To win support by smiles when his heart was bitter within him would never be within the power of her husband.

He could never be brought to buy an enemy by political gifts,--would never be prone to silence his keenest opponent by making him his right hand supporter.
But the other lesson was easier and might she thought be learned.
Power is so pleasant that men quickly learn to be greedy in the enjoyment of it, and to flatter themselves that patriotism requires them to be imperious.

She would be constant with him day and night to make him understand that his duty to his country required him to be in very truth its chief ruler.

And then with some knowledge of things as they are,--and also with much ignorance,--she reflected that he had at his command a means of obtaining popularity and securing power, which had not belonged to his immediate predecessors, and had perhaps never to the same extent been at the command of any minister in England.

His wealth as Duke of Omnium had been great; but hers, as available for immediate purposes, had been greater even than his.
After some fashion, of which she was profoundly ignorant, her own property was separated from his and reserved to herself and her children.