identical time he should return home, so that his acceptance
should not be delayed. Ireland was not yet governed by the Duke of
Fitz-Aquitaine, and the Earl de Mowbray was still ungartered. These
three distinguished noblemen were all of them anxious--a little
fidgetty; but at the same time it was not even whispered that Lord
Rambrooke or any other lord had received the post which Lord Marney
had appropriated to himself; nor had Lord Killcroppy had a suspicious
interview with the prime minister, which kept the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine
quiet though not easy; while not a shadow of coming events had glanced
over the vacant stall of Lord Ribbonville in St George's Chapel, and
this made Lord de Mowbray tranquil, though scarcely content. In the
meantime, daily and hourly they all pumped Mr Tadpole, who did not
find it difficult to keep up his reputation for discretion; for knowing
nothing, and beginning himself to be perplexed at the protracted
silence, he took refuge in oracular mystery, and delivered himself of
certain Delphic sentences which adroitly satisfied those who consulted
him while they never committed himself.

At length one morning there was an odd whisper in the circle of first
initiation. The blood mantled on the cheek of Lady St Julians; Lady
Deloraine turned pale. Lady Firebrace wrote confidential notes with the
same pen to Mr Tadpole and Lord Masque. Lord Marney called early in the
morning on the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine, and already found Lord de Mowbray
there. The clubs were crowded even at noon. Everywhere a mysterious
bustle and an awful stir.

What could be the matter? What has happened?

"It is true," said Mr Egerton to Mr Berners at Brookes'.

"Is it true?" asked Mr Jermyn of Lord Valentine at the Canton.

"I heard it last night at Crockford's," said Mr Ormsby; "one always
hears things there four-and-twenty hours before other places."

The world was employed the whole of the morning in asking and answering
this important question "Is it true?" Towards dinner time, it was
settled universally in the affirmative, and then the world went out to
dine and to ascertain why it was true and how it was true.

And now what really had happened? What had happened was what is commonly
called a "hitch." There was undoubtedly a hitch somewhere and somehow; a
hitch in the construction of the new cabinet. Who could have thought it?
The whig ministers it seems had resigned, but somehow or other had not
entirely and c