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diff --git a/old/dkchl10.txt b/old/dkchl10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08bfdfa --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dkchl10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26825 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope +#13 in our series by Anthony Trollope + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was prepared by KENNETH DAVID COOPER <cooper.kd@bigpond.com> + + + + + +THE DUKE'S CHILDREN + +by Anthony Trollope + + + + +CONTENTS + +1 When the Duchess was Dead +2 Lady Mary Palliser +3 Francis Oliphant Tregear +4 It is Impossible +5 Major Tifto +6 Conservative Convictions +8 He is a Gentleman +9 'In Media Res' +10 Why not like Romeo if I Feel like Romeo? +11 Cruel +12 At Richmond +13 The Duke's Injustice +14 The New Member for Silverbridge +15 The Duke Receives a Letter,--and Writes One +16 Poor Boy +17 The Derby +18 One of the Results of the Derby +19 'No; My Lord, I Do Not' +20 Then He will Come Again +21 Sir Timothy Beeswax +22 The Duke in his Study +23 Frank Tregear wants a Friend +24 She Must be Made to Obey +25 A Family Breakfast-Table +26 Dinner at the Beargarden +27 Major Tifto and the Duke +28 Mrs Montacute +29 The Lovers Meet +30 What Came of the Meeting +31 Miss Boncassen's River-Party No. 1 +32 Miss Boncassen's River-Party No. 2 +33 The Langham Hotel +34 Lord Popplecourt +35 'Don't You Think -?' +36 Tally-ho Lodge +37 Grex +38 Crummie-Toddie +39 Killancodlem +40 And Then! +41 Ischl +42 Again at Killancodlem +43 What Happened at Doncaster +44 How It was Done +45 There Shall Not be Another Word About It +46 Lady Mary's Dream +47 Miss Boncassen's Idea of Heaven +48 The Party at Custins is Broken Up +49 The Major's Fate +50 The Duke's Arguments +51 The Duke's Guests +52 Miss Boncassen Tells the Truth +53 The I am Proud as a Queen +54 I Don't Think She is a Snake +55 Polpenno +56 The News is Sent to Matching +57 The Meeting at the Bobtailed Fox +58 The Major is Deposed +59 No One Can Tell What May Come to Pass +60 Lord Gerald in Further Trouble +61 'Bone of My Bone' +62 The Brake Country +63 'I've Seen 'em Like That Before' +64 'I Believe Him to be a Worthy Young Man' +65 'Do You Ever Think What Money Is?' +66 The Three Attacks +67 'He is Such a Beast' +68 Brook Street +69 Pert Popper +70 'Love May be a Great Misfortune' +71 'What am I to Say, Sir?' +72 Carlton Terrace +73 'I Have Never Loved You' +74 'Let Us Drink a Glass of Wine Together' +75 The Major's Story +76 On Deportment +77 'Mabel, Good-Bye' +78 The Duke Returns to Office +79 The First Wedding +80 The Second Wedding + + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +When The Duchess 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. +During the first nine months after he had left office 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 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-month's +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, lady's- +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. 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. + +Then, in the early spring of 187-, they came back to England, +having persistently carried out their project, at any rate in +regard to time. Lord Gerald, the younger son, was at once sent up +to Trinity. For the eldest son a seat was to be found in the House +of Commons, and the fact that a dissolution of Parliament was +expected served to prevent any prolonged sojourn abroad. Lady Mary +Palliser was at that time nineteen, and her entrance into the +world was to be her mother's greatest care and great delight. In +March they spent a few days in London, and then went down to +Marching Priory. When she left town the Duchess was complaining of +cold, sore throat, and debility. A week after their arrival at +Matching she was dead. + +Had the heavens fallen and mixed themselves with the earth, had +the people of London risen in rebellion with French ideas of +equality, had the Queen persistently declined to comply with the +constitutional advice of her ministers, had a majority in the +House of Commons lost its influence in the country,--the utter +prostration of the bereft husband could not have been more +complete. It was not only that his heart was torn to pieces, but +that he did not know how to look out into the world. It was as +though a man should be suddenly called upon to live without hands +or even arms. He was helpless, and knew himself to be helpless. +Hitherto he had never specially acknowledged to himself that his +wife was necessary to him as a component part of his life. Though +he had loved her dearly, and had in all things consulted her +welfare and happiness, he had at times been inclined to think that +in the exuberance of her spirits she had been a trouble rather +than a support to him. But now it was as though all outside +appliances were taken away from him. There was no one of whom he +could ask a question. + +For it may be said of this man that, though throughout his life he +had had many Honourable and Right Honourable friends, and that, +though he had entertained guests by the score, and though he had +achieved for himself the respect of all good men and the thorough +admiration of some few who knew him, he had hardly made for +himself a single intimate friend--except that one who had now +passed away from him. To her he had been able to say what he +thought, even though she would occasionally ridicule him while he +was declaring his feelings. But there had been no other human soul +to whom he could open himself. There was one or two whom he loved, +and perhaps liked; but his loving and his liking had been +exclusively political. He had so habituated himself to devote his +mind and his heart to the service of his country, that he had +almost risen above or sunk below humanity. But she, who had been +essentially human, had been a link between him and the world. + +There were his three children, the youngest of whom was now nearly +nineteen, and they surely were links! At the first moment of his +bereavement they were felt to be hardly more than burdens. A more +loving father there was not in England, but nature had made him so +undemonstrative that as yet they had hardly known his love. In all +their joys and in all their troubles, in all their desires and all +their disappointments, they had ever gone to their mother. She had +been conversant with everything about them, from the boys' bills +and the girl's gloves to the innermost turn in their heart and the +disposition of each. She had known with the utmost accuracy the +nature of the scrapes into which Lord Silverbridge had +precipitated himself, and had known also how probable it was that +Lord Gerald would do the same. The results of such scrapes she, of +course, deplored; and therefore she would give good counsel, +pointing out how imperative it was that such evil-doings should be +avoided; but with the spirit that produced the scrapes she fully +sympathized. The father disliked the spirit almost worse than the +results; and was therefore often irritated and unhappy. + +And the difficulties about the girl were almost worse to bear that +those about the boys. She had done nothing wrong. She had given no +signs of extravagance or other juvenile misconduct. But she was +beautiful and young. How was he to bring her out into the world? +How was he to decide whom she should or whom she should not marry? +How was he to guide her through the shoals and rocks which lay in +the path of such a girl before she can achieve matrimony? + +It was the fate of the family that, with a world of acquaintance, +they had not many friends. From all close connection with +relatives on the side of the Duchess they had been dissevered by +old feelings at first, and afterwards by want of any similitude in +the habits of life. She had, when young been repressed by male and +female guardians with an iron hand. Such repression had been +needed, and had been perhaps salutary, but it had not left behind +it much affection. And then her nearest relatives were not +sympathetic with the Duke. He could obtain no assistance in the +care of his girl from that source. Nor could he even do it from +his own cousins' wives, who were his nearest connections on the +side of the Pallisers. They were women to whom he had ever been +kind, but to whom he had never opened his heart. When, in the +midst of the stunning sorrow of the first week, he tried to think +of all this, it seemed to him that there was nobody. + +There had been one lady, a very dear ally, staying in the house +with them when the Duchess died. This was Mrs Finn, the wife of +Phineas Finn, who had been one of the Duke's colleagues when in +office. How it had come to pass that Mrs Finn and the Duchess had +become singularly bound together has been told elsewhere. But +there had been close bonds,--so close that when the Duchess on +their return from the Continent had passed through London on her +way to Matching, ill at the time and very comfortless, it had been +almost a thing of course, that Mrs Finn should go with her. And as +she had sunk, and then despaired, and then died, it was this woman +who had always been at her side, who had ministered to her, and +had listened to the fears and the wishes and hopes that she had +expressed respecting the children. + +At Matching, amidst the ruins of the old Priory, there is a parish +burying-ground, and there, in accordance with her own wish, almost +within sight of her own bedroom-window, she was buried. On the day +of the funeral a dozen relatives came, Pallisers and McCloskies, +who on such an occasion were bound to show themselves, as members +of the family. With them and his two sons the Duke walked across +to the graveyard, and then walked back; but even to those who +stayed the night at the house he hardly spoke. By noon the +following day they had all left him, and the only stranger in the +house was Mrs Finn. + +On the afternoon of the day after the funeral the Duke and his +guest met, almost for the first time since the sad event. There +had been just a pressure of the hand, just a glance of compassion, +just some murmur of deep sorrow,--but there had been no real speech +between them. Now he had sent for her, and she went down to him in +the room in which he commonly sat at work. He was seated at his +table when she entered, but there was no book open before him, and +no pen ready to his hand. He was dressed of course in black. That, +indeed, was usual with him, but now the tailor by his funeral art +had added some deeper dye of blackness to his appearance. When he +rose and turned to her she thought that he had at once become an +old man. His hair was grey in parts, and he had never accustomed +himself to use that skill in managing his outside person by which +many men are able to preserve for themselves a look, if not of +youth, at any rate of freshness. He was thin, of an adust +complexion, and had acquired a habit of stooping which, when he +was not excited, gave him an appearance of age. All that was +common to him; but now it was so much exaggerated that he who was +not yet fifty might have been taken for over sixty. + +He put out his hand to greet her as she came up to him. +'Silverbridge,' he said, 'tells me that you go back to London +tomorrow.' + +'I thought it would be best, Duke. My presence here can be of no +comfort to you.' + +'I will not say anything can be of comfort. But of course it is +right that you should go. I can have no excuse for asking you to +remain. While there was yet a hope for her--' Then he stopped, +unable to say a word further in that direction, and yet there was +no sign of a tear and no sound of a sob. + +'Of course I would stay, Duke, if I could be of any service.' + +'Mr Finn will expect you to return to him.' + +'Perhaps it would be better that I should say that I would stay +were it not that I know that I can be of no real service.' + +'What do you mean by that, Mrs Finn?' + +'Lady Mary should have with her at such a time some other friend.' + +'There was none other whom her mother loved as she loved you--none, +none.' This he said almost with energy. + +'There was no one lately, Duke, with whom circumstances caused her +mother to be so closely intimate. But even that perhaps was +unfortunate.' + +'I never thought so.' + +'That is a great compliment. But as to Lady Mary, will it not be +well that she should have with her, as soon as possible, someone,-- +perhaps someone of her own kindred if it be possible, or, if not +that, at least one of her own kind?' + +'Who is there? Whom do you mean?' + +'I mean no one. It is hard, Duke, to say what I do mean, but +perhaps I had better try. There will be,--probably there have +been,--some among your friends who have regretted the great +intimacy which chance produced between me and my lost friend. +While she was with us no such feeling would have sufficed to drive +me from her. She had chosen for herself, and if others disapproved +of her choice that was nothing to me. But as regards Lady Mary, it +will better, I think, that from the beginning she should be taught +to look for friendship and guidance to those--to those who are more +naturally connected with her.' + +'I was not thinking of any guidance,' said the Duke. + +'Of course not. But with one so young, where there is intimacy +there will be guidance. There should be somebody with her. It was +almost the last thought that occupied her mother's mind. I could +not tell her, Duke, but I can tell you, that I cannot with any +advantage to your girl be that somebody.' + +'Cora wished it.' + +'Her wishes, probably, were sudden and hardly fixed.' + +'Who should it be, then?' asked the father, after a pause. + +'Who am I, Duke, that I should answer such a question?' + +After that there was another pause, and then the conference was +ended by a request from the Duke that Mrs Finn would stay at +Matching for yet two days longer. At dinner they all met,--the +father, the three children, and Mrs Finn. How far the young people +among themselves had been able to throw off something of the gloom +of death need not here be asked; but in the presence of their +father they were sad and sombre, almost as he was. On the next +day, early in the morning, the younger lad returned to his +college, and Lord Silverbridge went up to London, where he was +supposed to have his home. + +'Perhaps you would not mind reading these letters,' the Duke said +to Mrs Finn, when she again went to him in compliance with a +message from him asking for her presence. Then she sat down and +read two letters, one from Lady Cantrip, and the other from a Mrs +Jeffrey Palliser, each of which contained an invitation for his +daughter, and expressed a hope that Lady Mary would not be +unwilling to spend some time with the writer. Lady Cantrip's +letter was long, and went minutely into circumstances. If Lady +Mary would come to her, she would abstain from having other +company in the house till her young friend's spirits should have +somewhat recovered themselves. Nothing could be more kind, or +proposed in a sweeter fashion. There had, however, been present in +the Duke's mind as he read it a feeling that a proposition to a +bereaved husband to relieve him of the society of an only +daughter, was not one which would usually be made to a father. In +such a position a child's company would probably be his best +solace. But he knew,--at this moment, he painfully remembered,--that +he was not as other men. He acknowledged the truth of this, but he +was not the less grieved and irritated by the reminder. The letter +from Mrs Jeffrey Palliser was to the same effect, but was much +shorter. If it would suit Mary to come to them for a month or six +weeks at their place in Gloucestershire, they would both be +delighted. + +'I should not choose her to go there,' said the Duke, as Mrs Finn +refolded the latter letter. 'My cousin's wife is a very good +woman, but Mary would not be happy with her.' + +'Lady Cantrip is an excellent friend for her.' + +'Excellent. I know no one whom I esteem more than Lady Cantrip.' + +'Would you wish her to go there, Duke?' + +There came a piteous look over the father's face. Why should he be +treated as no other father would be treated? Why should it be +supposed that he would desire to send his girl away from him? But +yet he felt that it would be better that she should go. It was his +present purpose to remain at Matching through a portion of the +summer. What could he do to make a girl happy? What comfort would +there be in his companionship? + +'I suppose she ought to go somewhere,' he said. + +'I had not thought of it,' said Mrs Finn. + +'I understood you to say,' replied the Duke, almost angrily, 'that +she ought to go someone who would take care of her.' + +'I was thinking of some friend coming to her.' + +'Who would come? Who is there that I could possibly ask? You will +not stay.' + +'I certainly would stay, if it were for her good. I was thinking, +Duke, that perhaps you might ask the Greys to come to you.' + +'They would not come,' he said, after a pause. + +'When she was told that it was for her sake, she would come, I +think.' + +Then there was another pause. 'I could not ask them,' he said; +'for his sake I could not have it put to her in that way. Perhaps +Mary had better go to Lady Cantrip. Perhaps I had better be alone +for a time. I do not think that I am fit to have any human being +with me in my sorrow.' + + + +CHAPTER 2 + +Lady Mary Palliser + +It may be said at once that Mrs Finn knew something of Lady Mary +which was not known to her father, and which she was not yet +prepared to make known to him. The last winter abroad had been +passed at Rome, and there Lady Mary Palliser had become acquainted +with a certain Mr Tregear,--Francis Oliver Tregear. The Duchess, +who had been in constant correspondence with her friend, had asked +questions by letter as to Mr Tregear, of whom she had only known +that he was the younger son of a Cornish gentleman, who had become +Lord Silverbridge's friend at Oxford. In this there had certainly +been but little to recommend him to the intimacy of such a girl as +Lady Mary Palliser. Nor had the Duchess, when writing, ever spoken +of him as a probable suitor for her daughter's hand. She had never +connected the two names together. But Mrs Finn had been clever +enough to perceive that the Duchess had become fond of Mr Tregear, +and would willingly have heard something to his advantage. And she +did hear something to his advantage,--something also to his +disadvantage. At his mother's death, this young man would inherit +a property amounting to about fifteen hundred a year. 'And I am +told,' said Mrs Finn, 'that he is quite likely to spend his money +before it comes to him.' There had been nothing more written +specially about Mr Tregear, but Mrs Finn had feared not only that +the young man loved the girl, but that the young man's love had in +some imprudent way been fostered by the mother. + +Then there had been some fitful confidence during those few days +of acute illness. Why should not the girl have the man if he were +lovable? And the Duchess referred to her own early days when she +had loved, and to the great ruin that had come upon her heart when +she had been severed from the man she loved. 'Not but that it has +been all for the best,' she had said. 'Not but that Plantagenet +has been to me all that a husband should be. Only if she can be +spared what I suffered, let her be spared.' Even when these +things had been said to her, Mrs Finn had found herself unable to +ask questions. She could not bring herself to inquire whether the +girl had in truth given her heart to his young Tregear. The one +was nineteen and the other as yet but two-and-twenty! But though +she asked no questions, she almost knew that it must be so. And +she knew also that the father was, as yet, quite in the dark on the +matter. How was it possible that in such circumstances she should +assume the part of the girl's confidential friend and monitress? +Were she to do so she must immediately tell the father everything. +In such a position no one could be a better friend than Lady +Cantrip, and Mrs Finn had already almost made up her mind that, +should Lady Cantrip occupy the place, she would tell her ladyship +all that had passed between herself and the Duchess on the +subject. + +Of what hopes she might have, or what fears, about her girl, the +Duchess had said no word to her husband. But when she had believed +that the things of the world were fading away from her, and when +he was sitting by her bedside,--dumb, because at such a moment he +knew not how to express the tenderness of his heart,--holding her +hand, and trying so to listen to her words, that he might collect +and remember every wish, she had murmured something about the +ultimate division of the great wealth with which she herself had +been endowed. She had never, she said, even tried to remember what +arrangements had been made by lawyers, but she hoped that Mary +might be so circumstanced, that if her happiness depended on +marrying a poor man, want of money need not prevent it. The Duke +suspecting nothing, believing this to be a not unnatural question +expression of maternal interest, had assured her that Mary's +fortune would be ample. + +Mrs Finn made the proposition to Lady Mary in respect to Lady +Cantrip's invitation. Lady Mary was very like her mother, +especially in having exactly her mother's tone of voice, her quick +manner of speech, and her sharp intelligence. She had also her +mother's eyes, large and round, and almost blue, full of life and +full of courage, eyes which never seemed to quail, and her +mother's dark brown hair, never long but very copious in its +thickness. She was, however, taller than her mother, and very much +more graceful in her movement. And she could already assume a +personal dignity of manner which had never been within her +mother's reach. She had become aware of a certain brusqueness of +speech in her mother, a certain aptitude to say sharp things +without thinking whether the sharpness was becoming to the +position which she held, and taking advantage of the example, the +girl had already learned that she might gain more than she would +lose by controlling her words. + +'Papa wants me to go to Lady Cantrip,' she said. + +'I think he would like it,--just for the present, Lady Mary.' + +Though there had been the closest possible intimacy between the +Duchess and Mrs Finn, this had hardly been so as to the +intercourse between Mrs Finn and the children. Of Mrs Finn it must +be acknowledged that she was, perhaps fastidiously, afraid of +appearing to take advantage of her friendship with the Duke's +family. She would tell herself that though circumstances had +compelled her to be the closest and nearest friend of a Duchess, +still her natural place was not among dukes and their children, +and therefore in her intercourse with the girl she did not at +first assume the manner and bearing which her position in the +house would seem to warrant. Hence the 'Lady Mary'. + +'Why does he want to send me away, Mrs Finn?' + +'It is not true that he wants to send you away, but that he thinks +it will be better for you to be with some friend. Here you must be +so much alone.' + +'Why don't you stay? But I suppose Mr Finn wants you to be back +in London.' + +'It is not that only, or, to speak the truth, not that at all. Mr +Finn could come here if that were suitable. Or for a week or two +he might do very well without me. But there are other reasons. +There is no one whom your mother respected more than Lady +Cantrip.' + +'I never heard her speak a word about Lady Cantrip.' + +'Both he and she are your father's intimate friends.' + +'Does Papa want to be--alone here?' + +'It is you, not himself, of whom he is thinking.' + +'Therefore, I must think of him. Mrs Finn, I do not wish him to be +alone. I am sure it would be better that I should stay with him.' + +'He feels that it would not be well that you should live without +the companionship of some lady.' + +'Then let him find some lady. You would be the best, because he +knows you so well. I, however, am not afraid of being alone. I am +sure he ought not to be here quite by himself. If he bids me go, I +must go, and then of course I shall go where he sends me; but I +won't say that I think it best that I should go, and certainly I +do not want to go to Lady Cantrip.' This she said with great +decision, as though the matter was one on which she had altogether +made up her mind. Then she added, in a lower voice: 'Why doesn't +papa speak to me about it?' + +'He is thinking only of what may be best for you.' + +'It would be best for me to stay near him. Whom else has he got?' + +All this Mrs Finn repeated to the Duke as closely as she could, +and then of course the father was obliged to speak to his +daughter. + +'Don't send me away, papa,' she said at once. + +'You life here, Mary, will be inexpressibly sad.' + +'It must be sad anywhere. I cannot go to college like Gerald, or +live anywhere just like Silverbridge.' + +'Do you envy them that?' + +'Sometimes, papa. Only I shall think of more of poor mama by being +alone, and I should like to be thinking of her always.' He shook +his head mournfully. 'I do not mean that I shall always be +unhappy, as I am now.' + +'No, dear; you are too young for that. It is only the old who +suffer in that way.' + +'You will suffer less if I am with you; won't you, papa? I do not +want to go to Lady Cantrip. I hardly remember her at all.' + +'She is very good.' + +'Oh, yes. That is what they used to say to mamma about Lady +Midlothian. Papa, do not send me to Lady Cantrip.' + +Of course it was decided that she should not go to Lady Cantrip at +once, or to Mrs Jeffrey Palliser, and, after a short interval of +doubt, it was decided also that Mrs Finn should remain at Matching +for at least a fortnight. The Duke declared that he would be glad +to see Mr Finn, but she knew in his present mood the society of +any one man to whom he would feel himself called upon to devote +his time, would be a burden to him, and she plainly said that Mr +Finn had better not come to Matching at present. 'There are old +occasions,' she said, 'which will enable you to bear with me as +you will with your butler or your groom, but you are not as yet +quite able to make yourself happy with company.' This he bore +with perfect equanimity, and then, as it were, handed over his +daughter to Mrs Finn's care. + +Very quickly there came a close intimacy between Mrs Finn and +Lady Mary. For a day or two the elder woman, though the place she +filled was one of absolute confidence, rather resisted than +encouraged the intimacy. She always remembered that the girl was +the daughter of a great duke, and that her position in the house +had sprung from circumstances which would not, perhaps, in the +eyes of the world at large, have recommended her for such a +friendship. She knew,--the reader may possibly know--that nothing +had ever been purer, nothing more disinterested than her +friendship. But she knew also--no one knew better--that the +judgement of men and women does not always run parallel with +facts. She entertained, too, a conviction with regard to herself, +that hard words and hard judgements were to be expected from the +world,--and were to be accepted by her without any strong feeling +of injustice,--because she had been elevated by chance to the +possession of more good things than she merited. She weighed all +this with a very fine balance, and even after the encouragement +she had received from the Duke, was intent on confining herself to +some position about the girl inferior to that which such a friend +as Lady Cantrip might have occupied. But the girl's manner and the +girl's speech about her own mother, overcame her. It was the +unintentional revelation of the Duchess's constant reference to +her,--the way in which Lady Mary would assert that 'Mamma used +always to say this of you; mamma always knew that you would think +so and so; mamma used to say that you had told her'. It was the +feeling thus conveyed, that the mother who was now dead had in her +daily dealings with her own child spoke of her as her nearest +friend, which mainly served to conquer the deference of manner +which she had assumed. + +Then gradually there came confidences,--and at last absolute +confidence. The whole story of Mr Tregear was told. Yes; she loved +Mr Tregear. She had given him her heart, and had told him so. + +'Then, my dear, your father ought to know about it,' said Mrs +Finn. + +'No; not yet. Mamma knew it.' + +'Did she know all that you have told me?' + +'Yes; all. And Mr Tregear spoke to her, and she said that papa +ought not to be told quite yet.' Mrs Finn could not but remember +that the friend she had lost was not, among women, the one best +able to give a girl good counsel in such a crisis. + +'Why not yet, dear?' + +'Well, because-. It is very hard to explain. In the first place, +because Mr Tregear himself does not wish it.' + +'That is a very bad reason; the worst in the world.' + +'Of course you will say so. Of course everybody would say so. But +when there is one person whom one loves better than all the rest, +for whom one would be ready to die, to whom one is determined that +everything shall be devoted, surely the wishes of the person so +dear as that ought to have weight.' + +'Not in persuading you to do that which is acknowledged to be +wrong.' + +'What wrong? I am going to do nothing wrong.' + +'The very concealment of your love is wrong, after that love has +been not only given but declared. A girl's position in such +matters is so delicate, especially that of such a girl as you!' + +'I know all about that,' said Lady Mary, with something almost +like scorn in her tone. 'Of course I have to be--delicate. I don't +quite know what the word means. I am not ashamed of being in love +with Mr Tregear. He is a gentleman, highly educated, very clever, +of an old family,--older, I believe, than papa's. And he is manly +and handsome; just what a man should be. Only he is not rich.' + +'If he be all that you say, ought you not to trust your papa? If +he approve of it, he should give you money.' + +'Of course he must be told; but not now. He is nearly broken- +hearted about dear mamma. He could not bring himself to care about +anything of that kind at present. And then it is Mr Tregear that +should speak to him first.' + +'Not now, Mary.' + +'How do you mean not now?' + +'If you had a mother you would talk to her about it.' + +'Mamma knew.' + +'If she were still living she would tell your father.' + +'But she didn't tell him, though she did know. She didn't mean to +tell him quite yet. She wanted to see Mr Tregear here in England +first. Of course I shall do nothing till papa does know.' + +'You will not see him?' + +'How can I see him here? He will not come here, if you mean +that.' + +'You do not correspond with him?' Here for the first time the +girl blushed. 'Oh, Mary! if you are writing to him your father +ought to know it.' + +'I have not written to him; but when he heard how ill poor mamma +was, then he wrote to me--twice. You may see his letters. It is all +about her. No one worshiped mamma as he did.' + +Gradually the whole story was told. These two young persons +considered themselves to be engaged, but had agreed that their +engagement should not be made known to the Duke till something had +occurred, or some time had arrived, as to which Mr Tregear was to +be the judge. In Mrs Finn's opinion nothing could be more unwise, +and she made to induce the girl to confess everything to her +father at once. But in all her arguments she was opposed by the +girl's reference to her mother. 'Mamma knew it.' And it did +certainly seem to Mrs Finn as though the mother had assented to +this imprudent concealment. When she endeavoured, in her own mind, +to make excuse for her friend, she felt almost sure that the +Duchess, with all her courage, had been afraid to propose to her +husband that their daughter should marry a commoner without an +income. But in thinking all that, there could be now nothing +gained. What ought she to do--at once? The girl, in telling her, +had exacted no promise of secrecy, nor would she have given any +such promise; but yet she did not like the idea of telling the +tale behind the girl's back. It was evident that Lady Mary had +considered herself to be safe in confiding her story to her +mother's old friend. Lady Mary no doubt had had her confidence +with her mother,--confidences from which it had been intended by +both that the father should be excluded; and now she seemed +naturally to expect that this new ally should look at this great +question as her mother had looked at it. The father had been +regarded as a great outside power, which could hardly be overcome, +but which might be evaded, or made inoperative by stratagem. It +was not that the daughter did not love him. She loved him and +venerated him highly,--the veneration perhaps being stronger than +the love. The Duchess, too, had loved him dearly,--more dearly in +late years than in her early life. But her husband to her had +always been an outside power which had in many cases to be evaded. +Lady Mary, though she did not express all this, evidently thought +that in this new friend she had found a woman whose wishes and +aspirations for her would be those which her mother had +entertained. + +But Mrs Finn was much troubled in her mind, thinking that it was +her duty to tell the story to the Duke. It was not only the +daughter who had trusted her, but the father also; and the +father's confidence had been not only the first but by far the +holier of the two. And the question was one so important to the +girl's future happiness! There could be no doubt that the peril +of her present position was very great. + +'Mary,' she said one morning, when the fortnight was nearly at an +end, 'your father ought to know all this. I should feel that I had +betrayed him were I to go away leaving him in ignorance.' + +'You do not mean to say that you will tell?' said the girl, +horrified at the idea of such treachery. + +'I wish that I could induce you to do so. Every day that he is +kept in the dark is an injury to you.' + +'I am doing nothing. What harm can come? It is not as though I was +seeing him every day.' + +'This harm will come; your father of course will know that you +became engaged to Mr Tregear in Italy, and that a fact so +important to him has been kept back from him.' + +'If there is anything in that, the evil has been done already. Of +course poor mamma did mean to tell him.' + +'She cannot tell him now, and therefore you ought to do what she +would have done.' + +'I cannot break my promise to him.' 'Him' always meant Mr Tregear. +'I have told him that I would not do so till I had his consent, +and I will not.' + +This was very dreadful to Mrs Finn, and yet she was most unwilling +to take upon herself the part of stern elder, and declare that +under the circumstances she must tell the tale. The story had been +told to her under the supposition that she was not a stern elder, +that she was regarded as the special friend of the dear mother who +was gone, that she might be trusted against the terrible weight of +parental authority. She could not endure to be regarded at once a +traitor by this young friend who had sweetly inherited the +affection with which the Duchess had regarded her. And yet if she +were to be silent now how could she forgive herself? 'The Duke +certainly ought to know at once,' said she, repeating her words +merely that she might gain some time for thinking, and pluck up +courage to declare her purpose, should she resolve on betraying +the secret. + +'If you tell him now, I will never forgive you,' said Lady Mary. + +'I am bound in honour to see that your father knows a thing which +is of such vital importance to him and to you. Having heard all +this I have no right to keep it from him. If Mr Tregear really +loves you'--Lady Mary smiled at the doubt implied by this +suggestion--'he ought to feel that for your sake there should be no +secret from your father.' Then she paused a moment to think. +'Will you let me see Mr Tregear myself, and talk to him about it?' + +To this Lady Mary at first demurred, but when she found that in no +other way could she prevent Mrs Finn from going at once to the +Duke and telling him everything, she consented. Under Mrs Finn's +directions she wrote a note to her lover, which Mrs Finn saw, and +then undertook to send it, with a letter from herself, to Mr +Tregear's address in London. The note was very short, and was +indeed dictated by the elder lady, with some dispute, however, as +to certain terms, in which the younger lady had her way. It was as +follows: + +'DEAREST FRANK, +'I wish you to see Mrs Finn, who, as you know, +was dear mamma's most particular friend. Please go to +her, as she will ask you to do so. When you hear what +she says I think you ought to do what she advises. +'Yours for ever and always, +'M.P.' + +This Mrs Finn sent enclosed in an envelope, with a few words from +herself, asking the gentleman to call upon her in Park Lane, on a +day and hour fixed. + + + +CHAPTER 3 + +Francis Oliphant Tregear + +Mr Francis Oliphant Tregear was a young man who might not +improbably make a figure in the world, should circumstances be +kind to him, but as to whom it might be doubted whether +circumstances would be sufficiently kind to enable him to use +serviceably his unquestionable talents and great personal gifts. +He had taught himself to regard himself as a young English +gentleman of the first water, qualified by his birth and position +to live with all that was most noble and most elegant, and he +could have lived in that sphere naturally and gracefully were it +not that part of the 'sphere' which he specially affected requires +wealth as well as birth and intellect. Wealth he had not, and yet +he did not abandon the sphere. As a consequence of all this, it +was possible that the predictions of his friends as to that figure +which he was to make in the world might be disappointed. + +He had been educated at Eton, from whence he had been sent to +Christ Church; and both at school and at college had been the most +intimate friend of the son and heir of a great and wealthy duke. +He and Lord Silverbridge had been always together, and they who +were interested in the career of young noblemen had generally +thought he had chosen his friend well. Tregear had gone out in +honours, having been a second-class man. His friend Silverbridge, +we know, had been allowed to take no degree at all; but the +terrible practical joke by which the whole front of the Dean's +house had been coloured scarlet in the middle of the night, had +been carried on without any assistance from Tregear. The two young +men had then been separated for a year; but immediately after +taking his degree, Tregear, at the invitation of Lord +Silverbridge, had gone to Italy, and had there completely made +good his footing with the Duchess,--with what effect on another +member of the Palliser family the reader already knows. + +The young man was certainly clever. When the Duchess found that he +cold talk without any shyness, that he could speak French +fluently, and that after a month in Italy could chatter Italian, +at any rate without reticence or shame, when she perceived that +all the women liked the lad's society and impudence, and that all +the young men were anxious to know him, she was glad to find that +Silverbridge had chosen so valuable a friend. And then he was +beautiful to look at,--putting her almost in mind of another man on +whom her eyes had once loved to dwell. He was dark, with hair that +was almost black, but yet was not black; with clear brown eyes, a +nose as regular as Apollo's, and a mouth in which was ever to be +found that expression of manliness, which of all characteristics +is the one which women love the best. He was five feet ten in +height. He was always well dressed, and yet always so dressed as +to seem to show that his outside garniture had not been matter of +trouble to him. Before the Duchess had dreamed what might take +place between the young man and her daughter she had been urgent +in her congratulations to her son as to the possession of such a +friend. + +For though she now and then would catch a glimpse of the outer +man, which would remind her of that other beautiful one whom she +had known in her youth, and though, as these glimpses came, she +would remember how poor in spirit and how unmanly that other one +had been, though she would confess to herself how terrible had +been the heart-shipwreck which that other one had brought upon +herself; still she was able completely to assure herself that this +man, though not superior in external grace, was altogether +different in mind and character. She was old enough now to see all +this and to appreciate it. Young Tregear had his own ideas about +the politics of the day, and they were ideas with which she +sympathised, though they were antagonistic to the politics of her +life. He had his ideas about books too, as to manners of life, as +to art, and even ethics. Whether or no in all this there was not +much that was superficial only, she was not herself deep enough to +discover. Nor would she have been deterred from admiring him had +she been told that it was tinsel. Such were the acquirements, such +the charms, that she loved. Here was a young man who dared to +speak, and had always something ready to be spoken, who was not +afraid of beauty, nor daunted by superiority of rank; who, if he +had not money, could carry himself on equal terms among those who +had. In this way he won the Duchess's heart, and having done that, +was it odd that he should win the heart of her daughter also? + +His father was a Cornwall squire of comfortable means, having +joined the property of his wife to his own for the period of his +own life. She had possessed land also in Cornwall, supposed to be +worth fifteen hundred a year, and his own paternal estate at +Polwenning was said to be double the value. Being a prudent man, +he lived at home as a country gentleman, and thus was able in his +county to hold his head as high as richer men. But Frank Tregear +was only his second son; and though Frank would hereafter inherit +his mother's fortune, he was by no means now in a position to +assume the right of living as an idle man. Yet he was idle. The +elder brother, who was considerably older than Frank, was an odd +man, much addicted to quarreling with his family, and who spent +his time chiefly in traveling about the world. Frank's mother, who +was not the mother of the heir also, would sometimes surmise in +Frank's hearing, that the entire property must ultimately come to +him. That other Tregear, who was now supposed to be investigating +the mountains of Crim Tartary, would surely never marry. And Frank +was the favourite also with his father, who paid his debts at +Oxford with not much grumbling, who was proud of his friendship +with a future duke, who did not urge, as he ought to have urged, +that vital question of a profession; and who, when he allowed his +son four hundred pounds a year, was almost content with that son's +protestations that he knew how to live as a poor man among rich +men, without chagrin and without trouble. + +Such was the young man who now, in lieu of a profession, had taken +upon himself the responsibility of an engagement with Lady Mary +Palliser. He was tolerably certain that, should he be able to +overcome the parental obstacles which he would no doubt find in +his path, money would be forthcoming sufficient for the purposes +of matrimonial life. The Duke's wealth was fabulous, and as a +great part of it, if not the greater, had come from his wife, +there would probably be ample provision for the younger children. +And when the Duchess had found out how things were going, and had +yielded to her daughter, after an opposition which never had the +appearance even of being in earnest, she had taken upon herself to +say that she would use her influence to prevent any great weight +of trouble from pecuniary matters. Frank Tregear, young and +bright, and full of hearty ambitions, was certainly not the man to +pursue a girl simply because of her fortune; nor was he weak +enough to be attracted simply by the glitter of rank; but he was +wise enough with worldly wisdom to understand thoroughly the +comforts of a good income, and he was sufficiently attached to +high position to feel the advantage of marrying a daughter of the +Duke of Omnium. + +There was one member of the family who had hitherto been half- +hearted in the matter. Lord Silverbridge had vacillated between +loyalty to his friend and a certain feeling as to the impropriety +of such a match for his sister. He was aware that something very +much better should be expected for her, and still was unable to +explain his objection to Tregear. He had not at first been +admitted into confidence, either by his sister or by Tregear, but +had questioned his friend when he saw what was going on. +'Certainly I love your sister,' Tregear had said; 'do you object?' + Lord Silverbridge was the weaker of the two, and much subject to +the influence of his friend; but he could on occasion be firm, and +he did at first object. But he did not object strongly, and +allowed himself at last to be content with declaring that the Duke +would never give his consent. + +While Tregear was with his love, or near her, his hopes and fears +were sufficient to occupy his mind; and immediately upon his +return, all the world was nothing to him, except as far as the +world was concerned with Lady Mary Palliser. He had come back to +England somewhat before the ducal party, and the pleasures and +occupations of London life had not abated his love, but enabled +him to feel that there was something in life over and beyond his +love, whereas to Lady Mary, down at Matching, there had been +nothing over and beyond her love--except the infinite grief and +desolation produced by her mother's death. + +Tregear, when he received the note from Mrs Finn, was staying at +the Duke's house in Carlton Terrace. Silverbridge was there, and, +on leaving Matching, had asked the Duke's permission to have his +friend with him. The Duke at that time was not well pleased with +his son as to the matter of politics, and gave his son's friend +credit for the evil counsel which had produced his displeasure. +But still he had not refused his consent to this proposition. Had +he done so, Silverbridge would probably have gone elsewhere: and +though there was a matter in respect to Tregear of which the Duke +disapproved, it was not a matter, as he thought, which would have +justified him in expelling the young man from his house. The young +man was a strong Conservative; and now Silverbridge had declared +his purpose of entering the House of Commons, if he did enter it, +as one of the Conservative party. + +This had been a terrible blow to the Duke; and he believed that it +all came from the young Tregear. Still he must do his duty, and +not more than his duty. He knew nothing against Tregear. That a +Tregear should be a Conservative was natural enough--at any rate, +was not disgraceful; that he should have his political creed +sufficiently at heart to be able to persuade another man, was to +his credit. He was a gentleman, well educated, superior in many +things to Silverbridge himself. There were those who said that +Silverbridge had redeemed himself from contempt--from that sort of +contempt which might be supposed to await a young nobleman who had +painted scarlet the residence of the Head of his college--by the +fact of his having chosen such a friend. The Duke was essentially +a just man; and though, at the very moment in which the request +was made, his heart was half crushed by his son's apostasy, he +gave the permission asked. + +'You know Mrs Finn,' Tregear said to his friend one morning at +breakfast. + +'I remember her all my life. She used to be a great deal with my +grandfather. I believe he left her a lot of diamonds and money, +and that she wouldn't have them. I don't know whether the diamonds +are not locked up somewhere now, so that she can take them when +she pleases.' + +'What a singular woman!' + +'It was odd; but she had some fad about it. What makes you ask +about Mrs Finn?' + +'She wants me to go and see her.' + +'What about?' + +'I think I have heard your mother speak of her as though she loved +her dearly,' said Tregear. + +'I don't know about loving her dearly. They were intimate, and Mrs +Finn used to be with her very much when she was in the country. +She was at Matching just now, when my poor mother died. Why does +she want to see you?' + +'She has written to me from Matching. She wants to see me-' + +'Well?' + +'To tell you the truth. I do not know what she has to say to me; +though I can guess.' + +'What do you guess?' + +'It is something about your sister.' + +'You will have to give that up, Tregear.' + +'I think not.' + +'Yes you will; my father will never stand it.' + +'I don't know what there is to stand. I am not noble, nor am I +rich; but I am as good a gentleman as he is.' + +'My dear fellow,' said the young lord, 'you know very well what I +think about all that. A fellow is not better to me because he has +got a title, nor yet because he owns half a county. But men have +their ideas and feelings about it. My father is a rich man, and of +course he'll want his daughter to marry a rich man. My father is +noble, and he'll want his daughter to marry a nobleman. You can't +very well marry Mary without his permission, and therefore you had +better let it alone.' + +'I haven't even asked his permission as yet.' + +'Even my mother was afraid to speak to him about it, and I never +knew her to be afraid to say anything else to him.' + +'I shall not be afraid,' said Tregear, looking grimly. + +'I should. That's the difference between us.' + +'He can't very well eat me.' + +'Nor even bite you;--nor will he abuse you. But he can look at you, +and he can say a word or two which you will find it very hard to +bear. My governor is the quietest man I know, but he has a way of +making himself disagreeable when he wishes, that I never saw +equalled.' + +'At any rate, I had better go and see your Mrs Finn.' Then +Tregear wrote a line to Mrs Finn, and made his appointment. + + + +CHAPTER 4 + +Park Lane + +From the beginning of the affair Tregear had found the necessity +of bolstering himself up inwardly in his attempt by mottoes, +proverbs, and instigations of courage addressed to himself. 'None +but the brave deserve the fair.' 'De l'audace, et encore de +l'audace, et toujours de l'audace.' He was a man naturally of +good heart in such matters, who was not afraid of his brother-men, +nor yet of women, his sisters. But in this affair he knew very +much persistence would be required of him, and that even with such +persistence he might probably fail, unless he should find that +more than ordinary constancy in the girl. That the Duke could not +eat him, indeed that nobody could eat him as long as he carried +himself as an honest man and a gentleman, was to him an inward +assurance on which he leaned much. And yet he was conscious, +almost with a feeling of shame, that in Italy he had not spoken to +the Duke about his daughter because he was afraid lest the Duke +might eat him. In such an affair he should have been careful from +the first to keep his own hands thoroughly clean. Had it not been +his duty as a gentleman to communicate with the father, if not +before he gained the girl's heart, at any rate as soon as he knew +he had done so? He had left Italy thinking that he would +certainly meet the Duchess and her daughter in London, and that +then he might go to the Duke as though this love of his had arisen +from the sweetness of those meetings in London. But all these +ideas had been dissipated by the great misfortune of the death of +Lady Mary's mother. From all this he was driven to acknowledge to +himself that his silence in Italy had been wrong, that he had been +weak in allowing himself to be guided by the counsel of the +Duchess, and that he had already armed the Duke with one strong +argument against him. + +He did not doubt but that Mrs Finn would be opposed to him. Of +course he could not doubt but that all the world would now be +opposed to him,--except the girl herself. He would find no other +friend so generous, so romantic, so unworldly as the Duchess had +been. It was clear to him that Lady Mary had told the story of her +engagement to Mrs Finn, and that Mrs Finn had not as yet told the +Duke. From this he was justified in regarding Mrs Finn as the +girl's friend. The request made was that he should at once do +something which Mrs Finn was to suggest. He could hardly have been +so requested, and that in terms of such warm affection, had it +been Mrs Finn's intention to ask him to desist altogether from his +courtship. This woman was regarded by Lady Mary as her mother's +dearest friend. It was therefore incumbent on him now to induce +her to believe in him as the Duchess had believed. + +He knocked at the door of Mrs Finn's little house in Park Lane a +few minutes before the time appointed, and found himself alone +when he was shown into the drawing-room. He had heard much of this +lady though he had never seen her, and had heard much also of her +husband. There had been a kind of mystery about her. People did +not quite understand how it was that she had been so intimate with +the Duchess, nor why the late Duke had left to her an enormous +legacy, which as yet had never been claimed. There was supposed, +too, to have been something especially in her marriage with her +present husband. It was believed also that she was very rich. The +rumours of all these things together had made her a person of +note, and Tregear, when he found himself alone in the drawing- +room, looked round about him as though a special interest was to +be attached to the belongings of such a woman. It was a pretty +room, somewhat dark, because the curtains were almost closed +across the windows, but furnished with a pretty taste, and now, in +these early April days, filled with flowers. + +'I have to apologise, Mr Tregear, for keeping you waiting,' she +said as she entered the room. + +'I fear I was before my time.' + +'I know that I am after mine,--a few minutes,' said the lady. He +told himself that though she was not a young woman, yet she was +attractive. She was dark, and still wore her black hair in curls, +such as now seldom seen with ladies. Perhaps the reduced light of +the chamber had been regulated with some regard to her complexion +and her age. The effect, however, was good, and Frank Tregear felt +at once interested in her. + +'You have just come up from Matching?' he said. + +'Yes; only the day before yesterday. It is very good of you to +come to me so soon.' + +'Of course I came when you sent for me. I am afraid the Duke felt +his loss severely.' + +'How should he not, such a loss as it was? Few people knew how +much he trusted her, and how dearly he loved her.' + +'Silverbridge has told me that he is awfully cut up.' + +'You have seen Lord Silverbridge then?' + +'Just at present I am living with him, at Carlton Terrace.' + +'In the Duke's house?' she asked, with some surprise. + +'Yes, in the Duke's house. Silverbridge and I have been very +intimate. Of course the Duke knows that I am there. Is there any +chance of him coming to town?' + +'Not yet, I fear. He is determined to be alone. I wish it were +otherwise, as I am sure he would better bear his sorrow, if he +would go about with other men.' + +'No doubt he would suffer less,' said Tregear. Then there was a +pause. Each wished that the other would introduce the matter which +both knew was to be the subject of their conversation. But Tregear +would not begin. 'When I left them all at Florence,' he said, 'I +little thought that I would ever see her again.' + +'You had been intimate with them, Mr Tregear?' + +'Yes; I think I may say that I have been intimate with them. I had +been at Eton and Christ Church with Silverbridge, and we have +always been much together.' + +'I have understood that. Have you and the Duke been good friends?' + +'We have never been enemies.' + +'I suppose not that.' + +'The Duke, I think, does not much care about young people. I +hardly know what he used to do with himself. When I dined with +them, I saw him, but I did not often do that. I think he used to +read a good deal, and walk about alone. We were always riding.' + +'Lady Mary used to ride?' + +'Oh, yes; and Silverbridge and Lord Gerald. And the Duchess used +to drive. One of us would always be with her.' + +'And so you became intimate with the whole family?' + +'So I became intimate with the whole family.' + +'And especially so with Lady Mary?' This she said in her sweetest +possible tone, and with a most gracious smile. + +'Especially so with Lady Mary,' he replied. + +'It will be very good of you, Mr Tregear, if you endure and +forgive all this cross-questioning from me, who am a perfect +stranger to you.' + +'But you are not a perfect stranger to her.' + +'That is it, of course. Now, if you will allow me, I will explain +to you exactly what my footing with her is. When the Duchess +returned, and when I found her to be so ill, as she passed through +London, I went down with her into the country,--quite as a matter +of course.' + +'So I understand.' + +'And there she died,--in my arms. I will not try to harass you by +telling you what those few days were; how absolutely he was struck +to the ground, how terrible was the grief of the daughter, how the +boys were astonished by the feeling of their loss. After a few +days they went away. It was, I think, their father's wish that +they should go. And I too was going away,--and had felt, indeed, +directly her spirit had parted from her, that I was only in the +way in his house. But I stayed at his request, because he did not +wish his daughter to be alone.' + +'I can easily understand that, Mrs Finn.' + +'I wanted her to go to Lady Cantrip who had invited her, but she +would not. In that way we were thrown together in the closest +intercourse. For two or three weeks. Then she told me the story of +your engagement.' + +'That was natural, I suppose.' + +'Surely so. Think of her position, left without a mother! It was +incumbent on her to tell someone. There was, however, one other +person in whom it would have been much better that she should have +confided.' + +'What person?' + +'Her father.' + +'I rather fancy that it is I who ought to tell him.' + +'As far as I understand things, Mr Tregear,--which, indeed, is very +imperfectly,--I think it is natural that a girl should at once tell +her mother when a gentleman has made her understand that he loves +her.' + +'She did so, Mrs Finn.' + +'And I suppose that generally the mother would tell the father.' + +'She did not.' + +'No; and therefore the position of the young lady is now one of +great embarrassment. The Duchess has gone from us, and we must now +make up our minds as to what had better be done. It is out of the +question that Lady Mary should be allowed to consider herself to +be engaged, and that her father should be kept in ignorance of her +position.' She paused for his reply, but as he said nothing, she +continued: 'Either you must tell the Duke, or she must do so, or I +must do so.' + +'I suppose she told you in confidence.' + +'No doubt. She told me presuming that I would not betray her; but +I shall,--if that be a betrayal. The Duke must know it. It will be +infinitely better that he should know it through you, or through +her, than through me. But he must be told.' + +'I can't quite see why,' said Tregear. + +'For her sake,--whom I suppose you love.' + +'Certainly I love her.' + +'In order that she may not suffer. I wonder you do not see it, Mr +Tregear. Perhaps you have a sister.' + +'I have no sister as it happens.' + +'But you can imagine what your feelings would be. Should you like +to think of a sister as being engaged to a man without the +knowledge of any of her family?' + +'It was not so. The Duchess knew it. The present condition of +things is altogether an accident.' + +'It is an accident that must be brought to an end.' + +'Of course it must be brought to an end. I am not such a fool as +to suppose that I can make her my wife without telling her +father.' + +'I mean at once, Mr Tregear.' + +'It seems to me that you are rather dictating to me, Mrs Finn.' + +'I owe you an apology of course, for meddling in your affairs at +all. But as it will be more conducive to your success that the +Duke should hear this from you than from me, and as I feel I am +bound by my duty to him and to Lady Mary to see that he be not +left in ignorance, I think that I am doing you a service.' + +'I do not like to have a constraint put upon me.' + +'That, Mr Tregear, is what a gentleman, I fancy, very often feels +in regard to ladies. But the constraint of which you speak is +necessary for their protection. Are you unwilling to see the +Duke?' + +He was very unwilling, but he would not confess so much. He gave +various reasons for delay, urging repeatedly the question of his +marriage was one which he could not press upon the Duke so soon +after the death of the Duchess. And when she assured him that this +was a matter of importance so great, that even the death of the +man's wife should not be held by him to justify delay, he became +angry, and for awhile insisted that must be allowed to follow his +own judgement. But he gave her a promise that he would see the +Duke before a week was over. Nevertheless he left the house in +dudgeon, having told Mrs Finn more than once that she was taking +advantage of Lady Mary's confidence. They hardly parted as +friends, and her feeling was, on the whole, hostile to him and to +his love. It could not, she thought, be for the happiness of such +a one as Lady Mary that she should give herself to one who seemed +to have so little to recommend him. + +He, when he had left her, was angry with his own weakness. He had +not only promised that he would make his application to the Duke, +but that he would do so within the period of a week. Who was she +that she should exact terms from him after this fashion, and +prescribe days and hours? And now, because this strange woman had +spoken to him, he was compelled to make a journey down to the +Duke's country house, and seek an interview in which he would be +surely snubbed? + +This occurred on a Wednesday, and he resolved that he would go +down to Matching on the next Monday. He said nothing of his plan +to anyone, and not a word passed between him and Lord Silverbridge +about Lady Mary during the first two or three days. But on +Saturday Silverbridge appeared at breakfast with a letter in his +hand. 'The governor is coming up to town,' he said. + +'Immediately?' + +'In the course of next week. He says that he thinks he shall be +here on Wednesday.' + +It immediately struck Tregear that this sudden journey must have +some reference to Lady Mary and her engagement. 'Do you know why +he is coming?' + +'Because of these vacancies in Parliament.' + +'Why should that bring him up?' + +'I suppose he hopes to be able to talk me into obedience. He wants +me to stand for the county--as a Liberal, of course. I intend to +stand for the borough as a Conservative, and I have told them so +down at Silverbridge. I am very sorry to annoy him, and all that +kind of thing. But what the deuce is a fellow to do? If a man has +got political convictions of his own, of course he must stick to +them.' This the young Lord said with a good deal of self- +assurance, as though he, by the light of his own reason, had +ascertained on which side the truth lay in the political contests +of the day. + +'There is a good deal to be said on both sides of the question, my +boy.' At this particular moment Tregear felt that the Duke ought +to be propitiated. + +'You wouldn't have me give up my convictions!' + +'A seat in Parliament is a great thing.' + +'I can probably secure that, whichever side I take. I thought you +were so devilish hot against the Radicals.' + +'So I am. But then you are, as it were, bound by family +allegiance.' + +'I'll be shot if I am. One never knows how to understand you +nowadays. It used to be a great doctrine with you that nothing +should induce a man to vote against his political opinion.' + +'So it is,--if he has really got any. However, as your father is +coming to London, I need not go down to Matching.' + +'You don't mean that you were going to Matching?' + +'I had intended to beard the lion in his country den; but now the +lion will find me in his own town den, and I must beard him here.' + +Then Tregear wrote a most chilling note to Mrs Finn, informing her +with great precision, that, as the Duke of Omnium intended to be +in town one day next week, he would postpone the performance of +his promise for a day or two beyond the allotted time. + + + +CHAPTER 5 + +It is Impossible + +Down at Matching Lady Mary's life was very dull after Mrs Finn had +left her. She had a horse to ride, but had no one to ride with +her; she had a carriage in which to be driven, but no one to be +driven with her, and no special places whither to go. Her father +would walk daily for two hours, and she would accompany him when +he encouraged her to do so; but she had an idea that he preferred +taking his walks alone, and when they were together there was no +feeling of confidence between them. There could be none on her +part, as she knew that she was keeping back information which he +was entitled to possess. On this matter she received two letters +from Mrs Finn, in the first of which she was told that Mr Tregear +intended to present himself at Matching within a few days, and was +advised in the same letter not to endeavour to see her lover on +that occasion; and then, in the second she was informed that this +interview with her father was to be sought not at Matching but in +London. From this letter there was of course some disappointment, +though some feeling of relief. Had he come there she might +possibly have seen him after the interview. But she would have +been subjected to the immediate sternness of her father's anger. +That she would now escape. She would not be called on to meet him +just when the first blow had fallen upon him. She was quite sure +that he would disapprove of the thing. She was quite sure that he +would be very angry. She knew that he was a peculiarly just man, +and yet she thought that in this he would be unjust. Had she been +called upon to sing the praises of her father she would have +insisted above all things on the absolute integrity of his mind, +and yet, knowing as she did that he would be opposed to her +marriage with Mr Tregear, she assured herself every day and every +hour that he had no right to make any such objection. The man she +loved was a gentleman, and an honest man, by no means a fool, and +subject to no vices. Her father had no right to demand that she +should give her heart to a rich man, or to one of high rank. Rank! + As for rank, she told herself that she had the most supreme +contempt for it. She thought that she had seen it near enough +already to be sure that it ought to have no special allurements. +What was it doing for her? Simply restraining her choice among +comparatively a few who seemed to her by no means best endowed of +God's creatures. + +Of one thing she was very sure, that under no pressure whatsoever +would she abandon her engagement to Mr Tregear. That to her had +become a bond almost as holy as matrimony itself could be. She had +told the man that she loved him, and after that there could be no +retreat. He had kissed her, and she had returned his caress. He +had told her that she was his, as his arm was round her; and she +had acknowledged that it was so, that she belonged to him, and +could not be taken away from him. All this was to her a compact so +sacred that nothing could break it but a desire on his part to +have it annulled. No other man had an idea entered into her mind +that it could be pleasant to join her lot in life with his. With +her it had been all new and all sacred. Love with her had that +religion which nothing but freshness can give it. That freshness, +that bloom, may last through a long life. But every change impairs +it, and after many changes it has perished forever. There was no +question with her but that she must bear her father's anger, +should he be angry; put up with his continued opposition, should +he resolutely oppose her; bear all that the countesses of the +world might say to her;--for it was thus that she thought of Lady +Cantrip now. And retrogression was beyond her power. + +She was walking with her father when she first heard of the +intended trip to London. At that time she had received Mrs Finn's +first letter, but not the second. 'I suppose you will see +Silverbridge,' she said. She knew that Frank Tregear was living +with her brother. + +'I am going up on purpose to see him. He is causing me much +annoyance.' + +'Is he extravagant?' + +'It is not that--at present.' He winced even as he said this, for +he had in truth suffered somewhat from demands made upon him for +money; which had hurt him not so much by their amount as by their +nature. Lord Silverbridge had taken upon himself to 'own a horse +or two', very much to his father's chagrin, and was at that moment +part proprietor of an animal supposed to stand well for the Derby. +The fact was not announced in the papers with his lordship's name, +but his father was aware of it, and did not like it the better +because his son held the horse in partnership with a certain Major +Tifto, who was well known in the sporting world. + +'What is it, papa?' + +'Of course he ought to go into Parliament.' + +'I think he wishes it himself.' + +'Yes, but how? By a piece of extreme good fortune. West +Barsetshire is open to him. The two seats are vacant together. +There is hardly another agricultural county in England that will +return a Liberal, and I fear I am not asserting too much in saying +that no other Liberal could carry the seat but one of our family.' + +'You used to sit for Silverbridge, papa.' + +'Yes, I did. In those days the county returned four Conservatives. +I cannot explain it all to you, but it is his duty to contest the +county on the Liberal side.' + +'But if he is a Conservative himself, papa?' asked Lady Mary, who +had some political ideas suggested to her own mind by her lover. + +'It is all rubbish. It has come from that young man Tregear, with +whom he has been associating.' + +'But, papa,' said Lady Mary, who felt that even in this matter she +was bound to be firm on what was now her side of the question. 'I +suppose it is as--as--as respectable to be a Conservative as a +Liberal.' + +'I don't know that at all,' said the Duke angrily. + +'I thought that--the two sides were--' + +She was going to express an opinion that the two parties might be +supposed to stand as equal in the respect of the country, when he +interrupted her. 'The Pallisers have always been Liberal. It will +be a blow to me, indeed, if Silverbridge deserts his colours. I +know that as yet he himself has had no deep thoughts on the +subject, that unfortunately he does not give himself much to +thinking, and that in this matter he is being taken over by a +young man whose position in life hardly justified the great +intimacy which has existed.' + +This was very far from being comfortable to her, but of course she +said nothing in defence of Tregear's politics. Nor at present was +she disposed to say anything to his position in life, though at +some future time she might not be so silent. A few days later they +were again walking together, when he spoke to her about himself. +'I cannot bear that you should be left her alone while I am away,' +he said. + +'You will not be long gone, I suppose?' + +'Only for three of four days now.' + +'I shall not mind, papa.' + +'But very probably I may have to go to Barsetshire. Would you not +be happier if you would let me write to Lady Cantrip, and tell her +that you will go to her?' + +'No, papa, I think not. There are times when one feels that one +ought to be almost alone. Don't you feel that?' + +'I do not wish you to feel it, nor would you do so long if you had +other people round you. With me it is different. I am an old man, +and cannot look for new pleasures in society. It has been the +fault of my life to be too much alone. I do not want to see my +children follow me in that.' + +'It is so very short time as yet,' said she, thinking of her +mother's death. + +'But I think that you should be with somebody,--with some woman who +would be kind to you. I like to see you with books, but books +alone should not be sufficient at your age.' How little, she +thought, did he know of the state either of her heart or mind! +'Do you dislike Lady Cantrip?' + +'I do not know her. I can't say that I dislike a person whom I +don't think I ever spoke to, and never saw above once or twice. +But how can I say that I like her?' She did, however, know that +Lady Cantrip was a countess all over, and would be shocked at the +idea of a daughter of a Duke of Omnium marrying the younger son of +a country squire. Nothing further was then said on the matter, and +when the Duke went to town, Lady Mary was left quite alone, with +an understanding that if he went into Barsetshire he should come +back and take her with him. + +He arrived at his own house in Carlton Terrace about five o'clock +in the afternoon, and immediately went to his study, intending to +dine and spend the evening there alone. His son had already +pleaded an engagement for that afternoon, but had consented to +devote the following morning to his father's wishes. Of the other +sojourner in his house the Duke had thought nothing; but the other +sojourner had thought very much of the Duke. Frank Tregear was +fully possessed of that courage which induces a man who knows that +he must be thrown over a precipice, to choose the first possible +moment for his fall. He had sounded Silverbridge about the change +in his politics, and had found his friend quite determined not to +go back to the family doctrine. Such being the case, the Duke's +ill-will and hardness and general severity would probably be +enhanced by his interview with his son. Tregear, therefore, +thinking that nothing could be got by delay, sent his name in to +the Duke before he had been an hour in the house, and asked for an +interview. The servant brought back word that his Grace was +fatigued, but would see Mr Tregear if the matter in question was +one of importance. Frank's heart quailed for a moment, but only +for a moment. He took up a pen and wrote a note. + +'MY DEAR DUKE OF OMNIUM, +'If your Grace can spare a moment, I think you +will find that what I have to say will justify the +intrusion. +'Your very faithful servant, +F.O.TREGEAR' + +Of course the Duke admitted him. There was but one idea on his +head as to what was coming. His son had taken this way of making +some communication to him respecting his political creed. Some +overture or some demand was to be preferred through Tregear. If +so, it was proof of a certain anxiety on the matter on his son's +part which was not displeasing to him. But he was not left long in +the mistake after Tregear had entered the room. 'Sir,' he said, +speaking quite at once, as soon as the door was closed behind him, +but still speaking very slowly, looking beautiful as Apollo as he +stood upright before his wished-for father-in-law--'Sir, I have +come to ask you to give me the hand of your daughter.' The few +words had been all arranged beforehand, and were now spoken +without any appearance of fear or shame. No one hearing them would +have imagined that an almost penniless young gentleman was asking +in marriage the daughter of the richest and greatest nobleman in +England. + +'The hand of my daughter!' said the Duke, rising from his chair. + +'I know how very great is the prize,' said Frank, 'and how +unworthy I am of it. But--as she thinks me worthy--' + +'She! What she?' + +'Lady Mary.' + +'She think you worthy!' + +'Yes, your Grace.' + +'I do not believe it.' On hearing this, Frank simply bowed his +head. 'I beg your pardon, Mr Tregear. I do not mean to say that I +do not believe you. I never gave the lie to any gentleman, and I +hope I never may be driven to do so. But there must be some +mistake in this.' + +'I am complying with Lady Mary's wishes in asking your permission +to enter your house as a suitor.' The Duke stood for a moment +biting his lips in silence. 'I cannot believe it,' he said at +last. 'I cannot bring myself to believe it. There must be some +mistake. My daughter! Lady Mary Palliser!' Again the young man +bowed his head. 'What are your pretensions?' + +'Simply her regard.' + +'Of course it is impossible. You are not so ignorant but that you +must have known as much when you came to me.' + +There was so much scorn in his words, and in the tone in which +they were uttered, that Tregear in his turn was becoming angry. He +had prepared himself to bow humbly before the great man, before +the Duke, before the Croesus, before the late Prime Minister, +before the man who was to be regarded as certainly the most +exalted of the earth; but he had not prepared himself to be looked +at as the Duke looked at him. 'The truth, my Lord Duke, is this,' +he said, 'that your daughter loves me, and that we are engaged to +each other,--as far as that engagement can be made without your +sanction as her father.' + +'It cannot have been made at all,' said the Duke. + +'I can only hope,--we can both of us only hope that a little time +may soften-' + +'It is out of the question. There must be an end of this +altogether. You must neither see her, nor hear from her, no in any +way communicate with her. It is altogether impossible. I believe, +sir, that you have no means?' + +'Very little at present, Duke.' + +'How did you think you were to live? But it is altogether +unnecessary to speak of such a matter as that. There are so many +reasons to make this impossible, that it would be useless to +discuss one as being more important than the others. Has any other +one of my family known of this?' This he added, wishing to +ascertain whether Lord Silverbridge had disgraced himself by +lending his hand to such a disposition of his sister. + +'Oh, yes,' said Tregear. + +'Who has known it?' + +'The Duchess, sir. We had all her sympathy and approval.' + +'I do not believe a word of it,' said the Duke, becoming extremely +red in the face. He was forced to do now that which he had just +declared that he had never done in his life,--driven by the desire +of his heart to acquit the wife he had lost of the terrible +imprudence, worse than imprudence, of which she was now accused. + +'That is the second time, my Lord, that you have found it +necessary to tell me that you have not believed direct assertions +which I made to you. But, luckily for me, the two assertions are +capable of the earliest and most direct proof. You will believe +Lady Mary, and she will confirm me in the one and the other.' + +The Duke was almost beside himself with emotion and grief. He did +know,--though now at this moment he was most loath to own to +himself that it was so,--that his dear wife had been the most +imprudent of women. And he recognized in her encouragement of this +most pernicious courtship,---if she had encouraged it,---a repetition +of that romantic folly by which she had so nearly brought herself +to shipwreck her own early life. If it had been so,---even whether +it had been so or not,--he had been wrong to tell the man that he +did not believe him. And the man had rebuked him with dignity. 'At +any rate it is impossible,' he repeated. + +'I cannot allow that it is impossible.' + +'That is for me to judge, sir.' + +'I trust that you will excuse me when I say that I also must hold +myself to be in some degree a judge in the matter. If you were in +my place, you would feel--' + +'I could not possibly be in your place.' + +'If your Grace were in my place you would feel that as long as you +were assured by the young lady that your affection was valued by +her you would not be deterred by the opposition of her father. +That you should yield to me, of course, I do not expect; that Lady +Mary should be persistent in her present feelings when she knows +your mind, perhaps I have no right to hope. But should she be so +persistent as to make you feel that her happiness depends, as mine +does, on our marriage, then I shall believe that you will yield at +last.' + +'Never!' said the Duke. 'Never! I shall never believe that my +daughter's happiness can be assured by a step which I should regard +as disgraceful to her.' + +'Disgraceful is a violent word, my Lord.' + +'It is the only word that will express my meaning.' + +'And one which I must be bold enough to say you are not justified +in using. Should she become my wife tomorrow, no one in England +would think that she had disgraced herself. The Queen would +receive her on her marriage. All your friends would hold their +hands out to us,--presuming that we had your good-will.' + +'But you would not have it.' + +'Her disgrace would not depend upon that, my Lord. Should your +daughter so dispose herself, as to disgrace herself,--which I think +to be impossible,--your countenance could not set her right. Nor +can the withdrawal of your countenance condemn her before the +world if she does that with herself which any other lady might do +and remain a lady.' + +The Duke, when he heard this, even in the midst of his wrath, +which was very violent, and the in the midst of his anger, which +was very acute, felt that he had to deal with a man,--with one whom +he could not put off from him into the gutter, and there leave as +buried in the mud. And there came, too, a feeling upon him, which +he had no time to analyse, but of which he was part aware, that +this terrible indiscretion on the part of his daughter and of his +late wife was less wonderful than it had at first appeared to be. +But not on that account was he the less determined to make the +young man feel that his parental opposition would be invincible. +'It is quite impossible, sir. I do not think that I need say +anything more.' Then, while Tregear was meditating whether to +make any reply; the Duke asked a question which had better have +been left unasked. The asking of it diminished somewhat from that +ducal, grand-ducal, quasi-archducal, almost Godlike superiority +which he had assumed, and showed the curiosity of a mere man. 'Has +anybody else been aware of this?' he said, still wishing to know +whether he had cause for anger against Silverbridge in the matter. + +'Mrs Finn is aware of it,' said Tregear. + +'Mrs Finn!' exclaimed the Duke, as though he had been stung by an +adder. This was the woman whom he had prayed to remain awhile with +his daughter after his wife had been laid in her grave, in order +that there might be someone near whom he could trust! And this +very woman whom he had so trusted,--whom, in his early associations +with her, he had disliked and distrusted, but had taught himself +both to like and to trust because his wife had loved her,--this +woman was the she-Pandarus who had managed matters between Tregear +and his daughter! His wife had been too much subject to her +influence. That he had always known. And now, in this last act of +her life, she had allowed herself to be persuaded to give up her +daughter by the baneful wiles of this most pernicious woman. Such +were the workings of the Duke's mind when the young man told him +that Mrs Finn was acquainted with the whole affair. As the reader +is aware, nothing could have been more unjust. + +'I mentioned her name,' said Tregear, 'because I thought she had +been a friend of the family.' + +'That will do, sir. I have been greatly pained as well as +surprised by what I have heard. Of the real state of the case I +can form no opinion till I see my daughter. You, of course, will +hold no further intercourse with her.' He paused as though for a +promise, but Tregear did not feel himself called upon to say a +word in one direction or the other. 'It will be my care that you +shall not do so. Good-morning, sir.' + +Tregear, who during the interview had been standing, then bowed, +turned upon his heel and left the room. + +The Duke seated himself, and, crossing his arms upon his chest, +sat for an hour looking up at the ceiling. Why was it that, for +him, such a world of misery had been prepared? What wrong had he +done, of what imprudence had been guilty, that, at every turn of +life, something should occur so grievous as to make him think of +himself the most wretched of men? No man had ever loved his wife +more dearly than he had done; and yet now, in that very excess of +tenderness which her death had occasioned, he was driven to accuse +her of a great sin against himself, in that she had kept from him +her knowledge of this affair;--for, when he came to turn the matter +over in his mind, he did believe Tregear's statement as to her +encouragement. Then, too, he had been proud of his daughter. He +was a man so reticent and undemonstrative in his manner that he +had never known how to make confidential friends of his children. +In his sons hitherto he had not taken pride. They were gallant, +well-grown, handsome boys with a certain dash of cleverness,--more +like their mother than their father; but they had not as yet done +anything as he would have made them do it. But the girl, in the +perfection of her beauty, in the quiescence of her manner, in the +nature of her studies, and in the general dignity of her bearing, +had seemed to be all that he had desired. And now she had engaged +herself, behind his back, to the younger son of a county squire! + +But his anger against Mrs Finn was hotter than the anger against +anyone in his own family. + + + +CHAPTER 6 + +Major Tifto + +Major Tifto had lately become a member of the Beargarden Club, +under the auspices of his friend Lord Silverbridge. It was +believed, by those who had made some inquiry into the matter, that +the Major had really served a campaign as a volunteer in the +Carlist army in the north of Spain. When, therefore, it was +declared by someone else that he was not a major at all, his +friends were able to contradict the assertion, and to impute it to +slander. Instances were brought up,--declared by these friends to be +innumerable, but which did, in truth, amount to three of four,--of +English gentlemen who had come up from a former Carlist war, +bearing the title of colonel, without any contradiction or +invidious remark. Had this gallant officer appeared as Colonel +Tifto, perhaps less might have been said about it. There was a +little lack of courage in the title which he did choose. But it +was accepted at last, and, as Major Tifto, he was proposed, +seconded, and elected at the Beargarden. + +But he had other points in his favour besides the friendship of +Lord Silverbridge,--points which had probably led to that +friendship. He was, without doubt, one of the best horsemen in +England. There were some who said that, across country, he was the +very best, and that, as a judge of hunters few excelled him. Of +late years he had crept into credit as a betting-man. No one +supposed that he had much capital to work with, but still, when he +lost a bet he paid it. + +Soon after his return from Spain, he was chosen as Master of the +Runnymede Fox Hounds, and was thus enabled to write the letters +M.F.H. after his name. The gentlemen who rode in the Runnymede +were not very liberal in their terms, and had lately been +compelled to change their Master rather more frequently than was +good for that quasi-suburban hunt; but now they had fitted +themselves well. How he was to hunt the county five days a +fortnight, finding servants and horses, and feeding the hounds, +for eight hundred pounds a year, no one could understand. But +Major Tifto not only undertook to do it, but did it. And he +actually succeeded in obtaining for the Runnymede a degree of +popularity which for many years previous it had not possessed. +Such a man,--even though no one did know anything of his father or +mother, though no one had ever heard him speak of a brother or a +sister, though it was believed that he had no real income,--was +felt by many to be the very man for the Beargarden; and when his +name was brought up at the committee, Lord Silverbridge was able +to say so much in his favour that only two blackballs were given +against him. Under the mild rule of the club, three would have +been necessary to exclude him; and therefore Major Tifto was now +as good a member as anyone else. + +He was a well-made little man, good-looking for those who like +such good looks. He was light-haired and blue-eyed, with regular +and yet not inexpressive features. But his eyes were small and +never tranquil, and rarely capable of looking at the person who +was speaking to him. He had small, well-trimmed, glossy whiskers, +with the best-kept mustache, and the best-kept tuft on his chin +which were to be seen anywhere. His face still bore the freshness +of youth, which was a marvel to many, who declared that, from +facts within their knowledge, Tifto must be far on the wrong side +of forty. At a first glance you would hardly have called him +thirty. No doubt, when, on close inspection, you came to look into +his eyes, you could see the hand of time. Even if you believed the +common assertion that he painted,--which it was very hard to +believe of a man who passed the most of his time in the hunting- +field or on a race-course,--yet the paint on his cheeks would not +enable him to move with the elasticity which seemed to belong to +all his limbs. He rode flat races and steeple chases,--if jump +races may still be so called; and with his own hounds and with the +Queen's did incredible things on horseback. He could jump over +chairs too,--the backs of four chairs in a dining-room after +dinner,--a feat which no gentleman of forty-five could perform, +even though he painted himself ever so. + +So much in praise of Major Tifto honesty has compelled the present +chronicler to say. But there were traits of character in which he +fell off a little, even in the estimation of those whose pursuits +endeared him to them. He could not refrain from boasting,--and +especially from boasting about women. His desire for glory in that +direction knew no bounds, and he would sometimes mention names, +and bring himself into trouble. It was told of him that at one +period of his life, when misfortune had almost overcome him, when +sorrow had produced prostration, and prostration some expression +of truth, he had owned to a friend his own conviction that could +he have kept his tongue from talking of women, he might have risen +to prosperity in his profession. From these misfortunes he had +emerged, and, no doubt, had often reflected on what he himself had +then said. But we know that the drunkard, though he hates +drunkenness, cannot but drink,--that the gambler cannot keep from +the dice. Major Tifto still lied about women, and could not keep +his tongue from the subject. He would boast, too, about other +matters,--much to his own disadvantage. He was, too, very 'deep', +and some men, who could put up with his other failings, could not +endure that. Whatever he wanted to do he would attempt round three +corners. Though he could ride straight, he could do nothing else +straight. He was full of mysteries. If he wanted to draw Charter +Wood he would take his hounds out of the street at Egham directly +in the other direction. If he had made up his mind to ride Lord +Pottlepot's horse for the great Leamington handicap, he would be +sure to tell even his intimate friends that he was almost +determined to take the 'baronet's' offer of a mount. This he would +do even when there was no possible turn in the betting to be +affected by such falsehood. So that his companions were apt to +complain that there was no knowing where to have Tifto. And then, +they who were old enough in the world to have had some experience +in men, perceived that peculiar quality of his eyes, which never +allowed him to look anyone in the face. + +That Major Tifto should make money by selling horses was, perhaps, +a necessity to his position. No one grumbled at him because he did +so, or thought that such a pursuit was incompatible with his +character as a sporting gentleman. But there were some who +considered that they had suffered unduly under his hands, and in +their bargains with him had been made to pay more than a proper +amount of tax for the advantages of his general assistance. When a +man has perhaps made fifty pounds by using a 'straight tip' as to +a horse at Newmarket, in doing which he had of course encountered +some risks, he feels he ought not be made to pay the amount back +into the pockets of the 'tipper', and at the same time to find +himself saddled with the possession of a perfectly useless animal. +In this way there were rocks in the course through which Tifto was +called on to steer his bark. Of course he was anxious, when +preying upon his acquaintances, to spare those who were useful +friends to him. Now and again he would sell a serviceable animal +at a fair price, and would endeavour to make such a sale in favour +of someone whose countenance would be a rock to him. He knew his +business well, but yet there would be mistakes. + +Now, at this very moment, was the culmination of the Major's life. +He was Master of Runnymede Hounds, he was partner with the eldest +son of a Duke in the possession of that magnificent colt, the +Prime Minister, and he was a member of the Beargarden. He was a +man who had often been despondent about himself, but was now +disposed to be little triumphant. He had finished his season well +with the Runnymede, and were it not that, let him work as he +would, his expenses always exceeded his means, he would have been +fairly comfortable. + +At eight o'clock Lord Silverbridge and his friend met in the +dining-room of the Beargarden. 'Have you been here before?' asked +the Lord. + +'Not in here, my Lord. I just looked in at the smoking-room last +night. Glasslough and Nidderdale were there. I thought we should +have got up a rubber, but they didn't seem to see it.' + +'There is whist there generally. You'll find out all about it +before long. Perhaps they are a little afraid of you.' + +'I'm the worst hand at cards, I suppose, In England. A dash at loo +for about an hour, and half-a-dozen cuts at blind hookey,--that's +about my form. I know I drop more than I pick up. If I knew what I +was about I should never touch a card.' + +'Horses; eh, Tifto?' + +'Horses, yes. They've pretty good claret, here, eh, Silverbridge?' +He could never hit off his familiarity quite right. He had my- +Lorded his young friend at first, and now brought out the name +with a hesitating twang, which the young nobleman appreciated. But +then the young nobleman was quite aware that the Major was a +friend for club purposes, and sporting purposes, and not for home +use. + +'Everything of that kind is pretty good here,' said the Lord. + +'You were saying--horses.' + +'I dare say you deal better with them than cards.' + +'If I didn't I don't know where I should be, seeing what a lot +pass through my hands in the year. Anyone of our fellows who has a +horse to sell thinks that I am bound to buy him. And I do buy 'em. +Last May I had forty-two hunters on my hands.' + +'How many of them have you got now?' + +'Three. Three of that lot,--though a goodish many have come up +since. But what does it amount to? When I have anything that is +very good, some fellow that I like gets it from me.' + +'After paying for him?' + +'After paying for him! Yes, I don't mean that I make a fellow a +present. But the man who buys has a deal the best of it. Did you +ever get anything better than that spotted chestnut in your life?' + +'What, old Sarcinet?' + +'You had her for one hundred and sixty pounds. Now, if you were on +your oath, what is she worth?' + +'She suits me, Major, and of course I shouldn't sell her.' + +'I rather think not. I knew what that mare was well enough. A +dealer would have had three hundred and fifty pounds for her. I +could have got the money easily if I had taken her down into the +shires, and ridden her a day or two myself.' + +'I gave you what you asked.' + +'Yes, you did. It isn't often that I take less than I ask. But the +fact is, about horses. I don't know whether I shouldn't do better +if I never owned an animal at all but those I want for my own use. +When I am dealing with a man I call a friend, I can't bear to make +money of him. I don't think fellows give me all the credit they +should do for sticking to them.' The Major, as he said this, +leaned back in his chair, put his hand up to his mustache, and +looked sadly away into the vacancy of the room, as though he were +meditating sorrowfully on the ingratitude of the world. + +'I suppose it's all right about Cream Cheese?' asked the Lord. + +'Well; it ought to be.' And now the Major spoke like an oracle, +leaning forward on the table, uttering his words in a low voice, +but very plainly, so that not a syllable might be lost. 'When you +remember how he ran at the Craven with 9st 12lb on him, that it +took Archbishop all he knew to beat him with only 9st 2lb, and +what the lot at Chester are likely to be, I don't think that there +can be seven to one against him. I should be very glad to take it +off your hands, only the figures are a little too heavy for me.' + +'I suppose Sunflower'll be the best animal there?' + +'Not a doubt of it, if he's all right, and if his temper will +stand. Think what a course Chester is for an ill-conditioned brute +like that! And then he's the most uncertain horse in training. +There are times he won't feed. From what I hear, I shouldn't +wonder if he don't turn up at all.' + +'Solomon says he's all right.' + +'You won't get Solomon to take four to one against him, nor yet +four and a half. I suppose you'll go down my Lord?' + +'Well, yes; if there's nothing else doing just then. I don't know +how it may be about this electioneering business. I shall go and +smoke upstairs.' + +At the Beargarden there were,--I was going to say, two smoking- +rooms; but in truth the house was a smoking-room all over. It was, +however, the custom of those who habitually played cards, to have +their cigars and coffee upstairs. Into this sanctum Major Tifto +had not yet been introduced, but now he was taken there under Lord +Silverbridge's wing. There were already four or five assembled, +among whom was Mr Adolphus Longstaff, a young man of about thirty- +five years of age, who spent very much of his time at the +Beargarden. 'Do you know my friend Tifto?' said the Lord. 'Tifto, +this is Mr Longstaff, whom men within the walls of this asylum +sometimes call Dolly.' Whereupon the Major bowed and smiled +graciously. + +'I have heard of Major Tifto,' said Dolly. + +'Who has not?' said Lord Nidderdale, another middle-aged young +man, who made one of the company. Again the Major bowed. + +'Last season I was always intending to get down to your country +and have a day with the Tiftoes,' said Dolly. 'Don't they call +your hounds the Tiftoes?' + +'They shall be called so if you like,' said the Major. 'And why +didn't you come?' + +'It always was such a grind.' + +'Train down from Paddington every day at 10.30.' + +'That's all very well if you happen to be up. Well, Silverbridge, +how's the Prime Minister?' + +'How is he, Tifto?' asked the noble partner. + +'I don't think there's a man in England just at present enjoying a +very much better state of health,' said the Major pleasantly. + +'Safe to run?' asked Dolly. + +'Safe to run! Why shouldn't he be safe to run?' + +'I means sure to start.' + +'I think we mean him to start, don't we, Silverbridge?' said the +Major. + +There was something perhaps in the tone in which the last remark +was made which jarred a little against the young lord's dignity. +At any rate he got up and declared his purpose of going to the +opera. He should look in, he said, and hear a song from +Mademoiselle Stuffa. Mademoiselle Stuffa was the nightingale of +the season, and Lord Silverbridge, when he had nothing else to do, +would sometimes think that he was fond of music. Soon after he was +gone Major Tifto had some whisky-and-water, lit his third cigar, +and began to feel the glory of belonging to the Beargarden. With +Lord Silverbridge, to whom it was essentially necessary that he +should make himself agreeable at all times, he was somewhat +overweighted as it were. Though he attempted an easy familiarity, +he was a little afraid of Lord Silverbridge. With Dolly Longstaff +he felt that he might be comfortable,--not, perhaps, understanding +that gentleman's character. With Lord Nidderdale he had previously +been acquainted, and had found him to be good-natured. So he +sipped his whisky, he became confidential and comfortable. + +'I never thought so much about her good looks,' he said. They were +talking of the singer, the charm of whose voice had carried Lord +Silverbridge away. + +'Did you ever see her off the stage?' asked Nidderdale. + +'Oh dear yes.' + +'She does not go about very much, I fancy,' said someone. + +'I dare say not,' said Tifto. 'But she and I have had a day or two +together, for all that.' + +'You must have been very much favoured,' said Dolly. + +'We've been pals ever since she has been over here,' said Tifto, +with an enormous lie. + +'How do you get on with her husband?' asked Dolly,--in the simplest +voice, as though not in the least surprised at his companion's +statement. + +'Husband!' exclaimed the Major; who was not possessed of +sufficient presence of mind to suppress all signs of ignorance. + +'Ah,' said Dolly; 'you are not probably aware that your pal has +been married to Mr Thomas Jones for the last year and a half.' +Soon after that Major Tifto left the club,--with considerable +enhanced respect for Mr Longstaff. + + + +CHAPTER 7 + +Conservative Convictions + +Lord Silverbridge had engaged himself to be with his father the +next morning at half-past nine, and he entered the breakfast-room +a very few minutes after that hour. He had made up his mind as to +what he would say to his father. He meant to call himself a +Conservative, and to go into the House of Commons under that +denomination. All the men among whom he lived were Conservatives. +It was a matter on which, as he thought, his father could have no +right to command him. Down in Barsetshire, as well as up in +London, there was some little difference of opinion in this +matter. The people of Silverbridge declared that they would prefer +to have a conservative member, as indeed they had had one for the +last session. They had loyally returned the Duke himself while he +was a commoner, but they had returned him as being part and parcel +of the Omnium appendages. That was all over now. As a constituency +they were not endowed with advanced views, and thought that a +Conservative would suit them best. That being so, and as they had +been told that the Duke's son was a Conservative, they fancied +that by electing him they would be pleasing everybody. But, in +truth, by so doing they would by no means please the Duke. He had +told them on previous occasions that they might elect whom they +pleased, and felt no anger because they had elected a +Conservative. They might send up to Parliament the most +antediluvian old Tory they could find in England if they wished, +on not his son, not a Palliser as a Tory or Conservative. And +then, though the little town had gone back in the ways of the +world, the county, or the Duke's division of the county, had made +so much progress, that a Liberal candidate recommended by him +would almost certainly be returned. It was just the occasion on +which a Palliser should show himself ready to serve his country. +There would be an expense, but he would think nothing of expense +in such a matter. Ten thousand pounds spent on such an object +would not vex him. The very contest would have given him new life. +All this Lord Silverbridge understood, but had said to himself and +to all his friends that it was a matter in which he did not intend +to be controlled. + +The Duke had passed a very unhappy night. He had told himself that +any such marriage as that spoken of was out of the question. He +believed that the matter might be so represented to his girl as to +make her feel that it was out of the question. He hardly doubted +but that he could stamp it out. Though he should have to take her +away to some further corner of the world, he would stamp it out. +But she, when this foolish passion of hers should have been thus +stamped out, could never be the pure, the bright, the unsullied, +unsoiled thing, of the possession of which he had thought so much. +He had never spoken of his hopes about her even to his wife, but +in the silence of his very silent life he had thought much of the +day when he would give her to some noble youth,--noble with all the +gifts of nobility, including rank and wealth,--who might be fit to +receive her. Now, even though no one else should know it,--and all +would know it,--she would be the girl who had condescended to love +young Tregear. + +His own Duchess, she whose loss to him now was as though he had +lost half of his limbs,--had not she in the same way loved a +Tregear, or worse than a Tregear, in her early days? Ah, yes! +And though his Cora had been so much to him, had he not often +felt, had he not been feeling all his days, that Fate had robbed +him of the sweetest joy that is given to man, in that she had not +come to him loving him with her early spring of love, as she had +loved that poor ne'er-do-well? How infinite had been his regrets. +How often had he told himself that, with all that Fortune had +given him, still Fortune had been unjust to him because he had +been robbed of that. Not to save his life could he have whispered +a word of this to anyone, but he had felt it. He had felt it for +years. Dear as she had been, she had not been quite what she +should have been but for that. And now this girl of his, who was +so much dearer to him than anything else left to him, was doing +exactly as her mother had done. The young man might be stamped +out. He might be made to vanish as that other young man had +vanished. But the fact that he had been there, cherished in the +girl's heart,--that could not be stamped out. + +He struggled gallantly to acquit the memory of his wife. He could +best do that by leaning with the full weight of his mind on the +presumed iniquity of Mrs Finn. Had he not known from the first +that the woman was an adventuress? And had he not declared to +himself over and over again that between such a one and himself +there should be no intercourse, no common feeling? He had allowed +himself to be talked into an intimacy, to be talked into an +affection. And this was the result! + +And how should he treat this matter in his coming interview with +his son,--or should he make allusion to it? At first it seemed as +though it would be impossible for him to give his mind to that +other subject. How could he enforce the merits of political +liberalism, and the duty of adhering to the old family party, +while his mind was entirely preoccupied with his daughter? It had +suddenly become almost indifferent to him whether Silverbridge +should be a Conservative or a Liberal. But as he dressed he told +himself, that, as a man, he ought to be able to do a plain duty, +marked out for him as this had been by his own judgement, without +regard to personal suffering. The hedger and ditcher must make his +hedge clean and clean his ditch even though he be tormented by +rheumatism. His duty by his son he must do, even though his heart +were torn to pieces. + +During breakfast he tried to be gracious, and condescended to ask +a question about Prime Minister. Racing was an amusement to which +English noblemen had been addicted for many ages, and had been +held to be serviceable rather than disgraceful, if conducted in a +noble fashion. He did not credit Tifto with much nobility. He knew +but little about the Major. He would much have preferred that his +son should have owned a horse alone, if he must have anything to +do with ownership. 