They always had a leaning to each other, and now I hear they pass
their time between the steps of the Carlton and Reform Clubs.'

'But what am I to do? One must be Patronage Secretary, no
doubt.'

'They're both good men in their way, you know.'

'But why do they come to me with their mouths open, like dogs
craving a bone? It used not to be so. Of course men were always
anxious for office as they are now.'

'Well; yes. We've heard of that before to-day, I think.'

'But I don't think any man ever ventured to ask Mr Mildmay.'

'Time has done much for him in consolidating his authority, and
perhaps the present world is less reticent in its eagerness than
it was in his younger days. I doubt, however, whether it is more
dishonest, and whether struggles were not made quite as
disgraceful to the strugglers as anything that is done now. You
can't alter the men, and you must use them.' The younger Duke
sat down and sighed over the degenerate patriotism of the age.

But at last even the Rattlers and Robys were fixed, if not
satisfied, and a complete list of the ministry appeared in all
the newspapers. Though the thing had been long a-doing, still it
had come suddenly,--so that the first proposition to form a
coalition ministry, the newspapers had hardly known whether to
assist or to oppose the scheme. There was no doubt, in the minds