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40 But, talking of trouble, I wish, instead of loitering here, you would come and pay your respects to Sir Robert." Sir Robert stood to receive his guests on the portico, which gave a pleasant shelter and coolness to the front of the house. A large hall, filled with odoriferous shrubs, opened behind, and gave a fine view of the river and the opposite bank. Sir Robert was now at the very summit of worldly prosperity. He stood fast in the king's favour; and what, under the rose, was of far more consequence, in the queen's. There was peace abroad, and a ministerial majority in the house at home. In short, the old Scotch secretary, Johnstone, might well put the question to his master, which he had asked that very morning,—"O, sir, what have you done to God Almighty, to make him so much your friend?" Henrietta could not help shivering at the air of solemn submission that Lord Marchmont assumed as he ascended the steps of the terrace. In anybody else she would have smiled; but the absurdity of your husband