h occupied."

"That is just what has done him all the harm in the world. Everybody
presumes that he has so much to think of that nobody goes near him.
Then he is left to boody over everything by himself till he becomes
a sort of political hermit, or ministerial Lama, whom human eyes are
not to look upon. It doesn't matter now; does it?" Visitor after
visitor came in, and the Duchess chatted to them all, leaving the
impression on everybody that heard her that she at least was not
sorry to be relieved from the troubles attending her husband's late
position.

She sat there over an hour, and as she was taking her leave she had a
few words to whisper to Mrs. Finn. "When this is all over," she said,
"I mean to call on that Mrs. Lopez."

"I thought you did go there."

"That was soon after the poor man had killed himself,--when she was
going away. Of course I only left a card. But I shall see her now if
I can. We want to get her out of her melancholy if possible. I have a
sort of feeling, you know, that among us we made the train run over
him."

"I don't think that."

"He got so horribly abused for what he did at Silverbridge; and I
really don't see why he wasn't to have his money. It was I that made
him spend it."

"He was, I fancy, a thoroughly bad man."

"But a wife doesn't always want to be made a widow even if her
husband be bad. I think I owe her something, and I would pay my debt
if I knew how. I shall go and see her, and if she will marry this
other man we'll take her by the hand. Good-bye, dear. You'd better
come to me early to-morrow, as I suppose we shall know something by
eleven o'clock."

In the course of that evening the Duke of St. Bungay came to Carlton
Terrace and was closeted for some time with the late Prime Minister.
He had been engaged during that and the last two previous days in
lending his aid to various political manoeuvres and ministerial
attempts, from which our Duke had kept himself altogether aloof. He
did not go to Windsor, but as each successive competitor journeyed
thither and returned, some one either sent for the old Duke or went
to seek his counsel. He was the Nestor of the occasion, and strove
heartily to compose all quarrels, and so to arrange matters that a
wholesome, moderately Liberal Ministry might be again installed for
the good of the country and the comfort of all true Whigs. In such
moments he almost ascended to the grand heights of patriotism, being
always indifferent