'If I am willing to try to undertake a duty, why should I be
debarred from it any more than you?'

'Because I have put myself into a groove, and ground myself into
a mould, and clipped and pared and pinched myself all round,--
very ineffectually, as I fear,--to fit myself for this thing.
You have lived as free as air. You have disdained,--and though
I may have grumbled I have still been proud to see you disdain,--
to wrap yourself in the swaddling bandages of Court life. You
have ridiculed all those who have been near her Majesty as Court
ladies.'

'The individuals, Plantagenet, perhaps, but not the office. I am
getting older now, and I do not see why I should not begin a new
life.' She had been somewhat quelled by the unexpected energy,
and was at the moment hardly able to answer him with her usual
spirit.

'Do not think of it, my dear. You asked whether your rank was
high enough. It must be so, as there is, as it happens, none
higher. But your position, should it come to pass that your
husband is the head of Government, will be too high. I may say
that in no condition should I wish to my wife to be subject to
other restraint than that which is common to all married women.
I should not choose that she should have any duties unconnected
with our joint family and home. But as First Minister of the
Crown I would altogether object to her holding an office believed
to be at my disposal.' She looked at him with her large eyes
wide open, and then left him without a word. She had no other
way of showing her displeasure, for she knew that when he spoke