o her intellect.

There was one world which had newly opened to Mary since her
engagement, and that was the world of politics. Hammond had told her
that his ambition was to succeed as a politician--to do some good in his
day as one of the governing body; and of late she had made it her
business to learn how England and the world outside England were
governed.

She had no natural leaning to the study of political economy. Instead,
she had always imagined any question relating to the government of her
country to be inherently dry-as-dust and uninviting. But had John
Hammond devoted his days to the study of Coptic manuscripts, or the
arrow headed inscriptions upon Assyrian tablets, she would have toiled
her hardest in the endeavour to make herself a Coptic scholar, or an
adept in the cuneiform characters. If he had been a student of Chinese,
she would not have been discomfited by such a trifle as the fifty
thousand characters in the Chinese alphabet.

And so, as he was to make his name in the arena of public life, she set
herself to acquire a proper understanding of the science of politics;
and to this end she gorged herself with English history,--Hume, Hallam,
Green, Justin McCarthy, Palgrave, Lecky, from the days of Witenagemote
to the Reform Bill; the Repeal of the Corn Laws, the Disestablishment of
the Irish Church, Ballot, Trade Unionism, and unreciprocated Free Trade.
No question was deep enough to repel her; for was not her lover
interested in the dryest thereof; and what concerned him and his welfare
must needs be full of interest for her.

To this end she read the debates religiously day by day; and she one day
ventured shyly to suggest that she should read them aloud to Lady
Maulevrier.

'Would it not be a little rest for you if I were to read your Times
aloud to you every afternoon, grandmother?' she asked. 'You read so many
books, French, English, and German, and I think your eyes must get a
little tired sometimes.'

Mary ventured the remark with some timidity, for those falcon eyes were
fixed upon her all the time, bright and clear and steady as the eyes of
youth. It seemed almost an impertinence to suggest that such eyes could
know weariness.

'No, Mary, my sight, holds out wonderfully for an old woman,' replied
her ladyship, gently. 'The new theory of the last oculist whose book I
dipped into--a very amusing and interesting book, by-the-bye--is that
the sight improves and strengthens by constant use