will be enough. Will you see me, if I come to you this
evening, say at eight? If the House is up in the Lords I will go to
you in St James's Square."

"We shall be sitting after eight, I think."

"Then I will see you there. And, Duke, I must ask you to think of me
in this matter as a friend should think, and not as though we were
bound together only by party feeling."

"I will,--I will."

"I have told you what I shall never whisper to any one else."

"I think you know that you are safe with me."

"I am sure of it. And, Duke, I can tell you that the sacrifice to me
will be almost more than I can bear. This thing that you have offered
me to-day is the only thing that I have ever coveted. I have thought
of it and worked for it, have hoped and despaired, have for moments
been vain enough to think that it was within my strength, and have
been wretched for weeks together because I have told myself that it
was utterly beyond me."

"As to that, neither Brock nor I, nor any of us, have any doubt.
Finespun himself says that you are the man."

"I am much obliged to them. But I say all this simply that you may
understand how imperative is the duty which, as I think, requires me
to refuse the offer."

"But you haven't refused as yet," said the Duke. "I shall wait at the
House for you, whether they are sitting or not. And endeavour to join
us. Do the best you can. I will say nothing as to that duty of which
you speak; but if it can be made compatible with your public service,
pray--pray let it be done. Remember how much such a one as you owes
to his country." Then the Duke went, and Mr Palliser was alone.

He had not been alone before since the revelation which had been made
to him by his wife, and the words she had spoken were still sounding
in his ears. "I do love Burgo Fitzgerald;--I do! I do! I do!" They
were not pleasant words for a young husband to hear. Men there are,
no doubt, whose nature would make them more miserable under the
infliction than it had made Plantagenet Palliser. He was calm,
without strong passion, not prone to give to words a stronger
significance than they should bear;--and he was essentially
unsuspicious. Never for a moment had he thought, even while those
words were hissing in his ears, that his wife had betrayed his
honour. Nevertheless, there was that at his heart, as he remembered
those words, which made him feel that the world was almost too heavy
for him. For the first quarter of an hour