The Duke, before he became a duke, had held very high office, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer.

When he was transferred, perforce, to the House of Lords, he had,--as is not uncommon in such cases,--accepted a lower political station.

This had displeased the Duchess, who was ambitious both on her own behalf and that of her lord,--and who thought that a Duke of Omnium should be nothing in the Government if not at any rate near the top.

But after that, with the simple and single object of doing some special piece of work for the nation,--something which he fancied that nobody else would do if he didn't do it,--his Grace, of his own motion, at his own solicitation, had encountered further official degradation, very much to the disgust of the Duchess.

And it was not the way with her Grace to hide such sorrows in the depth of her bosom.