. The Duke has promised to help me, on condition
that one or two he has named are included, and that one or two whom
he has also named are not. In each case I should myself have done
exactly as he proposes."

"And Mr. Gresham?"

"He will retire. That is a matter of course. He will intend to
support us; but all that is veiled in the obscurity which is always,
I think, darker as to the future of politics than any other future.
Clouds arise, one knows not why or whence, and create darkness when
one expected light. But as yet, you must understand, nothing is
settled. I cannot even say what answer I may make to her Majesty,
till I know what commands her Majesty may lay upon me."

"You must keep a hold of it now, Plantagenet," said the Duchess,
clenching her own fist.

"I will not even close a finger on it with any personal ambition,"
said the Duke. "If I could be relieved from the burden this moment
it would be an ease to my heart. I remember once," he said,--and as
he spoke he again put his arm around her waist, "when I was debarred
from taking office by a domestic circumstance."

"I remember that too," she said, speaking very gently and looking up
at him.

"It was a grief to me at the time, though it turned out so
well,--because the office then suggested to me was one which I
thought I could fill with credit to the country. I believed in myself
then as far as that work went. But for this attempt I have no belief
in myself. I doubt whether I have any gift for governing men."

"It will come."

"It may be that I must try;--and it may be that I must break my heart
because I fail. But I shall make the attempt if I am directed to do
so in any manner that shall seem feasible. I must be off now. The
Duke is to be here this evening. They had better have dinner ready
for me whenever I may be able to eat it." Then he took his departure
before she could say another word.

When the Duchess was alone she took to thinking of the whole thing in
a manner which they who best knew her would have thought to be very
unusual with her. She already possessed all that rank and wealth
could give her, and together with those good things a peculiar
position of her own, of which she was proud, and which she had made
her own not by her wealth or rank, but by a certain fearless energy
and power of raillery which never deserted her. Many feared her
and she was afraid of none, and many also loved her,--whom she also
loved, for her nature was