ound
Coningsby to Henry Sydney and Oswald Millbank above all companions. Lord
Henry Sydney was the son of a duke, and Millbank was the son of one of
the wealthiest manufacturers in Lancashire. Once, on the river,
Coningsby saved Millbank's life; and this was the beginning of a close
and ardent friendship.

Coningsby liked very much to talk politics with Millbank. He heard
things from Millbank which were new to him. Politics had, as yet,
appeared to him a struggle whether the country was to be governed by
Whig nobles or Tory nobles; and Coningsby, a high Tory as he supposed
himself to be, thought it very unfortunate that he should probably have
to enter life with his friends out of power and his family boroughs
destroyed. But, in conversing with Millbank, he heard for the first time
of influential classes in the country who were not noble, and were yet
determined to acquire power.

Generally, at that time, among the upper boys at Eton there was a
reigning inclination for political discussion, and a feeling in favour
of "Conservative principles." A year later, and in 1836, gradually the
inquiry fell upon attentive ears as to what these Conservative
principles were. Before Coningsby and his friends left Eton--Coningsby
for Cambridge, and Millbank for Oxford--they were resolved to contend
for political faith rather than for mere partisan success or personal
ambition.

_II.--A Portrait of a Lady_

On his way to Coningsby Castle, in Lancashire, where the Marquess of
Monmouth was living in state--feasting the county, patronising the
borough, and diffusing confidence in the Conservative party in order
that the electors of Dartford might return his man, Mr. Rigby, once more
for parliament--our hero halted for the night at Manchester. In the
coffee-room at the hotel a stranger, loud in praise of the commercial
enterprise of the neighbourhood, advised Coningsby, if he wanted to see
something tip-top in the way of cotton works, to visit Millbank of
Millbank's; and thus it came about that Coningsby first met Edith
Millbank. Oswald was abroad; and Mr. Millbank, when he heard the name of
his visitor, was only distressed that the sudden arrival left no time
for adequate welcome.

"My visit to Manchester, which led to this, was quite accidental," said
Coningsby. "I am bound for the other division of the county, to pay a
visit to my grandfather, Lord Monmouth, but an irresistible desire came
over me during my journey to view t