Annabel was almost glad to see every one so unhappy. She had a perverse desire to say contradictious things. Her heart was heavy with fear, and it was burning with envy and jealousy. Kate's beauty, and Lord Exham's undisguised admiration, made her realise all the bitterness of failure. She wandered about making evil prophecies, or saying irritating truths, and watching Kate the while, till she was ready to cry out with mental pain and mortification. For the great Duke--never insensible to female loveliness--had given Kate his arm, and was walking about the parlours with her. Why had such honour not fallen to her lot? Never had she been so desirous to lead, to be admired, to enforce her eminent fitness to wear the Richmoor coronet. Never had she so signally failed. Even her wit had deserted her; she said _malapropos_ clever things, and got snubbed for them. In her anger, and fear, and disappointment, she wished Reform _might_ make a clean sweep of such a selfish crowd of so-called nobility. She had arrived at that point when her misery demanded company. About ten o'clock, the Duke and Lord Exham returned. The large lofty rooms, with their moving throngs of splendidly attired men and women, were yet crowded; but their atmosphere was charged with an electric tension, generated by the unusual pitch to which every one's thoughts, and feelings, and words were set. Many were almost hysterical; some had subsided into mere waiting, conscious of requiring all their strength for simple endurance of the suspense; others, more hopeful, were restless and watching,--but all alike became instantly and breathlessly silent as the two men appeared. For a moment no one spoke; then the Duke of Wellington asked, with an assumption of cheerfulness, "What news? Has the Bill been read?" "It has been read," answered Richmoor. "Lord John Russell introduced it in a speech lasting more than two hours." "And pray what are its provisions." "This infamous Bill proposes that every borough of less than two thousand inhabitants shall lose the right to send a member to Parliament." "What a scandalous robbery of our privileges!" ejaculated some one of the listeners. "It is nothing else!" answered the Duke. "It robs me of the gift of seven boroughs." "What excuse did he make for such an act?"