'I shall miss her, if she has to stay away so long. I know you
don't like her.'

'I do like her. She has always behaved well, both to me and to
my uncle.'

'She was an angel to him,--and to you too, if you only knew it.
I dare say you're sending him to Ireland so as to get her away
from me.' This she said with a smile, as though not meaning it
altogether, but yet half meaning it.

'I have asked him to undertake the office,' said the Duke
solemnly, 'because I am told he is fit for it. But I did have
some pleasure in proposing it to him because I thought it would
please you.'

'It does please me, and I won't be cross any more, and the
Duchess of -- may wear her clothes just as she pleases, or go without
them. And as for Mrs Finn, I don't see why she should be with
him always when he goes. You can quite understand how necessary
she is to me. But she is in truth the only woman in London to
whom I can say what I think. And it is a comfort, you know, to
have someone.'

In this way the domestic peace of the Prime Minister was
readjusted, and that sympathy and co-operation for which he had
first asked was accorded to him. It may be a question whether on
the whole the Duchess did not work harder than he did. She did
not at first dare to expound to him those grand ideas which she
had conceived in regard to magnificence and hospitality. She