Mr Ormsby passed by; the diplomatist addressed them:
"You have not been to the Chamber?"

"No," said Lord Deloraine; "but I hear there is hot work. It will be
late."

"Do you think--," said the diplomatist, and he looked up in the face of
Lord Deloraine.

"I think that in the long run everything will have an end," said Lord
Deloraine.

"Ah!" said the diplomatist.

"Bah!" said Lord Deloraine as he walked away with Mr Ormsby. "I remember
that fellow--a sort of equivocal attache at Paris, when we were there
with Monmouth at the peace: and now he is a quasi ambassador, and
ribboned and starred to the chin."

"The only stars I have got," said Mr Ormsby demurely, "are four stars in
India stock."

Lady Firebrace and Lady Maud Fitz-Warene were announced: they had just
come from the Commons; a dame and damsel full of political enthusiasm.
Lady Firebrace gave critical reports and disseminated many contradictory
estimates of the result; Lady Maud talked only of a speech made by Lord
Milford, which from the elaborate noise she made about it, you would
have supposed to have been the oration of the evening; on the contrary,
it had lasted only a few minutes and in a thin house had been nearly
inaudible; but then, as Lady Maud added, "it was in such good taste!"

Alfred Mountchesney and Lady Joan Fitz-Warene passed Lady Marney who was
speaking to Lord Deloraine. "Do you think," said Lady Marney, "that Mr
Mountchesney will bear away the prize?"

Lord Deloraine shook his head. "These great heiresses can never make up
their minds. The bitter drop rises in all their reveries."

"And yet," said Lady Marney, "I would just as soon be married for my
money as my face."

Soon after this there was a stir in the saloons; a murmur, the ingress
of many gentlemen: among others Lord Valentine, Lord Milford, Mr
Egerton, Mr Berners, Lord Fitz-Heron, Mr Jermyn. The House was up; the
great Jamaica division was announced; the radicals had thrown over the
government, who left in a majority of only five, had already intimated
their sense of the unequivocal feeling of the House with respect to
them. It was known that on the morrow the government would resign.

Lady Deloraine, prepared for the great result, was calm: Lady St
Julians, who had not anticipated it, was in a wild flutter of distracted
triumph. A vague yet dreadful sensation came over her in the midst of
her joy that Lady Deloraine had been beforehand with her; had made her
combinat