of art. "To
sit out on the bank of a stream and have him beside one would not be
particularly nice," thought Ayala to herself. Mr. Traffick no doubt
would have enjoyed it very well if he could have spared the time; but
to Ayala it seemed that such a man as that could have cared nothing
for love. As soon as she saw him, and realised in her mind the fact
that Augusta was to become his wife, she felt at once the absurdity
of sending Augusta on a message.

Augusta that evening was somewhat more than ordinarily kind to her
cousin. Now that the great secret was told, her cousin no doubt
would recognise her importance. "I suppose you had not heard of him
before?" she said to Ayala.

"I never did."

"That's because you have not attended to the debates."

"I never have. What are debates?"

"Mr. Traffick is very much thought of in the House of Commons on all
subjects affecting commerce."

"Oh!"

"It is the most glorious study which the world affords."

"The House of Commons. I don't think it can be equal to art."

Then Augusta turned up her nose with a double turn,--first as against
painters, Mr. Dormer having been no more, and then at Ayala's
ignorance in supposing that the House of Commons could have been
spoken of as a study. "Mr. Traffick will probably be in the
government some day," she said.

"Has not he been yet?" asked Ayala.

"Not yet."

"Then won't he be very old before he gets there?" This was a terrible
question. Young ladies of five-and-twenty, when they marry gentlemen
of four-and-fifty, make up their minds for well-understood and
well-recognised old age. They see that they had best declare their
purpose, and they do declare it. "Of course, Mr. Walker is old enough
to be my father, but I have made up my mind that I like that better
than anything else." Then the wall has been jumped, and the thing can
go smoothly. But at forty-five there is supposed to be so much of
youth left that the difference of age may possibly be tided over and
not made to appear abnormal. Augusta Tringle had determined to tide
it over in this way. The forty-five had been gradually reduced to
"less than forty,"--though all the Peerages were there to give the
lie to the assertion. She talked of her lover as Septimus, and was
quite prepared to sit with him beside a stream if only half-an-hour
for the amusement could be found. When, therefore, Ayala suggested
that if her lover wanted to get into office he had better do so
quickly