icted, and
then at night another rumour rose that the minister had resigned, but
that the resignation would not be accepted until after the termination
of the royal visit. The King and Queen had yet to remain a short week.

The fact is, the resignation had taken place, but it was known only
to those who then could not have imparted the intelligence. The public
often conjectures the truth, though it clothes its impression or
information in the vague shape of a rumour. In four-and-twenty hours
the great fact was authoritatively announced in all the journals,
with leading articles speculating on the successor to the able and
accomplished minister of whose services the Sovereign and the country
were so unhappily deprived. Would his successor be found in his own
cabinet? And then several names were mentioned; Rawchester, to Lady
Montfort's disgust. Rawchester was a safe man, and had had much
experience, which, as with most safe men, probably left him as wise
and able as before he imbibed it. Would there be altogether a change of
parties? Would the Protectionists try again? They were very strong, but
always in a minority, like some great continental powers, who have the
finest army in the world, and yet get always beaten. Would that band of
self-admiring geniuses, who had upset every cabinet with whom they were
ever connected, return on the shoulders of the people, as they always
dreamed, though they were always the persons of whom the people never
seemed to think?

Lady Montfort was in a state of passive excitement. She was quite pale,
and she remained quite pale for hours. She would see no one. She sat
in Endymion's room, and never spoke, while he continued writing and
transacting his affairs. She thought she was reading the "Morning
Post," but really could not distinguish the advertisements from leading
articles.

There was a knock at the library door, and the groom of the chambers
brought in a note for Endymion. He glanced at the handwriting of the
address, and then opened it, as pale as his wife. Then he read it again,
and then he gave it to her. She threw her eyes over it, and then her
arms around his neck.

"Order my brougham at three o'clock."

CHAPTER CI

Endymion was with his sister.

"How dear of you to come to me," she said, "when you cannot have a
moment to yourself."

"Well, you know," he replied, "it is not like forming a government. That
is an affair. I have reason to think all my colleagues wil