I think there is a hitch about it,--and I think the Duchess is going to be made very angry." Throughout the autumn the Duke had been an unhappy man.

While the absolute work of the Session had lasted he had found something to console him; but now, though he was surrounded by private secretaries, and though dispatch-boxes went and came twice a day, though there were dozens of letters as to which he had to give some instruction,--yet, there was in truth nothing for him to do.

It seemed to him that all the real work of the Government had been filched from him by his colleagues, and that he was stuck up in pretended authority,--a kind of wooden Prime Minister, from whom no real ministration was demanded.

His first fear had been that he was himself unfit;--but now he was uneasy, fearing that others thought him to be unfit.

There was Mr.Monk with his budget, and Lord Drummond with his three or four dozen half rebellious colonies, and Sir Orlando Drought with the House to lead and a ship to build, and Phineas Finn with his scheme of municipal Home Rule for Ireland, and Lord Ramsden with a codified Statute Book,--all full of work, all with something special to be done.