 THE DUKE'S CHILDREN by Antony Trollop, read by David Shaw Parker for Naxos audiobooks. CHAPTER ONE WHEN THE DUTCHESS WAS DEAD No one probably ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died. When this sad event happened, he had ceased to be Prime Minister just two years. Those who are conversant with the political changes which have taken place of late in the government of the country will remember that when the coalition ministry of which he had been the head was broken up, the old Liberal Party came back to power under the leading of Mr. Gresham. That arrangement did not remain in force very long, but at the present moment we need not allude to ministerial changes except to say that the Duke of Omnium had not as yet returned to office. During the first nine months he and the Duchess remained in England. Then they had gone abroad, taking with them their three children. The eldest, Lord Silverbridge, had been at Oxford, but had had his career there cut short by some more than ordinary youthful folly which had induced his father to agree with the college authorities that his name had better be taken off the college books, all which had been cause of very great sorrow to the Duke. The other boy was to go to Cambridge, but his father had thought it well to give him a twelve-months run on the Continent under his own inspection. Lady Mary, the only daughter, was the youngest of the family and she also had been with them on the Continent. They remained the full year abroad, travelling with a large accompaniment of tutors, ladies-maids, couriers and sometimes friends. I do not know that the Duchess or the Duke had enjoyed it much, but the young people had seen something of foreign courts and much of foreign scenery and had perhaps perfected their French and added something to their German. The Duke had gone to work at his travels with a full determination to create for himself 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.