egret at it."

"Something!" said Endymion, "what sort of thing?"

"The prime minister might have called on me, or at least written to me
a letter. I want none of their honours; I have scores of letters every
day, suggesting that some high distinction should be conferred on me. I
believe the nation expects me to be made a baronet. By the by, I heard
the other day you had got into parliament. I know nothing of these
matters; they do not interest me. Is it the fact?"

"Well, I was so fortunate, and there are others of your old friends,
Trenchard, for example."

"You do not mean to say that Trenchard is in parliament!" said
St. Barbe, throwing off all his affected reserve. "Well, it is too
disgusting! Trenchard in parliament, and I obliged to think it a great
favour if a man gives me a frank! Well, representative institutions have
seen their day. That is something."

"I have come here on a social mission," said Endymion in a soothing
tone. "There is a great admirer of yours who much wishes to make your
acquaintance. Trusting to our old intimacy, of which of course I am very
proud, it was even hoped that you might waive ceremony, and come and
dine."

"Quite impossible!" exclaimed St. Barbe, and turning round, he pointed
to the legion of invitations before him. "You see, the world is at my
feet. I remember that fellow Seymour Hicks taking me to his rooms to
show me a card he had from a countess. What would he say to this?"

"Well, but you cannot be engaged to dinner every day," said Endymion;
"and you really may choose any day you like."

"Well, there are not many dinners among them, to be sure," said St.
Barbe. "Small and earlies. How I hate a 'small and early'! Shown into a
room where you meet a select few who have been asked to dinner, and who
are chewing the cud like a herd of kine, and you are expected to tumble
before them to assist their digestion! Faugh! No, sir; we only dine
out now, and we think twice, I can tell you, before we accept even an
invitation to dinner. Who's your friend?"

"Well, my friend is Lord Montfort."

"You do not mean to say that! And he is an admirer of mine?"

"An enthusiastic admirer."

"I will dine with Lord Montfort. There is no one who appreciates so
completely and so highly the old nobility of England as myself. They are
a real aristocracy. None of the pinchbeck pedigrees and ormolu titles
of the continent. Lord Montfort is, I think, an earl. A splendid title,
earl! an Engli