He had studied Dante, and had striven to arouse himself to ecstatic joy amidst the loveliness of the Italian lakes.

But through it all he had been aware that he had failed.

The Duchess had made no such resolution,--had hardly, perhaps, made any attempt; but, in truth, they had both sighed to be back among the war-trumpets.

They had both suffered much among the trumpets, and yet they longed to return.

He told himself from day to day, that though he had been banished from the House of Commons, still, as a peer, he had a seat in Parliament, and that, though he was no longer a minister, still he might be useful as a legislator.