energy, during all these
coming dreary days? And then,--he might have been Chancellor of the
Exchequer! He might even now, at this very moment, have been upon
his legs, making a financial statement of six hours' duration,
to the delight of one-half of the House, and bewilderment of the
other, instead of dragging cloaks across that dingy, dull, dirty
waiting-room at the Paris Station, in which British subjects are kept
in prison while their boxes are being tumbled out of the carriages.

"But we are not to stop here;--are we?" said Lady Glencora,
mournfully.

"No, dear;--I have given the keys to Richard. We will go on at once."

"But can't we have our things?"

"In about half an hour," pleaded Mr Palliser.

"I suppose we must bear it, Alice?" said Lady Glencora as she got
into the carriage that was waiting for her.

Alice thought of the last time in which she had been in that
room,--when George and Kate had been with her,--and the two girls had
been quite content to wait patiently while their trunks were being
examined. But Alice was now travelling with great people,--with
people who never spoke of their wealth, or seemed ever to think of
it, but who showed their consciousness of it at every turn of their
lives. "After all," Alice had said to herself more than once, "I
doubt whether the burden is not greater than the pleasure."

They stayed in Paris for a week, and during that time Alice found
that she became very intimate with Mr Palliser. At Matching she had,
in truth, seen but little of him, and had known nothing. Now she
began to understand his character, and learned how to talk to
him, She allowed him to tell her of things in which Lady Glencora
resolutely persisted in taking no interest. She delighted him by
writing down in a little pocket-book the number of eggs that were
consumed in Paris every day, whereas Glencora protested that the
information was worth nothing unless her husband could tell her how
many of the eggs were good, and how many bad. And Alice was glad
to find that a hundred and fifty thousand female operatives were
employed in Paris, while Lady Glencora said it was a great shame,
and that they ought all to have husbands. When Mr Palliser explained
that that was impossible, because of the redundancy of the female
population, she angered him very much by asserting that she saw a
great many men walking about who, she was quite sure, had not wives
of their own.

"I do so wish you had married