"Your lordship will reflect," said the Minister, now really alarmed,—"your lordship will reflect—maturely—seriously——"
"It requires no reflection to teach me my duty."
"But, my dear earl——"
"My lord?"
"The peace of the country frequently depends upon the information which we acquire in this manner."
"Then had the peace of the country better be occasionally menaced, than that the sacred envelope of a letter should be violated?"
"Your lordship is too severe," said the Minister.
"No—my lord: I am not, under the circumstances, severe enough. Behold the gross injustice of the system. The law forbids us to transmit sealed letters through any other medium than the Post-office; and yet that very Post-office is made the scene of the violation of those sacred missives. My lord, it is impossible to defend so atrocious a proceeding. Now, my lord, I have spoken as warmly as I feel."
"Really, my dear earl, you must not permit this little business to go any further. You shall have for your friends every satisfaction they require: their correspondence shall be strictly inviolate in future. And now, my lord," continued the Minister, with a smile whose deceptive blandness Mr. Greenwood would have envied, "let me request attention to another point. The Premier has placed your lordship's name on the list of peers who are to be raised to a more elevated rank ere the opening of the next session; and your lordship may exchange your coronet of an earldom against that of a marquisate."
"Her Majesty's government," replied the earl with chilling—freezing hauteur, "would do well to reserve that honour in respect to me, until it may choose to reward me when I shall have performed a duty that I owe my country, and exposed a system to express my full sense of which I dare not now trust my tongue with epithets. Good morning, my lord."