advantageous. The Marquis, his father, certainly thought so in spite
of his Radicalism. But he might have been pardoned on the score of
Roden's general good gifts,--might have been pardoned even though
it were true, as supposed, that to Roden's strong convictions
Lord Hampstead owed much of the ultra virus of his political
convictions,--might have been pardoned had not there been worse
again. At Hendon Hall, the Marquis's lovely suburban seat, the Post
Office clerk was made acquainted with Lady Frances Trafford, and they
became lovers.

The radicalism of a Marquis is apt to be tainted by special
considerations in regard to his own family. This Marquis, though
he had his exoteric politics, had his esoteric feelings. With him,
Liberal as he was, his own blood possessed a peculiar ichor. Though
it might be well that men in the mass should be as nearly equal as
possible, yet, looking at the state of possibilities and realities as
existent, it was clear to him that a Marquis of Kingsbury had been
placed on a pedestal. It might be that the state of things was matter
for regret. In his grander moments he was certain that it was so. Why
should there be a ploughboy unable to open his mouth because of his
infirmity, and a Marquis with his own voice very resonant in the
House of Lords, and a deputy voice dependent on him in the House of
Commons? He had said so very frequently before his son, not knowing
then what might be the effect of his own teaching. There had been a
certain pride in his heart as he taught these lessons, wrong though
it might be that there should be a Marquis and a ploughboy so far
reversed by the injustice of Fate. There had been a comfort to him
in feeling that Fate had made him the Marquis, and had made some
one else the ploughboy. He knew what it was to be a Marquis down to
the last inch of aristocratic admeasurement. He would fain that his
children should have understood this also. But his lesson had gone
deeper than he had intended, and great grief had come of it.

The Marquis had been first married to a lady altogether unconnected
with noble blood, but whose father had held a position of remarkable
ascendancy in the House of Commons. He had never been a Cabinet
Minister, because he had persisted in thinking that he could better
serve his country by independence. He had been possessed of wealth,
and had filled a great place in the social world. In marrying the
only daughter of this gentleman the Marqui