Free Maggie MacKeever by The Misses Millikin

he was universally adored. He was of too advanced an age and too aloof a disposition to appeal to Lily, of course, but Angelica had seemed to rub on with him well enough. Perhaps here was a gentleman of sufficient seriousness and cleverness to suit. Lily cleared her throat.
    The duke had not been unaware that Miss Lily Millikin was staring at him, but he had paid her little heed; young ladies always did stare at Gervaise, usually with a large degree of avarice. The duke was a bachelor, and determined to so remain; when he wished feminine companionship it was readily available; when he did not wish it he was free to pursue his adventurous inclinations wherever fancy led him, without the impediment of trailing skirts. Satirically, he surveyed Lily.
    Certainly she was a beauty; it was scant wonder that she had created so great a sensation oh her debut. But Kingscote was far beyond the age of being overwhelmed by loveliness—beyond, in fact, being overwhelmed by anything. As did all things, beauty in surfeit lost its allure. He supposed he could not deny this young lady her opportunity to attract his interest to herself without appearing rude—despite the tedium attendant upon plaguesome damsels, the number of which seemed to increase each year, His Grace was never rude. It was said of him by a long succession of Cyprians that no gentleman alive knew how to deliver a more kindly, or generous congé.
    Since he was doomed to ennui, he would make the best of it. Gervaise placed a wager with himself on which ploy the Fair Incomparable might utilize, and how many minutes it would be before she fatigued him beyond tolerance. “You wished to speak, Miss Millikin?” he inquired gently.
    “Yes, sir.” Lily awarded this perceptiveness the highest marks. “Would you explain to me—what is the difference between a Tory and a Whig?”
    Here was an unusual gambit! Perhaps the duke would not grow bored as quickly as he’d expected. “Primarily that the Tories are in power,” he replied. “We Whigs are great at denouncing everything the government does, but fundamentally we believe the same things.”
    “That doesn’t help me very much,” said Lily, whose efforts toward enlightenment had caused her to frown most charmingly. “I am very ignorant in such matters—in a great many matters! But though I am not precisely needle-witted, I can generally understand if someone properly explains. Would you mind so much explaining to me, sir?”
    Amused by such gargantuan effort—and why the devil should such a pretty widgeon wish to understand politics?— Gervaise obliged. “The Tories embody the tradition of resistance to the aggressive principles of Revolutionary France—to change in any guise. Reform is anathema to them. It is the widespread belief of the Tories—of the upper classes in general—that the only way to maintain law and order is to suppress the masses.”
    Certainly the duke was clever; Lily could grasp only half of what he said. Since Lily was accustomed to grasping only half of anything that was said to her, she was not disturbed. “Is reform necessary, sir?”
    “Lord, yes!” replied Gervaise, highly diverted by the look of dogged concentration on his companion’s lovely face. “There are two hundred and twenty capital offenses on the statute books.”
    “Then why is the government so against it?” inquired Lily, admirably demonstrating that ladies who aren’t needle-witted can occasionally thrust to the heart of a matter with praiseworthy directness.
    It was not only to the heart of the matter to which Lily had thrust, though she was unaware: the duke was finding himself very much in charity with this unusual young lady, who seemed to have no other view but that of gleaning a laborious insight into political affairs. “Because the parliamentary reform demanded by the radicals—annual parliaments, universal suffrage—would greatly threaten Tory supremacy. The government is all atwitter, due to the Hampden