ce? For a man who had no power whatever to help
him or any other Minister of the Crown;--for one whose every pursuit
in life was at variance with the acquisition of such honours as that
now thrust upon him! He could see his own obstinacy, and could even
hate the pretentious love of virtue which he had himself displayed.

"Have you seen Lord Earlybird with his ribbon?" his wife said to him.

"I do not know Lord Earlybird by sight," he replied angrily.

"Nor any one else either. But he would have come and shown himself to
you, if he had had a spark of gratitude in his composition. As far as
I can learn you have sacrificed the Ministry for his sake."

"I did my duty as best I knew how to do it," said the Duke, almost
with ferocity, "and it little becomes you to taunt me with any
deficiency."

"Plantagenet!"

"I am driven," he said, "almost beyond myself, and it kills me when
you take part against me."

"Take part against you! Surely there was very little in what I said."
And yet, as she spoke, she repented bitterly that she had at the
moment allowed herself to relapse into the sort of badinage which
had been usual with her before she had understood the extent of his
sufferings. "If I trouble you by what I say, I will certainly hold my
tongue."

"Don't repeat to me what that man says in the newspaper."

"You shouldn't regard the man, Plantagenet. You shouldn't allow the
paper to come into your hands."

"Am I to be afraid of seeing what men say of me? Never! But you need
not repeat it, at any rate if it be false." She had not seen the
article in question or she certainly would not have repeated the
accusation which it contained. "I have quarrelled with no colleague.
If such a one as Lord Drummond chooses to think himself injured, am
I to stoop to him? Nothing strikes me so much in all this as the
ill-nature of the world at large. When they used to bait a bear tied
to a stake, every one around would cheer the dogs and help to torment
the helpless animal. It is much the same now, only they have a man
instead of a bear for their pleasure."

"I will never help the dogs again," she said, coming up to him and
clinging within the embrace of his arm.

He knew that he had been Quixotic, and he would sit in his chair
repeating the word to himself aloud, till he himself began to fear
that he would do it in company. But the thing had been done and
could not be undone. He had had the bestowal of one Garter, and he
had giv