a common falsehood."

"Were he wise," said Mr. Bertie Tremaine, "King Florestan would not
marry. Dynasties are unpopular; especially new ones. The present age is
monarchical, but not dynastic. The king, who is a man of reach, and who
has been pondering such circumstances all his life, is probably well
aware of this, and will not be such a fool as to marry."

"How is the monarchy to go on, if there is to be no successor?" inquired
Trenchard. "You would not renew the Polish constitution?"

"The Polish constitution, by the by, was not so bad a thing," said Mr.
Bertie Tremaine. "Under it a distinguished Englishman might have mixed
with the crowned heads of Europe, as Sir Philip Sidney nearly did. But I
was looking to something superior to the Polish constitution, or
perhaps any other; I was contemplating a monarchy with the principle
of adoption. That would give you all the excellence of the Polish
constitution, and the order and constancy in which it failed. It would
realise the want of the age; monarchical, not dynastical, institutions,
and it would act independent of the passions and intrigues of the
multitude. The principle of adoption was the secret of the strength and
endurance of Rome. It gave Rome alike the Scipios and the Antonines."

"A court would be rather dull without a woman at its head."

"On the contrary," said Mr. Bertie Tremaine. "It was Louis Quatorze who
made the court; not his queen."

"Well," said Waldershare, "all the same, I fear King Florestan will
adopt no one in this room, though he has several friends here, and I am
one; and I believe that he will marry, and I cannot help fancying that
the partner of this throne will not be as insignificant as Louis the
Fourteenth's wife, or Catherine of Braganza."

Jawett dined this day with Mr. Bertie Tremaine. He was a frequent guest
there, and still was the editor of the "Precursor," though it sometimes
baffled all that lucidity of style for which he was celebrated to
reconcile the conduct of the party, of which the "Precursor" was
alike the oracle and organ, with the opinions with which that now
well-established journal first attempted to direct and illuminate the
public mind. It seemed to the editor that the "Precursor" dwelt more
on the past than became a harbinger of the future. Not that Mr. Bertie
Tremaine ever for a moment admitted that there was any difficulty in any
case. He never permitted any dogmas that he had ever enunciated to be
surrende