'Of course he ought to go into Parliament.'

'I think he wishes it himself.'

'Yes, but how? By a piece of extreme good fortune. West
Barsetshire is open to him. The two seats are vacant together.
There is hardly another agricultural county in England that will
return a Liberal, and I fear I am not asserting too much in saying
that no other Liberal could carry the seat but one of our family.'

'You used to sit for Silverbridge, papa.'

'Yes, I did. In those days the county returned four Conservatives.
I cannot explain it all to you, but it is his duty to contest the
county on the Liberal side.'

'But if he is a Conservative himself, papa?' asked Lady Mary, who
had some political ideas suggested to her own mind by her lover.

'It is all rubbish. It has come from that young man Tregear, with
whom he has been associating.'

'But, papa,' said Lady Mary, who felt that even in this matter she
was bound to be firm on what was now her side of the question. 'I
suppose it is as--as--as respectable to be a Conservative as a
Liberal.'

'I don't know that at all,' said the Duke angrily.