secure? I am not at liberty to tell you all I know on this subject;
but do, I entreat you, be reconciled to him."

And after a little more conversation, which was carried on by Mr.
Crampton in the same tender way, this important interview closed,
and Lady Gorgon, folding her shawl round her, threaded certain
mysterious passages and found her way to her carriage in Whitehall.

"I hope you have not been listening, you rogue?" said Mr. Crampton
to his nephew, who blushed most absurdly by way of answer. "You
would have heard great State secrets, if you had dared to do so.
That woman is perpetually here, and if peerages are to be had for
the asking, she ought to have been a duchess by this time. I would
not have admitted her but for a reason that I have. Go you now and
ponder upon what you have heard and seen. Be on good terms with
Scully, and, above all, speak not a word concerning our
interview--no, not a word even to your mistress. By the way, I
presume, sir, you will recall your resignation?"

The bewildered Perkins was about to stammer out a speech, when his
uncle, cutting it short, pushed him gently out of the door.

* * *

At the period when the important events occurred which have been
recorded here, parties ran very high, and a mighty struggle for the
vacant Speakership was about to come on. The Right Honourable
Robert Pincher was the Ministerial candidate, and Sir Charles
Macabaw was patronised by the Opposition. The two Members for
Oldborough of course took different sides, the baronet being of the