feeling in the Foreign Office, if not of actual disgrace, at
any rate of mingled shame and regret, that a niece of their Secretary
of State should have engaged herself to one so low. Had he been
in the Foreign Office himself something might have been made of
him;--but a Clerk in the Post Office! The thing had been whispered
about and talked over, till there had come up an idea that Lady
Frances should be sent away on some compulsory foreign mission, so
as to be out of the pernicious young man's reach. But now it turned
out suddenly that the young man was the Duca di Crinola, and it was
evident to all of them that Lady Frances Trafford was justified in
her choice.

But what was to be done with the Duca? Rumours reached the Foreign
Office that the infatuated young nobleman intended to adhere to his
most unaristocratic position. The absurdity of a clerk of the third
class in one of the branches of the Post Office, with a salary of
a hundred and seventy a year, and sitting in the same room with
Crockers and Bobbins while he would have to be called by everybody
the Duca di Crinola, was apparent to the mind of the lowest Foreign
Office official. It couldn't be so, they said to each other.
Something must be done. If Government pay were necessary to him,
could he not be transformed by a leap into the Elysium of their own
department, where he might serve with some especial name invented for
the occasion? Then there arose questions which no man could answer.
Were he to be introduced into this new-fangled office proposed for
him, would he come in as an Englishman or an Italian; and if as an
Englishman, was it in accordance with received rules of etiquette
that he should be called Duca di Crinola? Would it be possible in
so special a case to get special permission from the Crown; or if
not, could he be appointed to the Foreign Office as a foreigner? The
special permission, though it was surrounded by so many difficulties,
yet seemed to be easier and less monstrous than this latter
suggestion. They understood that though he could not well be
dismissed from the office which he already held, it might be
difficult to appoint a foreign nobleman to the performance of duties
which certainly required more than ordinary British tendencies. In
this way the mind of the Foreign Office was moved, and the coming of
the young duke was awaited with considerable anxiety.

The news went beyond the Foreign Office. Whether it was that the
Secretar