sterday, and are already on board the packet."

"If Richard and the carriage are already on board the packet," said
Lady Glencora, "of course we must follow them, and we must put off
the glories of Folkestone till we come back. Alice, haven't you
observed that, in travelling, you are always driven on by some
Richard or some carriage, till you feel that you are a slave?"

All this was trying to Mr Palliser; but I think that he enjoyed it,
nevertheless, and that he was happy when he found that he did get his
freight off from the Pimlico Station in the proper train.

Of course Lady Glencora and Alice were very ill crossing the Channel;
of course the two maids were worse than their mistresses; of course
the men kept out of their master's way when they were wanted, and
drank brandy-and-water with the steward down-stairs; and of course
Lady Glencora declared that she would not allow herself to be carried
beyond Boulogne that day;--but, nevertheless, they did get on to
Paris. Had Mr Palliser become Chancellor of the Exchequer, as he had
once hoped, he could hardly have worked harder than he did work. It
was he who found out which carriage had been taken for them, and who
put, with his own hands, the ladies' dressing-cases and cloaks on to
the seats,--who laid out the novels, which, of course, were not read
by the road,--and made preparations as though this stage of their
journey was to take them a week, instead of five hours and a half.

"Oh, dear! how I have slept!" said Lady Glencora, as they came near
to Paris.

"I think you've been tolerably comfortable," said Mr Palliser,
joyfully.

"Since we got out of that horrid boat I have done pretty well. Why do
they make the boats so nasty? I'm sure they do it on purpose."

"It would be difficult to make them nice, I suppose?" said Alice.

"It is the sea that makes them uncomfortable," said Mr Palliser.

"Never mind; we shan't have any more of it for twelve months, at any
rate. We can get to the Kurds, Alice, without getting into a packet
again. That, to my way of thinking, is the great comfort of the
Continent. One can go everywhere without being seasick."

Mr Palliser said nothing, but he sighed as he thought of being absent
for a whole year. He had said that such was his intention, and would
not at once go back from what he himself had said. But how was he to
live for twelve months out of the House of Commons? What was he to
do with himself, with his intellect and his