thout harshness. "You are
the grandson of Lord Monmouth; at present enjoying his favour, but
dependent on his bounty. You may be the heir of his wealth to-morrow and
to-morrow you may be the object of his hatred and persecution. Your
grandfather and myself are foes--to the death. It is idle to mince
phrases. I do not vindicate our mutual feelings; I may regret that they
have ever arisen, especially at this exigency. Lord Monmouth would crush
me, had he the power, like a worm; and I have curbed his proud fortunes
often. These feelings of hatred may be deplored, but they do not exist;
and now you are to go to this man, and ask his sanction to marry my
daughter!"

"I would appease these hatreds," retorted Coningsby, "the origin of
which I know not. I would appeal to my grandfather. I would show him
Edith."

"He has looked upon as fair even as Edith," said Mr. Millbank. "And did
that melt his heart? My daughter and yourself can meet no more."

In vain Coningsby pleaded his suit. It was not till Mr. Millbank told
that he, too, had suffered--that he had loved Coningsby's own mother,
and that she gave her heart to another, to die afterwards solitary and
forsaken, tortured by Lord Monmouth--that Coningsby was silent. It was
his mother's portrait he had looked upon that night at Millbank; and he
understood the cause of the hatred.

He wrung Mr. Millbank's hand, and left Hellingsley in despair. But
Oswald overtook him in the park; and, leaning on his friend's arm,
Coningsby poured forth a hurried, impassioned, and incoherent strain--
all that had occurred, all that he had dreamed, his baffled bliss, his
actual despair, his hopeless outlook.

A thunderstorm overtook them; and Oswald took refuge from the elements
at the castle. There, as they sat together, pledging their faithful
friendship, the door opened, and Mr. Rigby appeared.

_IV.--Coningsby's Political Faith_

Lord Monmouth banished the Princess Colonna from his presence, and
married Lucretia. Coningsby returned to Cambridge, and continued to
enjoy his grandfather's hospitality whenever Lord Monmouth was in
London.

Mr. Millbank had, in the meantime, become a member of parliament, having
defeated Mr. Rigby in the contest for the representation of Dartford.

In the year 1840 a general election was imminent, and Lord Monmouth
returned to London. He was weary of Paris; every day he found it more
difficult to be amused. Lucretia had lost her charm: they had been