my life,--I'd listen to every debate in the House myself,--to
have Plantagenet Prime Minister. I like to be busy. Well now,
if it does come off--'

'It isn't settled, then?'

'How can one hope that a single journey will settle it, when
those other men have been going backwards and forwards between
Windsor and London, like buckets in a well, for the last three
weeks? But if it is settled, I mean to have a cabinet of my own,
and I mean that you shall do the foreign affairs.'

'You'd better let me be at the exchequer. I'm very good at
accounts.'

'I'll do that myself. The accounts that I intend to set a-going
would frighten anyone less audacious. And I mean to be my own
home secretary, and to keep my own conscience,--and to be my own
master of the ceremonies certainly. I think a small cabinet gets
on best. Do you know,--I should like to put the Queen down.'

'What on earth do you mean?'

'No treason; nothing of that kind. But I should like to make
Buckingham Palace second-rate; and I'm not quite sure but I can.
I dare say you don't quite understand me.'

'I don't think that I do, Lady Glen.'

'You will some of these days. Come in to-morrow before lunch. I