signify, and that Sir Robert had resolved
to go on and had confidence in his measures. His measures were
excellent, and Sir Robert never displayed more resource, more energy,
and more skill, than he did in the spring of 1835. But knowledge of
human nature was not Sir Robert Peel's strong point, and it argued some
deficiency in that respect, to suppose that the fitness of his measures
could disarm a vindictive opposition. On the contrary, they rather
whetted their desire of revenge, and they were doubly loth that he
should increase his reputation by availing himself of an opportunity
which they deemed the Tory party had unfairly acquired.

After the vote on the Speakership, Mr. Ferrars was offered a
second-class West Indian government. His wife would not listen to it. If
it were Jamaica, the offer might be considered, though it could scarcely
be accepted without great sacrifice. The children, for instance, must be
left at home. Strange to say, Mr. Ferrars was not disinclined to accept
the inferior post. Endymion he looked upon as virtually provided for,
and Myra, he thought, might accompany them; if only for a year. But he
ultimately yielded, though not without a struggle, to the strong feeling
of his wife.

"I do not see why I also should not be left behind," said Myra to her
brother in one of their confidential walks. "I should like to live in
London in lodgings with you."

The approaching appointment of her brother filled her from the first
with the greatest interest. She was always talking of it when they were
alone--fancying his future life, and planning how it might be happier
and more easy. "My only joy in life is seeing you," she sometimes said,
"and yet this separation does not make me unhappy. It seems a chance
from heaven for you. I pray every night it may be the Foreign Office."

The ministry were still sanguine as to their prospects in the month
of March, and they deemed that public opinion was rallying round Sir
Robert. Perhaps Lord John Russell, who was the leader of the opposition,
felt this, in some degree, himself, and he determined to bring affairs
to a crisis by notice of a motion respecting the appropriation of the
revenues of the Irish Church. Then Barron wrote to Mr. Ferrars that
affairs did not look so well, and advised him to come up to town, and
take anything that offered. "It is something," he remarked, "to have
something to give up. We shall not, I suppose, always be out of office,
and the