rs, and as he was the most selfish as well as the
most polite of men, he requested her to write to him every day. Great
personages, who are selfish and whimsical, are generally surrounded
by parasites and buffoons, but this would not suit Lord Montfort; he
sincerely detested flattery, and he wearied in eight-and-forty hours of
the most successful mountebank in society. What he seemed inclined to
was the society of men of science, of travellers in rare parts, and
of clever artists; in short, of all persons who had what he called
"idiosyncrasy." Civil engineering was then beginning to attract general
attention, and Lord Montfort liked the society of civil engineers; but
what he liked most were self-formed men, and to learn the secret of
their success, and how they made their fortune. After the first fit of
Princedown was over, Lord Montfort found that it was impossible, even
with all its fascination, to secure a constant, or sufficient, presence
of civil engineers in such distant parts, and so he got into the habit
of coming up to Montfort House, that he might find companions and
be amused. Lady Montfort took great pains that he should not be
disappointed, and catered for him with all the skill of an accomplished
_chef_. Then, when the occasion served, she went down to Princedown
herself with welcome guests--and so it turned out, that circumstances,
which treated by an ordinary mind must have led to a social scandal,
were so adroitly manipulated, that the world little apprehended the real
and somewhat mortifying state of affairs. With the utmost license of
ill-nature, they could not suppose that Lord and Lady Montfort, living
under the same roof, might scarcely see each other for weeks, and that
his communications with her, and indeed generally, were always made in
writing.

Lady Monfort never could agree with her husband in the cardinal
assumption of his philosophy. One of his reasons for never doing
anything was, that there was nothing for him to attain. He had got
everything. Here they at once separated in their conclusions. Lady
Montfort maintained they had got nothing. "What," she would say, "are
rank and wealth to us? We were born to them. We want something that
we were not born to. You reason like a parvenu. Of course, if you had
created your rank and your riches, you might rest on your oars, and find
excitement in the recollection of what you had achieved. A man of your
position ought to govern the country, and it