The Duchess had not, as she declared, sought an interview with Sir Robert, but Sir Robert had sent to speak to her. She found it was the old subject, the trust-money, and she listened to him patiently. Sir Robert wanted to borrow two hundred thousand pounds, which he owned would be of great service to him. But when he pretended that he requested this loan from the Duchess and her family in preference to others, for their advantage, the high-spirited lady was not to be deceived. Her anger rose at the attempt to delude her. Lord Godolphin, her son-in-law, had lost by lending to Sir Robert at such low interest, and the Duchess was aware, how “impossible it was for Sir Robert to have the appearance of sinking the public debt, if she had not consented to lend him the trust-money.”[327] It is scarcely necessary to recal to the reader’s recollection, that before this period the formation of the sinking fund had taken place; and, as of this treasure the nation was to be relieved from the national debt, members of both houses were solicitous individually to raise large sums upon the people, not only on account of the credit they acquired by aiding a scheme then popular, but also because they exacted from government a large share of the dividend.[328] The Duchess despised and distrusted Sir Robert Walpole; and his anxiety to obtain the sum, and his duplicity in pretending that it was for the advantage of those for whom the Duchess held the money in trust that his disinterested advice proceeded, irritated his shrewd, and irritable, and experienced listener; and after much formality and great coldness, a warm explanation between Sir Robert and the Duchess took place. The interview might have ended with the ceremony in which it began, but for one expression of the minister, namely, “that he should be always ready to serve her.” This was the first time, since he had been a great man, that Sir Robert had offended the Duchess by such condescension, and it produced, what possibly he desired, a scornful enumeration of all the favours which the Duchess had ever required from him, and of the manner in which those demands had been received. Sir Robert laughed—laughed either with anger or contempt, the Duchess knew not which; but she knew that his laugh was expressive of one or other of those passions. However, he would not allow that her grace had anything to complain of; and said that she had enumerated trifles, and provoked, of course, a burst of invective. “Great men,” retorted the Duchess, “seldom heard the truth, because those who spoke to them generally wanted their favour; and when anybody told them the truth, they always thought that person mad. Whenever,” added the Duchess, “Sir Robert should wish to hear the truth, she should be happy to see him again; that she had now vented her anger, and she could talk to him easily on other subjects.” Sir Robert proved to be patience itself; he had a little more discourse with his