own ministry would break to pieces very
speedily. His own reputation was not bad, but it was insufficient
for himself and that lately selected friend of his. Under all these
circumstances combined, he chose Harold Smith to fill the vacant
office of Lord Petty Bag. And very proud the Lord Petty Bag was.
For the last three or four months, he and Mr. Supplehouse had been
agreeing to consign the ministry to speedy perdition. "This sort
of dictatorship will never do," Harold Smith had himself said,
justifying that future vote of his as to want of confidence in the
Queen's Government. And Mr. Supplehouse in this matter had fully
agreed with him. He was a Juno whose form that wicked old Paris had
utterly despised, and he, too, had quite made up his mind as to the
lobby in which he would be found when that day of vengeance should
arrive. But now things were much altered in Harold Smith's views.
The Premier had shown his wisdom in seeking for new strength where
strength ought to be sought, and introducing new blood into the body
of his ministry. The people would now feel fresh confidence, and
probably the House also. As to Mr. Supplehouse--he would use all his
influence on Supplehouse. But, after all, Mr. Supplehouse was not
everything.

On the morning after our vicar's arrival in London he attended at
the Petty Bag Office. It was situated in the close neighbourhood of
Downing Street and the higher governmental gods; and though the
building itself was not much, seeing that it was shored up on one
side, that it bulged out in the front, was foul with smoke, dingy
with dirt, and was devoid of any single architectural grace or modern
scientific improvement, nevertheless its position gave it a status in
the world which made the clerks in the Lord Petty Bag's office quite
respectable in their walk in life. Mark had seen his friend Sowerby
on the previous evening, and had then made an appointment with him
for the following morning at the new minister's office. And now he
was there a little before his time, in order that he might have a
few moments' chat with his brother. When Mark found himself in the
private secretary's room he was quite astonished to see the change in
his brother's appearance which the change in his official rank had
produced. Jack Robarts had been a well-built, straight-legged, lissom
young fellow, pleasant to the eye because of his natural advantages,
but rather given to a harum-scarum style of gait, and occasiona