like very
large gatherings of people. Lord and Lady Chiltern were there,--that
Lord Chiltern who had been known so long and so well in the hunting
counties of England, and that Lady Chiltern who had been so popular
in London as the beautiful Violet Effingham; and Mr. and Mrs. Grey
were there, very particular friends of Mr. Palliser's. Mr. Grey was
now sitting for the borough of Silverbridge, in which the Duke of
Omnium was still presumed to have a controlling influence, in spite
of all Reform bills, and Mrs. Grey was in some distant way connected
with Lady Glencora. And Madame Max Goesler was there,--a lady whose
society was still much affected by the old duke; and Mr. and Mrs.
Bonteen,--who had been brought there, not, perhaps altogether because
they were greatly loved, but in order that the gentleman's services
might be made available by Mr. Palliser in reference to some great
reform about to be introduced in monetary matters. Mr. Palliser, who
was now Chancellor of the Exchequer, was intending to alter the value
of the penny. Unless the work should be too much for him, and he
should die before he had accomplished the self-imposed task, the
future penny was to be made, under his auspices, to contain five
farthings, and the shilling ten pennies. It was thought that if this
could be accomplished, the arithmetic of the whole world would be so
simplified that henceforward the name of Palliser would be blessed
by all schoolboys, clerks, shopkeepers, and financiers. But the
difficulties were so great that Mr. Palliser's hair was already grey
from toil, and his shoulders bent by the burthen imposed upon them.
Mr. Bonteen, with two private secretaries from the Treasury, was now
at Matching to assist Mr. Palliser;--and it was thought that both
Mr. and Mrs. Bonteen were near to madness under the pressure of
the five-farthing penny. Mr. Bonteen had remarked to many of his
political friends that those two extra farthings that could not be
made to go into the shilling would put him into his cold grave before
the world would know what he had done,--or had rewarded him for it
with a handle to his name, and a pension. Lord Fawn was also at
Matching,--a suggestion having been made to Lady Glencora by some
leading Liberals that he should be supported in his difficulties by
her hospitality.

The mind of Mr. Palliser himself was too deeply engaged to admit of
its being interested in the great necklace affair; but, of all the
others as