'Would it not be better to buy the other +share?' asked the Duke. + +'It would take a deal of money, sir. The Major would ask a couple +of thousand, I should think.' + +'That is a great deal.' + +'And then the Major is a very useful man. He thoroughly +understands the turf.' + +'I hope he doesn't live by it?' + +'Oh no, he doesn't live by it. That is, he has a great many irons +in the fire.' + +'I do not mind a young man owning a horse, if he can afford the +expense,--as you perhaps can do; but I hope you don't bet.' + +'Nothing to speak of.' + +'Nothing to speak of is so apt to grow into that which has to be +spoken of.' So much that father said at breakfast, hardly giving +his mind to the matter discussed,--his mind being on other things. +But when their breakfast was eaten, then it was necessary that he +should begin. 'Silverbridge,' he said, 'I hope you have thought +better of what we were talking about as to these coming +elections.' + +'Well, sir,--of course I have thought about it.' + +'And can you do as I would have you?' + +'You see, sir, a man's political opinion is a kind of thing he +can't get rid of.' + +'You can hardly as yet have any confirmed political opinion. You +are still young, and I do not suppose that you have thought much +about politics.' + +'Well, sir; I think I have. I've got my own ideas. We've got to +protect our position as well as we can against the Radicals and +Communists.' + +'I cannot admit that at all, Silverbridge. There is no great +political party in this county anxious either for communism or for +revolution. But, putting all that aside for the present, do you +think that a man's political opinions should be held in regard to +his own individual interests, or to the much wider interests of +others, whom we call the public?' + +'To his own interest,' said the young man with decision. + +'It is simply self-protection then?' + +'His own and his class. The people will look after themselves, and +we must look after ourselves. We are so few and they are so many, +that we shall have quite enough to do.' + +Then the Duke gave his son a somewhat lengthy political lecture, +which was intended to teach him that the greatest benefit of the +greatest number was the object to which all political studies +should tend. The son listened with attention, and when it was +over, expressed his opinion that there was a great deal in what +his father had said. 'I trust, if you will consider it,' said the +Duke, 'that you will not find yourself obliged to desert the +school of politics in which your father has not been an inactive +supporter, and to which your family has belonged for many years.' + +'I could not call myself a Liberal,' said the young politician. + +'Why not?' + +'Because I am a Conservative.' + +'And you won't stand for the county on the Liberal interest?' + +'I should be obliged to tell them that I should always give a +Conservative vote.' + +'Then you refuse to do as I ask?' + +'I do not know how I can help refusing it. If you wanted me to +grow a couple of inches taller, I couldn't do it, even though I +should be ever so anxious to oblige you.' + +'But a very young man, as you are, may have so much deference for +his elders as to be induced to believe that he has been in error.' + +'Oh yes; of course.' + +'You cannot but be aware that the political condition of the +country is the one subject to which I have devoted the labour of +my life.' + +'I know that very well; and of course, I know how much they all +think of you.' + +'Then my opinion might go for something with you?' + +'So it does, sir; I shouldn't have doubted at all only for that. +Still, you see, as the thing is,--how am I to help myself?' + +'You believe that you must be right,--you who have never given an +hour's study to the subject.' + +'No, sir. In comparison with a great many men, I know that I am a +fool. Perhaps it is because I know that, that I am a Conservative. +The Radicals are always saying that a Conservative must be a fool. +Then a fool ought to be a Conservative.' + +Hereupon the father got up from his chair and turned round, facing +the fire, with his back to his son. He was becoming very angry, +but endeavoured to restrain his anger. The matter in dispute +between them was of so great importance, that he could hardly be +justified in abandoning it in consequence of arguments so trifling +in themselves as these which his son adduced. As he stood there +for some minutes thinking of it all, he was tempted again and +again to burst out in wrath and threaten the lad,--to threaten him +as to money, as to his amusements, as to the general tenure of his +life. The pity was so great that the lad should be so stubborn and +so foolish! He would never ask his son to be a slave to the +Liberal party, as he had been. But that a Palliser should not be a +Liberal,--and his son, as the first recreant Palliser,--was +wormwood to him! As he stood there he more than once clenched his +fist in eager desire to turn upon the young man; but he restrained +himself, telling himself that in justice he should not be angry +for such offence as this. To become a Conservative, when the path +to liberalism was so fairly open, might be the part of a fool, but +could not fairly be imputed as a crime. To endeavour to be just +was the study of his life, and in no condition of life can justice +be more imperatively due than from a father to his son. + +'You mean to stand for Silverbridge?' he said at last. + +'Not if you object, sir.' + +This made it worse. It became now still more difficult for him to +scold the young man. 'You are aware that I should not meddle in +any way.' + +'That is what I supposed. They will return a Conservative at any +rate.' + +'It is not that I care about,' said the Duke sadly. + +'Upon my word, sir, I am very sorry to vex you; but what would you +have me do? I will give up Parliament altogether, if you say that +you wish it.' + +'No; I do not wish that.' + +'You wouldn't have me tell a lie?' + +'No.' + +'What can I do then?' + +'Learn what there is to learn from some master fit to teach you.' + +'There are so many masters.' + +'I believe it to be that most arrogant ill-behaved young man who +was with me yesterday who has done this evil.' + +'You mean Frank Tregear?' + +'I do mean Mr Tregear.' + +'He's a Conservative, of course; and of course he and I have been +much together. Was he with you yesterday, sir?' + +'Yes, he was.' + +'What was that about?' asked Lord Silverbridge, in a voice that +almost betrayed fear, for he knew very well what cause had +produced the interview. + +'He has been speaking to me-' When the Duke had got so far as this +he paused, finding himself hardly able to declare the disgrace +which had fallen upon himself and his family. As he did tell the +story, both his face and his voice was altered, so that the son, +in truth, was scared. 'He has been speaking to me about your +sister. Did you know of this?' + +'I knew there was something between them.' + +'And you encouraged it?' + +'No, sir; just the contrary. I have told him that I was quite sure +it would never do.' + +'And why did you not tell me?' + +'Well, sir; it was hardly my business, was it?' + +'Not to guard the honour of your sister?' + +'You see, sir; so many things have happened all at once.' + +'What things?' + +'My dear mother, sir, though well of him.' The Duke uttered a +deep sigh, and turned round to the fire. 'I always told him you +would never consent.' + +'I should think not.' + +'It has come so suddenly. I should have spoken to you about it as +soon as--as soon-' He had meant to say as soon as the husband's +grief for the loss of his wife had been in some degree appeased, +but could not speak the words. The Duke, however, perfectly +understood him. 'In the meantime, they were not seeing each +other.' + +'Nor writing?' + +'I think not.' + +'Mrs Finn has known it all.' + +'Mrs Finn!' + +'Certainly. She has known all through.' + +'I do not see how it can have been so.' + +'He told me so himself,' said the Duke, unwittingly putting words +into Tregear's mouth which Tregear had never uttered. 'There must +be an end of this. I will speak to your sister. In the meantime, +the less, I think, you see of Mr Tregear the better. Of course it +is out of the question he should be allowed to remain in this +house. You will make him understand that at once, if you please.' + +'Oh, certainly,' said Silverbridge. + + + +CHAPTER 8 + +He is a Gentleman + +The Duke returned to Matching an almost broken-hearted man. He had +intended to go down into Barsetshire, in reference to the coming +elections;--not with the view of interfering in any unlordly, or +rather, unpeerlike fashion, but thinking that if his eldest son +were to stand for the county in a proper constitutional spirit, as +the eldest son of so great a county magnate ought to do, his +presence at Gatherum Castle, among his own people, might properly +be serviceable, and would certainly be gracious. There would be no +question of entertainment. His bereavement would make that +impossible. But there would come from his presence a certain +savour of proprietorship, and a sense of power, which would be +beneficial to his son, and would not, as the Duke thought, be +contrary to the spirit of the constitution. But all this was now +at an end. He told himself that he did not care how the elections +might go;--that he did not care much how anything might go. +Silverbridge might stand for Silverbridge if he so pleased. He +would give neither assistance nor obstruction, either in the +county or in the borough. He wrote to this effect to his agent, Mr +Morton;--but at the same time desired that gentleman to pay Lord +Silverbridge's electioneering expenses, feeling it to be his duty +as a father to do so much for his son. + +But though he endeavoured to engage his thoughts in these +parliamentary matters, though he tried to make himself believe +that this political apostasy was the trouble which vexed him, in +truth that other misery was so crushing, as to make the affairs of +his son insignificant. How should he express himself to her? That +was the thought present to his mind as he went down to Matching. +Should he content himself with simply telling her that such a wish +on her part was disgraceful, and that it could never be fulfilled; +or should he argue the matter with her, endeavouring as he did so +to persuade her gently that she was wrong to place her affections +so low, and so to obtain from her an assurance that the idea +should be abandoned? + +The latter course would be infinitely the better,--if only he could +accomplish it. But he was conscious of his own hardness of manner, +and was aware that he had never succeeded in establishing +confidence between himself and his daughter. It was a thing for +which he had longed,--as a plain girl might long to possess the +charms of an acknowledged beauty;--as a poor little fellow, five +feet in height, might long to a cubit added to his stature. + +Though he was angry with her, how willingly would he take her into +his arms and assure her of his forgiveness! How anxious he would +be to make her understand that nothing should be spared by him to +add beauty and grace to her life! Only, as a matter of course, Mr +Tregear must be abandoned. But he knew of himself that he would +not know how to begin to be tender and forgiving. He knew that he +would not know not to be stern and hard. + +But he must find out the history of it all. No doubt the man had +been his son's friend, and had joined the party in Italy at his +son's instance. But yet he had come to entertain the idea that Mrs +Finn had been the great promoter of this sin, and he thought that +Tregear had told him that that lady had been concerned with the +matter from the beginning. In all this there was a craving in his +heart to lessen the amount of culpable responsibility which might +seem to attach itself to the wife he had lost. + +He reached Matching about eight, and ordered his dinner to be +brought to him in his own study. When Lady Mary came to welcome +him, he kissed her forehead, and bade her to come to him after his +dinner. 'Shall I not sit with you, papa, whilst you are eating +it?' she asked; but he merely told her that he would not trouble +her to do that. Even in saying this, he was so unusually tender to +her that she assured herself that her lover had not as yet told +his tale. + +The Duke's meals were generally not feasts for a Lucullus. No man +living, perhaps, cared less what he ate, or knew less what he +drank. In such matters he took what was provided for him, making +his dinner off the first bit of meat that was brought, and simply +ignoring anything offered to him afterwards. And he would drink +what wine the servant gave him, mixing it, whatever it might be, +with seltzer water. He had never been given much the pleasures of +the table; but this habit of simplicity had grown on him of late, +till the Duchess used to tell him that his wants were so few that +it was a pity he was not a hermit, vowed to poverty. + +Very shortly a message was brought to Lady Mary, saying that her +father wished to see her. She went at once, and found him seated +on a sofa, which stood close along the bookshelves on one side of +the room. The table had already been cleared, and he was alone. He +not only was alone, but had not even a pamphlet or newspaper in +his hand. + +Then she knew that Tregear must have told the story. As his +occurred to her, her legs almost gave way under her. 'Come and sit +down, Mary,' he said, pointing to the seat on the sofa beside +himself. + +She sat down and took one of his hands within her own. Then, as he +did not begin at once, she asked a question. 'Will Silverbridge +stand for the county, papa?' + +'No, my dear.' + +'But for the town.' + +'Yes, my dear.' + +'And he won't be a Liberal?' + +'I am afraid not. It is a cause of great unhappiness to me; but I +do not know that I should be justified in any absolute opposition. +A man is entitled to his own opinion, even though he be a very +young man.' + +'I am so sorry that it should be so, papa, because it vexes you.' + +'I have many things to vex me;--things to break my heart.' + +'Poor mamma!' she exclaimed. + +'Yes; that above all others. But life and death are in God's +hands, and even though we may complain we can alter nothing. But +whatever our sorrows are, while we are here we must do our duty.' + +'I suppose he may be a good Member of Parliament, though he has +turned Conservative.' + +'I am not thinking about your brother. I am thinking about you.' +The poor girl gave a little start on the sofa. 'Do you know-Mr +Tregear?' he added. + +'Yes, papa; of course I know him. You used to see him in Italy.' + +'I believe I did; I understood that he was there as a friend of +Silverbridge.' + +'His most intimate friend, papa.' + +'I dare say. He came to me in London yesterday, and told me,--! Oh +Mary, can it be true?' + +'Yes, papa,' she said, covered up to her forehead with blushes, +and with her eyes turned down. In the ordinary affairs of life she +was a girl of great courage, who was not given to be shaken from +her constancy by the pressures of any present difficulty; but now +the terror inspired by her father's voice almost overpowered her. + +'Do you mean to tell me that you have engaged yourself to that +young man without my approval?' + +'Of course you were to have been asked, papa.' + +'Is that in accordance with your idea of what should be the +conduct of a young lady in your position?' + +'Nobody meant to conceal anything from you, papa.' + +'It has been so far concealed. And yet this young man has the +self-confidence to come to me and to demand your hand as though it +were a matter of course that I should accede to so trivial a +request. It is, as a matter of course, quite impossible. You +understand that; do you not?' When she did not answer him at +once, he repeated the question. 'I ask you whether you do not feel +that it is altogether impossible?' + +'No, papa,' she said, in the lowest possible whisper, but still in +such a whisper that he could hear the word, and with so much +clearness that he could judge from her face the obstinacy of her +mind. + +'Then, Mary, it becomes my duty to tell you that it is quite +impossible. I will not have it thought of. There must be an end of +it.' + +'Why, papa?' + +'Why! I am astonished that you should ask me why.' + +'I should not have allowed him, papa, to go to you unless I had,-- +unless I had loved him.' + +'Then you must conquer your love. It is disgraceful and must be +conquered.' + +'Disgraceful!' + +'Yes. I am sorry to use such word to my own child, but it is so. +If you will promise to be guided by me in this matter, if you will +undertake not to see him any more, I will,--if not forget it,--at +any rate pardon it, and be silent. I will excuse it because you +were young, and were thrown imprudently in his way. There has, I +believe, been someone at work in the matter with whom I ought to +be more angry than with you. Say that you will obey me, and there +is nothing within a father's power that I will not do for you, to +make your life happy.' It was thus that he strove to be stern. +His heart, indeed, was tender enough, but there was nothing tender +in the tone of his voice or in the glance of his eye. Though he +was very positive in what he said, yet he was shy and shamefaced +even with his own daughter. He, too, had blushed when he told her +that she must conquer her love. + +That she should be told that she had disgraced herself was +terrible to her. That her father should speak of her marriage with +this man as an event that was impossible made her very unhappy. +That he should talk of pardoning her, as for some great fault, was +in itself a misery. But she had not on that account the least idea +of giving up her lover. Young as she was, she had her own peculiar +theory on that matter, her own code of conduct and honour, from +which she did not mean to be driven. Of course she had not +expected that her father would yield at the first word. He, no +doubt, would wish that she should make a more exalted marriage. +She had known that she would have to encounter opposition, though +she had not expected to be told that she had disgraced herself. As +she sat there she resolved that under no pretence would she give +up her lover;--but she was so far abashed that she could not find +words to express herself. He, too, had been silent for a few +moments before he again asked her for her promise. + +'Will you tell me, Mary, that you will not see him again?' + +'I don't think I can say that, papa.' + +'Why not?' + +'Oh, papa, how can I, when of all people in the world I love him +the best.' + +It is not without a pang that anyone can be told that she who is +of all the dearest has some other one who is to her the dearest. +Such pain fathers and mothers have to bear; and though, I think, +the arrow is never so blunted but that it leaves something of a +wound behind, there is in most cases, if not a perfect salve, +still an ample consolation. The mother knows that it is good that +her child should love some man better than all the world beside, +and that she should be taken away to become a wife and a mother. +And the father, when that delight of his eye ceases to assure him +that he is her nearest and dearest, though he abandon the treasure +of the nearestness and dearestness with a soft melancholy, still +knows that it should be. Of course that other 'him' is the person +she loves the best in the world. Were it not so how evil a thing +it would be that she should marry him? Were it not so with +reference to some 'him', how void would her life be! But now, to +the poor Duke the wound had no salve, no consolation. When he was +told that this young Tregear was the owner of the girl's sweet +love, was the treasure of her heart, he shrank as though arrows +with sharp points were pricking him all over. 'I will not hear of +such love,' he said. + +'What am I to say, papa?' + +'Say that you will obey me.' + +Then she sat silent. 'Do you not know that he is not fit to be +your husband?' + +'No, papa.' + +'Then you cannot have thought much either of your position or of +mine.' + +'He is a gentleman, papa.' + +'So is my private secretary. There is not a clerk in one of our +public offices who does not consider himself to be a gentleman. +The curate of the parish is a gentleman, and the medical man who +comes here from Bradstock. The word is too vague to carry with it +any meaning that ought to be serviceable to you in thinking of +such a matter.' + +'I do not know of any other way of dividing people,' said she, +showing thereby that she had altogether made up her mind as to +what ought to be serviceable to her. + +'You are not called upon to divide people. That division requires +so much experience that you are bound in this matter to rely upon +those to whom your obedience is due. I cannot but think you must +have known that you were not entitled to give your love to any man +without being assured that the man would be approved of by--by--by +me. He was going to say 'your parents', but was stopped by the +remembrance of his wife's imprudence. + +She saw it all, and was too noble to plead her mother's authority. +But she was not too dutiful to cast a reproach upon him, when he +was so stern to her. 'You have been so little with me, papa.' + +'That is true,' he said, after a pause. 'That is true. It has been +a fault and I will need to mend it. It is a reason for +forgiveness, and I will forgive you. But you must tell me that +there shall be an end to this.' + +'No, papa.' + +'What do you mean?' + +'That I love Mr Tregear, and as I have told him so, and as I have +promised him, I will be true to him. I cannot let there be an end +to it.' + +'You do not suppose that you will be allowed to see him again?' + +'I hope so.' + +'Most assuredly not. Do you write to him?' + +'No, papa.' + +'Never?' + +'Never since we have been back in England.' + +'You must promise me that you will not write.' + +She paused for a moment before she answered him, and now she was +looking him full in the face. 'I shall not write to him. I do not +think I shall write to him; but I will not promise.' + +'Not promise me,--your father!' + +'No, papa. It might be that--that I should do it.' + +'You would not wish me so to guard you that you should have no +power of sending a letter but by permission?' + +'I should not like that.' + +'But it will have to be so.' + +'If I do write I will tell you.' + +'And show me what you write?' + +'No, papa; not that, but I will tell you what I have written.' + +Then it occurred to him that this bargaining was altogether +derogatory to his parental authority, and by no means likely to +impress upon her mind the conviction that Tregear must be +completely banished from her thoughts. He began already to find +how difficult it would be for him to have the charge of such a +daughter,--how impossible that he should conduct such a charge with +sufficient firmness, and yet with sufficient tenderness! At +present he had done no good. He had only been made more wretched +than ever by her obstinacy. Surely he must pass her over to the +charge of some lady,--but of some lady who would be as determined +as he was himself that she should not throw herself away by +marrying Mr Tregear. 'There shall be no writing,' he said, 'no +visiting, no communication of any kind. As you refuse to obey me +now, you had better go to your room.' + + + +CHAPTER 9 + +'In Media Res' + +Perhaps the method of rushing at once 'in media res' is, of all +the ways of beginning a story, or a separate branch of a story, +the least objectionable. The reader is made to think that the gold +lies so near the surface that he will be required to take very +little trouble in digging for it. And the writer is enabled,--at +any rate for a time, and till his neck has become, as it were, +warm to the collar,--to throw off from him the difficulties and +dangers, the tedium and prolixity, of description. This rushing +'in media res' has doubtless the charm of ease. 'Certainly when I +threw her from the garret window to the stony pavement below, I +did not anticipate that she would fall so far without injury to +life or limb.' When a story has been begun after this fashion, +without any prelude, without description of the garret or of the +pavement, or of the lady thrown, or of the speaker, a great amount +of trouble seems to have been saved. The mind of the reader fills +up the blanks,--if erroneously, still satisfactorily. He knows, at +least, that the heroine has encountered a terrible danger, and has +escaped from it with almost incredible good fortune, that the +demon of the piece is a bold demon, not ashamed to speak of his +own iniquity, and that the heroine and the demon are so far united +that they have been in a garret together. But there is the +drawback on the system,--that it is almost impossible to avoid the +necessity of doing, sooner or later, that which would naturally be +done at first. It answers, perhaps, for a half-a-dozen chapters;-- +and to carry the reader pleasantly for half-a-dozen chapters is a +great matter!-but after that a certain nebulous darkness gradually +seems to envelope the characters and the incidents. 'Is all this +going on in the country, or is it in town,--or perhaps in the +Colonies? How old was she? Was she tall? Is she fair? Is she +heroine-like in her form and gait? And, after all, how high was +the garret window? I have always found that the details would +insist on being told at last, and that by rushing 'in media res' I +was simply presenting the cart before the horse. But as readers +like the cart the best, I will do it once again,--trying it only +for a branch of my story,--and will endeavour to let as little as +possible of the horse be seen afterwards. + +'And so poor Frank has been turned out of heaven?' said Lady Mabel +Grex to young Lord Silverbridge. + +'Who told you that? I have said nothing to anybody.' + +'Of course he told me himself,' said the young beauty. I am aware +that, in the word beauty, and perhaps, also, the word young, a +little bit of the horse appearing; and I am already sure that I +shall have to show his head and neck, even if not his very tail. +'Poor Frank! Did you hear it all?' + +'I heard nothing, Lady Mab, and know nothing.' + +'You know that your awful governor won't let him stay any longer +in Carlton Terrace?' + +'Yes, I know that.' + +'And why not?' + +'Would Lord Grex allow Percival to have his friends living here?' + Lord Grex was Lady Mabel's father, Lord Percival was the Earl's +son;--and the Earl lived in Belgrave Square. All these little bits +of the horse. + +'Certainly not. In the first place, I am here.' + +'That makes a difference, certainly.' + +'Of course it makes a difference. They would be wanting to make +love to me.' + +'No doubt. I should, I know.' + +'And therefore it wouldn't do for you to live here, and then papa +is living here himself. And then the permission never has been +given. I suppose Frank did not go there without the Duke knowing +it.' + +'I daresay that I mentioned it.' + +'You might as well tell me about it. We are cousins, you know.' +Frank Tregear, through his mother's family, was second cousin to +Lady Mabel; as was also Lord Silverbridge, one of the Grexes +having, at some remote period, married a Palliser. This is another +bit of the horse. + +'The governor merely seemed to think that he would like to have +his own house to himself,--like other people. What an ass Tregear +was to say anything to you about it.' + +'I don't think he was an ass at all. Of course he had to tell us +that he was changing his residence. He says that he is going to +take a back bedroom somewhere near the Seven Dials.' + +'He has got very nice rooms in Duke Street.' + +'Have you seen him, then?' + +'Of course I have.' + +'Poor fellow! I wish he had a little money; he is so nice. And +now, Lord Silverbridge, do you mean to say that there is something +in the wind about Lady Mary?' + +'If there were I should not talk about it,' said Lord +Silverbridge. + +'You are a very innocent young gentleman.' + +'And you are a very interesting young lady.' + +'You ought to think me so, for I interest myself very much about +you. Was the Duke very angry about your not standing for the +county?' + +'He was vexed.' + +'I do think it is so odd that a man should be expected to be this +or that in politics because his father happened to be so before +him! I don't understand how he should expect that you should +remain with a party so utterly snobbish and down in the world as +the Radicals. Everybody that is worth anything is leaving them.' + +'He has not left them.' + +'No, I don't suppose he could; but you have.' + +'I never belonged to them, Lady Mab.' + +'And never will, I hope. I always told papa that you would +certainly be one of us.' All this took place in the drawing-room +of Lord Grex's house. There was no Lady Grex alive, but there +lived with the Earl, a certain elderly lady, reported in some +distant way a cousin of the family, named Miss Cassewary, who in +the matter of looking after Lady Mab, did what was supposed to be +absolutely necessary. She now entered the room with her bonnet on, +having just returned from church. 'What was the text?' asked Lady +Mab at once. + +'If you had gone to church, as you ought to have done, my dear, +you would have heard it.' + +'But as I didn't?' + +'I don't think the text alone will do you any good.' + +'And probably you forget it.' + +'No, I don't, my dear. How do you do, Lord Silverbridge?' + +'He is a Conservative, Miss Cass.' + +'Of course he is. I am quite sure that a young nobleman of so much +taste and intellect would take the better side.' + +'You forget that all you are saying is against my father and my +family, Miss Cassewary.' + +'I dare say it was different when your father was a young man. And +your father, too, was not very long since, at the head of a +government which contained many Conservatives. I don't look upon +your father as a Radical, though perhaps I should not be justified +in calling him a Conservative.' + +'Well; certainly not, I think.' + +'But now it is necessary that all noblemen in England should rally +to the defence of their order.' Miss Cassewary was a great +politician, and was one of those who are always foreseeing the +ruin of their country. 'My dear, I will go up and take my bonnet +off. Perhaps you will have tea when I come down.' + +'Don't you go,' said Lady Mabel, when Silverbridge got up to take +his departure. + +'I always do when tea comes.' + +'But you are going to dine here?' + +'Not that I know of. In the first place, nobody has asked me. In +the second place, I am engaged. Thirdly, I don't care about having +to talk politics to Miss Cass; and fourthly, I hate family dinners +on Sunday.' + +'In the first place, I ask you. Secondly, I know you are going to +dine with Frank Tregear, at the club. Thirdly, I want you to talk +to me, and not to Miss Cass. And, fourthly, you are an uncivil +young,--young,--young,--I should say cub, if I dared, to tell me that +you don't like dining with me any day of the week.' + +'Of course you know what I mean is, that I don't like troubling +your father.' + +'Leave that to me. I shall tell him you are coming, and Frank too. +Of course you can bring him. Then he can talk to me when papa goes +down to his club, and you can arrange your politics with Miss +Cass.' So it was settled, and at eight o'clock Lord Silverbridge +reappeared in Belgrave Square with Frank Tregear. + +Earl Grex was a nobleman of a very ancient family, the Grexes +having held the parish of Grex, in Yorkshire, from some time long +prior to the Conquest. In saying all this, I am, I know, allowing +the horse to appear wholesale;--but I find that he cannot be kept +out. I may as well go on to say that the present Earl was better +known at Newmarket and the Beaufort,--where he spent a large part +of his life in playing whist,--than in the House of Lords. He was a +grey-haired, handsome, worn-out old man, who through a long life +of pleasure had greatly impaired a fortune, which, for an earl, +had never been magnificent, and who now strove hard, but not +always successfully, to remedy that evil by gambling. As he could +no longer eat and drink as he used to do, and as he cared no +longer for the light that lies in a lady's eye, there was not much +left to him but cards and racing. Nevertheless he was a handsome +old man, of polished manners, when he chose to use them; a staunch +Conservative and much regarded by his party, for whom in his early +life he had done some work in the House of Commons. + +'Silverbridge is all very well,' he had said; 'but I don't see why +that young Tregear is to dine here every night of his life.' + +'This is the second time since he has been up in town. Papa.' + +'He was here last week, I know.' + +'Silverbridge wouldn't come without him.' + +'That's d-d nonsense,' said the Earl. Miss Cassewary gave a +start,--not, we may presume, because she was shocked, for she could +not be much shocked, having heard the same word from the same lips +very often; but she thought it right always to enter a protest. +Then the two young men were announced. + +Frank Tregear, having been known by the family as a boy, was Frank +to all of them,--as was Lady Mabel, Mabel to him, somewhat to the +disgust of the father and not altogether with the approbation of +Miss Cass. But Lady Mabel had declared that she would not be +guilty of the folly of changing old habits. Silverbridge, being +Silverbridge to all his own people, hardly seemed to have a +Christian name;--his godfathers and godmothers had indeed called +him Plantagenet;--but having only become acquainted with the family +since his Oxford days he was Lord Silverbridge to Lady Mabel. Lady +Mabel had not as yet become Mabel to him, but, as by her very +intimate friends she was called Mab, had allowed herself to be +addressed by him as Lady Mab. There was thus between them all +considerable intimacy. + +'I'm deuced glad to hear it,' said the Earl when dinner was +announced. For although he could not eat much, Lord Grex was +always impatient when the time of eating was at hand. Then he +walked down alone. Lord Silverbridge followed with his daughter, +and Frank Tregear gave his arm to Miss Cassewary. 'If that woman +can't clear her soup better than that, she might as well go to the +d-,' said the Earl;--upon which remark no one in the company made +any observation. As there were two men-servants in the room when +it was made the cook probably had the advantage of it. It may be +almost unnecessary to add that though the Earl had polished +manners for certain occasions he would sometimes throw them off in +the bosom of his own family. + +'My Lord,' said Miss Cassewary--she always called him 'My Lord'-- +'Lord Silverbridge is going to stand for the Duke's borough in the +conservative interest.' + +'I didn't know the Duke had a borough.' + +'He had one till he thought it proper to give it up,' said the son, +taking his father's part. + +'And you are going to pay him off for what he has done by standing +against him. It's just the sort of thing a son to do in these +days. If I had a borough Percival would go down and make radical +speeches there.' + +'There isn't a better Conservative in England than Percival,' said +Lady Mabel, bridling up. + +'Nor a worse son,' said the father. 'I believe he would do +anything he could lay his hand on to oppose me.' During the past +week there had been some little difference of opinion between the +father and the son as to the signing of a deed. + +'My father does not take it in bad part at all,' said +Silverbridge. + +'Perhaps he is ratting himself,' said the Earl. 'When a man lends +himself to a coalition he is as good as half gone.' + +'I do not think that in all England there is so thorough a Liberal +as my father,' said Lord Silverbridge. 'And when I say that he +doesn't take this badly, I don't mean that it doesn't vex him. I +know it vexes him. But he doesn't quarrel with me, he even wrote +to Barsetshire to say that all my expenses at Silverbridge were to +be paid.' + +'I call that bad politics,' said the Earl. + +'It seems to me to be very grand,' said Frank. + +'Perhaps, sir, you don't know what is good or what is bad in +politics,' said the Earl, trying to snub his guest. + +But it was difficult to snub Frank. 'I know a gentleman when I see +him, I think,' he said. 'Of course Silverbridge is right to be a +Conservative. Nobody has a stronger opinion about that than I +have. But the Duke is behaving so well that if I were he I should +almost regret it.' + +'And so I do,' said Silverbridge. + +When the ladies were gone the old Earl turned himself round the +fire, having filled his glass and pushed the bottles away from +him, as though he meant to leave the two young men to themselves. +He sat leaning with his head on his hand, looking the picture of +woe. It was now only nine o'clock, and there would be no more +whist at the Beaufort till eleven. There was still more than a +hour to be endured before the brougham would come to fetch him. 'I +suppose we shall have a majority,' said Frank, trying to rouse +him. + +'Who does "We" mean?' asked the Earl. + +'The Conservatives, of whom I take the liberty to call myself +one.' + +'It sounded as though you were a very influential member of the +party.' + +'I consider myself to be one of the party, and so I say "We".' + +Upstairs in the drawing-room Miss Cassewary did her duty loyally. +It was quite right that young ladies and young gentlemen should be +allowed to talk together, and very right indeed that such a young +gentleman as Lord Silverbridge should be allowed to talk so such a +young lady as Lady Mabel. What could be so nice as a marriage +between the heir of the house of Omnium and Lady Mabel Grex? Lady +Mabel looked indeed to be the elder,--but they were in truth the +same age. All the world acknowledged that Lady Mabel was very +clever and very beautiful and fit to be a Duchess. Even the Earl, +when Miss Cassewary hinted at the matter to him, grunted an +assent. Lady Mabel had already refused one or two not ineligible +offers, and it was necessary that something should be done. There +had been at one time a fear in Miss Cassewary's bosom lest her +charge should fall too deeply in love with Frank Tregear,--but Miss +Cassewary knew that whatever danger there might have been in that +respect had passed away. Frank was willing to talk to her, while +Mabel and Lord Silverbridge were in a corner together. + +'I shall be on tenterhooks now till I know how it is to be at +Silverbridge,' said the young lady. + +'It is very good of you to feel so much interest.' + +'Of course I feel an interest. Are you not one of us? When is to +be?' + +'They say that the elections will be over before the Derby.' + +'And which do you care for the most?' + +'I should like to pull off the Derby, I own.' + +'From what papa says, I should think the other event is more +probable.' + +'Doesn't the Earl stand to win on Prime Minister?' + +'I never know anything about his betting. But,--you know his way,-- +he said you were going to drop a lot of money like a-I can't quite +tell you what he likened you to.' + +'The Earl may be mistaken.' + +'You are not betting much, I hope.' + +'Not plunging. But I have a little money on.' + +'Don't get into the way of betting.' + +'Why:--what difference does it make,--to you?' + +'Is that kind, Lord Silverbridge?' + +'I meant to say that if I did make a mess of it you wouldn't care +about it.' + +'Yes, I should. I should care very much. I dare say you could lose +a great deal of money and care nothing about it.' + +'Indeed I could not.' + +'What would be a great deal of money to me. But you would want to +get it back again. And in that way you would be regularly on the +turf.' + +'And why not?' + +'I want to see better things from you.' + +'You ought not to preach against the turf, Lady Mab.' + +'Because of papa? But I am not preaching against the turf. If I +were such as you are I would have a horse or two myself. A man in +your position should do a little of everything. You should hunt +and have a yacht, and stalk deer and keep your own trainer at +Newmarket.' + +'I wish you would say all that to my father.' + +'Of course I mean if you can afford it. I like a man to like +pleasure. But I despise a man who makes a business of his +pleasures. When I hear that this man is the best whist-player in +London, and that man the best billiard-player, I always know that +they can do nothing else, and then I despise them.' + +'You needn't despise me, because I do nothing well,' said he, as +he got up to take his leave. + +'I do so hope you'll get the seat,--and win the Derby.' + +These were her last words to him as she wished him good-night. + + + +CHAPTER 10 + +Why if not Romeo if I Feel like Romeo? + +'That's nonsense, Miss Cass, and I shall,' said Lady Mabel. They +were together on the morning after the little dinner-party +described in the last chapter, in a small back sitting-room which +was supposed to be Lady Mabel's own, and the servant had just +announced that Mr Tregear was below. + +'Then I shall go down too,' said Miss Cassewary. + +'You'll do nothing of the kind. Will you please to tell me what it +is you are afraid of? Do you think that Frank is going to make +love to me again?' + +'No.' + +'Or that if I chose that he should I would let you stop me? He is +in love with somebody else,--and perhaps I am too. And we are two +paupers.' + +'My lord would not approve of it.' + +'If you know what my lord approves of and he disapproves you +understand a great deal better than I do. And if you mind what he +approves or disapproves, you care for his opinion a great deal +more than I do. My cousin is here now to talk to me,--about it his +own affairs, and I mean to see him,--alone.' Then she left the +room, and went down to that in which Frank was waiting for her, +without the company of Miss Cassewary. + +'Do you really mean,' she said, after they had been together for +some minutes, 'that you had the courage to ask the Duke for his +daughter's hand?' + +'Why not?' + +'I believe you would dare to do anything.' + +'I couldn't very well take it without asking him.' + +'As I am not acquainted with the young lady I don't know how that +might be.' + +'And if I took her so, I should have to take her empty-handed.' + +'Which wouldn't suit;--would it?' + +'It wouldn't suit for her,--whose comforts and happiness are much +more to me than my own.' + +'No doubt! Of course you are terribly in love.' + +'Very thoroughly in love, I think I am.' + +'For the tenth time, I should say.' + +'For the second only. I don't regard myself as a monument of +constancy, but I think I am less fickle than some other people.' + +'Meaning me?' + +'Not especially.' + +'Frank, that is ill-natured, and almost unmanly,--and false also. +When have been fickle? You say that there was one before with you. +I say that thee has never really been one with me at all. No one +knows that better than yourself. I cannot afford to be in love +till I am quite sure that the man is fit to be, and will be, my +husband. + +'I doubt sometimes whether you are capable of being in love with +anyone.' + +'I think I am,' she said, very gently. 'But I am at any rate +capable of not being in love till I wish it. Come, Frank, do not +quarrel with me. You know,--you ought to know,--that I should have +loved you had not been that such love would have been bad for both +of us.' + +'It is a kind of self-restraint I do not understand.' + +'Because you are not a woman.' + +'Why did you twit me with changing my love?' + +'Because I am a woman. Can't you forgive as much as that to me?' + +'Certainly. Only you must not think that I have been false because +I now love so dearly.' + +'I do not think you are false. I would do anything to help you if +there were anything I could do. But when you spoke so like a Romeo +of your love,--' + +'Why not like a Romeo, if I feel like a Romeo?' + +'But I doubt whether Romeo talked much to Rosaline of his love for +Juliet. But you shall talk to me of yours for Lady Mary, and I +will listen to you patiently and encourage you, and will not even +think of those former vows.' + +'The former vows were foolish.' + +'Oh--of course.' + +'You at least used to say so.' + +'I say so now, and they shall be as though they had never been +spoken. So you bearded the Duke in his den, and asked him for Lady +Mary's hand,--just as though you had been a young Duke yourself and +owned half a county?' + +'Just the same.' + +'And what did he say?' + +'He swore that it was impossible.-Of course I knew all that +before.' + +'How will it be now? You will not give it up?' + +'Certainly not.' + +'And Lady Mary?' + +'One human being can perhaps never answer for another with perfect +security.' + +'But you feel sure of her.' + +'I do.' + +'He, I should think, be very imperious.' + +'And so can she. The Pallisers are all obstinate.' + +'Is Silverbridge obstinate?' she asked. + +'Stiff-necked as a bull if he takes it into his head to be so.' + +'I shouldn't have thought it.' + +'No;--because he is so soft in his manner, and often finds it +easier to be led by others than to direct himself.' + +Then she remained silent for a few seconds. They were both +thinking of the same thing, and both wishing to speak of it. But +the words came to her first. 'I wonder what he thinks of me.' +Whereupon Tregear only smiled. 'I suppose he has spoken to you +about me?' + +'Why do you ask?' + +'Why?' + +'And why should I tell you? Suppose he should have said to me in +the confidence of friendship that he thinks you ugly and stupid.' + +'I am sure he has not said that. He has eyes to see and ears to +hear. But, though I am neither ugly nor stupid, he needn't like +me.' + +'Do you want him to like you?' + +'Yes, I do. Oh yes; you may laugh; but if I did not think that I +could be a good wife to him I would not take his hand even to +become the Duchess of Omnium.' + +'Do you mean that you love him, Mabel?' + +'No; I do not mean that. But I would learn to love him. You do not +believe that?' Here he again smiled and shook his head. 'It is as +I said before, because you are not a woman, and do not understand +how woman are trammelled. Do you think ill of me because I say +this?' + +'No, indeed.' + +'Do not think ill of me if you can help it, because you are almost +the only friend that I trust. I almost trust dear old Cass, but +not quite. She is old-fashioned and I shock her. As for other +women, there isn't one anywhere to whom I would say a word. Only +think how a girl such as I am is placed; or indeed any girl. You, +if you see a woman that you fancy, can pursue her, can win her and +triumph, or lose her and gnaw your heart;--at any rate you can do +something. You can tell her that you love her; can tell her so +again and again even though she should scorn you. You can set +yourself about the business you have taken in hand and can work +hard at it. What can a girl do?' + +'Girls work hard sometimes.' + +'Of course they do;--but everybody feels that they are sinning +against their sex. Of love, such as a man's is, a woman ought to +know nothing. How can she love with passion when she should never +give her love till it has been asked, and not then unless her +friends tell her that the thing is suitable? Love such as that to +me is out of the question. But, as it is fit that I should be +married, I wish to be married well.' + +'And you will love him after a fashion?' + +'Yes;--after a very sterling fashion. I will make his wishes my +wishes, his ways my ways, his party my party, his home my home, +his ambition my ambition,--his honour my honour.' As she said this +she stood up with her hands clenched and head erect, and her eyes +flashing. 'Do you not know me well enough to be sure that I should +be loyal to him?' + +'Yes;--I think that you would be loyal.' + +'Whether I loved him or not, he should love me.' + +'And you think that Silverbridge would do?' + +'Yes. I think that Silverbridge would do. You, no doubt, will say +that I am flying high.' + +'Not too high. Why should you not fly high? If I can justify +myself, surely I cannot accuse you.' + +'It is hardly the same thing, Frank. Of course there is not a girl +in London to whom Lord Silverbridge would not be the best match +that she could make. He has the choice of us all.' + +'Most girls would think twice before refusing him.' + +'Very few would think twice before accepting him. Perhaps he +wishes to add to his wealth by marrying richly,--as his father +did.' + +'No thought on that subject would ever trouble him. That will be +all as it happens. As soon as he takes sufficient fancy to a girl +he will ask her straight off. I do not say that he might not +change afterwards, but he would mean it at the time.' + +'If he had once said the word to me, he should not change. But +then what right have I to expect it? What has he ever said about +me?' + +'Very little. But had he said much I should not tell you.' + +'You are my friend,--but you are his too; and he, perhaps, is more +to you than I am. As his friend it may be your duty to tell him +all that I am saying. If so, I have been wrong.' + +'Do you think that I shall do that, Mabel?' + +'I do not know. Men are so strong in their friendships.' + +'Mine with you is the older, and the sweeter. Though we may not be +more than friends, I will say that it is the more tender. In my +heart of hearts, I do not think that Silverbridge could do +better.' + +'Thanks for that, Frank.' + +'I shall tell him nothing of you that can set him against you.' + +'And you would be glad to see me his wife?' she said. + +'As you must be somebody's wife, and not mine.' + +'I cannot be yours, Frank.' + +'And not mine,' he repeated. 'I will endeavour to be glad. Who can +explain his feelings in such a matter? Though I most truly love +the girl I hope to marry, yet my heart goes back to former things +and opens itself to past regrets.' + +'I know it all,' she whispered. + +'But you and I must be too wise to permit ourselves to be +tormented by such foolish melancholy.' As he said this he took +her hand, half with the purpose of bidding her good-bye, but +partly with the idea of giving some expression of tenderness of +his feelings. But as he did so, the door was opened, and the old +Earl shambled into the room. + +'What the deuce are you doing here?' he said. + +'I have been talking to Lady Mabel.' + +'For about an hour.' + +'Indeed I do not know for how long.' + +'Papa, he is going to be married.' When she said this Frank +Tregear turned round and looked at her almost in anger. + +'Going to be married, is he? And who is the fortunate woman? + +'I don't think he will let me tell you.' + +'Not yet, I think,' said Frank, gloomily. 'There is nothing +settled.' + +The old Earl looked puzzled, but Lady Mabel's craft had been +successful. If this objectionable young second-cousin had come +there to talk about his marriage with another young woman, the +conversation must have been innocent. 'Where is Miss Cassewary?' +asked the Earl. + +'I asked her not to come down with me because Frank wished to +speak to me about his own affairs. You have no objection to his +coming, papa?' + +There had been objections raised to any intimacy with Frank +Tregear, but all that was now nearly two years since. He had been +assured over and over again by Miss Cassewary that he need not be +afraid of Frank Tregear, and had in a sort of way assented to the +young man's visits. 'I think he might find something better to do +with his time than hanging about here all day.' Frank, shrugging +his shoulders, and having shaken hands with both the daughter and +father, took his hat and departed. 'Who is the girl?' asked the +Earl. + +'You heard him say that I was not to tell.' + +'Has she got money?' + +'I believe she will have a great deal.' + +'Then she is a great fool for her pains,' said the Earl, shambling +off again. + +Lady Mabel spent the greater part of the afternoon alone, +endeavouring to recall to her mind all that she had said to Frank +Tregear, and questioning herself as to the wisdom and truth of her +own words. She had intended to tell the truth,--but hardly perhaps +the whole truth. The life which was before her,--which it was +necessary that she should lead,--seemed to her to be so difficult! + She could not clearly see her way to be pure and good and +feminine, and at the same time wise. She had been false now,--so +far false that she had told her friend that she had never been in +love. But she was in love;--in love with him, Frank Tregear. She +knew it as thoroughly as it was possible for her to know +anything;--and had acknowledged it to herself a score of times. + +But, she could not marry him. And it was expected, nay, almost +necessary that she should marry someone. To that someone, how good +she would be! How she would strive by duty and attention, and if +possible by affection, to make up for the misfortune of her early +love. + +And so I hope that I have brought my cart to its appointed place +in the front, without showing too much of the horse. + + + +CHAPTER 11 + +Cruel + +For two or three days after the first scene between the Duke and +his daughter,--that scene in which she was forbidden either to see +or to write to her lover,--not a word was said at Matching about Mr +Tregear, nor were any steps taken towards curtailing her liberty +of action. She had said she would not write to him without telling +her father, and the Duke was too proud of the honour of his family +to believe it to be possible that she should deceive him. Nor was +it possible. Not only would her own idea of duty prevent her from +writing to her lover, although she had stipulated for the right to +do so in some possible emergency,--but, carried far beyond that in +her sense of what was right and wrong, she felt it now incumbent +on her to have no secret from her father at all. The secret, as +long as it had been a secret, had been a legacy from her mother,-- +and had been kept, at her lover's instance, during that period of +mourning for her mother in which it would, she thought, have been +indecorous that there should be any question of love or of giving +in marriage. It had been a burden to her, though a necessary +burden. She had been very clear that the revelation should be made +to her father, when it was made, by her lover. That had been +done,--and now it was open to her to live without any secrecy,--as +was her nature. She meant to cling to her lover. She was quite +sure of that. Nothing could divide her from him but his death or +hers,--or falseness on his part. But as to marriage, that would not +be possible till her father had assented. And as to seeing the +man,--ah, yes if she could do so with her father's assent! She +would not be ashamed to own her great desire to see him. She would +tell her father that all her happiness depended on seeing him, she +would not be coy in speaking of her love. But she would obey her +father. + +She had a strong idea that she would ultimately prevail,--and idea +also that that 'ultimately' should not be postponed to some +undefined middle-aged period in her life. As she intended to +belong to Frank Tregear, she thought it expedient that he should +have the best of her days as well as what might be supposed to be +the worst; and she therefore resolved that it would be her duty to +make her father understand that though she would certainly obey +him, she would look to be treated humanely by him, and not to be +made miserable for an indefinite term of years. + +The first word spoken between them on the subject,--the first word +after that discussion, began with him and was caused by his +feeling that her present life at Matching must be sad and lonely. +Lady Cantrip had again written that she would be delighted to take +her;--but Lady Cantrip was in London and must be in London, at any +rate when Parliament would again be sitting. A London life would +perhaps, at present, hardly suit Lady Mary. Then a plan had been +prepared which might be convenient. The Duke had a house at +Richmond, on the river, called The Horns. That should be lent to +Lady Cantrip, and Mary should there be her guest. So it was +settled between the Duke and Lady Cantrip. But as yet Lady Mary +knew nothing of the arrangement. + +'I think I shall go up to town tomorrow,' said the Duke to his +daughter. + +'For long?' + +'I shall be gone only one night. It is on your behalf that I am +going.' + +'On my behalf, papa?' + +'I have been writing to Lady Cantrip.' + +'Not about Mr Tregear?' + +'No;--not about Mr Tregear,' said the father with a mixture of +anger and solemnity in his tone. 'It is my desire to regard Mr +Tregear as though he did not exist.' + +'That is not possible, papa.' + +'I have alluded to the inconvenience of your position here.' + +'Why is it inconvenience?' + +'You are too young to be without a companion. It is not fit that +you should be much alone.' + +'I do not feel it.' + +'It is very melancholy for you, and cannot be good for you. They +will go down to The Horns so that you will not be absolutely in +London, and you will find Lady Cantrip a very nice person.' + +'I don't care for new people just now, papa,' she said. But to +this he paid but little heed; nor was she prepared to say that she +would not do as he directed. When therefore he left Matching, she +understood that he was going to prepare a temporary home for her. +Nothing further was said about Tregear. She was too proud to ask +that no mention of his name should be made to Lady Cantrip. And he +when he left the house did not think that he would find himself +called upon to allude to the subject. + +But when Lady Cantrip made some inquiry about the girl and her +habits,--asking what were her ordinary occupations, how she was +accustomed to pass her hours, to what she chiefly devoted +herself,--then at last with much difficulty the Duke did bring +himself to tell the story. 'Perhaps it is better that you should +know it all,' he said as he told it. + +'Poor girl! Yes, Duke, upon the whole it is better that I should +know it all,' said Lady Cantrip. 'Of course he will not come +here.' + +'Oh dear; I hope not.' + +'Nor to The Horns.' + +'I hope he will never see her again anywhere,' said the Duke. + +'Poor girl!' + +'Have I not been right? Is it not best to put an end to such a +thing at once?' + +'Certainly at once, if it has to be put an end to,--and can be put +an end to.' + +'It must be put an end to,' said the Duke, very decidedly. 'Do you +not see that it must be so? Who is Mr Tregear?' + +'I suppose they were allowed to be together?' + +'He was unfortunately intimate with Silverbridge, who took him +over to Italy. He has nothing; not even a profession.' Lady +Cantrip could not but smile when she remembered the immense wealth +of the man who was speaking to her;--and the Duke saw the smile and +understood it. 'You will understand what I mean, Lady Cantrip. If +this young man were in other respects suitable, of course I could +find an income for them. But he is nothing; just an idle seeker +for pleasure without the means of obtaining it.' + +'That is very bad.' + +'As for rank,' continued the Duke energetically, 'I do not think +that I am specially wedded to it. I have found myself as willing +to associate with those who are without it as with those who have +it. But for my child, I would wish her to mate with one of her own +class.' + +'It would be best.' + +'When a young man comes to me, though I believe him to be what is +called a gentleman, has neither rank, nor means, nor profession, +nor name, and asks for my daughter, surely I am right to say that +such a marriage shall not be thought of. Was I not right?' +demanded the Duke persistently. + +'But it is a pity that it should be so. It is a pity that they +should ever have come together.' + +'It is indeed, indeed to be lamented,--and I will own at once that +the fault was not hers. Though I must be firm in this, you are not +to suppose that I am angry with her. I have myself been to blame.' + This he said with a resolution that,--as he and his wife had been +one flesh,--all faults committed by her should, now that she was +dead, be accepted by him as his faults. 'It had not occurred to me +that as yet she would love any man.' + +'Has it gone deep with her, Duke?' + +'I fear that all things go deep with her.' + +'Poor girl!' + +'But they shall be kept apart! As long as your great kindness is +continued for her they shall be kept apart!' + +'I do not think that I should be found good at watching a young +lady.' + +'She will require no watching.' + +'Then of course they will not meet. She had better know that you +have told me.' + +'She shall know it.' + +'And let her know also that anything I can do to make her happy +shall be done. But, Duke, there is but one cure.' + +'Time you mean.' + +'Yes; time; but I did not mean time.' Then she smiled as she went +on. 'You must not suppose that I am speaking against my own sex if +I say that she will not forget Mr Tregear till someone else has +made himself agreeable to her. We must wait till she can go out a +little more into society. Then she will find out that there are +others in the world besides Mr Tregear. It so often is the case +that a girl's love means her sympathy for him who has chanced to +be nearest her.' + +The Duke as he went away thought very much of what Lady Cantrip +had said to him;--particularly of those last words. 'Till some one +else has made himself agreeable to her.' Was he to send his girl +into the world in order that she might find a lover? There was +something in the idea which was thoroughly distasteful to him. He +had not given his mind much to the matter, but had felt that a +woman should be sought for,--sought for and extracted, cunningly, +as it were, from some hiding-place, and not sent out into a market +to be exposed as for sale. In his own personal history there had +been a misfortune,--a misfortune, the sense of which he could +never, at any moment, have expressed to any ears, the memory of +which had been always buried deep in his own bosom,--but a +misfortune in that no such cunning extraction on his part had won +for him the woman to whose hands had been confided the strings of +his heart. His wife had undergone that process of extraction +before he had seen her, and his marriage with her had been a +matter of sagacious bargaining. He was now told that his daughter +must be sent out among young men in order that she might become +sufficiently fond of some special one to be regardless of Tregear. +There was a feeling that in doing so she must lose something of +the freshness of the bloom of her innocence. How was this transfer +of her love to be effected? Let her go here because she will meet +the heir of this wealthy house who may probably be smitten by her +charms; or there because that other young lordling would make a +fit husband for her. Let us contrive to throw her into the arms of +this man, or put her into the way of that man. Was his girl to be +exposed to this? Surely that method of bargaining to which he had +owed his own wife would be better than that. Let it be said,--only +he himself most certainly could not be the person to say it,--let +it be said to some man of rank and means and fairly good +character, 'Here is a wife for you with so many thousand pounds, +with beauty, as you can see for yourself, with rank and belongings +of the highest; very good in every respect;--only that as regards +her heart she thinks she has given it to a young man named +Tregear. No marriage there is possible; but perhaps the young lady +might suit you?' It was thus he had been married. There was an +absence in it of that romance which, though he had never +experienced it in his own life, was always present to his +imagination. His wife had often ridiculed him because he could +only live among figures and official details; but to her had not +been given the power of looking into a man's heart and feeling all +that was there. Yes;--in such bargaining for a wife, in such +bargaining for a husband, there could be nothing of the tremulous +delicacy of feminine romance; but it would be better than standing +at a stall in the market till the sufficient purchaser should +come. It never occurred to him that the delicacy, the innocence, +the romance, the bloom might all be preserved if he would give his +girl to the man whom she said she loved. Could he have modeled her +future course according to his own wishes, he would have had her +live a gentle life for the next three years, with a pencil perhaps +in her hand or a music-book before her;--and then come forth, +cleaned as it were by such quarantine from the impurity to which +she had been subjected. + +When he was back at Matching he at once told his daughter what he +had arranged for her, and then there took place a prolonged +discussion both as to his view of her future life and as to her +own. 'You did tell her then about Mr Tregear?' she asked. + +'As she is to have charge of you for a time I thought it best.' + +'Perhaps it is. Perhaps--you were afraid.' + +'No; I was not afraid, he said angrily. + +'You need not be afraid. I shall do nothing elsewhere that I would +not do here, and nothing anywhere without telling you.' + +'I know that I can trust you.' + +'But, papa, I shall always intend to marry Mr Tregear.' + +'No!' he exclaimed. + +'Yes;--always. I want you to understand exactly how it is. Nothing +you can do can separate me from him.' + +'Mary, that is very wicked.' + +'It cannot be wicked to tell the truth, papa. I mean to try to do +all you tell me. I shall not see him, or write to him,--unless +there should be some very particular reason. And if I did see him, +or write to him I would tell you. And of course I should not think +of--of marrying without your leave. But I shall expect you to let +me marry him.' + +'Never!' + +'Then I shall think you are--cruel; and you will break my heart.' + +'You should not call your father cruel.' + +'I hope you will not be cruel.' + +'I can never permit you to marry this man. It would be altogether +improper. I cannot allow you to say that I am cruel because I do +what I feel to be my duty. You will see other people.' + +'A great many perhaps.' + +'And will learn to,--to,--to forget him.' + +'Never! I will not forget him. I should hate myself if I thought +it possible. What would love be worth if it could be forgotten in +that way?' As he heard this he reflected whether his own wife, +this girl's mother, had ever forgotten her early love for that +Burgo Fitzgerald whom in her girlhood she had wished to marry. + +When she was leaving her she called him back again. 'There is one +other thing I think I ought to say, papa. If Lady Cantrip speaks +to me about Mr Tregear, I can only tell her what I have told you. +I shall never give him up.' When he heard this he turned angrily +from her, almost stamping his foot upon the ground, when she +quietly left the room. + +Cruel! She had told him that he would be cruel, if he opposed her +love. He thought he knew of himself that he could not be cruel,-- +even to a fly, even to a political opponent. There could be no +cruelty without dishonesty, and did he not always struggle to be +honest? Cruel to his own daughter! + + + +CHAPTER 12 + +At Richmond + +The pity of it! The pity of it! It was thus that Lady Cantrip +looked at it. From what the girl's father had said to her she was +disposed to believe that the malady had gone deep with her. 'All +things go deep with her,' he had said. And she too from other +sources had heard something of this girl. She was afraid that it +would go deep. It was a thousand pities! Then she asked herself +whether the marriage ought to be regarded as impossible. The Duke +had been very positive,--had declared again and again that it was +quite impossible, had so expressed himself as to make her aware +that he intended her to understand that he would not yield +whatever the sufferings of the girl might be. But Lady Cantrip +knew the world well and was aware that in such matters daughters +are apt to be stronger than their fathers. He had declared Tregear +to be a young man with very small means, and intent on such +pleasures as require great means for their enjoyment. No worse +character could be given to a gentleman who had proposed himself +as a son-in-law. But Lady Cantrip thought it possible that the +Duke might be mistaken in this. She had never seen Mr Tregear, but +she fancied that she had heard his name, and that the name was +connected with a character different from that which the Duke had +given him. + +Lady Cantrip, who at this time was a young-looking woman, not much +above forty, had two daughters, both of whom were married. The +younger about a year since had become the wife of Lord Nidderdale, +a middle-aged young man who had been long about town, a cousin of +the late Duchess, the heir to a marquisate, and a Member of +Parliament. The marriage had not been considered very brilliant; +but the husband was himself good-natured and pleasant, and Lady +Cantrip was fond of him. In the first place she went to him for +information. + +'Oh yes, I know him. He's one of our set at the Beargarden.' + +'Not your set now, I hope,' she said laughing. + +'Well;--I don't see so much of them as I used to. Tregear is not a +bad fellow at all. He's always with Silverbridge. When +Silverbridge does what Tregear tells him, he goes along pretty +straight. But unfortunately there's another man called Tifto, and +when Tifto is in the ascendant then Silverbridge is apt to go a +little astray.' + +'He's not in debt, then?' + +'Who?-Tregear? I should think he's the last man in the world to owe +a penny to anyone.' + +'Is he a betting man?' + +'Oh dear no; quite the other way up. He's a severe, sarcastic, +bookish sort of fellow,--a chap who knows everything and turns up +his nose at people who know nothing.' + +'Has he got anything of his own?' + +'Not much I should say. If he had had any money he would have +married Lady Mab Grex last year.' + +Lady Cantrip was inclined from what she now learned to think that +the Duke must be wrong about the young man. But before Lady Mary +joined her she made further inquiry. She too knew Lady Mabel, and +knowing Lady Mabel, she knew Miss Cassewary. She contrived to find +herself alone with Miss Cassewary, and asked some further +questions about Mr Tregear. 'He's a cousin of my Lord's,' said +Miss Cass. + +'So I thought. I wonder what sort of young man he is. He is a good +deal with Lord Silverbridge.' + +Then Miss Cassewary spoke her opinion very plainly. 'If Lord +Silverbridge has nobody worse about him than Mr Tregear he would +not come to much harm.' + +'I suppose he's not very well off?' + +'No;--certainly not. He will have a property of some kind, I +believe, when his mother dies. I think very well of Mr Tregear;-- +only I wish that he had a profession. But why are you asking about +him, Lady Cantrip?' + +'Nidderdale was talking to me about him and saying that he was so +much with Lord Silverbridge. Lord Silverbridge is going into +Parliament now, and, as it were, beginning the world, and it would +be a thousand pities that he should get into bad hands.' It may, +however, be doubted whether Miss Cassewary was hoodwinked by this +little story. + +Early in the second week of May the Duke brought his daughter up +to The Horns, and at the same time expressed his intention of +remaining in London. When he did so Lady Mary at once asked +whether she might not be with him, but he would not permit it. The +house in London would, he said, be more gloomy even than Matching. + +'I am quite ashamed of giving so much trouble,' Lady Mary said to +her new friend. + +'We are delighted to have you, my dear.' + +'But I know you have been obliged to leave London because I am +with you.' + +'There is nothing I like so much as this place, which your father +has been kind enough to lend us. As for London, there is nothing +now to make me like being there. Both my girls are married, and +therefore I regard myself as an old woman who has done her work. +Don't you think this place very much nicer than London at this +time of the year?' + +'I don't know London at all. I had only just been brought out when +poor mamma want abroad.' + +The life they led was very quiet, and most probably have been felt +to be dull by Lady Cantrip, in spite of her old age and desire for +retirement. But the place itself was very lovely. May of all the +months of the year is in England the most insidious, the most +dangerous, and the most inclement. A greatcoat can not be endured, +and without a greatcoat who can endure a May wind and live? But +of all months it is the prettiest. The grasses are then the +greenest, and the young foliage of the trees, while it has all the +glory and all the colour of spring vegetation, does not hide the +form of the branches as do the heavy masses of the larger leaves +which come in the advancing summer. And of all the villas near +London The Horns was the sweetest. The broad green lawn swept down +to the very margins of the Thames, which absolutely washed the +fringe of grass when the tide was high. And here, along the bank, +was a row of flowering ashes the drooping boughs of which in +places touched the water. It was one of those spots which when +they are first seen make the beholder feel that to be able to live +there and look at it always would be happiness for life. + +At the end of the week there came a visitor to see Lady Mary. A +very pretty carriage was driven up to the door of The Horns, and +the servant asked for Lady Mary Palliser. The owner of the +carriage was Mrs Finn. Now it must be explained to the reader that +there had never been any friendship between Mrs Finn and Lady +Cantrip, though the ladies had met each other. The great political +intimacy which had existed between the Duke and Lord Cantrip had +created some intimacy between their wives. The Duchess and Lady +Cantrip had been friends,--after a fashion. But Mrs Finn had never +been cordially accepted by those among whom Lady Cantrip chiefly +lived. When therefore the name was announced, the servant +expressly stating that the visitor had asked for Lady Mary, Lady +Cantrip, who was with her guest, had to bethink herself what she +would do. The Duke, who was at this time very full of wrath +against Mrs Finn, had not mentioned this lady's name when +delivering up the charge of his daughter to Lady Cantrip. At this +moment it occurred to her that not improbably Mrs Finn would cease +to be included in the intimacies of the Palliser family from the +time of the death of the Duchess,---that the Duke would not care to +maintain the old relations, and that he would be as little anxious +to do it for his daughter as for himself. If so, could it be right +that Mrs Finn should come down her, to a house which was now in +the occupation of a lady with whom she was not on inviting terms, +in order that she might thus force herself on the Duke's daughter? +Mrs Finn had not left her carriage, but had sent to ask of Lady +Mary could see her. In all this there was considerable +embarrassment. She looked round at her guest, who had at once +risen from her chair. 'Would you wish to see her?' asked Lady +Cantrip. + +'Oh yes, certainly.' + +'Have you seen her since,--since you came home from Italy?' + +'Oh dear, yes! She was down at Matching when poor mamma died. And +papa persuaded her to remain afterwards. Of course I will see +her.' Then the servant was desired to ask Mrs Finn to come in;-- +and while this was being done Lady Cantrip retired. + +Mrs Finn embraced her young friend, and asked after her welfare, +and after the welfare of the house in which she was staying,--a +house with which Mrs Finn had been well acquainted,--and said half- +a-dozen pretty little things in her own quiet pretty way, before +she spoke of the matter which had really brought her to The Horns +on that day. + +'I have had a correspondence with your father, Mary,' + +'Indeed.' + +'And unfortunately one that has been far from agreeable to me.' + +'I am sorry for that, Mrs Finn.' + +So am I, very sorry. I may say with perfect truth that there is no +man in the world, except my own husband, for whom I feel so +perfect an esteem as I do for your father. If it were not that I +do not like to be carried away by strong language, I would speak +of more than esteem. Through your dear mother I have watched his +conduct closely, and have come to think that perhaps no other man +at the same time so just and patriotic. Now he is very angry with +me,--and most unjustly angry.' + +'Is it about me?' + +'Yes;--it is about you. Had it not been altogether about you I +would not have troubled you.' + +'And about-?' + +'Yes;--about Mr Tregear also. When I tell you that there has been a +correspondence I must explain that I have written one long letter +to the Duke, and that in answer I have received a very short one. +That his been the whole correspondence. Here is your father's +letter to me.' Then she brought out of her pocket a note, which +Lady Mary read,--covered with blushes as she did so. The note was +as follows: + +'The Duke of Omnium understands from Mrs Finn's +letter that Mrs Finn, while she was the Duke's guest at +Matching, was aware of a certain circumstance affecting +the Duke's honour and happiness,--which circumstance she +certainly did not communicate to the Duke. The Duke +thinks that the trust which had been placed in Mrs Finn +should have made such a communication imperative. The +Duke feels that no further correspondence between +himself and Mrs Finn on the matter could lead to any +good result.' + +'Do you understand it?' asked Mrs Finn. + +'I think so.' + +'It simply means this,--that when at Matching he had thought me +worthy of having for a time the charge of you and your welfare, +that he had trusted me, who was the friend of your dear mother, to +take for time in regard to you the place which had been so +unhappily left vacant by her death; and it means also that I +deceived and betrayed that trust by being privy to an engagement +on your part, of which he disapproves, and of which he was not +then aware.' + +'I suppose he does mean that.' + +'Yes, Lady Mary; that is what he means. And he means further to +let me know that as I did so foully betray the trust which he had +placed in me,--that as I had consented to play the part of +assistant to you in that secret engagement,--therefore he casts me +off as altogether unworthy of his esteem and acquaintance. It is +as though he had told me in so many words that among women he had +known none more vile or more false than I.' + +'Not that, Mrs Finn.' + +'Yes, that;--all of that. He tells me that, and then says that +there shall be no more words spoken or written about it. I can +hardly submit to so stern a judgement. You know the truth, Lady +Mary.' + +'Do not call me Lady Mary. Do not quarrel with me.' + +'If your father has quarrelled with me, it would not be fit that +you and I should be friends. Your duty to him would forbid it. I +should not have come to you now did I not feel that I am bound to +justify myself. The thing of which I am accused is so repugnant to +me, that I am obliged to do something and to say something, even +though the subject itself be one on which I would willing be +silent.' + +'What can I do, Mrs Finn?' + +'It was Mr Tregear who first told me that your father was very +angry with me. He knew what I had done and why, and he was bound +to tell me in order that I might have an opportunity of setting +myself right with the Duke. Then I wrote and explained +everything,--how you had told me of the engagement, and how I then +urged Mr Tregear that he should not keep such a matter secret from +your father. In answer to my letter I have received--that.' + +'Shall I write and tell papa?' + +'He should be made to understand that from the moment in which I +heard of the engagement I was urgent with you and with Mr Tregear +that he should be informed of it. You will remember what passed.' + +'I remember it all.' + +'I did not conceive it to my duty to tell the Duke myself, but I +did conceive it to be my duty to see that he should be told. Now +he writes to as though I had known the secret from the first, and +as though I had been concealing it from him at the very moment in +which he was asking me to remain at Matching on your behalf. That +I consider to be hard,--and unjust. I cannot deny what he says I +did know of it while I was at Matching, for it was at Matching +that you told me. But he implies that I knew it before. When you +told me your story I did feel that it was my duty to see that the +matter was not kept longer from him;--and I did my duty. Now your +father takes it upon himself to rebuke me,--and takes upon himself +at the same time to forbid me to write to him again!' + +'I will tell him, Mrs Finn.' + +'Let him understand this. I do not wish to write to him again. +After what has passed I cannot say I wish to see him again. But I +think he should acknowledge to me that he has been mistaken. He +need not then fear that I shall trouble him with any reply. But I +shall know that he has acquitted me of a fault of which I cannot +bear to think I should be accused.' Then she took a somewhat +formal though still an affectionate farewell to the girl. + +'I want to see papa as soon as possible,' said Lady Mary when she +was again with Lady Cantrip. The reason for her wish was soon +given, and then the whole story told. 'You do not think that she +should have gone to papa at once?' Lady Mary asked. It was a point +of moral law on which the elder woman, who had girls of her own, +found it hard to give an immediate answer. It certainly is +expedient that parents should know at once of any engagement by +which their daughters may seek to contract themselves. It is +expedient that they should be able to prevent any secret +contracts. Lady Cantrip felt strongly that Mrs Finn having +accepted the confidential charge of the daughter, could not, +without gross betrayal of trust, allow herself to be the +depositary of such a secret. 'But she did not allow herself,' said +Lady Mary, pleading for her friend. + +'But she left the house without telling him, my dear.' + +'But it was because of what she did that he was told.' + +'That is true; but I doubt whether she should have left him an +hour in ignorance.' + +'But it was I who told her. She would have betrayed me.' + +'She was not a fit recipient for your confidence, Mary. But I do +not wish to accuse her. She seems a high-minded woman, and I think +that your papa has been hard upon her.' + +'And mamma knew it always,' said Mary. To this Lady Cantrip could +give no answer. Whatever the cause for anger the Duke might have +against Mrs Finn, there had been cause for much more against his +wife. But she had freed herself from all accusation by death. + +Lady Mary wrote to her father, declaring that she was most +particularly anxious to see him and talk to him about Mrs Finn. + + + +CHAPTER 13 + +The Duke's Injustice + +No advantage whatever was obtained by Lady Mary's interview with +her father. He persisted that Mrs Finn had been untrue to him when +she left Matching without telling him all that she knew of his +daughter's engagement with Mr Tregear. No doubt by degrees that +idea which he at first entertained was expelled from his heat,--the +idea that she had been cognizant of the whole thing before she +came to Matching; but even this was done so slowly that there was +no moment at which he became aware of any lessened feeling of +indignation. To his thinking she had betrayed her trust, and he +could not be got by his daughter to say that he would forgive her. +He certainly could not be got to say that he would apologise for +the accusation he had made. It was nothing less that his daughter +asked; and he could hardly refrain himself from anger when she +asked it. 'There should not have been a moment,' he said, 'before +she came and told me and told me all.' Poor Lady Mary's position +was certainly uncomfortable enough. The great sin,--the sin which +was so great that to have known it for a day without revealing it +was in itself a damning sin on the part of Mrs Finn,--was Lady +Mary's sin. And she differed so entirely from her father as to +think that the sin of her own was a virtue, and that to have +spoken of it to him would have been, on the part of Mrs Finn, a +treachery so deep that no woman ought to have forgive it! When he +spoke of a matter which deeply affected his honour,--she could +hardly refrain from asserting that his honour was quite safe in +his daughter's hands. And when in his heart he declared that it +should have been Mrs Finn's first care to save him from disgrace, +Lady Mary did break out, 'Papa there could be no disgrace.' 'That +for a moment shall be laid aside,' he said, with that manner by +which even his peers in council had never been able not to be +awed, 'but if you communicate with Mrs Finn at all you must be +made to understand that I regard her conduct as inexcusable.' + +Nothing had been gained, and poor Lady Mary was compelled to write +a few lines which were to her most painful in writing. + +'MY DEAR MRS FINN, +'I have seen papa, and he thinks that you +ought to have told him when I told you. It occurs to me +that it would have been a cruel thing to do, and most +unfair to Mr Tregear, who was quite willing to go to +papa, and had only put off doing so because of poor +mamma's death. As I had told mamma, of course it was +right that he should tell papa. Then I told you, +because you were so kind to me! I am so sorry that I +have got you into this trouble; but what can I do? + +'I told him I must write to you. I suppose it is +better that I should, although what I have to say is so +unpleasant. I hope it will all blow over in time, +because I love you dearly. You may be quite sure of one +thing,--that I shall never change.' (In this assurance +the writer was alluding not to her friendship for her +friend but her love for her lover,--and so the friend +understood her) I hope things will be settled some day, +and then we may be able to meet. + + 'Your very affectionate +Friend, + 'MARY PALLISER' + +Mrs Finn, when she received this, was alone in her house in Park +Lane. Her husband was down in the North of England. On this +subject she had not spoken to him, fearing that he would feel +himself bound to take some steps to support his wife under the +treatment she had received. Even though she must quarrel with the +Duke, she was most anxious that her husband should not be +compelled to do so. Their connection had been political rather +than personal. There were many reasons why there should be no open +cause of disruption between them. But her husband as hot-headed, +and, were al this to be told to him and that letter shown to him +which the Duke had written, there would be words between him and +the Duke which would probably make impossible any further +connection between them. + +It troubled her very much. She was by no means not alive to the +honour of the Duke's friendship. Throughout her intimacy with the +Duchess she had abstained from pressing herself on him, not +because she had been indifferent about him, but that she had +perceived that she might make her way with him better by standing +aloof than by thrusting herself forward. And she had known that +she had been successful. She could tell herself with pride that he +conduct towards him had been always such as would become a lady of +high spirit and fine feeling. She knew that she had deserved well +of him, that in all her intercourse with him, with his uncle, and +with his wife, she had given much and had taken little. She was +the last woman in the world to let a word on such a matter pass +her lips; but not the less was she conscious of her merit towards +him. And she had been led to act as she had done by sincere +admiration for the man. In all their political troubles, she had +understood him better than the Duchess had done. Looking on from a +distance she had understood the man's character as it had come to +her both from his wife and from her own husband. + +That he was unjust to her,--cruelly unjust, she was quite sure. He +accused her of intentional privity as to a secret which it +behooved him to know, and of being a party to that secrecy. +Whereas from the moment in which she had heard the secret she had +determined that it must be made known to him. She felt that she +had deserved his good opinion in all things, but in nothing more +than in the way in which she had acted in this matter. And yet he +had treated her with an imperious harshness which amounted to +insolence. What a letter it was that he had written to her! The +very tips of her ears tingled with heat as she read again to +herself. None of the ordinary courtesies of epistle-craft had been +preserved either in the beginning or in the end. It was worse even +than if he had called her, Madam without an epithet. 'The Duke +understands--' 'The Duke thinks--' 'The Duke feels--' feels that he +should not be troubled with either letters or conversation; the +upshot of it all being that the Duke declared her to have shown +herself unworthy of being treated like a lady! And this is after +all she had done! + +She would not bear it. That at present was all that she could say +to herself. She was not angry with Lady Mary. She did not doubt +but that the girl had done the best in her power to bring her +father to reason. But because Lady Mary had failed, she, Mrs Finn, +was not going to put up with so grievous an injury. And she was +forced to bear all this alone! There was none with whom she could +communicate;--no one from whom she could ask advice. She would not +bring her husband into a quarrel which might be prejudicial to his +position as a member of his political party. There was no one else +to whom she would tell the secret of Lady Mary's love. And yet she +could not bear this injustice done to her. + +Then she wrote as follows to the Duke: + +'Mrs Finn presents her compliments to the Duke of +Omnium. Mrs Finn finds it to be essential to her that +she should see the Duke in reference to his letter to +her. If his Grace will let her know on what day and at +what hour he will be kind enough to call on her, Mrs +Finn will be at home to receive him. +'Park Lane. Thursday 12th May, 18-' + + + +CHAPTER 14 + +The New Member for Silverbridge + +Lord Silverbridge was informed that it would be right that he +should go down to Silverbridge a few days before the election, to +make himself known to the electors. As the day for the election +drew near it was understood that there would be no other +candidate. The Conservative side was the popular side among the +tradesmen of Silverbridge. Silverbridge had been proud to be +honoured by the services of the heir of the House of Omnium, even +while that heir had been a Liberal,--had regarded it as so much a +matter of course that the borough should be at his disposal that +no question as to politics had ever arisen while he retained the +seat. And had the Duke chosen to continue to send them Liberals, +one after another, when he went into the House of Lords, there +would have been no question as to the fitness of the man, or men +so sent. Silverbridge had been supposed to be a Liberal as a +matter of course;--because the Pallisers were Liberals. But when +the matter was remitted to themselves;--when the Duke declared that +he would not interfere any more, for it was thus that the borough +had obtained its freedom;--then the borough began to feel +conservative predilections. 'If his Grace really does mean us to +do just what we please ourselves which is a thing we never thought +of asking from his Grace, then we find, having turned the matter +over among ourselves, that we are upon the whole Conservative.' +In this spirit the borough had elected a certain Mr Fletcher; but +in doing so the borough had still a shade of fear that it would +offend the Duke. The House of Palliser, Gatherum Castle, the Duke +of Omnium, and this special Duke himself, were all so great in the +eyes of the borough, that the first and only strong feeling in the +borough was the one of duty. The borough did not altogether enjoy +being enfranchised. But when the Duke had spoken once, twice, and +thrice, then with a hesitating heart the borough returned Mr +Fletcher. Now Mr Fletcher was wanted elsewhere, having been +persuaded to stand for the county, and it was a comfort to the +borough that it could resettle itself beneath the warmth of the +wings of the Pallisers. + +So the matter stood when Lord Silverbridge was told that his +presence in the borough for a few hours would be taken as a +compliment. Hitherto no one knew him at Silverbridge. During his +boyhood he had not been much at Gatherum Castle, and had done his +best to eschew the place since he had ceased to be a boy. All the +Pallisers took a pride in Gatherum Castle, but they all disliked +it. 'Oh yes, I'll go down,' he said to Mr Morton, who was up in +town. 'I needn't go to the great barrack I suppose.' The great +barrack was the Castle. 'I'll put up at the Inn.' Mr Morton begged +the heir to come to his own house; but Silverbridge declared that +he would prefer the Inn, and so the matter was settled. He was to +meet sundry politicians,--Mr Spurgeon and Mr Sprout and Mr Du +Boung,--who would like to be thanked for what they had been done. +But who was to go with him? He would naturally have asked Tregear, +but from Tregear he had for the last week or two been, not perhaps +estranged, but separated. He had been much taken up with racing. +He had gone down to Chester with Major Tifto, and under the +Major's auspicious influences had won a little money;--and now he +was very anxiously preparing himself for the Newmarket Second +Spring Meeting. He had therefore passed much of his time with +Major Tifto. And when this visit to Silverbridge was pressed on +him he thoughtlessly asked Tifto to go with him. Tifto was +delighted. Lord Silverbridge was to be met at Silverbridge by +various well-known politicians from the neighbourhood, and Major +Tifto was greatly elated by the prospect of such an introduction +into the political world. + +But no sooner had the offer been made by Lord Silverbridge than he +saw his own indiscretion. Tifto was very well for Chester or +Newmarket, very well perhaps for the Beargarden, but not very well +for an electioneering expedition. An idea came to the young +nobleman that if it should be his fate to represent Silverbridge +in Parliament for the next twenty years, it would be well that +Silverbridge should entertain respecting him some exalted +estimation,--that Silverbridge should be taught to regard him as a +fit son of his father and a worthy specimen of the British +political nobility. Struck by serious reflection of this nature he +did open his mind to Tregear. 'I am very fond of Tifto,' he said, +'but I don't know whether he's just the sort of fellow to take +down to an election.' + +'I should think not,' said Tregear very decidedly. + +'He's a very good fellow, you know,' said Silverbridge. 'I don't +know an honester man than Tifto anywhere.' + +'I dare say. Or rather, I don't dare say. I know nothing about the +Major's honesty, and I doubt whether you do. He rides very well.' + +'What has that to do with it?' + +'Nothing on earth. Therefore I advise you not to take him to +Silverbridge.' + +'You needn't preach.' + +'You may call it what you like. Tifto would not hold his tongue, +and there is nothing he could say there which would not be to your +prejudice.' + +'Will you go?' + +'If you wish it,' said Tregear. + +'What will the governor say?' + +'That must be your look out. In a political point of view I shall +not disgrace you. I shall hold my tongue and look like a +gentleman,--neither of which is in Tifto's power.' + +And so it was settled, that on the day but one after this +conversation Lord Silverbridge and Tregear should go together to +Silverbridge. But the Major, when on that same night his noble +friend's altered plans were explained to him, did not bear the +disappointment with equanimity. 'Isn't that a little strange?' he +said, becoming very red in the face. + +'What do you call strange?' said the Lord. + +'Well;--I'd made all my arrangements. When a man has been asked to +do a thing like that, he doesn't like to be put off.' + +'The truth is, Tifto, when I came to think of it, I saw that, +going down to these fellows about Parliament and all that sort of +thing, I ought to have a political atmosphere, and not a racing or +a betting or a hunting atmosphere.' + +'There isn't a man in London who cares more about politics than I +do,--and not many perhaps who understand them better. To tell you +the truth, my Lord, I think you are throwing me over.' + +'I'll make it up to you,' said Silverbridge, meaning to be kind. +'I'll go down to Newmarket with you and stick to you like wax.' + +'No doubt you'll do that,' said Tifto, who, like a fool, failed to +see where his advantage lay. 'I can be useful at Newmarket, and so +you'll stick to me.' + +'Look here, Major Tifto,' said Silverbridge; 'if you are +dissatisfied, you and I can easily separate ourselves.' + +'I am not dissatisfied,' said the little man, almost crying. + +'Then don't talk as though you were. As to Silverbridge, I shall +not want you there. When I asked you I was only thinking what +would be pleasant to both of us; but since that I have remembered +that business must be business.' Even this did not reconcile the +angry little man, who as he turned away declared himself within +his own little bosom that he would 'take it out of Silverbridge +for that.' + +Lord Silverbridge and Tregear went down to the borough together, +and on the journey something was said about Lady Mary,--and +something also about Lady Mabel. 'From the first, you know,' said +Lady Mary's brother, 'I never thought it would answer.' + +'Why not answer?' + +'Because I knew the governor would not have it. Money and rank and +those sort of things are not particular charming to me. But still +things should go together. It is all very silly for you and me to +be pals, but of course it will be expected that Mary should marry +some--' + +'Some swell?' + +'Some swell if you would have it.' + +'You mean to call yourself a swell.' + +'Yes I do,' said Silverbridge, with considerable resolution. 'You +ought not to make yourself disagreeable, because you understand +all about it as well as anybody. Chance has me the eldest son of a +Duke and heir to an enormous fortune. Chance has made my sister +the daughter of a Duke, and an heiress also. My intimacy ought to +be proof at any rate to you that I don't on that account set +myself up above other fellows. But when you come to talk of +marriage of course it is a serious thing.' + +'But you have told me more than once that you have no objection on +your own score.' + +'Nor have I.' + +'You are only saying what the Duke will think.' + +'I am telling you that it is impossible, and I told you so before. +You and she will be kept apart, and so--' + +'And so she'll forget me.' + +'Something of that kind.' + +'Of course I have to trust her for that. If she forgets me, well +and good.' + +'She needn't forget you. Lord bless me! you talk as though the +thing were not done every day. You'll hear some morning that she +is going to marry some fellow who has a lot of money and a good +position; and what difference will it make then whether she has +forgotten you or no? It might almost have been supposed that the +young man had been acquainted with his mother's history.' + +After this there was a pause, and there arose some conversation +about other things, and a cigar was smoked. Then Tregear returned +once more to the subject. 'There is one thing I wish to say about +it all.' + +'What is that?' + +'I want you to understand that nothing else will turn me away from +my intention but such a marriage on her part as that of which you +speak. Nothing that your father can do will turn me.' + +'She can't marry without his leave.' + +'Perhaps not.' + +'That he'll never give,--and I don't suppose you look forward to +waiting till his death.' + +'If he sees her happiness really depends on it he will give his +leave. It all depends on that. If I judge your father rightly, +he's just as soft-hearted as other people. The man who holds out +is not the man of the firmest opinion, but the man of the hardest +heart.' + +'Somebody will talk Mary over.' + +'If so, the thing is over. It all depends on her.' Then he went +on to tell his friend that he had spoken of his engagement with +Lady Mabel. 'I have mentioned it to no soul but to your father and +her.' + +'Why to her?' + +'Because we were friends together as children. I never had a +sister, but she has been more like a sister to me than anyone +else. Do you object to her knowing it?' + +'Not particularly. It seems to me now that everybody knows +everything. There are no longer any secrets.' + +'She is a special friend.' + +'Of yours,' said Silverbridge. + +'And of yours,' said Tregear. + +'Well, yes;--in a sort of way. She is the jolliest girl I know.' + +'Take her all round, for beauty, intellect, good sense, and fun at +the same time. I don't know anyone equal to her.' + +'It's a pity you didn't fall in love with her.' + +'We knew each other to early for that. And then she has not a +shilling. I should think myself dishonest if I did not tell you +that I could not afford any girl who hadn't money. A man must +live,--and a woman too.' + +At the station they were met by Mr Spurgeon and Mr Sprout, who, +with many apologies for the meanness of such entertainment, took +them up to the George and Vulture, which was supposed for the +nonce to be the Conservative hotel in the town. Here they were met +by other men of importance in the borough, and among them by Mr Du +Boung. Now Mr Sprout and Mr Spurgeon were Conservatives but Mr Du +Boung was a strong Liberal. + +'We are, all of us, particularly glad to see your Lordship among +us,' said Mr Du Boung. + +'I have told his Lordship how perfectly satisfied you are to see +the borough in his Lordship's hands,' said Mr Spurgeon. + +'I am sure it could not be in better,' said Mr Du Boung. 'For +myself I an quite willing to postpone any particular shade of +politics to the advantage of having your father's son as our +representative.' This Mr Du Boung said with much intention of +imparting both grace and dignity to the occasion. He thought that +he was doing a great thing for the House of Omnium, and that the +House of Omnium ought to know it. + +'That's very kind of you,' said Lord Silverbridge, who had not +read as carefully as he should have done the letters which had +been sent to him, and did not therefore quite understand the +position. + +'Mr Du Boung had intended to stand himself,' said Mr Sprout. + +'But retired in your lordship's favour,' said Mr Spurgeon. + +'I thought you gave it up because there was hardly a footing for +a Liberal,' said his Lordship, very imprudently. + +'The borough was always liberal till the last election,' said Mr +Du Boung, drawing himself up. + +'The borough wishes on this occasion to be magnanimous,' said Mr +Sprout, probably having on his mind some confusion between +magnanimity and unanimity. + +'As your Lordship is coming among us, the borough is anxious to +sink politics altogether for the moment,' said Mr Spurgeon. There +had no doubt been a compact between the Spurgeon and the Sprout +party and the Du Boung party in accordance with which it had been +arranged that Mr Du Boung should be entitled to a certain amount +of glorification in the presence of Lord Silverbridge. + +'And it was in compliance with that wish on the part of the +borough, my Lord,' said Mr Du Boung,--'as to which my own feelings +were quite as strong as that of any other gentleman in the +borough,--that I conceived it to be my duty to give way.' + +'His Lordship is quite aware how much he owes to Mr Du Boung,' +said Tregear. Whereupon Lord Silverbridge bowed. + +'And now what are we to do?' said Lord Silverbridge. + +Then there was a little whispering between Mr Sprout and Mr +Spurgeon. 'Perhaps, Mr Du Boung,' said Spurgeon, 'his lordship had +better call first on Dr Tempest.' + +'Perhaps,' said the injured brewer, 'as it is to be a party affair +after all I had better retire from the scene.' + +'I thought all that was to be given up,' said Tregear. + +'Oh, certainly,' said Sprout. 