it was rumored that Chesterfield would be reinstated in favor. The King, however, was still obdurate, and instead of Secretary of State he was made High Steward of the Household. Chesterfield remained in Holland, gambling and watching events. "I find treating with two hundred sovereigns of different tempers and professions," he writes, "is as laborious as treating with one fine woman, who is at least of two hundred minds in one day."
The game went on for a year more. Then he was by his own wish recalled. On the 2d of May of this same year he was presented with a son by Mme. Du Bouchet. "A beautiful young lady at The Hague," says one writer, "set her wits against his and suffered the usual penalty; she fell, and this son was the result." This son was the object of all Lord Chesterfield's care and affection. It was to him that his now famous letters were written. The father, we find, on his return to England, in the House talking indefatigably as ever. It was the year of Walpole's Excise Bill which was to have freed the country by changing the system of taxation from direct to indirect methods. It was a good measure and a just one. Every part of Walpole's scheme has been since carried into effect. But then there was a general cry raised against it. The liberties of the people, it was said, were being
