priesthood, and politics. But to our
conversation--Mrs. Halifax, may I not enlist you on my side? We could
easily remove all difficulties, such as qualification, etc. Would you
not like to see your husband member for the old and honourable borough
of Kingswell?"

"Kingswell!" It was a tumble-down village, where John held and managed
for me the sole remnant of landed property which my poor father had
left me. "Kingswell! why there are not a dozen houses in the place."

"The fewer the better, my dear madam. The election would cost me
scarcely any--trouble; and the country be vastly the gainer by your
husband's talents and probity. Of course he will give up the--I forget
what is his business now--and live independent. He is made to shine as
a politician: it will be both happiness and honour to myself to have
in some way contributed to that end. Mr. Halifax, you will accept my
borough?"

"Not on any consideration your lordship could offer me."

Lord Luxmore scarcely credited his ears. "My dear sir--you are the
most extraordinary--may I again inquire your reasons?"

"I have several; one will suffice. Though I wish to gain
influence--power perhaps; still the last thing I should desire would be
political influence."

"You might possibly escape that unwelcome possession," returned the
earl. "Half the House of Commons is made up of harmless dummies, who
vote as we bid them."

"A character, my lord, for which I am decidedly unfitted. Until
political conscience ceases to be a thing of traffic, until the people
are allowed honestly to choose their own honest representatives, I must
decline being of that number. Shall we dismiss the subject?"

"With pleasure, sir."

And courtesy being met by courtesy, the question so momentous was
passed over, and merged into trivialities. Perhaps the earl, who, as
his pleasures palled, was understood to be fixing his keen wits upon
the pet profligacy of old age, politics--saw, clearly enough, that in
these chaotic days of contending parties, when the maddened outcry of
the "people" was just being heard and listened to, it might be as well
not to make an enemy of this young man, who, with a few more, stood as
it were midway in the gulf, now slowly beginning to narrow, between the
commonalty and the aristocracy. He stayed some time longer, and then
bowed himself away with a gracious condescension worthy of the Prince
of Wales himself, carrying with him the shy, gentle Lord