Page:The council of seven.djvu/128

 right to be there, and Helen was quick to penetrate to that cold truth. On occasion, however, she could be mischievous, and by the end of a trying meal she had decided that the only fun that evening was likely to provide would consist in drawing the old lady out.

She fell back, therefore, on tracing relationships. In Helen's opinion, it was a poor game at best, but it served at least to keep the ball of conversation rolling in the drawing room. Lady Elizabeth's tree was immensely distinguished; she was the second daughter of no less a personage than the fourth Duke of Bridport.

"My father," said Lady Elizabeth, "had the name of a very clever man. But his own class never forgave him for introducing what was called The People's Charter in the House of Lords. He certainly thought too much of the workingman, gave him free education, cheap beer, and so on. My father's weakness for the masses made him innumerable enemies. People called him Brother Bridport or the Mad Duke. When he left the Tories and went over to Gladstone, even his lifelong friends turned against him, the dear Queen among them."

"So that was why he was called the Mad Duke!" said Helen. The deadly phrase used by Saul Hartz recurred to her vividly: madness in the mother's family. Was it possible that the charge was based merely on the reputation of the fourth duke of Bridport? Helen