“Fie, Mr Crosbie!”

“What business has she to interfere with me?”

“But I mean to ask the same question that she asked, and you won’t put me off with a cock-and-bull story like that.”  But then, as she was going to ask the question, dinner was announced.

“And is it true that De Guest has been tossed by a bull?” said the earl, as soon as the ladies were gone.  He had spoken nothing during dinner except what words he had muttered into the ear of Lady Dumbello.  It was seldom that conversation had many charms for him in his own house; but there was a savour of pleasantry in the idea of Lord De Guest having been tossed, by which even he was tickled.

“Only knocked down, I believe,” said Crosbie.

“Ha, ha, ha!” growled the earl; then he filled his glass, and allowed some one else to pass the bottle.  Poor man!  There was not much left to him now in the world which did amuse him.

“I don’t see anything to laugh at,” said Plantagenet Palliser, who was sitting at the earl’s right hand, opposite to Lord Dumbello.

“Don’t you?” said the earl.  “Ha, ha, ha!”

“I’ll be shot if I do.  From all I hear De Guest is an uncommon good farmer.  And I don’t see the joke of tossing a farmer merely because he’s a nobleman also.  Do you?” and he turned round to Mr Gazebee, who was sitting on the other side.  The earl was an earl, and was also Mr Gazebee’s father-in-law.  Mr Plantagenet Palliser was the heir to a dukedom.  Therefore, Mr Gazebee merely simpered, and did not answer the question put to him.  Mr Palliser said nothing more about it, nor did the earl; and then the joke died away.

Mr Plantagenet Palliser was the Duke of Omnium’s heir,—­heir to that nobleman’s title and to his enormous wealth; and, therefore, was a man of mark in the world.  He sat in the House of Commons, of course.  He was about five-and-twenty years of age, and was, as yet, unmarried.  He did not hunt or shoot or keep a yacht, and had been heard to say that he had never put a foot upon a race-course in his life.  He dressed very quietly, never changing the colour or form of his garments; and in society was quiet, reserved, and very often silent.  He was tall, slight, and not ill-looking; but more than this cannot be said for his personal appearance—­except, indeed, this, that no one could mistake him for other than a gentleman.  With his uncle, the duke, he was on good terms;—­that is to say, they had never quarrelled.  A very liberal allowance had been made to the nephew; but the two relatives had no tastes in common, and did not often meet.  Once a year Mr Palliser visited the duke at his great country seat for two or three days, and usually dined with him two or three times during the season in London.  Mr Palliser sat for a borough which was absolutely under the duke’s command; but had accepted his seat under the distinct understanding that he was to take whatever part in politics might seem good to himself.  Under these well-understood arrangements, the duke and his heir showed to the world quite a pattern of a happy family.  “So different to the earl and Lord Porlock!” the people of West Barsetshire used to say.  For the estates, both of the duke and of the earl, were situated in the western division of that county.