hat can I do for you at the Isle of Wight, Dunn? I fancy we shall have
a trip to Osborne to-morrow morning."

"Indeed, my Lord?" asked he, anxiously; "are you going out?"

"So they say," replied the other, carelessly. "Do you smoke? You 'll
find those Cubans very mild. So they say, Dunn. Monksley assures us that
we shall be in a minority to-night of fifteen or sixteen. Drake thinks
five-and-twenty."

"From your Lordship's easy mode of taking it, I conclude that there is
either a remedy for the disaster, or that--"

"It is no disaster at all," chimed in his Lordship, gayly. "Well, the
Carlton Club are evidently of that mind, and some of the evening papers
too."

"I perceive, my Lord," said Dunn, with a peculiar smile, "the misfortune
_is_ not irremediable."

"You are right, Dunn," said the other, promptly. "We have decided to
accept a defeat, which, as our adversaries have never anticipated, will
find them perfectly unprepared how to profit by it They will beat us,
but, when called upon to form a Government, will be utterly unable.
The rest is easy enough: a new Parliament, and ourselves stronger than
ever."

"A very clever countryman of mine once told me, my Lord, that he made
a ruinous coach-line turn out a most lucrative speculation by simply
running an opposition and breaking it; so true are the world in their
attachment to success."

A hearty laugh from the Minister acknowledged the parallel, and he added
carelessly,--

"Sir George Bosely has a story of a fellow who once established a run
on his own bank just to get up his credit. A hit above even you, Master
Dunn,--eh?"

If Dunn laughed, it was with a face of deepest crimson, though he saw,
the while, his secret was safe. Indeed, the honest frankness of his
Lordship's laugh guaranteed that all was well.

"The fellow ought to have been a Cabinet Minister, Dunn. He had the true
governing element in him, which is a strong sense of human gullibility."

"A little more is needed, my Lord,--how to turn that flame tendency to
profit."

"Of course,--of course. By the way, Dunn, though not _apropos_," said
he, laughingly, "what of the great Glengariff scheme? Is it prospering?"

"The shares stand at one hundred and seventy-seven and an eighth, my
Lord," said Dunn, calmly. "I can only wish your Lordship's party as
favorable a fortune."

"Well, we are rather below par just now," said the Minister, laughing,
while he busied himself to select another cigar fr