'Suppose we go to Mr Walker first?' + +'I'm up to anything,' said Lord Silverbridge; 'but of course +everybody understands that I am a Conservative.' + +'Oh dear, yes,' said Spurgeon. + +'We are all aware of that,' said Sprout. + +'And very glad we've all of us been to hear of it,' said the +landlord. + +'Though there are some in the borough who could have wished, my +Lord, that you had stuck to the old Palliser politics,' said Mr Du +Boung. + +'But I haven't stuck to the Palliser politics. Just at present I +think that order and all that sort of thing should be maintained.' + +'Hear, hear!' said the landlord. + +'And now, as I have expressed my views generally, I am willing to +go anywhere.' + +'Then we'll go to Mr Walker first,' said Spurgeon. Now it was +understood that in the borough, among those who really had +opinions of their own, Mr Walker the old attorney stood first as a +Liberal, and Dr Tempest the old rector as a Conservative. + +'I am glad to see your Lordship in the town which gives you its +name,' said Mr Walker, who was a hale old gentleman with silvery- +white hair, over seventy years of age. 'I proposed your father for +this borough on, I think, six or seven different occasions. They +used to go in and out then whenever they changed their offices.' + +'We hope you'll propose Lord Silverbridge now,' said Mr Spurgeon. + +'Oh; well;--yes. He's his father's son, and I never knew anything +but good of the family. I wish you were going to sit on the same +side, my Lord.' + +'Times are changed a little, perhaps,' said his Lordship. + +'The matter is not to be discussed now,' said the old attorney. ' +understand that. Only I hope you'll excuse me if I say that a man +ought to get up very early in the morning if he means to see +further into politics than your father.' + +'Very early indeed,' said Mr Du Boung, shaking his head. + +'That's all right,' said Lord Silverbridge. + +'I'll propose you, my Lord. I need not wish you success, because +there is no one to stand against you.' + +Then they went to Dr Tempest, who was also an old man. 'Yes, my +Lord, I shall be proud to second you,' said the rector. 'I didn't +think that I should ever do that to one of your name of +Silverbridge.' + +'I hope you think I've made a change for the better,' said the +candidate. + +'You've come over to my school of course, and I suppose I am bound +to think that a change for the better. Nevertheless I have a kind +of idea that certain people ought to be Tories and that other +certain people ought to be Whigs. What does your father say about +it?' + +'My father wishes me to be in the House, and that he has not +quarrelled with me you may know by the fact that had there been a +contest he would have paid my expenses.' + +'A father generally has to do that whether he approves of what his +son is about or not,' said the caustic old gentleman. + +There was nothing else to be done. They all went back to the +hotel, and Mr Spurgeon with Mr Sprout and the landlord clerk drank +a glass of sherry at the candidate's expense, wishing him +political long life and prosperity. There was no one else whom it +was thought necessary that the candidate should visit, and the +next day he returned to town with the understanding that on the +day appointed in the next week he should come back again to be +elected. + +And on the appointed day the two young men again went to +Silverbridge, and after he had been declared duly elected, the new +Member of Parliament made his first speech. There was a meeting in +the town-hall and many were assembled anxious to hear,--not the +lad's opinions, for which the probably nobody cared much,--but the +tone of his voice and to see his manner. Of what sort was the +eldest son of the man of whom the neighbourhood had been so proud? + For the county was in truth proud of their Duke. Of this son whom +they had now made a Member of Parliament they at present only knew +that he had been sent away from Oxford,--not so very long ago,--for +painting the Dean's house scarlet. The speech was not very +brilliant. He told them that he was very much obliged to them for +the honour they had done him. Though he could not follow exactly +his father's political opinions,--he would always have before his +eyes his father's honesty and independence. He broke down two or +three times and blushed, and repeated himself, and knocked his +words a great deal too quickly one on top of another. But it was +taken very well, and was better than expected. When it was over he +wrote a line to the Duke. + +'MY DEAR FATHER, + +'I am Member of Parliament for Silverbridge,--as you +used to be in the days which I can first remember. I +hope you won't think that it does not make me unhappy +to have differed from you. Indeed it does. I don't +think that anybody has ever done so well in politics as +you have. But when a man does take up an opinion, I +don't see how he can help himself. Of course I could +have kept myself quiet;--but then you wished me to be in +the House. They were all very civil to me at +Silverbridge, but there was very little said. + +'Your affectionate Son, +'SILVERBRIDGE.' + + + +CHAPTER 15 + +The Duke Receives a Letter,--and Writes One. + +The Duke, when he received Mrs Finn's note, demanding an +interview, thought much upon the matter before he replied. She had +made her demand as though the Duke had been no more than any other +gentleman, almost as though she had a right to call upon him to +wait upon her. He understood and admitted the courage of this;--but +nevertheless he would not go to her. He had trusted her with that +which of all things was the most sacred to him, and she had +deceived him! He wrote her as follows: + +'The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to +Mrs Finn. As the Duke thinks that no good could result +either to Mrs Finn or to himself from an interview, he +is obliged to say that he would rather not do as Mrs +Finn has requested. + +'But for the strength of this conviction the Duke +would have waited upon Mrs Finn most willingly.' + +Mrs Finn when she received this was not surprised. She had felt +sure that such would be the nature of the Duke's answer; but she +was also sure that is such an answer did come, she would not let +the matter rest. The accusation was so bitter to her that she +would spare nothing in defending herself,--nothing in labour and +nothing in time. She would make him know that she was in earnest. +As she could not succeed in getting into his presence she must do +so by letter,--and she wrote her letter, taking two days to think +of her words. + +'May 18, 18- + +'MY DEAR DUKE OF OMNIUM, + +'As you will not come to me, I must trouble your +Grace to read what I fear will be a long letter. For it +is absolutely necessary that I should explain my +conduct to you. That you have condemned me I am sure +you will not deny;--nor that you have punished me as far +as the power of punishment was in your hands. If I can +succeed in making you see that you have judged me +wrongly, I think you will admit you error and beg my +pardon. You are not one who from your nature can be +brought easily to do this; but you are the one who will +certainly do it if you can be made to feel that by not +doing so you would be unjust. I am myself so clear as +to my own rectitude of purpose and conduct, and I am so +well aware of your perspicuity, that I venture to +believe that if you will read this letter I shall +convince you. + +'Before I go any further I will confess that the +matter is one,--I was going to say almost of life and +death to me. Circumstances, not of my own seeking, have +for some years past thrown me so closely into +intercourse with your family that now to be cast off, +and to be put on one side as a disgraced person,--and +that so quickly after the death of her who loved me so +dearly, and who was dear to me,--is such an affront as I +cannot bear and hold up my head afterwards. I have come +to be known as her whom your uncle trusted and loved, +as her whom your wife trusted and loved,--obscure as I +was before;--and as her whom, may I not say, you +yourself trusted? As there was much of honour and very +much of pleasure in this, so also was their something +of misfortune. Friendships are safest when the friends +are of the same standing. I have always felt there was +a danger, and now the thing I have feared has come home +to me. + +'Now I will plead my case. I fancy, that when you +first heard that I had been cognizant of your +daughter's engagement, you imagined that I was aware of +it before I went to Matching. Had I been so, I should +have been guilty of that treachery of which you accuse +me. I did know nothing of it till Lady Mary told me on +the day before I left Matching. That she should tell me +was natural enough. Her mother had known of it, and for +the moment,--if I am not assuming too much in saying +so,--I was filling her mother's place. But, in reference +to you, I could not exercise the discretion which a +mother might have used, and I told her at once, most +decidedly, that you must be made acquainted with the +fact. + +'Then Lady Mary expressed to me her wish,--not +that this matter should be kept any longer from you, +for that it should be told to you by Mr Tregear. It was +not for me to raise any question as to Mr Tregear's +fitness or unfitness,--as to which indeed I could know +nothing. All I could do was to say that if Mr Tregear +would make communications at once, I should feel that I +had done my duty. The upshot was that Mr Tregear came +to me immediately on my return to London, and agreeing +with me that it was imperative for you to be informed, +went to you and did inform you. In all of that, if I +have told the story truly, where has been my offence? +I suppose you will believe me, but your daughter can +give evidence as to every word that I have written. + +'I think that you have got into your mind that I +have befriended Mr Tregear' suit, and that, having +received this impression, you hold it with the tenacity +which is usual to you. There never was a greater +mistake. I went to Matching as the friend of my dear +friend;---but I stayed there at your request, as your +friend. Had I been, when you asked me to do so, a +participator in that secret I could not have honestly +remained in the position you assigned to me. Had I done +so, I should have deserved your ill opinion. As it is I +have not deserved it, and your condemnation of me has +been altogether unjust. Should I not now receive from +you a full withdrawal of all charges against me, I +shall be driven to think that after all the insight +which circumstances have given me into your character, +I have nevertheless been mistaken in the reading of it. +'I remain, +'Dear Duke of Omnium, +'Yours truly, +M. FINN' + +'I find on looking over my letter that I must add +one word further. It might seem that I am asking for a +return of your friendship. Such is not my purpose. +Neither can you forget that you have accused me,--nor +can I. What I expect is that you should tell me that +you in your conduct to me have been wrong and that I in +mine to you have been right. I must be enabled to feel +that the separation between us has come from injury +done to me, and not by me.' + +He did read the letter more than once, and read it with tingling +ears, and hot cheeks, and a knitted brow. As the letter went on, +and as the woman's sense of wrong grew hot from her own telling of +her own story, her words became stronger and still stronger, till +at last they were almost insolent in their strength. Were it not +that they came from one who did think herself to have been +wronged, then certainly they would be insolent. A sense of injury, +a burning conviction of wrong sustained, will justify language +which otherwise would be unbearable. The Duke felt that, though +his ears were tingling and his brow knitted, he could have +forgiven the language, if only he could have admitted the +argument. He understood every word of it. When she spoke of +tenacity she intended to charge him with obstinacy. Though she had +dwelt but lightly on her own services she had made her thoughts on +the matter clear enough. 'I, Mrs Finn, who am nobody, have done +much to succour and assist you, the Duke of Omnium; and this is +the return which I have received!' And then she told him to his +face that unless he did something which it would be impossible +that he should do, she would revoke her opinion of his honesty! +He tried to persuade himself that her opinion about his honesty +was nothing to him;--but he failed. Her opinion was very much to +him. Though in his anger he had determined to throw her off from +him, he knew her to be one whose good opinion was worth having. + +Not a word of overt accusation had been made against his wife. +Every allusion to her was full of love. But yet how heavy a charge +was really made! That such a secret should be kept from him, the +father, was acknowledged to be a heinous fault;--but the wife had +known the secret and had kept it from him the father! And then +how wretched a thing it was for him that anyone should dare to +write to him about the wife that had been taken away from him! In +spite of all her faults her name was so holy to him that it had +never once passed his lips since her death, except in low whispers +to himself,--low whispers made in the perfect, double-guarded +seclusion of his own chamber. 'Cora, Cora,' he had murmured, so +that the sense of the sound and not the sound itself had come to +him from his own lips. And now this woman wrote to him about her +freely, as though there were nothing sacred, no religion in the +memory of her. + +'It was not for me to raise any question as to Mr Tregear's +fitness'. Was it not palpable to all the world that he was unfit? +Unfit! How could a man be more unfit? He was asking for the hand +of one who was second only to royalty--who possessed of everything, +who was beautify, well-born, rich, who was the daughter of the +Duke of Omnium, and he had absolutely nothing of his own to offer. + +But it was necessary that he should at last come to the +consideration of the actual point as to which she had written to +him so forcibly. He tried to set himself to the task of perfect +honestly. He certainly lad condemned her. He had condemned her and +had no doubt punished her to the extent of his power. And if he +could be brought to see that he had done this unjustly, then +certainly he must beg pardon. And when he considered it all, he +had to own that her intimacy with his uncle and his wife had not +been so much of her seeking as of theirs. It grieved him now that +it should have been so, but so it was. And after all this,--after +the affectionate surrender of herself to his wife's caprices which +the woman had made,--he had turned upon her and driven her away +with ignominy. That all was true. As he thought of it he became +hot, and was conscious of a quivering feeling round his heart. +These wee bonds indeed; but they were bonds of such a nature as to +be capable of being rescinded and cut away altogether by absolute +bad conduct. If he could make it good to himself that in a matter +of such magnitude as the charge of his daughter she had been +untrue to him and had leagued herself against him, with an +unworthy lover, then, then,--all bonds would be rescinded! Then +would his wrath be altogether justified! Then would it have been +impossible that he should have done aught else than cast her out! + As he thought of this he felt sure that she had betrayed him! How +great would be the ignominy to him should he be driven to own to +himself that she had not betrayed him! 'There should not have +been a moment,' he said to himself over and over again,--'not a +moment!' Yes; she certainly had betrayed him. + +There might still be safety for him in that confident assertion of +'not a moment'; but had there been anything of that conspiracy of +which he had certainly at first judged her to be guilty? She had +told her story, and had then appealed to Lady Mary for evidence. +After five minutes of perfect stillness,--but five minutes of +misery, five minutes during which great beads of perspiration +broke out from him and stood upon his brow, he had to confess to +himself that he did not want any evidence. He did believe her +story. When he allowed himself to think she had been in league +with Tregear he had wronged her. He wiped away the beads from his +brow, and again repeated to himself those words which were now his +only comfort, 'There should not have been a moment;--not a moment!' + +It was thus and only thus that he was enabled to assure himself +that there need be no acknowledgment of wrong done on his part. +Having settled this in his own mind he forced himself to attend a +meeting at which his assistance had been asked to a complex +question on Law Reform. The Duke endeavoured to give himself up +entirely to the matter; but through it all there was the picture +before him of Mrs Finn waiting for an answer to her letter. If he +should confirm himself in his opinion that he had been right, then +would any answer be necessary? He might just acknowledge the +letter, after the fashion which has come up in official life, than +which silence is an insult much more bearable. But he did not wish +to insult, nor to punish her further. He would willingly have +withdrawn the punishment under which she was groaning could he +have done so with self-abasement. Or he might write as she had +done,--advocating his own cause with all his strength, using that +last one strong argument,--there should not have been a 'moment'. +But there would be something repulsive to his personal dignity in +the continued correspondence which this would produce. 'The Duke +of Omnium regrets to say, in answer to Mrs Finn's letter, that he +thinks no good can be attained by a prolonged correspondence.' +Such, or of such kind, he thought must be his answer. But would +this be a fair return for the solicitude shown to her by his +uncle, for the love which had made her so patient a friend to his +wife, for the nobility of her own conduct in many things? Then +his mind reverted to certain jewels,--supposed to be of enormous +value,--which were still in his possession though they were the +property of this woman. They had been left to her by his uncle, +and she had obstinately refused to take them. Now they were lying +packed in the cellars of certain bankers,--but still they were in +his custody. What should he do now in this matter? Hitherto, +perhaps once in every six months, he had notified to her that he +was keeping them as her curator, and she had always repeated that +it was a charge from which she could not relieve him. It had +become almost a joke between them. But how could he joke with a +woman with whom he had quarrelled after this internecine fashion? + +What if he were to consult Lady Cantrip? He could not do so +without a pang that would have been very bitter to him,--but any +agony would be better than arising from a fear that he had been +unjust to one who had deserved so well of him. No doubt Lady +Cantrip would see it in the same light as he had done. And then he +would be able to support himself by the assurance that that which +had judged to be right was approved of by one whom the world would +acknowledge to be a good judge on such a matter. + +When he got home he found his son's letter telling him of the +election at Silverbridge. There was something in it which softened +his heart to that young man,--or perhaps it was that in the midst +of his many discomforts he wished to find something which at least +was not painful to him. That his son and heir should insist in +entering political life in opposition to him was of course a +source of pain; but, putting that aside, the thing had been done +pleasantly enough, and the young member's letter had been written +with some good feeling. So he answered the letter as pleasantly as +he knew how. + +'MY DEAR SILVERBRIDGE + +'I am glad you are in Parliament and am glad also +that you should have been returned by the old borough; +though I would that you could have reconciled yourself +to the politics of your family. But there is nothing +disgraceful in such a change, and I am able to +congratulate you as a father should a son and to wish +you long life and success as a legislator. + +'There are one or two things I would ask you to +remember;--and firstly this, that as you have +voluntarily undertaken certain duties you are bound as +an honest man to perform them as scrupulously as though +you were paid for doing them. There was no obligation +in you to seek the post;--but having sought it and +acquired it you cannot neglect the work attached to it +without being untrue to the covenant you have made. It +is necessary that a young member of Parliament should +bear this in mind, and especially a member who has not +worked his way up to notoriety outside the House, +because to him there will be great facility for +idleness and neglect. + +'And then I would have you always remember the +purpose for which there is a parliament elected in this +happy and free country. It is not that some men may +shine there, that some may acquire power, or that all +may plume themselves on being the elect of the nation. +It often appears to me that some members of Parliament +so regard their success in life,--as the fellows of our +colleges do too often, thinking that their fellowships +were awarded for their comfort and not for the +furtherance of any object such as education or +religion. I have known gentlemen who have felt that in +becoming members of Parliament they had achieved an +object for themselves instead of thinking that they had +put themselves in the way of achieving something for +others. A member of Parliament should feel himself to +be the servant of his country,--and like every other +servant, he should serve. If this be distasteful to a +man he need not go into Parliament. If the harness gall +him he need not wear it. But if he takes the trappings, +then he should draw the coach. You are there as the +guardian of your fellow-countrymen,--that they may be +safe, they may be prosperous, that they may be well +governed and lightly burdened,--above all that they may +be free. If you cannot feel this to be your duty, you +should not be there at all. + +'And I would have you remember also that the work +of a member of Parliament can seldom be of that +brilliant nature which is of itself charming; and that +the young member should think of such brilliancy as +being possible to him only at a distance. It should be +your first care to sit and listen so that the forms and +methods of the House may as it were soak into you +gradually. And then you must bear in mind that speaking +in the House is but a very small part of a member's +work, perhaps that part he may lay aside altogether +with the least stain on his conscience. A good member +of Parliament will be good upstairs in the Committee +Rooms, good downstairs to make and to keep a House, +good to vote, for his party if it may be nothing +better, but for the measures also which he believes to +be for the good of the country. + +'Gradually, if you will give your thoughts to it, +and above all your time, the theory of legislation will +sink into your mind, and you will find that there will +come upon you the ineffable delight of having served +your country to the best of your ability. + +'It is the only pleasure in life which has been +enjoyed without alloy by your affectionate father, + +'OMNIUM.' + +The Duke in writing this letter was able for a few moments to +forget Mrs Finn, and to enjoy the work which he had on hand. + + + +CHAPTER 16 + +Poor Boy + +The new member for Silverbridge, when he entered the House to take +the oath, was supported on the right and left by two staunch old +Tories. Mr Monk had seen him a few minutes previously,--Mr Monk who +of all Liberals was the firmest and than whom no one had been more +staunch to the Duke,--and had congratulated him on his election, +expressing at the same time some gentle regrets. 'I only wish you +could have come among us on the other side,' he said. + +'But I couldn't,' said the young Lord. + +'I am sure nothing but a conscientious feeling would have +separated you from your father's friends,' said the old Liberal. +And then they were parted, and the member for Silverbridge was +bustled up to the table between the two staunch Tories. + +Of what else was done on that occasion nothing shall be said here. +No political work was required from him, except that of helping +for an hour or two to crowd the Government benches. But we will +follow him as he left the House. There were one or two others +quite as anxious as to his political career as any staunch old +Liberal. At any rate one other. He had promised that as soon as he +could get away from the House he would go to Belgrave Square and +tell Lady Mabel Grex all about it. When he reached the square it +was past seven, but Lady Mabel and Miss Cassewary were still in +the drawing-room. 'There seemed to be a great deal of bustle, and +I didn't understand much about it, said the Member. + +'But you heard speeches?' These were the speeches made on the +proposing and seconding of the address. + +'Oh yes;--Lupon did it very well. Lord George didn't seem to be +quite as good. Then Sir Timothy Beeswax made a speech, and then Mr +Monk. After that I saw other fellows going away, so I bolted too.' + +'If I were a member of Parliament I would never leave it while the +House was sitting,' said Miss Cassewary. + +'It all were like that there wouldn't be seats for them to sit on, +said Silverbridge. + +'A persistent member will always find a seat,' continued the +positive old lady. + +'I am sure that Lord Silverbridge means to do his duty,' said Lady +Mabel. + +'Oh yes;--I've thought a good deal about it, and I mean to try. As +long as a man isn't called upon to speak I don't see why it +shouldn't be easy enough.' + +'I'm so glad to hear you say so! Of course after a little time +you will speak. I should like to hear you make your first speech.' + +'If I thought you were there, I'm sure I should not make it at +all.' Just at this period Miss Cassewary, saying something as to +the necessity of dressing, and cautioning her young friend that +there was not much time to be lost, left the room. + +'Dressing does not take me more than ten minutes,' said Lady +Mabel. Miss Cassewary declared this to be nonsense, but she +nevertheless left the room. Whether she would have done so if Lord +Silverbridge had not been Lord Silverbridge, but had been some +young man with whom it would not have been expedient that Lady +Mabel should fall in love, may perhaps be doubted. Lady Mabel +herself would not have remained. She had quite related the duties +of life, had had her little romance,--and had acknowledged that it +was foolish. + +'I do so hope that you will do well,' she said, going back to the +parliamentary duties. + +'I don't think I shall ever do much. I shall never be like my +father.' + +'I don't see why not.' + +'There never was anybody like him. I am always amusing myself, but +he never cared for amusement.' + +'You are very young.' + +'As far as I can learn he was just as he is now at my age. My +mother has told me that long before she married him he used to +spend all his time in the House. I wonder whether you would mind +reading the letter he wrote to me when he heard of my election.' +Then he took the epistle out of his pocket and handed it to Lady +Mabel. + +'He means what he says.' + +'He always does that.' + +'And he really hopes that you will put your shoulder to the +wheel,--even though you must do so in opposition to him.' + +'That makes no difference. I think my father is a very fine +fellow.' + +'Shall you do as he tells you?' + +'Well,--I suppose not;--except that he advises me to hold my tongue. +I think I shall do that. I mean to go down there, you know, and I +daresay I shall be much the same as others.' + +'Has he talked to you much about it?' + +'No;--he never talks much. Every now and then he will give me a +downright lecture, or he will write me a letter like that; but he +never talks to any of us.' + +'How very odd.' + +'Yes; he is odd. He seems to be fretful when we are with him. A +good many things make him unhappy.' + +'Your poor mother's death.' + +'That first;--and then there are other things. I suppose he didn't +like the way I came to an end in Oxford.' + +'You were a boy then.' + +'Of course I was very sorry for it,--though I hated Oxford. It was +neither one thing nor another. You were your own master and yet +you were not.' + +'Now you must be your own master.' + +'I suppose so.' + +'You must marry, and become a lord of the Treasury. When I was a +child I acted as a child. You know all about that.' + +'Oh yes. And now I must throw off childish things. You mean that I +mustn't paint any man's house? Eh, Lady Mab.' + +'That and the rest of it. You are a legislator now.' + +'So is Popplecourt, who took his seat in the House of Lords two or +three months ago. He's the biggest young fool I know out. He +couldn't even paint a house.' + +'He is not an elected legislator. It makes all the difference. I +quite agree with what the Duke says. Lord Popplecourt can't help +himself. Whether he's an idle young scamp or not, he must be a +legislator. But when a man goes into if for himself, as you have +done, he should make up his mind to be useful.' + +'I shall vote with my party of course.' + +'More than that, much more than that. if you didn't care for +politics you couldn't have taken that line of your own.' When she +said this she knew that he had been talked into what he had done +by Tregear,--by Tregear, who had ambition, and intelligence, and +capacity for forming an opinion of his own. 'If you do not do it +for your own sake, you will for the sake of those who,--who,--who +are your friends,' she said at last, not feeling quite able to +tell him that he must do it for the sake of those that loved him. + +'There are not very many I suppose who care about it.' + +'Your father.' + +'Oh yes,--my father.' + +'And Tregear.' + +'Tregear has got his own fish to fry.' + +'Are there none others? Do you think we care nothing about it +here?' + +'Miss Cassewary?' + +'Well;--Miss Cassewary! A man might have a worse friend than Miss +Cassewary;--and my father.' + +'I don't suppose Lord Grex cares a straw about me.' + +'Indeed he does,--a great many straws. And so do I. Do you think I +don't care a straw about you?' + +'I don't know why you should.' + +'Because it is in my nature to be earnest. A girl comes out into +the world so young that she becomes serious, and steady as it +were, so much sooner than a man does.' + +'I always think that nobody is so full of chaff as you are, Lady +Mab.' + +'I am not chaffing now in recommending you go to work in the world +like a man.' As she said this they were sitting on the same sofa, +but with some space between them. When Miss Cassewary had left the +room Lord Silverbridge was standing, but after a little he had +fallen into the seat, at the extreme corner, and had gradually +come a little nearer to her. Now in her energy she put our her +hand, meaning perhaps to touch lightly the sleeve of his coat, +meaning perhaps not quite to touch him at all. But as she did so +he put out his hand and took hold of hers.' + +She drew it away, not seeming to allow it to remain in his grasp +for a moment, but she did so, not angrily, or hurriedly, or with +any flurry. She did it as though it were natural that he should +take her hand and as natural that she should recover it. 'Indeed I +have hardly more than ten minutes left before dressing,' she said, +rising from her seat. + +'If you will say that you care about it, you yourself, I will do +my best.' As he made this declaration blushes covered his cheeks +and forehead. + +'I do care about it,--very much; I myself,' said Lady Mabel, not +blushing at all. Then there was a knock at the door, and Lady +Mabel's maid, putting her head in, declared that my Lord had come +in and had already been some time in the dressing-room. 'Good-bye, +Lord Silverbridge,' she said quite gaily, and rather more aloud +than would have been necessary, had she not intended that the maid +should also hear her. + +'Poor boy!' she said to herself as she was dressing. 'Poor boy!' +Then, when the evening was over she spoke to herself again about +hit. 'Dear sweet boy!' And then she sat and thought. How was it +that she was so old a woman, while he was so little more than a +child? How fair he was, how far removed from conceit, how capable +of being made into man--in the process of time! What might not be +expected from him if he could be kept in good hands for the next +ten years! But in whose hands? What would she be in ten years, +she who already seemed to know the town and all its belongings so +well? And yet she was as young in years as he. He, as she knew, +had passed his twenty-second birthday,--and so had she. That was +all. It might be good for her that she should marry him. She was +ambitious. And such a marriage would satisfy her ambition. Through +her father's fault, and her brother's she was likely to be poor. +This man would certainly be rich. Many of those who were buzzing +around her from day to day, were distasteful to her. From among +them she knew that she could not take a husband, let their rank +and wealth be what it might. She was too fastidious, too proud, +too prone to think that things could be with her as she liked +them! This last was in all things pleasant to her. Though he was +but a boy, thee was a certain boyish manliness about him. The very +way in which he had grasped at her hand and had then blushed ruby- +red at his own daring, had gone far with her. How gracious he was +to look at! Dear sweet boy! Love him? No;--she did not know that +she loved him. That dream was over. She was sure however that she +liked him. + +But could she love him? That a woman should not marry a man +without loving him, she partly knew. But she thought she knew also +that there must be exceptions. She would do her very best to love +him. That other man should be banished from her very thoughts. She +would be such a wife to him that he should never know that he +lacked anything. Poor boy! Sweet dear boy! He, as he went away to +his dinner, had his thoughts also about her. Of all the girls he +knew she was the jolliest,--and of all his friends she was the +pleasantest. As she was anxious that he should go to work in the +House of Commons he would go to work there. As for loving her! +Well;--of course he must marry some day, and why not Lady Mab as +well as anyone else. + + + +CHAPTER 17 + +The Derby + +An attendance at the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting had +unfortunately not been compatible with the Silverbridge election. +Major Tifto had therefore been obliged to look after the affair +alone. 'A very useful mare,' as Tifto had been in the habit of +calling a leggy, thoroughbred, meagre-looking brute named +Coalition, was on this occasion confided to the Major's sole care +and judgement. But Coalition failed, as coalitions always do, and +Tifto had to report to his noble patron that they had not pulled +off the event. It had been a match for four hundred pounds, made +indeed by Lord Silverbridge, but made at the suggestion of Tifto;-- +and now Tifto wrote in a very bad humour about it. It had been +altogether his Lordship's fault in submitting to carry two pounds +more than Tifto had thought to be fair and equitable. The match +had been lost. Would Lord Silverbridge be so good as to pay the +money to Mr Green Griffin and debit him, Tifto, with the share of +the loss? + +We must acknowledge that the unpleasant tone of the Major's letter +was due quite as much to the ill-usage he had received in +reference to that journey to Silverbridge, as to the loss of the +race. Within that little body there was a high-mounting heart, and +that heart had been greatly wounded by his Lordship's treatment. +Tifto had felt himself to have been treated like a servant. Hardly +an excuse had even been made. He had been simply told that he was +not wanted. He was apt sometimes to tell himself that he knew on +which side his bread was buttered. But perhaps he hardly knew how +best to keep the butter going. There was a little pride about him +which was antagonistic to the best interests of such a trade as +his. Perhaps it was well that he should inwardly suffer when +injured. But it could not be well that he should declare to such +men as Nidderdale, and Dolly Longstaff, and Popplecourt that he +didn't mean to put up with that sort of thing. He certainly should +not have spoken in this strain before Tregear. Of all men living +he hated and feared him the most. And he knew that no other man +loved Silverbridge as did Tregear. Had he been thinking of his +bread-and-butter, instead of giving way to the mighty anger of his +little bosom, he would have hardly declared openly at the club +that he would let Lord Silverbridge know that he did not mean to +stand any man's airs. But these extravagances were due perhaps to +whisky-and-water, and that kind of intoxication which comes to +certain men from momentary triumphs. Tifto could always be got to +make a fool of himself when surrounded by three or four men of +rank who, for the occasion, would talk to him as an equal. He +almost declared that Coalition had lost her match because he had +not been taken down at Silverbridge. + +'Tifto is in a deuce of a way with you,' said Dolly Longstaff to +the young member. + +'I know all about it,' said Silverbridge, who had had an interview +with his partner since the race. + +'If you don't take care he'll dismiss you.' + +Silverbridge did not care much about this, knowing that words of +wisdom did not ordinarily fall from the mouth of Dolly Longstaff. +But he was more moved when his friend Tregear spoke to him. 'I +wish you knew the kind of things that fellow Tifto says behind +your back.' + +'As if I cared.' + +'But you ought to care.' + +'Do you care what every fellow says about you?' + +'I care very much what those say whom I choose to live with me. +Whatever Tifto might say about me would be quite indifferent to +me, because we have nothing in common. But you and he are bound +together.' + +'We have a horse or two in common; that's all.' + +'But that is a great deal. The truth is he's a nasty, brawling, +boasting, ill-conditioned little reptile.' + +Silverbridge of course did not acknowledge that this was true. But +he felt it, and almost repented of his trust in Tifto. But still +Prime Minister stood very well for the Derby. He was second +favourite, the odds against him being only four to one. The glory +of being part owner of a probable winner of the Derby was so much +to him that he could not bring himself to be altogether angry with +Tifto. There was no doubt that the horse's present condition was +due entirely to Tifto's care. Tifto spent in these few days just +before the race the greatest part of his time in the close +vicinity of the horse, only running up to London now and then, as +a fish comes up to the surface, for a breath of air. It is +impossible that Lord Silverbridge should separate himself from the +Major,--at any rate till after the Epsom meeting. + +He had paid the money for the match without a word of reproach to +his partner, but still with a feeling that things were not quite +as they ought to be. In money matters his father had been liberal, +but not very definite. He had been told that he ought not to spend +above two thousand pounds a year, and had been reminded that there +was a house for him to use both in town and in the country. But he +had been given to understand also that any application made to Mr +Morton, if not very unreasonable, would be attended with success. +A solemn promise had been exacted from him that he would have no +dealings with money-lenders;--and then he had been set afloat. +There had been a rather frequent correspondence with Mr Morton, +who had once or twice submitted a total of the money paid on +behalf of his correspondent. Lord Silverbridge, who imagined +himself to be anything but extravagant, had wondered how the +figures could mount up so rapidly. But the money needed was always +forthcoming, and the raising of objections never seemed to be +carried back beyond Mr Morton. His promise to his father about the +money-lenders had been scrupulously kept. As long as ready money +can be made to be forthcoming without any charge for interest, a +young man must be very foolish who will prefer to borrow it at +twenty-five per cent. + +Now had come the night before the Derby, and it must be +acknowledged that the young Lord was much fluttered by the +greatness of the coming struggle. Tifto, having seen his horse +conveyed to Epsom, had come up to London in order that he might +dine with his partner and hear what was being said about the race +at the Beargarden. The party dining there consisted of +Silverbridge, Dolly Longstaff, Popplecourt, and Tifto. Nidderdale +was to have joined them, but he told them on the day before, with +a sigh, that domestic duties were too strong for him. Lady +Nidderdale,--or if not Lady Nidderdale herself, then Lady +Nidderdale's mother,--was so far potent over the young nobleman as +to induce him to confine his Derby practices to the Derby-day. +Another guest had also been expected, the reason for whose non- +appearance must be explained somewhat at length. Lord Gerald +Palliser, the Duke's second son, was at this time at Cambridge,-- +being almost as popular at Trinity as his brother had been at +Christ Church. It was to him quite a matter of course that he +should see his brother's horse run for the Derby. But, +unfortunately, in this very year a stand was being made by the +University pundits against a practice which they thought had +become too general. For the last year or two, it had been +considered almost as much a matter of course that a Cambridge +undergraduate should go to the Derby as that a Member of +Parliament should do so. Against this three or four rigid +disciplinarians had raised their voices,--and as a result, no young +man up at Trinity could get leave to be away on the Derby pretext. + +Lord Gerald raged against the restriction very loudly. He at first +proclaimed his intention of ignoring the college authorities +altogether. Of course he would be expelled. But the order itself +was to his thinking so absurd,--the idea that he should not see his +brother's horse run was so extravagant,--that he argued that his +father could not be angry with him for incurring dismissal in so +excellent a cause. But his brother saw things in a different +light. He knew how his father had looked at him when he had been +sent away from Oxford, and he counselled moderation. Gerald should +see the Derby, but should not encounter that heaviest wrath of all +which comes from a man's not sleeping beneath his college roof. +There was a train which left Cambridge at an early hour, and would +bring him into London in time to accompany his friends to the +racecourse;--and another train, a special, which would take him +down after dinner, so that he and others should reach Cambridge +before the college gates were shut. + +The dinner at the Beargarden was very joyous. Of course the state +of the betting in regard to Prime Minister was the subject +generally popular for the night. Mr Lupton came in, a gentleman +well known in all fashionable circles, parliamentary, social, and +racing, who was rather older than the company on this occasion, +but still not so much so as to be found to be an incumbrance. +Lord Glasslough too, and others joined them, and a good deal was +said about the horse. 'I never kept these things dark,' said +Tifto. 'Of course he is an uncertain horse.' + +'Most horses are,' said Lupton. + +'Just so, Mr Lupton. What I mean is, the Minister has got a bit of +a temper. But if he likes to do his best I don't think any three- +year-old in England can get his nose past him.' + +'For half a mile he'd be nowhere with the Provence filly,' said +Glasslough. + +'I'm speaking of a Derby distance, my Lord.' + +'That's a kind of thing nobody really knows,' said Lupton. + +'I've seen him 'ave his gallops,' said the little man, who in his +moments of excitement would sometimes fall away from that exact +pronunciation which had been one of the studies of his life,' and +have measured his stride. I think I know what pace means. Of +course I'm not going to answer for the 'orse. He's a temper, but +if things go favourably, no animal that ever showed on the Downs +was more likely to do the trick. Is there any gentleman here who +would like to be me fifteen to one in hundreds against the two +events,--the Derby and the Leger?' The desired odds were at once +offered by Mr Lupton, and the bet was booked. + +This gave rise to other betting, and before the evening was over +Lord Silverbridge had taken three-and-a-half to one against his +horse to such an extent that he stood to lose twelve hundred +pounds. The champagne which he had drunk, and the news that +Quousque, the first favourite, had so gone to pieces that now +there was a question which was the first favourite, had so +inflated him, that, had he been left alone, he would almost have +wagered even money on his horse. In the midst of his excitement +there came to him a feeling that he was allowing himself to do +just that which he had intended to avoid. But then the occasion +was so peculiar! How often can it happen to a man in his life +that he shall own a favourite for the Derby! The affair was one +in which it was almost necessary that he should risk a little +money. + +Tifto, when he got into his bed, was altogether happy. He had +added whisky-and-water to his champagne, and feared nothing. If +Prime Minister should win the Derby he would be able to pay all +that he owed, and to make a start with money in his pocket. And +then there would be attached to him all the infinite glory of +being the owner of the winner of the Derby. The horse was run in +his name. Thoughts as to great successes crowded themselves upon +his heated brain. What might not be open to him? Parliament! The +Jockey Club! The mastership of one of the crack shire packs! Might +it not come to pass that he should some day become the great +authority in England upon races, racehorses, and hunters? If he +could be the winner of the Derby and Leger he thought that +Glasslough and Lupton would snub him no longer, that even Tregear +would speak to him, and that his pal the Duke's son would never +throw him aside again. + +Lord Silverbridge had brought a drag with all its appendages. +There was a coach, the four bay horses, the harness, and the two +regulation grooms. When making this purchase he had condescended +to say a word to his father on the subject. 'Everybody belongs to +the four-in-hand club now,' said the son. + +'I never did,' said the Duke. + +'Ah,--if I could be like you!' + +The Duke said that he would think about it, and then had told Mr +Morton that he was to pay the bill for this new toy. He had +thought about it, and had assured himself that driving a coach and +four was at present regarded as a fitting amusement for young men +of rank and wealth. He did not understand it himself. It seemed to +him to be as unnatural as though a gentleman should turn +blacksmith and make horseshoes for his amusement. Driving four +horses was hard work. But the same might be said of rowing. There +were men, he knew, who would spend their day standing at a lathe, +making little boxes for their recreation. He did not sympathise +with it. But the fact was so, and this driving of coaches was +regarded with favour. He had been a little touched by that word +his son had spoken, 'Ah,--if I could be like you!' So he had given +the permission; the drag, horses, harness, and grooms had come +into the possession of Lord Silverbridge; and now they were put +into requisition to take their triumphant owner and his party down +to Epsom. Dolly Longstaff's team was sent down to meet them half- +way. Gerald Palliser, who had come up from Cambridge that morning, +was allowed to drive the first stage out of town to compensate him +for the cruelty done to him by the University pundits. Tifto, with +a cigar in his mouth, with a white hat and a blue veil, and a new +light-coloured coat, was by no means the least happy of the party. + +How that race was run, and how both Prime Minister and Quousque +were beaten by an outsider named Fishknife, Prime Minister, +however, coming in a good second, the present writer having no +aptitude in that way, cannot describe. Such, however, were the +facts, and then Dolly Longstaff and Lord Silverbridge drove the +coach back to London. The coming back was not triumphant, though +the young fellows bore their failure well. Dolly Longstaff had +lost a 'pot of money', Silverbridge would have to draw upon the +inexhaustible Mr Morton for something over two thousand pounds,--in +regard to which he had no doubt as to the certainty with which the +money would be forthcoming, but he feared that it would give rise +to special notice from his father. Even the poor younger brother +had lost a couple of hundred pounds, for which he would have to +make his own special application to Mr Morton. + +But Tifto felt it more than anyone. The horse ought to have won. +Fishknife had been favoured by such a series of accidents that the +whole affair had been a miracle. Tifto had these circumstances at +his fingers' ends, and in the course of the afternoon and evening +explained them accurately to all who would listen to him. He had +this to say on his own behalf,--that before the party had left the +course their horse stood first favourite for the Leger. But Tifto +was unhappy as he came back to town, and in spite of the lunch, +which had been very glorious, sat moody and sometimes even silent +within his gay apparel. + +'It was the unfairest start I ever saw,' said Tifto, almost +getting up from his seat on the coach so as to address Dolly and +Silverbridge on the box. + +'What the - is the good of that?' said Dolly from the coach-box. +'Take you licking and don't squeal.' + +'That' all very well. I can take my licking as well as another +man. But one has to look to the causes of these things. I never +saw Peppermint ride so badly. Before he got round the corner I +wished I'd been on the horse myself.' + +'I don't believe it was Peppermint's fault a bit,' said +Silverbridge. + +'Well;--perhaps not. Only I did think I was a pretty good judge of +riding.' Then Tifto again settled down into silence. + +But though much money had been lost, and a great deal of +disappointment had to be endured by our party in reference to the +Derby, the most injurious and most deplorable event in the day's +history had not occurred yet. Dinner had been ordered at the +Beargarden at seven,--an hour earlier than would have been named +had it not been that Lord Gerald must be at Eastern Counties +Railway Station at nine pm. An hour an half for dinner and a cigar +afterwards, and half an hour to get to the railway station would +not be more than time enough. + +But of all men alive Dolly Longstaff was the most unpunctual. He +did not arrive till eight. The others were not there before half- +past seven, and it was nearly eight before any of them sat down. +At half-past eight Silverbridge began to be very anxious about his +brother, and told him that he ought to start without further +delay. A hansom cab was waiting at the door, but Lord Gerald still +delayed. He knew, he said, that the special would not start till +half-past nine. There were a lot of fellows who were dining about +everywhere, and they would never get to the station by the hour +fixed. It became apparent to the elder brother that Gerald would +stay altogether unless he were forced to go, and at last he did +get up and pushed the young fellow out. 'Drive like the very +devil,' he said to the cabman, explaining to him something of the +circumstances. The cabman did do his best, but a cab cannot be +made to travel from the Beargarden, which as all the world knows +is close to St James's Street, to Liverpool Street in the City in +ten minutes. When Lord Gerald reached the station the train had +started. + +At twenty minutes to ten the young man reappeared at the club. +'Why on earth didn't you take a special for yourself?' exclaimed +Silverbridge. + +'They wouldn't give me one.' After it was apparent to all of them +that what had just happened had done more to ruffle our hero's +temper than his failure and loss at the races. + +'I wouldn't have had it to happen for any money you could name,' +said the elder brother to the younger, as he took him home to +Carlton Terrace. + +'If they do send me down, what's the odds?' said the younger +brother, who was not quite as sober as he might have been. + +'After what happened to me it will almost break the governor's +heart,' said the heir. + + + +CHAPTER 18 + +One of the Results of the Derby + +On the following morning at about eleven Silverbridge and his +brother were at breakfast at an hotel in Jermyn Street. They had +slept in Carlton Terrace, but Lord Gerald had done so without the +knowledge of the Duke. Lord Silverbridge, as he was putting +himself to bed, had made up his mind to tell the story to the Duke +at once, but when the morning came his courage failed him. The two +young men therefore slunk out of the house, and as there was no +breakfasting at the Beargarden they went to his hotel. They were +both rather gloomy, but the elder brother was the more sad of the +two. 'I'd give anything I have in the world,' he said, 'that you +hadn't come at all.' + +'Things have been so unfortunate!' + +'Why the deuce wouldn't you go when I told you?' + +'Who on earth would have thought that they'd have been so +punctual? They never are punctual on the Great Eastern. It was an +infernal shame. I think I shall go at once to Harnage and tell him +about it.' Mr Harnage was Lord Gerald's tutor. + +'But you have been in ever so many rows before.' + +'Well;--I've been gated, and once when they'd gated me, I came +right upon Harnage on the bridge at King's' + +'What sort of fellow is he?' + +'He used to be good-natured. Now he has taken ever so many +crotchets into his head. It was he who began all this about none +of the men going to the Derby.' + +'Did you ask him yourself for leave?' + +'Yes; and when I told him about your owning Prime Minister he got +savage and declared that was the very reason why I shouldn't go.' + +'You didn't tell me that.' + +'I was determined I would go. I wasn't going to be made a child +of.' + +At last it was decided that the two brothers should go down to +Cambridge together. Silverbridge would be able to come back to +London the same evening, so as to take his drag down to the Oaks +on the Friday,--a duty from which even his present misery would not +deter him. They reached Cambridge at about three, and Lord +Silverbridge at once called at the Master's lodge and sent in his +card. The Master of Trinity is so great that he cannot be supposed +to see all comers, but on this occasion Lord Silverbridge was +fortunate. With much trepidation he told his story. Such being the +circumstances, could anything be done to moderate the vials of +wrath which must doubtless be poured out over the head of his +unfortunate brother? + +'Why come to me?' said the Master. 'From what you say yourself, it +is evident that you know that must rest with the College tutor.' + +'I thought, sir, if you could say a word.' + +'Do you think that it would be right that I should interfere for +one special man, and that a man of special rank?' + +'Nobody thinks that would count for anything. But--' + +'But what?' asked the Master. + +'If you knew my father, sir!' + +'Everybody knows your father;--every Englishman I mean. Of course I +know your father,--as a public man, and I know how much the country +owes to him.' + +'Yes it does. But it is not that I mean. If you knew who this +would,--would,--break his heart.' Then came a tear into the young +man's eye,--and there was something almost like a tear in the eye +of the old man too. 'Of course it was my fault. I got him to come. +He hadn't the slightest intention of staying. I think you will +believe what I say about that, sir.' + +'I believe every word you say, my Lord.' + +'I got into a row at Oxford. I daresay you heard. There never was +anything so stupid. That was a great grief to my father,--a very +great grief. It is so hard upon him because he never did anything +foolish himself.' + +'You should try to imitate him,' Silverbridge shook his head. 'Or +at least not to grieve him.' + +'That is it. He has got over the affair about me. As I'm the +eldest son I've got into Parliament, and he thinks perhaps that +all has been forgotten. An eldest son may, I fancy, be a greater +ass than his younger brother.' The Master could not but smile as +he thought of the selection which had been made of a legislator. +'But if Gerald is sent down, I don't know how he will get over +it.' And now the tears absolutely rolled down the young man's +face, so that he was forced to wipe them from his eyes. + +The Master was much moved. That a young man should pray for +himself would be nothing to him. The discipline of the college was +not in his hands, and such prayers would avail nothing with him. +Nor would a brother praying simply for a brother avail much. A +father asking for his son might be resisted. But the brother +asking pardon for the brother on behalf of the father was almost +irresistible. But this man had long been in a position in which he +knew that no such prayers should ever prevail at all. In the first +place it was not his business. If he did anything, it would only +be by asking a favour when he knew that no favour should be +granted;--and a favour which he of all men should not ask, because +to him of all men it could not be refused. And then the very +altitude of the great Statesman whom he was invited to befriend,-- +the position of this Duke who had been so powerful and might be +powerful again, was against any such interference. Of himself he +might be sure that he would certainly done this as readily for any +Mr Jones as for the Duke of Omnium; but were he to do it, it would +be said of him that it had been done because the benevolence would +seem to be self-seeking. 'Your father, if he were here,' said he, +'would know that I could not interfere.' + +'And will he be sent down?' + +'I do not know all the circumstances. From your own showing the +case seems to be one of great insubordination. To tell the truth, +Lord Silverbridge, I ought not to have spoken to you on the +subject at all.' + +'You mean that I should not have spoken to you.' + +'Well; I did not say so. And if you had been indiscreet I can +pardon that. I wish I could have served you; but I fear that it is +not in my power.' Then Lord Silverbridge took his leave, and +going to his brother's rooms waited there till Lord Gerald +returned from his interview with the tutor. + +'It's all up,' said he, chucking down his cap, striving to be at +his ease. 'I may pack up and go--just where I please. He says that +on no account will he have anything more to do with me. I asked +him what I was to do, and he said that the Governor had better +take my name off the books of the college. I did ask whether I +couldn't go over to Maclean.' + +'Who is Maclean?' + +'One of the other tutors. But the brute only smiled.' + +'He thought you meant it for chaff.' + +'Well;--I suppose I did mean to show him that I was not going to be +exterminated by him. He will write to the Governor today. And you +will have to talk to the Governor.' + +Yes! As Lord Silverbridge went back that afternoon to London he +thought very much of that talking to the Governor! Never yet had +he been able to say anything very pleasant to 'the Governor.' He +had himself been always in disgrace at Eton, and had been sent +away from Oxford. He had introduced Tregear into the family, which +of all the troubles perhaps was the worst. He had changed his +politics. He had spent more money than he ought to have done, and +now at this very moment must ask for a large sum. And he had +brought Gerald up to see the Derby, thereby causing him to be sent +away from Cambridge! And through it all there was present to him +a feeling that by no words which he could use would he be able to +make his father understand how deeply he felt all this. + +He could not bring himself to see the Duke that evening, and the +next morning he was sent for before he was out of bed. He found +his father at breakfast with the tutor's letter before him. 'Do +you know anything about this?' asked the Duke very calmly. + +'Gerald ran up to see the Derby, and in the evening missed the +train.' + +'Mr Harnage tells me that he had been expressly ordered not to go +to these races.' + +'I suppose he was, sir.' + +Then there was silence between them for some minutes. 'You might +as well sit down and eat your breakfast,' said the father. Then +Lord Silverbridge did sit down and pour himself out a cup of tea. +There was no servant in the room, and he dreaded to ring the bell. +'Is there anything you want?' asked the Duke. There was a small +dish of fried bacon on the table, and some cold mutton on the +sideboard. Silverbridge declaring that he had everything that was +necessary, got up and helped himself to the cold mutton. Then +again there was silence, during which the Duke crunched his toast +and made an attempt at reading the newspaper. But, soon pushing +that aside, he again took up Mr Harnage's letter. Silverbridge +watched every motion of his father as he slowly made his way +through the slice of cold mutton. 'It seems that Gerald is to be +sent away altogether.' + +'I fear so, sir.' + +'He has profited by your example at Oxford. Did you persuade him +to come to these races?' + +'I am afraid I did.' + +'Though you knew the orders which had been given?' + +'I thought it was meant that he should not be away the night.' + +'He had asked permission to go to the Derby and had been +positively refused. Did you know this?' + +Silverbridge sat for some moments considering. He could not at +first quite remember what he had known and what he had not known. +Perhaps he entertained some faint hope that the question would be +allowed to go unanswered. He saw, however, from his father's eye +that that was impossible. And then he did remember it all. 'I +suppose I did know it.' + +'And you were willing to imperil your brother's position in life, +and my happiness, in order that he might see a horse, of which I +believe you call yourself part owner, run a race?' + +'I thought there would be no risk if he got back the same night. I +don't suppose there is any good in my saying it, but I never was +so sorry for anything in all my life. I feel as if I could go and +hang myself.' + +'That is absurd,--and unmanly,' said the Duke. The expression of +sorrow, as it had been made, might be absurd and unmanly, but +nevertheless it had touched him. He was severe because he did not +know how far his severity wounded. 'It is a great blow,--another +great blow! Races! A congregation of all the worst blackguards +in the country mixed up with the greatest fools.' + +'Lord Cantrip was there,' said Silverbridge; 'and I say Sir +Timothy Beeswax.' + +'If the presence of Sir Timothy be an allurement to you I pity you +indeed. I have nothing further to say about it. You have ruined +your brother.' He had been driven to further anger by this +reference to one man whom he respected and to another whom he +despised. + +'Don't say that, sir.' + +'What am I to say?' + +'Let him be an attache, or something of that sort.' + +'Do you believe it possible that he should pass any examination? I +think that my children between them will bring me to my grave. You +had better go now. I suppose you will want to be--at the races +again?' Then the young man crept out of the room, and going to +his own part of the house shut himself up alone for nearly an +hour. What had he better do to give his father some comfort? +Should he abandon racing altogether, sell his share of Prime +Minister and Coalition, and go in hard and strong for committees, +debates, and divisions? Should he get rid of his drag, and resolve +to read up on Parliamentary literature? He was resolved upon one +thing at any rate. He would not go to the Oaks that day. And then +he was resolved on another thing. He would call on Lady Mab Grex +and ask her advice. He felt so disconsolate and insufficient for +himself that he wanted advice from someone whom he could trust. + +He found Tifto, Dolly Longstaff, and one or two others at the +stables, from whence it was intended that the drag should start. +They were waiting, and rather angry because they had been kept +waiting. But the news, when it came, was very sad indeed. 'You +wouldn't mind taking the team down and back yourself; would you, +Dolly?' he said to Longstaff. + +'You aren't going!' said Dolly, assuming a look of much heroic +horror. + +'No;--I am not going today.' + +'What's up?' asked Popplecourt. + +'That's rather sudden, isn't it?' asked the Major. + +'Well; yes. I suppose it is sudden.' + +'It's throwing us over a little, isn't it?' + +'Not that I see. You've got the trap and the horses.' + +'Yes;--we've got the trap and the horses,' said Dolly, 'and I vote +we make a start.' + +'As you are not going yourself, perhaps I'd better drive your +horses,' said Tifto. + +'Dolly will take the team,' said his Lordship. + +'Yes;--decidedly. I will take the team,' said Dolly. 'There isn't a +deal of driving wanted on the road to Epsom, but a man should know +how to hold his reins.' This of course gave rise to some angry +words, but Silverbridge did not stop to hear them. + +The poor Duke had no one to whom he could go for advice and +consolation. When his son left him he turned to his newspaper, and +tried to read it--in vain. His mind was too ill at ease to admit of +political matters. He was greatly grieved by this new misfortune +to Gerald, and by Lord Silverbridge's propensity to racing. + +But though his sorrows were heavy, there was a sorrow heavier than +these. Lady Cantrip had expressed an opinion almost in favour of +Tregear--and had certainly expressed an opinion in favour of Mrs +Finn. The whole affair in regard to Mrs Finn had been explained to +her, and she had told the Duke that, according to her thinking, +Mrs Finn had behaved well! When the Duke, with an energy which +was by no means customary with him, had asked the question, on the +answer to which so much depended, 'Should there have been a moment +lost?' Lady Cantrip had assured him that not a moment had been +lost. Mrs Finn had at once gone to work, and had arranged that the +whole affair should be told to him, the Duke, in the proper way. +'I think she did,' said Lady Cantrip, 'what I myself should have +done in the circumstances.' + +If Lady Cantrip was right, then must his apology to Mrs Finn be +ample, and abject. Perhaps it was this feeling which was at the +moment most vexatious to him. + + + +CHAPTER 19 + +'No; My Lord. I Do Not.' + +Between two and three o'clock Lord Silverbridge, in spite of his +sorrow, found himself able to eat his lunch at his club. The place +was deserted, the Beargarden world having gone to the races. As he +sat eating cold lamb and drinking soda-and-brandy he did confirm +himself in certain modified resolutions, which might be more +probably kept than those sterner laws of absolute renunciation to +which he had thought of pledging himself in his half-starved +morning condition. His father had spoken in very strong language +against racing,--saying that those who went were either fools or +rascals. He was sure this was exaggerated. Half the House of Lords +and two-thirds of the House of Commons were to be seen at the +Derby; but no doubt there were many rascals and fools, and he +could not associate with the legislators without finding himself +among the fools and rascals. He would,--and as soon as he could,-- +separate himself from the Major. And he would not bet. It was on +that side of the sport that the rascals and the fools showed +themselves. Of what service could betting be to him whom +Providence had provided with all things wanted to make life +pleasant? As to the drag, his father had in a certain measure +approved of that, and he would keep the drag, as he must have some +relaxation. But his great effort of all should be made in the +House of Commons. He would endeavour to make his father perceive +that he had appreciated that letter. He would always be in the +House soon after four, and would remain there,--or, if possible, as +long as the Speaker sat in the chair. He had already begun to feel +that there was a difficulty in keeping his seat upon those +benches. The half-hours there would be so much longer than +elsewhere! An irresistible desire of sauntering out would come +upon him. There were men the very sound of whose voices was +already odious to him. There had come upon him a feeling in regard +to certain orators, that when once they had begun there was no +reason why they should ever stop. Words of some sort were always +forthcoming, like spiders' webs. He did not think that he could +learn to take a pleasure in sitting in the House; but he hoped +that he might be man enough to do it, though it was not pleasant. +He would begin today, instead of going to the Oaks. + +But before he went to the House he would see Lady Mabel Grex. And +here it may be well to state that in making his resolutions as to +a better life, he had considered much whether it would not be well +for him to take a wife. His father had once told him that when he +married, the house in Carlton Terrace should be his own. 'I will +be a lodger if you will have me,' said the Duke; 'or if your wife +should not like that, I will find a lodging elsewhere.' This had +been the sadness and tenderness which had immediately followed the +death of the Duchess. Marriage would steady him. Were he a married +man, Tifto would of course disappear. Upon the whole he thought it +would be good that should marry. And, if so, who could be so nice +as Lady Mabel? That his father would be contented with Lady Mab, +he was inclined to believe. There was no better blood in England. +And Lady Mabel was known to be clever, beautiful, and, her +peculiar circumstances, very wise. + +He was aware, however, of a certain drawback. Lady Mabel as his +wife would be his superior, and in some degrees his master. Though +not older she was wiser than he,--and not only wiser but more +powerful also. And he was not quite sure but that she regarded him +as a boy. He thought that she did love him,--or would do so if he +asked her,--but that her love would be bestowed upon him as on an +inferior creature. He was already jealous of his own dignity, and +fearful lest he should miss the glory of being loved by this +lovely one for his own sake,--for his own manhood, and his own +gifts and character. + +And yet his attraction to her was so great that now in the day of +his sorrow he could think of no solace but what was to be found in +her company. 'Not at the Oaks!' she said as soon as he was shown +into the drawing-room. + +'No,--not at the Oaks. Lord Grex is there, I suppose?' + +'Oh yes;--that is a matter of course. Why are you a recreant?' + +'The House sits today.' + +'How virtuous! Is it coming to that,--that when the House sits you +will never be absent?' + +'That's the kind of life I'm going to lead. You haven't heard +about Gerald?' + +'About your brother?' + +'Yes;--you haven't heard?' + +'Not a word. I hope there is not misfortune.' + +'But in deed there is,--a most terrible misfortune.' Then he told +the whole story. How Gerald had been kept in London, and how he +had gone down to Cambridge,--all in vain; how his father had taken +the matter to heart, telling him that he had ruined his brother; +and how he, in consequence, had determined not to go to the races. +'Then he said,' continued Silverbridge, 'that his children between +them would bring him to his grave.' + +'That was terrible.' + +'Very terrible.' + +'But what did he mean by that?' asked Lady Mabel, anxious to hear +something about Lady Mary and Tregear. + +'Well; of course what I did at Oxford made him unhappy; and now +there is this affair of Gerald's.' + +'He did not allude to your sister?' + +'Yes he did. You have heard of all that. Tregear told you.' + +'He told me something.' + +'Of course my father does not like it.' + +'Do you approve of it?' + +'No,' said he--curtly and sturdily. + +'Why not? You like Tregear.' + +'Certainly I like Tregear. He is the friend among men, whom I like +the best. I have only two real friends.' + +'Who are they?' she asked, sinking her voice very low. + +'He is one;--and you are the other. You know that.' + +'I hoped that I was one,' she said. 'But if you love Tregear so +dearly, why do you not approve of him for your sister?' + +'I always knew that it would not do.' + +'But why not?' + +'Mary ought to marry a man of higher standing.' + +'Of higher rank you mean. The daughter of Dukes have married +commoners before.' + +'It is not exactly that. I don't like to talk of it in that way. I +knew it would make my father unhappy. In point of fact he can't +marry her. What is the good of approving of a thing that is +impossible?' + +'I wish I knew your sister. Is she--firm?' + +'Indeed she is.' + +'I am not so sure you are.' + +'No,' said he, after considering awhile; 'nor am I. But she is not +like Gerald or me. She is more obstinate.' + +'Less fickle perhaps.' + +'Yes, if you choose to call it fickle. I don't know that I am +fickle. If I were in love with a girl I should be true to her.' + +'Are you sure of that?' + +'Quite sure. If I were really in love with her I certainly should +not change. It is possible that I might be bullied out of it.' + +'But she will not be bullied out of it?' + +'Mary? No. That is just it. She will stick to it if he does.' + +'I would if I were she. Where will you find any young man equal to +Frank Tregear?' + +'Perhaps you mean to cut poor Mary out.' + +'That isn't a nice thing for you to say, Lord Silverbridge. Frank +is my cousin,--as indeed you are also; but it so happens that I +have seen a great deal of him all my life. And, though I don't +want to cut your sister out, as you so prettily say, I love him +well enough to understand that any girl whom he loves ought to be +true to him.' So far what she said was very well, but she +afterwards added a word which might have been wisely omitted. +'Frank and I are almost beggars.' + +'What an accursed thing money is,' he exclaimed, jumping up from +his chair. + +'I don't agree with you at all. It is a very comfortable thing.' + +'How is anybody who has got it to know if anybody cares for him?' + +'You must find that out. There is such a thing I suppose as a real +sympathy.' + +'You tell me to my face that you and Tregear would have been +lovers only that you are both poor.' + +'I never said anything of the kind.' + +'And that he is to be passed on to my sister because it is +supposed that she will have some money.' + +'You are putting words into my mouth which I never spoke, and +ideas into my mind which I never thought.' + +'And of course I feel the same about myself. How can a fellow help +it? I wish you had a lot of money, I know.' + +'It is very kind of you;--but why?' + +'Well;--I can't quite explain myself,' he said, blushing as was his +wont. 'I daresay it wouldn't make any difference.' + +'It would make a great difference to me. As it is, having none, +and knowing as I do that papa and Percival are getting things into +a worse mess every day, I am obliged to hope that I may some day +marry a man who has got an income.' + +'I suppose so,' said he, blushing, but frowning at the same time. + +'You see I can be very frank with a real friend. But I am sure of +myself in this--that I shall never marry a man I do not love. A +girl needn't love a man unless she likes it, I suppose. She +doesn't tumble into love as she does into the fire. It would not +suit me to marry a poor man, and so I don't mean to fall in love +with a poor man.' + +'But you do mean to fall in love with a rich one?' + +'That remains to be seen, Lord Silverbridge. The rich man will at +any rate have to fall in love with me first. If you know of any +one you need not tell him to be too sure because he has a good +income.' + +'There's Popplecourt. He's his own master, and fool as he is, he +knows how to keep his money.' + +'I don't want a fool. You must do better for me than Lord +Popplecourt.' + +'What do you say to Dolly Longstaff?' + +'He would be just the man, only he never would take the trouble to +come out and be married.' + +'Or Glasslough?' + +'I'm afraid he's cross, and wouldn't let me have my own way.' + +'I can only think of one other;--but you would not take him.' + +'Then you had better not mention him. It is no good crowding the +list with impossibles.' + +'I was thinking of--myself.' + +'You are certainly one of the impossibles.' + +'Why, Lady Mab?' + +'For twenty reasons. You are too young, and you are bound to +oblige your father, and you are to be wedded to Parliament,--at any +rate for the next ten years. And altogether it wouldn't do,--for a +great many reasons.' + +'I suppose you don't like me well enough?' + +'What a question to ask! No, my Lord I do not. There, that's what +you may call an answer. Don't you pretend to look offended, +because if you do, I shall laugh at you. If you may have your joke +surely I may have mine.' + +'I don't see any joke in it.' + +'But I do. Suppose I were to say the other thing. Oh, Lord +Silverbridge, you do me so much honour! And now I come to think +about it, there is no one in the world I am so fond of as you. +Would that suit you?' + +'Exactly.' + +'But it wouldn't suit me. There's papa. Don't run away.' + +'It's ever so much past five,' said the legislator, 'and I had +intended to be in the House more than an hour ago. Good-bye. Give +my love to Miss Cassewary.' + +'Certainly. Miss Cassewary is your most devoted friend. Won't you +bring your sister to see me some day?' + +'When she is in town I will.' + +'I should like to know her. Good-bye.' + +As he hurried down to the House in a hansom, he thought over it +all, and told himself that he feared it would not do. She might +perhaps accept him, but if so, she would do it simply in order +that she might become Duchess of Omnium. She might, he thought, +have accepted him then, had she chosen. He had spoken plainly +enough. But she had laughed at him. He felt that if she loved him, +there ought to have been something of that feminine tremor, of +that doubting, hesitating half-avowal of which he had perhaps read +in novels, and which his own instincts taught him to desire. But +there had been no tremor nor hesitating. 'No; my Lord, I do not,' +she had said when he asked her to her face whether she liked him +well enough to be his wife. 'No; my Lord I do not.' It was not +the refusal conveyed in these words which annoyed him. He did +believe that if he were to press his suit with the usual forms she +would accept him. But it was that there should be such a total +absence of trepidation in her words and manner. Before her he +blushed and hesitated and felt that he did not know how to express +himself. If she would only have done the same, then there would +have been an equality. Then he could have seized her in his arms +and sworn that never, never, never would he care for any one but +her. + +In truth he saw everything as it was only too truly. Though she +might choose to marry him if he pressed his request, she would +never subject herself to him as he would have the girl do whom he +loved. She was his superior, and in every word uttered between +them showed that it was so. But yet how beautiful she was;--how +much more beautiful than any other thing he had ever seen! + +He sat on one of the high seats behind Sir Timothy Beeswax and Sir +Orlando Drought, listening, or pretending to listen, to the +speeches of three or four gentlemen respecting sugar, thinking of +all this till half-past seven;--and then he went to dine with the +proud consciousness of having done his duty. The forms and methods +of the House were, he flattered himself, soaking into him +gradually,--as his father had desired. The theory of legislation +was sinking into his mind. The welfare of the nation depended +chiefly on sugar. But he thought that, after all, his own welfare +must depend on the possession of Mab Grex. + + + +CHAPTER 20 + +Then He Will Come Again + +Lady Mabel, when her young lover left her, was for a time freed +from the necessity of thinking about him by her father. He had +returned from the Oaks in a very bad humour. Lord Grex had been +very badly treated by his son, whom he hated worse than any one +else in the world. On the Derby-day he had won a large sum of +money, which had been to him at the time a matter of intense +delight,--for he was in great want of money. But on this day he had +discovered that his son and heir had lost more than he had won, +and an arrangement had been suggested to him that his winnings +should go to pay Percival's losings. This was a mode of settling +affairs to which the Earl would not listen for a moment, had he +possessed the power of putting a veto upon it. But there had been +a transaction lately between him and his son with reference to the +cutting off a certain entail under which money was to be paid to +Lord Percival. This money had not yet been forthcoming, and +therefore the Earl was constrained to assent. This was very +distasteful to the Earl, and he came home therefore in a bad +humour, and said a great many disagreeable things to his daughter. +'You know, papa, if I could do anything I would.' This she said +in answer to a threat, which he had made often before and now +repeated, of getting rid altogether of the house in Belgrave +Square. Whenever he made this threat he did not scruple to tell +her that the house had to be kept up solely for her welfare. 'I +don't see why the deuce you don't get married. You'll have to +sooner or later.' That was not a pleasant speech for a daughter +to hear from her father. 'As to that,' she said, 'it must come or +not as chance will have it. If you want me to sign anything I will +sign it;'--for she had been asked to sign papers, or in other words +to surrender rights;--'but for that other matter it must be left to +myself.' Then he had been very disagreeable indeed. + +They dined together,--of course with all the luxury that wealth can +give. There was a well-appointed carriage to take them backwards +and forwards to the next square, such as an Earl should have. She +was splendidly dressed, as became an Earl's daughter, and he was +brilliant with some star which had been accorded to him by his +sovereign's grateful minister in return for staunch parliamentary +support. No one looking at them could have imagined that such a +father could have told such a daughter that she must marry herself +out of the way, because as an unmarried girl she was a burden. + +During the dinner she was very gay. To be gay was a habit,--we may +almost say the work,--of her life. It so chanced that she sat +between Sir Timothy Beeswax, who in these days was a very great +man indeed, and that very Dolly Longstaff, whom Silverbridge in +his irony had proposed to her as a fitting suitor for her hand. + +'Isn't Lord Silverbridge a cousin of yours?' asked Sir Timothy. + +'A very distant one.' + +'He has come over to us, you know. It is such a triumph.' + +'I was so sorry to hear it.' This, however, as the reader knows, +was a fib. + +'Sorry!' said Sir Timothy. 'Surely Lord Grex's daughter must be a +Conservative.' + +'Oh yes;--I am a Conservative because I was born one. I think that +people in politics should remain as they are born,--unless they are +very wise indeed. When men come to be statesmen, and all that kind +of thing, of course they can change backwards and forwards.' + +'I hope that is not intended for me, Lady Mabel.' + +'Certainly not. I don't knew enough about it to be personal.' +That, however, was again not quite true. 'But I have the greatest +possible respect for the Duke, and I think it a pity that he +should be made unhappy by his son. Don't you like the Duke?' + +'Well;--yes;--yes in a way. He is a most respectable man; and has +been a good public servant.' + +'All our lot are ruined, you know,' said Dolly, talking of the +races. + +'Who are your lot, Mr Longstaff?' + +'I'm one myself.' + +'I suppose so.' + +'I'm utterly smashed. Then there's Percival.' + +'I hope he has not lost much. Of course you know he is my +brother.' + +'Oh laws;--so he is. I always put my foot in it. Well;--he has lost +a lot. And so have Silverbridge and Tifto. Perhaps you don't know +Tifto.' + +'I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr Tifto.' + +'He is a major. I think you'd like Major Tifto. He's a sort of +racing coach to Silverbridge. You ought to know Tifto. And Tregear +is pretty nearly cleared out.' + +'Mr Tregear! Mr Frank Tregear!' + +'I'm told he has been hit very heavy. I hope he's not a friend of +yours, Lady Mabel.' + +'Indeed he is;--a very dear friend and cousin.' + +'That's what I hear. He's very much with Silverbridge you know.' + +'I cannot think that Mr Tregear has lost money.' + +'I hope he hasn't. I know I have. I wish someone would stick up +for me and say it was impossible.' + +'But that is not Mr Tregear's way of living. I can understand that +Lord Silverbridge or Percival should lose money.' + +'Or me?' + +'Or you, if you like to say so.' + +'Or Tifto?' + +'I don't know anything about Mr Tifto.' + +'Major Tifto.' + +'Or Major Tifto;--what does it signify?' + +'No;--of course. We inferior people may lose our money just as we +please. But a man who can look clever as Mr Tregear ought to win +always.' + +'I told you just know that he was a friend of mine.' + +'But don't you think that he does look clever?' There could be no +question but that Tregear, when he disliked his company, could +show his dislike by his countenance; and it was not improbable +that he had done so in the presence of Mr Adolphus Longstaff. 'Now +tell the truth, Lady Mabel; does he not look conceited sometimes?' + +'He generally looks as if he knew what he was talking about, which +is more than some other people do.' + +'Of course he is a great deal more clever than I am. I know that. +But I don't think even he can be so clever as he looks, "Or you so +stupid", that's what you ought to say now.' + +'Sometimes, Mr Longstaff, I deny myself the pleasure of saying +what I think.' + +When all this was over she was very angry with herself for the +anxiety she had expressed about Tregear. This Mr Longstaff was, +she thought, exactly the man to report all she had said in the +public-room at the club. But she had been annoyed by what she had +heard as to her friend. She knew that he of all men should keep +himself free from such follies. Those others had, as it were, a +right to make fools of themselves. It had seemed so natural that +the young men of her own class should dissipate their fortunes and +their reputations by every kind of extravagance! Her father had +done so, and she had never even ventured to hope that her brother +would not follow her father's example. But Tregear, if he gave way +to such follies as these, would soon fall headlong into a pit from +which there would be no escape. And if he did fall, she knew +herself well enough to be aware that she could not stifle, nor +even conceal the misery which this would occasion her. As long as +he stood well before the world she would be well able to assume +indifference. But were he to be precipitated into some bottomless +misfortunes then she could only throw herself after him. She could +see him marry, and smile,--and perhaps even like his wife. And +while he was doing so, she could also marry, and resolve that the +husband whom she took should be made to think he had a loving +wife. But were Frank to die,--then must she fall upon his body as +though he had been known by all the world to be her lover. +Something of this feeling came upon her now, when she heard that +he had been betting and had been unfortunate. She had been unable +so to subdue herself as to seem to be perfectly careless about it. +She had begun by saying that she had not believed it;--but she had +believed it. It was so natural that Tregear should have done as +the others did with whom he lived! But then the misfortune would +be to him so terrible,--so irremediable! The reader, however, may +as well know at once there was a not a word of truth in the +assertion. + +After dinner she went home alone. There were other festivities to +be attended, had she pleased to attend them; and poor Miss +Cassewary was dressed ready to go with her as chaperone;--but Miss +Cassewary was quite satisfied to be allowed to go to bed in lieu +of Mrs Montacute Jones's great ball. And she had gone to her +bedroom when Lady Mabel went to her. 'I am glad you are alone,' +she said, 'because I want to speak to you.' + +'Is anything wrong?' + +'Everything is wrong. Papa says he must give up this house.' + +'He says that almost always when he comes back from the races, and +very often when he comes back from the club.' + +'Percival has lost ever so much.' + +'I don't think my Lord will hamper himself for your brother.' + +'I can't explain it, but there is some horrible money +complication. It is hard upon you and me.' + +'Who am I?' said Miss Cassewary. + +'About the dearest friend that ever a poor girl had. It is hard +upon you,--and upon me. I have given up everything,--and what good +have I done?' + +'It is hard, my dear.' + +'But after all I do not care much for all that. The thing has been +going on for so long that one is used to it.' + +'What is it then?' + +'Ah;--yes;--what is it? How am I to tell you?' + +'Surely you can tell me,' said the old woman, putting out her hand +so as to caress the arm of the younger one. + +'I could tell no one else; I am sure of that. Frank Tregear has +taken to gambling,--like the rest of them.' + +'Who says so?' + +'He has lost a lot of money at these races. A man who sat next to +me at dinner,--one of those stupid do-nothing fools that one meets +everywhere,--told me so. He is one of the Beargarden set, and of +course he knows all about it.' + +'Did he say how much?' + +'How is he to pay anything? Of all things men do this is the +worst. A man who would think himself disgraced for ever if he +accepted a present of money will not scruple to use all his wits +to rob his friend of everything that he has by studying the run of +the cards or by watching the paces of some brutes of horses! And +they consider themselves to be fine gentlemen! A real gentleman +should never want the money out of another man's pocket;--should +never think of money at all.' + +'I don't know how that is to be helped, my dear. You have got to +think of money.' + +'Yes; I have to think of it, and do think of it, and because I do +so I am not what I call a gentleman.' + +'No;--my dear, you're a lady.' + +'Psha! you know what I mean. I might have had the feelings of a +gentleman as well as the best man that was ever born. I haven't; +but I have never done anything so mean as gambling. Now I have got +something else to tell you.' + +'What is it? You do frighten me so when you look like that.' + +'You may well be frightened,--for if this all comes round I shall +very soon be able to dispense with you altogether. His Royal +Highness Lord Silverbridge--' + +'What do you mean, Mabel?' + +'He's next door to a Royal Highness at any rate, and a much more +topping man than most of them. Well then;--His Serene Highness the +heir of the Duke of Omnium has done me the inexpressible honour of +asking me--to marry him.' + +'No!' + +'You may well say No. and to tell the exact truth, he didn't.' + +'Then why do you say he did?' + +'I don't think he did quite ask me, but he gave me to understand +that he would do so if I gave him any encouragement.' + +'Did he mean it?' + +'Yes;--poor boy! He meant it. With a word;--with a look, he would +have been down there kneeling. He asked me whether I liked him +well enough. What do you think I did?' + +'What did you do?' + +'I spared him;--out of sheer downright Christian charity! I said +to myself, "Love your neighbours." "Don't be selfish." "Do unto +him as you would he should do unto you,"-that is, I think of his +welfare. Though I had him in my net, I let him go. Shall I go to +heaven for doing that?' + +'I don't know,' said Miss Cassewarey, who was much perturbed by +the news she had just heard as to be unable to come to any opinion +on the point just raised. + +'Or mayn't I rather go to the other place? From how much +embarrassment should I have relieved my father! What a friend I +should have made for Percival! How much I might have been able to +do for Frank! And then what a wife I should have made him!' + +'I think you would.' + +'He'll never get another half so good; and he'll be sure to get +one before long. It is a sort of tenderness that is quite +inefficacious. He will become a prey, as I should have made him a +prey. But where is there another who will treat him so well?' + +'I cannot bear to hear you speak of yourself in that way.' + +'But it is true. I know the sort of girl he should marry. In the +first place she should be two years younger, and four years +fresher. She should be able not only to like him and love him, but +to worship him. How well I can see her! She should have fair +hair, and bright green-grey eyes, with the sweetest complexion, +and the prettiest little dimples;--two inches shorter than me, and +the delight of her life should be to hang with two hands on his +arm. She should have a feeling that her Silverbridge is an Apollo +upon earth. To me he is a rather foolish, but very, very sweet- +tempered young man;--anything rather than a god. If I thought that +he would get the fresh young girl with the dimples then I ought to +abstain.' + +'If he was in earnest,' said Miss Cassewary, throwing aside all +this badinage and thinking of the main point, 'if he was in +earnest he will come again.' + +'He was quite in earnest.' + +'Then he will come again.' + +'I don't think he will,' said Lady Mabel. 'I told him that I was +too old for him, and I tried to laugh him out of it. He does not +like being laughed at. He was been saved, and he will know it.' + +'But if he should come again?' + +'I shall not spare him again. No;--not twice. I felt it to be hard +to do so once, because I so nearly love him! There are so many of +them who are odious to me, as to whom the idea of marrying them +seems to be mixed somehow with an idea of suicide.' + +'Oh, Mabel!' + +'But he is as sweet as a rose. If I were his sister, or his +servant, or his dog, I could be devoted to him. I can fancy that +his comfort and his success and his name should be everything to +me.' + +'That is what a wife ought to feel.' + +'But I could never feel him to be my superior. That is what a wife +ought to feel. Think of those two young men and the difference +between them! Well;--don't look like that at me. I don't often +give way, and I dare say after all I shall live to be the Duchess +of Omnium.' Then she kissed her friend and went away to her own +room. + + + +CHAPTER 21 + +Sir Timothy Beeswax + +There had lately been a great Conservative reaction in the +country, brought about in part by the industry and good management +of gentlemen who were strong on that side;--but due also in part to +the blunders and quarrels of their opponents. That these opponents +should have blundered and quarrelled, being men active and in +earnest, was to have been expected. Such blunderings and +quarrellings have been a matter of course since politics have been +politics, and since religion has been religion. When men combine +to do nothing, how should there be disagreement? When men combine +to do much, how should there not be disagreement? Thirty men can +sit still, each as like the other as peas. But put your thirty men +up to run a race, and they will soon assume different forms. And +in doing nothing, you can hardly do amiss. Let the does of nothing +have something of action forced upon them, and they, too, will +blunder and quarrel. + +The wonder is that there should ever be in a reforming party +enough of consentaneous action to carry any reform. The reforming +or Liberal party in British politics had thus stumbled,--and +stumbled till it fell. And now there had been a great Conservative +reaction! Many of the most Liberal constituencies in the country +had been untrue to their old political convictions. And, as the +result, Lord Drummond was Prime Minister in the House of Lords,-- +with Sir Timothy Beeswax acting as first man in the House of +Commons. + +It cannot be denied that Sir Timothy had his good points as a +politician. He was industrious, patient, clear-sighted, +intelligent, courageous, and determined. Long before he had had a +seat in the House, when he was simply making his way up to the +probability of a seat by making a reputation as an advocate, he +had resolved that he would be more than an Attorney-General, more +than a judge,--more, as he thought it, than a Chief Justice; but at +any rate something different. This plan he had all but gained,--and +it must be acknowledged that he had been moved by a grand and +manly ambition. But there were drawbacks to the utility and beauty +of Sir Timothy's character as a statesman. He had no idea as to +the necessity or non-necessity of any measure whatever in +reference to the well-being of the country. It may, indeed, be +said that all such ideas were to him absurd, and the fact that +they should be held by his friends and supporters was an +inconvenience. He was not in accord with those who declare that a +Parliament is a collection of windbags which puff, and blow, and +crack to the annoyance of honest men. But to him Parliament was a +debating place, by having a majority in which, And by no other +means, he,--or another,--might become the great man of the day. By +no other than parliamentary means could such a one as he come to +be the chief man. And this use of Parliament, either on his own +behalf or on behalf of others, had been for so many years present +to his mind, that there seemed to be nothing absurd in an +institution supported for such a purpose. Parliament was a club so +eligible in its nature that all Englishmen wished to belong to it. +They who succeeded were acknowledged to be the cream of the land. +They who dominated in it were the cream of the cream. Those two +who were elected to be the chiefs of the two parties had more of +cream in their composition than any others. But he who could be +the chief of the strongest party, and who therefore, in accordance +with the prevailing arrangements of the country, should have the +power of making dukes, and bestowing garters and appointing +bishops, he who by attaining the first seat should achieve the +right of snubbing all before him, whether friends or foes, he, +according to the feelings of Sir Timothy, would have gained an +Elysium of creaminess not to be found in any other position on the +earth's surface. No man was more warmly attached to parliamentary +government than Sir Timothy Beeswax; but I do not think that he +ever cared much for legislation. + +Parliamentary management was his forte. There have been various +rocks on which men have shattered their barks in their attempts to +sail successfully into the harbours of parliamentary management. +There is the great Senator who declared to himself that personally +he will have neither friend or foe. There is his country before +him and its welfare. Within his bosom is the fire of patriotism, +and within his mind the examples of all past time. He knows that +he can be just, he teaches himself to be eloquent, and he strives +to be wise. But he will not bend;--and at last, in some great +solitude, though closely surrounded by those whose love he has +neglected to acquire,--he breaks his heart. + +Then there is he who is seeing the misfortune of that great one, +tells himself that patriotism, judgement, industry, and eloquence +will not suffice for him unless he himself can be loved. To do +great things a man must have a great following, and to achieve +that he must be popular. So he smiles and learns the necessary +wiles. He is all for his country and his friends,--but for his +friends first. He too must be eloquent and well instructed in the +ways of Parliament, must be wise and diligent; but in all that he +does and all that he says, he says he must first study his party. +It is well with him for a time;--but he has closed the door of his +Elysium too rigidly. Those without gradually become stronger than +his friends within, and so he falls. + +But may not the door be occasionally opened to an outsider, so +that the exterior force be diminished? We know how great is the +pressure of water, and how the peril of an overwhelming weight of +it may be removed by opening the way for a small current. There +comes therefore the Statesman who acknowledges to himself that he +will be pregnable. That, as a Statesman, he should have enemies is +a matter of course. Against moderate enemies he will hold his own. +But when there comes one immoderately forcible, violently +inimical, then to that man he will open his bosom. He will tempt +him into his camp with an offer of high command any foe that may +be worth his purchase. The loyalty of officers so procured must be +open to suspicion. The man who has said bitter things against you +will never sit at your feet in contented submission, nor will your +friend of any standing long endure to be superseded by such +converts. + +All these dangers Sir Timothy had seen and studied, and for each +of them he had hoped to be able to provide an antidote. Love +cannot do all. Fear acknowledges a superior. Love desires an +equal. Love is to be created by benefits done, and means +gratitude, which we all know to be weak. But hope, which refers +itself to benefits to come, is of all our feelings the strongest. +And Sir Timothy had parliamentary doctrines concealed in the +depths of his own bosom more important even than these. The +Statesman who falls is he who does much, and thus injures many. +The Statesman who stands the longest is he who does nothing and +injures no one. He soon knew that the work which he had taken in +hand required all the art of the great conjurer. He must be +possessed of tricks so marvellous that not even they who sat +nearest to him might know how there were performed. + +For the executive or legislative business of the country he cared +little. The one should be left in the hands of men who liked +work;--of the other there should be little, or, if possible, none. +But Parliament must be managed,--and his party. Of patriotism he +did not know the meaning;--few, perhaps, do, beyond the feeling +that they would like to lick the Russians, or to get the better of +the Americans in a matter of fisheries or frontiers. But he +invented a pseudo-patriotic conjuring phraseology which no one +understood but which many admired. He was ambitious that it should +be said of him that he was far-and-away the cleverest of his +party. He knew himself to be clever. But he could only be far-and- +away the cleverest by saying and doing that which no one could +understand. It he could become master of some great hocus-pocus +system which could be made to be graceful to the ears and eyes of +many, which might for awhile seem to have within it some semi- +divine attribute, which should have all but divine power of +mastering the loaves and fishes, then would they who followed him +believe in him more firmly than other followers who had believed +in their leaders. When you see a young woman read a closed book +placed on her dorsal vertebrae,--if you do believe that she so +reads it, you think that she is endowed with a wonderful faculty! + And should you also be made to believe that the same young woman +had direct communication with Abraham, by means of some invisible +wire, you would be apt to do a great many things as that young +woman might tell you. Conjuring, when not knowing to be conjuring, +is very effective. + +Much, no doubt, of Sir Timothy's power had come from his +praiseworthy industry. Though he cared nothing for the making of +laws, though he knew nothing of finance, though he had abandoned +his legal studies, still he worked hard. And because he had worked +harder in a special direction than others around him, therefore he +was enabled to lead them. The management of a party is a very +great work in itself; and when to that is added the management of +the House of Commons, a man has enough upon his hands even he +neglects altogether the ordinary pursuits of a Statesman. Those +around Sir Timothy were fond of their party; but they were for the +most part men who had not condescended to put their shoulders to +the wheel as he had done. Had there been any great light among +them, had there been a Pitt or a Peel, Sir Timothy would probably +have become Attorney-General and have made his way to the bench;-- +but there had been no Pitt or a Peel, and he had seen his opening. +He had studied the ways of Members. Parliamentary practice had +become familiar to him. He had shown himself to be ready at all +hours to fight the battle of the party he had joined. And no man +knew so well as did Sir Timothy how to elevate a simple +legislative attempt into a good faction fight. He had so mastered +his tricks of conjuring that no one could get to the bottom of +them, and had assumed a look of preternatural gravity which made +many young Members think that Sir Timothy was born to be a king of +men. + +There was no doubt some among his older supporters who felt their +thraldom previously. There were some lords in the Upper House and +some of the sons of lords in the Lower,--with pedigrees going back +far enough for pride,--who found it irksome to recognise Sir +Timothy as a master. No doubt he had worked very hard, and had +worked for them. No doubt he knew how to do the work and they did +not. There was no other man among them to whom the lead could be +conveniently transferred. But yet they were uncomfortable,--and +perhaps a little ashamed. + +It had arisen partly from this cause, that there had been +something of a counter reaction at the last general election. When +the Houses met the Ministers had indeed a majority, but a much +lessened majority. The old Liberal constituencies had returned to +an expression of their real feeling. This reassertion of the +progress of the tide, this recovery from the partial ebb which +checks the violence of every flow, is common enough in politics, +but at the present moment there were many who said that all this +had been accelerated by a feeling in the country that Sir Timothy +was hardly all that the country required as the leader of the +county party. + + + +CHAPTER 22 + +The Duke in his Study + +It was natural that at such a time, when success great than had +been expected had attended the efforts of the Liberals, when some +dozen unexpected votes had been acquired, the leading politicians +of that party should have found themselves compelled to look about +them and see how these good things might be utilised. In February +they certainly had not expected to be called to power in the +course of the existing session. Perhaps they did not expect it +yet. There was still a Conservative majority,--though but a small +majority. But the strength of the minority consisted, not in the +fact that the majority against them was small, but that it was +decreasing. How quickly does the snowball grow into hugeness as it +is rolled on;--but when the change comes in the weather how quickly +does it melt, and before it is gone become a thing ugly, weak and +formless! Where is the individual who does not assert to himself +that he would be more loyal to a falling than to a rising friend? + Such is perhaps the nature of each one of us. But when any large +number of men act together, the falling friend is apt to be +deserted. There was a general feeling among politicians that Lord +Drummond's ministry,--or Sir Timothy's--was failing, and the +Liberals, though they could not yet count the votes by which they +might hope to be supported in power, nevertheless felt that they +ought to be looking to their arms. + +There had been a coalition. They who are well read in the +political literature of their country will remember all about +that. It had perhaps succeeded in doing that for which it had been +intended. The Queen's government had been carried on for two or +three years. The Duke of Omnium had been the head of that +Ministry; but, during those years had suffered so much as to have +become utterly ashamed of the coalition,--so much as to have said +often to himself that under no circumstances would he again join +any Ministry. At this time there was no idea of another coalition. + That is a state of things which cannot come about frequently,-- +which can only be reproduced by men who have never hitherto felt +the mean insipidity of such a condition. But they who had served +on the Liberal side in that coalition must again put their +shoulders to the wheel. Of course it was in every man's mouth that +the Duke must be induced to forget his miseries and once more to +take upon himself the duties of an active servant of the State. + +But they who were most anxious on the subject, such men as Lord +Cantrip, Mr Monk, our old friend Phineas Finn, and a few others, +were almost afraid to approach him. At the moment when the +coalition was broken up he had been very bitter in spirit, +apparently almost arrogant, holding himself aloof from his late +colleagues,--and since that, troubles had come to him, which had +aggravated the soreness of his heart. His wife had died, and he +had suffered much through his children. What Lord Silverbridge had +done at Oxford was a matter of general conversation, and also what +he had not done. + +That the heir of the family should have become a renegade in +politics was supposed to have greatly affected the father. Now +Lord Gerald had been expelled from Cambridge, and Silverbridge was +on the turf in conjunction with Major Tifto! Something, too, had +oozed out into general ears about Lady Mary,--something which +should have been kept secret as the grave. It had therefore come +to pass that it was difficult even to address the Duke. + +There was but one man, and but one, who could do this with ease to +himself;--and that man was at last put into motion at the instance +of the leaders of the party. The old Duke of St Bungay wrote the +following letter to the Duke of Omnium. The letter purported to be +an excuse for the writer's own defalcations. But the chief object +of the writer was to induce the younger Duke once more to submit +to harness. + +'Longroyston, 3 June, 187- + +'DEAR DUKE OF OMNIUM, + +'How quickly the things come round! I had thought that I should +never again have been called upon even to think of the formation +of another Liberal Ministry; and now, though it was but yesterday +that were all telling ourselves that we were thoroughly manumitted +from our labours by the altered opinions of the country, sundry of +our old friends have again been putting their heads together. + +'Did they not do so they would neglect a manifest duty. Nothing is +more essential to the political well-being of the country than +that the leaders on both sides in politics should be prepared for +their duties. But for myself, I am bound at last to put in the old +plea with a determination that it shall be respected. "Solve +senescentem." It is now, if I calculate rightly, exactly fifty +years since I first entered public life in obedience to the advice +of Lord Grey. I had then already sat five years in the House of +Commons. I had assisted humbly in the emancipation of the Roman +Catholics, and have learned by the legislative troubles of just +half a century that those whom we then invited to sit with us in +Parliament have been in all things our worst enemies. But what +then? had we benefited only those who love us, would not the +sinners also,--or even the Tories,--have done as much as that? + +'But such memories are of no avail now. I write to say that after +so much of active political life, I will at last retire. My +friends when they see me inspecting a pigsty or picking a peach +are apt to remind me that I can still stand on my legs, and with +more of compliment than of kindness will argue therefore that I +ought still to undertake active duties in Parliament. I can select +my own hours for pigs and peaches, and should I, through the +dotage of age, make mistakes as to the breeding of one or the +flavour of the other, the harm done will not go far. In politics I +have done my work. What you and others in the arena do will +interest me more than all other things in this world, I think and +hope, to my dying day. But I will not trouble the workers with the +querulousness of old age. + +'So much for myself. And let me, as I go, say a parting word to +him with whom in politics I have been for many years more in +accord than with any other leading man. As nothing but age or +infirmity would to my own mind have justified me in retiring, so +do I think that you, who can plead neither age nor infirmity, will +find yourself at last to want self-justification, if you permit +yourself to be driven from the task either by pride or +indifference. + +'I should express my feelings better if were I to say by pride and +diffidence. I look to our friendship, to the authority given me by +my age, and to the thorough goodness of your heart for pardon in +thus accusing you. That little men should have ventured to ill-use +you, has hurt your pride. That these little men should have been +able to do so has created your diffidence. Put you to a piece of +work that a man may do, you have less false pride as to the way in +which you may do it than any man I have known; and, let the way be +open to you, as little diffidence as any. But in this political +mill of ours in England, a man cannot always find the way open to +do things. It does not often happen that an English statesman can +go in and make a great score off his own bat. But not the less is +he bound to play the game and to go to the wicket when he finds +that his time has come. + +'There are, I think, two things for you to consider in this +matter, and two only. The first is your capacity, and the other is +your duty. A man may have found by experience that he is unfitted +for public life. You and I have known men in regard to whom we +have thoroughly wished that such experience had been reached. But +this is a matter in which a man who doubts himself is bound to +take the evidence of those around him. The whole party is most +anxious for your co-operation. If this be so,--and I make you the +assurance from most conclusive evidence,--you are bound to accept +the common consent of your political friends on that matter. You +perhaps think that a certain period of your life you failed. They +all agree with me that you did not fail. It is a matter on which +you should be bound by our opinion rather than by your own. + +'As to that matter of duty, I shall have less difficulty in +carrying you with me. Though this renewed task may be personally +disagreeable to you, even though your tastes should lead you to +some other life,--which I think is not the case,--still if your +country wants you, you should serve your country. It is a work as +to which such a one as you has no option. Of most of those who +choose public life,--it may be said that were they not there, there +would be others as serviceable. But when a man such as you, has +shown himself to be necessary, as long as health and age permit, +he cannot recede without breach of manifest duty. The work to be +done is so important, the numbers to be benefited are so great, +that he cannot be justified in even remembering that he has a +self. + +'As I have said before, I trust that my own age and your goodness +will induce you to pardon this great interference. But whether +pardoned or not I shall always be + +'Your most affectionate friend, +'ST BUNGAY.' + +The Duke,--our Duke,--on reading this letter was by no means pleased +by its contents. He could ill bear to be reminded either of his +pride or of his diffidence. And yet the accusations which others +made against him were as nothing to those which he charged +himself. He would do this till at last he was forced to defend +himself against himself by asking himself whether he could be +other than as God had made him. It is the last and poorest +makeshift of a defence to which a man can be brought in his own +court! Was it his fault that he was so thin-skinned that all +things hurt him? When some coarse man said to him that which ought +not to have been said, was it his fault that at every word a +penknife had stabbed him? Other men had borne these buffets +without shrinking, and had shown themselves thereby to be more +useful, much more efficacious; but he could no more imitate them +than he could procure for himself the skin of a rhinoceros, or the +tusk of an elephant. And this shrinking was what man called +pride,--was the pride of which his old friend wrote! 