Page:The Semi-attached Couple.djvu/136



really was what is commonly called a great man. To the advantages of being a Secretary of State and Leader of the House of Commons, he joined those of being a brilliant orator and a very agreeable member of society. He had offered himself as a visitor at St. Mary's, which lay within reach of the large commercial town which he represented, and in which Lord Teviot possessed considerable property. There was to be a public meeting, and the opening of a new bridge, and a launch of a large ship, and much good eating, and still better speaking, at which Mr. G. and Lord Teviot were to assist.

Mr. G. had been a youthful friend of the late Lord Teviot's, and the kindness which he received from the father he now repaid to the son. He had a high opinion of Lord Teviot's talents, founded more on the intimate knowledge he had attained in private life of the acuteness and straightforwardness of his mind, than on the two or three successful speeches he had made in the House of Lords; and Mr. G. was anxious to remove, by the stir of official life, the shadow that Lord Teviot's shyness or sensitiveness threw over his higher qualities.

"Come, Teviot," said Lord Beaufort at breakfast, "I'll bet you what you like that you are in office before this day three months."

"What am I to be? a clerk in the Foreign Office? I do not see any other opening."

"Oh, they will make an opening fast enough, if you will go in at it. They can shove off old Lisle to India, or make