in the same hands."

"That is consoling," said the lady. "I wonder if Lord Dudley would see
me. Perhaps not. Ministers do not love pretenders. I knew him when I
was not a pretender," added the lady, with the sweetest of smiles, "and
thought him agreeable. He was witty. Ah! Sidney, those were happy days.
I look back to the past with regret, but without remorse. One might have
done more good, but one did some;" and she sighed.

"You seemed to me," said Sidney with emotion, "to diffuse benefit and
blessings among all around you."

"And I read," said the lady, a little indignant, "in some memoirs the
other day, that our court was a corrupt and dissolute court. It was
a court of pleasure, if you like; but of pleasure that animated and
refined, and put the world in good humour, which, after all, is good
government. The most corrupt and dissolute courts on the continent
of Europe that I have known," said the lady, "have been outwardly the
dullest and most decorous."

"My memory of those days," said Mr. Wilton, "is of ceaseless grace and
inexhaustible charm."

"Well," said the lady, "if I sinned I have at least suffered. And I hope
they were only sins of omission. I wanted to see everybody happy,
and tried to make them so. But let us talk no more of ourselves. The
unfortunate are always egotistical. Tell me something of Mr. Wilton;
and, above all, tell me why you are not in the new government."

"I have not been invited," said Mr. Wilton. "There are more claimants