series of balls and dinners, if
you like."

"Nonsense, dear; me give parties indeed, and you at Madeira! Why, it's
just as though you asked Ruth to entertain the reapers without Naomi.
I'll go and give the orders; but I do hope that it will be calm. Why
do you want to go now?"

"I'll tell you. Lord Minster has been proposing to me again, and
announces his intention of going on doing so till I accept him. You
know, he has just got into the Cabinet, so he has celebrated the event
by asking me to marry him, for the third time."

"Poor fellow! Perhaps he is very fond of you."

"Not a bit of it. He is fond of my good looks and my money. I will
tell you the substance of his speech this morning. He stood like this,
with his hands in his pockets, and said, 'I am now a cabinet minister.
It is a good thing that a cabinet minister should have somebody
presentable to sit at the head of his table. You are presentable. I
appreciate beauty, when I have time to think about it. I observe that
you are beautiful. I am not very well-off for my position. You, on the
other hand, are immensely rich. With your money, I can, in time,
become Prime Minister. It is, consequently, evidently to my advantage
that you should marry me, and I have sacrificed a very important
appointment in order to come and settle it.'"

Agatha laughed.

"And how did you answer him?"

"In his own style. 'Lord Minster,' I said, 'I am, for the third time,
honoured by your flattering proposal, but I have no wish to ornament
your table, no desire to expose my beauty to your perpetual
admiration, and no ambition to advance your political career. I do not
love you, and I had rather become the wife of a crossing-sweeper that
I loved, than that of a member of the government for whom I have
_every_ respect, but no affection.'

"'As the wife of a crossing-sweeper, it is probable,' he answered,
'that you would be miserable. As my wife, you would certainly be
admired and powerful, and consequently happy.'

"'Lord Minster,' I said, 'you have studied human nature but very
superficially, if you have not learnt that it is better for a woman to
be miserable with the man she loves, than "admired, powerful, and
consequently happy," with one who has no attraction for her.'

"'Your remark is interesting,' he replied; 'but I think that there is
something paradoxical about it. I must be going now, as I have only
five minutes to get to Westminster; but I will think it over, and
a