Dinner at Matching Priory Alice found herself seated near to Lady Glencora's end of the table, and, in spite of her resolution to like Mr Palliser, she was not sorry that such an arrangement had been made.

Mr Palliser had taken the Duchess out to dinner, and Alice wished to be as far removed as possible from her Grace.

She found herself seated between her bespoken friend Jeffrey Palliser and the Duke, and as soon as she was seated Lady Glencora introduced her to her second neighbour.

"My cousin, Duke," Lady Glencora said, "and a terrible Radical." "Oh, indeed; I'm glad of that.

We're sadly in want of a few leading Radicals, and perhaps I may be able to gain one now." Alice thought of her cousin George, and wished that he, instead of herself, was sitting next to the Duke of St Bungay.