spapers, and always in connection with matters of general
interest and concern. The government he established was liberal, but it
was discreet, and, though conciliatory, firm. "If he declares for the
English alliance," said Waldershare, "he is safe;" and he did declare
for the English alliance, and the English people were very pleased by
his declaration, which in their apprehension meant national progress,
the amelioration of society, and increased exports.

The main point, however, which interested his subjects was his marriage.
That was both a difficult and a delicate matter to decide. The great
continental dynasties looked with some jealousy and suspicion on him,
and the small reigning houses, who were all allied with the great
continental dynasties, thought it prudent to copy their example. All
these reigning families, whether large or small, were themselves in
a perplexed and alarmed position at this period, very disturbed about
their present, and very doubtful about their future. At last it was
understood that a Princess of Saxe-Babel, though allied with royal and
imperial houses, might share the diadem of a successful adventurer, and
then in time, and when it had been sufficiently reiterated, paragraphs
appeared unequivocally contradicting the statement, followed with
agreeable assurances that it was unlikely that a Princess of Saxe-Babel,
allied with royal and imperial houses, should unite herself to a parvenu
monarch, however powerful. Then in turn these articles were stigmatised
as libels, and entirely unauthorised, and no less a personage than a
princess of the house of Saxe-Genesis was talked of as the future queen;
but on referring to the "Almanach de Gotha," it was discovered that
family had been extinct since the first French Revolution. So it seemed
at last that nothing was certain, except that his subjects were very
anxious that King Florestan should present them with a queen.

CHAPTER LXXXVII

As time flew on, the friends of Lady Roehampton thought and spoke, with
anxiety about her re-entrance into society. Mr. Sidney Wilton had lent
Gaydene to her for the autumn, when he always visited Scotland, and the
winter had passed away uninterruptedly, at a charming and almost unknown
watering-place, where she seemed the only visitant, and where she
wandered about in silence on the sands. The time was fast approaching
when the inevitable year of seclusion would expire, and Lady Roehampton
gave no indicati