clenching her own fist.

'I will not even close a finger on it with any personal
ambition,' said the Duke. 'If I could be relieved from the
burden of this moment, it would be an ease to my heart. I
remember once,' he said,--and as he spoke he again put his arm
around her waist, 'when I was debarred from taking office, by a
domestic circumstance.'

'I remember that too,' she said, speaking very gently and looking
up at him.

'It was a grief to me at the time, though it turned out so well,
--because the office then suggested to me was one which I thought
I could fill with credit to the country. I believed in myself
then, as far as that work went. But for this attempt I have no
belief in myself. I doubt whether I have any gift for governing
men.'

'It will come.'

'It may be that I must try;--and it may be that I must break my
heart because I fail. But I shall make the attempt if I am
directed to do so in any manner that shall seem feasible. I must
be off now. The Duke is to be here this evening. They had
better have dinner ready for me whenever I may be able to eat
it.' Then he took his departure before she could say another
word.

When the Duchess was alone she took to thinking of the whole