tual
expression, strangely contrasting with the materiality of his daily
existence. No one could see that look without feeling convinced that
there were beautiful depths open only to Divinest vision, in the silent
and abstracted nature of Marmaduke Dugdale. Nevertheless, he could be
eminently practical now and then, especially in mechanics.

"Nathanael, Nathanael! just look here. This is the very contrivance that
would have suited Brian in his old clay-pits. See!"

And he began talking in a style that was Greek itself to Agatha, but to
which Nathanael, leaning over his chair-back, listened intelligently.
It was very nice to see the liking between the two brothers-in-law--the
young man so tender over the oddities of the elder one, who seemed such
a strange mixture of the philosopher and the child. These were the sort
of traits which continually turned Agatha's heart towards her husband.

"Talking of clay-pits," said Duke, with a gleam of recollection, "I've
something for you here!" He drew out of the voluminous mass of papers
that stuffed his pockets one more carelessly scrawled than the rest.
"It's a plan of my own, for giving a little help to our own clay-cutters
and to the stone-cutters in the Isle of Portland, who are shockingly off
in the winter sometimes. Here's Trenchard's name down for a good sum--it
will make him and Free-trade popular, you know."

And Mr. Dugdale smiled with the most amiable and innocent
Machiavellianism.

Nathanael shook his head mischievously, greatly to the amusement of his
wife, who had stolen up to see what was going on, and stood hanging on
his arm and peeping over at the illegible paper.

"Excellent plan, Marmaduke--very long-headed. You give them Christmas
dinners, and they give you--votes."

"Bless you, no! That would be bribery. We"--he reflected a minute--"Oh,
we will only help those who have got no votes."

"Then the voters will all be against you."

Mr. Dugdale, much puzzled, pushed up his hair until it stood right aloft
on his forehead. Soon a dawn of satisfaction reappeared. "All against
us? Dear me, no! They would be pleased to see their poor neighbours
helped on in the world, as you or I would, you know. They'd side at once
with Trenchard and Free-trade. Come now, Nathanael, you'll assist? By
the way, somebody told me you were very rich--or at least that your wife
was an heiress. She looks a kind little soul She'll put her name down
under Anne Valery's here?"

And h