only--distant, but vast and towering,--he deigned to attach
his desires. He cared not for small and momentary rewards; and while
always (for he knew its necessity) uppermost on the tide of the hour,
he had neither joy nor thought for the petty honours for which he was
envied, and by which he was supposed to be elated. Always occupied and
always thoughtful, he went, as I have just said, very little into the
gay world, and was not very well formed to shine in it when there; for
trifles require the whole man as much as matters of importance. He did
not want either wit or polish, but he tasked his powers too severely on
great subjects not to be sometimes dull upon small ones: yet, when he
was either excited or at home, he was not without--what man of genius
is?--his peculiar powers of conversation. There was in this young dark,
brooding, stern man, that which had charmed Constance at first sight;
she thought to recognise a nature like her own, and Radclyffe's
venturous spirit exulted in a commune with hers. Their politics were
the same; their ultimate ends not very unlike; and their common ambition
furnished them with an eternity of topics and schemes. Radclyffe was
Constance's guest;--but Godolphin soon grew attached to the young
politician, though he shrugged his shoulders at his opinions. In youth,
Godolphin had been a Tory--now, if anything, he was a Tory still. Such
a political creed was perhaps the natural result of his philosophical
belief. Constance, Whig by profession, ultra-Liberal in reality, still
however gave the character to the politics of the house; and the easy
Godolphin thought politics the veriest of all the trifles which a man
could leave to the discretion of the lady of his household. We may
judge, therefore, of the quiet, complacent amusement he felt in the
didactics of Radclyffe or the declamations of Constance.

"That is a dangerous, scheming woman, believe me," said the Duchess of
---- to her great husband, one morning, when Constance left her Grace.

"Nonsense! women are never dangerous."

CHAPTER LI.

GODOLPHIN'S COURSE OF LIFE.--INFLUENCE OF OPINION AND OF RIDICULE ON THE
MINDS OF PRIVILEGED ORDERS.--LADY EHPINGITAM'S FRIENDSHIP WITH GEORGE
THE FOURTH.--HIS MANNER OF LIVING.

The course of life which Godolphin now led, was exactly that which it
is natural for a very rich intellectual man to indulge--voluptuous
but refined. He was arriving at that age when the poetry of the heart
necess