She, with an eagerness which might have been expected from her, had promised that she would slave for him, if slavery were necessary.

Then she had made her request, had been refused, and was now moody.

"The Duchess of -- -- is to be Mistress of the Robes," he said to her one day.

He had gone to her, up to her own room, before he dressed for dinner, having devoted much more time than as Prime Minister he ought to have done to a resolution that he would make things straight with her, and to the best way of doing it.
"So I am told.

She ought to know her way about the place, as I remember she was at the same work when I was a girl of eleven." "That's not so very long ago, Cora." "Silverbridge is older now than I was then, and I think that makes it a very long time ago." Lord Silverbridge was the Duke's eldest son.
"But what does it matter?
If she began her career in the time of George the Fourth, what is it to you ?" "Nothing on earth,--only that she did in truth begin her career in the time of George the Third.