handled with velvet gloves, and the thickest velvet we have, too. I
would like you to tell me if you can make out what it all means,' he
said."

"And so you're taking notes to see what sort of a set we are? One thing,
Sir Temple, you'll find us loyal to our mother, though she does domineer
sometimes. And tell Sir Robert that children old enough to contribute to
the support of the family, as we do, ought to be allowed to put in a
word now and then as to its management."

Sir Temple looked at her, not having an answer ready and little dreaming
that a generation later this truth that the beautiful lips had uttered
so simply, yet with a proud curve through their merriment, would be
forced upon the English ministry at the point of the bayonet. But he
lived to see it. Then he thought more than once of this day, of
Elizabeth, with her dignity and her brightness, who had seen into the
heart of one of the world's great struggles and had spoken the thought
that later the cannon of a nation thundered through the earth. Now,
however, he looked at her without a full idea of her meaning, thinking
her only clever, and ready, and a trifle wanting in respect toward the
powers that be, and that this lack came from her youth and should be
treated with indulgence. It was a woman's way of looking at things, he
said to himself, for he recognized sometimes the same spirit in Lady
Dacre.

"Florence seems well entertained," he said aloud, looking at his wife,
who was laughing at one of Edmonson's sallies. "That's a brilliant
fellow, Mistress Royal; he will make his mark in the world; it's a pity,
though, he hasn't a fortune to help him forward; he ought to be in
Parliament."

"So he thinks, perhaps," she answered, remembering something that he had
said to her one day on his first visit to the country, and understanding
more clearly than ever the use that she might have been in the world.

"Very possibly he does. He appreciates himself, that is certain.
It's half the battle to know one's own power; sometimes I think it's
three-quarters of it. Because, you see, when a man knows his strong
points he's always meeting others at his best, and as for his
worst,--why, I imagine Edmonson would rather keep those dark." Elizabeth
looked up inquiringly, but she said nothing, and Sir Temple added, "In
fact, most of us would; we don't expect that charity from men which we
find from Heaven." She did not answer, and he talked on, for theorizing
was a fa