"I perceive, my Lord," said Dunn, with a peculiar smile, "the misfortune _is_ not irremediable."

"You are right, Dunn," said the other, promptly. "We have decided to accept a defeat, which, as our adversaries have never anticipated, will find them perfectly unprepared how to profit by it They will beat us, but, when called upon to form a Government, will be utterly unable.

The rest is easy enough: a new Parliament, and ourselves stronger than ever."

"A very clever countryman of mine once told me, my Lord, that he made a ruinous coach-line turn out a most lucrative speculation by simply running an opposition and breaking it; so true are the world in their attachment to success."

A hearty laugh from the Minister acknowledged the parallel, and he added carelessly,--

"Sir George Bosely has a story of a fellow who once established a run on his own bank just to get up his credit. A hit above even you, Master Dunn,--eh?"

If Dunn laughed, it was with a face of deepest crimson, though he saw, the while, his secret was safe. Indeed, the honest frankness of his Lordship's laugh guaranteed that all was well.

"The fellow ought to have been a Cabinet Minister, Dunn. He had the true governing element in him, which is a strong sense of human gullibility."

"A little more is needed, my Lord,--how to turn that flame tendency to profit."

"Of course,--of course. By the way, Dunn, though not _apropos_," said he, laughingly, "what of the great Glengariff scheme? Is it prospering?"

"The shares stand at one hundred and seventy-seven and an eighth, my Lord," said Dunn, calmly. "I can only wish your Lordship's party as favorable a fortune."

"Well, we are rather below par just now," said the Minister, laughing, while he busied himself to select another cigar from the heap before him.

"It was just about that very enterprise I came to speak to your Lordship this morning," said Dunn, drawing his chair closer. "I need not tell you how far the assurance of Government support has aided our success. The report of the Parliamentary Committee as to the Harbor of Refuge, the almost certain promise of her Majesty's marine residence, the flattering reception your Lordship gave to the deputation in the matter of the American packet-station, have all done us good and efficient service.

But we want more, my Lord,--we want more!"

"The deuce you do! Why, my good friend, these marks of our preference for your scheme have cost us some hundred angry addresses and recriminations from all parts of the kingdom, where, we are told, there is more picturesque scenery, more salubrious air, deeper water, and better anchorage. If you built a villa for every member of the Cabinet, and settled it on us in freehold there, it would not repay us for all we have suffered in your cause."

"We should be both proud and happy to accommodate your Lordship's colleagues on Jedburg Crescent," said Dunn, bowing with a well-assumed seriousness.

"But what do you want us to do?" said his Lordship, peevishly; for he had the dislike great men generally feel to have their joke capped. It is for them to be smart, if they please, but not for the Mr. Davenport Dunns of this world to take up the clew of the facetiousness.

Mr. Dunn seemed somewhat posed by the abrupt directness of this question. Lord Jedburg went on:--

"You surely never supposed that we could send you material assistance.

You are far too conversant with the working of our institutions to expect such. These things are possible in France, but they won't do here. No, Dunn; perfectly impossible here."

"And yet, my Lord, it is precisely in France that they ought to be impossible. Ministers in that country have no responsibility except towards their sovereign. If they become suddenly enriched, one sees at once how they have abused the confidence of their master."

"I'll not enter upon that question," said his Lordship, smartly. "Tell me, rather, something about Ireland; how shall we fare there in a general election?"

"With proper exertions you may be able to hold your own," was the dry rejoinder.

"Not more? Not any more than this?"

"Certainly not, my Lord, nor do I see how you could expect it. What you are in the habit of calling concessions to Irish interests have been little other than apologies for the blunders of your colleagues. You remove some burden imposed by yourselves, or express sorrow for some piece of legislation your own hands have inflicted--"

"Come, come, Mr. Dunn, the only course of lectures I attend are delivered in the House of Commons; besides, I have no time for these things." There was a tone of prompt decision in the way he uttered this that satisfied Dunn he had gone fully as far as was safe. "Now as to Ireland, we shall look for at least sixty, or perhaps seventy, sure votes. Come, where's your list, Dunn? Out with it, man! We are rather rich in patronage just now. We can make a Bishop, a Puisne Judge, three Assistant Barristers, a Poor Law Commissioner, not to say that there are some fifty smaller things in the Revenue. Which will you have?"

