iate. He has no instinct in
politics, but reaches his conclusions by philosophical deduction.
Now, in politics, I would a deal sooner trust to instinct than to
calculation. I think he may probably know how England ought to be
governed three centuries hence better than any man living, but of the
proper way to govern it now, I think he knows less. Brock half likes
him and half fears him. He likes the support of his eloquence, and he
likes the power of the man; but he fears his restless activity, and
thoroughly dislikes his philosophy. At any rate, he has left us, and
I am here to ask you to take his place."

The Duke, as he concluded his speech, was quite contented, and
almost jovial. He was thoroughly satisfied with the new political
arrangement which he was proposing. He regarded Mr Palliser as a
steady, practical man of business, luckily young, and therefore with
a deal of work in him, belonging to the race from which English
ministers ought, in his opinion, to be taken, and as being, in some
respects, his own pupil. He had been the first to declare aloud that
Plantagenet Palliser was the coming Chancellor of the Exchequer; and
it had been long known, though no such declaration had been made
aloud, that the Duke did not sit comfortably in the same Cabinet with
the gentleman who had now resigned. Everything had now gone as the
Duke wished; and he was prepared to celebrate some little ovation
with his young friend before he left the house in Park Lane.

"And who goes out with him?" asked Mr Palliser, putting off the evil
moment of his own decision; but before the Duke could answer him, he
had reminded himself that under his present circumstances he had no
right to ask such a question. His own decision could not rest upon
that point. "But it does not matter," he said; "I am afraid I must
decline the offer you bring me."

"Decline it!" said the Duke, who could not have been more surprised
had his friend talked of declining heaven.

"I fear I must." The Duke had now risen from his chair, and was
standing, with both his hands upon the table. All his contentment,
all his joviality, had vanished. His fine round face had become
almost ludicrously long; his eyes and mouth were struggling to convey
reproach, and the reproach was almost drowned in vexation. Ever since
Parliament had met he had been whispering Mr Palliser's name into
the Prime Minister's ear, and now--. But he could not, and would not,
believe it. "Nonsense, P