suppose I shall know all about it then, and shall have found that
my basket of crockery has been kicked over and everything
smashed.'



CHAPTER 7

ANOTHER OLD FRIEND.

At about nine the Duke returned, and was eating his very simple
dinner in the breakfast-room,--a beefsteak and a potato, with a
glass of sherry and Apollinaris water. No man more easily
satisfied as to what he eat and drank lived in London in those
days. As regarded the eating and drinking he dined alone, but
his wife sat with him and waited on him, having sent the servant
out of the room. 'I have told her Majesty I would do the best I
could,' said the Duke.

'Then you are Prime Minister.'

'Not at all. Mr Daubney is Prime Minister. I have undertaken to
form a ministry, if I find it practicable, with the assistance of
such friends as I possess, I never felt before that I had to lean
so entirely on others as I do now.'

'Lean on yourself only. Be enough for yourself.'

'Those are empty words, Cora;--words that are quite empty. In
one sense a man should always be enough for himself. He should