'Have I ever +been haughty, unless in my own defence?' he asked himself, +remembering certain passages of humility in his life,--and certain +passages of haughtiness also. + +And the Duke told him also that he was diffident. Of course he was +diffident. Was it not one and the same thing? The very pride of +which he was accused was no more than a shrinking which comes from +the want of trust in oneself. He was a shy man. All his friends +and all his enemies knew that;--it was thus that he still +discoursed with himself;--a shy, self-conscious, timid, shrinking, +thin-skinned man! Of course he was diffident. Then why urge him +on to tasks for which he was by nature unfitted? + +And yet there was much in his old friend's letter which moved him. +There were certain words which he kept on repeating to himself. +'He cannot be justified in even remembering that he has a self'. +It was a hard thing to say of any man, but yet a true thing of +such a man as his correspondent had described. His correspondent +had spoken of a man who should know himself to be capable of +serving the State. If a man were capable, and was sure within his +own bosom of his own capacity, it would be his duty. But what if +he were not so satisfied? What if he felt that any labours of his +would be vain, and all self-abnegation useless? His friend had +told him that on that matter he was bound to take the opinion of +others. Perhaps so. But if so, had not that opinion been given to +him very plainly when he was told that he was both proud and +diffident? That he was called upon to serve his country, by good +service, if such were within his power, he did acknowledge freely; +but not that he should allow himself to be stuck up as a ninepin +only to be knocked down! There are politicians for whom such +occupation seems to be proper,--and who like it too. A little +office, a little power, a little rank, a little pay, a little +niche in the ephemeral history of the year will reward many men +adequately for being knocked down. + +And yet he loved power, and even when thinking of all this allowed +his mind from time to time to run away into a dreamland of +prosperous political labours. He thought what it would be to be an +all-beneficent Prime Minister, with a loyal majority, with a well- +conditioned unanimous cabinet, with a grateful people, and an +appreciative Sovereign. How well might a man spend himself night +and day, even to death, in the midst of such labours as these. + +Half an hour after receiving the Duke's letter he suddenly jumped +up and sat himself down at his desk. He felt it to be necessary +that he should at once write to his old friend;--and the more +necessary that he should do so at once, because he had resolved +that he would do so before he had made up his mind on the chief +subject of that letter. It did not suit him to say either that he +would or that he would not do as his friend had advised him. The +reply was made in a very few words. 'As to myself,' he said, after +expressing his regret that the Duke should find it necessary to +retire from public life--'as to myself, pray understand that +whatever I may do I shall never cease to be grateful for your +affectionate and high-spirited counsels.' + +Then his mind recurred to a more immediate and, for the moment, a +heavier trouble. He had as yet given no answer to that letter from +Mrs Finn, which the reader will perhaps remember. It might indeed +be passed over without an answer; but that was impossible. She had +accused him in the very strongest language of injustice, and had +made him understand that if he were unjust to her, then would he +be most ungrateful. He, looking at the matter with his own lights, +had thought that he had been right, but had resolved to submit the +question to another person. As judge in the matter he had chosen +Lady Cantrip, and Lady Cantrip had given judgement against him. + +He had pressed Lady Cantrip for a decided opinion, and she had +told him that she, in the same position, would have done just as +Mrs Finn had done. He had constituted Lady Cantrip his judge, and +had resolved that her judgement should be final. He declared to +himself that he did not understand it. If a man's house be on +fire, do you think of certain rules of etiquette before you bid +him send for the engines? If a wild beast be loose, do you go +through some ceremony before you caution the wanderers abroad? +There should not have been a moment! But, nevertheless, it was +now necessary that he should conform himself to the opinion of +Lady Cantrip, and in doing so he must apologise for the bitter +scorn with which he allowed himself to treat his wife's most loyal +and loving friend. + +The few words to the Duke had not been difficult, but this letter +seemed to be an Herculean task. It was made infinitely more +difficult by the fact that Lady Cantrip had not seemed to think +that the marriage was impossible. 'Young people when they have set +their minds upon it do so generally prevail at last!' These had +been her words, and they discomforted him greatly. She had thought +the marriage to be possible. Had she not almost expressed an +opinion that they ought to be allowed to marry? And if so, would +it not be his duty to take his girl away from Lady Cantrip? As to +the idea that young people, because they have declared themselves +to be in love, were to have just what they wanted,--with that he +did not agree at all. Lady Cantrip had told him that young people +generally prevail at last. He knew the story of one young person, +whose position in her youth had been very much the same as that of +his daughter now, and she had not prevailed. And in her case had +not the opposition which had been made to her wishes been most +fortunate? That young person had become his wife, his Glencora, +his Duchess. Had she been allowed to have her own way when she was +a child, what would have been her fate? Ah what! Then he had to +think of it all. Might she not have been alive now, and perhaps +happier than she had ever been with him? And had he remained +always unmarried, devoted simply to politics, would not the +troubles of the world have been lighter on him? But what had that +to do with it? In these matters it was not the happiness of this +or that individual which should be considered. There is a +propriety in things;--and only by an adherence to that propriety on +the part of individuals can the general welfare be maintained. A +King in his country, or the heir or the possible heir to the +throne, is debarred from what might possibly be a happy marriage +by regard to the good of his subjects. To the Duke's thinking the +maintenance of the aristocracy of the country was second only in +importance to the maintenance of the Crown. How should the +aristocracy be maintained if its wealth were allowed to fall into +the hands of an adventurer! + +Such were the opinions with regard to his own order of one who was +as truly Liberal in his ideas as any man in England, and who had +argued out these ideas to their consequences. As by the spread of +education and increase of the general well-being every proletaire +was brought nearer to a Duke, so by such action would the Duke be +brought nearer to a proletaire. Such drawing-nearer of the classes +was the object to which all this man's political action tended. +And yet it was a dreadful thing to him that his own daughter +should desire to marry a man so much beneath her own rank and +fortunes as Frank Tregear. + +He would not allow himself to believe that the young people could +ever prevail; but nevertheless, as the idea of the thing had not +alarmed Lady Cantrip as it had him, it was necessary that he +should make some apology to Mrs Finn. Each moment of +procrastination was a prick to his conscience. He now therefore +dragged out from the secrecy of some close drawer Mrs Finn's +letter and read it through to himself once again. Yet--it was true +that he had condemned her, and that he had punished her. Though he +had done nothing to her, said nothing, and written but very +little, still he had punished her most severely. + +She had written as though the matter was almost one of life and +death to her. He could understand that too. His uncle's conduct to +this woman, and his wife's, had created the intimacy which had +existed. Through their efforts she had become almost as one of the +family. And now to be dismissed, like a servant who had misbehaved +herself! And then her arguments in her own defence were all so +good,--if only that which Lady Cantrip had laid down as law was to +be held as law. He was aware now that she had had no knowledge of +the matter till his daughter had told her of her engagement at +Matching. Then it was evident also that she had sent this Tregear +to him immediately on her return to London. And at the end of the +letter she had accused him of what she had been pleased to call +his usual tenacity in believing ill of her! He had been +obstinate,--too obstinate in this respect; but he did not love her +the better for having told him of it. + +At last he did put his apology into words. + +'MY DEAR MRS FINN, +'I believe I had better acknowledge to you at once that I +have been wrong in my judgement as to your conduct in a certain +matter. You tell me that I owe it to you to make this +acknowledgement,--and I make it. The subject is, as you may +imagine, so painful that I will spare myself if possible, any +further allusion to it. I believe I did you a wrong, and therefore +I ask your pardon. + +'I should perhaps apologise also for delay in my reply. I have had +much to think of in this matter, and have many others also on my +mind. + +'Believe me to be, +Yours faithfully, +OMNIUM.' + +It was very short, and as being short was infinitely less +troublesome at the moment than a fuller epistle; but he was very +angry with himself, knowing that it was too short, feeling that it +was ungracious. He should have expressed a hope that he might soon +see her again,--only he had no such wish. There had been times at +which he had liked her, but he knew that he did not like her now. +And yet he was bound to be her friend! If he could only do some +great thing for her, and thus satisfy his feeling of indebtedness +towards her! But all the favours had been from her to him and +his. + + + +CHAPTER 23 + +Frank Tregear Wants a Friend + +Six or seven weeks had passed since Tregear had made his +communication to the Duke, and during that time he had heard not a +word about the girl he loved. He knew, indeed, that she was at the +Horns, and probably had reason to suppose that she was being +guarded there, as it were, out of his reach. This did not surprise +him; nor did he regard it as a hardship. It was to be expected +that she should be kept out of his sight. But this was a state of +things to which, as he thought, there should not be more than a +moderate amount of submission. Six weeks was not a very long +period, but it was perhaps long enough for evincing that respect +which he owed to the young lady's father. Something must be done +some day. How could he expect her to be true to him unless he took +some means of showing himself to be true to her? + +In these days he did not live very much with her brother. He not +only disliked, but distrusted Major Tifto, and had so expressed +himself as to give rise to angry words. Silverbridge had said that +he knew how to take care of himself. Tregear had replied that he +had his doubts on that matter. Then the Member of Parliament had +declared that at any rate he did not intend to be taken care of by +Frank Tregear! In such a state of things it was not possible that +there should be any close confidence as to Lady Mary. Nor does it +often come to pass that the brother is the confidant of his +sister's lover. Brothers hardly like their sisters to have lovers, +though they are often well satisfied that their sisters should +find husbands. Tregear's want of rank and wealth added something +to this feeling in the mind this brother, so that Silverbridge, +though he felt himself to be deterred by friendship from any open +opposition, still was almost inimical. 'It won't do, you know,' he +had said to his brother Gerald, shaking his head. + +Tregear, however, was determined to be active in the matter, to +make some effort, to speak to somebody. But how to make an +effort,--and to whom should he speak? Thinking of all this he +remembered that Mrs Finn had sent for him and had told him to go +with his love story to the Duke. She had been almost severe with +him;--but after the interview was over, he had felt that she had +acted well and wisely. He therefore determined that he would go to +Mrs Finn. + +She had as yet received no answer from the Duke, though nearly a +fortnight had elapsed since she had written her letter. During +that time she had become very angry. She felt that he was not +treating her as a gentleman should treat a lady, and certainly not +as the husband of her late friend should have treated the friend +of his late wife. She had a proud consciousness of having behaved +well to the Pallisers, and now this head of the Pallisers was +rewarding her by evil treatment. She had been generous; he was +ungenerous. She had been honest; he was deficient even in that +honesty for which she had given him credit. And she had been +unable to obtain any of that consolation which could have come to +her from talking of her wrongs. She could not complain to her +husband because there were reasons that made it essential that her +husband should not quarrel with the Duke. She was hot with +indignation at the very moment that Tregear was announced. + +He began by apologising for his intrusion, and she of course +assured him that he was welcome. 'After the liberty which I took +with you, Mr Tregear, I am only too well pleased that you should +come to see me.' + +'I am afraid,' he said, 'that I was a little rough.' + +'A little warm;--but that was to be expected. A gentleman never +likes to be interfered with on such a matter.' + +'The position was and is difficult, Mrs Finn.' + +'And I am bound to acknowledge the very ready way in which you did +what I asked you to do.' + +'And now, Mrs Finn, what is to come next?' + +'Ah!' + +'Something must be done! You know of course that the Duke did not +receive me with any great favour.' + +'I did not suppose he would.' + +'Nor did I. Of course he would object to such a marriage. But a +man in these days cannot dictate to his daughter what husband she +should marry.' + +'Perhaps he can dictate to her what husband she shall not marry.' + +'Hardly that. He may put impediments in the way; and the Duke will +do so. But if I am happy enough to have won the affection of his +daughter,--so as to make it essential to her happiness that she +should become my wife,--he will give way.' + +'What am I to say, Mr Tregear?' + +'Just what you think.' + +'Why should I be made to say what I think on so delicate a matter? + Or of what use would by my thoughts? Remember how far I am +removed from her.' + +'You are his friend.' + +'Not at all! No one less so!' As she said this she could not +hinder the colour from coming into her face. 'I was her friend,-- +lady Glencora's; but with the death of my friend there was an end +of all that.' + +'You were staying with him,--at his request. You told me so +yourself.' + +'I shall never stay with him again. But all that, Mr Tregear, is +of no matter. I do not mean to say a word against him;--not a word. +But if you wish to interest any one as being the Duke's friend, +then I can assure you that I am the last person in London to whom +you should come. I know no one to whom the Duke is likely to +entertain any feelings so little kind towards me.' This she said +in a peculiarly solemn way that startled Tregear. But before he +could answer her a servant entered the room with a letter. She +recognised at once the Duke's handwriting. Here was the answer for +which she had been so long waiting in silent expectation! She +could not keep it unread till he was gone. 'Will you allow me a +moment,' she whispered, and then she opened the envelope. As she +read the few words her eyes became laden with tears. They quite +sufficed to relieve the injured pride which had sat so heavy at +her heart. 'I believe I did you a wrong, and therefore I ask you +your pardon!' It was so like what she had believed the man to be! + She could not be longer angry with him. And yet the very last +words she had spoken were words complaining of his conduct. 'This +is from the Duke,' she said, putting the letter back into its +envelope. + +'Oh, indeed.' + +'It is odd that it should have come while you were here.' + +'Is it,--is it,--about Lady Mary?' + +'No;--at least,--not directly. I perhaps spoke more harshly about +him than I should have done. The truth is I had expected a line +from him, and it had not come. Now it is here; but I do not +suppose I shall ever see much of him. My intimacy was with her. +But I would not wish you to remember what I said just now, if--if--' + +'If what, Mrs Finn? You mean perhaps, if I should ever be allowed +to call myself his son-in-law. It may seem to you to be arrogant, +but it is an honour which I expect to win.' + +'Faint heart,--you know, Mr Tregear.' + +'Exactly. One has to tell oneself that very often. You will help +me?' + +'Certainly not,' she said, as though she were much startled. 'How +can I help you?' + +'By telling me what I should do. I suppose if I were to go down to +Richmond I should not be admitted.' + +'If you ask me, I think not;--not to see Lady Mary. Lady Cantrip +would perhaps see you.' + +'She is acting the part of-Duenna.' + +'As I should do so, if Lady Mary were staying with me. You don't +suppose that if she were here I would let her see you in my house +without her father's leave?' + +'I suppose not.' + +'Certainly not; and therefore I conceive that Lady Cantrip will +not do so either.' + +'I wish she were here.' + +'It would be of no use. I should be a dragon in guarding her.' + +'I wish you would let me feel that you were like a sister to me in +this matter.' + +'But I am not your sister, nor yet your aunt, nor yet your +grandmother. What I mean is that I cannot be on your side.' + +'Can you not?' + +'No, Mr Tregear. Think how long I have known these other people.' + +'But just now you said that he was your enemy.' + +'I did say so; but as I have unsaid it since, you as a gentleman +will not remember my words. At any rate I cannot help you in +this.' + +'I shall write to her.' + +'It can be nothing to me. If you write she will show your letter +either to her father or to Lady Cantrip.' + +'But she will read it first.' + +'I cannot tell you how that may be. In fact I am the very last +person in the world to whom you should come for assistance in this +matter. If I gave any assistance to anybody I should be bound to +give it to the Duke.' + +'I cannot understand that, Mrs Finn.' + +'Nor can I explain it, but it would be so. I shall always be very +glad to see you, and I do feel that we ought to be friends,-- +because I took such a liberty with you. But in this matter I +cannot help you.' + +When she said this he had to take his leave. It was impossible +that he should further press his case upon her, though he would +have been very glad to extract from her some kindly word. It is +such a help in a difficulty to have somebody who will express even +a hope that the difficulty is perhaps not invincible! He had no +one to comfort him in this matter. There was one dear friend,--as a +friend dearer than any other,--to whom he might go, and who would +after some fashion bid him prosper. Mabel would encourage him. She +ha said that she would do so. But in making that promise she had +told him that Romeo would not have spoken of his love for Juliet +to Rosaline, whom he had loved before he saw Juliet. No doubt she +had gone on to tell him that he might come to her and talk freely +of his love for Lady Mary,--but after what had been said before he +felt that he could not do so without leaving a sting behind. When +a man's heart goes well with him,--so well as to be in some degree +oppressive to him even by its prosperity,--when the young lady has +jumped into his arms, and the father and the mother have been +quite willing, then he wants no confidant. He does not care to +speak very much off the matter which among his friends is apt to +become a subject for raillery. When you call a man Benedict he +does not come to you with ecstatic descriptions of the beauty and +the wit of his Beatrice. But no one was likely to call him +Benedict in reference to Lady Mary. + +In spite of his manner, in spite of his apparent self-sufficiency, +this man was very soft within. Less than two years back he had +been willing to sacrifice all the world for his cousin Mabel, and +his cousin Mabel had told him that he was wrong. 'It does not pay +to sacrifice the world for love.' So cousin Mabel had said, and +had added something as to its being necessary that she should +marry a rich man, and expedient that he should marry a rich woman. +He had thought much about it, and had declared to himself that on +no account would he marry a woman for her money. Then he had +encountered Lady Mary Palliser. There had been no doubt, no +resolution after that, no thinking about it,--but downright love. +There was nothing left of real regret for his cousin in his bosom. +She had been right. That love had been impossible. But this would +be possible,--ah, so deliciously possible,--if only her father and +mother would assist! The mother, imprudent in this as in all +things, had assented. The reader knows the rest. + +It was in every way possible. 'She will have money enough,' the +Duchess had said, 'if only her father can be brought to give it to +you.' So Tregear had set his heart upon it, and had said to +himself that the thing was to be done. Then his friend the Duchess +had died, and the real difficulties had commenced. From that day +he had not seen his love, or heard from her. How was he to know +whether she would be true to him? And where was he to seek for +that sympathy which he felt to be so necessary to him? A wild +idea had come into his head that Mrs Finn would be his friend;--but +she had repudiated him. + +He went straight home and at once wrote to the girl. The letter +was a simple love-letter, and as such need not be given here. In +what sweetest language he could find he assured her that even +though he should never be allowed to see her or to hear from her, +that still he should cling to her. And then he added this passage: +'If your love for me be what I think it is to be, no one can have +a right to keep us apart. Pray be sure that I shall not change. If +you change let me know it;--but I shall as soon expect the heavens +to fall.' + + + +CHAPTER 24 + +She Must Be Made to Obey + +Lady Mary Palliser down at the Horns had as much liberty allowed +to as is usually given to young ladies in these very free days. +There was indeed no restriction placed upon her at all. Had +Tregear gone down to Richmond and asked for the young lady, and +had Lady Cantrip at the time been out and the young lady at home, +it would have depended altogether upon the young lady whether she +would have seen her lover or not. Nevertheless Lady Cantrip kept +her eyes open, and when the letter came from Tregear she was aware +that the letter had come. But the letter found its way into Lady +Mary's hands and was read in the seclusion of her own bedroom. 'I +wonder whether you would mind reading that,' she said very shortly +afterwards to Lady Cantrip. 'What answer ought I to make?' + +'Do you think any answer ought to be made, my dear?' + +'Oh yes; I must answer him.' + +'Would your papa wish it?' + +'I told papa that I would not promise not to write to him. I think +I told him that he should see any letters that there were. But if +I show them to you, I suppose that will do as well.' + +'You had better keep your word to him absolutely.' + +'I am not afraid of doing so, if you mean that. I cannot bear to +give him pain, but this is a matter in which I mean to have my own +way.' + +'Mean to have your own way!' said Lady Cantrip, much surprised by +the determined tone of the young lady. + +'Certainly I do. I want you to understand so much! I suppose papa +can keep us from marrying for ever and ever if he pleases, but he +never will make me say that I will give up Mr Tregear. And if he +does not yield I shall think him cruel. Why should he wish to make +me unhappy all my life?' + +'He certainly does not wish that, my dear.' + +'But he will do it.' + +'I cannot go against your father, Mary.' + +'No, I suppose not. I shall write to Mr Tregear, and then I will +show you what I have written. Papa shall see it to if he pleases. +I will do nothing secret, but I will never give up Mr Tregear.' + +Lord Cantrip came down to Richmond that evening, and his wife told +him that in her opinion it would be best that the Duke should +allow the young people to marry, and should give them money enough +to live upon. 'Is not that a strong order?' asked the Earl. The +Countess acknowledged that it was a 'strong order', but suggested +that for the happiness of them all it might as well be done at +first as last. + +The next morning Lady Mary showed her a copy of the reply which +she had already sent to her lover. + +'DEAR FRANK, + +'You may be quite sure that I shall never give you up. I will +not write more at present because papa does not wish me to do so. +I shall show papa your letter and my answer. + +'Your own most affectionate +MARY.' + +'Has it gone?' asked the Countess. + +'I put it myself into the pillar letter-box.' Then Lady Cantrip +felt that she had to deal with a very self-willed young lady +indeed. + +That afternoon Lady Cantrip asked Lady Mary whether she might be +allowed to take the two letters up to town with the express +purpose of showing them to the Duke. 'Oh yes,' said Mary. 'I think +it would be so much the best. Give papa my kindest love, and tell +him from me that if he wants to make his poor little girl happy he +will forgive her and be kind to her in all this.' Then the +Countess made some attempts to argue the matter. There were +proprieties! High rank might be a blessing or might be the +reverse--as people thought of it;--but all men acknowledged that +much was due to it. 'Noblesse oblige.' It was often the case in +life that women were called upon by circumstances to sacrifice +their inclinations! What right had a gentleman to talk of +marriage who had no means? These things she said and very many +more, but it was to no purpose. The young lady asserted that as +the gentleman was a gentleman there need be no question as to +rank, and that in regard to money there need be no difficulty if +one of them had sufficient. 'But you have none but what your +father gives you,' said Lady Cantrip. 'Papa can give it us without +any trouble,' said Lady Mary. This child had a clear idea of what +she thought to be her own rights. Being the child of rich parents +she had the right to money. Being a woman she had a right to a +husband. Having been born free she had a right to choose one for +herself. Having had a man's love given to her she had a right to +keep it. 'One doesn't know which she is most like, her father or +her mother,' Lady Cantrip said afterwards to her husband. 'She has +his cool determination, and her hot-headed obstinacy.' + +She did show the letters to the Duke, and in answer to a word or +two from him explained that she could not take upon herself to +debar her guest from the use of the post. 'But she will write +nothing without letting you know it.' + +'She ought to write nothing at all.' + +'What she feels is much worse than what she writes.' + +'If there were no intercourse she would forget him.' + +'Ah; I don't know,' said the Countess sorrowfully, 'I thought so +once.' + +'All children are determined as long as they are allowed to have +their own way.' + +'I mean to say that it is the nature of her character to be +obstinate. Most girls are prone to yield. They have not character +enough to stand against opposition. I am not speaking now only of +affairs like this. It would be the same with her in any thing. +Have you not always found it so?' + +Then he had to acknowledge to himself that he had never found out +anything in reference to his daughter's character. She had been +properly sweet, affectionate, always obedient to him;--the most +charming plaything in the world on the few occasions in which he +had allowed himself to play. But as to her actual disposition, he +had never taken any trouble to inform himself. She had been left +to her mother,--as other girls are left. And his sons had been left +to their tutors. And now he had no control over any of them. 'She +must be made to obey like others,' he said at last, speaking +through his teeth. + +There was something in this which almost frightened Lady Cantrip. +She could not bear to hear him say that the girl must be made to +yield with that spirit of despotic power under which women were +restrained in years now passed. If she could have spoken her own +mind it would have been to this effect: 'Let us do what we can to +lead her away from this desire of hers; and in order that we may +do so, let us tell her that her marriage with Mr Tregear is out of +the question. But if we do not succeed,--let us give way. Let us +make it a matter of joy that the young man himself is so +acceptable and well-behaved.' That was her idea, and with that +she would have indoctrinated the Duke had she been able. But his +was different. 'She must be made to obey,' he said. And, as he +said it, he seemed to be indifferent to the sorrow which such +enforced obedience might bring upon his child. In answer to this +she could only shake her head. 'What do you mean?' he asked. 'Do +you think we ought to yield?' + +'Not at once, certainly.' + +'But at last?' + +'What can you do, Duke? If she be as firm as you, can you bear to +see her pine away in misery?' + +'Girls do not do like that,' he said. + +'Girls and men are very different. They gradually will yield to +external influences. English girls, though they become the most +loving wives in the world, do not generally become so riven by an +attachment as to become deep sufferers when it is disallowed. But +here, I fear, we have to deal with one who will suffer after this +fashion.' + +'Why should she not be like others?' + +'It may be so. We will try. But you see what she says in her +letter to him. She writes as though your authority were to be +nothing in that matter of giving up. In all that she says to me +there is the same spirit. If she is firm, Duke, you must yield.' + +'Never! She shall never marry him with my sanction.' + +There was nothing more to be said, and Lady Cantrip went her way. +But the Duke, though he could say nothing more, continued to think +of it hour after hour. He went down to the House of Lords to +listen to a debate in which it was intended to cover the ministers +with heavy disgrace. But the Duke could not listen even to his own +friends. He could listen to nothing as he thought of the condition +of his children. + +He had been asked whether he could bear to see his girl suffer, as +though he were indifferent to the sufferings of his child. Did he +not know of himself that there was no father who would do more for +the welfare of his daughter? Was he not sure of the tenderness of +his own heart? In all that he was doing was he governed by +anything but a sense of duty? Was it personal pride or love of +personal aggrandisement? He thought that he could assure himself +that he was open to no such charge. Would he not die for her,--or +for them,--if he could so serve them? Surely this woman had +accused him most wrongfully when she had intimated that he could +see his girl suffer without caring for it. In his indignation he +determined--for a while--that he would remove her from the custody +of Lady Cantrip. But then, where should he place her? He was aware +that his own house would be like a grave to a girl just fit to +come into this world. In this coming autumn she must go +somewhere,--with some one. He himself, in his present state of +mind, would be but a sorry travelling companion. + +Lady Cantrip had said that the best hope of escape would lie in +the prospect of another lover. The prescription was disagreeable, +but it had availed in the case of his own wife. Before he had ever +seen her as Lady Glencora McCloskie she had been desirous of +giving herself and all her wealth to one Burgo Fitzgerald, who had +been altogether unworthy. The Duke could remember well how a +certain old Lady Midlothian had first to him that Lady Glencora's +property was very large, and had then added that the young lady +herself was very beautiful. And he could remember how his uncle, +the last duke, who had seldom taken much trouble in merely human +affairs, had said a word or two--'I have heard a whisper about you +and Lady Glencora McCloskie, nothing could be better.' The result +had been undoubtedly good. His Cora and all her money had been +saved from a worthless spendthrift. He had found a wife who he now +thought had made him happy. And she had found at any rate a +respectable husband. The idea when picked to pieces is not a nice +idea. 'Let us look out for a husband for this girl, so that we may +get her married--out of the way of her lover.' It is not nice. But +it had succeeded in one case, and why should it not succeed in +another? + +But how was it to be done? Who should do it? Whom should he select +to play the part which he had undertaken in that other +arrangement? No worse person could be found then himself in +managing such an affair. When the idea had at first been raised he +had thought that Lady Cantrip would do it all; but now he was +angry with Lady Cantrip. + +How was it to be done? How should it be commenced? How had it been +commenced in his own case? He did not in the least know how he had +been chosen. Was it possible that his uncle, who was the proudest +man in England, should have condescended to make a bargain with an +old dowager whom everybody had despised? And in what way had he +been selected? No doubt he had been known to be the heir-apparent +to a dukedom and ducal reverence. In his case old Lady Midlothian +had begun the matter with him. It occurred to him that in royal +marriages such beginnings are quite common. + +But who should be the happy man? Then he began to count up the +requisite attributes. He must be of high rank, and an eldest son, +and the possessor of, or the heir to a good estate. He did despise +himself when he found that he put these things first,--as a matter +of course. Nevertheless he did put them first. He was ejecting +this other man because he possessed none of these attributes. He +hurried himself on to add that the man must be of good character, +and such as a young girl might learn to love. But yet he was aware +that he added these things for his conscience's sake. Tregear's +character was good, and certainly the girl loved him. But was it +not clear to all who knew anything of such matters that Mr Francis +Tregear should not have dared even to think of marrying the +daughter of the Duke of Omnium? + +Who should be the happy man? There were so many who evidently +were unfit. Young Lord Percival was heir to a ruined estate and +beggared peerage. Lord Glasslough was odious to all men. There +were three or four others of whom he thought that he knew some +fatal objection. But when he remembered Lord Popplecourt there +seemed to be no objection which need be fatal. + +Lord Popplecourt was a young peer whose father had died two years +since and whose estates were large and unembarrassed. The late +lord, who had been a Whig of the old fashion, had been the Duke's +friend. They had been at Oxford and in the House of Commons +together, and Lord Popplecourt had always been true to his party. +As to the son, the Duke remembered to have heard lately that he +was not given to waste his money. He drove about London a good +deal, but had as yet not done anything very foolish. He had taken +his degree at Oxford, taken his seat in the House of Lords and had +once opened his mouth. He had not indeed appeared often again; but +at Lord Popplecourt's age much legislation is not to be expected +from a young peer. Then he thought of the man's appearance. +Popplecourt was not specially attractive, whereas Tregear was a +very handsome man. But so also had been Burgo Fitzgerald,--almost +abnormally beautiful, while he, Plantagenet Palliser, as he was +then, had been quite insignificant in appearance as Lord +Popplecourt. + +Lord Popplecourt might possibly do. But then how should the matter +be spoken of to the young man? After all, would it not be best +that he should trust Lady Cantrip? + + + +CHAPTER 25 + +A Family Breakfast-Table + +Lord Silverbridge had paid all his Derby losses without any +difficulty. They had not been very heavy for a man in his +position, and the money had come without remonstrance. When asking +for it he was half-ashamed of himself, but could still find +consolation in remembering how much worse had plunged many young +men whom he knew. He had never 'plunged'. In fact he had made the +most prudent book in the world; and had so managed his affairs +that even now the horse which had been beaten was worth more than +all he had lost and paid. 'This is getting serious,' he had said +to his partner when, on making out a rough account, he had brought +in the Major in a debtor to him of more than a thousand pounds. +The Major remarked that as he was half-owner of the horses his +partner had good security for the money. Then something of an +unwritten arrangement was made. The 'Prime Minister' was now one +of the favourites for the Leger. If the horse won that race there +would be money enough for everything. If that race were lost, then +there should be a settlement by the transfer of the stud to the +younger partner. 'He's safe to pull it off,' said the Major. + +At this time both his sons were living with the Duke in London. It +had been found impracticable to send Lord Gerald back to +Cambridge. The doors of Trinity were closed against him. But some +interest had been made in his favour, and he was to be transferred +to Oxford. All the truth had been told, and there had been a +feeling that the lad should be allowed another chance. He could +not however go to his new Alma Mater till after the long vacation. +In the meantime he was to be taken by a tutor down to a Cottage on +Dartmoor and there be made to read,--with such amusement in the +meantime as might be got from fishing, and playing cricket with +the West Devon county club. 'It isn't very bright look-out for the +summer,' his brother had said to him, 'but it's better then +breaking out on the loose altogether. You be a credit to the +family and all that sort of thing. Then I'll give up the borough +to you. But mind you stick to the Liberals. I've mad an ass of +myself.' However in these early days of June Lord Gerald had not +yet got his tutor. + +Though the father and the two young men were living together they +did not see very much of each other. The Duke breakfasted at nine +and the repast was a very simple one. When the failed to appear, +he did not scold,--but would simply be disappointed. At dinner they +never met. It was supposed that Lord Gerald passed his mornings at +reading, and some little attempts were made in that direction. It +is to be feared they did not come to much. Silverbridge was very +kind to Gerald, feeling an increased tenderness for him on account +of that Cambridge mishap. Now they were much together, and +occasionally, by a strong effort, would grace their father's +breakfast-table with their company. + +It was not often that he either reproached them or preached to +them. Though he could not live with them on almost equal terms, as +some fathers can live with their sons, though he could not laugh +at their fun or make them laugh at his wit, he knew that it would +have been better both for him and them if he had possessed this +capacity. Though the life which they lived was distasteful to +him,--though racehorses were an abomination to him, and the driving +of coaches a folly, and club-life a manifest waste of time, still +he recognised these things as being, if not necessary, yet +unavoidable evils. To Gerald he would talk about Oxford, avoiding +all allusion to past Cambridge misfortunes; but in the presence of +Silverbridge, whose Oxford career had been so peculiarly +unfortunate, he would make no allusion to either of the +universities. To his eldest son he would talk of Parliament which +of all subjects would have been the most congenial had they agreed +in politics. As it was he could speak more freely to him on that +than any other matter. + +One Thursday night as the two brothers went to bed on returning +from the Beargarden, at a not very late hour, they agreed that +they would 'give the governor a turn' the next morning,--by which +they meant that they would drag themselves out of bed in time to +breakfast with him. The worst of it is that he will never let them +get anything to eat, said Gerald. But Silverbridge explained that +he had taken the matter into his own hands, and had specially +ordered broiled salmon and stewed kidneys. 'He won't like it, you +know,' said Gerald. 'I'm sure he thinks it wicked to eat anything +but toasted bacon before lunch.' + +At a very little after nine Silverbridge was in the breakfast- +room, and there found his father. 'I suppose Gerald is not up +yet,' said the Duke almost crossly. + +'Oh yes he is, sir. He'll be here directly.' + +'Have you seen him this morning?' + +'No; I haven't seen him. But I know he'll be here. He said he +would, last night.' + +'You speak of it as if it were an undertaking.' + +'No, not that, sir. But we are not always quite up to time.' + +'No; indeed you are not. Perhaps you sit late at the House.' + +'Sometimes I do,' said the young member, with a feeling almost +akin to shame as he remembered all the hours spent at the +Beargarden. 'I have had Gerald there in the Gallery sometimes. It +is just as well he should know what is being done.' + +'Quite as well.' + +'I shouldn't wonder if he gets a seat some day.' + +'I don't know how that may be.' + +'He won't change as I have done. He'll stick to your side. Indeed +I think he'd do better in the House than I shall. He has more gift +of the gab.' + +'That is not the first requisite.' + +'I know all that, sir. I've read your letter more than once, and I +showed it to him.' + +There was something sweet and pleasant in the young man's manner +by which the father could hardly not be captivated. They had now +sat down, and the servant had brought in the unusual accessories +for a morning feast. 'What is all that?' asked the Duke. + +'Gerald and I are so awfully hungry of a morning,' said the son +apologising. + +'Well;--it's a very good thing to be hungry;--that is if you can get +plenty to eat. Salmon is it? I don't think I'll have any myself. +Kidneys! Not for me. I think I'll take a bit of fried bacon. I +also am hungry, but now awfully hungry.' + +'You never seem to me to eat anything, sir.' + +'Eating is an occupation from which I think a man takes the more +pleasure the less he considers it. A rural labourer who sits on +the ditch-side with his bread and cheese and an onion has more +enjoyment out of it than any Lucullus.' + +'But he likes a good deal of it.' + +'I do not think he ever over-eats himself,--which Lucullus does. I +have envied the ploughman his power,--his dura ilia,--but never an +epicure the appreciative skill of his palate. If Gerald does not +make haste he will have to exercise neither the one nor the other +upon that fish.' + +'I will leave a bit for him, sir,--and here he is. You are twenty +minutes late, Gerald. My father says that bread and cheese and +onions would be better for you than salmon and stewed kidneys.' + +'No, Silverbridge;--I said no such thing; but that if he were a +hedger and ditcher the bread and cheese would be as good.' + +'I should not mind trying them all,' said Gerald. 'Only one never +does have such things for breakfast. Last winter a lot of us +skated to Ely, and we ate two or three loaves of bread and a whole +cheese, at a pot-house! And as for beer, we drank the public +dry.' + +'It was because for the time you had been a hedger and ditcher.' + +'Proby was a ditcher I know, when he went right through into one +of the dykes. Just push on that dish Silverbridge. It's no good +you having the trouble of helping me half-a-dozen times. I don't +think things are a bit the nicer because they cost a lot of money. +I suppose that is what you mean, sir.' + +'Something of that kind, Gerald. Not to have money for your +wants;--that must be troublesome.' + +'Very bad indeed,' said Silverbridge, shaking his head wisely, as +a Member of Parliament might do who felt that something should be +done to put down such a lamentable state of things. + +'I don't complain,' said Gerald. 'No fellow ever had less right to +complain. But I never felt that I had quite enough. Of course it +was my own fault.' + +'I should say so, my boy. But then there are a great many like +you. Let their means be what they may, they never have quite +enough. To be in any difficulty with regard to money,--to owe what +you cannot pay, or even to have to abstain from things which you +have told yourself are necessary to yourself or to those who +depend on you,--creates a feeling of meanness.' + +'That is what I have always felt,' said Silverbridge. 'I cannot +bear to think that I should like to have a thing and that I cannot +afford it.' + +'You do not quite understand me, I fear. The only case in which +you can be justified in desiring that which you cannot afford is +when the thing is necessary;--as bread may be, or clothes.' + +'As when a fellow wants a lot of new breeches before he has paid +his tailor's bill.' + +'As when a poor man,' said the Duke impressively, 'may long to +give his wife a new gown, or his children boots to keep their feet +from the mud and snow.' Then he paused a moment, but the serious +tone of his voice and the energy of his words had sent Gerald +headlong among his kidneys. 'I say that in such cases money must +be regarded as a blessing.' + +'A ten-pound note will do so much,' said Silverbridge. + +'But beyond that it ought to have no power of conferring +happiness, and certainly cannot drive away sorrow. Not though you +build palaces out into the deep, can that help you. You read your +Horace I hope. "Scandunt eodum quo dominus minae."' + +'I recollect that,' said Gerald. 'Black care sits behind the +horseman.' + +'Even though he have groom riding after him beautiful with +exquisite boots. As far as I have been able to look into the +world--' + +'I suppose you know it as well as anybody,' said Silverbridge,--who +was simply desirous of making himself pleasant to the 'dear old +governor'. + +'As far as my experience goes, the happiest man is he who, being +above the troubles which money brings, has his hands the fullest +of work. If I were to name the class of men whose lives are spent +with the most thorough enjoyment, I think I should name that of +barristers who are in large practice and also in Parliament.' + +'Isn't it a great grind, sir?' asked Silverbridge. + +'A very great grind, as you call it. And there may be the grind +and not the success. But--' He had now got up from his seat at the +table and was standing with his back against the chimney-piece, +and as he went on with his lecture,--as the word 'But' came from +his lips--he struck the fingers of one hand lightly on the palm of +the other as he had been known to do at some happy flight of +oratory in the House of Commons. 'But it is the grind that makes +the happiness. To feel that your hours are filled to overflowing, +that you can hardly barely steal minutes enough for sleep, that +the welfare of many is entrusted to you, that the world looks on +and approves, that some good is always being done to others,--above +all things some good to your country;--that is happiness. For +myself I can conceive none other.' + +'Books,' suggested Gerald, as he put the last morsel of the last +kidney into his mouth. + +'Yes, books! Cicero and Ovid have told us that to literature only +could they look for consolation in their banishment. But then they +speak of a remedy for sorrow, not of a source for joy. No young +man should dare to neglect literature. At some period of his life +he will surely need consolation. And he may be certain that should +he live to be an old man, there will be none other,--except +religion. But for that feeling of self-contentment, which creates +happiness--hard work, and hard work alone, can give it to you.' + +'Books are hard work themselves sometimes,' said Gerald. + +'As for money,' continued the father, not caring to note this +interruption, 'if it be regarded in any other light than an as a +shield against want, as a rampart under the protection of which +you may carry on your battle, it will fail you. I was born a rich +man.' + +'Few people have cared so little about it as you,' said the elder +son. + +'And you, both of you, have been born to be rich.' This assertion +did not take the elder son by surprise. It was a matter of course. +But Lord Gerald, who had never as yet heard anything as to his +future destiny from his father, was interested by the statement. +'When I think of all this,--of what constitutes happiness,--I am +almost tempted to grieve that it should be so.' + +'If a large fortune were really a bad thing,' said Gerald, 'a man +could I suppose get rid of it.' + +'No;--it is a thing of which a man cannot get rid,--unless by +shameful means. It is a burden which he must carry to the end.' + +'Does anybody wish to get rid of it, as Sinbad did of the Old +Man?' asked Gerald pertinaciously. 'At any rate I have enjoyed the +kidneys.' + +'You assured us just now that the bread and cheese at Ely were +just as good.' The Duke as he said this looked as though he knew +that he had taken all the wind out of his adversary's sails. +'Though you add carriage to carriage, you will not be carried more +comfortably.' + +'A second horse out hunting is a comfort,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then at any rate don't desire a third for show. But such comforts +will cease to be joys when they become matters of course. That a +boy who does not see a pudding once a year should enjoy a pudding +when it comes I can understand; but the daily pudding, or the +pudding twice a day, is soon no more than a simple daily bread,-- +which will or will not be sweet as it shall or shall not have been +earned.' Then he went slowly to the door, but, as he stood with +the handle of it in his hand, he turned round and spoke another +word. 'When, hereafter, Gerald, you may chance to think of that +bread and cheese at Ely, always remember that you had skated from +Cambridge.' + +The two brothers then took themselves to some remote part of the +house where arrangements had been made for smoking, and there they +finished the conversation. 'I was very glad to hear what he said +about you, old boy.' This of course came from Silverbridge. + +'I didn't quite understand him.' + +'He meant you to understand that you wouldn't be like other +younger brothers.' + +'Then what I have will be taken from you.' + +'There is lots for three or four of us. I do agree that a fellow +has as much as he can spend he ought not to want anything more. +Morton was telling me the other day something about the settled +estates. I sat in that office with him all one morning. I could +not understand it all, but I observed that he said nothing about +the Scotch property. You'll be a laird, and I wish you joy with +all my heart. The governor will tell you all about it before long. +He's going to have two eldest sons.' + +'What an unnatural piece of cruelty to me;--and so unnecessary!' + +'Why?' + +'He says that a property is no better than a burden. But I'll try +and bear it.' + + + +CHAPTER 26 + +Dinner at the Beargarden + +The Duke was in the gallery of the House of Commons which is +devoted to the use of peers, and Silverbridge having heard that +his father was there, had come up to him. It was then about half- +past five, and the House had settled down to business. Prayers had +been read, petitions had been presented, and Ministers had gone +through their course of baiting with that equanimity and air of +superiority which always belongs to a well-trained occupant of the +Treasury bench. + +The Duke was very anxious that his son should attend to his +parliamentary duties, but he was too proud a man and too generous +to come to the House as a spy. It was his present habit always to +be in his own place when the Lords were sitting, and to remain +there while the Lords sat. it was not, for many reasons, an +altogether satisfactory occupation, but it was the best which his +life afforded him. He would never, however, come across into the +other House, without letting his son know of his coming, and Lord +Silverbridge had on this occasion been on the look out, and had +come up to his father at once. 'Don't' let me take you away,' said +the Duke, 'if you are particularly interested in your Chief's +defence,' for Sir Timothy Beeswax was defending some measure of +legal reform in which he was said to have fallen into trouble. + +'I can hear it up here you know, sir.' + +'Hardly if you are talking to me.' + +'To tell the truth it's a matter I don't much care about. They've +got into some mess as to the number of Judges and what they ought +to do. Finn was saying that they had so arranged that there was +one Judge who never could possibly do anything.' + +'If Mr Finn said so it would probably be so, with some allowance +for Irish exaggeration. He is a clever man, with less of his +country's hyperbole than others;--but still not without his share.' + +'You know him well, I suppose.' + +'Yes;--as one man does know another in the political world.' + +'But he is a friend of yours? I don't mean an "honourable friend", +which is great bosh; but you know him at home.' + +'Oh yes;--certainly. He has been staying with me at Matching. In +public life such intimacies come from politics.' + +'You don't care much about him then.' + +The Duke paused a moment before he answered. 'Yes I do;--and in +what I said just now perhaps I wronged him. I have been under +obligations to Mr Finn,--in a matter as to which he behaved very +well. I have found him to be a gentleman. If you come across him +in the House I would wish you to be courteous to him. I have not +seen him since we came from abroad. I have been able to see +nobody. But if ever again I should entertain my friends at my +table, Mr Finn would be one who would always be welcome there.' +This he said with a sadly serious air as though wishing that his +words should be noted. At the present moment he was remembering +that he owed recompense to Mrs Finn, and was making an effort to +pay the debt. 'But your leader is striking out into unwonted +eloquence. Surely we ought to listen to him.' + +Sir Timothy was a fluent speaker, and when there was nothing to be +said was possessed of a great plenty of words. And he was gifted +with that peculiar power which enables a man to have the last word +in every encounter,--a power which we are apt to call repartee, +with is in truth the readiness which come from continual practice. +You shall meet two men of whom you shall know the one to be +endowed with the brilliancy of true genius, and the other to be +possessed of but moderate parts, and shall find the former never +able to hold his awn against the latter. In a debate, the man of +moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius. But +this skill of tongue, this glibness of speech is hardly an affair +of intellect at all. It is--as is style to the writer,--not the +wares which he has to take to market, but the vehicle in which +they may be carried. Of what avail to you is it to have filled +granaries with corn if you cannot get your corn to the consumer? +Now Sir Timothy was a great vehicle, but he had not in truth much +corn to send. He could turn a laugh against an adversary;--no man +better. He could seize, at the moment, every advantage which the +opportunity might give him. The Treasury Bench on which he sat and +the big box on the table before him were to him fortifications of +which he knew how to use every stone. The cheers and jeers of the +House had been so measured by him that he knew the value and force +of every sound. Politics had never been to him a study; but to +parliamentary strategy he had devoted all his faculties. No one +knew so well as Sir Timothy how to make arrangements for business, +so that every detail should be troublesome to his opponents. He +could foresee a month beforehand that on a certain day a Royal +concert would make the House empty, and would generously give that +day to a less observant adversary. He knew how to blind the eyes +of members to the truth. Those on the opposite side of the House +would find themselves checkmated by his astuteness,--when with all +their pieces on the board, there should be none which they could +move. And this to him was Government! It was to these purposes +that he conceived that a great Statesman should devote himself! +Parliamentary management! That in his mind, was under the +Constitution of ours the one act essential for Government. + +In all this he was very great; but when it might fall to his duty +either to suggest or defend any real piece of proposed legislation +he was less happy. On this occasion he had been driven to take the +matter in hand because he had previously been concerned in it as a +lawyer. He had allowed himself to wax angry as he endeavoured to +answer certain personal criticisms. Now Sir Timothy was never +stronger then when he simulated anger. His mock indignation was +perhaps his most powerful weapon. But real anger is a passion +which few men can use with judgement. And now Sir Timothy was +really angry, and condescended to speak of our old friend Phineas +who had made the onslaught as a bellicose Irishman. There was an +over-true story as to our friend having once been seduced into +fighting a duel, and those who wished to decry him sometimes +alluded to the adventure. Sir Timothy had been called to order, +but the Speaker had ruled 'bellicose Irishman' was not beyond the +latitude of parliamentary animadversion. Then Sir Timothy had +repeated the phrase with emphasis, and the Duke hearing it in the +gallery had made his remark as to the unwonted eloquence of his +son's parliamentary chief. + +'Surely we ought to listen to him,' said the Duke. And for a short +time they did listen. 'Sir Timothy is not a man I like, you know,' +said the son, feeling himself obliged to apologise for his +subjection to such a chief. + +'I never particularly loved him myself.' + +'They say he is a sort of necessity.' + +'A Conservative Fate,' said the Duke. + +'Well, yes; he is so,--so awfully clever! We all feel that we could +not get on without him. When you were in, he was one of your +party.' + +'Oh yes;--he was one of us. I have no right to complain of you for +using him. But when you say you could not get on without him, does +it not occur to you that should he,--let us say be taken to +heaven,--you would have to get on without him.' + +'Then he would be,--out of the way, sir.' + +'What you mean perhaps is that you do not know how to get rid of +him.' + +'Of course I don't pretend to know much about it; but they all +think that he does know how to keep the party together. I don't +think we are proud of him.' + +'Hardly that.' + +'He is awfully useful. A man has to look out so sharp to be always +ready for those other fellows! I beg your pardon, sir, but I mean +your side.' + +'I understand who the other fellows are.' + +'And it isn't everybody who will go through such a grind. A man to +do it must be always ready. He has so many little things to think +of. As far as I can see we all feel that we could not get along +very well without him.' Upon the whole the Duke was pleased with +what he heard from his son. The young man's ideas about politics +were boyish, but they were the ideas of a clear-headed boy. +Silverbridge had picked up some of the ways of the place, though +he had not yet formed any sound political opinions. + +Then Sir Timothy finished a long speech with a flowery peroration, +in which he declared that if Parliament were desirous of keeping +the realms of Her Majesty free from the invasions of foreigners it +must be done by maintaining the dignity of the Judicial bench. +There were some clamours at this, and although it was now dinner- +time Phineas Finn, who had been called a bellicose Irishman, was +able to say a word or two. 'The Right Honourable gentleman no +doubt means,' said Phineas, 'that we must carry ourselves with +some increased external dignity. The world is bewigging itself, +and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have got, in order to +confront the world with proper self-respect. Turveydrop and +deportment will suffice for us against odds.' + +About half-past seven the House became very empty. 'Where are +going to dine, sir?' asked Silverbridge. The Duke, with something +like a sigh, said he supposed he should dine at home. + +'You never were at the Beargarden;--were you, sir?' asked +Silverbridge suddenly. + +'Never,' said the Duke. + +'Come and dine with me.' + +'I am not a member of the club.' + +'We don't care at all about that. Anybody can take anybody.' + +'Does not that make it promiscuous?' + +'Well;--no; I don't know that it does. It seems to go no very well. +I daresay there are some cads there sometimes. But I don't know +where one doesn't meet cads. There are plenty in the House of +Commons.' + +'There is something in that, Silverbridge, which makes me think +that you have not realised the difference between private and +public life. In the former you choose your own associates and are +responsible for your choice. In the latter you are concerned with +others for the good of the State; and though even for the State's +sake, you would not willingly be closely allied with those whom +you think dishonest, the outward manners and fashions of life need +create no barriers. I should not turn up my nose at the House of +Commons because some constituency might send them an illiterate +shoemaker; but I might probably find the illiterate shoemaker an +unprofitable companion for my private hours.' + +'I don't think there will be any shoemakers at the Beargarden.' + +'Even if there were I would go an dine with you. I shall be glad +to see the place where you, I suppose, pass many hours.' + +'I find it a very good shop to dine at. The place at the House is +so stuffy and nasty. Besides, one likes to get away for a time.' + +'Certainly. I never was an advocate for living in the House. One +should always change the atmosphere.' Then they got into a cab +and went to the club. Silverbridge was a little afraid of what he +was doing. The invitation had come from him on the spur of the +moment, and he hardly ventured to think that his father would +accept it. And now he did not quite know how the Duke would go +through the ceremony. 'The other fellows' would come and stare at +a man whom they had all been taught to regard as the most un- +Beargardenish of men. But he was especially anxious to make things +pleasant for his father. + +'What shall I order?' said the son as he took the Duke into a +dressing-room to wash his hands. The Duke suggested that anything +sufficient for his son would certainly be sufficient for him. + +Nothing especial occurred during the dinner, which the Duke +appeared to enjoy very much. 'Yes; I think it is a very good +soup,' he said. 'I don't think they ever give me any soup at +home.' Then the son expressed his opinion that unless his father +looked about rather more sharply, 'they' very soon would provide +no dinner at all, remarking that experience had taught him that +the less people demanded the more they were 'sat upon'. The Duke +did like his dinner,--or rather he liked the feeling that he was +dining with his son. A report that the Duke of Omnium was with +Lord Silverbridge soon went round the room, and they who were +justified by some previous acquaintance came up to greet him. To +all who did so he was very gracious, and was specially so to Lord +Popplecourt, who happened to pass close by the table. + +'I think he is a fool,' whispered Silverbridge as soon as +Popplecourt had passed. + +'What makes you thinks so?' + +'We thought him an ass at Eton.' + +'He has done pretty well however.' + +'Oh yes, in a way.' + +'Somebody has told me that he is careful about his property.' + +'I believe he is all that,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then I don't see why you should think him a fool.' + +To this Silverbridge made no reply; partly because he had nothing +to say,--but hindered also by the coming in of Tregear. This was an +accident, the possibility of which had not crossed him. +Unfortunately too the Duke's back was turned, so that Tregear, as +he walked up the room, could not see who was sitting at his +friend's table. Tregear coming up stood close to the Duke's elbow +before he recognised the man, and spoke some word or two to +Silverbridge. 'How do you do, Mr Tregear,' said the Duke, turning +round. + +'Oh, my Lord. I did not know that it was you.' + +'You hardly would. I am quite a stranger here. Silverbridge and I +came up from the House together, and he has been hospitable enough +to give me a dinner. I will tell you an odd thing for a London +man, Mr Tregear. I have not dined at a London club for fifteen +years before this.' + +'I hope you like it, sir,' said Silverbridge. + +'Very much indeed. Good-evening, Mr Tregear. I suppose you have to +go to dinner now.' + +Then they went into one of the rooms upstairs to have coffee, the +son declining to go into the smoking-room, and assuring his father +that he did not in the least care about a cigar after dinner. 'You +would be smothered, sir.' The Duke did as he was bidden and went +upstairs. There was in truth a strong reason for avoiding the +publicity of the smoking-room. When bringing his father to the +club he had thought nothing about Tregear but he had thought about +Tifto. As he entered he had seen Tifto at a table dining alone, +and had bobbed his head at him. Then he had taken the Duke to the +further end of the room, and had trusted that fear would keep the +major in his place. Fear had kept the Major in his place. When the +Major learned who the stranger was, he had become silent and +reserved. Before the father and son had finished their dinner, +Tifto had gone to his cigar; and so the danger was over. + +'By George, there's Silverbridge has got his governor to dinner,' +said Tifto, standing in the middle of the room, and looking round +as though he were announcing some confusion of the heavens and +earth. + +'Why shouldn't Silverbridge have his father to dine with him?' +asked Mr Lupton. + +'I believe I know Silverbridge as well as any man, and by George +it is the very last thing of the kind that I should have expected. +There have been no end of quarrels.' + +'There has been no quarrel at all,' said Tregear, who had just +then entered the room. 'Nothing on earth would make Silverbridge +quarrel with his father, and I think it would break the Duke's +heart to quarrel with his son.' Tifto endeavoured to argue the +matter out, but Tregear having made the assertion on behalf of his +friend would not allow himself to be enticed into further speech. + Nevertheless there was a good deal said by others during which +the Major drank two glasses of whisky-and-water. In the dining- +room he had been struck with awe by the Duke's presence, and had +certainly no idea of presenting himself personally to the great +man. But Bacchus lent him aid, and when the discussion was over +and the whisky had been swallowed, it occurred to him that he +would go upstairs and ask to be introduced. + +In the meantime the Duke and his son were seated in close +conversation on one of the upstairs sofas. It was a rule at the +Beargarden that men might smoke all over the house except in the +dining-room;--but there was one small chamber called the library, +in which the practice was not often followed. The room was +generally deserted, and at this moment the father and son were the +only occupants. 'A club,' said the Duke, as he sipped his coffee, +'is a comfortable and economical residence. A man gets what he +wants well-served, and gets it cheap. But it has its drawbacks.' + +'You always see the same fellows,' said Silverbridge. + +'A man who lives much at a club is apt to fall into a selfish mode +of life. He is taught to think that his own comfort should always +be the first object. A man can never be happy unless his first +objects are outside himself. Personal self-indulgence begets a +sense of meanness which sticks to a man even when he has got +beyond all hope of rescue. It is for that reason;--among others,-- +that marriage is so desirable.' + +'A man should marry, I suppose.' + +'Unless a man has on his shoulders the burden of a wife and +children he should, I think, feel that he has shirked out of +school. He is not doing his share of the work of the +Commonwealth.' + +'Pitt was not married, sir.' + +'No;--and a great many other good men have remained unmarried. Do +you mean to be another Pitt?' + +'I don't intend to be Prime Minister.' + +'I would not recommend you to entertain that ambition. Pitt +perhaps hardly had time for marriage. You may be more lucky.' + +'I suppose I shall marry some day.' + +'I should be glad to see you marry early,' said the Duke, speaking +in a low voice, almost solemnly, but in his quietest, sweetest ton +of voice. 'You are peculiarly situated. Though as yet you are only +the heir to the property and honours of our family, still, were +you married, almost everything would be at your disposal. There is +so much I should only be ready to give up to you!' + +'I can't bear to hear you talking of giving up anything,' said +Silverbridge energetically. + +Then the father looked round the room furtively, and seeing that +the door was shut, and that they were assuredly alone, he put out +his hand and gently stroked the young man's hair. It was almost a +caress,--as though he would have said to himself, 'Were he my +daughter, I would kiss him.' 'There is much I would fain give up,' +he said. 'If you were a married man the house in Carlton Terrace +would be fitter for you than for me. I have disqualified myself +for taking that part in society which should be filled by the head +of our family. You who have inherited so much from your mother +would, if you married pleasantly, do all that right well.' He +paused for a moment and then asked a straightforward question, +very quickly--'You have never thought of anyone yet, I suppose?' + +Silverbridge had thought very much of somebody. He was quite aware +that he had almost made an offer to Lady Mabel. She certainly had +not given him any encouragement; but the very fact that she had +not done so allured him all the more. He did believe that he was +thoroughly in love with Lady Mabel. She had told him that he was +too young,--but he was older than Lady Mab herself by a week. She +was beautiful;--that was certain. It was acknowledged by all that +she was clever. As for blood, of which he believed his father +thought much, there was perhaps none better in England. He had +heard it said of her,--as he now well remembered, in his father's +presence,--that she had behaved remarkably well in trying +circumstances. She had no fortune;--everybody knew that; but then +he did not want fortune. Would not this be a good opportunity for +breaking the matter to his father? 'You have never thought of any +one?' asked the Duke,--again very sweetly, very softly. + +'But I have!' Lord Silverbridge as he made the announcement +blushed up to the eyes. + +Then there came over the father something almost of fear. If he +was to be told, how would it be if he could not approve? 'Yes I +have,' said Silverbridge, recovering himself. 'If you wish it, I +will tell you who it is.' + +'Nay, my boy;--as to that consult your own feelings. Are you sure +of yourself?' + +'Oh, yes.' + +'Have you spoken to her?' + +'Well;--yes in part. She has not accepted me, if you mean that. +Rather the contrary.' + +Now the Duke would have been very unwilling to say that his son +would certainly be accepted by any girl in England to whom he +might choose to offer his hand. But when the idea of a doubt was +suggested to him, it did seem odd that his son should ask in vain. +What other young man was there who could offer so much, and who +was at the same time so likely to be loved for his own sake? He +smiled however and was silent. 'I suppose I may as well out with +it,' said Silverbridge. 'You know Lady Mabel Grex?' + +'Lady Mabel Grex. Yes,--I know her.' + +'Is there any objection?' + +'Is she not your senior?' + +'No, sir; she is younger than I am.' + +'Her father is not a man I esteem.' + +'But she has always been so good!' Then the Duke was again +silent. 'Have you not heard that, sir?' + +'I think I have.' + +'Is not that a great deal?' + +'A very great deal. To be good must of all qualities be the best. +She is very beautiful.' + +'I think so, sir. Of course she has no money.' + +'It is not needed. It is not needed. I have no objection to make. +If you are sure of your own mind--' + +'I am quite sure of that, sir.' + +'Then I will raise no objection. Lady Mabel Grex! Her father, I +fear, is not a worthy man. I hear that he is a gambler.' + +'He is so poor!' + +'That makes it worse, Silverbridge. A man who gambles because he +has money that he can afford to lose is, to my thinking, a fool. +But he who gambles because he has none, is--well, let us hope the +best of him. You may give her my love.' + +'She has not accepted me.' + +'But should she do so, you may.' + +'She almost rejected me. But I am not sure that she was in +earnest, and I mean to try again.' Just at that moment the door +was opened and Major Tifto walked into the room. + + + +CHAPTER 27 + +Major Tifto and the Duke + +'I beg your pardon, Silverbridge,' said the Major, entering the +room, 'but I was looking for Longstaff.' + +'He isn't here,' said Silverbridge, who did not wish to be +interrupted by his racing friend. + +'Your father, I believe?' said Tifto. He was red in the face but +was in other respects perhaps improved in appearance by his +liquor. In his more sober moments he was not always able to assume +that appearance of equality with his companions which it was the +ambition of his soul to achieve. But a second glass of whisky-and- +water would always enable him to cock his tail and bark before the +company with all the courage of my lady's pug. 'Would you do me +the great honour to introduce me to his Grace?' + +Silverbridge was not prone to turn his back upon a friend because +he was low in the world. He had begun to understand that he had +made a mistake by connecting himself with the Major, but at the +club he always defended his partner. Though he not infrequently +found himself obliged to snub the Major himself, he always +countenanced the little Master of the Hounds, and was true to his +own idea of 'standing to a fellow'. Nevertheless he did not wish +to introduce his friend to his father. The Duke saw it all at a +glance, and felt that the introduction should be made. 'Perhaps,' +said he, getting up from his chair, 'this is Major Tifto.' + +'Yes;--my Lord Duke. I am Major Tifto.' + +The Duke bowed graciously. 'My father and I were engaged about +private matters.' + +'I beg ten thousand pardons,' exclaimed the Major. 'I did not +intend to intrude.' + +'I think we had done,' said the Duke. 'Pray sit down, Major +Tifto.' The Major sat down. 'Though now I bethink myself, I have +to beg your pardon;--that I a stranger should ask you to sit down +in your own club.' + +'Don't mention it, my Lord Duke.' + +'I am so unused to clubs, that I forgot where I was.' + +'Quite so, my Lord Duke. I hope you think that Silverbridge is +looking well?' + +'Yes;--yes. I think so.' Silverbridge bit his lips, and turned his +face away to the door. + +'We didn't make a very good thing of our Derby nag the other day. +Perhaps your Grace has heard all that?' + +'I did hear that the horse in which you are both interested had +failed to win the race.' + +'Yes, he did. The Prime Minister, we call him, your Grace,--out of +compliment to a certain Ministry which I wish was going on today +instead of the seedy lot we've got in. I think, my Lord Duke, that +any one you ask may tell you that I know what running is. Well;--I +can assure you,--your Grace, that is,--that since I've seen 'orses +I've never seen a 'orse fitter than him. When he got his canter +that morning, it was nearly even betting. Not that I or +Silverbridge were fools enough to put on anything at any rate. But +I never saw a 'orse so bad ridden. I don't mean to say anything, +my Lord Duke, against the man. But if that fellow hadn't been +squared, or else wasn't drunk, or else off his head, that 'orse +must have won,--my Lord Duke.' + +'I do not know anything about racing, Major Tifto.' + +'I suppose not, your Grace. But as I and Silverbridge are together +in this matter I thought I'd just let your Grace know that we +ought to have had a very good thing. I thought that perhaps your +Grace might like to know that.' + +'Tifto, you are making an ass of yourself,' said Silverbridge. + +'Making an ass of myself!' exclaimed the Major. + +'Yes;--considerably.' + +'I think you are a little hard upon your friend,' said the Duke, +with an attempt at a laugh. 'It is not to be supposed that he +should know how utterly indifferent I am to everything connected +with the turf.' + +'I thought, my Lord Duke, you might care about learning how +Silverbridge was going on.' This the poor little man said almost +with a whine. His partner's roughness had knocked out of him +nearly all the courage which Bacchus had given him. + +'So I do; anything that interests him, interests me. But perhaps +of all his pursuits racing is the one to which I am least able to +lend an attentive ear. That every horse has a head, and that all +did have tails till they were ill-used, is the extent of my stable +knowledge.' + +'Very good indeed, my Lord Duke, very good indeed! Ha, ha, ha!-all +horses have heads, and all have tails! Heads and tails. Upon my +word that is the best thing I have heard for a long time. I will +do myself the honour of wishing your Grace good-night. By-bye, +Silverbridge.' Then he left the room, having been made supremely +happy by what he considered to have been the Duke's joke. +Nevertheless he would remember the snubbing and would be even with +Silverbridge some day. Did Lord Silverbridge think that he was +going to look after his Lordship's 'orses, and do this always on +the square, and then be snubbed for doing it! + +'I am very sorry that he should have come in to trouble you,' said +the son. + +'He has not troubled me much. I do not know whether he has +troubled you. If you are coming down to the House again I will +walk with you.' Silverbridge of course had to go down to the +House again, and they started together. 'That man did not trouble +me Silverbridge; but the question is whether such an acquaintance +must not be troublesome to you.' + +'I'm not very proud of him, sir.' + +'But I think one ought to be proud of one's friends.' + +'He isn't my friend in that way at all.' + +'In what way then?' + +'He understands racing.' + +'He is the partner of your pleasure then;--the man whose society +you love to enjoy the recreation of the racecourse.' + +'It is, sir, because he understands it.' + +'I thought that a gentleman on the turf would have a trainer for +that purpose;--not a companion. You mean to imply that you can save +money by leaguing yourself with Major Tifto.' + +'No, sir,--indeed.' + +'If you associate with him, not for pleasure, then it must surely +be for profit. That you should do the former would be to me +surprising that I must regard it as impossible. That you should do +the latter--is, I think, a reproach.' This, he said, with no tone +of anger in his voice,--so gently that Silverbridge at first hardly +understood it. But gradually all that was meant came in upon him, +and he felt himself to be ashamed of himself. + +'He is bad,' he said at last. + +'Whether he is bad I will not say; but I am sure that you can gain +nothing by his companionship.' + +'I will get rid of him,' said Silverbridge, after a considerable +pause. 'I cannot do so at once, but I will do it.' + +'It will be better, I think.' + +'Tregear has been telling me the same thing.' + +'Is he objectionable to Mr Tregear?' asked the Duke. + +'Oh yes. Tregear cannot bear him. You treated him a great deal +better than Tregear ever does.' + +'I do not deny that he is entitled to be treated well;--but so also +is your groom. Let us say no more about him. And so it is to be +Mabel Grex?' + +'I did not say so, sir. How can I answer for her? Only it was so +pleasant for me to know that you would approve if it should come +off.' + +'Yes;--I will approve. When she has accepted you--' + +'But I don't think she will.' + +'If she should, tell her that I will go to her at once. It will be +much to have a new daughter;--very much that you should have a +wife. Where would she like to live?' + +'Oh, sir, we haven't got as far as that.' + +'I dare say not; I dare say not,' said the Duke. 'Gatherum is +always thought to be dull.' + +'She wouldn't like Gatherum, I'm sure.' + +'Have you asked her?' + +'No, sir. But nobody likes Gatherum.' + +'I suppose not. And yet, Silverbridge, what a sum of money it +cost!' + +'I believe it did.' + +'All vanity; and vexation of spirit!' + +The Duke no doubt thinking of certain scenes passed at the great +house in question, which scenes had not been delightful to him. +'No, I don't suppose she would wish to live at Gatherum. The Horns +was given expressly by my uncle to your dear mother, and I should +like Mary to have the place.' + +'Certainly.' + +'You should live among your tenantry. I don't care so very much +for Matching.' + +'It is the one place you do like, sir.' + +'However, we can manage all that. Carlton Terrace I do not +particularly like; but it is a good house, and there you should +hang up your hat when in London. When it is settled, let me know +at once.' + +'But if it should never be settled?' + +'I will ask no questions; but if it be settled tell me.' Then in +Palace Yard he was turning to go, but before he did so, he said +another word leaning on his son's shoulder. 'I do not think that +Mabel Grex and Major Tifto would do well together at all.' + +'There shall be an end to that, sir.' + +'God bless you my boy!' said the Duke. + +Lord Silverbridge sat in the House,--or to speak more accurately, +in the smoking-room of the House--for about an hour thinking over +all that had passed between him and his father. He certainly had +not intended to say anything about Lady Mab, but on the spur of +the moment it had all come out. Now at any rate it was decided for +him that he must, in set terms, ask her to be his wife. The scene +which had just occurred had made him thoroughly sick of Major +Tifto. He must get rid of the Major, and there could be no way of +doing this at once so easy and so little open to observation as +marriage. If he were but once engaged to Mabel Grex the dismissal +of Tifto would be quite a matter of course. He would see Lady +Mabel again on the morrow and ask her in direct language to be his +wife. + + + +CHAPTER 28 + +Mrs Montacute Jones's Garden-Party + +It was known to all the world that Mrs Montacute Jones's first +great garden-party was to come off on Wednesday, the sixteenth of +June, at Roehampton. Mrs Montacute Jones, who lived in Grosvenor +Place and had a country house in Gloucestershire, and a place for +young men to shoot at in Scotland, also kept a suburban elysium in +Roehampton, in order that she might give two garden-parties every +year. When it is said that all these costly luxuries appertained +to Mrs Montacute Jones, it is to be understood that they did in +truth belong to Mr Jones, of whom nobody heard much. But of Mrs +Jones,--that is, Mrs Montacute Jones,--everybody heard a great deal. +She was an old lady who devoted her life to the amusement of--not +only her friends, but very many who were not her friends. No doubt +she was fond of Lords and Countesses, and worked very hard to get +round her all the rank and fashion of the day. It must be +acknowledged that she was a worldly old woman. But no more good- +natured old woman lived in London, and everybody liked to be asked +to her garden-parties. On this occasion there was to be a +considerable infusion of royal blood,--German, Belgian, French, +Spanish, and of native growth. Everybody, who was asked would go, +and everybody had been asked,--who was anybody. Lord Silverbridge +had been asked, and Lord Silverbridge intended to be there. Lady +Mary his sister, could even be asked, because her mother was +hardly more than three months dead; but it is understood in the +world that women mourn longer than men. + +Silverbridge had mounted a private hansom cab in which he could be +taken about rapidly,--and, as he said himself, without being shut +up in a coffin. In this vehicle he had himself taken to +Roehampton, purporting to kill two birds with one stone. He had +not as yet seen his sister since she had been with Lady Cantrip. +He would on this day come back by the Horns. + +He was well aware that Lady Mab would be at the garden-party. What +place could be better for putting the question he had to ask! He +was by no means so confident as the heir to so many good things +might perhaps have been without overdue self-confidence. + +Entering through the house into the lawn he encountered Mrs +Montacute Jones, who, with a seat behind her on the terrace, +surrounded by flowers, was going through the immense labour of +receiving her guests. + +'How very good of you to come all this way, Lord Silverbridge, to +eat my strawberries.' + +'How very good of you to ask me! I did not come to eat your +strawberries but to see your friends.' + +'You ought to have said you came to see me, you know. Have you met +Miss Boncassen yet?' + +'The American beauty? No. Is she here?' + +'Yes; and she particularly wants to be introduced to you; you +won't betray me, will you?' + +'Certainly not; I am true as steel.' + +'She wanted, she said, to see if the eldest son of the Duke of +Omnium really did look like any other man.' + +'Then I don't want to see her,' said Silverbridge, with a look of +vexation. + +'There you are wrong, for there was a real downright fun in the +way she said it. There they are, and I shall introduce you.' Then +Mrs Montacute Jones absolutely left her post for a minute or two, +and taking the young lord down the steps of the terrace did +introduce him to Mr Boncassen, who was standing there amidst a +crowd, and to Miss Boncassen. + +Mr Boncassen was an American who had lately arrived in England +with the object of carrying out certain literary pursuits in which +he was engaged within the British Museum. He was an American who +had nothing to do with politics and nothing to do with trade. He +was a man of wealth and a man of letters. And he had a daughter +who was said to be the prettiest young woman either in Europe or +America at the present time. + +Isabel Boncassen was certainly a very pretty girl. I wish that my +reader would believe my simple assurance. But no such simple +assurance was ever believed, and I doubt even whether any +description will procure for me from the reader that amount of +faith which I desire to achieve. But I must make the attempt. +General opinion generally considered Miss Boncassen to be small, +but she was in truth something above the average height of English +women. She was slight, without that look of slimness which is +common to girls, and especially to American girls. That her figure +was perfect the reader may believe my word, as any detailed +description of her arms, feet, bust, and waist, would be +altogether ineffective. Her hair was dark brown and plentiful; but +it added but little to her charms, which depended on other +matters. Perhaps what struck the beholder first was the excessive +brilliancy of her complexion. No pink was every pinker, no +alabaster whiteness was ever more like alabaster; but under and +around and through it all there was a constant changing hue which +gave a vitality to her countenance which no fixed colours can +produce. Her eyes, too, were full of life and brilliancy, and even +when she was silent her mouth would speak. Nor was there a fault +within the oval of her face upon which the hypercritics of mature +age could set a finger. Her teeth were excellent both in form and +colour, but were seen seldom. Who does not know that look of +ubiquitous ivory produced by teeth which are too perfect in a face +which is otherwise poor? Her nose at the base spread a little,--so +that it was not purely Grecian. But who has ever seen a nose to be +eloquent and expressive, which did not spread? It was, I think, +the vitality of her countenance,--they way in which she could speak +with every feature, the command which she had of pathos, of +humour, of sympathy, of satire, the assurance which she gave by +every glance of her eye, every elevation of her brow, every curl +of her lip, that she was alive to all that was going on,--it was +all this rather than those feminine charms which can be catalogued +and labelled that made all acknowledge that she was beautiful. + +'Lord Silverbridge,' said Mr Boncassen, speaking a little through +his nose, 'I am proud to make your acquaintance, sir. Your father +is a man for whom we in our country have a great respect. I think, +sir, you must be proud of such a father.' + +'Oh yes,--no doubt,' said Silverbridge awkwardly. Then Mr Boncassen +continued his discourse with the gentlemen around him. Upon this +our friend turned to the young lady. 'Have you been long in +England, Miss Boncassen?' + +'Long enough to have heard about you and your father,' she said, +speaking with no slightest twang. + +'I hope you have not heard evil of me.' + +'Well!' + +'I'm sure you can't have heard much good.' + +'I know you didn't win the Derby.' + +'You've been long enough to hear that.' + +'Do you suppose we don't interest ourselves about the Derby in New +York? Why, when we arrived at Queenstown I was leaning over the +taffrail so that I might ask the first man on board the tender +whether the Prime Minister had won.' + +'And he said he hadn't.' + +'I can't conceive why you of all men should call your horse by +such a name. If my father had been President of the United States, +I don't think I'd call a horse President.' + +'I didn't name the horse.' + +'I'd have changed it. But is it not very impudent of me to be +finding fault with you the first time I have ever met you? Shall +you have a horse at Ascot?' + +'There will be something going, I suppose. Nothing that I care +about.' Lord Silverbridge had made up his mind that he would not +go to the races with Tifto before the Leger. The Leger would be an +affair of such moment as to demand his presence. After that should +come the complete rupture between him and Tifto. + +Then there was movement among the elders, and Lord Silverbridge +soon found himself walking alone with Miss Boncassen. It seemed to +her to be quite natural to do so, and there certainly was no +reason why he should decline anything so pleasant. It was thus +that he had intended to walk with Mabel Grex;--only as yet he had +not found her. 'Oh, yes,' said Miss Boncassen, when they had been +together about twenty minutes; 'we shall be here all the summer, +and the fall, and all the winter. Indeed father means to read +every book in the British Museum before he goes back.' + +'He'll have something to do.' + +'He reads by steam, and he has two or three young men with him to +take it all down and make other books out of it;--just as you'll +see a lady take a lace shawl and turn it all about till she has +trimmed a petticoat with it. It is the same lace all through,--and +so I tell father it's the same knowledge.' + +'But he puts it where more people will find it.' + +'The lady endeavours to do the same with the lace. That depends on +whether people look up or down. Father however is a very learned +man. You mustn't suppose that I am laughing at him. He is going to +write a very learned book. Only everybody will be dead before it +can be half finished.' They still went on together, and then he +gave her his arm and took her into the place where the +strawberries and cream were prepared. As he was going in he say +Mabel Grex walking with Tregear, and she bowed to him pleasantly +and playfully. 'Is that lady a great friend of yours?' asked Miss +Boncassen. + +'A very great friend indeed.' + +'She is very beautiful.' + +'And clever as well,--and good as gold.' + +'Dear me! Do tell me who it is that owns all these qualities.' + +'Lady Mabel Grex. She is daughter of Lord Grex. That man with her +is my particular friend. His name is Frank Tregear, and they are +cousins.' + +'I am so glad they are cousins.' + +'Why glad?' + +'Because his being with her won't make you unhappy.' + +'Supposing I was in love with her,--which I am not,--do you suppose +it would make me jealous to see her with another man?' + +'In our country it would not. A young lady may walk about with a +young gentleman just as she might with another young lady; but I +thought it was different here. Do you know, by judging English +ways, I believe I am behaving very improperly in walking about +with you so long. Ought I not to tell you to go away?' + +'Pray do not.' + +'As I am going to stay here so long I wish to behave well in +English eyes.' + +'People know who you are, and discount all that.' + +'If the difference be very marked they do. For instance, I needn't +wear a hideous long bit of cloth over my face in Constantinople +because I am a woman. But when the discrepancies are small, then +they have to be attended to. So I shan't walk about with you any +more.' + +'Oh yes you will,' said Silverbridge, who began to think that he +liked walking about with Miss Boncassen. + +'Certainly not. There is Mr Sprottle. He is father's Secretary. He +will take me back.' + +'Can not I take you back as well as Mr Sprottle?' + +'Indeed no;--I am not going to monopolise such a man as you. Do you +think that I don't understand that everybody will be making +remarks upon that American girl who won't leave the son of the +Duke of Omnium alone? There is your particular friend Lady Mabel, +and here is my particular friend Mr Sprottle.' + +'May I come and call?' + +'Certainly. Father will only be too proud,--and I shall be prouder. +Mother will be the proudest of all. Mother very seldom goes out. +Till we get a house we at The Langham. Thank you, Mr Sprottle. I +think we'll go and find father.' + +Lord Silverbridge found himself close to Lady Mabel and Tregear, +and also to Miss Cassewary, who had now joined Lady Mabel. He had +been much struck with the American beauty, but was not on that +account the less anxious to carry out his great plan. It was +essentially necessary that he should do so at once, because the +matter had been settled between him and his father. He was anxious +to assure her that if she would consent, then the Duke would be +ready to pour out all kinds of paternal blessings on their heads. +'Come and take a turn among the haycocks,' he said. + +'Frank declares,' said Lady Mabel, 'that the hay is hired for the +occasion. I wonder whether that is true?' + +'Anybody can see,' said Tregear, 'that it has not been cut off the +grass it stands upon.' + +'If I could find Mrs Montacute Jones I'd ask her where she got +it,' said Lady Mabel. + +'Are you coming?' asked Silverbridge impatiently. + +'I don't think I am. I have been walking round the haycocks till I +am tired of them.' + +'Anywhere else then?' + +'There isn't anywhere else. What have you done with your American +beauty? The truth is, Lord Silverbridge, you ask me for my company +when she won't give you hers any longer. Doesn't it look like it, +Miss Cassewary?' + +'I don't think Lord Silverbridge is the man to forget an old +friend for a new one.' + +'Not though the new friend be as lovely as Miss Boncassen?' + +'I don't know that I ever saw a prettier girl,' said Tregear. + +'I quite admit it,' said Lady Mabel. 