"I do at any rate,--and, in a certain sense, I like authority. But in serving with the Duke I find a lack of that sympathy which one should have with one's chief. He would never say a word to me unless I spoke to him. And when I do speak, though he is studiously civil,--much too courteous,--I know that he is bored. He has nothing to say to me about the country. When he has anything to communicate, he prefers to write a minute for Warburton, who then writes to Morton,--and so it reaches me." "Doesn't it do as well?" "It may do with me. There are reasons which bind me to him, which will not bind other men. Men don't talk to me about it, because they know that I am bound to him through you. But I am aware of the feeling which exists. You can't be really loyal to a king if you never see him,--if he be always locked up in some almost divine recess." "A king may make himself too common, Phineas." "No doubt. A king has to know where to draw the line. But the Duke draws no intentional line at all. He is not by nature gregarious or communicative, and is therefore hardly fitted to be the head of a ministry." "It will break her heart if anything goes wrong." "She ought to remember that Ministries seldom live very long," said Phineas. "But she'll recover even if she does break her heart. She is too full of vitality to be much repressed by any calamity. Have you heard what is to be done about Silverbridge?" "The Duchess wants to get it for this man, Ferdinand Lopez." "But it has not been promised yet?" "The seat is not vacant," said Mrs. Finn, "and I don't know when it will be vacant. I think there is a hitch about it,--and I think the Duchess is going to be made very angry."