"And some men are so d---- lucky!" This fellow, Lopez, had absolutely been allowed to make a good score off his own intractable disobedience.
The Duchess's little joke about the Ministers generally, and the advantages of submission on their part to their chief, was thought by some who heard it not to have been made in good taste.

The joke was just such a joke as the Duchess would be sure to make,--meaning very little but still not altogether pointless.

It was levelled rather at her husband than at her husband's colleagues who were present, and was so understood by those who really knew her,--as did Mrs.Finn, and Mr.Warburton, the private secretary.

But Sir Orlando and Sir Timothy and Mr.Rattler, who were all within hearing, thought that the Duchess had intended to allude to the servile nature of their position; and Mr.Boffin, who heard it, rejoiced within himself, comforting himself with the reflection that his withers were unwrung, and thinking with what pleasure he might carry the anecdote into the farthest corners of the clubs.

Poor Duchess! 'Tis pitiful to think that after such Herculean labours she should injure the cause by one slight unconsidered word, more, perhaps, than she had advanced it by all her energy.
During this time the Duke was at the Castle, but he showed himself seldom to his guests,--so acting, as the reader will I hope understand, from no sense of the importance of his own personal presence, but influenced by a conviction that a public man should not waste his time.