“Or to her,” said Mr. Gresham.  To this remark from the rising Minister of the day, no word of reply was made; but of those present in the room three or four of the most experienced servants of the Crown felt that Mr. Gresham had been imprudent.  The Duke, who had. ever been afraid of Mr. Gresham, told Mr. Palliser afterwards that such an observation should not have been made; and Sir Harry Coldfoot pondered upon it uneasily, and Sir Marmaduke Morecombe asked Mr. Mildmay what he thought about it.  “Times change so much, and with the times the feelings of men,” said Mr. Mildmay.  But I doubt whether Sir Marmaduke quite understood him.

There was silence in the room for a moment or two after Mr. Gresham had spoken, and then Mr. Mildmay again addressed his friends.  “Of course it may be possible that my Lord de Terrier may foresee difficulties, or may find difficulties which will oblige him, either at once, or after an attempt has been made, to decline the task which her Majesty will probably commit to him.  All of us, no doubt, know that the arrangement of a government is not the most easy task in the world; and that it is not made the more easy by an absence of a majority in the House of Commons.”

“He would dissolve, I presume,” said the Duke.

“I should say so,” continued Mr. Mildmay.  “But it may not improbably come to pass that her Majesty will feel herself obliged to send again for some one or two of us, that we may tender to her Majesty the advice which we owe to her;—­for me, for instance, or for my friend the Duke.  In such a matter she would be much guided probably by what Lord de Terrier might have suggested to her.  Should this be so, and should I be consulted, my present feeling is that we should resume our offices so that the necessary business of the session should be completed, and that we should then dissolve Parliament, and thus ascertain the opinion of the country.  In such case, however, we should of course meet again.”

“I quite think that the course proposed by Mr. Mildmay will be the best,” said the Duke, who had no doubt already discussed the matter with his friend the Prime Minister in private.  No one else said a word either of argument or disagreement, and the Cabinet Council was broken up.  The old messenger, who had been asleep in his chair, stood up and bowed as the Ministers walked by him, and then went in and rearranged the chairs.

“He has as much idea of giving up as you or I have,” said Lord Cantrip to his friend Mr. Gresham, as they walked arm-in-arm together from the Treasury Chambers across St. James’s Park towards the clubs.

“I am not sure that he is not right,” said Mr. Gresham.

“Do you mean for himself or for the country?” asked Lord Cantrip.

“For his future fame.  They who have abdicated and have clung to their abdication have always lost by it.  Cincinnatus was brought back again, and Charles V. is felt to have been foolish.  The peaches of retired ministers of which we hear so often have generally been cultivated in a constrained seclusion;—­or at least the world so believes.”  They were talking probably of Mr. Mildmay, as to whom some of his colleagues had thought it probable, knowing that he would now resign, that he would have to-day declared his intention of laying aside for ever the cares of office.