ought, "and Tristram is
too much in love to see it." But she felt rather drawn to her new
prospective cousin, all the same.

Francis Markrute seemed perfectly happy--his manner as a host left
nothing to be desired; he did not neglect the uninteresting aunt, who
formed golden opinions of him; but he contrived to make Lady Ethelrida
feel that he wished only to talk to her; not because she was an
attractive, young woman, but because he was impressed with her
intelligence, in the abstract. It made things very easy.

The Duke asked Zara if she knew anything about English politics.

"You will have to keep Tristram up to the mark," he said, "he has done
very well now and then, but he is a rather lazy fellow." And he smiled.

"'Tristram,'" she thought. "So his name is 'Tristram'!" She had actually
never heard it before, nor troubled herself to inquire about it. It
seemed incredible, it aroused in her a grim sense of humor, and she
looked into the old Duke's face for a second and wondered what he would
say if she announced this fact, and he caught the smile, cynical though
it was, and continued:

"I see you have noticed his laziness! Now it will really be your duty to
make him a first-rate fighter for our cause. The Radicals will begin to
attack our very existence presently, and we must all come up to the
scratch."

"I know nothing as yet of your politics," Zara said. "I do not
understand which party is which, though my uncle says one consists of
gentlemen, and the other of the common people. I suppose it is like in
other countries, every one wanting to secure what some one above him has
got, without being fitted for the administration of what he desires to
snatch."

"That is about it," smiled the Duke.

"It would be reasonable, if they were all oppressed here, as in France
before the great revolution, but are they?"

"Oh! dear, no!" interrupted Tristram. "All the laws are made for the
lower classes. They have compensations for everything, and they have
openings to rise to the top of the tree if they wish to. It is wretched
landlords like my uncle and myself who are oppressed!" and he smiled
delightedly, he was so happy to hear her talk.

"When I shall know I shall perhaps find it all interesting," she
continued to the Duke.

"Between us we shall have to instruct you thoroughly, eh, Tristram, my
boy? And then you must be a great leader, and have a salon, as the
ladies of the eighteenth century did: we want a beauti