ons of great affairs.

CHAPTER L

Mr. Wilton was at Charing Cross, on his way to his office, when a lady
saluted him from her carriage, which then drew up to the pavement and
stopped.

"We have just arrived," said Lady Montfort, "and I want you to give me
a little dinner to-day. My lord is going to dine with an Old Bailey
lawyer, who amuses him, and I do not like to be left, the first day, on
the _pave_."

"I can give you a rather large dinner, if you care to come," said Mr.
Wilton, "but I fear you will not like it. I have got some House of
Commons men dining with me to-day, and one or two of the other House to
meet them. My sister Georgina has very good-naturedly promised to come,
with her husband, and I have just written a note to the Duchess Dowager
of Keswick, who often helps me--but I fear this sort of thing would
hardly suit you."

"On the contrary, I think it will be very amusing. Only do not put
me between two of your colleagues. Anybody amuses me for once. A
new acquaintance is like a new book. I prefer it, even if bad, to a
classic."

The dinner party to-day at Mr. Wilton's was miscellaneous, and not
heterogeneous enough to produce constraint, only to produce a little
excitement--some commoners high in office, and the Treasury whip,
several manufacturers who stood together in the room, and some
metropolitan members. Georgina's husband, who was a lord-in-waiting, and
a great swell, in a green riband, moved about with adroit condescension,
and was bewitchingly affable. The manufacturing members whispered to
each other that it was a wise thing to bring the two Houses together,
but when Her Grace the Duchess Dowager of Keswick was announced,
they exchanged glances of astounded satisfaction, and felt that
the government, which had been thought to be in a somewhat rickety
condition, would certainly stand.

Berengaria came a little late, not very. She thought it had been
earlier, but it was not. The duchess dowager opened her eyes with
wonderment when she beheld Lady Montfort, but the company in general
were not in the least aware of the vast social event that was occurring.
They were gratified in seeing another fine lady, but did not, of course,
rank her with a duchess.

The dinner went off better than Mr. Wilton could have hoped, as it was
impossible to place a stranger by Lady Montfort. He sate in the middle
of his table with the duchess dowager on his right hand, and Berengaria,
who was taken out