“Except a place in the viceregal household, perhaps. I don't imagine you want gold-medallists for your gentlemen-in-waiting?” “We have some monstrous clever fellows, let me tell you. Halkett made a famous examination at Sandhurst, and Jocelyn wrote that article in 'Bell's Life,' 'The Badger Drawn at Last.'” “To come back to where we were, how are you to square matters with the Chief Baron? Are you going to law with him about this appointment, or are you about to say that _I_ am the objection? Let me have a definite answer to this question.” “We have not fully decided; we think of doing either, and we sometimes incline to do both. At all events, we are not to have it; that's the only thing certain.” “Have you got a cigar? No, not these things; I mean something that can be smoked.” “Try this,” said Balfour, offering his case. “They 're the same as those on the chimney. I must say, Balfour, the traditional hospitalities of the Castle are suffering in their present hands. When I dined here the last time I was in town, they gave me two glasses of bad sherry and one glass of a corked Gladstone; and I came to dinner that day after reading in Barrington all about the glorious festivities of the Irish Court in the olden days of Richmond and Bedford.” “Lady Trafford insists that your names--your wife's as well as your own--are to be scratched from the dinner-list. Sir Hugh has three votes in the House, and she bullies us to some purpose, I can tell you. I can't think how you could have made this woman so much your enemy. It is not dislike,--it is hatred.” “Bad luck, I suppose,” said Sewell, carelessly. “She seems so inveterate too; she'll not give you up, very probably.” “Women generally don't weary in this sort of pursuit.” “Couldn't you come to some kind of terms? Couldn't you contrive to let her know that you have no designs on her boy? You've won money of him, have n't you?” “I have some bills of his,--not for a very large amount, though; you shall have them a bargain.” “I seldom speculate,” was the dry rejoinder. “You are right; nor is this the case to tempt you.” “They 'll be paid, I take it?” “Paid! I'll swear they shall!” said Sewell, fiercely. “I'll stand a deal of humbug about dinner invitations, and cold salutations, and such-like; but none, sir, not one, about what touches a material interest.” “It's not worth being angry about,” said Balfour, who was really glad to see the other's imperturbability give way. “I'm not angry. I was only a little impatient, as a man may be when he hears a fellow utter a truism as a measure of encouragement. Tell your friends--I suppose I must call them your friends--that they make an egregious mistake when they push a man like me to the wall. It is intelligible enough in a woman to do it; women don't measure their malignity, nor their means of gratifying it; but _men_ ought to know better.” “I incline to think I'll tell my 'friends' nothing whatever on the subject.”