himself seemed to be the one person unmoved by his exploit. He did not
re-appear in the Upper Chamber, and was heard to speak in slighting
terms of its architecture, as well as of its upholstery. Nevertheless,
the Prime Minister became so nervous that he procured for him, a month
later, the Sovereign's offer of a Garter which had just fallen vacant.
The Duke accepted it. He was, I understand, the only undergraduate on
whom this Order had ever been conferred. He was very much pleased with
the insignia, and when, on great occasions, he wore them, no one dared
say that the Prime Minister's choice was not fully justified. But you
must not imagine that he cared for them as symbols of achievement and
power. The dark blue riband, and the star scintillating to eight
points, the heavy mantle of blue velvet, with its lining of taffeta
and shoulder-knots of white satin, the crimson surcoat, the great
embullioned tassels, and the chain of linked gold, and the plumes of
ostrich and heron uprising from the black velvet hat--these things had
for him little significance save as a fine setting, a finer setting
than the most elaborate smoking-suit, for that perfection of aspect
which the gods had given him. This was indeed the gift he valued
beyond all others. He knew well, however, that women care little for a
man's appearance, and that what they seek in a man is strength of
character, and rank, and wealth. These three gifts the Duke had in a
high degree, and he was by women much courted because of them.
Conscious that every maiden he met was eager to be his Duchess, he had
assumed always a manner of high austerity among maidens, and even if
he had wished to flirt with Zuleika he would hardly have known how to
do it. But he did not wish to flirt with her. That she had bewitched
him did but make it the more needful that he should shun all converse
with her. It was imperative that he should banish her from his mind,
quickly. He must not dilute his own soul's essence. He must not
surrender to any passion his dandihood. The dandy must be celibate,