one, wealth has been given so great and rank so high that much of
the welfare of your country depends on the manner in which you bear
yourself as the Duke of Omnium."

"I would not wish to think so."

"Your uncle so thought. And, though he was a man very different from
you, not inured to work in his early life, with fewer attainments,
probably a slower intellect, and whose general conduct was inferior
to your own,--I speak freely because the subject is important,--he
was a man who understood his position and the requirements of his
order very thoroughly. A retinue almost Royal, together with an
expenditure which Royalty could not rival, secured for him the
respect of the nation."

"Your life has not been as was his, and you have won a higher
respect."

"I think not. The greater part of my life was spent in the House of
Commons, and my fortune was never much more than the tenth of his.
But I wish to make no such comparison."

"I must make it, if I am to judge which I would follow."

"Pray understand me, my friend," said the old man, energetically. "I
am not advising you to abandon public life in order that you may live
in repose as a great nobleman. It would not be in your nature to do
so, nor could the country afford to lose your services. But you need
not therefore take your place in the arena of politics as though you
were still Plantagenet Palliser, with no other duties than those of a
politician,--as you might so well have done had your uncle's titles
and wealth descended to a son."

"I wish they had," said the regretful Duke.

"It cannot be so. Your brother perhaps wishes that he were a Duke,
but it has been arranged otherwise. It is vain to repine. Your wife
is unhappy because your uncle's Garter was not at once given to you."

"Glencora is like other women,--of course."

"I share her feelings. Had Mr. Gresham consulted me, I should not
have scrupled to tell him that it would have been for the welfare of
his party that the Duke of Omnium should be graced with any and every
honour in his power to bestow. Lord Cantrip is my friend, almost as
warmly as are you; but the country would not have missed the ribbon
from the breast of Lord Cantrip. Had you been more the Duke, and less
the slave of your country, it would have been sent to you. Do I make
you angry by speaking so?"

"Not in the least. I have but one ambition."

"And that is--?"

"To be the serviceable slave of my country."

"A master is mor