There are plenty of
Harshes," Nick Dormer observed.

"I don't know what you mean," Lady Agnes said to Nash with considerable
majesty.

Peter Sherringham also addressed him with an "Oh it's all right; they
come down on you like a shot!" and the young man continued ingenuously:

"Do you mean to say you've to pay money to get into that awful
place--that it's not _you_ who are paid?"

"Into that awful place?" Lady Agnes repeated blankly.

"Into the House of Commons. That you don't get a high salary?"

"My dear Nash, you're delightful: don't leave me--don't leave me!" Nick
cried; while his mother looked at him with an eye that demanded: "Who in
the world's this extraordinary person?"

"What then did you think pocket-boroughs were?" Peter Sherringham asked.

Mr. Nash's facial radiance rested on him. "Why, boroughs that filled
your pocket. To do that sort of thing without a bribe--_c'est trop
fort!_"

"He lives at Samarcand," Nick Dormer explained to his mother, who
flushed perceptibly. "What do you advise me? I'll do whatever you say,"
he went on to his old acquaintance.

"My dear, my dear----!" Lady Agnes pleaded.

"See Julia first, with all respect to Mr. Nash. She's of excellent
counsel," said Peter Sherringham.

Mr. Nash smiled across the table at his host. "The lady first--the lady
first! I've not a word to suggest as against any idea of hers."

"We mustn't sit here too long, there'll be so much to do," said Lady
Agnes anxiously, perceiving a certain slowness in the service of the
_boeuf braise_.

Biddy had been up to this moment mainly occupied in looking, covertly
and in snatches, at Peter Sherringham; as was perfectly lawful in a
young lady with a handsome cousin whom she had not seen for more than a
year. But her sweet voice now took license to throw in the words: "We
know what Mr. Nash thinks of politics: he told us just now he thinks
them dreadful."

"No, not dreadful--only inferior," the personage impugned protested.
"Everything's relative."

"Inferior to what?" Lady Agnes demanded.

Mr. Nash appeared to consider a moment. "To anything else that may be in
question."

"Nothing else is in question!" said her ladyship in a tone that would
have been triumphant if it had not been so dry.

"Ah then!" And her neighbour shook his head sadly. He turned after this
to Biddy. "The ladies whom I was with just now and in whom you were so
good as to express an interest?" Biddy gave a sign of assent and h