"My dear Lady Glen, I cannot allow that to pass without contradiction."
"Do not suppose that I am finding fault, or even that I am ungrateful. No one rejoiced as I rejoiced. No one still feels so much pride in it as I feel. I would have given ten years of my life to make him Prime Minister, and now I would give five to keep him so. It is like it was to be king, when men struggled among themselves who should be king. Whatever he may be, I am ambitious. I love to think that other men should look to him as being above them, and that something of this should come down upon me as his wife. I do not know whether it was not the happiest moment of my life when he told me that the Queen had sent for him."
"It was not so with him."
"No, Duke,—no! He and I are very different. He only wants to be useful. At any rate, that was all he did want."
"He is still the same."
"A man cannot always be carrying a huge load up a hill without having his back bent."
"I don't know that the load need be so heavy, Duchess."
"Ah, but what is the load? It is not going to the Treasury Chambers at eleven or twelve in the morning, and sitting four or five times a week in the House of Lords till seven or eight o'clock. He was never ill when he would remain in the House of Commons till two in the morning, and not have a decent dinner above twice in the week. The load I speak of isn't work."
"What is it then?" said the Duke, who in truth understood it all nearly as well as the Duchess herself.
"It is hard to explain, but it is very heavy."