The Prime Minister

the Liberal and the other on the Conservative side⁠—and who were now among the Duke’s guests, in order that they and others might see how wide the Duke wished to open his hands. And there was our friend Ferdinand Lopez, who had certainly made the best use of his opportunities in securing for himself so great a social advantage as an invitation to Gatherum Castle. How could any father, who was simply a barrister, refuse to receive as his son-in-law a man who had been a guest at the Duke of Omnium’s country house? And then there were certain people from the neighbourhood;⁠—Frank Gresham of Greshamsbury, with his wife and daughter, the master of the hounds in those parts, a rich squire of old blood, and head of the family to which one of the aspirant Prime Ministers of the day belonged. And Lord Chiltern, another master of fox hounds, two counties off⁠—and also an old friend of ours⁠—had been asked to meet him, and had brought his wife. And there was Lady Rosina De Courcy, an old maid, the sister of the present Earl De Courcy, who lived not far off and had been accustomed to come to Gatherum Castle on state occasions for the last thirty years⁠—the only relic in those parts of a family which had lived there for many years in great pride of place; for her elder brother, the Earl, was a ruined man, and her younger brothers were living with their wives abroad, and her sisters had married, rather lowly in the world, and her mother now was dead, and Lady Rosina lived alone in a little cottage outside the old park palings, and still held fast within her bosom all the old pride of the De Courcys. And then there were Captain Gunner and Major Pountney, two middle-aged young men, presumably belonging to the army, whom the Duchess had lately enlisted among her followers as being useful in their way. They could eat their dinners without being shy, dance on occasions, though very unwillingly, talk a little, and run on messages;⁠—and they knew the peerage by heart, and could tell the details of every unfortunate marriage for the last twenty years. Each thought himself, especially since this last promotion, to be indispensably necessary to the formation of London society, and was comfortable in a conviction that he had thoroughly succeeded in life by acquiring the privilege of sitting down to dinner three times a week with peers and peeresses.

The list of guests has by no means been made as complete here as it was to be found in the county newspapers, and in the Morning Post of the time; but enough of names has been given to show of what nature was the party. “The Duchess has got rather a rough lot to begin with,” said the Major to the Captain.

“Oh, yes. I knew that. She wanted me to be useful, so of course I came. I shall stay here this week, and then be back in September.” Up to this moment Captain Gunner had not received any invitation for September, but then there was no reason why he should not do so.

“I’ve been getting up that archery code with her,” said Pountney, “and I was pledged to come down and set it going. That little Gresham girl isn’t a bad looking thing.”

“Rather flabby,” said Captain Gunner.

“Very nice colour. She’ll have a lot of money, you know.”

“There’s a brother,” said the Captain.

“Oh, yes; there’s a brother, who will have the Greshamsbury property, but she’s to have her mother’s money. There’s a very odd story about all that, you know.” Then the Major told the story, and told every particular of it wrongly. “A man might do worse than look there,” said the Major. A man might have done worse, because Miss Gresham was a very nice girl; but of course the Major was all wrong about the money.

“Well;⁠—now you’ve tried it, what do you think about it?” This question was put by Sir Timothy to Sir Orlando as they sat in a corner of the archery ground, under the shelter of a tent, looking on while Major Pountney taught Mrs. Boffin how to fix an arrow to her bowstring. It was quite understood that Sir Timothy was inimical to the Coalition though he still belonged to it, and that he would assist in breaking it up if only there were a fair chance of his belonging to the party which would remain in power. Sir Timothy had been badly treated, and did not forget it. Now Sir Orlando had also of late shown some symptoms of a disturbed ambition. He was the Leader of the House of Commons, and it had become an almost recognised law of the Constitution that the Leader of the House of Commons should be the First Minister of the Crown. It was at least understood by many that such was Sir Orlando’s reading of the laws of the Constitution.

“We’ve got along, you know,” said Sir Orlando.

“Yes;⁠—yes. We’ve got along. Can you imagine any possible concatenation of circumstances in which we should not get along? There’s always too much good sense in the House for an absolute collapse. But are you contented?”

“I won’t say I’m not,” said the cautious baronet. “I didn’t look for very great things from a Coalition, and I didn’t look for very great things from the Duke.”

“It seems to me that the one achievement to which we’ve all looked has been the reaching the end of the Session in safety. We’ve done that certainly.”

“It is a great thing to do, Sir Timothy. Of course the main work of Parliament is to raise supplies;⁠—and, when that has been done with ease, when all the money wanted has been voted without a breakdown, of course Ministers are very glad to get rid of the Parliament. It is as much a matter of course that a Minister should dislike Parliament now as that a Stuart King should