"but he had a ride, I was happy to hear. Exercise is so good for him that I was dehghted to find our despatches were not of a nature to keep him at home all day."
"Exemplary creature," murmured Ernest; "why have we not each a Fisherwick?"
Vain wish, unless each were a Cabinet Minister. There are hours in which the devoted lover grudges the attendance on his mistress which keeps him from Tattersall's; the devoted husband expects his wife to attend solely to him, and even the devoted parent has moments in which the impulse to give the idolized child a good shake is almost irresistible. All have their provocations and their fits of doubt and impatience. But the private secretary has none. He believes his chief to be faultless, and his official plans unequalled. He identifies himself with the man and the system. The minister and the red boxes, the treaties and the bills, the blue ribbon and the red tape, the members and the messengers, are all part and parcel of what he calls public life; they all stand on the same line; he looks upon them as the attributes of the individual who has made him a private secretary; and he worships and writes.
"Remember you are all up early for breakfast tomorrow," said Lord Teviot as the ladies withdrew at night: "we must be off in good time; there is the new bridge to open, and the collation to eat, and G.'s speech to hear, and we are six miles from the scene of action. Above all things, I recommend an elaborate toilette, for the sake of my friend the mayor, who hoped I should bring a 'smart party.'"
"An awful prospect! Will you tell my servant to call me the day after to-morrow?" said Ernest, turning to the groom of the chambers as he walked off to bed.
Mr. Phillips was too well educated to smile; but he thought it an excellent joke, and cut it over again on his own account to the steward's-room boy, which made all the ladies' maids nearly die of laughing.