"All, my Lord," said Dunn, coolly,--"all, and some colonial appointments besides, for such of our friends as find living at home inexpedient."

His Lordship lay back in his chair, and laughed pleasantly. "There's Jamaica just vacant; would that suit you?"

"The Governorship? The very thing I want, and for a very old supporter of your Lordship's party."

"Who is he?"

"The Earl of Glengariff, my Lord, a nobleman who has never received the slightest acknowledgment for a political adherence of fifty-odd years."

"Why, the man must be in second childhood. If I remember aright, he was--"

"He is exactly four years your Lordship's senior; he says you fagged for him his last half at Eton."

"Pooh, pooh! he mistakes; it was of my father he was thinking. But to the point: what can he do for us?"

"I was alluding to what he had done, my Lord," said Dunn, pointedly.

"Ah, Dunn, we are not rich enough for gratitude. That is the last luxury of a 'millionnaire;' besides, you are aware how many claimants there will be for so good a thing as this."

"Which of them all, my Lord, can promise you ten votes in the Houses?"

"Well, is the bargain finished? Is all paid?"

"Not yet, my Lord; not yet You are averse to affording us any support to the Glengariff scheme, and, for the present, I will not hamper you with the consideration; you can, however, serve us in another way. Glumthal is very anxious about the Jew Bill; he wishes, Heaven knows why, to see his brother in the House. May I promise him that the next session will see it law? Let me just have your Lordship's word to that effect, so that I may telegraph to him when I leave this."

His Lordship shook his head dubiously, and said, "You forget that I have colleagues, Dunn."

"I remember it well, my Lord, and I only asked for your own individual pledge. The fact is, my Lord, the Jews throughout the world have attached an immense importance to this question; and if Glumthal--confidentially, of course--be made the depositary of the secret, it will raise him vastly in the estimation of his co-religionists."

"Let us see if the thing can be done. Is it practicable, and how?" "Oh, as to that, my Lord, modern legislation is carried on pretty much like a mercantile concern; you advertise your want, and it is supplied at once.

Ask the newspapers. 'How are we to admit the Jews?' and you 'll get your answer as regularly as though it were a question of sport addressed to 'Bell's Life.'"

"Candor being the order of the day, what does Mr. Davenport Dunn want for himself?"

"I am coming to him, my Lord, but not just yet."

"Why, really, Dunn, except that we turn Colonel Blood in your behalf, and steal the crown for you, I don't see what more we can do."

"It is a mere trifle in point of patronage, my Lord, though, in my ignorance of such matters, it may be, possibly, not without difficulty,"

said Dunn; and, for the first time, his manner betrayed a sign of embarrassment "The Earl of Glengariff has an only unmarried daughter, a lady of great personal attractions, and remarkably gifted in point of ability; one of those persons, in short, on whom Nature has set the stamp of high birth, and fitted to be the ornament of a Court."

"But we are all married in the Cabinet. Even the Treasury Lords have got wives," said Lord Jedburg, laughing, and enjoying the discomfiture of Dunn's face even more than his own jest.

"I am aware of it, my Lord," replied Dunn, with inflexible gravity; "my ambitious hopes did not aspire so highly. What I was about to entreat was your Lordship's assistance to have the lady I have mentioned appointed to a situation in the household,--one of her Majesty's ladies--"

"Impossible! perfectly impossible, Dunn!" said the Minister, flinging away his cigar in impatient anger; "really, you seem to have neither measure nor moderation in your demands. Such an interference on my part, if I were mad enough to attempt it, would meet a prompt rebuke."

"If your Lordship's patience had permitted me to finish, you would have heard that what I proposed was nothing beyond the barren honor of a 'Gazette.' On the day week that her Ladyship's name had so appeared she would be married."