'But that is no salve for my +injured feelings. I have heard so much talk about Miss Boncassen's +beauty for the last week, that I mean to get up a company of +British females, limited, for the express purpose of putting her +down. Who is Miss Boncassen that we are all to be put on one side +for her?' + +Of course he knew that she was joking, but he hardly knew how to +take her joke. There is a manner of joking which carries with it +much serious intention. He did feel that Lady Mabel was not +gracious to him because he had spent half an hour with this new +beauty, and he was half inclined to be angry with her. Was it +fitting that she should be cross with him, seeing that he was +resolved to throw at her feet all the good things that he had in +the world? 'Bother Miss Boncassen,' he said; 'you might as well +come and take a turn with a fellow.' + +'Come along, Miss Cassewary,' said she. 'We will go around the +haycocks yet once again.' So they turned and the two ladies +accompanied Lord Silverbridge. + +But this was not what he wanted. He could not say what he had to +say in the presence of Miss Cassewary,--nor could he ask her to +take herself off in another direction. Nor could he take himself +off. Now that he had joined himself to these two ladies he must +make with them the tour of the gardens. All this made him cross. +'These kind of things are a great bore,' he said. + +'I dare say you would rather be in the House of Commons;--or, +better still, at the Beargarden.' + +'You mean to be ill-natured when you say that, Lady Mab.' + +'You ask me to come and walk with you, and then you tell us that +we are bores!' + +'I did nothing of the kind.' + +'I should have thought that you would be particularly pleased with +yourself for coming here today, seeing that you have made Miss +Boncassen's acquaintance. To be allowed to walk half and hour +alone with the acknowledged beauty of the two hemispheres ought to +be enough even for Lord Silverbridge.' + +'That is nonsense, Lady Mab.' + +'Nothing give so much zest to admiration as novelty. A republican +charmer must be exciting after all the blasees habituees of the +London drawing-room.' + +'How can you talk such nonsense, Mabel?' said Miss Cassewary. + +'But it is so. I feel that people must be sick of seeing me. I +know I am very often sick of seeing them. Here is something +fresh,--and not only unlike, but so much more lovely. I quite +acknowledge that I may be jealous, but no one can say that I am +spiteful. I wish that some republican Adonis or Apollo would crop +up,--so that we might have our turn. But I don't think the +republican gentlemen are equal to the republican ladies. Do you, +Lord Silverbridge? + +'I haven't thought about it.' + +'Mr Sprottle for instance.' + +'I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr Sprottle.' + +'Now we've been around the haycocks, and really, Lord +Silverbridge, I don't think we have gained much by it. Those +forced marches never do any good.' And so they parted. + +He was thinking with a bitter spirit of the ill-result of the +morning's work when he again found himself close to Miss barbarian +in the crowd of departing people on the terrace. 'Mind you keep +your word,' she said. And then she turned to her father, 'Lord +Silverbridge has promised to call.' + +'Mrs Boncassen will be delighted to make his acquaintance.' + +He got into his cab and was driven off before Richmond. As he went +he began to think of the two young women with whom he had passed +his morning. Mabel had certainly behaved badly to him. Even if she +suspected nothing of his object, did she not owe it to their +friendship to be more courteous to him than she had been? And if +she suspected that object, should she not at any rate given him +that opportunity? + +Or could it be that she was really jealous of the American girl? +No;--that idea he rejected instantly. It was not compatible with +the innate modesty of his disposition. But no doubt the American +girl was very lovely. Merely as a thing to be looked at she was +superior to Mabel. He did feel that as to mere personal beauty she +was in truth superior to anything he had ever seen before. And she +was clever too;--and good-humoured;--whereas Mabel had been both +ill-natured and unpleasant. + + + +CHAPTER 29 + +The Lovers Meet + +Lord Silverbridge found his sister alone. 'I particularly want +you,' said he, 'to come and call upon Lady Mabel Grex. She wishes +to know you, and I am sure you would like her.' + +'But I haven't been out anywhere yet,' she said. 'I don't feel as +though I wanted to go anywhere.' + +Nevertheless she was very anxious to know Lady Mabel Grex, of whom +she had heard much. A girl if she has had a former love passage +says nothing of it to her new lover; but a man is not so reticent. +Frank Tregear had perhaps not told her everything, but he had told +her something. 'I was very fond of her,--very fond of her,' he had +said. 'And so I am still,' he had added. 'As you are my love of +loves, she is my friend of friends.' Lady Mary had been satisfied +by the assurance, but had become anxious to see the friend of +friends. She resisted at first her brother's entreaties. She felt +that her father in delivering her over to the seclusions of The +Horns had intended to preclude her from showing herself in London. +She was conscious that she was being treated with cruelty, and had +a certain pride in her martyrdom. She would obey her father to the +letter; she would give him no right to call her conduct in +question; but he and any other to whom he might entrust the care +of her, should be made to know that she thought him cruel. He had +his power to which she must submit. But she also had hers,--to +which it was possible he might be made to submit. 'I do not know +that papa would wish me to go,' she said. + +'But it is just what he would wish. He thinks a good deal about +Mabel.' + +'Why should he think of her at all?' + +'I can't exactly explain,' said Silverbridge, 'but he does.' + +'If you mean to tell me that Mabel Grex is anything particular to +you, and that papa approves of it, I will go round the world to +see her.' But he had not meant to tell his this. The request had +been made at Lady Mabel's instance. When his sister had spoken of +her father's possible objection, then he had become eager in +explaining the Duke's feeling, not remembering that such anxiety +might betray himself. At that moment Lady Cantrip came in, and the +question was referred to her. She did not see any objection to +such a visit, and expressed her opinion that it would be a good +thing that Mary should be taken out. 'She should begin to go +somewhere,' said Lady Cantrip. And so it was decided. On the next +Friday he would come down early in his hansom and drive her up to +Belgrave Square. Then he would take her to Carlton Terrace, and +Lady Cantrip's carriage should pick her up there and bring her +home. He would arrange it all. + +'What did you think of the American beauty?' asked Lady Cantrip +when that was settled. + +'I thought she was a beauty.' + +'So I perceived. You had eyes for nobody else,' said Lady Cantrip, +who had been at the garden-party. + +'Somebody introduced her to me, and then I had to walk about the +grounds with her. That's the kind of thing one always does in +these places.' + +'Just so. That is what "those places" are meant for, I suppose. +But it was not apparently a great infliction.' Lord Silverbridge +had to explain that it was not an infliction;--that it was a +privilege, seeing that Miss Boncassen was both clever and lovely; +but that it did not mean anything in particular. + +When he took his leave he asked his sister to go out into the +grounds with him for a moment. This she did almost unwillingly, +fearing that he was about to speak to her of Tregear. But he had +no such purpose on his mind. 'Of course you know,' he began, 'all +that was nonsense you were saying about Mabel.' + +'I did not know.' + +'I was afraid you might blurt out something before her.' + +'I should not be so imprudent.' + +'Girls do make such fools of themselves sometimes. They are always +thinking about people being in love. But it is the truth that my +father said to me the other day how very much he liked what he had +heard of her, and that he would like you to know her.' + +On that same evening Silverbridge wrote from the Beargarden the +shortest possible note to Lady Mabel, telling her what he had +arranged. 'I and Mary propose to call in B. Square on Friday at +two. I must be early because of the House. You will give us lunch. +S.' There was no word of endearment,--none of those ordinary words +which people who hate each other use to one another. But he +received the next day at home a much more kindly-written note from +her: + +'DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'You are so good! You always do just what you think people +will like best. Nothing could please me so much as seeing your +sister, of whom of course I have heard very very much. There shall +be nobody here but Miss Cass. + +'Yours most sincerely, +M.G.' + +'How I do wish I were a man!' his sister said to him when they +were in the hansom together. + +'You'd have a great deal more trouble.' + +'But I'd have a hansom of my own, and go where I pleased. How +would you like to be shut up in a place like The Horn?' + +'You can go out if you like.' + +'Not like you. Papa thinks it's the proper place for me to live +in, and so I must live there. I don't think a woman ever chooses +how or where she shall live herself.' + +'You are not going to take up woman's rights, I hope.' + +'I think I shall if I stay at The Horns much longer. What would +papa say if he heard that I was going to give a lecture at the +Institute?' + +'The governor has had so many things to bear that a trifle such as +that would make but little difference.' + +'Poor papa!' + +'He was dreadfully cut up about Gerald. And then he is so good! He +said more to me about Gerald than he ever did about my own little +misfortune at Oxford; but to Gerald himself he said almost +nothing. Now he has forgiven me because he thinks I am constant at +the House.' + +'And are you?' + +'Not so much as he thinks. I do go there,--for his sake. He has +been so good about my changing sides.' + +'I think you were quite right there.' + +'I am beginning to think I was quite wrong. What did it matter to +me?' + +'I suppose it did make papa unhappy.' + +'Of course it did;--and then this affair of yours.' As soon as +this was said Lady Mary at once hardened her heart against her +father. Whether Silverbridge was or was not entitled to his own +political opinions,--seeing that the Pallisers had for ages been +known as staunch Whigs and Liberals,--might be a matter for +question. But that she had a right to her own lover she thought +there could be no question. As they were sitting in the cab he +could hardly see her face, but he was aware that she was in some +fashion arming herself against opposition. 'I am sure that this +makes him very unhappy,' continued Silverbridge. + +'It cannot be altered,' she said. + +'It will have to be altered.' + +'Nothing can alter it. He might die, indeed;--or so might I.' + +'Or he might see that it is no good,--and change his mind,' +suggested Silverbridge. + +'Of course that is possible,' said Lady Mary very curtly,--showing +plainly by her manner that the subject was one which she did not +choose to discuss any further. + +'It is very good of you to come to me,' said Lady Mabel, kissing +her new acquaintance. 'I have heard so much about you.' + +'And I also of you.' + +'I, you know, am one of your brother's stern Mentors. There are +three or four of us determined to make him a pattern young +legislator. Miss Cassewary is another. Only she is not quite so +stern as I am.' + +'He ought to be very much obliged.' + +'But he is not;--not a bit. Are you, Lord Silverbridge?' + +'Not so much as I ought to be, perhaps.' + +'Of course there is an opposing force. There are the race-horses, +and the drag, and Major Tifto. No doubt you have heard of Major +Tifto. The Major is the Mr Worldly-Wise-man who won't let +Christian go to the Straight Gate. I am afraid he hasn't read his +Pilgrim's Progress. But we shall prevail, Lady Mary, and he will +get to the beautiful city at last.' + +'What is the beautiful city?' he asked. + +'A seat in the Cabinet, I suppose;--or that general respect which a +young nobleman achieves when he shows himself able to sit on a +bench for six consecutive hours without appearing to go to sleep.' + +Then they went to lunch, and Lady Mary found herself to be happy +with her new acquaintance. Her life since her mother's death had +been so sad, that this short escape from it was a relief to her. +Now for awhile she found herself almost gay. There was an easy +liveliness about Lady Mabel,--a grain of humour and playfulness +conjoined,--which made her feel at home at once. And it seemed to +her as though her brother was at home. He called the girl Lady +Mab, and Queen Mab, and once plain Mabel, and the old woman he +called Miss Cass. It surely, she thought, must be the case that +Lady Mabel and her brother were engaged. + +'Come upstairs into my own room,--it is nicer than this,' said Lady +Mabel, and they went from the dining-room into a pretty little +sitting-room with which Silverbridge was very well acquainted. +'Have you heard of Miss Boncassen?' Mary said she had heard +something of Miss Boncassen's great beauty. 'Everybody is talking +about her. Your brother met at Mrs Montacute Jones's garden-party, +and was made a conquest of instantly.' + +'I wasn't made a conquest of at all,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then he ought to have been made a conquest of. I should be if I +were a man. I think she is the loveliest person to look at and the +nicest person to listen to that I ever came across. We all feel +that, as far as this season is concerned, we are cut out. But we +don't mind it so much because she is a foreigner.' Then just as +she said this the door was opened and Frank Tregear was announced. + +Everybody present there knew as well as does the reader, what was +the connection between Tregear and Lady Mary Palliser. And each +knew that the other knew it. It was therefore impossible for them +not to feel themselves guilty among themselves. The two lovers had +not seen each other since they had been together in Italy. Now +they were brought face to face in this unexpected manner! And +nobody except Tregear was at first quite sure whether somebody had +done something to arrange the meeting. Mary might naturally +suspect that Lady Mabel had done this in the interest of her +friend Tregear, and Silverbridge could not but suspect that it was +so. Lady Mabel, who had never before met the other girl, could +hardly refrain from thinking that there had been some underhand +communication,--and Miss Cassewary was clearly of the opinion that +there had been some understanding. + +Silverbridge was the first to speak. 'Halloo, Tregear, I didn't +know that we were to see you.' + +'Nor I, that I should see you,' said he. Then of course there was +a shaking of hands all round, in the course of which ceremony he +came to Mary the last. She gave him her hand, but had not a word +to say to him. 'If I had known that you were here,' he said, 'I +should not have come; but I need hardly say how glad I am to see +you,--even in this way.' Then the two girls were convinced that +the meeting was accidental; but Miss Cass still had her doubts. + +Conversation became at once very difficult. Tregear seated himself +near, but not very near, to Lady Mary, and made some attempt to +talk to both the girls at once. Lady Mabel plainly showed that she +was not at her ease;--whereas Mary seemed to be stricken dumb by +the presence of her lover. Silverbridge was so much annoyed by a +feeling that this interview was a treason to his father, that he +sat cudgelling his brain to think how he should bring it to an +end. Miss Cassewary was dumb-founded by the occasion. She was the +one elder in the company who ought to see that no wrong was +committed. She was not directly responsible to the Duke of Omnium, +but she was thoroughly permeated by a feeling that it was her duty +to take care that there should be no clandestine love meetings in +Lord Grex's house. At last Silverbridge jumped up from his chair. +'Upon my word, Tregear, I think you had better go,' said he. + +'So do I,' said Miss Cassewary. 'If it is an accident--' + +'Of course it is an accident,' said Tregear angrily,--looking round +at Mary, who blushed up to her eyes. + +'I did not mean to doubt it,' said the old lady. 'But as it has +occurred, Mabel, don't you think that he had better go?' + +'He won't bite anybody, Miss Cass.' + +'Certainly not,' said Mary, speaking for the first time. 'But now +he is here--' Then she stopped herself, rose from the sofa, sat +down, and then rising again, stepped up to her lover,--who rose at +the same moment,--and threw herself into his arms and put up her +lips to be kissed. + +'This won't do at all,' said Silverbridge. Miss Cassewary clasped +her hands together and looked up to heaven. She probably had never +seen such a thing done before. Lady Mabel's eyes were filled with +tears, and though in all this there was much to cause her anguish, +still in her heart of hearts, she admired the brave girl who could +thus show her truth to her lover. + +'Now go,' said Mary, through her sobs. + +'Now own one,' ejaculated Tregear. + +'Yes, yes, yes; always your own. Go,--go, go.' She was weeping and +sobbing as she said this, and hiding her face with her +handkerchief. He stood for a moment irresolute, and then left the +room without a word of adieu to anyone. + +'You have behaved very badly,' said the brother. + +'She has behaved like an angel,' said Mabel, throwing her arms +round Mary, as she spoke, 'like an angel. If there had been a girl +whom you loved and who loved you, would you have not wished it? +Would you not have worshipped her for showing that she was not +ashamed of her love?' + +'I am not a bit ashamed,' said Mary. + +'And I say you have no cause. No one knows him like I do. How good +he is, and how worthy!' Immediately after that Silverbridge took +his sister away, and Lady Mabel, escaping from Miss Cass was +alone. 'She loves him almost as I have loved him,' she said to +herself. 'I wonder whether he can love her as he did me?' + + + +CHAPTER 30 + +What Came of the Meeting + +Not a word was said in the cab as Lord Silverbridge took his +sister to Carlton Terrace, and he leaving her without any +reference to the scene which had taken place, when an idea struck +him that this would be cruel. 'Mary,' he said, 'I was very sorry +for all that.' + +'It was not my doing.' + +'I suppose it was nobody's doing. But I am very sorry that it +occurred. I think you should have controlled yourself.' + +'No!' she almost shouted. + +'I think so.' + +'No;--if you mean by controlling myself, holding my tongue. He is +the man I love,--whom I have promised to marry.' + +'But, Mary,--do ladies generally embrace their lovers in public?' + +'No;--nor should I. I never did such a thing in my life before. But +as he was there I had to show that I was not ashamed of him! Do +you think I should have done it if you all had not been there?' +Then again she burst into tears. + +He did not know quite what to make of it. Mabel Grex had declared +that she had behaved like an angel. But yet, as he thought of what +he had seen, he shuddered with vexation. 'I was thinking of the +governor.' + +'He shall be told everything.' + +'That you met Tregear?' + +'Certainly; and that I--kissed him. I will do nothing that I +ashamed to tell everybody.' + +'He will be very angry.' + +'I cannot help it. He should not treat me as he is doing. Mr +Tregear is a gentleman. Why did he let him come? Why you bring +him? But it is of no use. The thing is settled. Papa can break my +heart, but he cannot make me say that I am not engaged to Mr +Tregear.' + +On that night Mary told the whole of her story to Lady Cantrip. +There was nothing she tried to conceal. 'I got up,' she said, 'and +threw my arms round him. Is he not all the world to me?' + +'Had it been planned?' asked Lady Cantrip. + +'No;--no! Nothing had been planned. They are cousins and very +intimate, and he goes there constantly. Now I want you to tell +papa all about it.' + +Lady Cantrip began to think that it had been an evil day for her +when she had agreed to take charge of this very determined young +lady, but she consented to write to the Duke. As the girl was in +her hands she must take care not to lay herself open to +reproaches. As this objectionable lover had either contrived a +meeting, or had met her without contriving, it was necessary that +the Duke should be informed. 'I would rather you wrote the +letter,' said Lady Mary. 'But pray tell him that all along I have +meant him to know about it.' + +Till Lady Cantrip seated herself at her writing-table she did not +know how great the difficulty would be. It cannot in any +circumstance be easy to write to a father of his daughter's love +for an objectionable lover; but the Duke's character added much to +the severity of the task. And then that embrace! She knew that +the Duke would be struck with horror as he read of such a tale, +and she found herself almost struck with horror as she attempted +to write it. When she came to the point she found that she could +not write it. 'I fear there was a good deal of warmth shown on +both sides,' she said, feeling that she was calumniating the man, +as to whose warmth she had heard nothing. 'It is quite clear,' she +added, 'that this is not a passing fancy on her part.' + +It was impossible that the Duke should be made to understand +exactly what had occurred. That Silverbridge had taken Mary he did +understand, and that they had together gone to Lord Grex's house. +He understood also that the meeting had taken place in the +presence of Silverbridge and Lady Mabel. 'No doubt it was all an +accident,' Lady Cantrip wrote. How could it be an accident? + +'You had Mary up in town on Friday?' he said to his son on the +following Sunday morning. + +'Yes, sir.' + +'And that friend of yours came in?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Do you not know what my wishes are?' + +'Certainly I do;--but I could not help his coming. You do not +suppose that anybody had planned it?' + +'I hope not.' + +'It was simply an accident. Such an accident as must occur over +and over again,--unless Mary is to be locked up.' + +'Who talks of locking anybody up? What right have you to speak in +that way?' + +'I only meant that of course they will stumble across each other +in London.' + +'I think I will go abroad,' said the Duke. He was silent for +awhile, and then repeated his words. 'I think I will go abroad.' + +'Not for long I hope, sir.' + +'Yes;--to live there. Why should I stay here? What good can I do +here? Everything I see and everything I hear is a pain to me.' +The young man of course could not but go back in his mind to the +last interview which he had had with his father, when the Duke had +been so gracious and apparently so well pleased. + +'Is there anything else wrong,--except about Mary?' Silverbridge +asked. + +'I am told Gerald owes about fifteen hundred pounds at Cambridge.' + +'So much as that! I knew that he had a few horses there.' + +'It is not the money, but the absence of principle,--that a young +man should have no feeling that he ought to live within certain +prescribed means! Do you know what you have had from Mr Morton?' + +'Not exactly, sir.' + +'It is different with you. But a man, let him be who he may, +should live within certain means. As for your sister, I think she +will break my heart.' Silverbridge found it impossible to say +anything in answer to this. 'Are you going to church?' asked the +Duke. + +'I was not thinking of doing so particularly.' + +'Do you not ever go?' + +'Yes;--sometimes. I will go with you now, if you like it, sir.' + +'I had thought of going, but my mind is too much harassed. I do +not see why you should not go.' + +But Silverbridge, though he had been willing to sacrifice his +morning to his father,--for it was, I fear, in that way that he +looked at it,--did not see any reason for performing a duty which +his father himself omitted. And there were various matters also +which harassed him. On the previous evening, after dinner, he had +allowed himself to back the Prime Minister for the Leger to a very +serious amount. In fact he had plunged, and now stood to lose some +twenty thousand pounds on the doings of the last night. And he had +made these bets under the influence of Major Tifto. It was the +remembrance of this, after the promise he had made to his father, +that annoyed him the most. He was imbued with a feeling that it +behoved him as a man to 'pull himself together' as he would have +said himself, and to live in accordance with certain rules. He +could make the rules easily enough, but he had never yet succeeded +in keeping any one of them. He had determined to sever himself +from Tifto, and, in doing that, had intended to sever himself from +the affairs of the turf generally. This resolution was not yet a +week old. It was on that evening that he had resolved that Tifto +should no longer be his companion; and now he had to confess to +himself that because he had drunk three or four glasses of +champagne he had been induced by Tifto to make those wretched +bets. + +And he had told his father that he intended to ask Mabel Grex to +be his wife. He had so committed himself that the offer must now +be made. He did not specially regret that, though he wished that +he had been more reticent. 'What a fool a man is to blurt out +everything!' he said to himself. A wife would be a good thing for +him; and where could he possibly find a better wife than Mabel +Grex? In beauty she was no doubt inferior to Miss Boncassen. There +was something about Miss Boncassen which made it impossible to +forget her. But Miss Boncassen was an American, and on many +accounts out of the question. It did not occur to him that he +would fall in love with Miss Boncassen for a few weeks. No doubt +there were objections to marriage. It clipped a fellow's wings. +But then, if he were married, he might be sure that Tifto would be +laid aside. It was a great thing to have got his father's assured +consent to a marriage. It meant complete independence in money +matters. + +Then his mind ran away to a review of his father's affairs. It was +a genuine trouble to him that his father should be so unhappy. Of +all the griefs which weighed upon the Duke's mind, that in +reference to his sister was the heaviest. The money which Gerald +owed at Cambridge would be nothing if that sorrow could be +conquered. Nor had Tifto and his own extravagances caused the Duke +any incurable wounds. If Tregear could be got out of the way his +father, he thought, might be reconciled to other things. He felt +very tender-hearted about his father; but he had no remorse in +regard to his sister as he made up his mind that he would speak +very seriously to Tregear. + +He had wandered into St James's Park, and had lighted by this time +half-a-dozen cigarettes one after another, as he sat on one of the +benches. He was a handsome youth, all but six feet high, with +light hair, with round blue eyes, and with all that aristocratic +look, which had belonged so peculiarly to the late Duke but which +was less conspicuous in the present head of the family. He was a +young man whom you would hardly pass in a crowd without +observing,--but of whom you would say, after due observation, that +he had not as yet put off all his childish ways. He now sat with +his legs stretched out, with his cane in his hands, looking down +upon the water. He was trying to think. He worked hard at +thinking. But the bench was hard, and, upon the whole, he was not +satisfied with his position. He had just made up his mind that he +would look up Tregear, when Tregear himself appeared on the path +before him. + +'Tregear!' exclaimed Silverbridge. + +'Silverbridge!' exclaimed Tregear. + +'What on earth makes you walk about here on a Sunday morning?' + +'What on earth makes you sit there? That I should walk here, which +I often do, does not seem to me odd. But that I should find you is +marvellous. Do you often come?' + +'Never was here in my life before. I strolled because I had things +to think of.' + +'Questions to be asked in Parliament? Notices of motions, +Amendments in Committee, and that kind of thing?' + +'Go on, old fellow.' + +'Or perhaps Major Tifto has made important revelations.' + +'D- Major Tifto.' + +'With all my heart,' said Tregear. + +'Sit down here,' said Silverbridge. 'As it happened, at the moment +when you came up I was thinking of you.' + +'That was kind.' + +'And I was determined to go to you. All this about my sister must +be given up.' + +'Must be given up!' + +'It can never lead to any good. I meant that there can never be a +marriage.' Then he paused, but Tregear was determined to hear him +out. 'It is making my father so miserable that you would pity him +if you could see him.' + +'I dare say I should. When I see people unhappy I always pity +them. What I would ask you to think of is this. If I were to +commission you to tell your sister that everything between us +should be given up, would not she be so unhappy that you would +have to pity her?' + +'She would get over it.' + +'And so will your father.' + +'He has a right to have his own opinion on such a matter.' + +'And so have I. And so has she. His rights in the matter are very +clear and very potential. I am quite ready to admit that we cannot +marry for many years to come, unless he will provide the money. +You are quite at liberty to tell him that I say so. I have no +right to ask your father for a penny, and I will never do so. The +power is all in his hands. As far as I know my own purposes, I +shall not make any immediate attempt even to see her. We did meet, +as you saw, the other day, by the merest chance. After that, do +you think that your sister wishes me to give her up?' + +'As for supposing that girls are to have what they wish, that is +nonsense.' + +'For young men I suppose equally so. Life ought to be a life of +self-denial no doubt. Perhaps it might be my duty to retire from +this affair, if by doing so I should sacrifice only myself. The +one person of whom I am bound to think in this matter is the girl +I love.' + +'That is just what she says about you.' + +'I hope so.' + +'In that way you support each other. If it were any other man +circumstanced just like you are, and any other girl placed like +Mary, you would be the first to say that the man was behaving +badly. I don't like to use hard language to you, but in such a +case you would be the first to say of another man--that he was +looking after the girl's money.' + +Silverbridge as he said this looked forward steadfastly on to the +water, regretting much that cause for quarrel should have arisen, +but thinking that Tregear would find himself obliged to quarrel. +But Tregear, after a few moments' silence, having thought it out, +determined that he would not quarrel. 'I think I probably might,' +he said laying his hand on Silverbridge's arm. 'I think I perhaps +might express such an opinion.' + +'Well then!' + +'I have to examine myself, and find whether I am guilty of the +meanness which I might perhaps be too ready to impute to another. +I have done so, and I am quite sure that I am not drawn to your +sister by any desire for her money. I did not seek her because she +was a rich man's daughter, nor,--because she is a rich man's +daughter will I give her up. Nothing but a word from her shall +induce me to leave her;--but a word from her, if it comes from her +own lips,--shall do so.' Then he took his friend's hand in his, +and having grasped it, walked away without saying another word. + + + +CHAPTER 31 + +Miss Boncassen's River-Party No. 1 + +Thrice within the next three weeks did Lord Silverbridge go forth +to ask Mabel to be his wife, but thrice in vain. On one occasion +she would talk on other things. On the second Miss Cassewary would +not leave her. On the third the conversation turned in a very +disagreeable way on Miss Boncassen, as to whom Lord Silverbridge +could not but think that Lady Mabel said some very ill-natured +things. It was no doubt true that he, during the last three weeks, +had often been in Miss Boncassen's company, that he had danced +with her, ridden with her, taken her to the House of Lords and the +House of Commons, and was now engaged to attend upon her at a +river-party up above Maidenhead. But Mabel had certainly no right +to complain. Had he not thrice during the same period come there +to lay the coronet at her feet;--and now, at this very moment, was +it not her fault that he was not going through the ceremony? + +'I suppose,' she said, laughing, 'that it is all settled.' + +'What is all settled?' + +'About you and the American beauty.' + +'I am not aware that anything in particular has been settled.' + +'Then it ought to be,--oughtn't it? For her sake, I mean.' + +'That is so like an English woman,' said Lord Silverbridge. +'Because you cannot understand a manner of life a little different +from your own you will impute evil.' + +'I have imputed no evil, Lord Silverbridge, and you have no right +to say so.' + +'If you mean to assert,' said Miss Cass, 'that the manners of +American young ladies are freer than those of English young +ladies, it is you that are taking away their characters.' + +'I don't say it would be at all bad,' continued Lady Mabel. 'She +is a beautiful girl, and very clever, and would make a charming +Duchess. And then it would be such a delicious change to have an +American Duchess.' + +'She wouldn't be a Duchess.' + +'Well, Countess, with Duchessship before her in the remote future. +Wouldn't it be a change, Miss Cass?' + +'Oh decidedly!' said Miss Cass. + +'And very much for the better. Quite a case of new blood, you +know. Pray don't suppose that I mean to object. Everybody who +talks about it approves. I haven't heard a single dissentient +voice. Only as it has gone so far, and English people are too +stupid you know to understand all these new ways,--don't you think +perhaps-?' +'No, I don't think. I don't think anything except that you are +very ill-natured.' Then he got up and, after making formal adieux +to both the ladies, left the house. + +As soon as he was gone Lady Mabel began to laugh, but the least +apprehensive ears would have perceived that the laughter was +affected. Miss Cassewary did not laugh at all, but sat bolt +upright and looked very serious. 'Upon my honour,' said the +younger lady, 'he is the most beautifully simple-minded human +being I ever knew in my life.' + +'Then I wouldn't laugh at him.' + +'How can one help it? But of course I do it with a purpose.' + +'What purpose?' + +'I think he is making a fool of himself. If somebody does not +interfere he will go so far that he will not be able to draw back +without misbehaving.' + +'I thought,' said Miss Cassewary, in a very low voice, almost +whispering. 'I thought that he was looking for a wife elsewhere.' + +'You need not think of it again,' said Lady Mab, jumping up from +her seat. 'I had thought of it too. But as I told you before, I +spared him. He did not really mean it with me;--nor does he mean it +with this American girl. Such young men seldom mean. They drift +into matrimony. But she will not spare him. It would be a national +triumph. All the States would sing a paean of glory. Fancy a New +York belle having compassed a Duke!' + +'I don't think it possible. It would be too horrid.' + +'I think it is quite possible. As for me, I could teach myself to +think it best as it as, were I not so sure that I should be better +for him than to many others. But I shouldn't love him.' + +'Why not love him?' + +'He is such a boy. I should always treat him like a boy,--spoiling +him and petting him, but never respecting him. Don't run away with +any idea that I should refuse him from conscientious motives, if +he were really to ask me. I too should like to be a Duchess. I +should like to bring all this misery at home to an end.' + +'But you did refuse him.' + +'Not exactly;--because he never asked me. For the moment I was +weak, and so I let have another chance. I shall not have been a +good friend to him if it ends in his marrying this Yankee.' + +Lord Silverbridge went out of the house in a very ill humour,-- +which however left him when in the course of the afternoon he +found himself up at Maidenhead with Miss Boncassen. Miss Boncassen +at any rate did not laugh at him. And then she was so pleasant, so +full of common sense, and so completely intelligent! 'I like +you,' she said, 'because I feel that you will not think that you +ought to make love to me. There is nothing I hate so much as the +idea that a young man and a young woman can't be acquainted with +each other without some tomfoolery as that.' This had exactly +expressed his own feeling. Nothing could be so pleasant as his +intimacy with Isabel Boncassen. + +Mrs Boncassen seemed to be a homely person, with no desire either +to speak, or to be spoken to. She went out but seldom, and on +those rare occasions did not in any way interfere with her +daughter. Mr Boncassen filled a prouder situation. Everybody knew +that Miss Boncassen was in England because it suited Mr Boncassen +to spend many hours in the British Museum. But still the daughter +hardly seemed to be under control from her father. She went alone +where she liked; talked to those she liked; and did what she +liked. Some of the young ladies of the day thought that there was +a good deal to be said in favour of the freedom which she enjoyed. + +There is however a good deal to be said against it. All young +ladies cannot be Miss Boncassens, with such an assurance of +admirers as to be free from all fear of loneliness. There is +comfort for a young lady in having a pied-a-terre to which she may +retreat in case of need. In American circles, where girls +congregate without their mothers, there is a danger felt by young +men that if a lady be once taken in hand, there will be no +possibility of getting rid of her,--no mamma to whom she may be +taken and under whose wings she may be dropped. 'My dear,' said an +old gentleman the other day walking through an American ball-room, +and addressing himself to a girl whom he knew well,--'My dear--' But +the girl bowed and passed on, still clinging to the arm of the +young man who accompanied her. But the old gentleman was cruel, +and possessed of a determined purpose. 'My dear,' he said again, +catching the young man tightly by the collar and holding him fast. +'Don't be afraid; I've got him; he shan't desert you; I'll hold +him here till you have told me how your father does.' The young +lady looked as if she didn't like it, and the sight of her misery +gave rise to a feeling that, after all, mammas perhaps may be a +comfort. + +But in her present phase of life Miss Boncassen suffered no +misfortune of this kind. It had become a privilege to be allowed +to attend upon Miss Boncassen, and the feeling of this privilege +had been enhanced by the manner in which Lord Silverbridge had +devoted himself to her. Fashion of course makes fashion. Had not +Lord Silverbridge been so very much struck by the charm of the +young lady, Lords Glasslough and Popplecourt would not perhaps +have found it necessary to run after her. As it was, even that +most unenergetic of young men, Dolly Longstaff, was moved to +profound admiration. + +On this occasion they were all up the river at Maidenhead. Mr +Boncassen had looked about for some means of returning the +civilities offered to him, and had been instigated by Mrs +Montacute Jones to do it after this fashion. There was a +magnificent banquet spread in a summer-house on the river bank. +There were boats, and there was a band, and there was a sward for +dancing. There was lawn-tennis, and fishing-rods,--which nobody +used,--and better still, long shady secluded walks in which +gentlemen might stroll,--and ladies too, if they were kind enough. +The whole thing had been arranged by Mrs Montacute Jones. As the +day was fine, as many of the old people had abstained from coming, +as there were plenty of young men of the best sort, and as nothing +had been spared in reference to external comforts, the party +promised to be a success. Every most lovely girl in London of +course was there,--except Lady Mabel Grex. Lady Mabel was in the +habit of going everywhere, but on this occasion, she had refused +Mrs Boncassen's invitation. 'I don't want to see her triumphs,' +she had said to Miss Cass. + +Everybody went down by railway of course, and innumerable flies +and carriages had been provided to take them to the scene of +action. Some immediately got into boats and rowed themselves up +from the bridge,--which, as the thermometer was standing at eighty +in the shade, was an inconsiderate proceeding. 'I don't think I am +quite up to that,' said Dolly Longstaff, when it was proposed to +him to take an oar. 'Miss Amazon will do it. She rows so well, and +is strong.' Whereupon Miss Amazon, not at all abashed, did take +the oar; and as Lord Silverbridge was on the seat behind her with +the other oar she probably enjoyed the task. + +'What a very nice sort of person Lady Cantrip is.' This was said +to Silverbridge by that generally silent young nobleman Lord +Popplecourt. The remark was the more singular because Lady Cantrip +was not at the party,--and the more so again because, as +Silverbridge thought, there could be but little in common between +the Countess who had his sister in charge and the young lord +beside him, who was not fast only because he did not like to risk +his money. + +'Well;--I dare say she is.' + +'I thought so, peculiarly. Because I was at that place at Richmond +yesterday.' + +'The devil you were! What were you doing at the Horns?' + +'Lady Cantrip's grandmother was,--I don't quite know what she was, +but something to us. I know I've got a picture of her at +Popplecourt. Lady Cantrip wanted to ask me something about it, and +so I went down. I was so glad to make acquaintance with your +sister.' + +'You saw Mary, did you?' + +'Oh yes; I lunched there. I'm to go down and meet the Duke some +day.' + +'Meet the Duke!' + +'Why not?' + +'No reason on earth,--only I can't imagine the governor going to +Richmond for his dinner. Well! I am very glad to hear it. I hope +you'll get on well with him.' + +'I was so much struck by your sister.' + +'Yes I dare say,' said Silverbridge, turning away into the path +where he saw Miss Boncassen standing with some other ladies. It +certainly did not occur to him that Popplecourt was to be brought +forward as a suitor for his sister's hand. + +'I believe this is the most lovely place in the world,' Miss +Boncassen said to him. + +'We are so much the more obliged to you for bringing us here.' + +'We don't bring you. You allow us to come with you and see all +that is pretty and lovely.' + +'Is it not your party?' +'Father will pay the bill, I suppose,--as far as that goes. And +mother's name was put on the cards. But of course we know what +that means. It is because you and a few others like you have been +so kind to us, that we are able to be here at all.' + +'Everybody, I should think, must be kind to you.' + +'I do have a good time pretty much; but nowhere so good as here. I +fear that when I get back I shall not like New York.' + +'I have heard you say, Miss Boncassen, that Americans were more +likeable than the English.' + +'Have you? Well, yes; I think I have said so. And I think it is +so. I'd sooner have to dance with a bank clerk in New York, than +with a bank clerk here.' + +'Do you ever dance with bank clerks?' + +'Oh dear yes. At least I suppose so. I dance with whoever comes +up. We haven't got lords in America, you know!' + +'You have got gentlemen.' + +'Plenty of them.-but they are not so easily defined as lords. I do +like lords.' + +'Do you?' + +'Oh yes,--and ladies;--Countesses I mean and women of that sort. +Your Lady Mabel Grex is not here. Why wouldn't she come?' + +'Perhaps you didn't ask her.' + +'Oh yes I did;--especially for your sake.' + +'She is not my Lady Mabel Grex.,' said Lord Silverbridge with +unnecessary energy. + +'But she will be.' + +'What makes you think that?' + +'You are devoted to her.' + +'Much more to you, Miss Boncassen.' + +'That is nonsense, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'Not at all.' + +'It is also--untrue.' + +'Surely I must be the best judge of that myself.' + +'Not a doubt; a judge not only whether it be true, but if true +whether expedient,--or even possible. What did I say to you when we +first began to know each other?' + +'What did you say?' + +'That I liked knowing you;--that was frank enough;--not that I liked +knowing you because I knew that there would be no tomfoolery of +lovemaking.' Then she paused; but he did not quite know how to go +on with the conversation at once, and she continued her speech. +'When you condescend to tell me that you are devoted to me, as +though that were the kind of thing that I expect to have said when +I take a walk with a young man in a wood, is not that the +tomfoolery of love-making?' She stopped and looked at him, so +that he was obliged to answer. + +'Then why do you ask me if I am devoted to Lady Mabel Grex? Would +not that be tomfoolery too?' + +'No. If I thought so, I would not have asked the question. I did +specially invite her to come her because I thought you would like +it. You have got to marry somebody.' + +'Some day, perhaps.' + +'And why not her?' + +'If you come to that, why not you?' He felt himself to be getting +into deep waters as he said this,--but he had a meaning to express +if only he could find the words to express it. 'I don't say +whether it is tomfoolery, as you call it, or not; but whatever it +is, you began it.' + +'Yes;--yes. I see. You punish me for my unpremeditated impertinence +in suggesting that you are devoted to Lady Mabel by the +premeditated impertinence of pretending to be devoted to me.' + +'Stop a moment. I cannot follow that.' Then she laughed. 'I will +swear that I did not intend to be impertinent.' + +'I hope not.' + +'I am devoted to you.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'I think you are--' + +'Stop, stop. Do not say it.' + +'Well I won't;--not now. But there has been no tomfoolery.' + +'May I ask a question, Lord Silverbridge? You will not be angry? +I would not have you angry with me.' + +'I will not be angry,' he said. + +'Are you not engaged to marry Lady Mabel Grex?' + +'No.' + +'Then I beg your pardon. I was told that you were engaged to her. +And I thought your choice was so fortunate, so happy! I have seen +no girl here that I admire half so much. She almost comes up to my +idea of what a young woman should be.' + +'Almost!' + +'Now I am sure that if you are not engaged to her you must be in +love with her, or my praise would have sufficed.' + +'Though one knows a Lady Mabel Grex, one may become acquainted +with a Miss Boncassen.' + +There are moments in which stupid people say clever things, obtuse +people say sharp things, and good-natured people say ill-natured +things. 'Lord Silverbridge,' she said, 'I did not expect that from +you.' + +'Expect what? I meant it simply.' + +'I have no doubt you meant it simply. We Americans think ourselves +sharp, but I have long since found out that we may meet more than +our matches here. I think we will go back. Mother means to try to +get up a quadrille.' + +'You will dance with me?' + +'I think not. I have been walking with you, and I had better dance +with someone else.' + +'You can let me have one dance.' + +'I think not. There will not be many.' + +'Are you angry with me?' + +'Yes, I am; there.' But as she said this she smiled. 'The truth +is, I thought I was getting the better of you, and you turned +round and gave me a pat on the head to show me that you could be +master when it pleased you. You have defended your intelligence at +the expense of your good-nature.' + +'I'll be shot if I know what it all means,' he said, just as he +was parting with her. + + + +CHAPTER 32 + +Miss Boncassen's River-Party No.2 + +Lord Silverbridge made up his mind that as he could not dance with +Miss Boncassen he would not dance at all. He was not angry at +being rejected, and when he saw her stand up with Dolly Longstaff +he felt no jealousy. She had refused to dance with him not because +she did not like him, but because she did not wish to show that +she did like him. He could understand that, though he had not +quite followed all the ins and outs of her little accusations +against him. She had flattered him--without any intention of +flattery on her part. She had spoken of his intelligence and had +complained that he had been too sharp to her. Mabel Grex when most +sweet to him, when most loving, always made him feel that he was +her inferior. She took no trouble to hide her conviction of his +youthfulness. This was anything but flattering. Miss Boncassen, on +the other hand, professed herself almost to be afraid of him. + +'There shall be no tomfoolery of love-making,' she had said. But +what if it were not tomfoolery at all? What if it were good, +genuine, earnest love-making? He certainly was not pledged to Lady +Mabel. As regarded his father there would be a difficulty. In the +first place he had been fool enough to tell his father that he was +going to make an offer to Mabel Grex. And then his father would +surely refuse his consent to a marriage with an American stranger. +In such case there would be no unlimited income, no immediate +pleasantness of magnificent life such as he knew would be poured +out upon him if he were to marry Mabel Grex. As he thought of +this, however, he told himself that he would not sell himself for +money and magnificence. He could afford to be independent, and +gratify his own taste. Just at this moment he was of the opinion +that Isabel Boncassen would be the sweeter companion of the two. + +He had sauntered down to the place where they were dancing and +stood by, saying a few words to Mrs Boncassen. 'Why are you not +dancing, my Lord?' she asked. + +'There are enough without me.' + +'I guess you young aristocrats are never overfond of doing much +with your own arms and legs.' + +'I don't know about that; polo, you know, for the legs, and lawn- +tennis for the arms, is hard work enough.' + +'But it must always be something new-fangled; and after all it +isn't of much account. Our young men like to have quite a time at +dancing.' + +It all came through her nose! And she looked so common! What +would the Duke say to her, or Mary, or even Gerald? The father was +by no means so objectionable. He was a tall, straight, ungainly +man, who always word black clothes. He had dark, stiff, short +hair, a long nose, and a forehead that was both high and broad. +Ezekiel Boncassen was the very man,--from his appearance,--- for a +President of the United States; and there were men who talked of +him for that high office. That he had never attended to politics +was supposed to be in his favour. He had the reputation of being +the most learned man in the States, and reputation itself often +suffices to give a man a dignity of manner. He, too, spoke through +his nose, but the peculiar twang coming from a man would be +supposed to be virile and incisive. From a woman, Lord +Silverbridge thought it to be unbearable. But as to Isabel, had +she been born within the confines of some lordly park in +Hertfordshire, she could not have been more completely free from +the abomination. + +'I am sorry that you should not be enjoying yourself,' said Mr +Boncassen, coming to his wife's rescue. + +'Nothing could have been nicer. To tell the truth, I am standing +idle by way of showing my anger against your daughter, who would +not dance with me.' + +'I am sure she would have felt herself honoured,' said Mr +Boncassen. + +'Who is the gentleman with her?' asked the mother. + +'A particular friend of mine--Dolly Longstaff.' + +'Dolly!' ejaculated Mrs Boncassen. + +'Everybody calls him so. His real name I believe to be Adolphus.' + +'Is he,--is he--just anybody?' asked the anxious mother. + +'He is a very great deal,--as people go here. Everybody knows him. +He is asked everywhere, but he goes nowhere. The greatest +compliment paid to you here is his presence.' + +'Nay, my Lord, there are the Countess Montague, and the +Marchioness of Capulet, and Lord Tybalt, and--' + +'They go everywhere. They are nobodies. It is a charity to even +invited them. But to have Dolly Longstaff once is a triumph for +life.' + +'Laws!,' said Mrs Boncassen, looking at the young man who was +dancing. 'What has he done?' + +'He never did anything in his life.' + +'I suppose he's very rich.' + +'I don't know. I should think not. I don't know anything about his +riches, but I can assure you that having him down here will quite +give a character to the day.' + +In the meantime Dolly Longstaff was in a state of great +excitement. Some part of the character assigned to him by Lord +Silverbridge was true. He very rarely did go anywhere, and yet was +asked to a great many places. He was a young man,--though not a +very young man,--with a fortune of his own and the expectation of +future fortune. Few men living could have done less for the world +than Dolly Longstaff,--and yet he had a position of his own. Now he +had taken into his head to fall in love with Miss Boncassen. This +was an accident which had probably never happened to him before, +and which had disturbed him much. He had known Miss Boncassen a +week or two before Lord Silverbridge had seen her, having by some +chance dined out and sat next to her. From that moment he had +become changed, and had gone hither and thither in pursuit of the +American beauty. His passion having become suspected by his +companions had excited their ridicule. Nevertheless he had +persevered;--and now he was absolutely dancing with the lady out in +the open air. 'If this goes on, your friends will have to look +after you and put you somewhere,' Mr Lupton had said to him in one +of the intervals of the dance. Dolly had turned round and scowled, +and suggested that if Mr Lupton would mind his own affairs it +would be as well for the world at large. + +At the present crisis Dolly was very much excited. When the dance +was over, as a matter of course, he offered the lady his arm, and +as a matter of course she accepted it. 'You'll take a turn; won't +you?' he said. + +'It must be a very short turn,' she said,--'as I am expected to +make myself busy.' + +'Oh, bother that.' + +'It bothers me; but it has to be done.' + +'You have set everything going now. They'll begin dancing again +without your telling them.' + +'I hope so.' + +'And I've got something I want to say.' + +'Dear me;--what is it?' + +They were now on a path close to the riverside, in which there +were many loungers. 'Would you mind coming up to the temple?' he +said. + +'What temple?' + +'Oh such a beautiful place. The Temple of the Wind, I think they +call it; or Venus;--or--or--Mrs Arthur de Bever.' + +'Was she a goddess?' + +'It was something built to her memory. Such a view of the river! +I was here once before and they took me up. Everybody who comes +here goes and see Mrs Arthur de Bever. They ought to have told +you.' + +'Let us go then,' said Miss Boncassen. 'Only it must not be long.' + +'Five minutes will do it all.' Then he walked rather quickly up a +flight of rural steps. 'Loverly spot, isn't it?' + +'Yes, indeed.' + +'That's Maidenhead Bridge;--that's somebody's place;--and now, I've +got something to say to you.' + +'You're not going to murder me now you've got me up here alone,' +said Miss Boncassen, laughing. + +'Murder you!' said Dolly, throwing himself into an attitude that +was intended to express devoted affection. 'Oh no!' + +'I am glad of that.' + +'Miss Boncassen!' + +'Mr Longstaff! If you sigh like that you'll burst yourself.' + +'I'll--what?' + +'Burst yourself!' and she nodded her head at him. + +Then he clasped his hands together, and turned his head away from +her towards the little temple. 'I wonder whether she knows what +love is,' he said, as though he were addressing himself to Mrs +Arthur de Bever. + +'No, she don't,' said Miss Boncassen. + +'But I do,' he shouted, turning back towards her. 'I do. If any man +were ever absolutely, actually, really in love, I am the man.' + +'Are you indeed, Mr Longstaff? Isn't this pleasant?' + +'Pleasant;--pleasant? Oh, it could be so pleasant.' + +'But who is the lady? Perhaps you don't mean to tell me that.' + +'You mean to say you don't know?' +'Haven't the least idea in life.' + +'Let me tell you then that it could only be one person. It never +was but one person. It never could have been but one person. It is +you.' + +'Me!' said Miss Boncassen, choosing to be ungrammatical in order +that he might be more absurd. + +'Of course it is you. Do you think that I should have brought you +all the way up here to tell that I was in love with anybody else?' + +'I thought I was brought up here to see Mrs de Somebody, and the +view.' + +'Not at all,' said Dolly emphatically. + +'Then you have deceived me.' + +'I will never deceive you. Only say that you will love me, and I +will be as true to you as the North Pole.' + +'Is that true to me?' + +'You know what I mean.' + +'But if I don't love you?' + +'Yes, you do!' + +'Do I?' + +'I beg your pardon,' said Dolly. 'I didn't mean to say that. Of +course a man shouldn't make sure of a thing.' + +'Not in this case, Mr Longstaff; because really I entertain no +such feeling.' + +'But you can if you please. Just let me tell you who I am.' + +'That will do no good whatever, Mr Longstaff.' + +'Let me tell you at any rate. I have a very good income of my own +as it is.' + +'Money can have nothing to do with it.' + +'But I want you to know that I can afford it. You might perhaps +have thought that I wanted your money.' + +'I will attribute nothing evil to you, Mr Longstaff. Only it is +quite out of the question that I should--respond as I suppose you +wish me to; and therefore, pray, do not say anything further.' + +She went to the head of the little steps but her interrupted her. +'You ought to hear me,' he said. + +'I have heard you.' + +'I can give you as good a position as any man without a title in +England.' + +'Mr Longstaff, I rather fancy that wherever I may be I can make a +position for myself. At any rate I shall not marry with a view of +getting one. If my husband were an English Duke I should think +myself nothing, unless I was something as Isabel Boncassen.' + +When she said that she did not bethink herself that Lord +Silverbridge would be in the course of nature an English Duke. But +the allusion to an English Duke told intensely on Dolly, who had +suspected that he had a noble rival. 'English Dukes aren't so +easily got,' he said. + +'Very likely not. I might have expressed my meaning better had I +said an English Prince.' + +'That's quite out of the question,' said Dolly. 'They can't do +it,--by Act of Parliament,--except in some hugger-mugger left-handed +way, that wouldn't suit you at all.' + +'Mr Longstaff,--you must forgive me,--if I say--that of all the +gentlemen--I have ever met in this country or in any other--you +are the--most obtuse.' This she brought out in little disjointed +sentences, not with any hesitation, but in a way to make every +word she uttered more clear to an intelligence which she did not +believe to be bright. But in this belief she did some injustice to +Dolly. He was quite alive to the disgrace of being called obtuse, +and quick enough to avenge himself at the moment. + +'Am I?' said he. 'How humble-minded you must be when you think me +a fool because I have fallen in love with such a one as yourself.' + +'I like you for that,' she replied laughing, 'and withdraw the +epithet as not being applicable. Now we are quits and can forget +and forgive;--only let there be the forgetting.' + +'Never!' said Dolly, with his hand again on his heart. + +'Then let it be a little dream of your youth,--that you once met a +pretty American girl who was foolish enough to refuse all that you +would have given her.' + +'So pretty! So awfully pretty!' Thereupon she curtsied. 'I have +seen all the handsome woman in England going for the last ten +years, and there has not been one who has made me think that it +would be worth me while to get off my perch for her.' + +'And now you would desert your perch for me?' + +'I have already.' + +'But you can get up again. Let it be all a dream. I know men like +to have had such dreams. And in order that the dream may be +pleasant the last word between us shall be kind. Such admiration +from such a one as you is an honour,--and I will reckon it among my +honours. But it can be no more than a dream.' Then she gave him +her hand. 'It shall be so;--shall it not?' Then she paused. 'It +must be so, Mr Longstaff.' + +'Must it?' + +'That and no more. Now I wish to go down. Will you come with me? +It will be better. Don't you think it is going to rain?' + +Dolly looked up at the clouds. 'I wish it would with all my +heart.' + +'I know you are not so ill-natured. It would spoil it all.' + +'You have spoiled all.' + +'No, no. I have spoiled nothing. It will only be a little dream +about "that strange American girl, who really did make me feel +queer for half an hour". Look at that. A great big drop--and the +cloud has come over us as black as Erebus. Do hurry down.' He was +leading the way. 'What shall we do for carriages to get us to the +inn?' + +'There's the summer-house.' + +'It will hold about half of us. And think what it will be to be in +there waiting till the rain shall be over! Everybody has been so +good-humoured and now they will be so cross!' + +The rain was falling in big heavy drops, slow and far between, but +almost black with their size. And the heaviness of the cloud which +had gathered over them made everything black. + +'Will you have my arm?' said Silverbridge, who saw Miss Boncassen +scudding along, with Dolly Longstaff following as fast as he +could. + +'Oh dear no. I have got to mind my dress. There;--I have gone +right into a puddle. Oh dear!' So she ran on, and Silverbridge +followed close behind her, leaving Dolly Longstaff in the +distance. + +It was not only Miss Boncassen who got her feet into a puddle and +splashed her stockings. Many did so who were not obliged by their +position to maintain good-humour under misfortunes. The storm had +come on with such unexpected quickness that there had been a +general stampede to the summer-house. As Isabel had said, there +was comfortable room for not more than half of them. In a few +minutes people were crushed who never ought to be crushed. A +Countess for whom treble-piled sofas were hardly good enough was +seated on the corner of a table till some younger and less +gorgeous lady could be made to give way. And the Marchioness was +declaring she was as wet through as though she had been dragged in +a river. Mrs Boncassen was so absolutely quelled as to have +retired into the kitchen attached to the summer-house. Mr +Boncassen, with all his country's pluck and pride, was proving to +a knot of gentlemen round him on the verandah, that such treachery +in the weather was a thing unknown in his happier country. Miss +Boncassen had to do her best to console the splashed ladies. 'Oh +Mrs Jones, is it not a pity! What can I do for you?' + +'We must bear it, my dear. It often does rain, but why on this +special day should it come down in buckets?' + +'I never was so wet in all my life,' said Dolly Longstaff, poking +in his head. + +'There's somebody smoking,' said the Countess angrily. There was a +crowd of men smoking out on the verandah. 'I never knew anything +so nasty,' the Countess continued, leaving it in doubt whether she +spoke of the rain, or the smoke, or the party generally. + +Damp gauzes, splashed stockings, trampled muslins, and features +which have perhaps known something of rouge and certainly +encountered something of rain may be made, but can only, by +supreme high breeding, be made compatible with good-humour. To be +moist, muddy, rumpled and smeared, when by the very nature of your +position it is your duty to be clear-starched up to the +pellucidity of crystal, to be spotless as the lily, to be crisp as +the ivy-leaf, and as clear in complexion as a rose,--is it not, O +gentle readers, felt to be a disgrace? It came to pass, therefore, +that many were now very cross. Carriages were ordered under the +idea that some improvement might be made at the inn which was +nearly a mile distant. Very few, however, had their own carriages, +and there was jockeying for the vehicles. In the midst of all this +Silverbridge remained near to Miss Boncassen as circumstances +would admit. 'You are not waiting for me,' she said. + +'Yes I am. We might as well go up to town together.' + +'Leave me with father and mother. Like the captain of a ship, I +must be the last to leave the wreck.' + +'But I'll be the gallant sailor of the day, who always at the risk +of his life sticks to the skipper to the last moment.' + +'Not at all;--just because there will be no gallantry. But come and +see us tomorrow and find out whether we have got through it alive. + + + +CHAPTER 33 + +The Langham Hotel + +'What an abominable climate,' Mrs Boncassen had said when they +were quite alone at Maidenhead. + +'My dear, you didn't think you were going to bring New York along +with you when you came here,' replied her husband. + +'I wish I was going back tomorrow.' + +'That's a foolish thing to say. People here are very kind, and you +are seeing a great deal more of the world than you would ever see +at home. I am having a very good time. What do you say, Bell?' + +'I wish I could have kept my stockings clean.' + +'But what about the young men?' + +'Young men are pretty much the same everywhere, I guess. They +never have their wits about them. They never mean what they say, +because they don't understand the use of words. They are generally +half impudent and half timid. When in love they do not at all +understand what has befallen them. What they want they try to +compass as a cow does when it stands stretching out its head +towards a stack of hay which it cannot reach. Indeed there is no +such thing as a young man, for a man is not really a man till he +is middle-aged. But take them at their worst they are a deal too +good for us, for the become men some day, whereas we must only be +women to the end.' + +'My word, Bella!' exclaimed the mother. + +'You have managed to be tolerably heavy upon God's creatures, +taking them in a lump,' said the father. 'Boys, girls, and cows! +Something has gone wrong with you besides the rain.' + +Nothing on earth, sir,--except the boredom.' + +'Some young man has been talking to you, Bella.' + +'One or two, mother; and I got to thinking if any one of them +should ask me to marry him, and if moved by some evil destiny I +were to take him, whether I should murder him, or myself, or run +away with one of the others.' + +'Couldn't you bear with him till, according to your own theory, he +would grow out of his folly?' said the father. + +'Being a woman,--no. The present moment is always everything to me. +When that horrid old harridan halloed out that somebody was +smoking, I thought I should have died. It was very bad just then.' + +'Awful!' said Mrs Boncassen, shaking her head. + +'I didn't seem to feel it much,' said the father. 'One doesn't +look to have everything just what one wants always. If I did I +should go nowhere;--but my total of life would be less enjoyable. +If ever you do get married, Bell, you should remember that.' + +'I mean to get married some day, so that I shouldn't be made love +to any longer.' + +'I hope it will have that effect,' said the father. + +'Mr Boncassen!' ejaculated the mother. + +'What I say is true. I hope it will have that effect. It had with +you, my dear.' + +'I don't know that people didn't think of me as much as of anybody +else, even though I was married.' + +'Then, my dear, I never knew it.' + +Miss Boncassen, though she had behaved serenely and with good +temper during the process of Dolly's proposal, had not liked it. +She had a very high opinion of herself, and was certainly entitled +to have it by the undisguised admiration of all that came near +her. She was not more indifferent to the admiration of young men +than are other young ladies. But she was not proud of the +admiration of Dolly Longstaff. She was here among strangers whose +ways were unknown to her, and wonderful in their dimness. She knew +that she was associating with men very different from those at +home where young men were supposed to be under the necessity of +earning their bread. At New York she would dance, as she had said, +with bank clerks. She was not prepared to admit that a young +London lord was better than a New York bank clerk. Judging the men +on their own individual merits she might find the bank clerk to be +the better of the two. But a certain sweetness of the aroma of +rank was beginning to permeate her republican senses. The softness +of life in which no occupation was compulsory had its charms for +her. Though she had complained of the insufficient intelligence of +young men she was alive to the delight of having nothings said to +her pleasantly. All this had affected her so strongly that she had +almost felt that a life among these English luxuries would be a +pleasant life. Like most Americans who do not as yet know the +country, she had come with an inward feeling that as an American +and a republican she might probably be despised. + +There is not uncommonly a savageness of assertion about Americans +which arises from a too great anxiety to be admitted to fellowship +with Britons. She had felt this, and conscious of reputation +already made by herself in the social life of New York, she had +half trusted that she would be well received in London, and had +half convinced herself that she would be rejected. She had not +been rejected. She must have become quite aware of that. She had +dropped very quickly the idea that she would be scorned. Ignorant +as she had been of English life, she perceived that she had at +once become popular. And this had been so in spite of her mother's +homeliness and her father's awkwardness. By herself and by her own +gifts she had done it. She had found out concerning herself that +she had that which would commend her to other society than that of +the Fifth Avenue. Those lords of whom she had heard were as plenty +with her as blackberries. Young Lord Silverbridge, of whom she was +told that of all the young lords of the day he stood first in rank +and wealth, was peculiarly her friend. Her brain was firmer than +that of most girls, but even her brain was a little turned. She +never told herself that it would be well for her to become the +wife of such a one. In her more thoughtful moments she told +herself that it would not be well. But still the allurement was +strong upon her. Park Lane was sweeter than the Fifth Avenue. Lord +Silverbridge was nicer than the bank clerk. + +But Dolly Longstaff was not. She would certainly prefer the bank +clerk to Dolly Longstaff. And yet Dolly Longstaff was the one +among her English admirers who had come forward and spoken out. +She did not desire that anyone should come forward and speak out. +But it was an annoyance to her that this special man should have +done so. + +The waiter at the Langham understood American ways perfectly, and +when a young man called between three and four o'clock, asking for +Mrs Boncassen, said that Miss Boncassen was at home. The young man +took off his hat, brushed up his hair, and followed the waiter up +to the sitting-room. The door was opened and the young man was +announced. 'Mr Longstaff.' + +Miss Boncassen was rather disgusted. She had had enough of this +English lover. Why should he have come here after what had +occurred yesterday? He ought to have felt that he was absolved +from the necessity of making personal inquiries. 'I am glad to see +that you got home safe,' she said as she gave him her hand. + +'And you too, I hope?' + +'Well;--so, so; with my clothes a good deal damaged and my temper +rather worse. + +'I am so sorry.' + +'It should not rain on such days. Mother has gone to church.' + +'Oh;--indeed. I like going to church myself sometimes.' + +'Do you know?' + +'I know what would make me like to go to church.' + +'And father is at the Athenaeum. He goes there to do a little +light reading in the library on Sunday afternoon.' + +'I shall never forget yesterday, Miss Boncassen.' + +'You wouldn't if your clothes had been spoilt as mine were.' + +'Money will repair that.' + +'Well; yes; but when I've had a petticoat flounced particularly to +order I don't like to see it ill-used. There are emotions of the +heart which money can't touch.' + +'Just so;--emotions of the heart. That's the very phrase.' + +She was determined if possible to prevent a repetition of the +scene which had taken place up at Mrs de Bever's temple. 'All my +emotions are about my dress.' + +'All?' + +'Well; yes; all. I guess I don't care much for eating and +drinking.' In saying this she actually contrived to produce +something of a nasal twang.' + +'Eating and drinking!' said Dolly. 'Of course they are +necessities;--and so are clothes.' + +'But new things are such ducks!' + +'Trousers may be,' said Dolly. + +Then she took a prolonged gaze at him, wondering whether he was or +was not such a fool as he looked. 'How funny you are,' she said. + +'A man does not generally feel funny after going through what I +suffered yesterday, Miss Boncassen.' + +'Would you mind ringing the bell?' + +'Must it be done, quite at once?' + +'Quite,--quite,' she said. 'I can do it myself for the matter of +that.' and she rang the bell somewhat violently. Dolly sank back +again into his seat, remarking in his usual apathetic way that he +had intended to obey her behest but had not understood that she +was in so great a hurry. 'I am always in a hurry,' she said. 'I +like things to be done--sharp.' And she hit the table with a +crack. 'Please bring me some iced water,' this of course was +addressed to the waiter. 'And a glass for Mr Longstaff.' + +'None for me, thank you.' + +'Perhaps you'd like a soda and brandy?' + +'Oh dear no;--nothing of the kind. But I am much obliged to you all +the same.' As the water-bottle was in fact standing in the room, +and as the waiter had only to hand the glass all this created by +little obstacle. Still it had its effect, and Dolly, when the man +retired, felt that there was a difficulty in proceeding. 'I have +called today--' he began. + +'That has been very kind of you. But mother has gone to church.' + +'I am very glad she has gone to church, because I wish to--' + +'Oh laws! There's a horse tumbled down in the street. I heard +it.' + +'He has got up again,' said Dolly, looking leisurely out of the +window. 'But as I was saying--' + +'I don't think the water we Americans drink can be good. It makes +the women become ugly so young.' + +'You will never become ugly.' + +She got up and curtsied him, and then, still standing, make him a +speech. 'Mr Longstaff, it would be absurd of me to pretend not to +understand what you mean. But I won't have any more of it. Whether +you are making fun of me, or whether you are in earnest, it is +just the same.' + +'Making fun of you!' + +'It does not signify. I don't care which it is. But I won't have +it. There!' + +'A gentleman should be allowed to express his feelings and to +explain his position.' + +'You have expressed and explained more than enough, and I won't +have any more. If you will sit down and talk about something else, +or else go away, there shall be an end of it;--but if you go on, I +will ring the bell again. What can a man gain by going on when a +girl has spoken as I have done?' They were both at this time +standing up, and he was now as angry as she was. + +'I've paid you the greatest compliment a man can pay a woman,' he +began. + +'Very well. If I remember rightly I thanked you for it yesterday. +If you wish it, I will thank you again today. But it is a +compliment which becomes very much the reverse if it be repeated +too often. You are sharp enough to understand that I have done +everything in my power to save us both from this trouble.' + +'What makes you so fierce, Miss Boncassen?' + +'What makes you so foolish?' + +'I suppose it must be something peculiar to American ladies.' + +'Just that;--something peculiar to American ladies. They don't +like;--well; I don't want to say anything more that can be called +fierce.' + +At this moment the door was again opened and Lord Silverbridge was +announced. 'Halloa, Dolly, are you here?' + +'It seems that I am.' + +'And I am here too,' said Miss Boncassen, smiling her prettiest. + +'None the worse for yesterday's troubles, I hope?' + +'A good deal the worse. I have been explaining all that to Mr +Longstaff who has been quite sympathetic with me about my things.' + +'A terrible pity that shower,' said Dolly. + +'For you,' said Silverbridge, 'because if I remember right, Miss +Boncassen was walking with you;--but I was rather glad of it.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'I regarded it as a direct interposition of Providence, because +you would not dance with me.' + +'Any news today, Silverbridge?' asked Dolly. + +'Nothing particular. They say that Coalheaver can't run for the +Leger.' + +'What's the matter?' asked Dolly vigorously. + +'Broke down at Ascot. But I daresay it's a lie.' + +'Sure to be a lie,' said Dolly. 'What do you think of Madame +Scholzdam, Miss Boncassen?' + +'I am not a good judge.' + +'Never heard anything equal to it yet in this world,' said Dolly. +'I wonder whether that's true about Coalheaver.' + +'Tifto says so.' + +'Which at the present moment,' asked Miss Boncassen, 'is the +greater favourite with the public, Madame Scholzdam or +Coalheaver?' + +'Coalheaver is a horse.' + +'Oh--a horse!' + +'Perhaps I ought to say a colt.' + +'Do you suppose, Dolly, that Miss Boncassen doesn't know all +that?' asked Silverbridge. + +'He supposes that my American ferocity has never been sufficiently +softened for the reception of polite erudition. + +'You two have been quarrelling, I fear.' + +'I never quarrel with a woman,' said Dolly. + +'Nor with a man in my presence, I hope, said Miss Boncassen. + +'Somebody seems to have got out of bed at the wrong side,' said +Silverbridge. + +'I did,' said Miss Boncassen. 'I got out of bed at the wrong side. +I am cross. I can't get over the spoiling of my flounces. I think +you had better both go away and leave me. If I could walk about +the room for half an hour and stamp my feet, I should get better.' + Silverbridge thought that as he had come last, he certainly ought +to be left last. Miss Boncassen felt that, at any rate, Mr +Longstaff should go. Dolly felt that his manhood required him to +remain. After what had taken place he was not going to leave the +field vacant for another. Therefore he made no effort to move. + +'That seems rather hard upon me,' said Silverbridge. 'You told me +to come.' + +'I told you to come and ask after us all. You have come and asked +after us, and have been informed that we are very bad. What more +can I say? you accuse me of getting out of bed the wrong side, and +I own that I did.' + +'I meant to say that Dolly Longstaff had done so.' + +'And I say it was Silverbridge,' said Dolly. + +'We are aren't very agreeable together, are we? Upon my word I +think you'd better both go.' Silverbridge immediately got up from +his chair; upon which Dolly also moved. + +'What the mischief is up?' asked Silverbridge, when they were +under the porch together. + +'The truth is, you never can tell what you are to do with those +American girls.' + +'I suppose you have been making up to her.' + +'Nothing in earnest. She seemed to me to like admiration, so I +told her I admired her.' + +'What did she say then?' + +'Upon my word, you seem to be very great at cross-examining. +Perhaps you had better go back and ask her.' + +'I will next time I see her.' Then he stepped into his cab, and +in a loud voice ordered the man to drive him to the Zoo. But when +he had gone a little way up Portland Place, he stopped the driver +and desired that he might be taken back again to the hotel. As he +left the vehicle he looked round for Dolly, but Dolly had +certainly gone. Then he told the waiter to take his card to Miss +Boncassen, and explain that he had something to say which he had +forgotten. + +'So you have come back again?' said Miss Boncassen, laughing. + +'Of course I have. You didn't suppose I was going to let that +fellow get the better of me. Why should I be turned out because he +made an ass of himself?' + +'Who said he made an ass of himself?' + +'But he had; hadn't he?' + +'No;--by no means,' said she after a little pause. + +'Tell me what he had been saying.' + +'Indeed I shall do nothing of the kind. If I told you all he said, +then I should have to tell the next man all that you may say. +Would that be fair?' + +'I should not mind,' said Silverbridge. + +'I dare say not, because you have nothing particular to say. But +the principle is the same. Lawyers and doctors and parsons talk of +privileged communications. Why should not a young lady have her +privileged communications?' + +'But I have something particular to say.' + +'I hope not.' + +'Why should you hope not?' + +'I hate having things said particularly. Nobody likes conversation +so well as I do; but it should never be particular.' + +'I was going to tell you that I came back to London yesterday in +the same carriage with old Lady Clanfiddle, and that she swore +that no consideration on earth would ever induce her to go to +Maidenhead again.' + +'That isn't particular.' + +'She went on to say;--you won't tell of me, will you?' + +'It shall be privileged.' + +'She went on to say that Americans couldn't be expected to +understand English manners.' + +'Perhaps they may all be the better for that.' + +'Then I spoke up. I swore that I was awfully in love with you.' + +'You didn't.' + +'I did;--that you were, out and away, the finest girl I ever saw in +my life. Of course you understand that her two daughters were +there. And that as for manners,--unless the rain could be +attributed to American manners,--I did not think anything had gone +wrong.' + +'What about the smoking?' + +'I told her they were all Englishmen, and that if she had been +giving the party herself they would have smoked just as much. You +must understand that she never does give parties.' + +'How could you be so ill-natured?' + +'There was ever so much more of it. And it ended by her telling me +that I was a schoolboy. I found out the cause of it all. A great +spout of rain had come upon her daughter's hat, and that had +produced a most melancholy catastrophe.' + +'I would have given her mine willingly.' + +'An American hat;--to be worn by Lady Violet Clanfiddle!' + +'It came from Paris last week, sir.' + +'But must have been contaminated by American contact.' + +'Now, Lord Silverbridge,' said she, getting up, 'if I had a stick +I'd whip you.' + +'It was such fun.' + +'And you come here and tell it all to me.' + +'Of course I do. It was a deal too good to keep to myself. +"American manners"!' As he said this he almost succeeded in +looking like Lady Clanfiddle. + +At that moment Mr Boncassen entered the room, and was immediately +appealed to his by his daughter. 'Father, you must turn Lord +Silverbridge out of the room.' + +'Dear me! If I must,--of course I must. But why?' + +'He is saying everything horrid he can about Americans.' + +After this they settled down for a few minutes to general +conversation, and then Lord Silverbridge again took his leave. +When he was gone Isabel Boncassen almost regretted that the +'something particular' which he had threatened to say had not been +less comic in its nature. + + + +CHAPTER 34 + +Lord Popplecourt + +When the reader was told that Lord Popplecourt had found Lady +Cantrip very agreeable it is to be hoped that the reader was +disgusted. Lord Popplecourt would certainly not have given a +second thought to Lady Cantrip unless he had been specifically +flattered. And why should such a man have been flattered by a +woman who was in all respects his superior? The reader will +understand. It had been settled by the wisdom of the elders that +it would be a good thing that Lord Popplecourt should marry Lady +Mary Palliser. + +The mutual assent which leads to marriage should no doubt be +spontaneous. Who does not feel that? Young love should speak from +its first doubtful unconscious spark,--a spark which any breath of +air may quench or cherish,--till it becomes a flame which nothing +can satisfy but the union of two lovers. No one should be told to +love, or bidden to marry this man or that woman. The theory of +this is plain to us all, and till we have sons or daughters whom +we feel imperatively obliged to control, the theory is +unassailable. But the duty is so imperative! The Duke taught +himself to believe that as his wife would have been thrown away on +the world had she been allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald, so would +his daughter be thrown away were she allowed to marry Mr Tregear. +Therefore the theory of spontaneous love must in this case be set +aside. Therefore the spark,--would that it had been no more,--must +be quenched. Therefore there could be no union of two lovers;--but +simply a prudent and perhaps a splendid marriage. + +Lord Popplecourt was a man in possession of a large estate which +was unencumbered. His rank in the peerage was not high, but his +barony was of an old date,--and, if things went well with him, +something higher in rank might be open to him. He had good looks +of that sort which recommend themselves to pastors and masters, to +elders and betters. He had regular features. He looked as though +he were steady. He was not impatient or rollicking. Silverbridge +was also good-looking;--but his good looks were such as would give +a pang to the hearts of anxious mothers of daughters. Tregear was +the handsomest man of the three;--but then he looked as though he +had not betters and did not care for his elders. Lord Popplecourt, +though a very young man, had once stammered through half-a-dozen +words in the House of Lords, and had been known to dine with the +'Benevolent Funds'. Lord Silverbridge had declared him to be a +fool. No one thought him to be bright. But in the eyes of the +Duke,--and of Lady Cantrip,--he had his good qualities. + +But the work was very disagreeable. It was the more hard upon Lady +Cantrip because she did not believe in it. If it could be done, it +would be expedient. But she felt very strongly that it could not +be done. No doubt that Lady Glencora had been turned from her evil +destiny; but Lady Glencora had been younger than her daughter was +now, and possessed of less character. Nor was Lady Cantrip blind +to the difference between a poor man with bad character, such as +that Burgo had been, and a poor man with good character, such as +was Tregear. Nevertheless she undertook to aid the work, and +condescended to pretend to be so interested in the portrait of +some common ancestor as to persuade the young man to have it +photographed, in order that the bringing down of the photograph +might lead to something. + +He took the photograph, and Lady Cantrip said very much to him +about his grandmother, who was the old lady in question. She +could, she said, just remember the features of the dear old woman. +She was not habitually a hypocrite, and she hated herself for what +she was doing, and yet her object was simply good,--to bring +together two young people who might advantageously marry each +other. The mere talking about the old woman would be of no +service. She longed to bring out the offer plainly, and say, +'There is Lady Mary Palliser. Don't you think she'd make a good +wife for you?' But she could not, as yet, bring herself to be so +indelicately plain. 'You haven't seen the Duke since?' she asked. + +'He spoke to me only yesterday in the House. I like the Duke.' + +'If I may be allowed to say so, it would be to your advantage that +he should like you;--that is, if you mean to take a part in +politics.' + +'I suppose I shall,' said Popplecourt. 'There isn't much else to +do.' + +'You don't go to races.' He shook his head. 'I am glad of that,' +said Lady Cantrip. 'Nothing so bad as the turf. I fear Lord +Silverbridge is devoting himself to the turf.' + +'I don't think it can be good for any man to have much to do with +Major Tifto. I suppose Silverbridge knows what he is about.' + +Here was an opportunity which might have been used. It would have +been so easy for her to glide from the imperfections of the +brother to the perfections of the sister. But she could not bring +herself to do it quite at once. She approached the matter however +as nearly as she could without making her grand proposition. She +shook her head sadly in reference to Silverbridge, and then spoke +of the Duke. 'His father is so anxious about him.' + +'I dare say.' + +'I don't know any man who is more painfully anxious about his +children. He feels the responsibility so much since his wife's +death. There is Lady Mary.' + +'She's all right, I should say.' + +'All right! Oh yes. But when a girl is possessed of so many +things,--rank, beauty, intelligence, large fortune,--' + +'Will Lady Mary have much?' + +'A large portion of her mother's money, I should say. When all +these things are joined together, a father of course feels most +anxious as to their disposal.' + +'I suppose she is clever.' + +'Very clever,' said Lady Cantrip. + +'I think a girl may be too clever, you know,' said Lord +Popplecourt. + +'Perhaps she may. But I know more who are too foolish. I am so +much obliged to you for the photograph.' + +'Don't mention it.' + +'I really did mean that you should send a man down.' + +On that occasion the two young people did not see each other. Lady +Mary did not come down, and Lady Cantrip lacked the courage to +send for her. As it was, might it not be possible that the young +man should be induced to make himself agreeable to the young lady +without any further explanation? But love-making between young +people cannot well take place unless they be brought together. +There was a difficulty in bringing them together at Richmond. The +Duke had indeed spoken of meeting Lord Popplecourt at dinner +there;--but this was to have followed the proposition which Lady +Cantrip should make to him. She could not yet make the +proposition, and therefore she hardly knew how to arrange the +dinner. She was obliged at last to let the wished-for lover go +away without arranging anything. When the Duke should have settled +his autumn plans, then an attempt must be made to induce Lord +Popplecourt to travel in the same direction. + +That evening Lady Cantrip said a few words to Mary respecting the +proposed suitor. 'There is nothing I have such a horror of as +gambling.' + +'It is dreadful.' + +'I am very glad to think that Nidderdale does not do anything of +that sort.' It was perhaps on the cards that Nidderdale should do +things of which she knew nothing. 'I hope Silverbridge does not +bet.' + +'I don't think he does.' + +'There's Lord Popplecout,--quite a young man,--with everything at +his own disposal, and a very large estate. Think of the evil he +might do if he given that way.' + +'Does he gamble?' + +'Not at all. It must be such a comfort to his mother.' + +'He looks to me as though he never would do anything,' said Lady +Mary. Then the subject was dropped. + +It was a week after this, towards the end of July, that the Duke +wrote a line to Lady Cantrip, apologising for what he had done, +but explaining that he had asked Lord Popplecourt to dine at The +Horns on a certain Sunday. He had, he said, been assured by Lord +Cantrip that such an arrangement would be quite convenient. It was +clear from his letter that he was much in earnest. Of course there +was no reason why the dinner should not be eaten. Only the +specialty of the invitation to Lord Popplecourt must not be so +glaring that he himself should be struck by the strangeness of it. +There must be a little party made up. Lord Nidderdale and his wife +were therefore bidden to come down, and Silverbridge, who at first +consented rather unwillingly,--and Lady Mabel Grex, as to whom the +Duke had made a special request that she might be asked. This last +invitation was sent express from Lady Mary, and included Miss +Cass. So the party was made up. The careful reader will perceive +that there were to be ten of them. + +'Isn't it odd papa wanting to have Lady Mabel,' Mary said to Lady +Cantrip. + +'Does he not know her, my dear?' + +'He hardly ever spoke to her. I'll tell you what; I expect +Silverbridge is going to marry her.' + +'Why shouldn't he?' + +'I don't know why he shouldn't. She is very beautiful, and very +clever. But if so, papa must know all about it. It does seem odd +that papa of all people should turn match-maker, or even that he +should think of it.' + +'So much is thrown upon him now,' said Lady Cantrip. + +Lady Mabel was surprised by the invitation, but she was not slow +to accept it. 'Papa will be here and will be so glad to meet you.' + Lady Mary had said. Why should the Duke of Omnium wish to meet +her? 'Silverbridge will be there too.' Mary had gone on to say. +'It is just a family party. Papa, you know, is not going anywhere; +nor am I.' By all this Lady Mabel's thoughts were much stirred, +and her bosom somewhat moved. And Silverbridge was also moved by +it. Of course he could not but remember that he had pledged +himself to his father to ask Lady Mabel to be his wife. He had +faltered since. She had been, he thought, unkind to him, or at any +rate indifferent. He had surely said enough to her to make her +know what he meant; and yet she had taken no trouble to meet him +half way. And then Isabel Boncassen had intervened. Now he was +asked to dinner in a most unusual manner! + +Of all the guests invited Lord Popplecourt was perhaps the least +disturbed. He was quite alive to the honour of being noticed by +the Duke of Omnium, and alive also to the flattering courtesy +shown to him by Lady Cantrip. But justice would not be done him +unless it were acknowledged that he had as yet flattered himself +with no hopes in regard to Lady Mary Palliser. He, when he +prepared himself for his journey down to Richmond, thought much +more of the Duke than of the Duke's daughter. + +'Oh yes, I can drive you down if you like that kind of thing,' +Silverbridge said to him on the Saturday evening. + +'And bring me back?' + +'If you will come when I am coming. I hate waiting for a fellow.' + +'Suppose we leave at half-past ten.' + +'I won't fix any time; but if we can't make it suit there'll be +the governor's carriage.' + +'Will the Duke go down in his own carriage?' + +'I suppose so. it's quicker and less trouble than the railway.' +Then Lord Popplecourt reflected that he would certainly come back +with the Duke if he could so manage it, and there floated before +his eyes visions of under-secretaryships, all which might own +their origin to this proposed drive from Richmond. + +At six o'clock on the Sunday evening Silverbridge called for Lord +Popplecourt. 'Upon my word,' said he, 'I didn't ever expect to see +you in my cab.' + +'Why not me especially?' + +'Because you're not one of our lot.' + +'You'd sooner have Tifto.' + +'No, I wouldn't. Tifto is not all a pleasant companion, though he +understands horses. You're going in for heavy politics, I +suppose.' + +'Not particularly heavy.' + +'If not, why on earth does the governor take you up? You won't +mind my smoking I dare say.' After this there was no conversation +between them. + + + +CHAPTER 35 + +'Don't You Think-?' + +It was pretty to see the Duke's reception of Lady Mabel. 'I knew +your mother many years ago,' he said, 'when I was young myself. +Her mother and my mother were first cousins and dear friends.' He +held her hand as he spoke and looked at her as though he meant to +love her. Lady Mabel saw that it was so. could it be possible that +the Duke had heard anything;--that he should wish to receive her? +She had told herself and had told Miss Cassewary that though she +had spared Silverbridge, yet she knew that she would make him a +good wife. If the Duke thought so also, then surely she need not +doubt. + +'I knew we were cousins,' she said, 'and have been so proud of the +connection! Lord Silverbridge does come and see us sometimes.' + +Soon after that Silverbridge and Popplecourt came in. If the story +of the old woman in the portrait may be taken as evidence of a +family connection between Lady Cantrip and Lord Popplecourt, +everybody there was more or less connected with everybody else. +Nidderdale had been a first cousin of Lady Glencora, and he had +married a daughter of Lady Cantrip. They were manifestly a family +party,--thanks to the old woman in the picture. + +It is a point of conscience among the--perhaps not ten thousand, +but say one thousand of bluest blood,--that everybody should know +who everybody is. Our Duke, though he had not given his mind much +to the pursuit, had nevertheless learned his lesson. It is a +knowledge which the possession of the blue blood itself produces. +There are countries with bluer blood than our own in which to be +without such knowledge is a crime. + +When the old lady in the portrait had been discussed, Popplecourt +was close to Lady Mary. They two had no idea why such vicinity had +been planned. The Duke knew of course, and Lady Cantrip. Lady +Cantrip had whispered to her daughter that such a marriage would +be suitable, and the daughter had hinted it to her husband. Lord +Cantrip of course was not in the dark. Lady Mabel had expressed a +hint on the matter to Miss Cass, who had not repudiated it. Even +Silverbridge had suggested to himself that something of the kind +might be in the wind, thinking that, if so, none of them knew very +much about his sister Mary. But Popplecourt himself was divinely +innocent. His ideas of marriage had as yet gone no farther than a +conviction that girls generally were things which would be pressed +on him, and against which he must arm himself with some shield. +Marriage would have to come, no doubt, but not the less was it his +duty to live as though it were a pit towards which he would be +tempted by female allurements. But that a net should be spread +over him here he was much too humble-minded to imagine. + +'Very hot,' he said to Lady Mary. + +'We found it warm in church today.' + +'I dare say. I came down here with your brother in his hansom cab. +What a very odd thing to have a hansom cab!' + +'I should like one.' + +'Should you indeed?' + +'Particularly if I could drive it myself. Silverbridge does, at +night, when he thinks people won't see him.' + +'Drive the cab in the streets! What does he do with his man?' + +'Puts him inside. He was out once without the man and took up a +fare,--an old woman, he said. And when she was going to pay him he +touched his hat and said he never took money from ladies.' + +'Do you believe that?' + +'Oh yes. I call that good fun, because it did no harm. He had his +lark. The lady was taken where she wanted to go, and she saved her +money.' + +'Suppose he had upset her,' said Lord Popplecourt, looking as an +old philosopher might have looked when he had found something +clenching answer to another philosopher's argument. + +'The real cabman might have upset her worse,' said Lady Mary. + +'Don't you feel it odd that we should meet here?' said Lord +Silverbridge to his neighbour Lady Mabel. + +'Anything unexpected is odd,' said Lady Mabel. It seemed to her to +be very odd,--unless certain people had made up their minds as to +the expediency of a certain event. + +'That is what you call logic;--isn't it? Anything unexpected is +odd?' + +'Lord Silverbridge, I won't be laughed at. You have been at Oxford +and ought to know what logic is.' + +'That at any rate is ill-natured,' he replied, turning very red in +the face. + +'You don't think I meant it. Oh, Lord Silverbridge, say that you +don't think I meant it. You cannot think I would willingly wound +you. Indeed, indeed, I was not thinking.' It had, in truth been +an accident. She could speak aloud because they were closely +surrounded by others, but she looked up in his face to see whether +he were angry with her. 'Say that you do not think I meant it.' + +'I do not think you meant it.' + +'I would not say a word to hurt you,--oh for more than I can tell +you.' + +'It is all bosh of course,' said he laughing, 'but I do not like +to hear the old place named. I have always made a fool of myself, +some men do it and don't care about it. But I do it, and yet it +makes me miserable.' + +'If that be so you will soon give over making--what you call a fool +of yourself, for my self I like the idea of wild oats. I look upon +them like measles. Only you should have a doctor ready when the +disease shows itself.' + +'What sort of doctor should I have?' + +'Ah;--you must find that out for yourself. That sort of feeling +which makes you feel miserable;--that is a doctor itself.' + +'Or a wife?' + +'Or a wife,--if you can find a good one. There are wives, you know, +who aggravate the disease. If I had a fast husband I should make +him faster by being fast myself. There is nothing I envy so much +as the power of doing half-mad things.' + +'Woman can do that too.' + +'But they go to the dogs. We are dreadfully restricted. If you +like champagne you can have a bucketful. I am obliged to pretend +that I only want a very little. You can bet thousands. I must +confine myself to gloves. You can flirt with any woman you please. +I must wait till somebody comes,--and put up with it if nobody does +come.' + +'Plenty come no doubt.' + +'But I want to pick and choose. A man turns the girls over one +after another as one does the papers when one if fitting up a +room, or rolls them out as one rolls out the carpets. A very +careful young man like Lord Popplecourt might reject a young woman +because her hair didn't suit the colour of his furniture.' + +'I don't think that I shall choose my wife as I would papers and +carpets.' + +The Duke, who sat between Lady Cantrip and her daughter, did his +best to make himself agreeable. The conversation had been semi- +political,--political to the usual feminine extent, and had +consisted chiefly of sarcasms from Lady Cantrip against Sir +Timothy Beeswax. 'That England should put up with such a man,' +Lady Cantrip had said, 'is to me shocking! There used to be a +feeling in favour of gentlemen.' To this the Duke had responded +by asserting that Sir Timothy had displayed great aptitudes for +parliamentary life, and knew the House of Commons better than most +men. He said nothing against his foe, and very much in his foe's +praise. But Lady Cantrip perceived that she had succeeded in +pleasing him. + +When the ladies were gone the politics became more serious. 'That +unfortunate quarrel is to go on the same as ever I suppose,' said +the Duke, addressing himself to the two young men who had seats in +the House of Commons. They were both on the Conservative side in +politics. The three peers were all Liberals. + +'Till next session, I think, sir,' said Silverbridge. + +'Sir Timothy, though he did lose his temper, has managed it well,' +said Lord Cantrip. + +'Phineas Finn lost his temper worse than Sir Timothy,' said Lord +Nidderdale. + +'But yet I think he had the feeling of the House with him,' said +the Duke. 'I happened to be present in the gallery at the time.' + +'Yes,' said Nidderdale, 'because he "owned up". The fact is if you +"own up" in a genial sort of way the House will forgive anything. +If I were to murder my grandmother, and when questioned about it +were to acknowledge that I had done it--' Then Lord Nidderdale +stood up and made his speech as he might have made it in the House +of Commons. 'I regret to say, sir, that the old woman did get in +my way when I was in a passion. Unfortunately I had a heavy stick +in my hand and I did strike her over the head. Nobody can regret +it so much as I do! Nobody can feel so acutely the position in +which I am placed! I have sat in this House for many years, and +many gentlemen know me well. I think, sir, that they will +acknowledge that I am a man not deficient in filial piety or +general humanity. Sir, I am sorry for what I did in a moment of +heat. I have now spoken the truth, and I shall leave myself in the +hands of the House. My belief is that I should get such a round of +applause as I certainly shall never achieve in any other way. It +is not only that a popular man may do it,--like Phineas Finn,--but +the most unpopular man in the House may make himself liked by +owning freely that he has done something that he ought to be +ashamed of.' Nidderdale's unwonted eloquence was received in good +part by the assembled legislators. + +'Taking it altogether,' said the Duke, 'I know of no assembly in +any country in which good-humour prevails so generally, in which +the members behave to each other so well, in which the rules are +so universally followed, or in which the president is so +thoroughly sustained by the feeling of the members. + +'I hear men say that it isn't quite what it used to be,' said +Silverbridge. + +'Nothing will ever be quite what it used to be.' + +'Changes for the worse, I mean. Men are doing all kinds of things, +just because the rules of the House allow them.' + +'If they be within the rule,' said the Duke, 'I don't know who is +to blame them. In my time, if any man stretched a rule too far the +House would not put up with it.' + +'That's just it,' said Nidderdale. 'The House puts up with +anything now. There is a great deal of good feeling no doubt, but +there's no earnestness about anything. I think you are more +earnest than we; but then you are such horrid bores. And each +earnest man is in earnest about something that nobody else cares +for.' + +When they were again in the drawing-room, Lord Popplecourt was +seated next to Lady Mary. 