said nothing of any extraordinary expenditure of money. But she
set herself to work after her own fashion, making to him
suggestions as to dinners and evening receptions, to which he
objected only on the score of time. 'You must eat your dinner
somewhere,' she said, 'and you need only come in just before we
sit down, and go into your room if you please without coming
upstairs at all. I can at any rate do that part of it for you.'
And she did do that part of it with marvellous energy all through
the month of May,--so that by the end of the month, within six
weeks of the time at which she first heard of the Coalition
Ministry, all the world had begun to talk of the Prime Minister's
dinners, and of the receptions given by the Prime Minister's
wife.



CHAPTER 9

MRS DICK'S DINNER PARTY----NO 1.

Our readers must not forget the troubles of poor Emily Wharton
amidst the gorgeous festivities of the new Prime Minister.
Throughout April and May she did not once see Ferdinand Lopez.
It may be remembered that on the night when the matter was
discussed between her and her father, she promised him that she
would not do so without his permission,--saying, however, at the
same time very openly that her happiness depended on such
permission being given to her. For two or three weeks not a word
further was said between her and her father on the subject, and
he had endeavoured to banish the subject from his mind,--feeling