him that he should have as a guest in his
own house a man whom he had been forced to insult. It was grievous
to him that he himself should not have been held in personal respect
high enough to protect him from such an insult. It was grievous to
him that he should be openly addressed,--addressed by an absolute
stranger,--as a borough-mongering lord, who would not scruple to give
away a seat in Parliament as seats were given away in former days.
And it was especially grievous to him that all these misfortunes
should have come upon him as a part of the results of his wife's
manner of exercising his hospitality. If this was to be Prime
Minister he certainly would not be Prime Minister much longer!
Had any aspirant to political life ever dared so to address Lord
Brock, or Lord De Terrier, or Mr. Mildmay, the old Premiers whom he
remembered? He thought not. They had managed differently. They had
been able to defend themselves from such attacks by personal dignity.
And would it have been possible that any man should have dared so to
speak to his uncle, the late Duke? He thought not. As he shut himself
up in his own ro