'Where are you going this autumn?' he +asked. + +'I don't know in the least. Papa said something about going +abroad.' + +'You won't be at Custins?' Custins was Lord Cantrip's country seat +in Dorsetshire. + +'I know nothing about myself as yet. But I don't think I shall go +anywhere unless papa goes too.' + +'Lady Cantrip has asked me to be at Custins in the middle of +October. They say it is about the best pheasant shooting in +England.' + +'Do you shoot much?' + +'A great deal. I shall be in Scotland on the Twelfth. I and +Reginald Dobbs have a place together. I shall get to my own +partridges on the first of September. I always manage that. +Popplecourt is in Suffolk, and I don't think any man in England +can beat me for partridges.' + +'What do you do with all you slay?' + +'Leadenhall Market. I make it pay,--or very nearly. Then I shall +run back to Scotland for the end of the stalking, and I can easily +manage to be at Custins by the middle of October. I never touch my +own pheasants till November.' + +'Why are you so abstemious?' + +'The birds are heavier and it answer better. But if I thought you +would be at Custins it would be much nicer.' Lady Mary again told +him that as yet she knew nothing of her father's autumn +movements.' + +But at the same time the Duke was arranging his autumn movements, +or at any rate those of his daughter. Lady Cantrip had told him +that the desirable son-in-law had promised to go to Custins, and +suggested that he and Mary should also be there. In his daughter's +name he promised, but he would not bind himself. Would it not be +better that he should be absent? Now that the doing of the thing +was brought nearer to him so that he could see and feel its +details, hew was disgusted by it. And yet it had answered so well +with his wife! + +'Is Lord Popplecourt intimate with her?' Lady Mabel asked her +friend, Lord Silverbridge. + +'I don't know. I am not.' + +'Lady Cantrip seems to think a great deal about him.' + +'I daresay. I don't.' + +'Your father seems to like him.' + +'That's possible too. They're going back to London together in the +governor's carriage. My father will talk high politics all the +way, and Popplecourt will agree with everything.' + +'He isn't intended to--to--? You know what I mean.' + +'I can't say that I do.' + +'To cut out poor Frank.' + +'It is quite possible.' + +'Poor Frank!' + +'You had a great deal better say poor Popplecourt!-or poor +governor, or poor Lady Cantrip.' + +'But a hundred countesses can't make your sister marry a man she +doesn't like.' + +'Just that. They don't go the right way about it.' + +'What would you do?' + +'Leave her alone. Let her find out gradually that what she wants +can't be done.' + +'And so linger on for years,' said Lady Mabel reproachfully. + +'I say nothing about that. The man is my friend.' + +'And you ought to be proud of him.' + +'I never knew anybody yet who was proud of his friends. I like him +well enough, but I can quite understand that the governor should +object.' + +'Yes, we all know that,' said she sadly. + +'What would your father say if you wanted to marry someone who +hadn't a shilling?' + +'I should object myself,--without waiting for my father. But then,-- +neither have I a shilling. If I had money, do you think I wouldn't +like to give it to the man I loved?' + +'But this is a case of giving somebody else's money. They won't +make her give it up by bringing such a young ass as that down +here. If my father has persistency enough to let her cry her eyes +out, he'll succeed.' + +'And break her heart. Could you do that?' + +'Certainly not. But then I'm soft. I can't refuse.' + +'Can't you?' + +'Not if the person who asks me is in my good books. You try me.' + +'What shall I ask for?' + +'Anything.' + +'Give me the ring off your finger,' she said. He at once took it +off his hand. 'Of course you know I am in joke. You don't imagine +that I would take it from you.' He still held it towards her. +'Lord Silverbridge, I expect that with you I may say a foolish +thing without being brought to sorrow by it. I know that that ring +belonged to your great uncle,--and to fifty Pallisers before.' + +'What would it matter?' + +'And it would be wholly useless to me, as I would not wear it.' + +'Of course it would be too big,' said he, replacing the ring on +his own finger. 'But when I talk of anyone being in my good books, +I don't mean a thing like that. Don't you know there is nobody on +earth I--' there he paused and blushed, and she sat motionless, +looking at him, expecting, with her colour too somewhat raised,-- +'whom I like so well as I do you?' It was a lame conclusion. She +felt it to be lame. But as regarded him, the lameness of the +moment had come from a timidity which forbade him to say the word +'love' even though he had meant to say it. + +She recovered herself instantly. 'I do believe it,' she said. 'I +do think that we are real friends.' + +'Not that ring;--nor a ring at all after I had asked for it in +joke. You understand it all. But to go back to what we were +talking about,--if you can do anything for Frank, pray do. You know +it will break his heart. A man of course bears it better, but he +does not perhaps suffer the less. It is all his life to him. He +can do nothing while this is going on. Are you not true enough to +your friendship to exert yourself for him?' Silverbridge put his +hand up and rubbed his head as though he were vexed. 'Your aid +would turn everything in his favour.' + +'You do not know my father.' + +'Is he so inexorable?' +'It is not that, Mabel. But he is so unhappy. I cannot add to his +unhappiness by taking part against him.' + +In another part of the room Lady Cantrip was busy with Lord +Popplecourt. She had talked about pheasants, and had talked about +grouse, had talked about moving the address in the House of Lords +in some coming session, and the great value of political alliances +early in life, till the young Peer began to think that Lady +Cantrip was the nicest of women. Then after a short pause she +changed the subject. 'Don't you think Lady Mary very beautiful?' + +'Uncommon,' said his lordship. + +'And her manners so perfect. She has all her mother's ease without +any of that--You know what I mean.' + +'Quite so,' said his lordship. + +'And then she has got so much in her.' + +'Has she though?' + +'I don't know of any girl her age so thoroughly well educated. The +Duke seems to take to you.' + +'Well yes;--the Duke is very kind.' + +'Don't you think-?' + +'Eh!' + +'You have heard of her mother's fortune?' + +'Tremendous!' + +'She will have, I take it, quite a third of it. Whatever I say I'm +sure you will take in confidence; but she is a dear girl; and I am +anxious for her happiness almost as though she belonged to me.' + +Lord Popplecourt went back into town in the Duke's carriage, but +was unable to say a word about politics. His mind was altogether +filled with the wonderful words that had been spoken to him. Could +it be that Lady Mary had fallen violently in love with him? He +would not at once give himself up to the pleasing idea, having so +thoroughly grounded himself in the belief that female nets were to +be avoided. But when he got home he did think favourably of it. +The daughter of a Duke,--and such a Duke! So lovely a girl, and +with such gifts! And then a fortune which would make a material +addition to his own large property! + + + +CHAPTER 36 + +Tally-ho Lodge + +We all know that very clever distich concerning the great fleas +and the little fleas which tell us that no animal is too humble to +have its parasite. Even Major Tifto had his inferior friend. This +was a certain Captain Green,--for the friend also affected military +honours. Tifto, of whose antecedents no one was supposed to know +anything. It was presumed of him that he lived by betting, and it +was boasted by those who wished to defend his character that when +he lost he paid his money like a gentleman. Tifto during the last +year or two had been anxious to support Captain Green, and had +always made use of this argument; 'Where the D- he gets his money +I don't know;--but when he loses it, there it is.' + +Major Tifto had a little 'box' of his own in the neighbourhood of +Egham, at which he had a set of stables a little bigger than his +house, and a set of kennels a little bigger than his stables. It +was here he kept his horses and hounds, and himself too when +business connected with his sporting life did not take him to +town. It was now the middle of August and he had come to Tally-ho +Lodge, there to look after his establishments, to make +arrangements for cub-hunting, and to prepare for the autumn racing +campaign. On this occasion Captain Green was enjoying his +hospitality and assisting him by sage counsels. Behind the little +box was a little garden,--a garden that was very little; but, +still, thus close to the parlour window, there was room for a +small table to be put on the grass-plat, and for a couple of +armchairs. Here the Major and the Captain were seated about eight +o'clock one evening, with convivial good things within their +reach. The good things were gin-and-water and pipes. The two +gentlemen had not dressed strictly for dinner. They had spent a +great part of the day handling the hounds and the horses, dressing +wounds, curing sores, and ministering to canine ailments, and had +been detained over their work too long to think of their toilet. +As it was they had an eye to business. The stables at one corner +and the kennels at the other were close to the little garden, and +the doings of a man and a boy who were still at their work could +be directed from the armchairs on which the two sportsmen were +sitting. + +It must be explained that ever since the Silverbridge election +there had been a growing feeling in Tifto's mind that he had been +ill-treated by his partner. The feeling was strengthened by the +admirable condition of Prime Minister. Surely more consideration +had been due to a man who had produced such a state of things? + +'I wouldn't quarrel with him, but I'd make him pay his way,' said +the prudent Captain. + +'As for that, of course he does pay,--his share.' + +'Who does all the work?' + +'That's true.' + +'The fact is, Tifto, you don't make enough out of it. When a small +man like you has to deal with a big man like that, he may take it +out of him in one of two ways. But he mist be deuced clever if he +can get it both ways.' + +'What are you driving at?' asked Tifto, who did not like being +called a small man, feeling himself to be every inch a master of +foxhounds. + +'Why, this!-Look at d- fellow fretting that 'orse with a switch. +If you can't strap a 'orse without a stick in your hand, don't you +strap him at all, you--' Then there came volley of abuse out of the +Captain's mouth, in the middle of which the man threw down the +rubber he was using and walked away. + +'You come back,' halloed Tifto, jumping up from his seat with his +pipe in his mouth. Then there was a general quarrel between the +man and his two masters, in which the man was at last victorious. +And the horse was taken into the stable in an unfinished +condition. 'It's all very well to say "Get rid of him", but where +am I to get anybody better? It has come to such a pass that now if +you speak to a fellow he walks out of the yard.' + +They then returned to the state of affairs, as it was between +Tifto and Lord Silverbridge. 'What I was saying is this,' +continued the Captain. 'If you choose to put yourself up to live +with a fellow like that on equal terms--' + +'One gentleman with another, you mean?' + +'Put it so. it don't quite hit it off, but put it so. why then you +get your wages when you take his arm and call him Silverbridge.' + +'I don't want wages from any man,' said the indignant Major. + +'That comes from not knowing what wages is. I do want wages. If I +do a thing I like to be paid for it. You are paid for it after one +fashion, I prefer the other.' + +'Do you mean he should give me--a salary?' + +'I'd have it out of him someway. What's the good of young chaps of +that sort if they aren't made to pay? You've got this young swell +in tow. He's going to be about the richest man in England;--and +what the deuce better are you for it?' Tifto sat meditating, +thinking of the wisdom of the wisdom which was being spoken. The +same ideas had occurred to him. The happy chance which had made in +intimate with Lord Silverbridge had not yet enriched him. 'What is +the good of chaps of that sort if they are not made to pay?' The +words were wise words. But yet how glorious he had been when he +was elected at the Beargarden, and had entered the club as the +special friend of the heir of the Duke of Omnium. + +After a short pause, Captain Green pursued his discourse. 'You +said salary.' + +'I did mention the word.' + +'Salary and wages is one. A salary is a nice thing if it's paid +regular. I had a salary once myself for looking after a stud of +'orses at Newmarket, only the gentleman broke up and it never went +very far.' + +'Was that Marley Bullock?' + +'Yes; that was Marley Bullock. He's abroad somewhere now with +nothing a year paid quarterly to live on. I think he does a little +at cards. He'd had a good bit of money once, but most of it was +gone when he came my way.' + +'You didn't make by him?' + +'I didn't lose nothing. I didn't have a lot of 'orses under me +without getting something out of it.' + +'What am I to do?' asked Tifto. 'I can sell him a horse now and +again. But if I give him anything good there isn't much to come +out of that.' + +'Very little I should say. Don't he put his money on his 'orses?' + +'Not very free. I think he's coming out freer now.' + +'What did he stand to win on the Derby?' + +'A thousand or two perhaps.' + +'There may be something got handsome out of that,' said the +Captain, not venturing to allow his voice above a whisper. Major +Tifto looked hard at him but said nothing. 'Of course you must see +your way.' + +'I don't quite understand.' + +'Race 'orses are expensive animals,--and races generally +expensive.' + +'That's true.' + +'When so much is dropped, somebody has to pick it up. That's what +I've always said to myself. I'm as honest as another man.' + +'That's of course, said the Major civilly. + +'But if I don't keep my mouth shut, somebody'll have my teeth out +of my head. Every one for himself and God for us all. I suppose +there's a deal of money flying about. He'll put a lot of money on +this 'orse of yours for the Leger if he's managed right. There's +more to be got out of that than calling him Silverbridge and +walking arm-in-arm. Business is business. I don't know whether I +make myself understood.' + +The gentleman did not quite make himself understood; but Tifto +endeavoured to read the riddle. He must in some way make money out +of his friend Lord Silverbridge. Hitherto he had contented himself +with the brilliancy of the connection; but now his brilliant +friend had taken to snubbing him, and had on more than one +occasion made himself disagreeable. It seemed to him that Captain +Green counselled him to put up with that, but counselled him at +the same time to--pick up some of his friend's money. He didn't +think he could ask Lord Silverbridge for a salary. He who was +Master of Foxhounds, and a member of the Beargarden. Then his +friend had suggested something about the young Lord's bets. He was +endeavouring to unriddle all this with a brain that was already +somewhat muddled with alcohol, when Captain Green got up from his +chair and standing over the Major spoke his last words for that +night as an oracle. 'Square is all very well, as long as others +are square with you;--but when they aren't, then I say square be +d-. Square! what comes of it? Work your heart out, and then it's +no good.' + +The Major thought about it much that night, and was thinking about +it still when he awoke on the next morning. He would like to make +Lord Silverbridge pay for his late insolence. It would answer his +purpose to make a little money,--as he told himself,--in any honest +way. At the present moment he was in want of money, and on looking +into his affairs declared to himself that he certainly +impoverished himself by his devotion to Lord Silverbridge's +interests. At breakfast on the following morning he endeavoured to +bring his friend back on to the subject. But the Captain was +cross, rather than oracular. 'Everybody,' he said, 'ought to know +his own business.' He wasn't going to meddle or make. What he had +said had been taken amiss. This was hard upon Tifto, who had taken +nothing amiss. + +'Square be d-!' There was a great deal in the lesson there +enunciated which demanded consideration. Hitherto the Major had +fought his battles with a certain adherence to squareness. If his +angles had not all been perfect angles, still there had always +been an attempt at geometrical accuracy. He might now and then +have told a lie about a horse--but who that deals in horses has not +done that? He had been alive to the value of underhand information +from racing-stables, but who won't use a tip if he can get it? He +had lied about the expense of his hounds, in order to enhance the +subscription of his members. Those were things which everybody did +in his line. But Green had meant something beyond this. + +As far as he could see out in the world at large, nobody was +square. You had to keep your mouth shut, or your teeth would be +stolen out of it. He didn't look into a paper without seeing that +on all sides of him men had abandoned the idea of squareness. +Chairmen, directors, members of Parliament, ambassadors,--all the +world, as he told himself,--were trying to get on by their wits. He +didn't see why he should be more square than anybody else. Why +hadn't Silverbridge taken him down to Scotland for the grouse? + + + +CHAPTER 37 + +Grex + +Far away from all known places, in the northern limit of the Craven +district, on the borders of Westmoreland but in Yorkshire, there +stands a large rambling most picturesque old house called Grex. +The people around call it the Castle, but it is not a castle. It +is an old brick building supposed to have been erected in the days +of James the First, having oriel windows, twisted chimneys, long +galleries, gable ends, a quadrangle of which the house surrounds +three sides, terraces, sundials, and fish-ponds. But it is sadly +out of repair as to be altogether unfit for the residence of a +gentleman and his family. It stands not in a park, for the land +about it is divided into paddocks by low stone walls, but in the +midst of lovely scenery, the ground rising all round it in low +irregular hills or fells, and close to it, a quarter of a mile +from the back of the house, there is a small dark lake, not +serenely lovely as are some of the lakes in Westmoreland, but +attractive by the darkness of its waters and the gloom of the +woods around it. + +This is the country seat of Earl Grex,--which however he had not +visited for some years. Gradually the place had got into such a +condition in his absence was not surprising. An owner of Grex, +with large means at his disposal and with a taste for the +picturesque to gratify,--one who could afford to pay for memories +and who was willing to pay dearly for such luxuries, might no +doubt restore Grex, but the Earl had neither the money nor the +taste. + +Lord Grex had latterly never gone near the place, nor was his son +Lord Percival fond of looking upon the ruin of his property. But +Lady Mabel loved it with a fond love. With all her lightness of +spirit she was prone to memories, prone to melancholy, prone at +times almost to seek the gratification of sorrow. Year after year +when the London season was over she would come down to Grex and +spend a week or two amidst its desolation. She was now going to a +seat in Scotland belonging to Mrs Montacute Jones called +Killancodlem; but she was now passing a desolate fortnight in +company with Miss Cassewary. The gardens were let,--and being let +of course were not kept in further order than as profit might +require. The man who rented it lived in the big house with his +wife, and they on occasions as this would cook and wait upon Lady +Mabel. + +Lady Mabel was at the home of her ancestors, and the faithful Miss +Cass was with her. But at the moment and at the spot at which the +reader shall see her, Miss Cass was not with her. She was sitting +on a rock about twelve feet above the lake looking upon the black +water; and on another rock a few feet from her sat Frank Tregear. +'No,' she said, 'you should not have come. Nothing can justify it. +Of course, as you are here I could not refuse to come out with +you. To make a fuss about it would be the worst of all. But you +should not have come.' + +'Why not? Whom does it hurt? It is a pleasure to me. If it be the +reverse to you, I will go.' + +'Men are so unmanly. They take such mean advantages. You know it +is a pleasure to me to see you.' + +'I had hoped so.' + +'But it is a pleasure I ought not to have,--at least not here.' + +'That is what I do not understand,' said he. 'In London, where the +Earl could bark at me if he happened to find me, I could see the +inconvenience of it. But here, where there is nobody but Miss +Cass--' + +'There are a great many others. There are the rooks and stones and +old women;---all of which have ears.' + +'But of what is there to be ashamed? There is nothing in the world +to me so pleasant as the companionship of old friends.' + +'Then go after Silverbridge.' + +'I mean to do so;--but I am taking you by the way.' + +'It is all unmanly,' she said, rising from her stone; 'you know +that it is so. Friends! Do you mean to say that it would make no +difference whether you were here with me or Miss Cass?' + +'The greatest difference in the world.' + +'Because she is an old woman and I am a young one, and because in +intercourse between young men and young women there is something +dangerous to the woman and therefore pleasant to the man.' + +'I never heard anything more unjust. You cannot think I desire +anything injurious to you.' + +'I do think so.' She was still standing and spoke now with great +vehemence. 'I do think so. You force me to throw aside the +reticence I ought to keep. Would it help me in my purpose if your +friend Lord Silverbridge knew that I was here?' + +'How should he know?' + +'But if he did? Do you suppose that I want to have visits paid to +me of which I am afraid to speak? Would you dare tell Lady Mary +that you had been sitting alone with me on the rocks at Grex?' + +'Certainly I would.' + +'Then it would be because you have not dared to tell her certain +other things which have gone before. You have sworn to her no +doubt that you love her better than all the world.' + +'I have.' + +'And you have taken the trouble to come her to tell me that,--to +wound me to the core by saying so; to show me that though I may +still be sick, you have recovered,--that is if you ever suffered! +Go your way and let me go mine. I do not want you.' + +'Mabel!' + +'I do not want you. I know you will not help me, but you need not +destroy me.' + +'You know that you are wronging me.' + +'No! You understand it all though you look so calm. I hate your +Lady Mary Palliser. There! But if by anything I could do I could +secure her to you I would do it,--because you want it.' + +'She will be your sister-in-law,--probably.' + +'Never. It will never be so.' + +'Why do you hate me?' + +'There again! You are so little of a man that you can ask me +why!' Then she turned away as though she intended to go down to +the marge of the lake. + +But he rose up and stopped her. 'Let us have this out, Mabel, +before we go,' he said. 'Unmanly is a heavy word to hear from you, +and you have used it a dozen times.' + +'It is because I have thought it a thousand times. Go and get her +if you can,--but why tell me about it?' + +'You said you would help me.' + +'So I would, as I would help you do anything you might want; but +you can hardly think that after what has passed I can wish to hear +about her.' + +'It was you spoke of her.' + +'I told you you should not be here,--because of her and because of +me. And I tell you again. I hate her. Do you think I can hear you +speak of her as though she were the only woman you had ever seen +without feeling it? Did you ever swear that you loved anyone +else?' + +'Certainly, I have so sworn.' + +'Have you ever said that nothing could alter that love?' + +'Indeed I have.' + +'But it is altered. It has all gone. It has been transferred to +one who has more advantages of beauty, youth, wealth, and +position.' + +'Oh Mabel, Mabel!' + +'But it is so.' + +'When you say this do you think of yourself?' + +'Yes. But I have never been false to anyone. You are false to me.' + +'Have I not offered to face all the world with you?' + +'You would not offer it now?' + +'No,' he said, after a pause,--'not now. Were I to do so, I should +be false. You bade me take my love elsewhere, and I did so.' + +'With the greatest care.' + +'We agreed it should be so; and you have done the same.' + +'That is false. Look me in the face and tell me whether you do not +know it to be false?' + +'And yet I am told that I am injuring you with Silverbridge.' + +'Oh,--so unmanly again! Of course I have to marry. Who does not +know it? Do you want to see me begging my bread about the +streets? You have bread; or if not, you might earn it. If you +marry for money--' + +'The accusation is altogether unjustifiable.' + +'Allow me to finish what I have to say. If you marry for money you +will do that which is in itself bad, and which is also +unnecessary. What other course would you recommend me to take? No +one goes into the gutter while there is a clean path open. If +there be no escape but through the gutter, one has to take it.' + +'You mean that my duty to you should have kept me from marrying +all my life.' + +'Not that;--but a little while, Frank; just a little while. Your +bloom is not fading; your charms are not running from you. Have +you not a strength which I cannot have? Do you not feel that you +are a tree, standing firm in the ground, while I am a bit of ivy +that will be trodden in the dirt unless it can be made to cling to +something? You should not liken yourself to me, Frank.' + +'If I could do you any good!' + +'Good! What is the meaning of good? If you love, it is good to +be loved again. It is good not to have your heart torn to pieces. +You know that I love you.' He was standing close to her, and put +out his hand as though he would twine his arm round her waist. +'Not for worlds,' she said. 'It belongs to the Palliser girl. And +as I have taught myself to think that what there is left of me may +perhaps belong to some other one, worthless as it is, I will keep +it for him. I love you,--but there can be none of that softness of +love between us.' + +Then there was a pause, but as he did not speak she went on. 'But +remember, Frank,--our position is not equal. You have got over your +little complaint. It probably did not go deep with you, and you +have found a cure. Perhaps there is a satisfaction in finding that +two young women love you.' + +'You are trying to be cruel to me.' + +'Why else should you be here? You know I love you,--with all my +heart, with all my strength, and that I would give the world to +cure myself. Knowing this, you come and talk to me of your passion +for this other girl.' + +'I had hoped we might both talk rationally as friends.' + +'Friends! Frank Tregear, I have been bold enough to tell you I +love you; but you are not my friend, and cannot be my friend. If I +have before asked you to help me in this mean catastrophe of mine, +in my attack upon that poor boy, I withdraw my request. I think I +will go back to the house now.' + +'I will walk back to Ledburgh if you wish it without going to the +house again.' + +'No; I will have nothing that looks like being ashamed. You ought +not to have come, but you need not run away.' Then they walked +back to the house together and found Miss Casseawary on the +terrace. 'We have been to the lake,' said Mabel, 'and have been +talking of old days. I have but one ambition now in the world.' +Of course Miss Cassewary asked what the remaining ambition was. +'To get money enough to purchase this place from the ruins of the +Grex property. If I could own the house and the lake, and the +paddocks about, and had enough income to keep one servant and +bread for us to eat--of course including you, Miss Cass--' + +'Thank'ee, my dear; but I am not sure I should like it.' + +'Yes; you would. Frank would come and see us perhaps once a year. +I don't suppose anybody else cares about the place, but to me it +is the dearest spot in the world.' So she went on in almost high +spirits, though alluding to the general decadence of the Grex +family, till Tregear took his leave. + +'I wish he had not come,' said Miss Cassewary when he was gone. + +'Why should you wish that? There is not so much here to amuse me +that you should begrudge me a stray visitor.' + +'I don't think I grudge you anything in the way of pleasure, my +dear, but still he should not have come. My Lord, if he knew it, +would be angry.' + +'Then let him be angry. Papa does not do much for me that I am +bound to think of him at every turn.' + +'But I am,--or rather I am bound to think of myself, if I take his +bread.' + +'Bread!' + +'Well;--I do take his bread, and I take it on the understanding +that I will be to you what a mother might be,--or an aunt.' + +'Well,--and if so! Had I a mother living would not Frank Tregear +have come to visit her, and in visiting her, would he not have +seen me,--and should not we have walked out together?' + +'Not after all that has come and gone.' + +'But you are not a mother nor yet an aunt, and you have to do just +what I tell you. And don't I know that you trust me in all things? +And am I not trustworthy?' + +'I think you are trustworthy.' + +'I know what my duty is and I mean to do it. No one shall ever +have to say of me that I have given way to self-indulgence. I +couldn't help his coming here, you know.' + +That same night, after Miss Cassewary had gone to bed, when the +moon was high in the heavens and the world round her was all +asleep, Lady Mabel again wandered out to the lake, and again +seated herself on the same rock, and there sat thinking of her +past life and trying to think of that before her. It is so much +easier to think of the past than of the future,--to remember what +has been than to resolve what shall be! She had reminded him of +the offer which he had made and repeated to her more than once,--to +share with her all his chances in life. There would have been +almost no income for them. All the world would have been against +her. She would have caused his ruin. Her light on the matter had +been so clear that it had not taken her very long to decide that +such a thing must not be thought of. She had at last been quite +stern in her decision. + +Now she was broken-hearted because she found that he had left her +in very truth. Oh yes;--she would marry the boy, if she could so +arrange. Since that meeting at Richmond he had sent her the ring +reset. She was to meet him down in Scotland within a week or two +from the present time. Mrs Montacute Jones had managed that. He +had all but offered to her a second time at Richmond. But all that +would not serve to make her happy. She declared to herself that +she did not wish to see Frank Tregear again; but still it was a +misery to her that his heart should in truth be given to another +woman. + + + +CHAPTER 38 + +Crummie-Toddie + +Almost at the last moment Silverbridge and his brother Gerald were +induced to join Lord Popplecourt's shooting-party in Scotland. +The party perhaps might more properly be called the party of +Reginald Dobbes, who as a man knowing in such matters. It was he +who made the party up. Popplecourt and Silverbridge were to share +the expense between them, each bringing three guns. Silverbridge +brought his brother and Frank Tregear,--having refused a most +piteous petition on the subject from Major Tifto. With Popplecourt +of course came Reginald Dobbes, who was, in truth, to manage +everything, and Lord Nidderdale, whose wife had generously +permitted him this recreation. The shooting was in the west of +Perthshire, known as Crummie-Toddie, and comprised an enormous +acreage of so-called forest and moor. Mr Dobbes declared that +nothing like it had as yet been produced in Scotland. Everything +had been made to give way to deer and grouse. The thing had been +managed so well that the tourist nuisance had been considerably +abated. There was hardly a potato patch left in the district, nor +a head of cattle to be seen. There were no inhabitants remaining, +or so few that they could be absorbed in game-preserving or +cognate duties. Reginald Dobbes, who was very great at grouse, and +supposed to be capable of outwitting deer by venatical wiles more +perfectly than any other sportsman in Great Britain, regarded +Crummie-Toddie as the nearest thing there was to a Paradise on +Earth. Could he have been allowed to pass one or two special laws +for his own protection, there might still have been improvements. +He would like the right to have all intruders thrashed by the +gillies within an inch of their lives; and he would have had a +clause in his lease against the making of any new roads, opening +of footpaths, or building of bridges. He had seen somewhere in +print a plan for running a railway from Callender to Fort Augustus +right through Crummie-Toddie! If this were done in his time the +beauty of the world would be over. Reginald Dobbes was a man of +about forty, strong, active, well-made, about five feet ten in +height, with broad shoulders and greatly-developed legs. He was +not a handsome man, having a protrusive nose, high cheek-bones, +and long upper lip; but there was a manliness about his face which +redeemed it. Sport was the business of his life, and he thoroughly +despised all who were not sportsmen. He fished and shot and hunted +during nine or ten months of the year, filling up his time as best +he might with coaching polo, and pigeon-shooting. He regarded it +as a great duty to keep his body in the firmest possible +condition. All his eating and all his drinking was done upon a +system, and he would consider himself to be guilty of weak self- +indulgence were he to allow himself to break through sanitary +rules. But it never occurred to him that his whole life was one of +self-indulgence. He could walk his thirty miles with his gun on +his shoulder as well now as he could ten years ago; and being sure +of this, was thoroughly contented with himself. He had a patrimony +amounting to perhaps 1000 pounds a year, which he husbanded so as +to enjoy all his amusements to perfection. No one had ever heard +of his sponging on his friends. Of money he rarely spoke, sport +being in his estimation the only subject worthy of a man's words. +Such was Reginald Dobbes, who was now to be the master of the +shooting at Crummie-Toddie. + +Crummie-Toddie was but twelve miles from Killancodlem, Mrs +Montacute Jones's highland seat; and it was this vicinity which +first induced Lord Silverbridge to join the party. Mabel Grex was +to be at Killancodlem, and, determined as he still was to ask her +to be his wife, he would make this opportunity. Of real +opportunity there had been none at Richmond. Since he had had his +ring altered and had sent it to her there had come but a word or +two of answer. 'What am I to say? You unkindest of men! To keep +it or to send it back would make me equally miserable. I shall +keep it till you are married, and then give it to your wife.' +This affair of the ring had made him more intent than ever. After +that he heard that Isabel Boncassen would also be at Killancodlem, +having been induced to join Mrs Montacute Jones's swarm of +visitors. Though he was dangerously devoid of experience, still he +felt that this was unfortunate. He intended to marry Mabel Grex. +And he could assure himself that he thoroughly loved her. +Nevertheless he liked making love to Isabel Boncassen. He was +quite willing to marry and settle down, and looked forward with +satisfaction to having Mabel Grex for his wife. But it would be +pleasant to have a six-month run of flirting and love-making +before this settlement, and he had certainly never seen anyone +with whom this would be so delightful as with Miss Boncassen. But +that the two ladies should be at the same house was unfortunate. + +He and Gerald reached Crummie-Toddie late on the evening of August +the eleventh, and found Reginald Dobbes alone. That was on +Wednesday. Popplecourt and Niddledale ought to have made their +appearance on that morning, but had telegraphed to say that they +would be detained two days on their route. Tregear, whom hitherto +Dobbes had never seen, had left his arrival uncertain. This +carelessness on such matters was very offensive to Mr Dobbes, who +loved discipline and exactitude. He ought to have received the two +young men with open arms because they were punctual; but he had +been somewhat angered by what he considered the extreme youth of +Lord Gerald. Boys who could not shoot were, he thought, putting +themselves forward before their time. And Silverbridge himself was +by no means a first-rate shot. Such a one as Silverbridge had to +be endured because from his position and wealth he could +facilitate such arrangements as these. It was much to have to do +with a man who could not complain if an extra fifty pounds were +wanted. But he ought to have understood that he was bound in +honour to bring down competent friends. Of Tregear's shooting +Dobbes had been able to learn nothing. Lord Gerald was a lad from +the Universities; and Dobbes hated University lads. Popplecourt +and Niddledale were known to be efficient. They were men who could +work hard and do their part of the required slaughter. Dobbes +proudly knew that he could make up for some deficiency by his own +prowess; but he could not struggle against three bad guns. What +was the use of so perfecting Crummie-Toddie as to make it the best +bit of ground for grouse and deer in Scotland, if the men who came +there failed by their own incapacity to bring up the grand total +of killed to a figure which would render Dobbes and Crummie-Toddie +famous throughout the whole shooting world? He had been hard at +work on other matters. Dogs had gone amiss;--or guns, and he had +been made angry by the champagne which Popplecourt had caused to +be sent down. He knew what champagne meant. Whisky-and-water, and +not much of it, was the liquor which Reginald Dobbes loved in the +mountains. + +'Don't you call this a very ugly country?' Silverbridge asked as +soon as he arrived. Now it is the case that the traveller who +travels into Argyleshire, Perthshire, and Inverness, expects to +find lovely scenery; and it was also true that the country through +which they had passed for the last twenty miles had been not only +bleak and barren, but uninteresting and ugly. It was all rough +open moorland, never rising into mountains, and graced by no +running streams, by no forest scenery, almost by no foliage. The +lodge itself did indeed stand close upon a little river, and was +reached by a bridge that crossed it; but there was nothing pretty +either in the river or the bridge. It was a placid black little +streamlet, which in that portion of its course was hurried by no +steepness, had not broken rocks in its bed, no trees on its low +banks, and played none of those gambols which make running water +beautiful. The bridge was a simple low construction with a low +parapet, carrying an ordinary roadway up to the hall door. The +lodge itself was as ugly a house could be, white, of two stories, +with the door in the middle and windows on each side, with a slate +roof, and without a tree near it. It was in the middle of the +shooting, and did not create a town round itself as do sumptuous +mansions, to the great detriment of that seclusion which is +favourable to game. 'Look at Killancodlem,' Dobbes had been heard +to say--'a very fine house for ladies to flirt in; but if you find +a deer within six miles of it I will eat him first and shoot him +afterwards.' There was a Spartan simplicity about Crummie-Toddie +which pleased the Spartan mind of Reginald Dobbes. + +'Ugly do you call it?' + +'Infernally ugly,' said Lord Gerald. + +'What did you expect to find? A big hotel, and a lot of cockneys. +If you come after grouse, you must come to what the grouse think +pretty.' + +'Nevertheless, it is ugly,' said Silverbridge, who did not choose +to be 'sat upon'. 'I have been at shootings in Scotland before, +and sometimes they are not ugly. This I call beastly.' Whereupon +Reginald Dobbes turned upon his heel and walked away. + +'Can you shoot?' he said afterwards to Lord Gerald. + +'I can fire off a gun, if you mean that,' said Gerald. + +'You have never shot much?' + +'Not what you call very much. I'm not so old as you are, you know. +Everything must have a beginning.' Mr Dobbes wished 'the +beginning' might have taken place elsewhere; but there had been +some truth in the remark. + +'What on earth made you tell him crammers like that?' asked +Silverbridge, as the brothers sat together afterwards smoking on +the wall of the bridge. + +'Because he made an ass of himself; asking me whether I could +shoot.' + +On the next morning they started at seven. Dobbes had determined +to be cross, because, as he thought, the young men would certainly +keep him waiting; and was cross because by their punctuality they +robbed him of any just cause for offence. During the morning on +the moor they were hardly near enough each other for much +conversation, and very little was said. According to the +arrangement made they returned to the house for lunch, it being +their purpose not to go far from home till their numbers were +complete. As they came over the bridge and put down their guns +near the door, Mr Dobbes spoke the first good-humoured word they +had heard from his lips. 'Why did you tell me such an infernal-, I +would say lie, only perhaps you mightn't like it.' + +'I told you no lie,' said Gerald. + +'You've only missed two birds all the morning, and you have shot +forty-two. That's uncommonly good sport.' + +'What have you done?' + +'Only forty,' and Mr Dobbes seemed for the moment to be gratified +by his own inferiority. 'You are a deuced sight better than your +brother.' + +'Gerald's about the best shot I know,' said Silverbridge. + +'Why didn't he tell?' + +'Because you were angry when we said the place was ugly.' + +'I see all about it,' said Dobbes. 'Nevertheless when a fellow +comes to shoot he shouldn't complain because a place isn't pretty. +What you want is a decent house as near as you can have it to your +ground. If there is anything in Scotland to beat Crummie-Toddie I +don't know where to find it. Shooting is shooting you know, and +touring is touring.' + +Upon that he took very kindly to Lord Gerald, who, even after the +arrival of the other men, was second only in skill to Dobbes +himself. With Nidderdale, who was an old companion, he got on very +well. Nidderdale drank and ate too much, and refused to be driven +beyond a certain amount of labour, but was in other respects +obedient and knew what he was about. Popplecourt was disagreeable, +but he was a fairly good shot and understood what was expected of +him. Silverbridge was so good-humoured, that even his manifest +faults,--shooting carelessly, lying in bed, and wanting his +dinner,--were, if not forgiven at least endured. But Tregear was an +abomination. He could shoot well enough and was active, and when +he was at the work seemed to like it;--but he would stay away whole +days by himself, and when spoken to would answer in a manner which +seemed to Dobbes to flat mutiny. 'We are not doing it for our +bread,' said Tregear. + +'I don't know what you mean.' + +'There's not a duty in killing a certain number of these animals.' + They had been driving deer on the day before and were to continue +the work on the day in question. 'I'm not paid fifteen shillings a +week for doing it.' + +'I suppose if you undertake to do a thing you mean to do it. Of +course you're not wanted. We can make the double party without +you.' + +'Then why the mischief should you growl at me?' + +'Because I think a man should do what he undertakes to do. A man +who gets tired after three days' work of this kind would become +tired if he were earning his bread.' + +'Who says I am tired? I came here to amuse myself.' + +'Amuse yourself!' + +'And as long as it amuses me, I shall shoot, and when it does not +I shall give it up.' + +This vexed the governor of Crummie-Toddie much. He had learned to +regard himself as the arbiter of the fate of men while they were +sojourning under the same autumnal roof as himself. But a +defalcation which occurred immediately afterwards was worse. +Silverbridge declared his intention of going over one morning to +Killancodlem. Reginald Dobbes muttered a curse between his teeth, +which was visible by the anger of his brow, to all the party. 'I +shall be back tonight, you know,' said Silverbridge. + +'A lot of men and women who pretend to come here for shooting,' +said Dobbes angrily, 'but do all the mischief they can.' + +'One must go and see one's friends you know.' + +'Some girl!' said Dobbes. + +But worse happened than the evil so lightly mentioned. +Silverbridge did go over to Killancodlem; and presently there came +back a man with a cart, who was to return with a certain not small +proportion of his luggage. + +'It's hardly honest, you know,' said Reginald Dobbes. + + + +CHAPTER 39 + +Killancodlem + +Mr Dobbes was probably right in his opinion that hotels, tourists, +and congregations of men are detrimental to shooting. Crummie- +Toddie was in all respects suited for sport. Killancodlem, though +it had the name of a shooting-place, certainly was not so. Men +going there took their guns. Gamekeepers were provided with +gillies,--and, in a moderate quantity, game. On certain grand days +a deer or two might be shot,--and would be very much talked about +afterwards. But a glance at the place would suffice to show that +Killancodlem was not intended for sport. It was a fine castellated +mansion, with beautiful though narrow grounds, standing in the +valley of the Archay River, with a mountain behind and the river +in front. Between the gates and the river there was a public road +on which a stage-coach ran, with loud-blown horns and the noise of +many tourists. A mile beyond the Castle was the famous +Killancodlem hotel which made up a hundred and twenty beds, and at +which half as many more guests would sleep on occasions under the +tables. And there was the Killancodlem post-office halfway between +the two. At Crummie-Toddie they had to send nine miles for their +letters and newspapers. At Killancodlem there was lawn-tennis and +a billiard-room and dancing every night. The costumes of the +ladies were lovely, and those of the gentlemen, who were wonderful +in knickerbockers, picturesque hats and variegated stockings, +hardly less so. and then there were carriages and saddle-horses, +and paths had been made hither and thither through the rocks and +hills for the sake of the scenery. Scenery! To hear Mr Dobbes +utter the single word was as good as a play. Was it for such +cockney purposes as those that Scotland had been created, fit +mother for grouse and deer? + +Silverbridge arrived just before lunch, and was soon made to +understand that it was impossible that he should go back that day. +Mrs Jones was very great on that occasion. 'You are afraid of +Reginald Dobbes,' she said severely. + +'I think I am rather.' + +'Of course you are. How came it to pass that you of all men should +submit yourself to such a tyrant?' + +'Good shooting, you know,' said Silverbridge. + +'But you dare not call an hour your own,--or your soul. Mr Dobbes +and I are sworn enemies. We both like Scotland, and unfortunately +we have fallen into the same neighbourhood. He looks upon me as +the genius of sloth. I regard him as the incarnation of tyranny. +He once said there should be no women in Scotland,--just an old one +here and there, who would know how to cook grouse. I offered to go +and cook his grouse! + +'Any friend of mine,' continued Mrs Jones, 'who comes down to +Crummie-Toddie without staying a day or two with me,--will never be +my friend any more. I do not hesitate to tell you, Lord +Silverbridge, that I call for your surrender, in order that I may +show my power over Reginald Dobbes. Are you a Dobbite?' + +'Not thorough-going,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then be a Montacute Jones-ite, or a Bocassen-ite, if, as +possible, you prefer a young woman to an old one.' At this moment +Isabel Boncassen was standing close to them. + +'Killancodlem against Crummie-Toddie forever,' said Miss +barbarian, waving her handkerchief. As a matter of course a +messenger was sent back to Crummie-Toddie for the young lord's +evening apparel. + +The whole of that afternoon was spent playing lawn-tennis with +Miss Boncassen. Lady Mabel was asked to join the party, but she +refused, having promised to take a walk to a distant waterfall +where the Codlem falls into the Archay. A gentleman in +knickerbockers was to have gone with her, and two other young +ladies, but when the time came she was weary, she said,--and she +sat almost the entire afternoon looking at the game from a +distance. Silverbridge played well, but so well as the pretty +American. With them were joined two others, somewhat inferior, so +that Silverbridge and Miss Boncassen were on different sides. They +played game after game, and Miss Boncassen's side always won. + +Very little was said between Silverbridge and Miss Boncassen which +did not refer to the game. But Lady Mabel, looking on, told +herself that they were making love to each other before her eyes. +And why shouldn't they? She asked herself that question in perfect +good faith. Why should they not be lovers? Was ever anything +prettier than the girl in her country dress, active as a fawn and +as graceful? Or could anything be more handsome, more attractive +to a girl, more good-humoured, or better bred in his playful +emulation than Silverbridge? + +'When youth and pleasure meet. To chase the glowing hours with +flying feet!' she said to herself over and over again. + +But why had he sent her the ring? She would certainly give him +back the ring and bid him bestow it at once upon Miss Boncassen. +Inconstant boy! Then she would get up and wander away for a time +and rebuke herself. What right had she even to think of +inconstancy? Could she be so irrational, so unjust, as to be sick +for his love, as to be angry with him because he seemed to prefer +another? Was she not well aware that she herself did not love +him,--but that she did love another man? She had made up her mind +to marry him in order that she might be a duchess, and because she +would give herself to him without any of that horror which would +be her fate in submitting to matrimony with one or another of the +young men around her. There might be disappointment. If he escaped +her there would be bitter disappointment. But seeing how it was, +had she any further ground for hope? She certainly had no ground +for anger! + +It was thus, within her own bosom, she put questions to herself. +And yet all this before her was simply a game of play in which the +girl and the young man were as eager for victory as though they +were children. They were thinking neither of love nor love-making. +That the girl should be so lovely was not doubt a pleasure to +him;--and perhaps to her also that she should be joyous to look at +and sweet of voice. But he, could he have been made to tell all +the truth within him, would have still owned that it was his +purpose to make Mabel his wife. + +When the game was over and the propositions made for further +matches and the like,--Miss Boncassen said that she would betake +herself to her own room. 'I never worked so hard in my life +before,' she said. 'And I feel like a navvie. I could drink beer +out of a jug and eat bread and cheese. I won't play with you any +more, Lord Silverbridge, because I am beginning to think it is +unladylike to exert myself.' + +'Are you not glad you came over?' said Lady Mabel to him as he was +going off the ground without seeing her. + +'Pretty well,' he said. + +'Is it not better than stalking?' + +'Lawn-tennis?' + +'Yes;--lawn-tennis--with Miss Boncassen.' + +'She plays uncommonly well.' + +'And so do you.' + +'Ah, she has such an eye for distances.' + +'And you,--what have you an eye for? Will you answer me a +question?' + +'Well,--yes; I think so.' + +'Truly.' + +'Certainly; if I do answer it.' + +'Do you not think her the most beautiful creature you ever saw in +your life?' He pushed back his cap and looked at her without +making any immediate answer. 'I do. Now tell me what you think.' + +'I think that perhaps she is.' + +'I knew you would say so. You are so honest that you could not +bring yourself to tell a fib,--even to me about that. Come here +and sit down for a moment.' Of course he sat down by her. 'You +know that Frank came to see me at Grex?' + +'He never mentioned it.' + +'Dear me;--how odd!' + +'It was odd,' said he in a voice which showed that he was angry. +She could hardly explain it to herself why she told him at the +present moment. It came partly from jealousy, as though she had +said to herself, 'Though he may neglect me, he shall know that +there is someone else who does not;'--and partly from an eager +half-angry feeling that she would have nothing concealed. There +were moments with her in which she thought that she could arrange +her future life in accordance with certain wise rules over which +her heart should have no influence. There were others, many +others, in which her feelings completely got the better of her. +And now she told herself that she would be afraid of nothing. +There should be no deceit, no lies! + +'He went to see you at Grex?' said Silverbridge. + +'Why should he not have come to me at Grex?' + +'Only it is so odd that he did not mention it. It seems to me that +he is always having secrets with you of some kind.' + +'Poor Frank! There is no one else who would come to see me at +that tumble-down old place. But I have another thing to say to +you. You have behaved badly to me.' + +'Have I?' + +'Yes, sir. After my folly about that ring you should have known +better than to send it to me. You must take it back again.' + +'You shall do exactly what you said you would. You shall give it +to me wife,--when I have one.' + +'That did very well for me to say it in a note. I did not want to +send my anger to you over a distance of two or three hundred miles +by the postman. But now that we are together you must take it +back.' + +'I will do no such thing,' said he sturdily. + +'You speak as though this were a matter in which you can have your +own way.' + +'I mean to have my own about that.' + +'Any lady then must be forced to take any present that a gentleman +may send her! Allow me to assure you that the usages of society +do not run in that direction. Here is the ring. I knew that you +would come over to see,--well, to see someone here, and I have kept +it ready in my pocket.' + +'I came over to see you.' + +'Lord Silverbridge! But we know that in certain employments all +things are fair.' He looked at her not knowing what were the +employments to which she alluded. 'At any rate you will oblige me +by--by--by not being troublesome, and putting this little trinket +into your pocket.' + +'Never! Nothing on earth shall make me do it.' + +At Killancodlem they did not dine till half-past eight. Twilight +was now stealing on these two, who were still out in the garden, +all the others having gone in to dress. She looked round to see +that no other eyes were watching them as she still held the ring. +'It is there,' she said, putting it on the bench between them. +Then she prepared to rise from the seat so that she might leave it +with him. + +But he was too quick for her, and was away at a distance before +she had collected her dress. And from a distance he spoke again. +'If you choose that it shall be lost, so be it.' + +'You had better take it,' said she, following him slowly. But he +would not turn back;--nor would she. They met again in the hall for +a moment. 'I should be sorry it should be lost,' said he, 'because +it belonged to my great uncle. And I had hoped that I might live +to see it very often.' + +'You can fetch it,' she said, as she went to her room. He however +would not fetch it. She had accepted it, and he would not take it +back again, let the fate of the gem be what it might. + +But to the feminine and more cautious mind the very value of the +trinket made its position out there on the bench, within the grasp +of any dishonest gardener, a burden to her. She could not +reconcile it to her conscience that it should be so left. The +diamond was a large one, and she had heard it spoken of as a stone +of great value,--so much so, that Silverbridge had been blamed for +wearing it ordinarily. She had asked for it in a joke, regarding +it as a thing which could not be given away. She could not go down +herself and take it up again; but neither could she allow it to +remain. As she went to her room she met Mrs Jones already coming +from hers. 'You will keep us waiting,' said the hostess. + +'Oh, no;--nobody ever dressed so quickly. But, Mrs Jones, will you +do me a favour?' + +'Certainly.' + +'Any will you let me explain something?' + +'Anything you like;--from a hopeless engagement down to a broken +garter.' + +'I am suffering neither from one or the other. But there is a most +valuable ring lying out in the garden. Will you send for it?' +Then of course the story had to be told. 'You will, I hope, +understand how I came to ask for it foolishly. It was because it +was the one thing which I was sure he would not give away.' + +'Why not take it?' + +'Can't you understand? I wouldn't for the world. But you will be +good enough,--won't you, to see that there is nothing else in it?' + +'Nothing of love?' + +'Nothing in the least. He and I are excellent friends. We are +cousins, and intimate, and all that. I thought I might have had my +joke, and now I am punished for it. As for love, don't you see +that he is head and ears in love with Miss Boncassen?' + +This was very imprudent on the part of Lady Mabel, who, had she +been capable of clinging to her policy, would not now in a moment +of strong feeling have done so much to raise obstacles in her own +way. 'But you will send for it, won't you, and have it put on his +dressing-table tonight?' When he went to bed Lord Silverbridge +found it on his table. + +But before that time came he had twice danced with Miss Boncassen. +Lady Mabel having refused to dance with him. 'No;' she said. 'I am +angry with you. You ought to have felt that it did not become you +as gentleman to subject me to inconvenience by throwing upon me +the charge of that diamond. You may be foolish enough to be +indifferent about its value, but as you have mixed me up with it I +cannot afford to have it lost.' + +'It is yours.' + +'No, sir; it is not mine, nor will it ever be mine. But I wish you +to understand that you have offended me.' + +This made him so unhappy for the time that he almost told the +story to Miss Boncassen. 'If I were to give you a ring,' he said, +'would not you accept it?' + +'What a question!' + +'What I mean is, don't you think all those conventional rules +about men and women are absurd?' + +'As a progressive American, of course I am bound to think all +conventional rules are an abomination.' + +'If you had a brother and I gave him a stick he'd take it.' + +'Not across his back, I hope.' + +'Or if I gave your father a book?' + +'He'd take books to any extent, I should say.' + +'And why not you a ring?' + +'Who said I wouldn't? But after all this you mustn't try me.' + +'I was not thinking of it.' + +'I'm so glad of that! Well;--if you'll promise me that you'll +never offer me one, I'll promise that I'll take it when it comes. +But what does all this mean?' + +'It is not worth talking about.' + +'You have offered someone somebody a ring, and somebody hasn't +taken it. May I guess?' + +'I had rather you did not.' + +'I could, you know.' + +'Never mind about that. Now come and have a turn. I am bound not +to give you a ring; but you are bound to accept anything else I +may offer.' + +'No, Lord Silverbridge;--not at all. Nevertheless we'll have a +turn.' + +That night before he went up to his room he had told Isabel +Boncassen that he loved her. And when he spoke he was telling her +the truth. It had seemed to him that Mabel had become hard to him, +and had over and over again rejected the approaches to tenderness +which he had attempted to make in his intercourse with her. Even +though she were to accept him, what would that be worth to him if +she did not love him? So many things had been added together! Why +had Tregear gone to Grex, and having gone there why had he kept +his journey a secret? Tregear he knew was engaged to his sister;-- +but for all that, there was a closer intimacy between Mabel and +Tregear than between Mabel and himself. And surely she might have +taken his ring! + +And then Isabel Boncassen was so perfect! Since he had first met +her he had heard her loveliness talked of on all sides. It seemed +to be admitted that so beautiful a creature had never before been +seen in London. There is even a certain dignity attached to that +which is praised by all lips. Miss Boncassen as an American girl, +had she been judged to be beautiful only by his own eyes,--might +perhaps have seemed to him to be beneath his serious notice. In +such a case he might have felt himself unable to justify so +extraordinary a choice. But there was an acclamation of assent as +to this girl! Then came the dancing,--the one dance after another; +the pressure of the hand, the entreaty that she would not, just on +this occasion, dance with any other man, the attendance on her +when she took her glass of wine, the whispered encouragement of +Mrs Montacute Jones, the half-resisting and yet half-yielding +conduct of the girl. 'I shall not dance at all again,' she said +when he asked to stand up for another. 'Think of all the lawn- +tennis this morning.' + +'But you will play tomorrow?' + +'I thought you were going.' + +'Of course I shall stay now,' he said, and as he said it he put +his hand on her hand, which was on his arm. She drew it away at +once. 'I love you so dearly,' he whispered to her, 'so dearly.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'I do. I do. Can you say that you will love me in return?' + +'I cannot,' she said slowly. 'I have never dreamed of such a +thing. I hardly know now whether you are in earnest.' + +'Indeed, indeed I am.' + +'Then I will say good-night, and think about it. Everybody is +going. We shall have our game tomorrow at any rate.' + +When he went to his room he found the ring on his dressing-table. + +And Then! + +On the next morning Miss Boncassen did not appear at breakfast. +Word came that she had been so fatigued by the lawn-tennis as not +to be able to leave her bed. 'I have been to see her,' said Mrs +Montacute Jones, whispering to Lord Silverbridge, as though he +were particularly interested. 'There's nothing really the matter. +She will be down to lunch.' + +'I was afraid she might be ill,' said Silverbridge, who was now +hardly anxious to hide his admiration. + +'Oh, no;--nothing of that sort, but she will not be able to play +again today. It was your fault. You should not have made her dance +last night.' After that Mrs Jones said a word about it all to +Lady Mabel. 'I hope the Duke will not be angry with me.' + +'Why should he be angry with you?' + +'I don't suppose he will approve of it, and perhaps he'll say I +brought them together on purpose.' + +Soon afterwards Mabel asked Silverbridge to walk with her to the +waterfall. She had worked herself into such a state of mind that +she hardly knew what to do, what to wish, or how to act. At one +moment she would tell herself that it was better in every respect +that she should cease to think of being the Duchess of Omnium. It +was not fit that she should think of it. She herself cared but +little for the young man, and he,--she would now tell herself,--now +appeared to care as little for her. And yet to be Duchess of +Omnium! But was it not clear that he was absolutely in love with +this other girl? She had played her cards so badly that the game +was now beyond her powers. Then other thoughts would come. Was it +beyond her powers? Had he not told her in London that he loved +her? Had he not given her the ring which she well knew he valued? +Ah;--if she could but have been aware of all that had passed +between Silverbridge and the Duke, how different would have been +her feelings! And then would it be not so much better for him +that he should marry her, one of his own class, than this American +girl, of whom nobody knew anything? And then,--to be the daughter +of the Duke of Omnium, to be the future Duchess, to escape from +all the cares which her father's vices and follies had brought +upon her, to have to come an end all of her troubles! Would it not +be sweet? + +She had made her mind up to nothing when she asked him to walk up +to the waterfall. There was present to her only the glimmer of an +idea that she ought to caution him not to play with the American +girl's feelings. She knew herself to be aware that when the time +for her own action came her feminine feelings would get the better +of her purpose. She could not craftily bring him to the necessity +of bestowing himself upon her. Had that been within the compass of +her powers, opportunities had not been lacking to her. On such +occasions she had always 'spared him'. And should the opportunity +come again, again she would spare him. But she might perhaps do +some good,--not to herself, that was now out of the question,--but +to him by showing him how wrong he was in trifling with this +girl's feelings. + +And so they started for their walk. He of course would have +avoided it had it been possible. When men in such matters have two +strings to their bow, much inconvenience is felt when the two +become entangled. Silverbridge no doubt had come over to +Killancodlem for the sake of making love to Mabel Grex, and +instead of doing so, he had made love to Isabel Boncassen. And +during the wakes of the night, and as he had dressed himself in +the morning, and while Mrs Jones had been whispering to him her +little bulletin as to the state of the young lady's health, he had +not repented himself of the change. Mabel had been, he thought, so +little gracious to him that he would have given up that notion +earlier, but for his indiscreet declaration to his father. On the +other hand, making love to Isabel Boncassen seemed to him to +possess some divine afflatus of joy which made it of all +imaginable occupations the sweetest and most charming. She had +admitted of no embrace. Indeed he had attempted none unless that +touch of the hand might be so called, from which she had +immediately withdrawn. Her conduct had been such that he had felt +it to be incumbent on him, at the very moment, to justify the +touch by a declaration of love. Then she had told him that she +would not promise to love him in return. And yet it had been so +sweet, so heavenly sweet! + +During the morning he had almost forgotten Mabel. When Mrs Jones +told him that Isabel would keep her room, he longed to ask for +leave to go and make some inquiry at the door. She would not play +lawn-tennis with him. Well;--he did not now care much for that. +After what he had said to her she must at any rate give him some +answer. She had been so gracious to him that his hopes ran very +high. It never occurred to him to fancy that she might be gracious +to him because he was heir to the Dukedom of Omnium. She herself +was so infinitely superior to all wealth, to all rank, to all +sublunary arrangements, conventions, and considerations, that +there was no room for confidence of that nature. But he was +confident because he smile had been sweet, her eyes bright,--and +because he was conscious, though unconsciously conscious of +something of the sympathy of love. + +But he had to go to the waterfall with Mabel. Lady Mabel was +always dressed perfectly,--having great gifts of her own in that +direction. There was a freshness about her which made her morning +costume more charming than that of evening, and never did she look +so well as when arrayed for a walk. On this occasion she had +certainly done her best. But he, poor blind idiot, saw nothing of +this. The white gauzy fabric which had covered Isabel's satin +petticoat on the previous evening still filled his eyes. Those +perfect boots, the little glimpses of party-coloured stockings +above them, the looped-up skirt, the jacket fitting but never +binding that lovely body and waist, the jaunty hat with its small +fresh feathers, all were nothing to him. Nor was the bright honest +face beneath the hat anything to him now;--for it was an honest +face, though misfortunes which had come had somewhat marred the +honesty of the heart. + +At first the conversation was about indifferent things,-- +Killancodlem and Mrs Jones, Crummie-Toddie and Reginald Dobbs. +They had gone along the high-road as far as the post-office, and +had turned through the wood and reached a seat whence there was a +beautiful view down upon the Archay before a word was said +affecting either Miss Boncassen or the ring. 'You got the ring +safe,' she said. + +'Oh yes.' + +'How could you be so foolish as to risk it?' + +'I did not regard it as mine. You had accepted it,--I thought.' + +'But if I had, and then repented of my fault in doing so, should +you not have been willing to help me in setting myself right with +myself? Of course after what had passed, it was a trouble to me +when it came. what was I to do? for a day or two I thought I would +take it, not as liking to take it, but as getting rid of the +trouble in that way. Then I remembered its value, its history, the +fact that all who knew you would want to know what had become of +it,--and I felt that it should be given back. There is only one +person to whom we must give it.' + +'Who is that?' he said quickly. + +'Your wife;--or to her who is to become your wife. No other woman +can be justified in accepting such a present.' + +'There has been a great deal more said about it than it's worth,' +said he, not anxious at the present moment to discuss any +matrimonial projects with her. 'Shall we go to the Fall?' Then +she got up and led the way till they came to the little bridge +from which they could see the Falls of the Codlem below them. 'I +call that very pretty,' he said. + +'I thought you would like it.' + +'I never saw anything of that kind more jolly. Do you care for +scenery, Mabel?' + +'Very much. I know no pleasure equal to it. You have never seen +Grex?' + +'Is it like this?' + +'Not in the least. It is wilder than this, and there are not so +many trees; but to my eye it is very beautiful. I wish you had +seen it.' + +'Perhaps I may some day.' + +'That is not likely now,' she said. 'The house is in ruins. If I +had just money enough to keep it for myself, I think I could live +alone there and be happy.' + +'You;--alone. Of course you mean to marry?' + +'Mean to marry! Do persons marry because they mean it? With +nineteen men out of twenty the idea of marrying them would convey +the idea of hating them. No doubt you do mean it.' + +'I suppose I shall,--some day. How very well the house looks from +here.' It was incumbent upon him at the present moment to turn +the conversation. + +But when she had a project in her head it was not easy to turn her +away. 'Yes indeed,' she said, 'very well. But as I was saying,--you +can mean to marry.' + +'Anybody can mean it.' + +'But you can carry out a purpose. What are you thinking of doing +now?' + +'Upon my honour, Mabel, that is unfair.' +'Are we not friends?' + +'I think so.' + +'Dear friends?' + +'I hope so.' + +'Then may I not tell you what I think? If you do not mean to marry +that American young lady you should not raise false hopes.' + +'False hopes!' He had hopes, but he had never thought that Isabel +could have any. + +'False hopes;--certainly. Do you not know that everyone was looking +at you last night?' + +'Certainly not.' + +'And that old woman is going about talking of it as her doing, +pretending to be afraid of your father, whereas nothing would +please her better than to humble a family so high as yours.' + +'Humble!' exclaimed Lord Silverbridge. + +'Do you think your father would like it? Would you think that +another man would be doing well for himself by marrying Miss +Boncassen?' + +'I do,' said he energetically. + +'Then you must be very much in love with her.' + +'I say nothing about that.' + +'If you are so much in love with her that you mean to face the +displeasure of your friends--' + +'I do not say what I mean. I could talk more freely to you than to +anyone else, but I won't talk about that even to you. As regards +Miss Boncassen, I think that any man might marry her, without +discredit. I won't have it said that she can be inferior to me,--or +to anybody.' + +There was a steady manliness in this which took Lady Mabel by +surprise. She was convinced that he intended to offer his hand to +the girl, and now was actuated chiefly by a feeling that his doing +so would be an outrage to all English propriety. If a word might +have an effect it would be her duty to speak the word. 'I think +you are wrong there, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I am sure I am right.' + +'What have you yourself felt about your sister and Mr Tregear?' + +'It is altogether different;--altogether. Frank's wife will be +simply his wife. Mine, should I outlive my father, will be the +Duchess of Omnium.' + +'But your father? I have heard you speak with better regret of +this affair of Lady Mary's because it vexes him. Would your +marriage with an American lady vex him less?' + +'Why should it vex him at all? Is she vulgar, or ill to look at, +or stupid?' + +'Think of her mother.' + +'I am not going to marry her mother. Or for that matter am I going +to marry her. You are taking all that for granted in most unfair +way.' + +'How can I help it after what I say yesterday?' + +'I will not talk any more about it. We had better go down or we +shall get no lunch.' Lady Mabel, as she followed him, tried to +make herself believe that all her sorrow came from regret that so +fine a scion of the British nobility should throw himself away +upon an American adventuress. + +The guests were still at lunch when they entered the dining-room, +and Isabel was seated close to Mrs Jones. Silverbridge at once +went up to her,--and place was made for him as though he had almost +a right to be next to her. Miss Boncassen herself bore the honours +well, seeming to regard the little change at table as though it +was of no moment. 'I became so eager about that game,' she said, +'that I went on too long.' + +'I hope you are now none the worse.' + +'At six o'clock this morning I thought I should never use my legs +again.' + +'Were you awake at six?' said Silverbridge, with pitying voice. + +'That was it. I could not sleep. Now I begin to hope that sooner +or later I shall unstiffen.' + +During every moment, at every word that he uttered, he was +thinking of the declaration of love which he had made to her. But +it seemed to him as though the matter had not dwelt on her mind. +When they drew their chairs away from the table he thought that +not a moment was to be lost before some further explanation of +their feelings for each other should be made. Was not the matter +which had been so far discussed of vital importance for both of +them? And, glorious as she was above all other women, the offer +which he had made must have some weight with her. He did not think +that he proposed to give more than she deserved, but still that +which he was so willing to give was not a little. Or was it +possible that she had not understood his meaning? If so, he would +not willingly lose a moment before he made it plain to her. But +she seemed content to hang about with the other women, and when +she sauntered about the grounds seated herself on a garden-chair +with Lady Mabel, and discussed with great eloquence the general +beauty of Scottish scenery. An hour went on in this way. Could it +be that she knew that he had offered to make her his wife? During +this time he went and returned more than once, but still she was +there, on the same garden-seat, talking to those who came in her +way. + +Then on a sudden she got up and put her hand on his arm. 'Come and +take a turn with me,' she said. 'Lord Silverbridge, do you +remember anything of last night?' + +'Remember!' + +'I thought for a while this morning that I would let it all pass +as though it had been a mere trifling!' + +'It would have wanted two to let it pass in that way,' he said, +almost indignantly. + +On hearing this she looked up at him, and there came over her face +that brilliant smile, which to him was perhaps the most potent of +her spells. 'What do you mean by wanting two?' + +'I must have voice in it as well as you.' + +'And what is your voice?' + +'My voice is this. I told you last night that I loved you. This +morning I ask you to be my wife.' + +'It is a very clear voice,' she said,--almost in a whisper; but in +a tone so serious that it startled him. + +'It ought to be clear,' he said doggedly. + +'Do you think I don't know that? Do you think that if I liked you +well last night I don't like you better now?' + +'But do you like me?' + +'That is just the thing I am going to say nothing about.' + +'Isabel!' + +'Just the one thing I will not allude to. Now you must listen to +me.' + +'Certainly.' + +'I know a great deal about you. We Americans are an inquiring +people, and I have found out pretty much everything.' His mind +misgave him as he felt she had ascertained his former purpose +respecting Mabel. 'You,' she said, 'among young men in England are +about the foremost, and therefore,--as I think,--about the foremost +in the world. And you have all personal gifts;--youth and spirits-- +Well, I will not go on and name the others. You are, no doubt, +supposed to be entitled to the best and sweetest of God's feminine +creatures.' + +'You are she.' + +'Whether you be entitled to me or not I cannot yet say. Now I will +tell you something of myself. My father's father came to New York +as a labourer from Holland, and worked upon the quays in that +city. Then he built houses, and became rich, and was almost a +miser;--with the good sense, however, to educate his only son. What +my father is you see. To me he is sterling gold, but he is not +like your people. My dear mother is not at all like your ladies. +She is not a lady in your sense,--though with her unselfish +devotion to others she is something infinitely better. For myself +I am,--well, meaning to speak honestly, I will call myself pretty +and smart. I think I know how to be true.' + +'I am sure you do.' + +'But what right have you to suppose I shall know how to be a +Duchess?' + +'I am sure you will.' + +'Now listen to me. Go to your friends and ask them. Ask that Lady +Mabel;--ask your father,--ask that Lady Cantrip. And above all, ask +yourself. And allow me to require you to take three months to do +this. Do not come to see me for three months.' + +'And then?' + +'What may happen then I cannot tell, for I want three months also +to think of it myself. Till then, good-bye.' She gave him her +hand and left it in his for a few seconds. He tried to draw her to +him, but she resisted him, still smiling. Then she left him. + + + +CHAPTER 41 + +Ischl + +It was custom with Mrs Finn almost every autumn to go off to +Vienna, where she possessed considerable property, and there to +inspect the circumstances of her estate. Sometimes her husband +would accompany her, and he did so in this year of which we are +now speaking. One morning in September they were together at an +hotel at Ischi, whither they had come from Vienna, when as they +went through the hall into the courtyard, they came, in the very +doorway, upon the Duke of Omnium and his daughter. The Duke and +Lady Mary had just arrived, having passed through the mountains +from the salt-mine district, and were about to take up their +residence in the hotel for a few days. They had travelled very +slowly, for Lady Mary had been ill, and the Duke had expressed his +determination to see a doctor at Ischi. + +There is no greater mistake than in supposing that only the young +blush. But the blushes of middle-life are luckily not seen through +the tan which has come from the sun and the gas and the work and +wiles of the world. Both the Duke and Phineas blushed; and though +their blushes were hidden, that peculiar glance of the eye which +always accompanies a blush was visible enough from the one to the +other. The elder lady kept her countenance admirably, and the +younger one had no occasion for blushing. She at once ran forward +and kissed her friend. The Duke stood with his hat off waiting to +give his hand to the lady, and then took that of his late +colleague. 'How odd that we should meet here,' he said, turning to +Mrs Finn. + +'Odd enough to us that your Grace should be here,' she said, +'because we had heard nothing of your intended coming.' + +'It is so nice to find you,' said Lady Mary. 'We are this moment +come. Don't say that you are this moment going.' + +'At this moment we are only going as far as Halstadt.' + +'And are coming back to dinner? Of course they will dine with us. +Will they not, papa?' The Duke said that he hoped they would. To +declare that you are engaged at an hotel, unless there be some +real engagement is almost an impossibility. There was no escape, +and before they were allowed to get into their carriage they had +promised that they would dine with the Duke and his daughter. + +'I don't know that it is especially a bore,' Mrs Finn said to her +husband in the carriage. 'You may be quite sure that of whatever +trouble there may be in it, he has much more than his share.' + +'His share would be the whole,' said the husband. 'No one else has +done anything wrong.' + +When the Duke's apology had reached her, so that there was no +longer any ground for absolute hostility, then she had told the +whole story to her husband. He at first was very indignant. What +right had the Duke to expect that any ordinary friend should act +duenna over his daughter in accordance with his caprices? This was +said and much more of this kind. But any humour towards +quarrelling which Phineas Finn might have felt for a day or so was +quieted by his wife's prudence. 'A man,' she said, 'can do no more +than apologise. After that there is not room for reproach.' + +At dinner the conversation turned at first on British politics, in +which Mrs Finn was quite able to take her part. Phineas was +decidedly of the opinion that Sir Timothy Beeswax and Lord +Drummond could not live another session. And on this subject a +good deal was said. Later in the evening the Duke found himself +sitting with Mrs Finn in the broad verandah over the hotel garden, +while Lady Mary was playing to Phineas within. 'How do you think +she is looking?' asked the father. + +'Of course I see that she has been ill. She tells me that she was +far from well at Salzburg.' + +'Yes;--indeed for three or four days she frightened me much. She +suffered terribly from headaches.' + +'Nervous headache?' + +'So they said there. I feel quite angry with myself because I did +not bring a doctor with us. The trouble and ceremony of such an +accompaniment is no doubt disagreeable.' + +'And I suppose seemed when you started to be unnecessary.' + +'Quite unnecessary.' + +'Does she complain again now?' + +'She did today;--a little.' + +The next morning Lady Mary could not leave her bed, and the Duke +in his sorrow was obliged to apply to Mrs Finn. After what had +passed on the previous day Mrs Finn of course called, and was +shown at once up to her young friend's room. There she found the +girl in great pain, lying with her two thin hands up to her head, +and hardly able to utter more than a word. Shortly after that Mrs +Finn was alone with the Duke, and then there took place a +conversation between them which the lady thought to be very +remarkable. + +'Had I better send for a doctor from England?' he asked. In answer +to this Mrs Finn expressed her opinion that such a measure was +hardly necessary, that the gentleman from the town who had been +called in seemed to know what he was about, and that the illness, +lamentable as it was, did not seem to be in any way dangerous. +'One cannot tell what it comes from,' said the Duke dubiously. + +'Young people, I fancy, are often subject to such maladies.' + +'It must come from something wrong.' + +'That may be said of all sickness.' + +'And therefore one tries to find out the cause. She says that she +is unhappy.' These last words he spoke slowly and in a low voice. +To this Mrs Finn could make no reply. She did not doubt but that +the girl was unhappy, and she knew well why; but the source of +Lady Mary's misery was one to which she could not very well +allude. 'You know all the misery about that young man.' + +'That is a trouble that requires time to cure it,' she said,--not +meaning to imply that time would cure it by enabling the girl to +forget her lover; but because in truth she had not known what else +to say. + +'If time will cure it.' + +'Time, they say, cures all sorrows.' + +'But what should I do to help time? There is no sacrifice I would +not make,--no sacrifice! Of myself I mean. I would devote myself +to her,--leave everything else on one side. We purpose being back +in England in October; but I would remain here if I thought it +better for her comfort.' + +'I cannot tell, Duke.' + +'Neither can I. But you are a woman and might know better than I +do. It is so hard that a man should be left with the charge of +which from its very nature he cannot understand the duties.' Then +he paused, but she could find no words which would suit the +moment. It was almost incredible to her that after what had passed +he should speak to her at all as to the condition of his daughter. +'I cannot, you know,' he said very seriously, 'encourage a hope +that she should be allowed to marry that man.' + +'I do not know.' + +'You yourself, Mrs Finn, felt that when she told about it at +Matching.' + +'I felt that you would disapprove of it.' + +'Disapprove of it! How could it be otherwise? Of course you felt + that. There are ranks in life in which the first comer that suits +a maiden's eye may be accepted as a flirting lover. I will not say +but that they who are born to such a life may be the happier. They +are, I am sure, free from troubles to which they are incident whom +fate has called to a different sphere. But duty is duty;--and +whatever pang it may cost, duty should be performed.' + +'Certainly.' + +'Certainly;--certainly; certainly,' he said, re-echoing her word. + +'But then, Duke, one has to be so sure what duty requires. In many +matters this is easy enough, and the only difficulty comes from +temptation. There are cases in which it is hard to know.' + +'Is this one of them?' + +'I think so.' + +'Then the maiden should--in any class of life--be allowed to take +the man that just suits her eye?' As he said this his mind was +intent on his Glencora and on Burgo Fitzgerald. + +'I have not said so. A man may be bad, vicious, a spendthrift,-- +eaten up by bad habits.' Then he frowned, thinking that she also +had her mind intent on his Glencora and on that Burgo Fitzgerald, +and being most unwilling to have the difference between Burgo and +Frank Tregear pointed out to him. 'Nor have I said,' she +continued, 'that even were none of these faults apparent in the +character of a suitor, the lady should in all cases be advised to +accept a young man because he has made himself agreeable to her. +There may be discrepancies.' + +'There are,' said he, still with a low voice, but with infinite +energy,--'insurmountable discrepancies.' + +'I only said that this was a case in which it might be difficult +for you to see your duty plainly.' + +'Why should it be?' + +'You would not have her--break her heart?' Then he was silent for +awhile, turning over in his mind the proposition which now seemed +to have been made to him. If the question came to that,--should she +be allowed to break her heart and die, or should he save her from +that fate by sanctioning her marriage with Tregear? If the choice +could be put to him plainly by some supernal power, what then +would he choose? If duty required him to prevent this marriage, +his duty could not be altered by the fact that his girl would +avenge herself upon him by dying! If such a marriage were in +itself wrong, that wrong could not be made right by the fear of +such a catastrophe. Was it not often the case that duty required +that someone should die? And yet as he thought of it,--though that +the someone whom his mind had suggested was the one female +creature now left belonging to him,--he put his hand up to his brow +and trembled with agony. If he knew, if in truth he believed that +such would be the result of firmness on his part,--then he would be +infirm, then must he yield. Sooner than that, he must welcome this +Tregear to his house. But why should he think that she would die? +This woman had now asked him whether he would be willing to break +his girl's heart. It was a frightful question; but he could see +that it had come naturally in the sequence of the conversation +which he had forced upon her. Did girls break their hearts in +such emergencies? Was it not all romance? 'Men have died and +worms have eaten them,--but not for love.' He remembered it all +and carried on the argument in his mind, though the pause was but +for a minute. There might be suffering no doubt. The higher the +duties the keener the pangs! But would it become him to be +deterred from doing right because she for a time might find that +she had made the world bitter for herself? And were there not +feminine wiles,--tricks by which women learn how to have their way +in opposition to the judgement of their lords and masters? He did +not think that his Mary was wilfully guilty of any scheme. The +suffering he knew was true suffering. But not the less did it +become him to be on his guard against any attacks of this nature. + +'No,' he said at last. 'I would not have her break her heart,--if I +understand what such words mean. They are generally, I think, used +fantastically.' + +'You would not wish to see her overwhelmed by sorrow.' + +'Wish it! What a question to ask a father!' + +'I must be more plain in my language, Duke. Though such a marriage +be distasteful to you, it might perhaps be preferable to see her +sorrowing always.' + +'Why should it? I have to sorrow always. We are told that man is +born to sorrow as surely as the sparks fly upwards.' + +'Then I can say nothing further.' + +'You think I am cruel.' + +'If I am to say what I really think I shall offend you.' + +'No;--not unless you mean offence.' + +'I shall never do that to you, Duke. When you talk as you do now +you hardly know yourself. You think you could see her suffering +and not be moved by it. But were it to be continued long you would +give way. Though we know that there is an infinity of grief in +this life, still we struggle to save those we love from grieving. +If she be steadfast enough to cling to her affection for this man, +then at last you will have to yield.' He looked at her frowning, +but did not say a word. 'Then it will perhaps be a comfort for you +to know that the man himself is trustworthy and honest.' + +There was a terrible rebuke in this; but still, as he had called +it down upon himself, he would not resent it, even in his heart. +'Thank you,' he said, rising from his chair. 'Perhaps you will see +her again this afternoon.' Of course she assented, and as the +interview had taken place in his rooms she took her leave. + +This which Mrs Finn had said to him was all to the same effect as +that which had come from Lady Cantrip; only it was said with a +higher spirit. Both the women saw the matter in the same light. +There must be a fight between him and his girl; but she, if she +could hold out for a certain time, would be the conqueror. He +might take her away and try what absence would do, or he might +have recourse to that specific which had answered so well in +reference to his own wife; but if she continued to sorrow during +absence, and if she would have nothing to do with the other +lever,--then he must at last give way! He had declared that he was +willing to sacrifice himself,--meaning thereby that if a lengthened +visit to the cities of China, or a prolonged sojourn in the +Western States of America would wean her from her love, he would +go to China or to the Western States. At present his self- +banishment had been carried no farther than Vienna. During their +travels hitherto Tregear's name had not once been mentioned. The +Duke had come away from home resolved not to mention it,--and she +was minded to keep it in reserve till some seeming catastrophe +should justify a declaration of her purpose. But from first to +last she had been sad, and latterly she had been ill. When asked +as to her complaint she would simply say that she was not happy. +To go on with this through the Chinese cities could hardly be good +for either of them. She could not wake herself to any enthusiasm +in regard to scenery, costume, pictures, or even discomforts. +Wherever she was taken it was barren to her. + +As their plans stood at present they were to return to England so +as to enable her to be at Custins by the middle of October. Had he +taught himself to hope that any good could be done by prolonged +travelling he would readily have thrown over Custins and Lord +Popplecourt. He could not bring himself to trust much to the +Popplecourt scheme. But the same contrivance had answered on that +former occasion. When he spoke to her about their plans, she +expressed herself quite ready to go back to England. When he +suggested those Chinese cities, her face became very long and she +was immediately attacked by paroxysms of headaches. + +'I think I should take her to some place on the seashores of +England,' said Mrs Finn. + +'Custins is close to the sea,' he replied. 'It is Lord Cantrip's +place in Dorsetshire. It was partly settled that she was to go +there.' + +'I suppose she likes Lady Cantrip.' + +'Why should she not?' + +'She has not said a word to me to the contrary. I only fear that +she would feel that she was being sent there,--as to a convent.' + +'What ought I to do then?' + +'How can I venture to answer that? What she would like best, I +think, would be to return to Matching with you, and settle down in +a quiet way for the winter.' The Duke shook his head. That would +be worse than travelling. She would still have headaches and still +tell him that she was unhappy. 'Of course I do not know what your +plans are, and pray believe me that I should not obtrude my advice +if you did not ask me.' + +'I know it,' he said. 'I know how good you are and how reasonable. +I know how much you have to forgive.' + +'Oh no.' + +'And if I have not said so as I should have done it has not been +from want of feeling. I do believe you did what you thought best +when Mary told you that story at Matching.' + +'Why should your Grace go back to that?' + +'Only that I may acknowledge my indebtedness to you, and say to +you somewhat fuller than I could do in my letter that I am sorry +for the pain which I gave you.' + +'All that is over now;--and shall be forgiven.' + +Then he spoke of his immediate plans. He would at once go back to +England by slow stages,--by very slow stages,--staying a day or two +at Salzburg, at Ratisbon, at Nuremberg, at Frankfurt, and so on. +In this way he would reach England about the tenth of October, and +Mary would then be ready to go to Custins by the time appointed. + +In a day or two Lady Mary was better. 'It is terrible while it +lasts,' she said, speaking to Mrs Finn of her headache, 'but when +it has gone then I am quite well. Only'--she added after a pause,-- +'only I can never be happy again while papa thinks as he does now.' + Then there was a party made up before they separated for an +excursion to the Hintersee and the Obersee. On this occasion Lady +Mary seemed to enjoy herself, as she liked the companionship of +Mrs Finn. Against Lady Cantrip she never said a word. But Lady +Cantrip was always a duenna to her, whereas Mrs Finn was a friend. +While the Duke and Phineas were discussing politics together, +thoroughly enjoying the weakness of Lord Drummond and the iniquity +of Sir Timothy, which they did with augmented vehemence from their +ponies' backs, the two women in lower voices talked over their own +affairs. 'I dare say you will be happy at Custins,' said Mrs Finn. + +'No; I shall not. There will be people there whom I don't know, +and I don't want to know. Have you heard anything about him, Mrs +Finn?' + +Mrs Finn turned round and looked at her,--for a moment almost +angrily. Then her heart relented, 'Do you mean--Mr Tregear?' + +'Yes, Mr Tregear.' + +'I think I heard that he was shooting with Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I am glad of that,' said Mary. + +'It will be pleasant for both of them.' + +'I am very glad they should be together. While I know that, I feel +that we are not altogether separated. I will never give it up, Mrs +Finn,--never, never. It is not use taking me to China.' In that +Mrs Finn quite agreed with her. + + + +CHAPTER 42 + +Again at Killancodlem + +Silverbridge remained at Crummie-Toddie under the dominion of +Reginald Dobbes till the second week of September. Popplecourt, +Nidderdale and Gerald Palliser were there also, very obedient and +upon the whole efficient. Tregear was intractable, occasional, and +untrustworthy. He was the cause of much trouble to Mr Dobbes. He +would entertain a most heterodox and injurious idea that he had +come to Crummie-Toddie for amusement, and he was not bound to do +anything that did not amuse him. He would not understand that in +sport as in other matters there was an ambition, driving man on to +excel always and be ahead of others. In spite of this Mr Dobbes +had cause for much triumph. It was going to be the greatest thing +ever done by six guns in Scotland. As for Gerald, whom he had +regarded as a boy; and who had offended him by saying that +Crummie-Toddie was ugly,--he was ready to go round the world for +him. He had indoctrinated Gerald with all his ideas of a +sportsman,--even to a contempt for champagne and a conviction that +tobacco should be moderated. The three lords too had proved +themselves efficient, and the thing was going to be a success. But +just when a day was of vital importance, when it was essential +that there should be a strong party for a drive, Silverbridge +found it absolutely necessary that he should go over to +Killancodlem. + +'She has gone,' said Nidderdale. + +'Who the - is she?' asked Silverbridge almost angrily. + +'Everybody know who she is,' said Popplecourt. + +'It will be a good thing when some she has got hold of you, my +boy, so as to keep you in your proper place.' + +'If you cannot withstand that sort of attraction you ought not to +go in for shooting at all,' said Dobbes. + +'I shouldn't wonder at his going,' continued Nidderdale, 'if we +didn't all know that the American is no longer there. She has gone +to--Bath, I think they say.' + +'I suppose it Mrs Jones herself,' said Popplecourt. + +'My dear boy,' said Silverbridge, 'you may be quite sure that when +I say that I am going to Killancodlem I mean to go to +Killancodlem, and that no chaff about young ladies,--which I think +very disgusting,--will stop me. I shall be sorry if Dobbes's roll +of the killed should be lessened by a single hand; seeing that his +ambition sets that way. Considering the amount of slaughter we +have perpetrated, I really think that we need not be over +anxious.' After this nothing further was said. Tregear, who knew +that Mabel Grex was still at Killancodlem, had not spoken. + +In truth Mabel had sent for Lord Silverbridge, and this had been +her letter. + +'MY DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'Mrs Montacute Jones is cut to the heart because you have not been +over to see her again, and she says that it is lamentable to think +that such a man as Reginald Dobbes should have so much power over +you. 'Only twelve miles,' she says, 'and he knows that we are +here!' I told that you knew Miss Boncassen was gone. + +'But though Miss Boncassen has left us we are a very pleasant +party, and surely you must be tired of such a place as Crummie- +Toddie. If only for the sake of getting a good dinner once in a +way do come over again. I shall be here for ten days. As they will +not let me go back to Grex I don't know where I could be more +happy. I have been asked to go to Custins, and suppose I shall +turn up some time in the autumn. + +'And now shall I tell you what I expect? I do expect that you will +come over to--see me. "I did see her the other day," you will say, +"and she did not make herself pleasant." I know that. How was I +to make myself pleasant when I found myself so completely snuffed +out by your American beauty? Now she is away, and Richard will be +himself. Do come, because in truth I want to see you. + +'Yours always sincerely. + +'MABEL GREX.' + +On receiving this he at once made up his mind to go to +Killancodlem, but he could not make up his mind why it was that +she had asked him. He was sure of two things; sure in the first +place that she had intended to let him know that she did not care +about him; and then sure that she was aware of his intention in +regard to Miss Boncassen. Everybody at Killancodlem had seen it,-- +to his disgust; but still that it was so had been manifest. And he +had consoled himself, feeling that it would matter nothing should +he be accepted. She had made an attempt to talk him out of his +purpose. Could it be that she thought it possible a second attempt +might be successful? If so, she did not know him. + +She had in truth thought not only that this, but that something +further than this might be possible. Of course the prize loomed +larger before her eyes as the prospect of obtaining it became +less. She could not doubt that he had intended to offer her his +hand when he had spoken to her of his love in London. Then she had +stopped him;--had 'spared him', as she had told her friend. +Certainly she had then by swayed by some feeling that it would be +ungenerous in her to seize greedily the first opportunity he had +given her. But he had again made an effort. He surely would not +have sent her the ring had he not intended her to regard him as +her lover. When she received the ring her heart had beat very +high. Then she had sent that little note, saying that she would +keep it till she could give it to his wife. When she wrote that +she had intended that the ring should be her own. And other things +pressed upon her mind. Why had she been invited to Custins? Little +hints had reached her of the Duke's goodwill towards her. If on +that side marriage were approved, why should she destroy her own +hopes? + +Then she had seen him with Miss Boncassen, and in her pique had +forced the ring back upon him. During that long game on the lawn +her feelings had been very bitter. Of course the girl was the +lovelier of the two. All the world was raving of her beauty. And +there was no doubt as to the charm of her wit and manner. And then +she had no touch of that blase used-up way of life of which Lady +Mabel was conscious herself. It was natural that it should be so. +and was she, Mabel Grex, the girl to stand in his way, and to +force herself upon him, if he loved another? Certainly not,--though +there might be a triple coronet to be had. + +But were there not other considerations? Could it be well that the +heir of the House of Omnium should marry an American girl, as to +whose humble birth whispers were already afloat? As his friend, +would it not be right that she should tell him what the world +would say? as his friend, therefore, she had given him her +counsel. + +When he was gone the whole thing weighed heavily on her mind. Why +should she lose the prize if it might still be her own? To be +Duchess of Omnium! She had read of many of the other sex and of +one or two of her own who by settled resolution had achieved +greatness in opposition to all obstacles. Was this thing beyond +her reach? To hunt him and catch him, and marry him to his own +injury,--that would be impossible to her. She was sure of herself +there. But how infinitely better would this be for him! Would she +not have all his family with her,--and all the world of England? +In how short a time would he not repent his marriage with Miss +Boncassen? Whereas, were she his wife, she would stir herself for +his joys, for his good, for his honour, that there should be no +possibility of repentance. And he certainly had loved her. Why +else had he followed her, and spoken such words to her? Of course +he had loved her! But then there had come this blaze of beauty +and had carried off,--not his heart, but his imagination. Because +he had yielded to such fascination, was she to desert him, and +also to desert herself? From day to day she thought of it, and +then she wrote that letter. She hardly knew what she would do, +what she might say; but she would trust to the opportunity to do +and say something. + +'If you have no room for me,' he said to Mrs Jones, 'you must +scold Lady Mab. She has told me that you told her to invite me.' + +'Of course I did. Do you think I would not sleep in the stables, +and give you up my own bed if there were no other? It is so good +of you to come!' + +'So good of you, Mrs Jones, to ask me.' + +'So very kind to come when all the attraction has gone!' Then he +blushed and stammered, and was just able to say that his only +object in life was to pour out his adoration at the feet of Mrs +Montacute Jones herself. + +There was a certain Lady Fawn,--a pretty mincing married woman of +about twenty-five, with a husband much older, who liked mild +flirtations with mild young men. 