"I have told
her Majesty that I would do the best I could," said the Duke.

"Then you are Prime Minister."

"Not at all. Mr. Daubeny is Prime Minister. I have undertaken to form
a ministry, if I find it practicable, with the assistance of such
friends as I possess. I never felt before that I had to lean so
entirely on others as I do now."

"Lean on yourself only. Be enough for yourself."

"Those are empty words, Cora;--words that are quite empty. In one
sense a man should always be enough for himself. He should have
enough of principle and enough of conscience to restrain him from
doing what he knows to be wrong. But can a ship-builder build
his ship single-handed, or the watchmaker make his watch without
assistance? On former occasions such as this, I could say, with
little or no help from without, whether I would or would not
undertake the work that was proposed to me, because I had only a
bit of the ship to build, or a wheel of the watch to make. My own
efficacy for my present task depends entirely on the co-operation of
others, and unfortunately upon that of some others with whom I have
no sympathy, nor have they with me."

"Leave them out," said the Duchess boldly.

"But they are men who will not be left out, and whose services the
country has a right to expect."

"Then bring them in, and think no more about it. It is no good crying
for pain that cannot be cured."

"Co-operation is difficult without community of feeling. I find
myself to be too stubborn-hearted for the place. It was nothing to me
to sit in the same Cabinet with a man I disliked when I had not put
him there myself. But now--. As I have travelled up I have almost
felt that I could not do it! I did not know before how much I might
dislike a man."

"Who is the one man?"

"Nay;--whoever he be, he will have to be a friend now, and therefore
I will not name him, even to you. But it is not one only. If it were
one, absolutely marked and recognised, I might avoid him. But my
friends, real friends, are so few! Who is there besides the Duke on
whom I can lean with both confidence and love?"

"Lord Cantrip."

"Hardly so, Cora. But Lord Cantrip goes out with Mr. Gresham. They
will always cling together."

"You used to like Mr. Mildmay."

"Mr. Mildmay,--yes! If there could be a Mr. Mildmay in the Cabinet,
this trouble would not come upon my shoulders."

"Then I'm very glad that there can't be a Mr. Mildmay. Why shouldn't
there be as good f