"Exactly," said the Duke coldly, "the Duchess and I have realised that it
is we who provide the material out of which this great far-reaching
industry has been built up. Widespread employment will be given and
enormous profits made during the duration of the case, and we, on whom
all the stress and racket falls, will get--what? An unenviable notoriety
and the privilege of paying heavy legal expenses whichever way the
verdict goes. Hence our decision to strike. We don't wish to be
reconciled; we fully realise that it is a grave step to take, but unless
we get some reasonable consideration out of this vast stream of wealth
and industry that we have called into being we intend coming out of court
and staying out. Good afternoon."

The news of this latest strike spread universal dismay. Its
inaccessibility to the ordinary methods of persuasion made it peculiarly
formidable. If the Duke and Duchess persisted in being reconciled the
Government could hardly be called on to interfere. Public opinion in the
shape of social ostracism might be brought to bear on them, but that was
as far as coercive measures could go. There was nothing for it but a
conference, with powers to propose liberal terms. As it was, several of
the foreign witnesses had already departed and others had telegraphed
cancelling their hotel arrangements.

The conference, protracted, uncomfortable, and occasionally acrimonious,
succeeded at last in arranging for a resumption of litigation, but it was
a fruitless victory. The Duke, with a touch of his earlier precocity,
died of premature decay a fortnight before the date fixed for the new
trial.