'I am afraid we've lost your +great attraction,' she whispered to him. + +'Certainly not as long as Lady Fawn is here,' he said, seating +himself close to her on a garden bench, and seizing suddenly hold +of her hand. She gave a little scream and a jerk, and so relieved +herself from him. 'You see,' said he, 'people do make such +mistakes about a man's feelings.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'It's quite true, but I'll tell you about it another time,' and so +he left her. All these little troubles, his experience in the +'House', the necessity of snubbing Tifto, the choice of a wife, +and his battle with Reginald Dobbes, were giving him by degrees +age and flavour. + +Lady Mabel had fluttered about him on his first coming, and had +been very gracious, doing the part of an old friend. 'There is to +be a big shooting tomorrow,' she said, in the presence of Mrs +Jones. + +'If it is to come to that,' he said, 'I might as well go back to +Dobbydom.' + +'You may shoot if you like,' said Mabel. + +'I haven't even brought a gun with me.' + +'Then we'll have a walk,--a whole lot of us,' she said. + +In the evening about an hour before dinner Silverbridge and Lady +Mabel were seated together on the bank of a little stream which +ran on the other side of the road, but on a spot not more than a +furlong from the hall-door. She had brought him there, but she had +done so without any definite scheme. She had made no plan of +campaign for the evening, having felt relieved when she found +herself able to postpone the project of her attack till the +morrow. Of course there must be an attack, but how it should be +made she had never the courage to tell herself. The great women of +the world, the Semiramises, the Pocohontas, the Ida Pfeiffers, and +the Charlotte Cordays, had never been wanting to themselves when +the moment for action came. Now she was pleased to have this +opportunity added to her; this pleasant minute in which some soft +preparatory word might be spoken; but the great effort should be +made on the morrow. + +'Is not this nicer than shooting with Mr Dobbes?' she asked. + +'A great deal nicer. Of course I am bound to say so.' + +'But in truth, I want to find out what you really like. Men are so +different. You need not pay me any compliment; you know that well +enough.' + +'I like you better than Dobbes,--if you mean that.' + +'Even so much is something.' + +'But I am fond of shooting.' + +'Only a man may have enough of it.' + +'Too much, if he is subject to Dobbes, as Dobbes likes them to be. +Gerald likes it.' + +'Did you think it odd,' she said after a pause, 'that I should ask +you to come over again?' + +'Was it odd?' he replied. + +'That is as you may take it. There is certainly no other man in +the world to whom I would have done it.' + +'Not to Tregear?' + +'Yes,' she said; 'yes,--to Tregear, could I have been as sure of a +welcome for him as I am for you. Frank is in all respects the same +as a brother to me. That would not have seemed odd;--I mean to +myself.' + +'And has this been--odd,--to yourself?' + +'Yes. Not that anybody has felt it. Only I,--and perhaps you. You +felt it so?' + +'Not especially. I thought you were a good fellow. I have always +thought that;--except when you made me take back the ring.' + +'Does that still fret you?' + +'No man likes to take back a thing. It makes him seem to have been +awkward and stupid in giving it.' + +'It was the value--' + +'You should have left me to judge of that.' + +'If I have offended you I will beg your pardon. Give me anything +but that, and I will take it.' + +'But why not that?' said he. + +'Now that you have fitted it for a lady's finger it should go to +your wife. No one else should have it.' Upon this he brought the +ring once more out of his pocket and again offered it to her. 'No; +anything but that. That your wife must have.' Then he put the +ring back again. 'It would have been nicer for you had Miss +Boncassen been here.' In saying this she followed no plan. It +came rather from pique. It was almost as though she had asked him +whether Miss Boncassen was to have the ring. + +'What makes you say that?' + +'But it would.' + +'Yes it would,' he replied stoutly, turning round as he lay on the +ground and facing her. + +'Has it come to that?' + +'Come to what? You ask me a question and I will answer it truly.' + +'You cannot be happy without her?' + +'I did not say so. You ask me whether I should like to have her +here,--and I say Yes. What would you think of me if I said No?' + +'My being here is not enough?' This should not have been said, of +course; but the little speech came from the exquisite pain of the +moment. She had meant to have said hardly anything. She had +intended to be happy with him, just touching lightly on things +which might lead to that attack which must be made on the morrow. +But words will often lead whither the speaker has not intended. So +it was now, and in the soreness of her heart she spoke, 'My being +here is not enough?' + +'It would be enough,' he said jumping to his feet, 'if you would +understand all and be kind to me.' + +'I will at any rate be kind to you,' she replied, as she sat upon +the bank looking at the running water. + +'I have asked Miss Boncassen to be my wife.' + +'And she has accepted?' + +'No; not as yet. She is to take three months to think of it. Of +course I love her best of all. If you will sympathise with me in +that, then I will be as happy with you as the day is long.' + +'No,' said she, 'I cannot. I will not.' + +'Very well.' + +'There should be no such marriage. If you have told me this in +confidence--' + +'Of course I have told you in confidence.' + +'It will go no farther; but there can be no sympathy between us. +It--it--it is not,--is not--' Then she burst into tears. + +'Mabel!' + +'No, sir, no; no! What did you mean? But never mind. I have no +question to ask, not a word to say. Why should I? Only this,--that +such a marriage will disgrace your family. To me it is no more +than to anybody else. But it will disgrace your family.' + +How she got back to the house she hardly knew; nor did he. That +evening they did not again speak to each other, and on the +following morning there was no walk to the mountains. Before +dinner he drove himself back to Crummie-Toddie, and when he was +taking his leave she shook hands with him with her usual pleasant +smile. + + + +CHAPTER 43 + +What Happened at Doncaster + +The Leger this year was to be run on the fourteenth of September, +and while Lord Silverbridge was amusing himself with the dear at +Crummie-Toddie and at Killancodlem with the more easily pursued +young ladies, the indefatigable Major was hard at work in the +stables. This came a little hard on him. There was the cub-hunting +to be looked after, which made his presence at Runnymede +necessary, and then that 'pig-headed fellow, Silverbridge', would +not have the horse trained anywhere but at Newmarket. How was he +to be in two places at once? Yet he was in two places, almost at +once, cub-hunting in the morning at Egham and Bagshot, and sitting +on the same evening at the stable-door at Newmarket, with his eyes +fixed upon Prime Minister. + +Gradually had he and Captain Green come to understand each other, +and though they did at last understand each other, Tifto would +talk as though there were no such correct intelligence;--when for +instance he would abuse Lord Silverbridge for being pig-headed. On +such occasions the Captain's remark would generally be short. +'That be blowed!' he would say, implying that that state of things +between the two partners in which such complaints might be +natural, had now been brought to an end. But on one occasion, +about a week before the race, he spoke out a little plainer. +'What's the use of going on with all that, before me? It's settled +what you've got to do.' + +'I don't know that anything is settled,' said the Major. + +'Ain't it? I thought it was. if it aren't you'll find yourself in +the wrong box. You've as straight a tip as a man need wish for, +but if you back out you'll come to grief. Your money's all on the +other way already.' + +On the Friday before the race Silverbridge dined with Tifto at the +Beargarden. On the next morning they went down to Newmarket to see +the horse get a gallop, and came back the same evening. During all +this time, Tifto was more than ordinarily pleasant to his patron. +The horse and the certainty of the horse's success were the only +subjects mooted. 'It isn't what I say,' repeated Tifto, 'but look +at the betting. You can't get five to four against him. They tell +me that if you want to do anything on the Sunday the pull will be +the other way.' + +'I stand to lose twenty thousand pounds already,' said +Silverbridge, almost frightened by the amount. + +'But how much are you to win?' said Tifto. 'I suppose you could +sell your bets for five thousand pounds down.' + +'I wish I knew how to do it,' said Silverbridge. But this was an +arrangement, which, if made just now, would not suit the Major's +views. + +They went to Newmarket, and there they met Captain Green. 'Tifto,' +said the young lord, 'I won't have that fellow with us when that +horse is galloping.' + +'There isn't an honester man, or a man who understands a horse's +pace better in all England,' said Tifto. + +'I won't have him standing alongside of me on the Heath,' said his +lordship. + +'I don't know how I'm to help it.' + +'If he's there I'll send the horse in;--that's all.' Then Tifto +found it best to say a few words to Captain Green. But the Captain +also said a few words to himself. 'D- young fool; he don't know +what he's dropping into.' Which assertion, if you lay aside the +unnecessary expletive, was true to the letter. Lord Silverbridge +was a young fool, and did not at all know into what a mess he was +being dropped by the united experience, perspicuity, and energy of +the man whose company on the Heath he had declined. + +The horse was quite a 'picture to look at. Mr Pook the trainer +assured his Lordship that for health and condition he had never +seen anything better. 'Stout all over,' said Mr Pook, 'and not an +ounce of what you may call flesh. And bright! just feel his coat, +my Lord! That's 'ealth,--that is; not dressing, nor yet macassar!' + +And then there were various evidences produced of his pace,--how he +had beaten that horse, giving him two pounds, how he had been +beated by that, but only a mile course; the Leger distance was +just the thing for Prime Minister; how by a lucky chance that +marvellous quick rat of a thing that had won the Derby had not +been entered for the autumn race; how Coalheaver was known to have +bad feet. 'He's a stout 'orse, no doubt,--is the 'Eaver,' said Mr +Pook, 'and that's why the betting-men have stuck to him. But he'll +be nowhere on Wednesday. They're beginning to see it now, my Lord. +I wish they wasn't so sharp-sighted.' + +In the course of the day, however, they met a gentleman who was of +a different opinion. He said loudly that he looked on the Heaver +as the best three-year-old in England. Of course as matters stood +he wasn't going to back the Heaver with even money;--but he'd take +twenty-five to thirty in hundreds between the two. All this ended +in the bet being accepted and duly booked by Lord Silverbridge. +And in this way Silverbridge added two thousand four hundred +pounds to his responsibilities. + +But there was worse than this coming. On the Sunday afternoon he +went down to Doncaster, of course in the company with the Major. +He was alive to the necessity of ridding himself of the Major; but +it had been acknowledged that the duty could not be performed till +after this race had been run. As he sat opposite to his friend on +their journey to Doncaster, he thought of this in the train. It +should be done immediately on their return to London after the +race. But the horse, his Prime Minister, was by this time so dear +to him that he intended if possible to keep possession of the +animal. + +When they reached Doncaster the racing-men were all occupied with +Prime Minister. The horse and Mr Pook had arrived that day from +Newmarket, via Cambridge and Peterborough. Tifto, Silverbridge, +and Mr Pook visited him together three times that afternoon and +evening;--and the Captain also visited the horse, though not in +company with Lord Silverbridge. To do Mr Pook justice, no one +could be more careful. When the Captain came round with the Major +Mr Pook was there. But Captain Green did not enter the box,--had no +wise to do so, was of the opinion that on such occasions no one +whose business did not carry him there should go near a horse. His +only object seemed to be to compliment Mr Pook as to his care, +skill, and good fortune. + +It was on the Tuesday evening that the chief mischief was done. +There was a club at which many of the racing-men dined, and there +Lord Silverbridge spent his evening. He was the hero of the hour, +and everybody flattered him. It must be acknowledged that his head +was turned. They dined at eight and much wine was drunk. No one +was tipsy, but many were elated; and much confidence in their +favourite animals was imparted to men who had been sufficiently +cautious before dinner. Then cigars and soda-and-brandy became +common, and our young friend was not more abstemious than others. +Large sums were named, and at last in three successive bets Lord +Silverbridge backed his horse for more than forty thousand pounds. +As he was making the second bet Mr Lupton came across to him and +begged him to hold his hand. 'It will be a nasty sum for you to +lose, and winning it will be nothing to you,' he said. +Silverbridge took it good-humouredly, but said that he knew what +he was about. 'These men will pay,' whispered Lupton; 'but you +can't be sure what they're at.' The young man's brow was covered +with perspiration. He was smoking quick and had already smoked +more than was good for him. 'All right,' he said. 'I'll mind what +I'm about.' Mr Lupton could do no more, and retired. Before the +night was over bets had been booked to the amount stated, and the +Duke's son, who had promised that he would never plunge, stood to +lose about seventy thousand pounds upon the race. + +While this was going on Tifto sat not far from his patron, but +completely silent. During the day and early in the evening a few +sparks of the glory which scintillated from the favourite horse +flew in his direction. But he was on this occasion unlike himself, +and though the horse was to be run in his name had very little to +say in the matter. Not a boast came out of his mouth during dinner +or after dinner. He was so moody that his partner, who was +generally anxious to keep him quiet, more than once endeavoured to +encourage him. But he was unable to rouse himself. It was still +within his power to run straight; to be on the square, if not with +Captain Green, at any rate with Lord Silverbridge. But to do so he +must make a clean breast with his Lordship and confess the +intended sin. As he heard all that was being done, his conscience +troubled him sorely. With pitch of this sort he had never soiled +himself before. He was to have three thousand pounds from Green, +and then there would be the bets he himself had laid against the +horse,--by Green's assistance! It would be the making of him. Of +what use had been all his 'square' work to him? And then +Silverbridge had behaved so badly to him! But still, as he sat +there during the evening, he would have given a hand to have been +free from the attempt. He had no conception before that he could +become subject to such misery from such a cause. He would make it +straight with Silverbridge this very night,--but that Silverbridge +was ever lighting fresh cigars and ever having his glass refilled. +It was clear to him that on this night Silverbridge could not be +made to understand anything about it. And the deed in which he +himself was to be the chief actor was to be done very early in the +following morning. At last he slunk away to bed. + +On the following morning, the morning of the day on which the race +was to be run, the Major tapped on his patron's door about seven +o'clock. Of course there was no answer though the knock was +repeated. When young men overnight drink as much brandy-and-water +as Silverbridge had done, and smoke as many cigars, they are apt +not to hear knocks at their door made at seven o'clock. But there +was no time, not a minute, to be lost. Now, within this minute +that was pressing on him, Tifto must choose his course. He opened +the door and was standing at the young man's head. + +'What the d- does this mean?' said his Lordship angrily, as soon +as his visitor had succeeded in waking him. Tifto muttered +something about the horse which Silverbridge failed to understand. +The young man's condition was by no means pleasant. His mouth was +furred by the fumes of tobacco. His head was aching. He was heavy +with sleep, and this intrusion seemed to him to be a final +indignity offered to him by the man whom he now hated. 'What +business have you to come in here?' he said, leaning on his elbow. +'I don't care a straw for the horse. If you have anything to say +send my servant. Get out!' + +'Oh;--very well,' said Tifto;--and Tifto got out. + +It was about an hour afterwards that Tifto returned, and on this +occasion a groom from the stables, and the young Lord's own +servant, and two or three other men were with him. Tifto had been +made to understand that the news was about to be communicated, +must be communicated by himself, whether his Lordship were angry +or not. Indeed, after what had been done his Lordship's anger was +not of much moment. In his present visit he was only carrying out +the pleasant little plan which had been arranged for him by +Captain Green. 'What the mischief is up?' said Silverbridge, +rising in his bed. + +Then Tifto told his story, sullenly, doggedly, but still in a +perspicuous manner, and with words which admitted of no doubt. But +before he told the story he had excluded all but himself and the +groom. He and the groom had taken the horse out of the stable, it +being the animal's nature to eat his corn better after a slight +exercise, and while doing so a nail had been picked up. + +'Is it much?' asked Silverbridge, jumping still higher in his bed. +Then he was told that it was very much,--that the iron had driven +itself into the horse's frog, and that there was actually no +possibility that the horse should be run that day. + +'He can't walk, my Lord,' said the groom in that authoritative +voice which grooms use when they desire to have their own way, and +to make their masters understand that they at any rate are not to +have theirs. + +'Where is Pook?' asked Silverbridge. But Mr Pook was also still in +bed. + +It was soon known to Lord Silverbridge as a fact that in very +truth the horse could not run. Then sick with headache, with a +stomach suffering unutterable things, he had, as he dressed +himself, to think of his seventy thousand pounds. Of course the +money would be forthcoming. But how would his father look at him? +How would it be between him and his father now? after such a +misfortune how would he be able to break that other matter to the +Duke, and say that he had changed his mind about his marriage,-- +that he was going to abandon Lady Mabel Grex and give his hand and +a future Duchess's coronet to an American girl whose grandfather +had been a porter. + +A nail in his foot! He had heard of such things before. He knew +that such accidents had happened. What an ass must he have been to +risk such a sum on the well-being and safety of an animal who +might any day pick up a nail in is foot? Then he thought of the +caution which Lupton had given him. What good would the money have +done him had he won it? What more could he have than he now +enjoyed? But to lose such a sum of money! With all his advantages +of wealth he felt himself to be as forlorn and wretched as though +he had nothing left in the world before him. + + + +CHAPTER 44 + +How It was Done + +The story was soon about the town, and was the one matter for +discussion in all racing quarters. About the town! It was about +England, about all Europe. It had travelled to America and the +Indies, to Australia and the Chinese cities before two hours were +over. Before the race was run the accident was discussed and +something like the truth surmised in Cairo, Calcutta, Melbourne, +and San Francisco. But at Doncaster it was so all-pervading a +matter that down to the tradesmen's daughters and the boys at the +free-school the town was divided into two parties, one party +believing it to have been a 'plant', and the other holding that +the cause had been natural. It is hardly necessary to say that the +ring, as a rule, belonged to the former party. The ring always +suspects. It did not behove even those who would win by the +transaction to stand up for its honesty. + +The intention had been to take the horse round a portion of the +outside of the course near to which his stable stood. A boy rode +him and the groom and Tifto went with him. At a certain spot on +their return Tifto had exclaimed that the horse was going lame in +his off fore-foot. As to this exclamation the boy and two men were +agreed. The boy was then made to dismount and run for Mr Pook; and +as he started Tifto commenced to examine the horse's foot. The boy +saw him raise the off fore-leg. He himself had not found the horse +lame under him, but had been so hustled and hurried out of the +saddle by Tifto and the groom that he had not thought on that +matter till he was questioned. So far the story told by Tifto and +the groom was corroborated by the boy,--except as to the horse's +actual lameness. So far the story was believed by all men,--except +in regard to the actual lameness. And so far it was true. Then, +according to Tifto and the groom, the other foot was looked at, +but nothing was seen. This other foot, the near fore-foot, was +examined by the groom, who declared himself to be so flurried by +the lameness of such a horse at such a time, that he hardly knew +what he saw or what he did not see. At any rate then in his +confusion he found no cause of lameness; but the horse was led +into the stable as lame as at tree. Here Tifto found the nail +inserted into the very cleft of the frog of the near fore-foot, +and so inserted that he could not extract it till the farrier +came. That the farrier had extracted the nail from the part of +the foot indicated was certainly a fact. + +Then there was the nail. Only those who were most peculiarly +privileged were allowed to see the nail. But it was buzzed about +the racing quarters that the head of the nail,--and old rusty, +straight, and well-pointed nail,--bore on it the mark of a recent +hammer. In answer to this it was alleged that the blacksmith in +extracting the nail with his pincers, had of course operated on +its head, had removed certain particles of ruse, and might easily +have given it the appearance of having been struck. But in answer +to this the farrier, who was a sharp fellow, and quite beyond +suspicion in the matter, declared that he had very particularly +looked at the nail before he extracted it,--had looked at it with +the feeling that something base might too probably have been +done,--and that he was ready to swear that the clear mark on the +head of the nail was there before he touched it. And then not in +the stable, but lying under the little dung-heap away from the +stable-door, there was found a small piece of broken iron bar, +about a foot long, which might have answered for a hammer,--a rusty +bit of iron; and amidst the rust of this there was found such +traces as might have been left had it been used in striking such a +nail. There were some who declared that neither on the nail nor on +the iron could they see anything. And among these was the Major. +But Mr Lupton brought a strong magnifying-glass to bear, and the +world of examiners was satisfied that the marks were there. + +It seem however to be agreed that nothing could be done. +Silverbridge would not lend himself at all to those who suspected +mischief. He was miserable enough, but in this great trouble he +would not separate himself from Tifto. 'I don't believe a word of +all that,' he said to Mr Lupton. + +'It ought to be investigated at any rate.' + +'Mr Pook may do as he likes, but I will have nothing to do with +it.' + +Then Tifto came to him swaggering. Tifto had to go through a +considerable amount of acting, for which he was not very well +adapted. The Captain would have done it better. He would have +endeavoured to put himself altogether into the same boat with his +partner, and would have imagined neither suspicion or enmity on +his partner's part till suspicion or enmity had been shown. But +Tifto, who had not expected that the matter should be allowed to +pass over without some inquiry, began by assuming that +Silverbridge would think of evil of him. Tifto, who at this moment +would have given all that he had in the world not to have done the +deed, who now hated the instigator of the deed, and felt something +almost akin to love for Silverbridge, found himself to be forced +by circumstances to defend himself by swaggering. 'I don't +understand all this that's going on, my Lord,' he said. + +'Neither do I,' replied Silverbridge. + +'Any horse is subject to an accident. I am, I suppose, as great a +sufferer as you are, and deuced sight less able to bear it.' + +'Who said anything to the contrary? As for bearing it, we must +take it as it comes,--both of us. You may as well know now as later +that I have done with racing--for ever.' + +'What do you do you tell me that for? You can do as you like and I +can do as I like about that. If I had my way about the horse this +never would have happened. Taking a horse out at that time in the +morning,--before a race!' + +'Why, you went out with him yourself.' + +'Yes;---by Pook's orders. You allowed Pook to do just as he +pleased. I should like to know what money Pook had got on it, and +which way he laid it.' This disgusted Silverbridge so much that +he turned away and would have no more to say to Tifto. + +Before one o'clock, at which hour it was stated nominally that the +races would commence, general opinion had formed itself,--and +general opinion had nearly hit the truth. General opinion declared +that the nail had been driven in wilfully,--that it had been done +by Tifto himself, and that Tifto had been instigated by Captain +Green. Captain Green perhaps overacted his part a little. His +intimacy with the Major was well known, and yet, in all this +turmoil, he kept himself apart as though he had no interest in the +matter. 'I have got my little money on, and what little I have I +lose,' he said in answer to inquiries. But everyone knew that he +could not but have a great interest in a race, as to which the +half owner of the favourite was a peculiarly intimate friend of +his own. Had he come down to the stables and been seen about the +place with Tifto it might have been better. As it was, though he +was very quiet, his name was soon mixed up in the matter. There +was one man who asserted it as a fact known to himself that Green +and Villiers,--one Gilbert Villiers,--were in partnership together. +It was very well known that Gilbert Villiers would win two +thousand five hundred pounds from Lord Silverbridge. + +Then minute investigations was made into the betting of certain +individuals. Of course there would be great plunder, and where +would the plunder go? Who would get the money which poor +Silverbridge would lose? It was said that one at least of the +large bets made on that Tuesday evening could be traced to the +same Villiers though not actually made by him. More would be +learned when the settling-day should come. But there was quite +enough already to show that there were many men determined to get +to the bottom of it if possible. + +There came upon Silverbridge in his trouble a keen sense of his +position and a feeling of the dignity which he ought to support. +He clung during great part of the morning to Mr Lupton. Mr Lupton +was much his senior and they had never been intimate; but now +there was comfort in his society. 'I am afraid you are hit +heavily,' said Mr Lupton. + +'Something over seventy thousand pounds.' + +'Looking at what will be your property it is of course nothing. +But if--' + +'If what?' + +'If you go to the Jews for it then it will become a great deal.' + +'I shall certainly not do that.' + +'Then you may regard it as a trifle,' said Lupton. + +'No, I can't. It is not a trifle. I must tell my father. He'll +find the money.' + +'There is no doubt about that.' + +'He will. But I feel at present that I would rather change places +with the poorest gentleman I know than have to tell him. I have +done with races, Lupton.' + +'If so, this will have been a happy day for you. A man in your +position can hardly make money by it, but he may lose so much! If +a man really likes the amusement,--as I do,--and risks no more that +what he has in his pocket, that may be very well.' + +'At any rate I have done with it.' + +Nevertheless he went to see the race run, and everybody seemed to +be touched with pity for him. He carried himself well, saying as +little as he could of his own horse, and taking, or affecting to +take, great interest in the race. After the race he managed to see +all those to whom he has lost heavy stakes,--having to own to +himself as he did so that not one of them was a gentleman to whom +who should like to give his hand. To them he explained that his +father was abroad,--that probably his liabilities could not be +settled till after his father's return. He however would consult +his father's agent and would then appear on settling-day. They +were all full of their blandest courtesies. There was not one of +them who had any doubt as to getting his money,--unless the whole +thing might be disputed on the score of Tifto's villainy. Even +then payment could not be disputed unless it was proved that he +who demanded the money had been one of the actual conspirators. +After having seen his creditors he went away up alone to London. + +When in London he went to Carlton Terrace and spent the night in +absolute solitude. It had been his plan to join Gerald for some +partridge-shooting at Matching, and then to go yachting till such +time as he should be enabled to renew his suit to Miss Boncassen. +Early in November he would again ask her to be his wife. These had +been his plans. But now it seemed that everything was changed. +Partridge-shooting and yachting must be out of the question till +this terrible load was taken off his shoulders. Soon after his +arrival at the house two telegrams followed him from Doncaster. +One was from Gerald. 'What is all this about Prime Minister? Is it +a sell? I am so unhappy.' The other was from Lady Mabel,--for +among other luxuries Mrs Montacute Jones had own telegraph-wire at +Killancodlem. 'Can this be true? We are all so miserable. I do +hope it is not much.' From which he learned that his misfortune +was already known to all his friends. + +And now what was he to do? He ate his supper, and then without +hesitating for a moment--feeling that if he did hesitate the task +would not be done on that night,--he sat down and wrote the +following letter. + +'Carlton Terrace, Sept. 14, 18-. + +'MY DEAR MR MORETON, + +'I have just come up from Doncaster. You have probably heard what +has been Prime Minister's fate. I don't know whether any horse has +been such a favourite for the Leger. Early in the morning he was +taken out and picked up a nail. The consequence was he could not +run. + +'Now I must come to the bad part of my story. I have lost seventy +thousand pounds! It is no use beating about the bush. The sum is +something over that. What am I to do? If I tell you that I shall +give up racing altogether I dare say you will not believe me. It +is a sort of thing a man always says when he wants money; but I +feel now I cannot help saying it. + +'But what shall I do? Perhaps, if it be not too much trouble, you +will come up to town and see me. You can send me a word by the +wires. + +'You may be sure of this. I shall make no attempt to raise the +money elsewhere, unless I find that my father will not help me. +You will understand that of course it must be paid. You will +understand also what I must feel about telling my father, but I +shall do so at once. I only wait till I can hear from you. + +'Yours faithfully, +'SILVERBRIDGE.' + +During the next day two despatches reached Lord Silverbridge, both +of them coming as he sat down to his solitary dinner. The first +consisted of a short but very civil note. + +'Messrs Comfort and Criball present their compliments to the Earl +of Silverbridge. + +'Messrs C and C beg to offer their apologies for interfering, but +desire to inform his Lordship that should cash be wanting to any +amount in consequence of the late races, they will be happy to +accommodate his Lordship on most reasonable terms at a moment's +notice, upon his Lordship's simple bond. + +'Lord Silverbridge may be sure of absolute secrecy. + +'Crasham Court, Crutched Friars, Sept 15, 18-.' + +The other despatch was a telegram from Mr Moreton, saying that he +would be in Carlton Terrace by noon on the following day. + + + +CHAPTER 45 + +There Shall Not be Another Word About It. + +Early in October the Duke was at Matching with his daughter, and +Phineas Finn and his wife were both with them. On the day after +they parted at Ischl the first news respecting Prime Minister had +reached him,--namely, that his son's horse had lost the race. This +would not have annoyed him at all, but that the papers which he +read contained some vague charge of swindling against somebody, +and hinted that Lord Silverbridge had been a victim. Even this +would not have troubled him,--might in some sort have comforted +him,--were it made evident to him that his son had been closely +associated with swindlers in these transactions. If it were a mere +question of money, that might be settled without difficulty. Even +though the sum lost might have grown out of what he might have +expected into some few thousands, still he would bear it without a +word, if only he could separate his boy from bad companions. Then +came Mr Moreton's letter telling him the whole. + +At the meeting which took place between Silverbridge and his +father's agent at Carlton Terrace it was settled that Mr Moreton +should write the letter. Silverbridge tried and found that he +could not do it. He did not know how to humiliate himself +sufficiently, and yet could not keep himself from making attempts +to prove that according to all recognised chances his bets had +been good bets. + +Mr Moreton was better able to accomplish the task. He knew the +Duke's mind. A very large discretion had been left in Mr Moreton's +hands in regard to moneys which might be needed on behalf of that +dangerous heir!-so large that he had been able to tell Lord +Silverbridge that if the money was in truth lost according to +Jockey Club rules, it should be all forthcoming on the settling- +day,--certainly without assistance from Messrs Comfort and Criball. +The Duke had been nervously afraid of such men of business as +Comfort and Criball, and from the earliest days of his son's semi- +manhood had been on his guard against them. Let any sacrifice be +made so that his son might be kept clear from Comforts and +Criballs. To Mr Moreton he had been very explicit. His own +pecuniary resources were so great that they could bear some +ravaging without serious detriment. It was for his son's character +and standing in the world, for his future respectability and +dignity that his fears were so keen, and not for his own money. By +one so excitable, so fond of pleasure as Lord Silverbridge, some +ravaging would probably be made. Let it be met by ready money. +Such had been the Duke's instructions to his own trusted man of +business, and, acting on these instructions, Mr Moreton was able +to tell the heir that the money should be forthcoming. + +Mr Moreton, after detailing the extent and nature of the loss, and +the steps which he had decided upon taking, went on to explain the +circumstances as best he could. He had made some inquiry, and felt +no doubt that a gigantic swindle had been perpetrated by Major +Tifto and others. The swindle had been successful. Mr Moreton had +consulted certain gentlemen of high character versed in the +affairs of the turf. He mentioned Mr Lupton among others,--and had +been assured that though the swindle was undoubted, the money had +better be paid. It was thought to be impossible to connect the men +who had made the bets with the perpetrators of the fraud;--and if +Lord Silverbridge were to abstain from paying his bets because his +own partner had ruined the animal which belonged to them jointly, +the feeling would be against him rather than in his favour. In +fact the Jockey Club could not sustain him in such refusal. +Therefore the money would be paid. Mr Moreton, with some +expression of doubt, trusted that he might be thought to have +exercised a wise discretion. Then he went on to express his own +opinion in regard to the lasting effect which the matter would +have upon the young man. 'I think,' said he, 'that his Lordship is +heartily sickened of racing, and that he will never return to it.' + +The Duke of course was very wretched when these tidings first +reached him. Though he was a rich man, and of all men the least +careful of his riches, still he felt that seventy thousand pounds +was a large sum of money to throw away amongst a nest of +swindlers. And then it was excessively grievous to him that his +son should have been mixed up with such men. Wishing to screen his +son, even from his own anger, he was careful to remember the +promise made that Tifto should be dismissed, was not to take +effect till after this race had been run. There had been no deceit +in that. But then Silverbridge had promised that he would not +'plunge'. There are, however, promises which from their very +nature may be broken without falsehood. Plunging is a doubtful +word, and the path down to it, like all doubtful paths,--is +slippery and easy! If that assurance with which Mr Moreton ended +his letter could only be made true, he could bring himself to +forgive even this offence. The boy must be made to settle himself +in life. The Duke resolved that his only revenge should be to +press on that marriage with Mabel Grex. + +At Coblenz, on their way home, the Duke and his daughter were +caught up by Mr and Mrs Finn, and the matter of the young man's +losses was discussed. Phineas had heard all about it, and was loud +in denunciations against Tifto, Captain Green, Gilbert Villiers, +and others whose names had reached him. The money he thought +should never have been paid. The Duke however declared that the +money would not cause a moment's regret, if only the whole thing +could be got rid of at that cost. It had reached Finn's ears that +Tifto was already at loggerheads with his associates. There was +some hope that the whole thing might be brought to light by this +means. For all that the Duke cared nothing. If only Silverbridge +and Tifto could for the future be kept apart, as far as he and his +were concerned, good would have been done rather than harm. While +they were in this way away together on the Rhine it was decided +that very soon after their return to England Phineas and Mrs Finn +should go down to Matching. + +When the Duke arrived in London his sons were not there. Gerald +had gone back to Oxford, and Silverbridge had merely left an +address. Then his sister wrote him a very short letter. 'Papa will +be so glad if you will come to Matching. Do come.' Of course he +came, and presented himself some few days after the Duke's +arrival. + +But he dreaded this meeting with his father which, however, let it +be postponed for ever so long, must come at last. In reference to +this he made a great resolution,--that he would go instantly as +soon as he might be sent for. When the summons came he started; +but, though he was by courtesy an Earl, and by fact was not only a +man but a Member of Parliament, though he was half engaged to +marry one young lady and ought to have been engaged to marry +another, though he had come to an age at which Pitt was a great +minister and Pope a great poet, still his heart was in his boots, +as a schoolboy's might be, when he was driven up to the house at +Matching. + +In two minutes before he had washed the dust from his face, and +hands, he was with his father. 'I am glad to see you, +Silverbridge's aid the Duke, putting out his hand. + +'I hope to see you well, sir.' + +'Fairly well. Thank you. Travelling I think agrees with me. I +miss, not my comforts, but a certain knowledge of how things are +going on, which comes to us I think through our skins when we are +at home. A feeling of absence pervades me. Otherwise I like it. +And you,--what have you been doing?' + +'Shooting a little,' said Silverbridge, in a mooncalf tone. + +'Shooting a great deal, if what I see in the newspapers be true +about Mr Reginald Dobbes and his party. I presume it is a religion +to offer up hecatombs to the autumnal gods,--who must surely take a +keener delight in blood and slaughter than those bloodthirsty gods +of old.' + +'You should talk to Gerald about that, sir.' + +'Has Gerald been so great at his sacrifices? How will that suit +with Plato? What does Mr Simcox say?' + +'Of course they were all to have a holiday just at that time. But +Gerald is reading. I fancy that Gerald is clever.' + +'And he is a great Nimrod?' + +'As to hunting.' + +'Nimrod I fancy got his game in any way that he could compass it. +I do not doubt but that he trapped foxes.' + +'With a rifle at deer, say for four hundred yards, I would back +Gerald against any man of his age in England or Scotland.' + +'As to backing, Silverbridge, do not you think we had better have +done with that?' This was hardly in a tone of reproach, with +something even of banter in it; and as the question was asked the +Duke was smiling. But in a moment all that sense of joyousness +which the young man had felt in singing his brother's praises was +expelled. His face fell, and he stood before his father almost +like a culprit. 'We might as well have it out about his racing,' +said the Duke. 'Something has to be said about it. You have lost +an enormous sum of money.' The Duke's tone in saying this became +terribly severe. Such at least was its sound in his son's ears. He +did not mean to be severe. + +But when he did speak of that which displeased him his voice +naturally assumed that tone of indignation with which in days of +yore he had been wont to denounce the public extravagance of his +opponents in the House of Commons. The father paused, but the son +could not speak at the moment. 'And worse than that,' continued +the Duke; 'you have lost it in as bad company as you could have +found had you picked all England through.' + +'Mr Lupton, and Sir Henry Playfair, and Lord Stirling were in the +room when the bets were made.' + +'Were the gentlemen you name concerned with Major Tifto?' + +'No, sir.' + +'Who can tell with whom he may be in a room? Though rooms of that +kind are, I think, best avoided.' Then the Duke paused again, but +Silverbridge was now sobbing so that he could hardly speak. 'I am +sorry that you should be so grieved,' continued the father, 'but +such delights cannot, I think, lead to much real joy.' + +'It is for you, sir,' said the son, rubbing his eyes with the hand +which supported his head. + +'My grief in the matter might soon be cured.' + +'How shall I cure it? I will do anything to cure it.' + +'Let Major Tifto and the horses go.' + +'They are gone,' said Silverbridge energetically, jumping from his +chair as he spoke. 'I will never own a horse again, or a part of a +horse. I will have nothing more to do with races. You will believe +me?' + +'I will believe anything that you tell me.' + +'I won't say I will not go to another race, because--' + +'No; no. I would not have you hamper yourself. Nor shall you bind +yourself by any further promises. You have done with racing.' + +'Indeed, indeed I have, sir.' + +Then the father came up to the son and put his arm round the young +man's shoulders and embraced him. 'Of course it made me unhappy.' + +'I knew it would.' + +'But if you are cured of this evil, the money is nothing. What is +all for but for you and your brother and sister? It was a large +sum, but that shall not grieve me. The thing itself is so +dangerous that if with that much of a loss we can escape, I will +think that we have made not a bad market. Who owns the horse now?' + +'The horse shall be sold.' + +'For anything they may fetch so that we may get clear of this +dirt. And the Major?' + +'I know nothing of him. I have not seen him since that day.' + +'Has he claims on you?' + +'Not a shilling. It is all the other way.' + +'Let it go then. Be quit of him, however it may be. Send a +messenger so that he may understand that you have abandoned racing +altogether. Mr Moreton might perhaps see him.' + +That his father should forgive so readily and yet himself suffer +so deeply, affected the son's feelings so strongly that for a time +he could hardly repress his sobs. 'And now there shall not be a +word more said about it,' said the Duke suddenly. + +Silverbridge in his confusion could make no answer. + +'There shall not be another word said about it,' said the Duke +again. 'And now what do you mean to do with yourself immediately?' + +'I'll stay here, sir, as long as you do. Finn and Warburton, and I +have still a few covers to shoot.' + +'That's a good reason for staying anywhere.' + +'I meant that I would remain while you remained, sir.' + +'That at any rate is a good reason, as far as I am concerned. But +we go to Custins next week.' + +'There's a deal of shooting to be done at Gatherum,' said the +heir. + +'You speak of it as the business of your life,--on which your bread +depended.' + +'One can't expect game to be kept up if nobody goes to shoot it.' + +'Can't one? I didn't know. I should have thought that the less was +shot the more there would be to shoot; but I am ignorant in such +matters.' Silverbridge then broke forth into a long explanation +as to coverts, gamekeepers, poachers, breeding, and the +expectations of the neighbourhood at large, in the middle of which +he was interrupted by the Duke. 'I am afraid, my dear boy, that I +am too old to learn. But as it is so manifestly a duty, go and +perform it like a man. Who will go with you?' + +'I will ask Mr Finn to be one.' + +'He will be very hard on you in the way of politics.' + +'I can answer him better than I can you, sir. Mr Lupton said he +would come for a day or two. He'll stand to me.' + +After that his father stopped him as he was about to leave the +room. 'One more word, Silverbridge. Do you remember what you were +saying when you walked down to the House with me from your club +that night?' Silverbridge remembered very well what he had said. +He had undertaken to ask Mabel Grex to be his wife, and had +received his father's ready approval to the proposition. But at +this moment he was unwilling to refer to the matter. 'I have +thought about it very much since that,' said the Duke. 'I may say +that I have been thinking of it every day. If there were anything +to tell me, you would let me know;--would you not?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Then there is nothing to be told? I hope you have not changed +your mind.' + +Silverbridge paused a moment, trusting that he might be able to +escape the making of an answer;--but the Duke evidently intended to +have an answer. 'It appeared to me, sir, that it did not seem to +suit her,' said the hardly-driven young man. He could not now say +that Mabel had shown a disposition to reject his offer, because as +they had been sitting by the brookside at Killancodlem, even he, +with all his self-diffidence, had been forced to see what were her +wishes. Her confusion, and too evident despair when she heard of +the offer to the American girl, had plainly told her tale. He +could not now plead to his father that Mabel Grex would refuse his +offer. But his self-defence, when first he found that he had lost +himself in love for the American, had been based on that idea. He +had done his best to make Mabel understand him. If he had not +actually offered to her, he had done the next thing to it. And he +had run after her, till he was ashamed of such running. She had +given him no encouragement;--and therefore he had been justified. +No doubt he must have been mistaken; that he now perceived; but +still he felt himself to be justified. It was impossible that he +should explain all this to his father. One thing he certainly +could not say,--just at present. After his folly with regard to +those heavy debts he could not at once risk his father's renewed +anger by proposing to him an American daughter-in-law. That must +stand over, at any rate till the girl had accepted him positively. +'I am afraid it won't come off, sir,' he said at last. + +'Then I am to presume that you have changed your mind?' + +'I told you when we were speaking that I was not confident.' + +'She has not--' + +'I can't explain it all, sir,--but I fear it won't come off.' + +Then the Duke, who had been sitting, got up from his chair and +with his back to the fire made a final little speech. 'We decided +just now, Silverbridge, that nothing more should be said about +that unpleasant racing business, and nothing more shall be said by +me. But you must not be surprised if I am anxious to see you +settled in life. No young man could be more bound by duty to marry +early than you are. In the first place you have to repair the +injury done by my inaptitude for society. You have explained to me +that it is your duty to have the Barsetshire coverts properly +shot, and I have acceded to your views. Surely it must be equally +your duty to see your Barsetshire neighbours. And you are a young +man every feature of whose character would be improved by +matrimony. As far as means are concerned you are almost as free to +make arrangements as though you were already head of the family.' + +'No, sir.' + +'I could never bring myself to dictate to a son in regard to his +choice of a wife. But I will own that when you told me that you +had chosen I was much gratified. Try and think again when you are +pausing amidst your sacrifices at Gatherum, whether that be +possible. If it be not, still I would wish you to bear in mind +what is my idea as to your duty.' Silverbridge said that he would +bear this in mind, and then escaped from the room. + + + +CHAPTER 46 + +Lady Mary's Dream + +When the Duke and his daughter reached Custins they found a large +party assembled, and were somewhat surprised at the crowd. Lord +and Lady Nidderdale were there, which might have been expected as +they were part of the family. With Lord Popplecourt had come his +recent friend Adolphus Longstaff. That too might have been +natural. Mr and Miss Boncassen were there also, who at this moment +were quite strangers to the Duke; and Mr Lupton. The Duke also +found Lady Chiltern, whose father-in-law had more than once sat in +the same Cabinet with himself, and Mr Monk, who was generally +spoken of as the head of the coming Liberal Government, and the +Ladies Adelaide and Flora FitzHoward, the still unmarried but not +very juvenile daughters of the Duke of St Bungay. These with a few +others made a large party, and rather confused the Duke, who had +hardly reflected that discreet and profitable love-making was more +likely to go on among numbers, than if the two young people were +thrown together with no other companions. + +Lord Popplecourt had been made to understand what was expected of +him, and after some hesitation had submitted himself to the +conspiracy. There would not be less at any rate than two hundred +thousand pounds,--and the connection would be made with one of the +highest families in Great Britain. Though Lady Cantrip had said +very few words, those words had been expressive; and the young +bachelor peer had given in his adhesion. Some vague half-defined +tale had been told him,--not about Tregear, as Tregear's name had +not been mentioned,--but respecting some dream of a young man who +had flitted across the girl's path during her mother's lifetime. +'All girls have such dreams,' Lady Cantrip had suggested. +Whereupon Lord Popplecourt said that he supposed it was so. 'But a +softer, purer, more unsullied flower never waited upon its stalk +till the proper fingers should choose to come and pluck it,' said +Lady Cantrip, rising to unaccustomed poetry on behalf of her +friend the Duke. Lord Popplecourt accepted the poetry and was +ready to do his best to pluck the flower. + +Soon after the Duke's arrival Lord Popplecourt found himself in +one of the drawing-rooms with Lady Cantrip and his propose father- +in-law. A hint had been given him that he might as well be home +early from shooting, so as to be in the way. As the hour in which +he was to make himself specially agreeable, both to the father and +to the daughter, had drawn nigh, he became somewhat nervous, and +now, at this moment, was not altogether comfortable. Though he had +been concerned in no such matter before, he had an idea that love +was a soft kind of thing which ought to steal on one unawares and +come and go without trouble. In his case it came upon him with a +rough demand for immediate hard work. He had not previously +thought that he was to be subjected to such labours, and at this +moment almost resented the interference with his ease. He was +already a little angry with Lady Cantrip, but at the same time +felt himself to be so much in subjection to her that he could not +rebel. + +The Duke himself when he saw the young man was hardly more +comfortable. He had brought his daughter to Custins, feeling that +it was his duty to be with her; but he would have preferred to +leave the whole operation to the care of Lady Cantrip. He hardly +liked to look at the fish whom he wished to catch for his +daughter. Whenever this aspect of affairs presented itself to him, +he would endeavour to console himself by remembering the past +success of a similar transaction. He thought of his own first +interview with his wife. 'You have heard,' he said, 'what our +friends wish.' She had pouted her lips, and when gently pressed +had at last muttered, with her shoulder turned to him, that she +supposed it was to be so. very much coercion had been used to her +than either himself or Lady Cantrip had dared to apply to his +daughter. He did not think that his girl in her present condition +of mind would signify to Lord Popplecourt that she 'supposed it +was to be so'. Now that the time for the transaction was present +he felt almost sure that it would never be transacted. But still +he must go on with it. Were he now to abandon his scheme, would it +not be tantamount to abandoning everything? So he wreathed his +face in smiles,--or made some attempt at it,--as he greeted the +young man. + +'I hope you and Lady Mary had a pleasant journey abroad,' said +Lord Popplecourt. Lord Popplecourt being aware that he had been +chosen as a son-in-law felt himself called upon to be familiar as +well as pleasant. 'I often thought of you and Lady Mary, and +wondered what you were about.' + +'We were visiting lakes and mountains, churches and picture +galleries, cities, and salt mines,' said the Duke. + +'Does Lady Mary like that sort of thing?' + +'I think she was pleased with what she saw. + +'She has been abroad a great deal before, I believe. It depends so +much on whom you meet when abroad.' + +This was unfortunate because it recalled Tregear to the Duke's +mind. 'We saw very few people whom we knew,' he said. + +'I've been shooting in Scotland with Silverbridge, and Gerald, and +Reginald Dobbes, and Nidderdale,--and that fellow Tregear, who is +so thick with Silverbridge.' + +'Indeed!' + +'I'm told that Lord Gerald is going to be the great shot of the +day,' said Lady Cantrip. + +'It is a distinction,' said the Duke bitterly. + +'He did not beat me by so much,' continued Popplecourt. 'I think +Tregear did the best with his rifle. One morning he potted three. +Dobbes was disgusted. He hated Tregear.' + +'Isn't it stupid,--half-a-dozen men getting together in that way?' +asked Lady Cantrip. + +'Nidderdale is always jolly.' + +'I am glad to hear that,' said the mother-in-law. + +'And Gerald is a regular brick.' the Duke bowed. 'Silverbridge +used always to be going off to Killancodlem, where there were a +lot of ladies. He is very sweet, you know, on this American girl +whom you have here.' Again the Duke winced. 'Dobbes is awfully +good as to making out the shooting, but then he his a tyrant. +Nevertheless I agree with him, if you mean to do a thing you +should do it.' + +'Certainly,' said the Duke. 'But you should make up your mind +first whether the thing is worth doing.' + +'Just so,' said Popplecourt. 'And as grouse and deer together are + about the best things out, most of us made up our minds that it +was worth doing. But that fellow Tregear would argue it out. He +said a gentleman oughtn't to play billiards as well as a marker.' + +'I think he was right,' said the Duke. + +'Do you know Mr Tregear, Duke?' + +'I have met him--with my son.' + +'Do you like him?' + +'I have seen very little of him.' + +'I cannot say I do. He thinks so much of himself. Of course he is +very intimate with Silverbridge, and that is all that anyone knows +of him.' The Duke bowed almost haughtily, though why he bowed he +could hardly have explained to himself. Lady Cantrip bit her lips +in disgust. 'He's just the fellow,' continued Popplecourt, 'to +think that some princess has fallen in love with him.' Then the +Duke left the room. + +'You had better not talk to him about Mr Tregear,' said Lady +Cantrip. + +'Why not?' + +'I don't know whether he approves of the intimacy between him and +Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I should think not;--a man without any position or a shilling in +the world.' + +'The Duke is peculiar. If a subject is distasteful to him he does +not like it to be mentioned. You had better not mention Mr +Tregear,' Lady Cantrip as she said this blushed inwardly at her +own hypocrisy. + +It was of course contrived at dinner that Lord Popplecourt should +take out Lady Mary. It is impossible to discover how such things +get wind, but there was already an idea prevalent at Custins that +Lord Popplecourt had matrimonial views, and that these views were +looked upon favourably. 'You may be quite sure of it, Mr Lupton,' +Lady Adelaide FitzHoward had said. 'I'll make a bet they're +married before this time next year.' + +'It will be a terrible case of Beauty and the Beast,' said Lupton. + +Lady Chiltern had whispered a suspicion of the same kind, and had +expressed a hope that the lover would be worthy of the girl. And +Dolly Longstaff had chaffed his friend Popplecourt on the subject, +Popplecourt having laid himself open by indiscreet allusions to +Dolly's love for Miss Boncassen. 'Everybody can't have it as +easily arranged for him as you,--a Duke's daughter and a pot of +money without so much as the trouble of asking for it!' + +'What do you know about the Duke's children?' + +'That's what it is to be a lord and not to have a father.' +Popplecourt tried to show that he was disgusted; but he felt +himself all the more strongly bound to go on with the project. + +It was therefore a matter of course that these should-be lovers +would be sent out of the room together. 'You'll give your arm to +Mary,' Lady Cantrip said, dropping the ceremonial prefix. Lady +Mary of course went out as she was bidden. Though everybody else +knew it, no idea of what was intended had yet come across her +mind. + +The should-be lover immediately reverted to the Austrian tour, +expressing a hope that his neighbour enjoyed herself. 'There's +nothing I like so much myself,' said he, remembering some of the +Duke's words, 'as mountains, cities, salt mines, and all that kind +of thing. There's such a lot of interest about it.' + +'Did you ever see a salt mine?' + +'Well;--not exactly a salt mine; but I have coal mines on my +property in Staffordshire. I'm very fond of coal. I hope you like +coal.' + +'I like salt a great deal better--to look at.' + +'But which do you think pays best? I don't mind telling you,-- +though it's a kind of thing I never talk about to strangers,--the +royalties from the Blogownie and Toodlem mines go up regularly two +thousand pounds every year.' + +'I thought we were talking about what was pretty to look at.' + +'So we were. I'm as fond of pretty things as anybody. Do you know +Reginald Dobbes?' + +'No, I don't. Is he pretty?' + +'He used to be so angry with Silverbridge, because Silverbridge +would say Crummie-Toddie was ugly.' + +'Was Crummie-Toddie ugly?' + +'Just a plain house on a moor.' + +'That sound ugly.' + +'I suppose your family likes pretty things.' + +'I hope so.' + +'I do, I know.' Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to look as though he +intended to understand that she was the pretty thing which he most +particularly liked. She partly conceived his meaning, and was +disgusted accordingly. On the other side of her sat Mr Boncassen, +to whom she had been introduced in the drawing-room,--and who had +said a few words to her about some Norwegian poet. She turned +round to him, and asked him some questions about Skald, and so, +getting into conversation with him, managed to turn her shoulder +to her suitor. On the other side of him sat Lady Rosina De Courcy, +to whom, as being an old woman and an old maid, he felt very +little inclined to be courteous. She said a word, asking him +whether he did not think the weather was treacherous. He answered +her very curtly, and sat bolt upright, looking forward on the +table, and taking his dinner as it came to him. He had been put +there in order that Lady Mary Palliser might talk to him, and he +regarded interference on the part of that old American as being +ungentlemanlike. But the old American disregarded him, and went on +with his quotations from the Scandinavian bard. But Mr Boncassen +sat next to Lady Cantrip, and when at last he was called upon to +give his ear to the countess, Lady Mary was again vacant for +Popplecourt's attentions. 'Are you very fond of poetry?' he asked. + +'Very fond.' + +'So am I. Which do you like best, Tennyson or Shakespeare?' + +'They are very unlike.' + +'Yes;--they are unlike. Or Moore's Melodies. I am very fond of +"When in death I shall calm recline". I think this equal to +anything. I think Reginald Dobbes would have it as all bosh.' + +'Then I think that Mr Reginald Dobbes must be all bosh himself.' + +'There was a man there named Tregear who had brought some books.' + Then there was a pause. Lady Mary had not a word to say. 'Dobbes +used to declare that he was always pretending to read poetry.' + +'Mr Tregear never pretends anything.' + +'Do you know him?' asked the rival. + +'He's my brother's most particular friend.' + +'Ah! yes. I dare say Silverbridge has talked to you about him. I +think he's a stuck-up sort of fellow.' To this there was not a +word of reply. 'Where did your brother pick him up?' + +'They were at Oxford together.' + +'I must say I think he gives himself airs;--because, you know, he's +nobody.' + +'I don't know anything of the kind,' said Lady Mary, becoming very +red. 'And as he is my brother's most particular friend,--his very +friend of friends,--I think you had better not abuse him to me.' + +'I don't think the Duke is very fond of him.' + +'I don't care who is fond of him. I am very fond of Silverbridge, +and I won't hear his friend ill spoken of. I dare say he had some +books with him. He is not at all the sort of man to go to a place +and satisfy himself with doing nothing but killing animals.' + +'Do you know him, Lady Mary?' + +'I have seen him, and of course I have heard a great deal of him +from Silverbridge. I would rather not talk any more about him.' + +'You seem to be very fond of Mr Tregear,' he said angrily. + +'It is no business of yours, Lord Popplecourt, whether I am fond +of anybody or not. I have told you that Mr Tregear is my brother's +friend, and that ought to be enough.' + +Lord Popplecourt was a young man possessed of a certain amount of +ingenuity. It was said of him that he knew on which side his bread +was buttered, and that if you wished to take him in you must get +up early. After dinner, and during the night he pondered a good +deal on what he had heard. Lady Cantrip had told him there had +been a--dream. What was he to believe about that dream? Had he not +better avoid the error of putting too fine a point upon it, and +tell himself at once that a dream in this instance meant a--lover! + Lady Mary had already been troubled by a lover! He was disposed +to believe that young ladies often do have objectionable lovers, +and that things get themselves right afterwards. Young ladies can +be made to understand the beauty of coal mines almost as readily +as young gentlemen. There would be the two hundred thousand +pounds; and there was the girl, beautiful and well-born, and +thoroughly well-mannered. But what if this Tregear and the dream +were one and the same? If so, had he not received plenty of +evidence that the dream had not yet passed away? A remnant of +affection for the dream would not have been a fatal barrier, had +not the girl been so fierce with him in her defence of her dream. +He remembered too, what the Duke had said about Tregear, and Lady +Cantrip's advice to him to be silent in respect to this man. And +then do girls generally defend their brother's friends as she had +defended Tregear? He thought not. Putting all these things +together on the following morning he came to an uncomfortable +belief that Tregear was the dream. + +Soon after that he found himself near to Dolly Longstaff as they +were shooting. 'You know that fellow Tregear, don't you?' + +'Oh Lord yes. He is Silverbridge's pal.' + +'Did you ever hear anything about him?' + +'What sort of thing?' + +'Was he ever--in love with anyone?' + +'I fancy he used to be awfully spooney on Mab Grex. I remember +hearing that they were to have been married, only that neither of +them had sixpence.' + +'Oh--Lady Mabel Grex! That's a horse of another colour.' + +'And which is the horse of your colour?' + +'I haven't got a horse,' said Popplecourt, going away to his own +corner. + + + +CHAPTER 47 + +Miss Boncassen's Idea of Heaven + +It was generally known that Dolly Longstaff had been heavily +smitten by the charms of Miss Boncassen; but the world hardly gave +him credit for the earnestness of his affection. Dolly had never +been known to be in earnest in anything;--but now he was in very +truth in love. He had agreed to be Popplecourt's companion at +Custins because he had heard that Miss Boncassen would be there. +He had thought over the matter with more consideration than he had +ever before given to any subject. He had gone so far as to see his +own man of business, with a view of ascertaining what settlements +he could make and what income he might be able to spend. He had +told himself over and over again that he was not the 'sort of +fellow' that ought to marry; but it was all of no avail. He +confessed to himself that he was completely 'bowled over',-- +'knocked off his pins'! + +'Is a fellow to have no chance?' he said to Miss Boncassen at +Custins/ + +'If I understand what a fellow means, I am afraid not.' + +'No man alive was ever more earnest than I am.' + +'Well, Mr Longstaff; I do not suppose that you have been trying to +take me in all this time.' + +'I hope you do not think ill of me.' + +'I may think well of a great many gentlemen without wishing to +marry them.' + +'But does love go for nothing?' said Dolly, putting his hand upon +his heart. 'Perhaps there are so many that love you.' + +'Not above half-a-dozen or so.' + +'You can make a joke of it, when I-. But I don't think, Miss +Boncassen, you at all realise what I feel. As to settlements and +all that, your father could do what he likes with me.' + +'My father has nothing to do with it, and I don't know what +settlements mean. We never think anything of settlements in our +country. If two young people love each other they go and get +married.' + +'Let us do the same here.' + +'But the two young people don't love each other. Look here, Mr +Longstaff, it's my opinion that a young woman ought not to be +pestered.' + +'Pestered!' + +'You force me to speak in that way. I've given you an answer ever +so many times. I will not be made to do it over and over again.' + +'It's that d- fellow, Silverbridge,' he exclaimed almost angrily. +On hearing this Miss Boncassen left the room without speaking +another word, and Dolly Longstaff found himself alone. He saw what +he had done as soon as she was gone. After that he could hardly +venture to persevere again--here at Custins. He weighed it over in +his mind for a long time, almost coming to a resolution in favour +of hard drink. He had never felt anything like this before. He was +so uncomfortable that he couldn't eat his luncheon, though in +accordance with his usual habit he had breakfasted off soda-and- +brandy and a morsel of devilled toast. He did not know himself in +his changed character. 'I wonder whether she understands that I +have four thousand pounds a year of my own, and shall have twelve +thousand pounds more when my governor goes! She was so headstrong +that it was impossible to explain anything to her.' + +'I'm off to London,' he said to Popplecourt that afternoon. + +'Nonsense! You said you'd stay for ten days.' + +'All the same, I'm going at once. I've sent to Bridport for a +trap, and I shall sleep tonight at Dorchester.' + +'What's the meaning of it all?' + +'I've had some words with somebody. Don't mind asking any more.' + +'Not with the Duke?' + +'The Duke? No; I haven't spoken to him.' + +'Or Lord Cantrip?' + +'I wish you wouldn't ask questions.' + +'If you've quarrelled with anybody you ought to consult a friend.' + +'It's nothing of that kind.' + +'Then it's a lady. It's the American girl!' + +'Don't I tell you. I don't want to talk about it? I'm going. I've +told Lady Cantrip that my mother wasn't well and wants to see me. +You'll stop your time out, I suppose?' + +'I don't know.' + +'You've got it all square, no doubt. I wish I'd a handle to my +name. I never cared for it before.' + +'I'm sorry you're so down in the mouth. Why don't you try again? +The thing is to stick to 'em like wax. If ten times of asking +won't do, go in twenty times.' + +Dolly shook his head despondently. 'What can you do when a girl +walks out of a room and slams the door in your face? She'll get it +hot and heavy before she's done. I know what she's after. She +might as well cry for the moon.' And so Dolly got into the trap +and went to Bridport and slept the night at the hotel at +Dorchester. + +Lord Popplecourt, though he could give such excellent advice to +his friend, had been able as yet to do very little in his own +case. He had been a week at Custins, and had said not a word to +denote his passion. Day after day he had prepared himself for the +encounter, but the lady had never given him the opportunity. When +he sat next to her at dinner she would be very silent. If he +stayed at home on a morning she was not visible. During the short +evenings he could never get her attention. And he made no progress +with the Duke. The Duke had been very courteous to him at +Richmond, but here he was monosyllabic and almost sullen. + +Once or twice Lord Popplecourt had a little conversation with Lady +Cantrip. 'Dear girl!' said her ladyship. 'She is so little given +to seeing admiration.' + +'I dare say.' + +'Girls are so different, Lord Popplecourt. With some of them it +seems that a gentleman need have no trouble in explaining what it +is that he wishes.' + +'I don't think Lady Mary is like that at all.' + +'Not in the least. Anyone who addresses her must be prepared to +explain himself fully. Nor ought he to hope to get much +encouragement at first. I do not think that Lady Mary will bestow +her heart till she is sure she can give it with safety.' There +was an amount of falsehood in this which was proof at any rate of +very strong friendship on the part of Lady Cantrip. + +After a few days Lady Mary became more intimate with the American +and his daughter than with any others of the party. Perhaps she +liked to talk about Scandinavian poets, of whom, Mr Boncassen was +so fond. Perhaps she felt sure that her transatlantic friend would +not make love to her. Perhaps it was that she yielded to the +various allurements of Miss Boncassen. Miss Boncassen saw the Duke +of Omnium for the first time at Custins, and there had the first +opportunity of asking herself how such a man as that would receive +from his son and heir such an announcement as Lord Silverbridge +would have to make him should she at the end of three months +accept his offer. She was quite aware that Lord Silverbridge need +not repeat his offer unless he were so pleased. But she thought +that he would come again. He had so spoken that she was sure of +his love; and had so spoken as to obtain hers. Yes;--she was sure +that she loved him. She had never seen anything like him before;-- +so glorious in his beauty, so gentle in his manhood, so powerful +and yet so little imperious, so great in condition, and yet so +little confident in his own greatness, so bolstered up with +external advantages, and so little apt to trust anything but his +own heart and his own voice. She was glad he was what he was. She +counted at their full value all his natural advantages. To be an +English Duchess! Oh--yes; her ambition understood it all! But she +loved him, because in the expression of his love no hint had +fallen from him of the greatness of the benefits which he could +confer upon her. Yes, she would like to be a Duchess; but not to +be a Duchess would she become the wife of a man who should begin +his courtship by assuming a superiority. + +Now the chances of society had brought her into the company of his +nearest friends. She was in the house with his father and with his +sister. Now and again the Duke spoke a few words to her, and +always did so with a polite courtesy. But she was sure that the +Duke had heard nothing of his son's courtship. And she was equally +sure that the matter had not reached Lady Mary's ears. She +perceived that the Duke and her father would often converse +together. Mr Boncassen would discuss republicanism generally, and +the Duke would explain that theory of monarchy as it prevails in +England, which but very few Americans had been made to understand. +All this Miss Boncassen watched with pleasure. She was still of +opinion that it would not become her to force her way into a +family which would endeavour to repudiate her. She would not +become this young man's wife if all connected with the young man +were resolved to reject the contact. But if she could conquer +them,--then,--then she thought that she could put her little hand +into that young man's grasp with a happy heart. + +It was in this frame of mind that she laid herself out not +unsuccessfully to win the esteem of Lady Mary Palliser. 'I do not +know whether you approve it,' said Lady Cantrip to the Duke; 'but +Mary has become very intimate with our new American friend.' At +this time Lady Cantrip had become very nervous,--so as almost to +wish that Lady Mary's difficulties might be unravelled elsewhere +than at Custins. + +'They seem to be sensible people,' said the Duke. 'I don't know +when I have met a man with higher ideals on politics than Mr +Boncassen.' + +'His daughter is popular with everybody.' + +'A nice ladylike girl,' said the Duke, 'and appears to have been +well educated.' + +It was now near the end of October, and the weather was peculiarly +fine. Perhaps in our climate, October would of all months be the +most delightful if something of its charms were not detracted from +by the feeling that with it depart the last relics of delight of +summer. The leaves are still there with their gorgeous colouring, +but they are going. The last rose still lingers on the bush, but +it is the last. The woodland walks are still pleasant to the feet, +but caution is heard on every side by the coming winter. + +The park at Custins, which was spacious, had many woodland walks +attached to it, from which, through vistas of the timber, distant +glimpses of the sea were caught. Within half a mile of the house +the woods were reached, and within a mile the open sea was in +sight,--and yet the wanderers might walk for miles without going +over the same ground. Here, without other companions, Lady Mary +and Miss Boncassen found themselves one afternoon, and here the +latter told her story to her lover's sister. 'I long to tell you +something,' she said. + +'Is it a secret?' asked Lady Mary. + +'Well; yes it is,--if you will keep it so. I would rather you +should keep it a secret. But I will tell you.' Then she stood +still looking into the other's face. 'I wonder how you will take +it.' + +'What can it be?' + +'Your brother has asked me to be his wife.' + +'Silverbridge!' + +'Yes;--Lord Silverbridge. You are astonished.' + +Lady Mary was much astonished,--so much astonished that words +escaped from her, which she regretted afterwards. 'I thought there +was someone else.' + +'Who else?' + +'Lady Mabel Grex. But I know nothing.' + +'I think not,' said Miss Boncassen slowly. 'I have seen them +together and I think not. There might be somebody, though I think +not her. But why do I say that? Why do I malign him, and make so +little of myself. There is no one else, Lady Mary. Is he not +true?' + +'I think he is true.' + +'I am sure he is true. And he has asked me to be his wife.' + +'What did you say?' + +'Well;--what do you think? What is it probable that such a girl as +I would say when such a man as your brother asks her to be his +wife? Is he not such a man as a girl would love?' + +'Oh yes.' + +'Is he not handsome as a god?' Mary stared at her with all her +eyes. 'And sweeter than any god those pagan races knew? And is he +not good-tempered, and loving; and has he not that perfection of +manly dash without which I do not think I do not think I could +give my heart to any man?' + +'Then you have accepted him?' + +'And his rank and wealth! The highest position in all the world +in my eyes.' + +'I do not think you should take him for that.' + +'Does it not all help? Can you put yourself in my place? Why +should I refuse him? No, not for that. I would not take him for +that. But if I love him,--because he is all that my imagination +tells me that a man ought to be;--if to be his wife seems to be the +greatest bliss that could happen to a woman; if I feel that I +could die to serve him, that I would live to worship him, that his +touch would be sweet to me, his voice music, his strength the only +supports in the world on which I would care to lean,--what then?' + +'Is it so?' + +'Yes it is so. it is after that fashion that I love him. He is my +hero;--and not the less so because there is none higher than he +among the nobles of the greatest land under the sun. Would you +have me for a sister?' Lady Mary could not answer all at once. +She had to think of her father,--and then she thought of her own +lover. Why should not Silverbridge be as well entitled to his +choice as she considered herself to be? And yet how would it be +with her father? Silverbridge would in process of time be the head +of the family. Would it be proper that he should marry an +American? + +'You would not like me for a sister?' + +'I was thinking of my father. For myself I like you.' + +'Shall I tell you what I said to him?' + +'If you will.' + +'I told him that he must ask his friends;--that I would not be his +wife to be rejected by them all. Nor will I. Though it be heaven I +will not creep there through a hole. If I cannot go with my head +upright, I will not go even there.' The she turned round as +though she were prepared in her emotion to walk back to the house +alone. But Lady mare ran after her, and having caught her put her +arm round her waist and kissed her. + +'I at any rate will love you,' said Lady Mary. + +'I will do as I said,' continued Miss Boncassen. 'I will do as I +have said. Though I love your brother down to the ground he shall +not marry me without his father's consent.' Then they returned +arm-in-arm close together; but very little was said between them. + +When Lady Mary entered the house she was told that Lady Cantrip +wished to see her in her own room. + + + +CHAPTER 48 + +The Party at Custins is Broken Up + +The message was given to Lady Mary after so solemn a fashion that +she was sure that some important communication was to be made to +her. Her mind at that moment had been filled with her new friend's +story. She felt that she required some time to meditate before she +could determine what she herself would wish; but when she was +going to her own room, in order that she might think it over, she +was summoned to Lady Cantrip. 'My dear,' said the Countess, 'I +wish you to do something to oblige me.' + +'Of course I will.' + +'Lord Popplecourt wants to speak to you.' + +'Who?' + +'Lord Popplecourt.' + +'What can Lord Popplecourt have to say to me?' + +'Can you not guess? Lord Popplecourt is a young nobleman, +standing very high in the world, possessed of ample means, just in +that position in which it behoves such a man to look about for a +wife.' Lady Mary pressed her lips together, and clenched her two +hands. 'Can you not imagine what such a gentleman may have to +say?' Then there was a pause, but she made no immediate answer. +'I am to tell you, my dear, that your father would approve of it.' + +'Approve of what?' + +'He approves of Lord Popplecourt as a suitor for your hand.' + +'How can he?' + +'Why not, Mary? Of course he has made it his business to ascertain +all particulars as to Lord Popplecourt's character and property.' + +'Papa knows that I love somebody else.' + +'My dear Mary, that is all vanity.' + +'I don't think that papa can want to see me married to a man when +he knows that with all my heart and soul--' + +'Oh, Mary!' + +'When he knows,' continued Mary, who would not be put down, 'that +I love another man with all my heart. What will Lord Popplecourt +say if I tell him that? If he says anything to me, I shall tell +him. Lord Popplecourt! He cares for nothing but his coal mines. +Of course, if you bid me to see him I will; but it can do no good. +I despise him, and if he troubles me I shall hate him. As for +marrying him,--I would sooner die this minute.' + +After this Lady Cantrip did not insist on the interview. She +expressed her regret that things should be as they were,--explained +in sweetly innocent phrases that in a certain rank of life young +ladies could not always marry the gentlemen to whom their fancies +might attach them, but must, not infrequently, postpone their +youthful inclinations to the will of their elders,--or in less +delicate language, that though they might love in one direction +the must marry in another; and then expressed a hope that her dear +Mary would think over these things and try to please her father. +'Why does he not try to please me?' said Mary. Then Lady Cantrip +was obliged to see Lord Popplecourt, a necessity which was a great +nuisance to her. 'Yes;--she understands what you mean. But she is +not prepared for it yet. You must wait awhile.' + +'I don't see why I am to wait.' + +'She is very young,--and so are you, indeed. There is plenty of +time.' + +'There is somebody else I suppose.' + +'Is it that Tregear?' + +'I am not prepared to mention names,' said Lady Cantrip, +astonished that he should know so much. 'But indeed you must +wait.' + +'I don't see it, Lady Cantrip.' + +'What can I say more? If you think that such a girl as Lady Mary +Palliser, the daughter of the Duke of Omnium, possessed of +fortune, beauty, and every good gift, is to come like a bird to +your call, you will find yourself mistaken. All that her friends +can do for you will be done. The rest must remain with yourself.' + During that evening Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to make himself +pleasant to one of the FitzHoward young ladies, and on the next +morning he took his leave of Custins. + +'I will never interfere again in reference to anybody else's child +as long as I live,' Lady Cantrip said to her husband that night. + +Lady Mary was very much tempted to open her heart to Miss +Boncassen. It would be delightful to have a friend; but were she +to engage Miss Boncassen's sympathies on her behalf, she must of +course sympathise with Miss Boncassen in return. And what if, +after all, Silverbridge were not devoted to the American beauty! +What if it should turn out that he was going to marry Lady Mabel +Grex? 'I wish you would call me Isabel,' her friend said to her. +'It is so odd,--since I have left New York I have never heard my +name from any lips except father's and mother's.' + +'Has not Silverbridge ever called you by your christian-name?' + +'I think not. I am sure he never has.' But he had, though it had +passed by her at the moment without attention. 'It all came from +him so suddenly. And yet I expected it. But it was too sudden for +christian-names and pretty talk. I do not even know what his name +is.' + +'Plantagenet,--but we always call him Silverbridge.' + +'Plantagenet is much prettier. I shall always call him +Plantagenet. But I recall that. You will not remember that against +me?' + +'I will remember nothing that you do not wish.' + +'I mean that if,--if all the grandeurs of the Pallisers could +consent to put up with poor me, if heaven were opened to me with a +straight gate, so that I could walk out of our republic into your +aristocracy with my head erect, with the stars and stripes waving +proudly will I had been accepted into the shelter of the Omnium +griffins,--then I would call him--' + +'There's one Palliser would welcome you.' + +'Would you dear? The I will love you dearly. May I call you Mary?' + +'Of course you may.' + +'Mary is the prettiest name under the sun. But Plantagenet is so +grand! Which of the kings did you branch off from?' + +'I know nothing about it. From none of them I should think. There +is some story about a Sir Guy, who was a king's friend. I never +trouble myself about it. I hate aristocracy.' + +'Do you, dear?' + +'Yes,' said Mary, full of her own grievances. 'It is an abominable +bondage, and I do not see that it does any good at all.' + +'I think it is so glorious,' said the American. 'There is no such +mischievous nonsense in the world as equality. That is what father +says. What men ought to want is liberty.' + +'It is terrible to be tied up in a small circle,' said the Duke's +daughter. + +'What do you mean, Lady Mary?' + +'I thought you were to call me Mary. What I mean is this. Suppose +that Silverbridge loves you better than all the world.' + +'I hope he does. I think he does.' + +'And suppose he cannot marry you, because of his--aristocracy?' + +'But he can.' + +'I thought you were saying yourself--' + +'Saying what? That he could not marry me! No indeed! But that +under certain circumstances I would not marry him. You don't +suppose that I think he would be disgraced? If so I would go away +at once, and he should never again see my face or hear my voice. I +think myself good enough for the best man God every made. But if +others think differently, and those others are closely concerned +with him and would be so closely concerned with me, as to trouble +our joint lives;--then will I neither subject him to such sorrow +nor will I encounter it myself.' + +'It all comes from what you call aristocracy.' + +'No, dear;--but from the prejudices of an aristocracy. To tell the +truth, Mary, the most difficult a place is to get into, the more +right of going in is valued. If everybody could be a Duchess and a +Palliser, I should not perhaps think so much about it.' + +'I thought it was because you loved him.' + +'So I do. I love him entirely. I have said not a word of that to +him;--but I do, if I know at all what love is. But if you love a +star, the pride you have in your star will enhance your love. +Though you know that you must die of your love, still you must +love your star.' + +And yet Mary could not tell her tale in return. She could not show +the reverse picture:--that she being a star was anxious to dispose +of herself after the fashion of poor human rushlights. It was not +that she was ashamed of her love, but that she could not bring +herself to yield altogether in reference to the great descent +which Silverbridge would have to make. + +On the day after this,--the last day of the Duke's sojourn at +Custins, the last also of the Boncassen's visit,--it came to pass +that the Duke and Mr Boncassen with Lady Mary and Isabel, were all +walking in the woods together. And it so happened when they were +at a little distance from the house, each of the girls was waling +with the other girl's father. Isabel had calculated what she would +say to the Duke should a time for speaking come to her. She could +not tell him of his son's love. She could not ask his permission. +She could not explain to him all her feelings, or tell him what +she thought of her proper way of getting into heaven. That must +come afterwards if it should ever come at all. But there was +something that she could tell. 'We are different from you,' she +said, speaking of her own country. + +'And yet so like,' said the Duke, smiling;--'your language, your +laws, your habits!' + +'But still there is such a difference! I do not think there is a +man in the whole union more respected that father.' + +'I dare say not.' + +'Many people think that if he would only allow himself to be put +in nomination, he might be the next president.' + +'The choice, I am sure, would to your country honour.' + +'And yet his father was a poor labourer who earned his bread among +the shipping at New York. That kind of thing would be impossible +here.' + +'My dear young lady, there you wrong us.' + +'Do I?' + +'Certainly! A Prime Minister with us might as easily come from +the same class.' + +'Here you think so much of rank. You are--a Duke.' + +'But a Prime Minister can make a Duke, and if a man can raise +himself by his own intellect to that position, no one will think +of his father or his grandfather. The sons of merchants have with +us been Prime Ministers more than once, and no Englishman ever +were more honoured among their countrymen. Our peerage is being +continually recruited from the ranks of the people, and hence it +gets its strength.' + +'Is it so?' + +'There is no greater mistake than to suppose that inferiority of +birth is a barrier to success in this country.' She listened to +this and to much more on the same subject with attentive ears--not +shaken in her ideas as to the English aristocracy in general, but +thinking that she was perhaps learning something of his own +individual opinion. If he were more liberal than others, on that +liberality might perhaps be based her own happiness and fortune. + +He in all this was quite unconscious of the working of her mind. +Nor in discussing such matters generally did he ever mingle his +own private feelings, his own pride of race and name, his own +ideas of what was due to his ancient rank with the political creed +by which his conduct was governed. The peer who sat next to him +in the House of Lords, whose grandmother had been a washerwoman +and whose father an innkeeper, was to him every whit as good a +peer as himself. And he would as soon sit in counsel with Mr Monk, +whose father had risen from a mechanic to be a merchant, as with +any nobleman who could count ancestors against himself. But there +was an inner feeling in his bosom as to his own family, his own +name, his own children, and his own personal self, which was kept +altogether apart from his grand political theories. It was a +subject on which he never spoke; but the feeling had come to him +as a part of his birthright. And he conceived that it would pass +through him to his children after the same fashion. It was this +which made the idea of a marriage between his daughter and Tregear +intolerable to him, and which would operate as strongly in regard +to any marriage which his son might contemplate. Lord Grex was not +a man with whom he would wish to form any intimacy. He was, we may +say, a wretched unprincipled old man, bad all round; and such the +Duke knew him to be. But the blue blood and the rank were there, +and as the girl was good herself he would have been quite +contented that his son should marry the daughter of Lord Grex. +That one and the same man should have been in one part of himself +so unlike the other part,--that he should have one set of opinions +so contrary to another set,--poor Isabel Boncassen did not +understand. + + + +CHAPTER 49 + +The Major's Fate + +The affair of Prime Minister and the nail was not allowed to fade +away into obscurity. Through September and October it was made +matter for pungent inquiry. The Jockey Club was alive. Mr Pook was +very instant,--with many Pookites anxious to free themselves from +suspicion. Sporting men declared that the honour of the turf +required that every detail of the case should be laid open. But by +the end of October, though every detail had been surmised, nothing +had in truth been discovered. Nobody doubted but that Tifto had +driven the nail into the horse's foot, and that Green and Gilbert +Villiers had shared the bulk of the plunder. They had gone off on +their travels together, and the fact that each of them had been in +possession of about twenty thousand pounds was proved. But then +there is no law against two gentlemen having such a sum of money. +It was notorious that Captain Green and Mr Gilbert Villiers had +enriched themselves to this extent by the failure of Prime +Minister. But yet nothing was proved! + +That the Major had either himself driven the nail or seen it done, +all racing men were agreed. He had been out with the horse in the +morning and had been the first to declare that the animal was +lame. And he had been with the horse till the farrier had come. +But he had concocted a story for himself. He did not dispute that +the horse had been lamed by the machinations of Green and +Villiers,--with the assistance of the groom. No doubt he said, +these men, who had been afraid to face an inquiry, had contrived +and had carried out the iniquity. How the lameness had been caused +he could not pretend to say. The groom who was at the horse's +head, and who evidently knew how these things were done, might +have struck a nerve in the horse's foot with his boot. But when +the horse was got into the stable, he, Tifto,--so he declared,--at +once ran out to send for the farrier. During the minutes so +occupied, the operation must have been made with the nail. That +was Tifto's story,--and as he kept his ground, there were some few +who believed it. + +But though the story was so far good, he had at moments been +imprudent, and had talked when he should have been silent. The +whole matter had been a torment to him. In the first place his +conscience made him miserable. As long as it had been possible to +prevent the evil he had hoped to make a clean breast of it to Lord +Silverbridge. Up to this period of his life everything had been +'square' with him. He had betted 'square', and had ridden +'square', and had run horses 'square'. He had taken a pride in +this, as though it had been a great virtue. It was not without +great inward grief that he had deprived himself of the +consolations of those reflections! But when he had approached his +noble partner, his noble partner snubbed him at every turn,--and he +did the deed. + +His reward was to be three thousand pounds,--and he got his money. +The money was very much to him,--would perhaps have been almost +enough to comfort him in his misery, had not those other rascals +got so much more. When he heard that the groom's fee was higher +than his own, it almost broke his heart. Green and Villiers, men +of infinitely lower standing,--men at whom the Beargarden would not +have looked,--had absolutely netted fortunes on which they could +live in comfort. No doubt they had run away while Tifto still +stood his ground,--but he soon began to doubt whether to have run +away with twenty thousand pounds was not better than to remain +with such small plunder as had fallen to his lot, among such faces +as those which now looked upon him! Then when he had drunk a few +glasses of whisky-and-water, he said something very foolish as to +his power of punishing that swindler Green. + +An attempt had been made to induce Silverbridge to delay the +payment of his bets;--but he had been very eager that they should +be paid. Under the joint auspices of Mr Lupton and Mr Moreton the +horses were sold, and the establishment was annihilated,--with +considerable loss, but with great despatch. The Duke had been +urgent. The Jockey Club, and the racing world, and the horsey +fraternity generally, might do what seemed to them good,--so that +Silverbridge was extricated from the matter. Silverbridge was +extricated,--and the Duke cared nothing for the rest. + +But Silverbridge could not get out of the mess quite so easily as +his father wished. Two questions arose about Major Tifto, outside +the racing world, but within the domain of the world of sport and +pleasure generally, as to one of which it was impossible that +Silverbridge should not express an opinion. The first question had +reference to the mastership of the Runnymede hounds. In this our +young friend was not bound to concern himself. The other affected +the Beargarden Club; and as Lord Silverbridge had introduced the +Major, he could hardly forbear from the expression of an opinion. + +There was a meeting of the subscribers to the hunt in the last +week of October. At that meeting Major Tifto told his story. There +he was, to answer any charge which might be brought against him. +If he had made money by losing the race,--where was it and whence +had it come? Was it not clear that a conspiracy might have been +made without his knowledge;--and clear also that the real +conspirators had levanted? He had not levanted! The hounds were +his own. He had undertaken to hunt the country for this season, +and they had undertaken to pay him a certain sum of money. He +should expect and demand that sum of money. If they chose to make +any other arrangement for the year following they could do so. +then he sat down and the meeting was adjourned,--the secretary +having declared that he would not act in that capacity any longer, +nor collect the funds. A farmer had also asserted that he and his +friends had resolved that Major Tifto should not ride over their +fields. On the next day the Major had his hounds out, and some of +the London men, with a few of the neighbours, joined him. Gates +were locked, but the hounds ran, and those who chose to ride +managed to follow them. There are men who will stick to their +sport though Apollyon himself should carry the horn. Who cares +whether the lady who fills a theatre be or be not a moral young +woman, or whether the bandmaster who keeps such excellent time in +a ball has or has not paid is debts? There were men of this sort +who supported Major Tifto;--but then there was a general opinion +that the Runnymede hunt would come to an end unless a new master +could be found. + +Then in the first week of November a special meeting was called at +the Beargarden, at which Lord Silverbridge was asked to attend. +'It is impossible that he should be allowed to remain in the +club.' This was said to Lord Silverbridge by Mr Lupton. 'Either +he must go or the club must be broken up.' + +Silverbridge was very unhappy on the occasion. He had at last been +reasoned into believing that the horse had been the victim of foul +play; but he persisted in saying that there was no conclusive +evidence against Tifto. The matter was argued with him. Tifto had +laid bets against the horse; Tifto had been hand and glove with +Green; Tifto could not have been absent from the horse above two +minutes; the thing could not have been arranged without Tifto. As +he had brought Tifto into the club, and had been his partner on +the turf, it was his business to look into the matter. 'But for +all that,' said he, 'I'm not going to jump on a man when he's +down, unless I feel sure that he is guilty.' + +Then the meeting was held, and Tifto himself appeared. When the +accusation was made by Mr Lupton, who proposed that he should be +expelled, he burst into tears. The whole story was repeated,--the +nail, the hammer, and the lameness; and the moments were counted +up, and poor Tifto's bets and friendship with Green were made +apparent,--and the case was submitted to the club. An old gentleman +who had been connected with the turf all his life, and who would +not have scrupled, by square betting, to rob his dearest friend of +his last shilling, seconded the proposition,--telling all the story +over again. Then Major Tifto was asked whether he wished to say +anything. + +'I've got to say that I'm here,' said Tifto, still crying, 'and if +I'd done anything of that kind, of course I'd have gone with the +rest of 'em. I put it to Lord Silverbridge to say whether I'm that +sort of fellow.' Then he sat down. + +Upon this there was a pause, and the club was manifestly of the +opinion that Lord Silverbridge ought to say something. 'I think +that Major Tifto should not have betted against the horse,' said +Silverbridge. + +'I can explain that,' said the Major. 'Let me explain that. +Everybody knows that I'm a man of small means. I wanted to 'edge, +I only wanted to 'edge.' + +Mr Lupton shook his head. 'Why have you not shown me your book?' + +'I told you before that it was stolen. Green got hold of it. I did +win a little. I never said I didn't. But what has that to do with +hammering a nail into a horse's foot? I have always been true to +you Lord Silverbridge, and you ought to stick up for me now.' + +'I will have nothing further to do with the matter,' said +Silverbridge, 'one way or the other,' and he walked out of the +room,--and out of the club. The affair was ended by a magnanimous +declaration on the part of declaration on the part of the Major +that he would not remain in a club in which he was suspected, and +by a consent on the part of the meeting to receive the Major's +instant resignation. + + + +CHAPTER 50 + +The Duke's Arguments + +The Duke before he left Custins had an interview with Lady +Cantrip, at which that lady found herself called upon to speak her +mind freely. 'I don't think she cares about Lord Popplecourt,' +Lady Cantrip said. + +'I am sure I don't know why she should,' said the Duke, who was +often very aggravating even to his friend. + +'But as we had thought--' + +'She ought to do as she is told,' said the Duke, remembering how +obedient Glencora had been. 'Has he spoken to her?' + +'I think not.' + +'Then how can we tell?' + +'I asked her to see him, but she expressed so much dislike that I +could not press it. I am afraid, Duke, that you will find it +difficult to deal with her.' + +'I have found it very difficult!' + +'As you have trusted me so much--' + +'Yes;--I have trusted you, and do trust you. I hope you understand +that I appreciate your kindness.' + +'Perhaps then you will let me say what I think.' + +'Certainly, Lady Cantrip.' + +'Mary is a very peculiar girl,--with great gifts,--but--' + +'But what?' + +'She is obstinate. Perhaps it would be fairer to say that she has +great firmness of character. It is within your power to separate +her from Mr Tregear. It would be foreign to her character to--to-- +leave you, except with your approbation.' + +'You mean, she will not run away.' + +'She will do nothing without your permission. But she will remain +unmarried unless she be allowed to marry Mr Tregear.' + +'What do you advise then?' + +'That you should yield. As regards money, you could give them what +they want. Let him go into public life. You could manage that for +him.' + +'He is Conservative!' + +'What does that matter when the question is one of your daughter's +happiness? Everybody tells me that he is clever and well +conducted.' + +He betrayed nothing by his face as this was said to him. But as he +got into the carriage he was a miserable man. It is very well to +tell a man that he should yield, but there is nothing so wretched +to a man as yielding. Young people and women have to yield,--bur +for such a man as this, to yield is in itself a misery. In this +matter the Duke was quite certain of the propriety of his +judgement. To yield would be not only to mortify himself; but to +do wrong at the same time. He had convinced himself that the +Popplecourt arrangement would come to nothing. Nor had he or Lady +Cantrip combined been able to exercise over her the sort of power +to which Lady Glencora had been subjected. If he had persevered,-- +and he was still sure, almost sure, that he would persevere,--his +object must be achieved after a different fashion. There must be +infinite suffering,--suffering both to him and to her. Could she +have been made to consent to marry someone else, terrible as the +rupture might have been, she would have reconciled herself at last +to her new life. So it had been with Glencora,--after a time. Now +the misery must go on from day to day beneath his eyes, with the +knowledge on his part that he was crushing all the joy out of her +young life, and the conviction on her part that she was being +treated with continued cruelty by her father! It was a terrible +prospect! But if it was manifestly his duty to act after this +fashion, must he not do his duty? + +If he were to find that by persevering in this course he would +doom her to death, or perchance to madness,--what then? If it were +right, he must still do it. He must still do it, if the weakness +incident to his human nature did not rob him of the necessary +firmness. If every foolish girl were indulged, all restraint would +be lost, and there would be an end to those rules as to birth and +position by which he thought his world was kept straight. And +then, mixed with all this, was his feeling of the young man's +arrogance in looking for such a match. Here was a man without a +shilling, whose manifest duty was to go to work so that he might +earn his bread, who instead of doing so, he hoped to raise himself +to wealth and position by entrapping the heart of an unwary girl! + There was something to the Duke's thinking base in this, and much +more base because the unwary girl was his own daughter. That such +a man as Tregear should make an attack upon him and select his +rank, his wealth, and his child as the stepping-stones by which he +intended to rise! What could be so mean as that a man should seek +to live by looking out for a wife with money? But what so +impudent, so arrogant, so unblushingly disregardful of propriety, +as that he should endeavour to select his victim from such a +family as the Pallisers, and that he should lay his impious hand +on the very daughter of the Duke of Omnium? + +But together with all this came upon him his moments of ineffable +tenderness. He felt as though he longed to take her in his arms +and tell her, that if she were unhappy, so would he be unhappy +too,--to make her understand that a hard necessity had made his +sorrow common to them both. He thought that, if she would only +allow it, he could speak of her love as a calamity which had +befallen them, as from the hand of fate, and not as a fault. If he +could make a partnership in misery with her, so that each might +believe that each was acting for the best, then he could endure +all that might come. But, as he was well aware, she regarded him +as being simply cruel to her. She did not understand that he was +performing an imperative duty. She had set her heart upon a +certain object, and having taught herself that in that way +happiness might be reached, had no conception that there should be +something in the world, some idea of personal dignity, more +valuable to her than the fruition of her own desires! And yet +every word he spoke to her was affectionate. He knew that she was +bruised, and if it might be possible he would pour oil into her +wounds,--even though she would not recognise the hand which +relieved her. + +They slept one night in town--where they encountered Silverbridge +soon after his retreat from the Beargarden. 