ecedents. He had been a useful man,--and would still have remained
so had he not been lifted a little too high. Had he been only one in
the ruck on the Treasury Bench he would have been useful to the end;
but special honour and special place had been assigned to him, and
therefore he desired still bigger things. The Duke's mediocrity of
talent and of energy and of general governing power had been so often
mentioned of late in Sir Orlando's hearing, that Sir Orlando had
gradually come to think that he was the Duke's equal in the Cabinet,
and that perhaps it behoved him to lead the Duke. At the commencement
of their joint operations he had held the Duke in some awe, and
perhaps something of that feeling in reference to the Duke personally
still restrained him. The Dukes of Omnium had always been big people.
But still it might be his duty to say a word to the Duke. Sir Orlando
assured himself that if ever convinced of the propriety of doing so,
he could say a word even to the Duke of Omnium. "I am confident that
we should not go on quite as we are at present," said Sir Timothy as
he closed the conversation.

"Where did they pick him up?" said the Major to the Captain, pointing
with his head to Ferdinand Lopez, who was shooting with Angelica
Thrift and Mr. Boffin and one of the Duke's private secretaries.

"The Duchess found him somewhere. He's one of those fabulously rich
fellows out of the City who make a hundred thousand pounds at a blow.
They say his people were grandees of Spain."

"Does anybody know him?" asked the Major.

"Everybody soon will know him," answered the Captain. "I think I
heard that he's going to stand for some place in the Duke's interest.
He don't look the sort of fellow I like; but he's got money and
he comes here, and he's good looking,--and therefore he'll be a
success." In answer to this the Major only grunted. The Major was a
year or two older than the Captain, and therefore less willing even
than his friend to admit the claims of new comers to social honours.

Just at this moment the Duchess walked across the ground up to the
shooters, accompanied by Mrs. Finn and Lady Chiltern. She had not
been seen in the gardens before that day, and of course a little
concourse was made round her. The Major and the Captain, who had been
driven away by the success of Ferdinand Lopez, returned with their
sweetest smiles. Mr. Boffin put down his treatise on the nature of
Franchises, which he was studying in