ed that
you are as you are, fresh, untrammelled, without many prejudices
which afflict other ladies, and free from bonds by which they are
cramped and confined. Of course such a turn of character is subject
to certain dangers of its own."

"There is no doubt about the dangers. The chances are that when I see
her Grace I shall tell her what I think about her."

"You will I am sure say nothing unkind to a lady who is supposed to
be in the place she now fills by my authority. But do not let us
quarrel about an old woman."

"I won't quarrel with you even about a young one."

"I cannot be at ease within myself while I think you are resenting my
refusal. You do not know how constantly I carry you about with me."

"You carry a very unnecessary burden then," she said. But he could
tell at once from the altered tone of her voice, and from the light
of her eye as he glanced into her face, that her anger about "The
Robes" was appeased.

"I have done as you asked about a friend of yours," he said. This
occurred just before the final and perfected list of the new men had
appeared in all the newspapers.

"What friend?"

"Mr. Finn is to go to Ireland."

"Go to Ireland!--How do you mean?"

"It is looked upon as being very great promotion. Indeed I am told
that he is considered to be the luckiest man in all the scramble."

"You don't mean as Chief Secretary?"

"Yes, I do. He certainly couldn't go as Lord Lieutenant."

"But they said that Barrington Erle was going to Ireland."

"Well; yes. I don't know that you'd be interested by all the ins and
outs of it. But Mr. Erle declined. It seems that Mr. Erle is after
all the one man in Parliament modest enough not to consider himself
to be fit for any place that can be offered to him."

"Poor Barrington! He does not like the idea of crossing the Channel
so often. I quite sympathise with him. And so Phineas is to be
Secretary for Ireland! Not in the Cabinet?"

"No;--not in the Cabinet. It is not by any means usual that he should
be."

"That is promotion, and I am glad! Poor Phineas! I hope they won't
murder him, or anything of that kind. They do murder people, you
know, sometimes."

"He's an Irishman himself."

"That's just the reason why they should. He must put up with that of
course. I wonder whether she'll like going. They'll be able to spend
money, which they always like, over there. He comes backwards and
forwards every week,--doesn't he?"

"Not quite that, I b