ster of the day, Lord Fawn's chief, had determined, after
much anxious consideration, that it was his duty to resist the claim;
and then, for resisting it, he was attacked. Had he yielded to the
claim, the attack would have been as venomous, and very probably
would have come from the same quarter. No blame by such an assertion
is cast upon the young Conservative aspirant for party honours. It is
thus the war is waged. Frank Greystock took up the Sawab's case, and
would have drawn mingled tears and indignation from his hearers, had
not his hearers all known the conditions of the contest. On neither
side did the hearers care much for the Sawab's claims, but they felt
that Greystock was making good his own claims to some future reward
from his party. He was very hard upon the minister,--and he was
hard also upon Lord Fawn, stating that the cruelty of Government
ascendancy had never been put forward as a doctrine in plainer terms
than those which had been used in "another place" in reference to the
wrongs of this poor ill-used native chieftain. This was very grievous
to Lord Fawn, who had personally desired to favour the ill-used
chieftain;--and harder again because he and Greystock were intimate
with each other. He felt the thing keenly, and was full of his
grievance when, in accordance with his custom, he came down to Fawn
Court on the Saturday evening.

The Fawn family, which consisted entirely of women, dined early. On
Saturdays, when his lordship would come down, a dinner was prepared
for him alone. On Sundays they all dined together at three o'clock.
On Sunday evening Lord Fawn would return to town to prepare himself
for his Monday's work. Perhaps, also, he disliked the sermon which
Lady Fawn always read to the assembled household at nine o'clock on
Sunday evening. On this Saturday he came out into the grounds after
dinner, where the oldest unmarried daughter, the present Miss Fawn,
was walking with Lucy Morris. It was almost a summer evening;--so
much so, that some of the party had been sitting on the garden
benches, and four of the girls were still playing croquet on the
lawn, though there was hardly light enough to see the balls. Miss
Fawn had already told Lucy that her brother was very angry with
Mr. Greystock. Now, Lucy's sympathies were all with Frank and the
Sawab. She had endeavoured, indeed, and had partially succeeded, in
perverting the Under-Secretary. Nor did she now intend to change her
opinions, althoug