The Duke had gone to work at
his travels with a full determination to create for himself an
occupation out of a new kind of life. He had studied Dante, and
had striven to arouse himself to ecstatic joy amidst the
loveliness of the Italian lakes. But through it all he had been
aware that he had failed. The Duchess had made no such
resolution,-had hardly, perhaps, made any attempt; but, in truth
they had both sighed to back amongst the war-trumpets. They had
both suffered much among the trumpets, and yet they longed to
return. He told himself from day to day, that though he had been
banished from the House of Commons, still, as a peer, he had a
seat in Parliament; and that though he was no longer a minister,
still he might be useful as a legislator. She, in her careers as a
leader of fashion, had no doubt met with some trouble,--with some
trouble but with no disgrace; and as she had been carried about
among the lakes and mountains, among the pictures and statues,
among the counts and countesses; she had often felt that there was
no happiness except in that dominion which circumstances had
enabled her to achieve once, and might enable her to achieve
again--in the realms of London society.
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