arty so utterly snobbish and down in the world as the Radicals.
Everybody that is worth anything is leaving them."

"He has not left them."

"No, I don't suppose he could; but you have."

"I never belonged to them, Lady Mab."

"And never will, I hope. I always told papa that you would certainly
be one of us." All this took place in the drawing-room of Lord Grex's
house. There was no Lady Grex alive, but there lived with the Earl
a certain elderly lady, reported to be in some distant way a cousin
of the family, named Miss Cassewary, who, in the matter of looking
after Lady Mab, did what was supposed to be absolutely necessary. She
now entered the room with her bonnet on, having just returned from
church. "What was the text?" asked Lady Mab at once.

"If you had gone to church, as you ought to have done, my dear, you
would have heard it."

"But as I didn't?"

"I don't think the text alone will do you any good."

"And probably you forget it."

"No, I don't, my dear. How do you do, Lord Silverbridge?"

"He is a Conservative, Miss Cass."

"Of course he is. I am quite sure that a young nobleman of so much
taste and intellect would take the better side."

"You forget that all you are saying is against my father and my
family, Miss Cassewary."

"I dare say it was different when your father was a young man.
And your father, too, was, not very long since, at the head of a
government which contained many Conservatives. I don't look upon your
father as a Radical, though perhaps I should not be justified in
calling him a Conservative."

"Well; certainly not, I think."

"But now it is necessary that all noblemen in England should rally to
the defence of their order." Miss Cassewary was a great politician,
and was one of those who are always foreseeing the ruin of their
country. "My dear, I will go and take my bonnet off. Perhaps you will
have tea when I come down."

"Don't you go," said Lady Mabel, when Silverbridge got up to take his
departure.

"I always do when tea comes."

"But you are going to dine here?"

"Not that I know of. In the first place, nobody has asked me. In the
second place, I am engaged. Thirdly, I don't care about having to
talk politics to Miss Cass; and fourthly, I hate family dinners on
Sunday."

"In the first place, I ask you. Secondly, I know you were going
to dine with Frank Tregear, at the club. Thirdly, I want you to
talk to me, and not to Miss Cass. And fourthly, you are an unc