ch is common to all of us.

"Poor old Duke!" said Adelaide. "I have been hearing of him as a sort
of bugbear all my life. I don't think I ever saw him but once, and
then he gave me a kiss and a pair of earrings. He never paid any
attention to us at all, but we were taught to think that Providence
had been very good to us in making the Duke our uncle."

"He was very rich?"

"Horribly rich, I have always heard."

"Won't he leave you something? It would be very nice now that you are
engaged to find that he has given you five thousand pounds."

"Very nice indeed;--but there is not a chance of it. It has always
been known that everything is to go to the heir. Papa had his fortune
and spent it. He and his brother were never friends, and though the
Duke did once give me a kiss I imagine that he forgot my existence
immediately afterwards."

"So the Duke of Omnium is dead," said Lord Chiltern when he came home
that evening.

"Adelaide has had a letter to tell her so this afternoon."

"Mr. Fothergill wrote to me," said Adelaide;--"the man who is so
wicked about the foxes."

"I don't care a straw about Mr. Fothergill; and now my mouth is
closed against your uncle. But it's quite frightful to think that a
Duke of Omnium must die like anybody else."

"The Duke is dead;--long live the Duke," said Lady Chiltern. "I
wonder how Mr. Palliser will like it."

"Men always do like it, I suppose," said Adelaide.

"Women do," said Lord Chiltern. "Lady Glencora will be delighted to
reign,--though I can hardly fancy her by any other name. By the bye,
Adelaide, I have got a letter for you."

"A letter for me, Lord Chiltern!"

"Well,--yes; I suppose I had better give it you. It is not addressed
to you, but you must answer it."

"What on earth is it?"

"I think I can guess," said Lady Chiltern, laughing. She had guessed
rightly, but Adelaide Palliser was still altogether in the dark when
Lord Chiltern took a letter from his pocket and handed it to her. As
he did so he left the room, and his wife followed him. "I shall be
upstairs, Adelaide, if you want advice," said Lady Chiltern.

The letter was from Mr. Spooner. He had left Harrington Hall after
the uncourteous reception which had been accorded to him by Miss
Palliser in deep disgust, resolving that he would never again speak
to her, and almost resolving that Spoon Hall should never have a
mistress in his time. But with his wine after dinner his courage
came back to him, an