"I don't know that we ever had anybody at the same time rich enough to do this kind of thing as it is done now," said Boffin, "and powerful enough to get such people together. If the country can be ruled by flowers and looking-glasses, of course it is very well." "Flowers and looking-glasses won't prevent the country being ruled well," said Lopez. "I'm not so sure of that," continued Boffin. "We all know what bread and the games came to in Rome." "What did they come to?" asked Mrs. Boffin. "To a man burning Rome, my dear, for his amusement, dressed in a satin petticoat and a wreath of roses." "I don't think the Duke will dress himself like that," said Mrs. Boffin. "And I don't think," said Lopez, "that the graceful expenditure of wealth in a rich man's house has any tendency to demoralise the people." "The attempt here," said Boffin severely, "is to demoralise the rulers of the people. I am glad to have come once to see how the thing is done; but as an independent member of the House of Commons I should not wish to be known to frequent the saloon of the Duchess." Then Mr. Boffin took away Mrs. Boffin, much to that lady's regret. "This is fairy land," said Lopez to the Duchess, as he left the room. "Come and be a fairy then," she answered, very graciously. "We are always on the wing about this hour on Wednesday night." The words contained a general invitation for the season, and were esteemed by Lopez as an indication of great favour. It must be acknowledged of the Duchess that she was prone to make favourites, perhaps without adequate cause; though it must be conceded to her that she rarely altogether threw off from her any one whom she had once taken to her good graces. It must also be confessed that when she had allowed herself to hate either a man or a woman, she generally hated on to the end. No Paradise could be too charming for her friends; no Pandemonium too frightful for her enemies. In reference to Mr. Lopez she would have said, if interrogated, that she had taken the man up in obedience to her husband. But in truth she had liked the look and the voice of the man. Her husband before now had recommended men to her notice and kindness, whom at the first trial she had rejected from her good-will, and whom she had continued to reject ever afterwards, let her husband's urgency be what it might.