ties. I would not wish to see every Lord-Lieutenant
of a county a Whig." In his enthusiasm the old Duke went back to his
old phraseology. "But I know that my opponents when their turn comes
will appoint their friends to the Lieutenancies, and that so the
balance will be maintained. If you or I appoint their friends, they
won't appoint ours. Lord Earlybird's proxy has been in the hands of
the Conservative Leader of the House of Lords ever since he succeeded
his father." Then the old man paused, but his friend waited to listen
whether the lecture were finished before he spoke, and the Duke of
St. Bungay continued. "And, moreover, though Lord Earlybird is a very
good man,--so much so that many of us may well envy him,--he is not
just the man fitted for this destination. A Knight of the Garter
should be a man prone to show himself, a public man, one whose work
in the country has brought him face to face with his fellows. There
is an aptness, a propriety, a fitness in these things which one can
understand perhaps better than explain."

"Those fitnesses and aptnesses change, I think, from day to day.
There was a time when a knight should be a fighting man."

"That has gone by."

"And the aptnesses and fitnesses in accordance with which the
sovereign of the day was induced to grace with the Garter such a man
as the late Marquis of Mount Fidgett have, I hope, gone by. You will
admit that?"

"There is no such man proposed."

"And other fitnesses and aptnesses will go by, till the time will
come when the man to be selected as Lieutenant of a county will be
the man whose selection will be most beneficial to the county, and
Knights of the Garter will be chosen for their real virtues."

"I think you are Quixotic. A Prime Minister is of all men bound to
follow the traditions of his country, or, when he leaves them, to
leave them with very gradual steps."

"And if he break that law and throw over all that thraldom;--what
then?"

"He will lose the confidence which has made him what he is."

"It is well that I know the penalty. It is hardly heavy enough to
enforce strict obedience. As for the matter in dispute, it had better
stand over yet for a few days." When the Prime Minister said this the
old Duke knew very well that he intended to have his own way.

And so it was. A week passed by, and then the younger Duke wrote
to the elder Duke saying that he had given to the matter all the
consideration in his power, and that he h