e;--it had almost been that of a lover. He had petted
her and caressed her when they met, and once even said that nothing
should really trouble him as long as he had her with him. Such a
speech as that never in his life had he made before to her! So she
plucked up her courage and asked her question,--not exactly on that
occasion, but soon afterwards; "May not I say a word to Sprugeon
about the election?"

"Not a word!" And he looked at her as he had looked on that day when
he had told her of the Major's sins. She tossed her head and pouted
her lips and walked on without speaking. If it was to be so, then
indeed would she have failed. And, therefore, though in his general
manner he was loving to her, things were not going smooth with her.

And things were not going smooth with him because there had reached
him a most troublous dispatch from Sir Orlando Drought only two days
before the Cabinet meeting at which the points to be made in the
Queen's speech were to be decided. It had been already agreed that a
proposition should be made to Parliament by the Government, for an
extension of the county suffrage, with some slight redistribution of
seats. The towns with less than 20,000 inhabitants were to take in
some increased portions of the country parishes around. But there was
not enough of a policy in this to satisfy Sir Orlando, nor was the
conduct of the bill through the House to be placed in his hands.
That was to be intrusted to Mr. Monk, and Mr. Monk would be, if not
nominally the Leader, yet the chief man of the Government in the
House of Commons. This was displeasing to Sir Orlando, and he had,
therefore, demanded from the Prime Minister more of a "policy." Sir
Orlando's present idea of a policy was the building four bigger
ships of war than had ever been built before,--with larger guns, and
more men, and thicker iron plates, and, above all, with a greater
expenditure of money. He had even gone so far as to say, though
not in his semi-official letter to the Prime Minister, that he
thought that "The Salvation of the Empire" should be the cry of the
Coalition party. "After all," he said, "what the people care about
is the Salvation of the Empire!" Sir Orlando was at the head of the
Admiralty; and if glory was to be achieved by the four ships, it
would rest first on the head of Sir Orlando.

Now the Duke thought that the Empire was safe, and had been
throughout his political life averse to increasing the army and nav