sk.

The man threw off his cloak and hat, dropped into a chair beside the
desk, and hid his face in his hands.

4.9.

It was the eve of the Duke's birthday. A cabinet council had been called
in the morning, and his Highness's ministers had submitted to him the
revised draft of the constitution which was to be proclaimed on the
morrow.

Throughout the conference, which was brief and formal, Odo had been
conscious of a subtle change in the ministerial atmosphere. Instead of
the current of resistance against which he had grown used to forcing his
way, he became aware of a tacit yielding to his will. Trescorre had
apparently withdrawn his opposition to the charter, and the other
ministers had followed suit. To Odo's overwrought imagination there was
something ominous in the change. He had counted on the goad of
opposition to fight off the fatal languor which he had learned to expect
at such crises. Now that he found there was to be no struggle he
understood how largely his zeal had of late depended on such factitious
incentives. He felt an irrational longing to throw himself on the other
side of the conflict, to tear in bits the paper awaiting his signature,
and disown the policy which had dictated it. But the tide of
acquiescence on which he was afloat was no stagnant back-water of
indifference, but the glassy reach just above the fall of a river. The
current was as swift as it was smooth, and he felt himself hurried
forward to an end he could no longer escape. He took the pen which
Trescorre handed him, and signed the constitution.

The meeting over, he summoned Gamba. He felt the need of such
encouragement as the hunchback alone could give. Fulvia's enthusiasms
were too unreal, too abstract. She lived in a region of ideals, whence
ugly facts were swept out by some process of mental housewifery which
kept her world perpetually smiling and immaculate. Gamba at least fed
his convictions on facts. If his outlook was narrow it was direct: no
roseate medium of fancy was interposed between his vision and the truth.

He stood listening thoughtfully while Odo poured forth his doubts.

"Your Highness may well hesitate," he said at last. "There are always
more good reasons against a new state of things than for it. I am not
surprised that Count Trescorre appears to have withdrawn his opposition.
I believe he now honestly wishes your Highness to proclaim the
constitution."

Odo looked up in surprise. "You do not mean tha