eaker subsided, the Duke, for the fun of the thing, rose. He made
a long speech against the bill. His gibes at the Government were so
scathing, so utterly destructive his criticism of the bill itself, so
lofty and so irresistible the flights of his eloquence, that, when he
resumed his seat, there was only one course left to the Leader of the
House. He rose and, in a few husky phrases, moved that the bill "be read
this day six months." All England rang with the name of the young Duke.
He himself seemed to be the one person unmoved by his exploit. He did
not re-appear in the Upper Chamber, and was heard to speak in slighting
terms of its architecture, as well as of its upholstery. Nevertheless,
the Prime Minister became so nervous that he procured for him, a month
later, the Sovereign's offer of a Garter which had just fallen vacant.
The Duke accepted it. He was, I understand, the only undergraduate on
whom this Order had ever been conferred. He was very much pleased with
the insignia, and when, on great occasions, he wore them, no one dared
say that the Prime Minister's choice was not fully justified. But you
must not imagine that he cared for them as symbols of achievement and
power. The dark blue riband, and the star scintillating to eight
points, the heavy mantle of blue velvet, with its lining of taffeta
and shoulder-knots of white satin, the crimson surcoat, the great
embullioned tassels, and the chain of linked gold, and the plumes of
ostrich and heron uprising from the black velvet hat--these things had
for him little significance save as a fine setting, a finer setting than
the most elaborate smoking-suit, for that perfection of aspect which
the gods had given him. This was indeed the gift he valued beyond
all others. He knew well, however, that women care little for a man's
appearance, and that what they seek in a man is strength of character,
and rank, and wealth. These three gifts the Duke had in a high degree,
and he was by women much courted because of them. Conscious that every
maiden he met was eager to be his Duchess, he had assumed always a
manner of high austerity among maidens, and even if he had wished to
flirt with Zuleika he would hardly have known how to do it. But he did
not wish to flirt with her. That she had bewitched him did but make
it the more needful that he should shun all converse with her. It was
imperative that he should banish her from his mind, quickly. He must not
dilute his own soul's