Parliament, and, as many thought, a rising man. His father had
been for many years a debater in the House, and had held high
office. Harold, in early life, had intended himself for the
Cabinet; and if working hard at his trade could ensure success, he
ought to obtain it sooner or later. He had already filled more
than one subordinate station, had been at the Treasury, and for a
month or two, at the Admiralty, astonishing official mankind by his
diligence. Those last-named few months had been under Lord Aberdeen,
with whom he had been forced to retire. He was a younger son, and
not possessed of any large fortune. Politics, as a profession,
was, therefore, of importance to him. He had in early life married
a sister of Mr Sowerby; and as the lady was some six or seven years
older than himself, and had brought with her but a scanty dowry,
people thought that in this matter Mr Harold Smith had not been
perspicacious. Mr Harold Smith was not personally a popular man
with any party, though some judged him to be eminently useful. He
was laborious, well-informed, and, on the whole, honest; but he was
conceited, long-winded, and pompous.

Mrs Harold Smith was the very opposite of her lord. She was a
clever, bright woman, good-looking for her time of life--and she
was now over forty--with a keen sense of all the world's
pleasures. She was neither laborious, nor well-informed, nor
perhaps altogether honest--what woman ever understood the
necessity or recognised the advantage of political honesty? But
then she was neither dull nor pompous, and if she was conceited,
she did not show it. She was a disappointed woman, as regards her
husband; seeing that she had married him on the speculation that he
would at once become politically important; and as yet Mr Smith had
not quite fulfilled the prophecies of his early life.