to the captain and looking after her precious box,
Arthur took the opportunity to ask his companion what she knew of Lord
Minster.

"Oh, not much, that is, nothing in particular, except that he is the
son of a sugar-broker or something, who was made a peer for some
reason or other, and I suppose that is why he is so stuck up, because
all the other peers I ever met are just like other people. He is very
clever, too, is in the government now, and always hanging about after
Mildred. He wants to marry her, you know, and I expect that he will at
last, but I hope he won't. I don't like him; he always looks at one as
though one were dirt."

"The deuce he does!" ejaculated Arthur, his heart filling on the
instant with envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness towards
Lord Minster. He had not the slightest wish to marry Mildred himself,
but he boiled at the mere thought of anybody else doing so. Lady
Florence was right, there is a difference between ladies and
landscapes.

At that moment Mildred herself arrived, but so disgusted was he that
he would scarcely speak to her, and on arriving at the landing stage
he at once departed to the hotel, and even tried to get out of coming
to dinner that night, but this was overruled.

"Good," said Mildred to herself, with a smile; "I have found out how
to vex him."

At dinner that evening Lord Minster, who had of course taken his
hostess in, opened the conversation by asking her how she had been
employing herself at Madeira.

"Better than you have at St. Stephen's, Lord Minster; at any rate, I
have not been forwarding schemes for highway robbery and the national
disgrace," she answered, laughing.

"I suppose that you mean the Irish Land Act and the Transvaal
Convention. I have heard several ladies speak of them like that, and I
am really coming to the conclusion that your sex is entirely devoid of
political instinct."

"What do you mean by political instinct, Lord Minster?" asked Arthur.

"By political instinct," he replied, "I understand a proper
appreciation of the science and object of government."

"Goodness me, what are they?" asked Mrs. Carr.

"Well, the science of government consists, roughly speaking, in
knowing how to get into office, and remain there when once in; its
objects are to guess and give expression to the prevailing popular
feeling or whim with the loss of as few votes as possible."

"According to that definition," said Arthur, "all national questio