t
any of that aversion to the Radicalism of the heir to the marquisate
which the Marchioness entertained. Lady Amaldina delighted to be Amy
to Lord Hampstead, and was very anxious to ask him his advice as to
Lord Llwddythlw.

"Of course you know all about my marriage, Hampstead?" she said.

"I don't know anything about it," Hampstead replied.

"Oh, Hampstead; how ill-natured!"

"Nobody knows anything about it, because it hasn't taken place."

"That is so like a Radical, to be so precise and rational. My
engagement then?"

"Yes; I've heard a great deal about that. We've been talking about
that for--how long shall I say?"

"Don't be disagreeable. Of course such a man as Llwddythlw can't be
married all in a hurry just like anybody else."

"What a misfortune for him!"

"Why should it be a misfortune?"

"I should think it so if I were going to be married to you."

"That's the prettiest thing I have ever heard you say. At any rate
he has got to put up with it, and so have I. It is a bore, because
people will talk about nothing else. What do you think of Llwddythlw
as a public man?"

"I haven't thought about it. I haven't any means of thinking. I am so
completely a private man myself, that I know nothing of public men. I
hope he's good at going to sleep."

"Going to sleep?"

"Otherwise it must be so dull, sitting so many hours in the House of
Commons. But he's been at it a long time, and I dare say he's used to
it."

"Isn't it well that a man in his position should have a regard to his
country?"

"Every man ought to have a regard to his country;--but a stronger
regard, if it be possible, to the world at large."

Lady Amaldina stared at him, not knowing in the least what he meant.
"You are so droll," she said. "You never, I think, think of the
position you were born to fill."

"Oh yes, I do. I'm a man, and I think a great deal about it."

"But you've got to be Marquis of Kingsbury, and Llwddythlw has got to
be Duke of Merioneth. He never forgets it for a moment."

"What a nuisance for him,--and for you."

"Why should it be a nuisance for me? Cannot a woman understand her
duties as well as a man?"

"Quite so, if she knows how to get a glimpse at them."

"I do," said Lady Amaldina, earnestly. "I am always getting glimpses
at them. I am quite aware of the functions which it will become me to
perform when I am Llwddythlw's wife."

"Mother of his children?"

"I didn't mean that at all, Hampstead. T