“You seem to bear up under it wonderfully.” “Don’t I? You can come to the wedding, if you’ll promise not to look too woebegone.” “I sha’n’t come. I shall send you an inexpensive present with black edges to it.” “So long as it isn’t _entrée_ dishes. We’ve tons of them already. I thought I’d mention it, because one knows how your tastes lie.” The great man squeezed lemon on to the last of his oysters, and ate it with a satisfied nod of the head. “Date fixed?” he asked. “If it is, break the sad news to me gently. Don’t be too cruel.” “The date’s fixed within limits. We’ve bought a place to live in: and, if it’s ready, we shall be married the day I come of age.” “Bought a place, have you? Come, this looks like business. Where is it? Got a good cook? Any shooting? Going to ask me down? Because, if you do, I’ll come and teach you how to make me comfortable.” “Yes, I believe you could do that last. Those papers which don’t call you the Pope of Politics every morning, say you’re the most incapable man in Britain in most matters; but I never heard that the most vicious of them ever accused you of living in discomfort. You’ve a wonderful knack of looking after yourself.” “Haven’t I? Don’t spoil your health with salted almonds; nibble one of these Riviera olives. Life is made for suiting your own tastes as much as possible, and, where practical, making your neighbors pay for them. Why isn’t Fairfax here to-night? Are we all too big for him?” “Hamilton is away on business, looking after the place we’re going to buy in Kent. I shall see him later. But just now I’m having a holiday,” said Miss Rivers. “I wanted to flirt with you. You’re safe and amusing—amusing, that is, when you keep off the _menu_. Where are you going to after here to-night?” “Oh, to a horrible political thing, where we shall all be good, and talk humbug, and be bored to death. If I hadn’t chanced to be in the Cabinet, I should probably have gone to see a prize-fight.” His eye traveled down the table to where Theodore Shelf was looking saintly, with his head on one side, and washing his large white hands with invisible soap. “I’d chance it, my dear, and go, if I thought I could manage to meet——” Amy Rivers had followed his glance. She turned to him with a demure smile. “Well,” she said, “who?” “Oh, just one or two of my colleagues on the same side of the House. Hang it all, Amy, the fellows can’t always be what they set up for in front of their clients.” Miss Rivers laughed. “You’re a bold, bad lot,” she said. “I know I shall see you in the police-court one of these days for breaking lamp-posts, or running away with a hansom cab. There’s a vein of wickedness in you that’s completely thrown away in a Cabinet Minister.” His lordship grinned, and turned to Mrs. Shelf. He admired Mrs. Shelf because she was an extremely handsome woman. He rather dreaded her just now, because he knew she wanted something out of him. And he had to talk to her because it was policy to do so.