"To-morrow is my birthday, Thomas; and as you always make me a present on that occasion, I want you, this year, to let me choose for myself what it shall be." "Certainly, Matilda. I shall be most happy for you to do so." "That noble heart of yours! What I want is that you shall take me to Long Acre, and buy me a new carriage." "Good gracious, Matilda!" "As the wife of the member for Pembridge, I could not think of being seen about London in a hired brougham; neither, I am sure, would you wish me to do anything so paltry." "But the landau at Stammars--if painted and furbished up----" "A market-cart, my dear--neither more nor less than a market-cart," cried Lady Dudgeon. "I should be the laughing-stock of the Park. No; if you cannot afford me a new brougham out of your legacy, why, I'll go about in a hansom. I'd far rather do that than be seen in one of those horrid livery-stable abominations, which always put me in mind of fevers and other dreadful things." When in London, Sir Thomas was always one of the most wretched of men; indeed, a town of any kind was to him a place to be escaped from as quickly as possible. To him it was ever a mystery how people could be found to dwell contentedly for years among acres of brick and mortar, inhaling diluted smoke, and leading lives that were one perpetual round of noise, turmoil, and confusion. He had not been in London more than three days before there came over him a longing, that was almost painful in its intensity, to get clean away out of sight of it--out of hearing of it--if only for a few hours. Taking advantage of a visit of his wife to her milliner, he stole out of the house--and he really felt as if he were doing something that he ought not to do--and a swift hansom soon set him down at "Jack Straw's Castle." A long stretch through the valley on the other side of the Hampstead hills, amid the sights and sounds of country life, sent him back to Harley Street a happier man for the time being. But the watch which her ladyship kept over him did not allow of a too frequent indulgence in such forbidden luxuries. "I hope, my dear, that you will not be long before you decide as to the particular question that you intend to make your own this session," she said to her husband one morning, about a fortnight after the opening of Parliament. "Really, my dear," said Sir Thomas, insinuatingly, "everything is so strange to me just at present--the forms of the House, and all that, you know--that I have hardly had time to give my mind to anything else." "Just so, my love. Of course, every allowance must be made for that. But still I think you ought to be preparing--working up a subject, mastering the details, and so on. What do you say to the Sugar Duties, now? That is a topic about which the public are likely to be greatly interested before long. Or Indian Finance? That is a fruitful subject." "But, then, I know absolutely nothing about either of them."