"To be told within the same half-hour by two men that I had made promises to each of them inconsistent with each other!" "Who were the two men ?" "Mr.Rattler and Mr.Roby." "I am assured that they are inseparable since the work was begun.
They always had a leaning to each other, and now I hear they pass their time between the steps of the Carlton and Reform Clubs." "But what am I to do?
One must be Patronage Secretary, no doubt." "They're both good, men in their way, you know." "But why do they come to me with their mouths open, like dogs craving a bone?
It used not to be so.

Of course men were always anxious for office as they are now." "Well; yes.

We've heard of that before to-day, I think." "But I don't think any man ever ventured to ask Mr.Mildmay." "Time had done much for him in consolidating his authority, and perhaps the present world is less reticent in its eagerness than it was in his younger days.

I doubt, however, whether it is more dishonest, and whether struggles were not made quite as disgraceful to the strugglers as anything that is done now.

You can't alter the men, and you must use them." The younger Duke sat down and sighed over the degenerate patriotism of the age.
But at last even the Rattlers and Robys were fixed, if not satisfied, and a complete list of the ministry appeared in all the newspapers.
Though the thing had been long a-doing, still it had come suddenly,--so that at the first proposition to form a coalition ministry, the newspapers had hardly known whether to assist or to oppose the scheme.