"I think we shall ask him. But I am not prepared to discuss men's names as yet." "You must discuss them with the Duke immediately." "Probably;--but I had better discuss them with him before I fix my own mind by naming them even to you." "You'll bring Mr. Finn in, Plantagenet?" "Mr. Finn!" "Yes;--Phineas Finn,--the man who was tried." "My dear Cora, we haven't come down to that yet. We need not at any rate trouble ourselves about the small fishes till we are sure that we can get big fishes to join us." "I don't know why he should be a small fish. No man has done better than he has; and if you want a man to stick to you--" "I don't want a man to stick to me. I want a man to stick to his country." "You were talking about sympathy." "Well, yes;--I was. But do not name any one else just at present. The Duke will be here soon, and I would be alone till he comes." "There is one thing I want to say, Plantagenet." "What is it?" "One favour I want to ask." "Pray do not ask anything for any man just at present." "It is not anything for any man." "Nor for any woman." "It is for a woman,--but one whom I think you would wish to oblige." "Who is it?" Then she curtseyed, smiling at him drolly, and put her hand upon her breast. "Something for you! What on earth can you want that I can do for you?" "Will you do it,--if it be reasonable?" "If I think it reasonable, I certainly will do it." Then her manner changed altogether, and she became serious and almost solemn. "If, as I suppose, all the great places about her Majesty be changed, I should like to be Mistress of the Robes." "You!" said he, almost startled out of his usual quiet demeanour. "Why not I? Is not my rank high enough?" "You burden yourself with the intricacies and subserviences, with the tedium and pomposities of Court life! Cora, you do not know what you are talking about, or what you are proposing for yourself." "If I am willing to try to undertake a duty, why should I be debarred from it any more than you?" "Because I have put myself into a groove, and ground myself into a mould, and clipped and pared and pinched myself all round,--very ineffectually, as I fear,--to fit myself for this thing. You have lived as free as air. You have disdained,--and though I may have grumbled I have still been proud to see you disdain,--to wrap yourself in the swaddling bandages of Court life. You have ridiculed all those who have been near her Majesty as Court ladies." "The individuals, Plantagenet, perhaps; but not the office. I am getting older now, and I do not see why I should not begin a new life." She had been somewhat quelled by his unexpected energy, and was at the moment hardly able to answer him with her usual spirit.