For some few days we had no readings nor conversations. The truth is, Mr. Milverton was ill. I think the excitement and the anxiety that he had lately undergone, from his desire to convince these people, had made him ill, but he would not allow, even to his wife or to me, that this was the case.

When he had recovered, we had another meeting. Sir Arthur began the conversation.

_Sir Arthur._ Do you know, I think, Milverton, that we behaved rather badly to you the other day. We treated you and Mrs. Milverton, and Mr. Johnson, as if you were enemies; and we, the know-nothings, held our private caucus, and arranged our opposition to you, somewhat ungraciously perhaps. But I can assure you that you had great friends in this caucus, in Lady Ellesmere and Mr. Cranmer.

_Cranmer._ I am very anxious to hear Realmah’s speech.

_Ellesmere._ And so am I; not that there will be anything new in it; for, depend upon it, Master Realmah has nothing to say beyond that which Master Milverton has already said to us. But he (Realmah) is an interesting specimen of a savage, and I should like to see how he deals with his Sir Arthur, his Cranmer, his Ellesmere----

_Cranmer._ Say, his Condore.

_Ellesmere._ And his Mauleverer, who, after all, will be the most difficult person to deal with.

_Mauleverer._ I do not know what the Lake City Mauleverer might have been like; but I can only say, that the British Mauleverer is a most reasonable person to deal with. It is true that he does not partake of any of your enthusiasms; but, at least, he is very like that good man, Londardo, and is apt to think that the arguments for and against anything are about equal; and so he is generally inclined to go the way that his friends would have him.

He is not like a certain yappetting little poodle that I once ventured to describe, but is rather of the bull-dog order, ready and willing to take up his friend and master’s side, without looking too anxiously into the rights of the dispute.

_Sir Arthur._ Let us have the King’s speech, Milverton. The greatest proof that we can give you of our interest in your subject is, that we would rather listen to you than have any more of our own talk. And I am sure that this is the general feeling.

_Milverton._ I don’t know how you all became aware that Realmah is to make a speech; I never told you. But Mildred knew it, and I suppose she told her husband, for there is no trusting a married woman with anything. She is sure to go and tell her husband; and then he, not having been trusted himself in the first instance, has no scruple in telling the whole world. The speech, however, does not come just yet.

Mr. Milverton then commenced the reading.

The Story of Realmah.