ed from her seat, and smiled sweetly,--as
she had learned to smile since her husband had become Prime Minister.
Mrs. Roby curtsied, and then remembered that in these days only
housemaids ought to curtsey.

"Anything to our Mr. Roby?" said the Duchess, continuing her
smile,--"ours as he was till yesterday at least." This she said in an
absurd wail of mock sorrow.

"My brother-in-law, your Grace," said Mrs. Roby, delighted.

"Oh indeed. And what does Mr. Roby think about it, I wonder? But I
dare say you have found, Mrs. Roby, that when a crisis comes,--a real
crisis,--the ladies are told nothing. I have."

"I don't think, your Grace, that Mr. Roby ever divulges political
secrets."

"Doesn't he indeed! What a dull man your brother-in-law must be to
live with,--that is as a politician! Good-bye, Mrs. Lopez. You must
come and see me and let me come to you again. I hope, you know,--I
hope the time may come when things may once more be bright with you."
These last words she murmured almost in a whisper, as she held the
hand of the woman she wished to befriend. Then she bowed to Mrs.
Roby, and left the room.

"What was it she said to you?" asked Mrs. Roby.

"Nothing in particular, Aunt Harriet."

"She seems to be very friendly. What made her come?"

"She wrote some time ago to say she would call."

"But why?"

"I cannot tell you. I don't know. Don't ask me, aunt, about things
that are passed. You cannot do it without wounding me."

"I don't want to wound you, Emily, but I really think that that is
nonsense. She is a very nice woman;--though I don't think she ought
to have said that Mr. Roby is dull. Did Mr. Wharton know that she was
coming?"

"He knew that she said she would come," replied Emily very sternly,
so that Mrs. Roby found herself compelled to pass on to some other
subject. Mrs. Roby had heard the wish expressed that something "once
more might be bright," and when she got home told her husband that
she was sure that Emily Lopez was going to marry Arthur Fletcher.
"And why the d---- shouldn't she?" said Dick. "And that poor man
destroying himself not much more than twelve months ago! I couldn't
do it," said Mrs. Roby. "I don't mean to give you the chance," said
Dick.

The Duchess when she went away suffered under a sense of failure. She
had intended to bring about some crisis of female tenderness in which
she might have rushed into future hopes and joyous anticipations, and
with the freedom which wi