'I cannot quite make +up my mind, sir, about that fellow Tifto,' he said to his father. + +'I hope you have made up your mind that he is not fit companion +for yourself.' + +'That's over. Everybody understands that, sir.' + +'Is anything more necessary?' + +'I don't like feeling that he has been ill-used. They have made +him resign the club, and I fancy they won't have him at the hunt.' + +'He has lost no money by you!' + +'Oh no.' + +'Then I think you may be indifferent. From all that I hear I think +he must have won money,--which will probably be a consolation to +him.' + +'I think they have been hard upon him,' continued Silverbridge. +'Of course he is not a good man, nor a gentleman, nor possessed of +very high feelings. But a man is not to be sacrificed altogether +for that. There are so many men who are not gentlemen, and so many +gentlemen who are bad fellows.' + +'I have no doubt Mr Lupton knew what he was about,' replied the +Duke. + +On the next morning the Duke and Lady Mary went down to Matching, +and as they sat together in the carriage after leaving the railway +the father endeavoured to make himself pleasant to his daughter. +'I suppose we shall stay at Matching till Christmas,' he said. + +'I hope so.' + +'Whom would you like to have here?' + +'I don't want anyone, papa.' + +'You will be very sad without somebody. Would you like the Finns?' + +'If you please, papa. I like her. He never talks anything but +politics.' + +'He is none the worse for that, Mary. I wonder whether Lady Mabel +Grex would come.' + +'Lady Mabel Grex!' + +'Do you not like her?' + +'Oh yes;--but what made you think of her, papa?' + +'Perhaps Silverbridge would come to us then.' + +Lady Mary thought that she knew a great deal more about that than +her father did. 'Is he fond of Lady Mabel, papa?' + +'Well,--I don't know. There are secrets which should not be told. I +think they are very good friends. I would not have her asked +unless it would please you.' + +'I like her very much, papa.' + +'And perhaps we might get the Boncassens to come to us. I did say +a word to him about it.' Now, as Mary felt, difficulty was +heaping itself upon difficulty. 'I have seldom met a man in whose +company I could take more pleasure than in that Mr Boncassen; and +the young lady seems to be worthy of her father.' Mary was +silent, feeling the complication of the difficulties. 'Do you not +like her?' asked the Duke. + +'Very much indeed,' said Mary. + +'Then let us fix a day and ask them. If you will come to me after +dinner with an almanac we will arrange it. Of course you will +invite Miss Cassewary too?' + +The complication seemed to be very bad indeed. In the first place +was it not clear that she, Lady Mary, ought not to be a party to +asking Miss Boncassen to meet her brother at Matching? Would it +not be imperative on her part to tell her father the whole story? +And yet how could she do that? It had been told to her in +confidence, and she remembered what her own feelings had been when +Mrs Finn had suggested the propriety of telling the story which +had been told to her! And how would it be possible to ask Lady +Mabel to come to Matching to meet Miss Boncassen in the presence +of Silverbridge! If the party could be made up without +Silverbridge things might run smoothly. + +As she was thinking of this in her own room, thinking also how +happy she could be if one other name could be added to the list of +guests, the Duke had gone alone into his library. There a pile of +letters reached him, among which he found one marked 'Private', +and addressed in a hand which he did not recognise. This he opened +suddenly,--with a conviction that it would contain a thorn,--and, +turning over the page found the signature to be 'Francis Tregear'. +The man's name was wormwood to him. He at once felt that he would +wish to have his dinner, his fragment brought to him in that +solitary room, and that he might remain secluded for the rest of +the evening. But still he must read the letter,--and he read it. + +'MY DEAR LORD DUKE, + +'If my mode of addressing your Grace be too familiar I hope you +will excuse it. It seems to me that if I were to use one more +distant, I should myself be detracting something from my right to +make the claim which I intend to put forward. You know what my +feelings are in reference to your daughter. I do not pretend to +suppose that they should have the least weight with you. But you +know also what her feelings are for me. A man seems to be vain +when he expresses his conviction of a woman's love for himself. +But this matter is so important to her as well as to me that I am +compelled to lay aside all pretence. If she do not love me as I +love her, then the whole thing drops to the ground. Then it will +be for me to take myself off from out of your notice,--and from +hers, and to keep to myself whatever heart-breaking I may have to +undergo. But if she be as steadfast in this matter as I am,--if her +happiness be fixed on marrying me as mine to marrying her,--then, I +think, I am entitled to ask you whether you are justified in +keeping us apart. + +'I know well what are the discrepancies. Speaking from my own +feeling I regard very little those of rank. I believe myself to be +as good a gentleman as though my father's forefathers had sat for +centuries past in the House of Lords. I believe that you would +have thought so also had you and I been brought in contact on any +other subject. The discrepancy with regard to money is, I own, a +great trouble to me. Having no wealth of my own I wish that your +daughter were so circumstanced that I could go out into the world +and earn bread for her. I know myself so well that I dare say +positively that her money,--if it be that she will have money,--had +no attractions for me when I first became acquainted with her and +adds nothing now to the persistency with which I claim her hand. + +'But I venture to ask whether you can dare to keep us apart if her +happiness depends on her lover for me? It is now more than six +months since I called upon you in London and explained my wishes. +You will understand me when I say that I cannot be contented to +sit idle, trusting simply to the assurance I have of her +affection. Did I doubt it, my way would be more clear. I should +feel in that case that she would yield to your wishes, and I +should then, as I have said before, just take myself out of the +way. But if it be not so, then I am bound to do something,--on her +behalf as well as my own. What am I to do? Any endeavours to meet +her clandestinely is against my instincts, and would certainly be +rejected by her. A secret correspondence would be equally +distasteful to both of us. Whatever I do in this matter, I wish +you to know that I do it. + +'Yours always, +'Most faithfully, and with the deepest respect,' +'FRANCIS TREGEAR.' + +He read the letter very carefully, and was at first simply +astonished by what he considered to be the unparalleled arrogance +of the young man. In regard to rank this young gentleman thought +himself to be as good as anybody else! In regard to money he did +acknowledge some inferiority. But that was a misfortune, and could +not be helped! Not only was the letter arrogant,--but the fact +that he should dare to write any letter on such a subject was +proof of most unpardonable arrogance. The Duke walked about the +room thinking of it till he was almost in a passion. Then he read +the letter again and was gradually pervaded by a feeling of +manliness. Its arrogance remained, but with its arrogance there +was a certain boldness which induced respect. Whether I am such a +son-in-law as you would like or not, it is your duty to accept me, +if by refusing to do so you will render your daughter miserable. +That was Mr Tregear's argument. He himself might be prepared to +argue in answer that it was his duty to reject such a son-in-law, +even though by rejecting him he might make his daughter miserable. +He was not shaken; but with his condemnation of the young man +there was mingled something of respect. + +He continued to digest the letter before the hour of dinner, and +when the almanac was brought to him he fixed on certain days. The +Boncassens he knew would be free from engagements in ten days' +time. As to Lady Mabel, he seemed to think it almost certain that +she would come. 'I believe she is always going about from one +house to another at this time of the year,' said Mary. + +'I think she will come to us if it be possible,' said the Duke. +'And you must write to Silverbridge.' + +'And what about Mr and Mrs Finn?' + +'She promised she would come again, you know. They are at their +own place in Surrey. They will come unless they have friends with +them. They have no shooting, and nothing brings people together +now except shooting. I suppose there are better things here to be +shot. And be sure you write to Silverbridge.' + + + +CHAPTER 51 + +The Duke's Guests + +'The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to Mr Francis +Tregear, and begs to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Tregear's +letter of-. The Duke has no other communication to make to Mr +Tregear, and must beg to decline any further correspondence.' +This was the reply which the Duke wrote to the applicant for his +daughter's hand. And he wrote it at once. He had acknowledged to +himself that Tregear had shown a certain manliness in his appeal; +but not on that account was such a man to have all that he +demanded! It seemed to the Duke that there was no alternative +between such a note as that given above and a total surrender. + +But the post did not go out during the night, and the note lay +hidden in the Duke's private drawer till the morning. There was +still that 'locus poenitentiae' which should be accorded to all +letters written in anger. During the day he thought over it all +constantly, not in any spirit of yielding, not descending a single +step from that attitude of conviction which made him feel that it +might be his duty absolutely to sacrifice his daughter,--but asking +himself whether it might not be better to explain the whole matter +at length to the young man. He thought that he could put the +matter strongly. It was not by his own doing that he belonged to +an aristocracy which, if all exclusiveness were banished from it, +must cease to exist. But being what he was, having been born to +such privileges and such limitations, was he not bound in duty to +maintain a certain exclusiveness? He would appeal to the young man +himself to say whether marriage ought to be free between all +classes of the community. And if not between all, who was to +maintain the limits but they to whom authority in such matters is +given? So much in regard to rank! And then he would ask this +young man whether he thought it fitting that a young man whose +duty according to all known principles it must be to earn bread, +should avoid that manifest duty by taking a wife who could +maintain him. As he roamed about his park alone he felt that he +could write such a letter as would make an impression even upon a +lover. But when he had come back to his study, other reflections +came to his aid. Though he might write the most appropriate letter +in the world, would there not certainly be a reply? As to +conviction, had he ever known an instance of a man who had been +convinced by an adversary? Of course there would be a reply,--and +replies. And to such a correspondence there would no visible end. +Words when once written, remain, or may remain, in testimony for +ever. So at last when the moment came he sent off those three +lines, with his uncourteous compliments and his demand that there +should be no further correspondence. + +At dinner he endeavoured to make up for his harshness by increased +tenderness to his daughter, who was altogether ignorant of the +correspondence. 'Have you written your letters, dear?' She said +she had written them. 'Have you written your letters, dear?' She +said she had written them. + +'I hope the people will come.' + +'If it will make you comfortable, papa!' + +'It is for your sake I wish them to be here. I think that Lady +Mabel and Miss Boncassen are just such girls as you would like.' + +'I do like them; only--' + +'Only what?' + +'Miss Boncassen is an American.' + +'Is that an objection? According to my ideas it is desirable to +become acquainted with persons of various nations. I have heard, +no doubt, many stories of the awkward manners displayed by +American ladies. If you look for them you may probably find +American women who are not polished. I do not think I shall +calumniate my own country if I say the same of English women. It +should be our object to select for our own acquaintance the best +we can find of all countries. It seems to me that Miss Boncassen +is a young lady with whom any other young lady might be glad to +form an acquaintance.' + +This was a little sermon which Mary was quite contented to endure +in silence. She was, in truth, fond of the young American beauty, +and had felt a pleasure in the intimacy which the girl had +proposed to her. But she thought it inexpedient that Miss +Boncassen, Lady Mabel, and Silverbridge, should be at Matching +together. Therefore she made a reply to her father's sermon which +hardly seemed to go to the point at issue. 'She is so beautiful!' +she said. + +'Very beautiful,' said the Duke. 'But what has that to do with it? +My girl need not be jealous of any girl's beauty.' Mary laughed +and shook her head. 'What is it then?' + +'Perhaps Silverbridge might admire her.' + +'I have no doubt he would,--or does, for I am aware that they have +met. But why should he not admire her?' + +'I don't know,' said Lady Mary sheepishly. + +'I fancy there is no danger in that direction. I think +Silverbridge understands what is expected from him.' Had not +Silverbridge plainly shown that he had understood what was +expected from him when he selected Lady Mabel? Nothing could have +been more proper, and the Duke had been altogether satisfied. That +in such a matter there should have been a change in so short a +time did not occur to him. Poor Mary was now completely silenced. +She had been told that Silverbridge understood what was expected +from him; and of course could not fail to carry home to herself an +accusation that she failed to understand what was expected from +her. + +She had written her letters, but had not yet sent them. Those to +Mrs Finn and the two younger ladies had been easy enough. Could Mr +and Mrs Finn come to Matching on the twentieth of November? 'Papa +says that you promised to return, and thinks this time will +perhaps suit you.' And then to Lady Mabel: 'Do come if you can; +and papa particularly says that he hopes Miss Cassewary will come +also.' To Miss Boncassen she had written a long letter, but that +too had been written very easily. 'I write to you instead of your +mamma because I know you. You must tell her that, and then she +will not be angry. I am only papa's messenger, and I am to say how +much he hopes that you will come on the twentieth. Mr Boncassen is +to bring the whole British Museum if he wishes.' Then there was a +little postscript which showed that there was already considerable +intimacy between the two young ladies: 'We won't have either Mr L +or Lord P.' Not a word was said about Lord Silverbridge. There +was not even an initial to indicate his name. + +But the letter to her brother was more difficult. In her epistles +to those others she had so framed her words as if possible to +bring them to Matching. But in writing to her brother, she was +anxious to write as to deter him from coming. She was bound to +obey her father's commands. He had desired that Silverbridge +should be asked to come,--and he was asked to come. But she +craftily endeavoured to word the invitation that he should be +induced to remain away. 'It is all papa's doing,' she said; 'and I +am glad that he should like to have people here. I have asked the +Finns with whom papa seems to have made up everything. Mr +Warburton will be here of course, and I think Mr Moreton is +coming. He seems to think that a certain amount of shooting ought +to be done. Then I have invited Lady Mabel Grex and Miss +Cassewary,--all of course of papa's choosing, and the Boncassens. +Now you will know whether the set will suit you. Papa particularly +begged that you will come,--apparently because of Lady Mabel. I +don't know what all that means. Perhaps you do. As I like Lady +Mabel, I hope she will come.' Surely Silverbridge would not run +himself into the jaws of the lion. When he heard that he was +specially expected by his father to come to Matching in order that +he might make himself agreeable to one young lady, he would hardly +venture to come, seeing that he would be bound to make love to +another young lady! + +To Mary's great horror, all the invitations were accepted. Mr and +Mrs Finn were quite at the Duke's disposal. That she had expected. +The Boncassens would all come. This was signified by a note from +Isabel, which covered four sides of the paper and was full of fun. +But under her signature had been written a few words,--not in fun,-- +words which Lady Mary perfectly understood. 'I wonder, I wonder, I +wonder!' Did the Duke when inviting her know anything of his +son's inclinations? Would he be made to know them now, during +this visit? And what would he say when he did know them?' + +That the Boncassens would come as a matter of course; but Mary had +thought that Lady Mabel would refuse. She had told Lady Mabel that +the Boncassens had been asked, and to her thinking it had not been +improbable that the young lady would be unwilling to meet her +rival at Matching. But the invitation was accepted. + +But it was her brother's ready acquiescence which trouble Mary +chiefly. He wrote as though there was no doubt about the matter. +'Of course there is s deal of shooting to be done,' he said, 'and +I consider myself bound to look after it. There ought not to be +less than four guns,--particularly if Warburton is to be one of +them. I like Warburton very much, but I think he shoots badly to +ingratiate himself with the governor. I wonder whether the +governor would get leave for Gerald for a week. He has been +sticking to his work like a brick. If not, would he mind my +bringing someone? You ask the governor and let me know. I'll be +there on the twentieth. I wonder whether they'll let me hear what +goes on among them about politics? I'm sure there is not one of +them hates Sir Timothy worse than I do. Lady Mab is a brick, and +I'm glad you have asked her. I don't think she'll come, as she +likes shutting herself up at Grex. Miss Boncassen is another +brick. And if you can manage about Gerald I will say you are a +third.' + +This would have been all very well had she not know that secret. +Could it be that Miss Boncassen had been mistaken? She was forced +to write again to say that her father did not think it right that +Gerald should be brought away from his studies for the sake of +shooting, and that the necessary fourth gun would be there in the +person of Barrington Erle. Then she added: 'Lady Mabel Grex is +coming, and so is Miss Boncassen.' But to this she received no +reply. + +Though Silverbridge had written to his sister in his usual +careless style, he had considered the matter much. The three +months were over. He had no idea of any hesitation on his part. He +had asked her to be his wife, and he was determined to go on with +his suit. Had he ever been enabled to make the same request to +Mabel Grex, or had she answered him when he did half make it in a +serious manner, he would have been true to her. He had not told +his father, or his sister, or his friends, as Isabel had +suggested. He would not do so till he should have received some +more certain answer from her. But in respect to his love he was +prepared to be as quite as obstinate as his sister. It was a +matter for his own consideration, and he would choose for himself. +The three months were over, and it was now his business to present +himself to the lady again. + +That Lady Mabel should also be at Matching, would certainly be a +misfortune. He thought it probable that she, knowing that Isabel +Boncassen and he would be there together, would refuse the +invitation. Surely she ought to do so. That was his opinion when +he wrote to his sister. When he heard afterwards that she intended +to be there, he could only suppose that she was prepared to accept +the circumstances as they stood. + + + +CHAPTER 52 + +Miss Boncassen Tells the Truth + +On the twentieth of the month all the guests came rattling in at +Matching one after the another. The Boncassens were the first, but +Lady Mabel with Miss Cassewary followed them quickly. Then came +the Finns, and with them Barrington Erle. Lord Silverbridge was +the last. He arrived by a train which reached the station at 7pm, +and only entered the house as his father was asking Miss Boncassen +into the dining-room. He dressed himself in ten minutes, and +joined the party as the had finished their fish. I am awfully +sorry,' he said, rushing up to his father, 'but I thought that I +should just hit it.' + +'There is no occasion for awe,' said the Duke,' as sufficiency of +dinner is left. But how you should have hit it, as you say,--seeing +that the train is not due at Bridstock till 7.5 I do not know.' + +'I've often done it, sir,' said Silverbridge, taking the seat left +vacant for him next to Lady Mabel. 'We've had a political caucus +of the party,--all the members who could be got together in +London,--at Sir Timothy's, and I was bound to attend.' + +'We've all heard of that,' said Phineas Finn. + +'And we pretty well know all the points of Sir Timothy's +eloquence,' said Barrington Erle. + +'I am not going to tell any of the secrets. I have no doubt that +there were reporters present, and you will see the whole of it in +the papers tomorrow.' Then Silverbridge turned to his neighbour. +'Well, Lady Mab, and how are you this long time?' + +'But how are you? Think what you have gone through since we were +at Killancodlem!' + +'Don't talk of it.' + +'I suppose it is not to be talked of.' + +'Though upon the whole it has happened very luckily, I have got +rid of the accursed horses, and my governor has shown what a brick +he can be. I don't think there is another man in England who would +have done as he did.' + +'There are not many who could.' + +'There are fewer who would. When they came into my bedroom that +morning and told me that the horse could not run, I thought I +should have broken my heart. Seventy thousand pounds gone!' + +'Seventy thousand pounds!' + +'And the honour and glory of winning the race! And then the +feeling that one had been so awfully swindled! Of course I had to +look as though I did not care a straw about it, and to go and see +the race, with a jaunty air and a cigar in my mouth. That is what +I call hard work.' + +'But you did it!' + +'I tried. I wish I could explain to you my state of mind that day. +In the first place the money had got to be got. Though it was to +go into the hands of swindlers, still it had to be paid. I don't +know how your father and Percival get on together,--but I felt like +the prodigal son.' + +'It is very different with papa.' + +'I suppose so. I felt very like hanging myself when I was alone +that evening. And now everything is right again.' + +'I am glad that everything is right,' she said, with a strong +emphasis on everything. + +'I have done with racing at any rate. The feeling of being in the +power of a lot of low blackguards is so terrible! I did love the +poor brute so dearly. And now what have you been doing?' + +'Just nothing;--and have seen nobody. I went back to Grex after +leaving Killancodlem, and shut myself up in misery.' + +'Why misery?' + +'Why misery! What a question for you to ask! Though I love Grex, I +am not altogether fond of living alone, and though Grex has its +charms, they are of a melancholy kind. And when I think of the +state of our family affairs, that is not reassuring. You father +has just paid seventy thousand pounds for you. My father has been +good enough to take something of less than a quarter of that sum +from me;--but still it was all that I was ever to have.' + +'Girls don't want money.' + +'Don't they? When I look forward it seems to me that a time will +come when I shall want it very much.' + +'You will marry,' he said. She turned round for a moment and +looked at him, full in the face, after a fashion that he did not +dare to promise her future comfort in that direction. 'Things +always do come right, somehow.' + +'Let us hope so. Only nothing has ever come right for me yet. +What is Frank doing?' + +'I haven't seen him since he left Crummie-Toddle.' + +'And your sister?' she whispered. + +'I know nothing about it at all.' + +'And you? I have told you everything about myself.' + +'As for me, I think of nothing but politics now. I have told you +about my racing experiences. Just at present shooting is up. +Before Christmas I shall go into Chiltern's country for a little +hunting.' + +'You can hunt here?' + +'I shan't stay long enough to make it worth while to have my +horses down. If Tregear will go with me to the Brake, I can mount +him for a day or two. But I daresay you know more of his plans +that I do. He went to see you at Grex.' + +'And you did not.' + +'I was not asked.' + +'Nor was he.' + +'Then all I can say is,' replied Silverbridge, speaking in a low +voice, but with considerable energy, 'that he can use a freedom +with Lady Mabel Grex which I cannot venture.' + +'I believe you begrudge me his friendship. If you had no one else +belonging to you with whom you could have sympathy, would not you +find comfort in a relation who could be almost as near to you as a +brother?' + +'I do not grudge him to you.' + +'Yes; you do. And what business have to you interfere?' + +'None at all;--certainly. I will never do it again.' + +'Don't say that, Lord Silverbridge. You ought to have more mercy +on me. You ought to put up with anything from me,--knowing how much +I suffer.' + +'I will put up with anything,' said he. + +'Do, do. And now I will try to talk to Mr Erle.' + +Miss Boncassen was sitting on the other side of the table, between +Mr Monk and Phineas Finn, and throughout the dinner talked mock +politics with the greatest liveliness. Silverbridge when he +entered the room had gone round the table and shaken hands with +everyone. But there had no other greeting between him and Isabel, +nor had any sign passed from one to the other. No such greeting or +sign had been possible. Nothing had been left undone which she had +expected, or hoped. But, though she was lively, nevertheless she +kept her eye upon her lover and Lady Mabel. Lady Mary had said +that she thought her brother was in love with Lady Mabel. Could it +be possible? In her own land she had heard absurd stories, +stories which had seemed to her to be absurd,--of the treachery of +Lords and Countesses, of the baseness of aristocrats, of the +iniquities of high life in London. But her father had told her to +go where she might, she would find people in the main to be very +like each other. It had seemed that nothing could be more +ingenuous than this young man had been in his declaration of his +love. No simplest republican could have spoken more plainly. But +now, at this moment, she could doubt but that her lover was very +intimate with this other girl. Of course he was free. When she had +refused to say a word to him of her own love or want of love, she +had necessarily left him at liberty. When she had put him off for +three months, of course he was to be his own master. But what must +she think of him if it were so? And how could he have the courage +to face her in her father's house if he intended to treat her in +such a fashion? But of all this she showed nothing, nor was there +a tone in her voice which betrayed her. She said her last word to +Mr Monk with so sweet a smile that that old bachelor wished he +were younger for her sake. + +In the evening after dinner there was music. It was discovered +that Miss Boncassen sung divinely, and both Lady Mabel and Lady +Mary accompanied her. Mr Erle, and Mr Warburton, and Mr Monk, all +of whom were unmarried, stood by enraptured. But Lord Silverbridge +kept himself apart, and interested himself in a description which +Mrs Boncassen gave him of their young men and their young ladies +in the States. He had hardly spoken to Miss Boncassen,--till he +offered her sherry or soda-water before she retired for the night. +She refused his courtesy with her usual smile, but showed no more +emotion than though they two had now met for the first time in +their lives. + +He had quite made up his mind as to what he would do. When the +opportunity should come his way he would simply remind her that +the three months were passed. But he was shy of talking to her in +the presence of Lady Mabel and his father. He was quite determined +that the thing should be done at once, but he certainly wished +that Lady Mabel had not been there. In what she had said to him at +the dinner-table she had made him quite understand that she would +be a trouble to him. He remembered her look when he had told her +that she would marry. It was as though she had declared to him +that it was he who ought to be her husband. It referred back to +that proffer of love which he had once made to her. Of course all +this was disagreeable. Of course it made things difficult for him. +But not the less was it a thing quite assured that he would press +his suit to Miss Boncassen. When he was talking to Mrs Boncassen +he was thinking of nothing else. When he was offering Isabel the +glass of sherry he was telling himself that he would find his +opportunity on the morrow,--though, now, at this moment, it was +impossible that he should make a sign. She, as she went to bed, +asked herself whether it was possible that there should be such +treachery;--whether it were possible that he should pass it all by +as though he had never said a word to her! + +During the whole of the next day, which was Sunday, he was equally +silent. Immediately after breakfast, on the Monday, shooting +commenced, and he could not find a moment in which to speak. It +seemed to him that she purposely kept out of his way. With Mabel +he did find himself for a few moments alone, and was then +interrupted by his sister and Isabel. 'I hope you have killed a +lot of things,' said Miss Boncassen. + +'Pretty well, among us all.' + +'What an odd amusement it seems, going out to commit wholesale +slaughter. However it is the proper thing no doubt.' + +'Quite the proper thing,' said Lord Silverbridge, and that was +all. + +On the next morning he dressed himself for shooting,--and then sent +out the party without him. He had heard, he said, of a young horse +for sale in the neighbourhood, and had sent to desire that it +might be brought to him. And now he found his occasion. + +'Come and play a game of billiards,' he said to Isabel, as the +three girls with the other ladies were together in the drawing- +room. She got up very slowly from her seat, and very slowly crept +away to the door. Then she looked round as though expecting the +others to follow her. None of them did follow her. Mary felt that +she ought to do so; but, knowing all that she knew, did not dare. +And what good could she have done by one such interruption? Lady +Mabel would fain have gone too;--but neither did she quite dare. +Had there been no special reason why she should or should not have +gone with them, the thing would have been easy enough. When two +people go to play billiards, a third may surely accompany them. +But now, Lady Mabel found that she could not stir. Mrs Finn, Mrs +Boncassen, and Miss Cassewary were all in the room, but none of +them moved. Silverbridge led the way quickly across the hall, and +Isabel Boncassen followed him very slowly. When she entered the +room she found him standing with a cue in his hand. He at once +shut the door, and walking up to her dropped the butt of the cue +on the floor and spoke one word. 'Well!' he said. + +'What does "Well" mean?' + +'The three months are over.' + +'Certainly the are "over".' +'And I have been a model of patience.' + +'Perhaps your patience is more remarkable than your constancy. Is +not Lady Mabel Grex in the ascendant just now?' + +'What do you mean by that? Why do you ask that? You told me to +wait for three months. I have waited, and her I am.' + +'How very--very--downright you are.' + +'Is not the proper thing?' + +'I thought I was downright,--but you beat me hollow. Yes, the three +months are over. And now what have you got to say?' He put down +his cue, stretched out his arms as though he were going to take +her and hold her to his heart. 'No;--no, not that,' she said +laughing. 'But if you will speak, I will hear you.' + +'You know what I said before. Will you love me, Isabel?' + +'And you know what I said before. Do they know you love me? Does +your father know it, and your sister? Why did they ask me to come +here?' + +'Nobody knows it. But say that you love me, and everyone shall +know it at once. Yes, one person knows it. Why did you mention +Lady Mabel's name? She knows it.' + +'Did you tell her?' + +'Yes, I went again to Killancodlem after you were gone, and then I +told her.' + +'But why her? Come, Lord Silverbridge. You are straightforward +with me, and I will be the same with you. You have told Lady +Mabel. I have told Lady Mary.' + +'My sister!' + +'Yes;--your sister. And I am sure she disapproves it. She did not +say so; but I am sure it is so. and then she told me something.' + +'What did she tell you?' + +'Has there ever been reason to think that you intended to offer +your hand to Lady Mabel Grex?' + +'Did she tell you so?' + +'You should answer my question, Lord Silverbridge. It is surely +one which I have a right to ask.' Then she stood waiting for his +reply, keeping herself at some little distance from him as though +she were afraid that he would fly upon her. And indeed there +seemed to be cause for such fear from frequent gestures of his +hands. 'Why do you not answer me? Has there been some reason for +such expectations?' + +'Yes;--there has.' + +'There has!' + +'I thought of it,--not knowing myself before I had seen you. You +shall know it all if you will only say that you love me.' + +'I should like to know it first.' + +'You do know it all;--almost. I have told you that she knows what I +said to you at Killancodlem. Is not that enough?' + +'And she approves!' + +'What has it to do with her? Lady Mabel is my friend, but not my +guardian.' + +'Has she a right to expect that she should be your wife?' + +'No;--certainly not. Why should you ask all this? Do you love me? +Come, Isabel; say that you love me. Will you call me vain if I say +that I almost think you do. You cannot doubt my love;--not now.' + +'No;--not now.' + +'You needn't. Why won't you be as honest to me? If you hate me, +say so;--but if you love me-!' + +'I do not hate you, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'And is that all?' + +'You asked me the question.' + +'But you do love me? By George, I thought you would be more honest +and straightforward.' + +Then she dropped her badinage and answered him seriously. 'I +thought I had been more honest and straightforward. When I found +that you were in earnest at Killancodlem--' + +'Why did you ever doubt me?' + +'When I felt that you were in earnest, then I had to be in earnest +too. And I thought so much about it that I lay awake nearly all +that night. Shall I tell you what I thought?' + +'Tell me something I would like to hear.' + +'I will tell you the truth. "Is it possible," I said to myself, +"that such a man as that can want me to be his wife; he an +Englishman, of the highest rank and the greatest wealth, and one +that any girl in the world would love?"' + +'Psha!' he exclaimed. + +'That is what I said to myself.' Then she paused, and looking +into his face he saw that there was a glimmer of a tear in each +eye. 'One that any girl must love when asked for her love;--because +he is so sweet, so good, and so pleasant.' + +'I know that you are chaffing.' + +'Then I went on asking myself questions. And is it possible that +I, who by all his friends will be regarded as a nobody, who am an +American,--with merely human work-a-day blood in her veins,--that +such a one as I should become his wife? Then I told myself that +it was not possible. It was not in accordance with the fitness of +things. All the dukes in England would rise up against it, and +especially that duke whose good will would be imperative.' + +'Why should he rise up against it?' + +'You know he will. But I will go on with my story of myself. When +I had settled that in my mind, I just cried myself to sleep. It +had been a dream. I had come across one who in his own self seemed +to combine all that I had ever thought of as being lovable in a +man--' + +'Isabel!' + +'And in his outward circumstances soared as much above my thoughts +as the heaven is above the earth. And he had whispered to me soft +loving, heavenly words. No;--no, you shall not touch me. But you +shall listen to me. In my sleep I could be happy again and not see +the barriers. But when I woke I made up my mind. "If he comes to +me again," I said-"if it should be that he should come to me +again, I will tell him that he shall be my heaven on earth,--if,-- +if--if the ill will of his friends would not make that heaven a +hell to both of us." I did not tell you quite all that.' + +'You told me nothing but that I was to come back again in three +months.' + +'I said more than that. I bade you ask your father. Now you have +come again. You cannot understand a girl's fears and doubts. How +should you? I thought perhaps you would not come. When I saw you +whispering to that highly-born well-bred beauty, and remembered +what I was myself, I thought that--you would not come.' + +'Then you must love me.' + +'Love you! Oh, my darling!-No, no, no,' she said, as she +retreated from him round the corner of the billiard-table, and +stood guarding herself from him with her little hands. 'You ask if +I love you. You are entitled to know the truth. From the sole of +your foot to the crown of you head I love you as I think a man +would wish to be loved by the girl he loves. You have come across +my life, and have swallowed me up, and made me all your own. But I +will not marry you to be rejected by your people. No; nor shall +there be a kiss between us till I know that it will not be so.' + +'May I speak to your father?' + +'For what good? I have not spoken to father or mother because I +have known that it must depend upon your father. Lord +Silverbridge, if he will tell me that I shall be his daughter, I +will become your wife,--oh with such perfect joy, with such perfect +truth! If it can never be so, then let us be torn apart,--with +whatever struggle, still at once. In that case I will get myself +back to my own country as best I may, and will pray to God that +all this may be forgotten.' Then she made her way round to the +door, leaving him fixed on the spot in which she had been +standing. But as she went she made a little prayer to him. 'Do not +delay my fate. It is all in all to me.' And so he was left alone +in the billiard-room. + + + +CHAPTER 53 + +Then I am as Proud as a Queen + +During the next day or two the shooting went on without much +interruption from love-making. The love-making was not prosperous +all round. Poor Lady Mary had nothing to comfort her. Could she +have been allowed to see the letter which her lover had written to +her father, the comfort would have been, if not ample, still very +great. Mary told herself again and again that she was quite sure +of Tregear;--but it was hard upon her that she could not be made +certain that her certainty was well grounded. Had she known that +Tregear had written, though she had not seen a word of the letter, +it would have comforted her. But she heard nothing of the letter. +In June last she had seen him, by chance, for a few minutes, in +Lady Mabel's drawing-room. Since that she had not heard from him +or of him. That was now more than five months since. How could +love serve her,--how could her very life serve her, if things were +to go on like that? How was she to bear it? Thinking of this she +resolved, she almost resolved, that she would go boldly to her +father and desire that she might be given up to her lover. + +Her brother, although more triumphant,--for how could he fail to +triumph after such words as Isabel had spoken to him,--still felt +his difficulties very seriously. She had imbued him with a strong +sense of her own firmness, and she had declared that she would go +away and leave him altogether if the Duke should be unwilling to +receive her. He knew that the Duke would be unwilling. The Duke, +who certainly was not handy in those duties of match-making which +seemed to have fallen upon him at the death of his wife, showed by +a hundred little signs his anxiety that his son and heir should +arrange his affairs with Lady Mabel. These signs were manifest to +Mary,--were disagreeably manifest to Silverbridge,--and were +unfortunately manifest to Lady Mabel herself. They were manifest +to Mrs Finn, who was clever enough to perceive that the +inclinations of the young heir were turned in another direction. +And gradually they became manifest to Isabel Boncassen. The host +himself, as host, was courteous to all his guests. They had been +of his own selection, and he did his best to make himself pleasant +to them all. But he selected two for his peculiar notice,--and +those two were Miss Boncassen and Lady Mabel. While he would +himself walk, and talk, and argue after his own particular fashion +with the American beauty,--explaining to her matters political and +social, till he persuaded her to promise to read his pamphlet upon +decimal coinage,--he was always making efforts to throw +Silverbridge and Lady Mabel together. The two girls saw it and +knew how the matter was,--knew that they were rivals, and knew each +the ground on which she herself and on which the other stood. But +neither was satisfied with her advantage, or nearly satisfied. +Isabel would not take the prize without the Duke's consent;---and +Mabel could not have it without that other consent. 'If you want +to marry an English Duke,' she once said to Isabel in that anger +which she was unable to restrain, 'there is the Duke himself. I +never saw a man so absolutely in love.' 'But I do not want to +marry an English Duke,' said Isabel, 'and I pity any girl who has +any idea of marriage except that which comes from a wish to give +back love for love.' + +Through it all the father never suspected the real state of his +son's mind. He was too simple to think it possible that the +purpose which Silverbridge had declared to him as they walked +together from the Beargarden had already been thrown to the winds. +He did not like to ask why the thing was not settled. Young men, +he thought, were sometimes shy, and young ladies not always ready +to give immediate encouragement. But when he saw them together he +concluded that matters were going in the right direction. It was, +however, an opinion which he had all to himself. + +During the next three or four days which followed the scene in the +billiard-room Isabel kept herself out of her lover's way. She had +explained to him that which she wished him to do, and she left him +to do it. Day by day she watched the circumstances of the life +around her, and knew that it had not been done. She was sure that +it could not have been done while the Duke was explaining to her +the beauty of quints, and expiating on the horrors of twelve +pennies, and twelve inches, and twelve ounces,--variegated in some +matters by sixteen and fourteen! He could not know that she was +ambitious of becoming his daughter-in-law, while he was opening +out to her the mysteries of the House of Lords, and explaining how +it came to pass that while he was a member of one House of +Parliament, his son should be sitting as a member of another;--how +it was that a nobleman could be a commoner, and how a peer of one +part of the Empire could sit as the representative of a borough in +another part. She was an apt scholar. Had there been a question of +any other young man marrying her, he would probably have thought +that no other young man could have done better. + +Silverbridge was discontented with himself. The greater misfortune +was that Lady Mabel should be there. While she was present to his +father's eyes he did not know how to declare his altered wishes. +Every now and then she would say to him some little word +indicating her feelings of the absurdity of his passion. 'I +declare I don't know whether it is you or your father that Miss +Boncassen most affects,' she said. But to this and to other +similar speeches he would make no answer. She had extracted his +secret from him at Killancodlem, and might use it against him if +she pleased. In his present frame of mind he was not disposed to +joke with her on the subject. + +On that second Sunday,--the Boncassens were to return to London on +the following Tuesday,--he found himself alone with Isabel's +father. The American had been brought out at his own request to +see the stables, and had been accompanied round the premises by +Silverbridge, Mr Wharton, by Isabel, and by Lady Mary. As they got +out into the park the party were divided, and Silverbridge found +himself with Mr Boncassen. Then it occurred to him that the proper +thing for a young man in love was to go, not to his own father, +but to the lady's father. Why should not he do as others always +did? Isabel no doubt had suggested a different course. But that +which Isobel suggested was at the present moment impossible to +him. Now at this instant, without a moment's forethought, he +determined to tell his story to Isabel's father,--as any other +young lover might tell it to any other father. + +'I am very glad to find ourselves alone, Mr Boncassen,' he said. +Mr Boncassen bowed and showed himself prepared to listen. Though +so many at Matching had seen the whole play, Mr Boncassen had seen +nothing of it. + +'I don't know whether you are aware of what I have got to say.' + +'I cannot quite say that I am, my lord. But whatever it is, I am +sure I shall be delighted to hear it.' + +'I want to marry your daughter,' said Silverbridge. Isabel had +told him that he was downright, and in such a matter he had hardly +as yet learned how to express himself with those paraphrases in +which the world delights. Mr Boncassen stood stock still, and in +the excitement of the moment pulled off his hat. 'The proper thing +is to ask your permission to go on with it.' + +'You want to marry my daughter!' + +'Yes. That is what I have got to say.' + +'Is she aware of your--intention?' + +'Quite aware. I believe I may say that if other things go +straight, she will consent.' + +'And your father--the Duke?' + +'He knows nothing about it,--as yet.' + +'Really this takes me by surprise. I am afraid you have not given +enough thought to the matter.' + +'I have been thinking about it for the last three months,' said +Lord Silverbridge. + +'Marriage is a very serious thing.' + +'Of course it is.' + +'And men generally like to marry their equals.' + +'I don't know about that. I don't think that counts for much. +People don't always know who are their equals.' + +'That is quite true. If I were speaking to you or to your father +theoretically I should perhaps be unwilling to admit superiority +on your side because of your rank and wealth. I could make an +argument in favour of any equality with the best Briton that ever +lived,--as would become a true-born Republican.' + +'That is just what I mean.' + +'But when the question becomes one of practising,--a question for +our lives, for our happiness, for our own conduct, then, knowing +what must be the feelings of an aristocracy in such a country as +this, I am prepared to admit that your father would be as well +justified in objecting to a marriage between a child of his and a +child of mine, as I should be in objecting to one between my child +and the son of some mechanic in our native city.' + +'He wouldn't be a gentleman,' said Silverbridge. + +'That is a word of which I don't quite know the meaning.' + +'I do,' said Silverbridge confidently. + +'But you could not define it. If a man be well educated, and can +keep a good house over his head, perhaps you may call him a +gentleman. But there are many such with whom your father would not +wish to be so closely connected to as you propose.' + +'But I may have your sanction?' Mr Boncassen again took off his +hat and walked along thoughtfully. 'I hope you don't object to me +personally.' + +'My dear young lord, your father has gone out of his way to be +civil to me. Am I to return his courtesy by bringing a great +trouble upon him?' + +'He seems to be very fond of Miss Boncassen.' + +'Will he continue to be fond of her when he has heard this? What +does Isabel say?' + +'She says the same as you, of course.' + +'Why of course;--except that it is evident to you as it is to me +that she could not with propriety say anything else.' + +'I think she would,--would like it, you know.' + +'She would like to be your wife!' + +'Well;--yes. If it were all serene, I think she would consent.' + +'I daresay she would consent,--if it were all serene. Why should +she not? do not try her too hard, Lord Silverbridge. You say you +love her?' + +'I do indeed.' + +'Then think of the position in which you are placing her. You are +struggling to win her heart.' Silverbridge as he heard this +assured himself that there was no need for any further struggling +in that direction. 'Perhaps you have won it. Yet she may feel that +she cannot become your wife. She may well say to herself that this +which is offered to her is so great, that she does not know how to +refuse it; and may yet have to say, at the same time, that she +cannot accept it without disgrace. You would not put one that you +love into such a position?' + +'As for disgrace,--that is nonsense. I beg your pardon, Mr +Boncassen.' + +'Would it be no disgrace that she should be known here, in +England, to be your wife, and that none of those of your rank,--of +what would then be her own rank,--should welcome her into the new +world?' + +'That would be out of the question.' + +'If your own father refused to welcome her, would not others +follow suit?' + +'You don't know my father.' + +'You seem to know him well enough to fear that he would object.' + +'Yes;--that is true.' + +'What more do I want to know?' + +'If she were once my wife he would not reject her. Of all human +beings he is in truth the kindest and most affectionate.' + +'And therefore you would try him after this fashion? No, my lord, +I cannot see my way through these difficulties. You can say what +you please to him as to your own wishes. But you must not tell him +that you have any sanction from me.' + +That evening the story was told to Mrs Boncassen, and the matter +was discussed among the family. Isabel in talking to them made no +scruple of declaring her own feelings; and though in speaking to +Lord Silverbridge she had spoken very much as her father had done +afterwards, yet in this family conclave she took her lover's part. +'That is all very well, father,' she said, 'I told him the same +thing myself. But if he is man enough to be firm I shall not throw +him over,--not for all the dukes in Europe. I shall not stay here +to be pointed at. I will go back home. If he follows me to show +that he is in earnest, I shall not disappoint him for the sake of +pleasing his father.' To this neither Mr nor Mrs Boncassen were +able to make any efficient answer. Mrs Boncassen, dear good woman, +could see no reason why two young people who loved each other +should not be married at once. Dukes and duchesses were nothing to +her. If they couldn't be happy in England then let them come and +live in New York. She didn't understand that anybody could be too +good for her daughter. Was there not an idea that Mr Boncassen +would be the next President? And was not the President of the +United States as good as the Queen of England? + +Lord Silverbridge when he left Mr Boncassen wandered about the +park by himself. King Cophetua married the beggar's daughter. He +was sure of that. King Cophetua probably had not a father, and the +beggar, probably, was not high-minded. But the discrepancy in that +case was much greater. He intended to persevere, trusting much to +a belief that when once he was married his father would 'come +round'. His father always did come round. But the more he thought +of it, the more impossible it seemed to him that he should ask his +father's consent at the present moment. Lady Mabel's presence in +the house was an insuperable obstacle. He thought that he could do +it if he and his father were alone together, or comparatively +alone. He must be prepared for an opposition, at any rate of some +days, which opposition would make his father quite unable to +entertain his guests while it lasted. + +But as he could not declare his wishes to his father, and was thus +disobeying Isabel's behests, he must explain the difficulty to +her. He felt already that she would despise him for his +cowardice,--that she would not perceive the difficulties in his +way, or understand that he might injure his cause by +precipitation. Then he considered whether he might not possibly +make some bargain with his father. How would it be if he should +consent to go back to the Liberal party on being allowed to marry +the girl he loved? As far as his political feelings were +concerned he did not think that he would much object to make the +change. There was only one thing certain,--that he must explain his +condition to Miss Boncassen before she went. + +He found no difficulty now in getting the opportunity. She was +equally anxious, and as well disposed to acknowledge her anxiety. +After what had passed between them she was not desirous of +pretending that the matter was of small moment to herself. She had +told him that it was all the world to her, and had begged him to +let her know her fate as quickly as possible. On that last Monday +morning they were in the grounds together, and Lady Mabel, who was +walking with Mrs Finn, saw them pass through a little gate which +led from the gardens into the Priory ruins. 'It all means +nothing,' Mabel said with a little laugh to her companion. + +'If so, I am sorry for the young lady,' said Mrs Finn. + +'Don't you think that one always has to be sorry for the young +ladies? Young ladies generally have a bad time of it. Did you +ever hear of a gentleman who always had to roll a stone to the top +of a hill, but it would always come back on him?' + +'That gentleman I believe never succeeded,' said Mrs Finn. 'The +young ladies sometimes do, I suppose.' + +In the meantime Isabel and Silverbridge were among the ruins +together. 'This is where the old Pallisers used to be buried,' he +said. + +'Oh, indeed. And married, I suppose.' + +'I daresay. They had a priest of their own, no doubt, which must +have been convenient. This block of a fellow without any legs is +supposed to represent Sir Guy. He ran away with half-a-dozen +heiresses, they say. I wish things were as easily done now.' + +'Nobody should have to run away with me. I have no idea of going +on such a journey except on terms of equality,--just step and step +alike.' Then she took hold of his arm and put out one foot. 'Are +you ready?' + +'I am very willing.' + +'But are you ready,--for a straightforward walk off to the church +before all the world? None of your private chaplains, such as Sir +Guy had at his command. Just the registrar, if there is nothing +better,--so that it be public before all the world.' + +'I wish we could start this instant.' + +'But we can't,--can we?' + +'No, dear. So many things have to be settled.' + +'And what have you settled on since you last spoke to me?' + +'I have told your father everything.' + +'Yes;--I know that. What good does that do? Father is not a Duke +of Omnium. No one supposed that he would object.' + +'But he did,' said Silverbridge. + +'Yes;--as I do,--for the same reason; because he would not have his +daughter creep in at a hole. But to your own father you have not +ventured to speak.' Then he told his story, as best he knew how. +It was not that he feared his father, but that he felt that the +present moment was not fit. 'He wishes you to marry that Lady +Mabel Grex,' she said. He nodded his head. 'And you will marry +her?' + +'Never! I might have done so, had I not seen you. I should have +done so, if she had been willing. But now I never can,--never, +never.' Her hand had dropped from his arm, but now she put it up +again for a moment, so that he might feel the pressure of her +fingers. 'Say that you believe me.' + +'I think I do.' + +'You know I love you.' + +'I think you do. I am sure I hope you do. If you don't, then I +am,--a miserable wretch.' + +'With all my heart I do.' + +'Then I am as proud as a queen. You will tell him soon.' + +'As soon as you are gone. As soon as we are alone together. I +will;--and then I will follow you to London. Now shall we not say, +Good-bye?' + +'Good-bye, my own,' she whispered. + +'You will let me have one kiss.' + +Her hand was in his, and she looked as though to see that no eyes +were watching them. But then, as thoughts came rushing to her +mind, she changed her purpose. 'No,' she said. 'What is it but a +trifle! It is nothing in itself. But I have bound myself to +myself by certain promises, and you must not ask me to break them. +You are as sweet to me as I can be to you, but there shall be no +kissing till I know that I shall be your wife. Now take me back.' + + + +CHAPTER 54 + +I Don't Think She is a Snake + +On the following day, Tuesday, the Boncassens went, and then there +were none of the guests left but Mrs Finn and Lady Mabel Grex,-- +with of course Miss Cassewary. The Duke had especially asked both +Mrs Finn and Lady Mabel to remain, the former, through his anxiety +to show his repentance for the injustice he had formerly done her, +and the latter in the hope that something might be settled as soon +as the crowd of visitors should have gone. He had so spoken as to +make Lady Mabel quite aware of his wish. He would not have told +her how sure he was that Silverbridge would keep no more +racehorses, how he trusted that Silverbridge had done with +betting, how he believed that the young member would take a real +interest in the House of Commons, had he not intended that she +should take a special interest in the young man. And then he had +spoken about the house in London. It was to be made over to +Silverbridge as soon as Silverbridge should marry. And then there +was Gatherum Castle. Gatherum was rather a trouble than otherwise. +He had ever felt it to be so, but had nevertheless always kept it +open perhaps for a month in the year. His uncle had always resided +there for a fortnight at Christmas. When Silverbridge was married +it would become the young man's duty to do something of the same +kind. Gatherum was the White Elephant of the family, and +Silverbridge must enter it upon his share of the trouble. He did +not know that in saying all this he was offering his son as a +husband to Lady Mabel, but she understood it as thoroughly as +though he had spoken the words. + +But she knew the son's mind also. He had indeed himself told her +all his mind. 'Of course I love her best of all,' he had said. +When he told her of it she had been so overcome that she had wept +in her despair;--had wept in his presence. She had declared to him +her secret,--that it had been her intention to become his wife, and +then he had rejected her! It had all been shame, and sorrow, and +disappointment to her. And she could not but remember that there +had been a moment when she might have secured him by a word. A +look would have done it; a touch of her finger on that morning. +She had known then that he had intended to be in earnest,--that he +only waited for encouragement. She had not given it because she +had not wish to grasp too eagerly for the prize,--and now the prize +was gone! She had said that she had spared him;--but then she +could afford to joke, thinking that he would surely come back to +her. + +She had begun her world with so fatal a mistake! When she was +quite young, when she was little more than a child but still not a +child, she had given all her love to a man whom she soon found +that it would be impossible she should ever marry. He had offered +to face the world with her, promising to do the best to smooth the +rough places, and to soften the stones for her feet. But she, +young as she was, had felt that both he and she belonged to a +class which could hardly endure poverty with contentment. The +grinding need for money, the absolute necessity of luxurious +living, had been pressed upon her from her childhood. She had seen +it and acknowledged it, and had told him with precocious wisdom, +that that which he offered to do for her sake would be a folly for +them both. She had not stinted the assurance of her love, but had +told him that they must both turn aside and learn to love +elsewhere. He had done so, with too complete a readiness! She +had dreamed of a second love, which should obliterate the first,-- +which might still leave to her the memory of the romance of her +earlier passion. Then this boy had come her way! With him all her +ambition might have been satisfied. She desired high rank and +great wealth. With him she might have had it all. And then, too, +though there would always be the memory of that early passion, yet +she could in another fashion love this youth. He was pleasant to +her, and gracious;--and she had told herself that if it should be +so that this great fortune might be hers, she would atone to him +fully for that past romance by the wife-like devotion of her life. +The cup had come within the reach of her fingers, but she had not +grasped it. Her happiness, her triumphs, her great success had +been there, present to her, and she had dallied with her fortune. +There had been a day on which he had been all but at her feet, and +on the next he had been prostrate at the feet of another. He had +even dared to tell her so,--saying of that American that 'of course +he loved her the best'! + +Over and over again since that she had asked herself whether there +was no chance. Though he had loved that other one best she would +take him if it were possible. When the invitation came from the +Duke she would not lose a chance. She had told him that it was +impossible that he, the heir of the Duke of Omnium, should marry +an American. All his family, all his friends, all his world would +be against him. And then he was so young,--and, as she thought, so +easily led. He was lovable and prone to love,--but surely his love +could not be very strong, or he would not have changed so easily. + +She did not hesitate to own to herself that this American was very +lovely. She too, herself, was beautiful. She too had a reputation +for grace, loveliness, and feminine high-bred charm. She knew all +that, but she knew also that her attractions were not so bright as +those of her rival. She could not smile or laugh or throw sparks +of brilliance around her as did the American girl. Miss Boncassen +could be graceful as a nymph in doing the awkwardest thing! When +she had pretended to walk stiffly along, to some imaginary +marriage ceremony, with he foot stuck before her, with her chin in +the air, and one arm akimbo, Silverbridge had been all afire with +admiration. Lady Mabel understood it all. The American girl must +be taken away,--from out of the reach of the young man's senses,-- +and then the struggle must be made. + +Lady Mabel had not been long at Matching before she learned that +she had much in her favour. She perceived that the Duke himself +had not suspicion of what was going on, and that he was strongly +disposed in her favour. She unravelled it all in her own mind. +There must have been some agreement, between the father and the +son, when the son had all but made his offer to her. More than +once she was half-minded to speak openly to the Duke, to tell him +all that Silverbridge had said to her and all that he had not +said, and to ask the father's help in scheming against that rival. +But she could not find the words with which to begin. And then, +might he not despise her, and despising reject her, were she to +declare her desire to marry a man who had given his heart to +another woman? And so, when the Duke asked her to remain after +the departure of the other guests, she decided that it would be +best to bide her time. The Duke, as she assented, kissed her hand, +and she knew that this sign of grace was given to his intended +daughter-in-law. + +In all this she half-confided her thoughts and her prospects to +her old friend Miss Cassewary. 'That girl has gone at last,' she +said to Miss Cassewary. + +'I fear she has left her spells behind her, my dear.' + +'Of course she has. The venom out of the snake's tooth will poison +all the blood; but still the poor bitten wretch does not always +die.' + +'I don't think she is a snake.' + +'Don't be moral, Cass. She is a snake in my sense. She has got her +weapons, and of course it is natural enough that she should use +them. If I want to be the Duchess of Omnium, why shouldn't she?' + +'I hate to hear you talk of yourself in that way.' + +'Because you have enough of the old school about you to like +conventional falsehood. This young man did in fact ask me to be +his wife. Of course I meant to accept him,--but I didn't. Then +comes this convict's granddaughter.' + +'Not a convict's!' + +'You know what I mean. Had he been a convict it would have been +all the same. I take upon myself to say that, had the world been +informed that an alliance had been arranged between the eldest son +of the Duke of Omnium and the daughter of Earl Grex,--the world +would have been satisfied. Every unmarried daughter of every peer +in England would have envied me,--but it would have been comme il +faut.' + +'Certainly, my dear.' + +'But what would be the feeling as to the convict's granddaughter?' + +'You don't suppose that I would approve it;--but it seems to me +that in these days young men do just as they please.' + +'He shall do what he pleases, but he must be made to be pleased +with me.' So much she said to Miss Cassewary; but she did not +divulge any plan. The Boncassens had just gone off to the station, +and Silverbridge was out shooting. If anything could be done here +at Matching, it must be done quickly, as Silverbridge would soon +take his departure. She did not know it, but, in truth, he was +remaining in order that he might, as he said, 'have all this out +with the governor'. + +She tried to realise for herself some plan, but when the evening +came nothing was fixed. For a quarter of an hour, just as the sun +was setting, the Duke joined her in the gardens,--and spoke to her +more plainly than he had ever spoken before. 'Has Silverbridge +come home?' he asked. + +'I have not seen him.' + +'I hope you and Mary get on well together.' + +'I think so, Duke. I am sure we should if we saw more of each +other.' + +'I sincerely hope you may. There is nothing I wish for Mary so +much as that she should have a sister. And there is no one whom I +would be so glad to hear her call by that name as yourself.' How +could he have spoken plainer? + +The ladies were all together in the drawing-room when Silverbridge +came bursting in rather late. 'Where's the governor?' he asked, +turning to his sister. + +'Dressing I should think; but what is the matter?' + +'I want to see him. I must be off to Cornwall tomorrow morning.' + +'To Cornwall!' said Miss Cassewary. 'Why to Cornwall?' asked Lady +Mabel. But Mary, connecting Cornwall with Frank Tregear, held her +peace. + +'I can't explain it all now, but I must start very early +tomorrow.' Then he went off to his father's study, and finding +the Duke still there explained the cause of his intended journey. + The member for Polpenno had died, and Frank Tregear had been +invited to stand for the borough. He had written to his friend to +ask him to come and assist in the struggle. 'Years ago there used +to be always a Tregear in for Polpenno,' said Silverbridge. + +'But he is a younger son.' + +'I don't know anything about it,' said Silverbridge,' but as he +has asked me to go I think I ought to do it.' The Duke, who was +by no means the man to make light of the political obligations of +friendship, raised no objection.' + +'I wish that something could have been arranged between you and +Mabel before you went.' The young man stood in the gloom of the +dark room aghast. This was certainly not the moment for +explaining everything to his father. 'I have set my heart very +much upon it, and you ought to be gratified by knowing that I +quite approve your choice.' + +All that had been years ago,--in last June,--before Mrs Montacute +Jones's garden-party, before that day in the rain at Maidenhead, +before the brightness of Killancodlem, before the glories of Miss +Boncassen had been revealed to him. 'There's no time for that +kind of thing now,' he said weakly. + +'I thought that when you were here together--' + +'I must dress now, sir; but I will tell you about it when I get +back from Cornwall. I will come back direct to Matching, and will +explain everything.' So he escaped. + +It was clear to Lady Mabel that there was no opportunity now for +any scheme. Whatever might be possible must be postponed till +after this Cornish business had been completed. Perhaps it might +be better so. she had thought that she would appeal to himself, +that she would tell him of his father's wishes, of her love for +him,--of the authority which he had once given her for loving him,-- +and of the absolute impossibility of his marriage with the +American. She thought that she could do it, if not efficiently at +any rate effectively. But it could not be done on the very day on +which the American had gone. + +It came out in the course of the evening that he was going to +assist Frank Tregear in his canvass. The matter was not spoken of +openly, as Tregear's name could hardly be mentioned. But everybody +knew it, and it gave occasion to Mabel for a few words apart to +Silverbridge. 'I am so glad you are going to him,' she said in a +little whisper. + +'Of course I go when he wishes me. I don't know whether I can do +him any good.' + +'The greatest good in the world. Your name will go so far! It +will be everything to him to be in Parliament. And when are we to +meet again?' + +'I shall turn up somewhere,' he replied as he gave her his hand to +wish her good-bye. + +On the following morning to Lady Mabel that she would stay at +Matching for yet another fortnight,--or even for a month if it +might be possible. Lady Mabel, whose father was still abroad, was +not sorry to accept the invitation. + + + +CHAPTER 55 + +Polpenno + +Polwenning, the seat of Mr Tregear, Frank's father, was close to +the borough of Polpenno,--so close that the gates of the grounds +opened into the town. As Silverbridge had told his father, may of +the Tregear family had sat for the borough. Then there had come +changes, and strangers had made themselves welcome by their money. +When the vacancy had occurred a deputation waited upon Squire +Tregear and asked him to stand. The deputation would guarantee +that the expense should not exceed--a certain limited sum. Mr +Tregear for himself had no such ambition. His eldest son was +abroad and was not at all such a man as one would choose to make +into a Member of Parliament. After much consideration in the +family, Frank was invited to present himself to the constituency. +Frank's aspirations in regard to Lady Mary Palliser were known at +Polwenning, and it was thought that they would have a better +chance of success if he could write the letters M.P. after his +name. Frank acceded, and as he was starting wrote to ask the +assistance of his friend Lord Silverbridge. At that time there +were only nine days more before the election, and Mr Carbottle, +the Liberal candidate, was already living in great style at the +Camborne Arms. + +Mr and Mrs Tregear and an elder sister of Frank's, who quite +acknowledged herself to be an old maid, were very glad to welcome +Frank's friend. On the first morning of course they discussed the +candidate's prospects. 'My best chance of success,' said Frank, +'arises from that fact that Mr Carbottle is fatter than the people +here seem to approve.' + +'If his purse be fat,' said old Mr Tregear, 'that will carry off +any personal defect.' Lord Silverbridge asked whether the +candidate was not too fat to make speeches. Miss Tregear declared +that he had made three speeches daily last week, and that Mr +Williams the rector who had heard him, declared him to be a +godless dissident. Mrs Tregear thought that it would be much +better that the place should be disfranchised altogether than that +such a horrid man should be brought into the neighbourhood. A +godless dissenter!' she said, holding up her hands in dismay. +Frank thought that they had better abstain from allusion to their +opponent's religion. Then Mr Tregear made a little speech. 'We +used,' he said, 'to endeavour to get someone to represent us in +Parliament, who would agree with us on vital subjects, such as the +Church of England and the necessity of religion. Now it seems to +be considered ill-mannered to make any allusion to such subjects!' + From which it may be seen that this old Tregear was very +conservative indeed. + +When the old people were gone to bed the two young men discussed +the matter. 'I hope you'll get in,' said Silverbridge. 'And if I +can do anything for you of course I will.' + +'It is always good to have a real member along with one,' said +Tregear. + +'But I begin to think I am a very shaky Conservative myself.' + +'I am sorry for that.' + +'Sir Timothy is such a beast,' said Silverbridge. + +'Is that your notion of a political opinion? Are you to be this +or that in accordance with your own liking or disliking for some +particular man? One is supposed to have opinions of one's own.' + +'Your father would be down on a man because he is a dissenter.' + +'Of course my father is old-fashioned.' + +'It does seem so hard to me,' said Silverbridge, 'to find any +difference between the two sets. You who are a true Conservative +are much more like to my father who is a Liberal than to your own +who is on the same side as yourself.' + +'It may be so, and still I may be a good Conservative.' + +'It seems to me in the house to mean nothing more than choosing +one set of companions or choosing another. There are some awful +cads who sit along with Mr Monk;--fellows that make you sick to +hear them, and whom I couldn't be civil to. But I don't think +there is anybody I hate so much as old Beeswax. He has a +contemptuous way with his nose which makes me long to pull it.' + +'And you mean to go over in order that you may be justified in +doing so. I think I soar a little higher,' said Tregear. + +'Oh, of course. You're a clever fellow,' said Silverbridge, not +without a touch of sarcasm. + +'A man may soar higher than that without being very clever. If the +party that calls itself liberal were to have all its own way who +is there that doesn't believe that the church would go at once, +then all distinction between boroughs, the House of Lords +immediately afterwards, and after that the Crown.' + +'Those are not my governor's ideas.' + +'You governor couldn't help himself. A liberal party, with +plenipotentiary power, must go on right away to the logical +conclusion of its arguments. It is only the conservative feeling +of the country which saves such men as your father from being +carried headlong to ruin by their own machinery. You have read +Carlyle's French Revolution?' + +'Yes, I have read that.' + +'Wasn't it so there? There were a lot of honest men who thought +they could do a deal of good by making everybody equal. A good +many were made equal be having their heads cut off. That's why I +mean to be member of Polpenno and to send Mr Carbottle back to +London. Carbottle probably doesn't want to cut anybody's head +off.' + +'I daresay he's as conservative as anybody.' + +'But he wants to be a member for Parliament; and, as he hasn't +thought much about anything he is quite willing to lend a hand to +communism, radicalism, socialism, chopping people's heads off, or +anything else.' + +'That's all very well,' said Silverbridge, 'but where should we +have been if there had been no Liberals? Robespierre and his pals +cut off a lot of heads, but Louis XIV and Louis XV locked up more +in prison. And so he had the last word in the argument. + +The whole of the next morning was spent in canvassing, and the +whole of the afternoon. In the evening there was a great meeting +at the Polwenning Assembly Room, which at the present moment was +in the hands of the Conservative Party. Here Frank Tregear made an +oration, in which he declared his political convictions. The +whole speech was said at the time to be very good; but the portion +of it which was apparently esteemed the most, had direct reference +to Mr Carbottle. Who was Mr Carbottle? Why had he come to +Polpenno? Who had sent for him? Why Mr Carbottle rather than +anybody else? Did not the people of Polpenno think that it might +be as well to send Mr Carbottle from the place from whence he had +come? These questions, which seemed to Silverbridge to be as easy +as they were attractive, almost made him desirous of making a +speech himself. + +Then Mr Williams, the rector, followed, a gentleman who had many +staunch friends and many bitter enemies in the town. He addressed +himself chiefly to that bane of the whole country--as he conceived +them,--the godless dissenters; and was felt by Tregear to be +injuring the cause by every word he spoke. It was necessary that +Mr Williams should liberate his own mind, and therefore he +persevered with the godless dissenters at great length,--not +explaining, however, how a man who thought enough about his +religion to be a dissenter could be godless, or how a godless man +should care enough about religion to be a dissenter. + +Mr Williams was heard with impatience, and then there was a +clamour for the young lord. He was the son of an ex-Prime +Minister, and therefore of course should speak. He was himself a +member of Parliament, and therefore should speak. He had boldly +severed himself from the faulty political tenets of the family, +and therefore on such an occasion as this was peculiarly entitled +to speak. When a man goes electioneering, he must speak. At a +dinner-table to refuse is possible:--or in any assembly convened +for any private purpose, a gentleman may declare that he is not +prepared for the occasion. But in such an emergency as this, a +man,--and a member of Parliament,--cannot plead that he is not +prepared. A son of a former Prime Minister who had already taken +so strong a part in politics as to have severed himself from his +father, not prepared to address the voters of a borough whom he +had come to canvass! The plea was so absurd, that he was thrust +on to his feet before he knew what he was about. + +It was in truth his first public speech. At Silverbridge he had +attempted to repeat a few words, and in his failure had been +covered by the Sprugeons and the Sprouts. But now he was on his +legs in a great room, in an unknown town, with all the aristocracy +of the place before him! His eyes at first swam a little, and +there was a moment in which he thought he would run away. But, on +that morning, as he was dressing, there had come to his mind the +idea of the possibility of such a moment as this, and a few words +had occurred to him. 'My friend Frank Tregear,' he began, rushing +at once at his subject, 'is a very good fellow, and I hope you +will elect him.' Then he paused, not remembering what was to come +next; but the sentiment which he had uttered appeared to his +auditors to be so good in itself and so well delivered, that they +filled up a long pause with continued clappings and exclamations. +'Yes,' continued the young member of Parliament, encouraged by the +kindness of the crowd, 'I have known Frank Tregear ever so long, +and I don't think you will find a better member of Parliament +anywhere.' There were many ladies present and they thought that +the Duke's son was just the person who ought to come +electioneering among them. His voice was much pleasanter to their +ears than that of old Mr Williams. The women waved their +handkerchiefs and the men stamped their feet. Here was an orator +come among them. 'You all know all about it just as well as I do,' +continued the orator, 'and I am sure you feel that he ought to be +member for Polpenno.' There could be no doubt about that as far +as the opinion of the audience went. 'There can't be a better +fellow than Frank Tregear, and I ask you all to give three cheers +for the new member.' Ten times three cheers were given, and the +Carbottleites outside the door who had come to report what was +going on at the Tregear meeting were quite of the opinion that +this eldest son of the former Prime Minister was a tower of +strength. 'I don't know anything about Mr Carbottle,' continued +Silverbridge, who was almost getting to like the sound of his own +voice. 'Perhaps he's a good fellow too.' 'No; no, no. A very bad +fellow indeed,' was heard from different parts of the room. 'I +don't know anything about him. I wasn't at school with Carbottle.' + This was taken as a stroke of the keenest wit, and was received +with infinite cheering. Silverbridge was in the pride of his +youth, and Carbottle was sixty at the least. Nothing could have +been funnier. 'He seems to be a stout old party, but I don't think +he's the man for Polpenno. I think you'll return Frank Tregear. I +was at school with him;--and I tell you that you can't find a +better fellow anywhere than Frank Tregear.' Then he sat down, and +I am afraid he felt that he had made the speech of the evening. +'We are so much obliged to you, Lord Silverbridge,' Miss Tregear +said as they were walking home together. 'That's just the sort of +thing that the people like. So reassuring, you know. What Mr +Williams says about the dissenters is of course true; but it isn't +reassuring.' + +'I hope I didn't make a fool of myself tonight,' Silverbridge said +when he was alone with Tregear,--probably with some little pride in +his heart. + +'I ought to say that you did, seeing that you praised me so +violently. But, whatever it was, it was well taken. I don't know +whether they will elect me; but had you come down as a candidate, +I am quite sure they would have elected you.' Silverbridge was +hardly satisfied with this. He wished to have been told that he +had spoken well. He did not, however, resent his friend's +coldness. 'Perhaps, after all, I did make a fool of myself,' he +said to himself as he went to bed. + +On the next day, after breakfast, it was found to be raining +heavily. Canvassing was of course the business of the hour, and +canvassing is a business which cannot be done indoors. It was soon +decided that the rain should go for nothing. Could an agreement +have been come to with the Carbottles it might have been decided +that both parties should abstain, but as that was impossible the +Tregear party could not afford to lose the day. As Mr Carbottle, +by reason of his fatness and natural slowness, would perhaps be +specially averse to walking about in the slush and mud, it might +be that they would gain something; so after breakfast they started +with umbrellas,--Tregear, Silverbridge, Mr Newcomb the curate, Mr +Pinebott the conservative attorney, with four or five followers +who were armed with books and pencils, and who ticked off on the +list of the voters the names of the friendly, the doubtful, and +the inimical. + +Parliamentary canvassing is not a pleasant occupation. Perhaps +nothing more disagreeable, more squalid, more revolting to the +senses, more opposed to personal dignity, can be conceived. The +same words have to be repeated over and over again in the +cottages, hovels, and lodgings of poor men and women who only +understand that the time has come round in which they are to be +flattered instead of being the flatterers. 'I think I am right in +supposing that your husband's principles are conservative, Mrs +Bubbs.' 'I don't know nothing about it. You'd better call again +and see Bubbs hissel.' 'Certainly I will do so. I shouldn't at +like to leave the borough without seeing Mr Bubbs. I hope we shall +have your influence Mrs Bubbs.' 'I don't known nothing about it. +My folk at home allays vote buff; and I think Bubbs ought to go +buff too. Only mind this, Bubbs don't never come home to his +dinner. You must come arter six, and I hope he's to have some'at +for his trouble. He won't have my word to vote unless he have +some'at.' Such is the conversation in which the candidate takes a +part, while his cortege at the door is criticising his very +imperfect mode of securing Mrs Bubb's good wishes. Then he goes on +to the next house, and the same thing with some variation is +endured again. Some guide, some philosopher, and friend, who +accompanies him, and who is the chief of the cortege, has +calculated on his behalf that he ought to make twenty such +visitations an hour, and to call on two hundred constituents in +the course of the day. As he is always falling behind in his +number, he is always being driven on by his philosopher, till he +comes to hate the poor creatures to whom he is forced to address +himself, with a most cordial hatred. + +It is a nuisance to which no man should subject himself in any +weather. But when it rains there is superadded a squalor and an +ill humour to all the party which makes it almost impossible for +them not to quarrel before the day is over. To talk politics to +Mrs Bubbs under any circumstances is bad, but to do so with the +conviction that the moisture is penetrating from your greatcoat +through your shirt to your bones, and that while so employed you +are breathing the steam from those seven other wet men, at the +door, is abominable. To have to go through this is enough to take +away all the pride which a man might otherwise take from becoming +a member of Parliament. But to go through it and then not become a +member is base indeed! To go through it and to feel that you are +probably paying the rate of a hundred pounds a day for the +privilege is mot disheartening. Silverbridge as he backed up +Tregear in the uncomfortable work, congratulated himself on the +comfort of having a Mr Sprugeon and Mr Sprout who could manage his +borough for him without a contest. + +They worked on that day all the morning till one, when they took +luncheon, all reeking with wet, at the King's Head,--so that a +little money might be legitimately spent in the cause. Then, at +two, they sallied out again, vainly endeavouring to make their +twenty calls within the hour. About four, when it was beginning to +be dusk, they were very tired, and Silverbridge had ventured to +suggest that as they were all wet through, and as there was to be +another meeting in the Assembly Room that night, and as nobody in +that part of town seemed to be at home, they might perhaps be +allowed to adjourn for the present. He was thinking how nice it +would be to have a glass of brandy-and-water and then lounge till +dinner-time. But the philosophers received the proposition with +stern disdain. Was his Lordship aware that Mr Carbottle had been +out all day from eight in the morning, and was still at work; that +the Carbottleites had already sent for lanterns and were +determined to go on till eight o'clock among the artisans who +would then have returned from their work? When a man had put his +hand to the plough, the philosophers thought that a man should +complete the furrows! + +The philosophers' view had just carried the day, the discussion +having been held under seven or eight wet umbrellas at the corner +of a dirty little lane leading into the High Street, when +suddenly, on the other side of the way, Mr Carbottles cortege made +its appearance. The philosophers at once informed them that on +such occasions it was customary that the rival candidates should +be introduced. 'It will take ten minutes,' said the philosophers; +'but then it will take them ten minutes too.' Upon this Tregear, +as being the younger of the two, crossed over the road, and the +introduction was made. + +There was something comfortable in it to the Tregear party, as no +imagination could conceive anything more wretched than the +appearance of Mr Carbottle. He was a very stout man of sixty, and +seemed to be almost carried along by his companions. He had pulled +his coat-collar up and his hat down till very little of his face +was visible, and in attempting to look at Tregear and Silverbridge +he had to lift up his chin till the rain ran off his hat on to his +nose. He had an umbrella in one hand and a stick in the other, and +was wet through to his very skin. What were his own feelings +cannot be told, but his philosophers, guides, and friends would +allow him no rest. Very hard work, Mr Tregear,' he said, shaking +his head. + +'Very hard indeed, Mr Carbottle.' Then the two parties went on, +each their own way, without another word. + + + +CHAPTER 56 + +The News is Sent to Matching + +There were nine days of this work, during which Lord Silverbridge +became very popular and made many speeches. Tregear did not win +half so many hearts, or recommend himself so thoroughly to the +political predilections of the borough;--but nevertheless he was +returned. It would probably be unjust to attribute his success +chiefly to the young Lord's eloquence. It certainly was not due to +the strong religious feelings of the rector. It is to be feared +that even the thoughtful political convictions of the candidate +did not altogether produce the result. It was that chief man among +the candidates, guides, and friends, that leading philosopher who +would not allow anybody to go home from the rain, and who kept his +eyes so sharply open to the pecuniary doings of the Carbottleites, +that Mr Carbotttle's guides and friends had hardly dared to spend +a shilling;--it was he who had in truth been efficacious. In every +attempt they had made to spend their money they had been looked +into and circumvented. As Mr Carbottle had been brought down to +Polpenno on purpose that he might spend money,--as he had nothing +but his money to recommend him, and as he had not spent it,--the +free and independent electors of the borough had not seen their +way to vote for him. Therefore the Conservatives were very elate +with their triumph. There was a great conservative reaction. But +the electioneering guide, philosopher, and friend, in the humble +retirement of his own home,--he was a tailor in the town, whose +assistance at such periods had long been in requisition,--he knew +very well how the seat had been secured. Ten shillings a head +would have sent three hundred Liberals to the ballot-boxes! The +mode of distributing the money had been arranged; but the +conservative tailor had been to acute, and not a half-sovereign +could be passed. The tailor got twenty-five pounds for his work, +and that was smuggled in among the bills for printing. + +Mr Williams, however, was sure that he had so opened out the +iniquities of the dissenters as to have convinced the borough. +Yes, every Salem and Zion and Ebenezer in his large parish would +be closed. 'It is a great thing for the country,' said Mr +Williams. + +'He'll make a capital member,' said Silverbridge, clapping his +friend on the back. + +'I hope he'll never forget,' said Mr Williams, 'that he owes his +seat to the protestant and Church-of-England principles which have +sunk so deeply into the minds of the thoughtful portion of the +inhabitants of this borough.' + +'Whom should they elect but Tregear?' said the mother, feeling +that her rector took too much of the praise himself. + +'I think you have done more for us than anyone else,' whispered +Miss Tregear to the young Lord. 'What you said was so reassuring!' + The father before he went to bed expressed to his son, with some +trepidation, a hope that all this would lead to no great permanent +increase of expenditure. + +That evening before he went to bed Lord Silverbridge wrote to his +father an account of what had taken place at Polpenno. + +'Polwenning, 15 December + +'MY DEAR FATHER, + +'Among us all we have managed to return Tregear. I am afraid you +will not be quite pleased because it will be a vote lost to your +party. But I really think that he is just the fellow to be in +Parliament. If he were on your side I'm sure he's just the kind of +man you'd like to bring into office. He is always thinking about +those sort of things. He says that, if there were no +Conservatives, such Liberals as you and Mr Monk would be destroyed +by the Jacobins. There is something in that. Whether a man is +Conservative or not himself, I suppose there ought to be +Conservatives.' + +The Duke as he read this made a memorandum in his own mind that he +would explain to his son that every carriage should have a drag to +its wheels, but that an ambitious soul would choose to be the +coachman rather than the drag. + +'It was beastly work!' The Duke made another memorandum to +instruct his son that no gentleman above the age of schoolboy +should allow himself to use such a word in such a sense. 'We had +to go about in the rain up to our knees in mud for eight or nine +days, always saying the same thing. And of course all that we said +was bosh.' Another memorandum--or rather two, one as to the slang, +and another as to the expediency of teaching something to the poor +voters on such occasions. 'Our only comfort was that the Carbottle +people were as quite badly off as us.' Another memorandum as to +the grammar. The absence of Christian charity did not at the +moment affect the Duke. 'I made ever so many speeches, till at +last it seemed quite easy.' Here there was a very grave +memorandum. Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very +difficult to old listeners. 'But of course it was all bosh.' This +required no separate memorandum. + +'I have promised to go up to town with Tregear for a day or two. +After that I will stick to my purpose of going to Matching again. +I will be there about the twenty-second, and then will stay over +Christmas. After that I am going to the Brake country for some +hunting. It is such a shame to have a lot of horses and never to +ride them! +'Your most affectionate Son, +'SILVERBRIDGE.' + +The last sentence gave rise in the Duke's mind to the necessity of +a very elaborate memorandum on the subject of amusements +generally. + +By the same post another letter went from Polpenno to Matching +which also gave rise to some mental memoranda. It was as follows; + +'MY DEAR MABEL, + +I am a Member of the British House of Commons! I have sometimes +regarded myself as being one of the most peculiarly unfortunate +men in the world, and yet now I have achieved that which all +commoners in England think to be the greatest honour within their +reach, and have done so at an age at which very few achieve it but +the sons of the wealthy and the powerful. + +'I now come to my misfortunes. I know that as a poor man I ought +not to be a Member of Parliament. I ought to be earning my bread +as a lawyer or a doctor. I have no business to be what I am, and +when I am forty I shall find that I have eaten up all my good +things instead of having them to eat. + +'I have once chance before me. You know very well what it is. Tell +her that my pride in being a Member of Parliament is much more on +her behalf than on my own. The man who dares to love her ought at +any rate to be something in the world. If it might be,--if ever it +may be,--I should wish to be something for her sake. I am sure you +will be glad of my success yourself, for my own sake. + +'Your affectionate Friend and Cousin, +'FRANCIS TREGEAR.' + +The first mental memorandum in regard to this came from the +writer's assertion that he at forty would have eaten up all his +good things. No! He being a man might make his way to good things +though he was not born to them. But what good things were in store +for her? What chance of success was there for her? But the +reflection on which the most bitter to her of all came from her +assurance that his love for that other girl was so genuine. Even +when he was writing to her there was no spark left of the old +romance! Some hint of a recollection of past feelings, some half- +concealed reference to the former passion might have been allowed +to him! She as a woman,--as a woman all whose fortune must depend +on marriage,--could indulge in so such allusion; but surely he need +not have been so hard! + +But still there was another memorandum. At the present moment she +would do all that he desired as far as it was in her power. She +was anxious that he should marry Lady Mary Palliser, though so +anxious also that something of his love should remain with +herself! She was quite willing to convey that message,--if it +might be done without offence to the Duke. She was there with the +object of ingratiating herself with the Duke. She must not impede +her favour with the Duke by making herself the medium of any +secret communications between Mary and her lover. + +But how should she serve Tregear without risk of offending the +Duke? She read the letter again and again, and thinking it to be +a good letter she determined to show it to the Duke. + +'Mr Tregear has got in at Polpenno,' she said on the day on which +she and the Duke had received the letters. + +'So I hear from Silverbridge.' + +'It will be a good thing for him I suppose.' + +'I do not know,' said the Duke coldly. + +'He is my cousin, and I have always been interested in his +welfare.' + +'That is natural.' + +'And a seat in Parliament will give him something to do.' + +'Certainly it ought,' said the Duke. + +'I do not think he is an idle man.' To this the Duke made no +answer. He did not wish to be made to talk about Tregear. 'May I +tell you why I say all this?' she asked softly, pressing her hand +on the Duke's arm every so gently. To this the Duke assented, but +still coldly. 'Because I want to know what I ought to do. Would +you mind reading that letter? Of course you will remember that +Frank and I have been brought up almost as brother and sister.' + +The Duke took the letter in his hand and read it, very slowly. +'What he says about young men without means going into Parliament +is true enough.' This was not encouraging, but as the Duke went +on reading, Mabel did not think it necessary to argue the matter. +He had to read the last paragraph twice before he understood it. +He did read it twice, and then folding the letter very slowly gave +it back to his companion. + +'What ought I to do?' asked Lady Mabel. + +'As you and I, my dear, are friends, I think that any carrying of +a message to Mary would be breaking confidence. I think that you +should not speak to Mary about Mr Tregear.' Then he changed the +subject. Lady Mabel of course understood that after that she could +not say a word to Mary about the election at Polpenno. + + + +CHAPTER 57 + +The Meeting at The Bobtailed Fox + +It was now the middle of December, and matters were not +comfortable in the Runnymede country. The Major with much pluck +had carried on his operations in opposition to the wishes of the +resident members of the hunt. The owners of coverts had protested, +and farmers had sworn that he should not ride over their lands. +There had even been some talk among the younger men of thrashing +him if he persevered. But he did persevere, and had managed to +have one or two good runs. Now it was the fortune of the Runnymede +hunt that many of those who rode with the hounds were strangers to +the country,--men who came down by train from London, gentlemen +perhaps of no great distinction, who could ride hard, but as to +whom it was thought that as they did not provide the land to ride +over, or the fences to be destroyed, or the coverts for the foxes, +or the greater part of the subscription, they ought not to oppose +those by whom all these things were supplied. But the Major, +knowing where his strength lay, had managed to get a party to +support him. The contract to hunt the country had been made with +him in last March, and was good for one year. Having the kennels +and the hounds under his command he did hunt the country; but he +did so amidst a storm of contumely and ill will. + +At last it was decided that a general meeting of the members of +the hunt should be called together with the express object of +getting rid of the Major. The gentlemen of the neighbourhood felt +that the Major was not to be borne, and the farmers were very much +stronger against him than the gentlemen. It had now become a +settled belief among sporting men in England that the Major had +with his own hands driven the nail into the horse's foot. Was it +to be endured that the Runnymede farmers should ride to hounds +under a master who had been guilty of such an iniquity as that? +The Staines and Egham Gazette, which had always supported the +Runnymede hunt, declared in very plain terms that all who rose with +the Major were enjoying their sport out of the plunder which had +been extracted from Lord Silverbridge. Then a meeting was called +for Saturday, the eighteenth of December, to be held at that well- +known sporting little inn the Bobtailed Fox. The members of the +hunt were earnestly called upon to attend. It was,--so said the +printed document which was issued,--the only means by which the +hunt could be preserved. If gentlemen who were interested did not +put their shoulders to the wheel the Runnymede hunt must be +regarded as a thing of the past. One of the documents was sent to +the Major with an intimation that if he wished to attend no +objection would be made to his presence. The chair would be taken +at half-past twelve punctually at that popular and well-known old +sportsman Mr Mahogany Topps. + +Was ever the master of a hunt treated in such a way! His presence +not objected to! As a rule the master of a hunt does not attend +hunt meetings, because the matter to be discussed is generally +that of the money to be subscribed for him, as to which it was as +well that he should not hear the pros and cons. But it is +presumed that he is to be the hero of the hour, and that he is to +be treated to his face, and spoken of behind his back, with love, +admiration, and respect. But now this matter was told his presence +would be allowed! And then this fox-hunting meeting was summoned +for half-past twelve on a hunting day;--when, as all the world +knew, the hounds were to meet at eleven, twelve miles off! Was +ever anything so base? said the Major to himself. But he resolved +that he would be equal to the occasion. He immediately issued +cards to all the members, stating that on that day the meet had +been changed from Croppingham Bushes, which was ever so much on +the other side of Bagshot, to the Bobtailed Fox,--for the benefit +of the hunt at large, said the card,--and that the hounds would be +there at half-past one. + +Whatever might happen, he must show a spirit. In all this there +were one of two of the London brigade who stood fast to him. 'Cock +your tail, Tifto,' said one hard-riding supporter, 'and show 'em +you aren't afraid of nothing.' So Tifto cocked his tail and went +to the meeting in his best new scarlet coat, and with his whitest +breeches, his pinkest boots, and his neatest little bows at his +knees. He entered the room with his horn in his hand, as a symbol +of authority, and took off his hunting-cap to salute the assembly +with a jaunty air. He had taken two glasses of sherry brandy, and +as long as the stimulant lasted would no doubt be able to support +himself with audacity. + +Old Mr Topps, in rising from his chair, did not say very much. He +had been hunting in the Runnymede country for nearly fifty years, +and had never seen anything so sad as this before. It made him, he +knew, very unhappy. As for foxes, there were always plenty of +foxes in his coverts. His friend Mr Jawstock, on the right, would +explain what all this was about. All he wanted was to see the +Runnymede hunt properly kept up. Then he sat down, and Mr Jawstock +rose to his legs. + +Mr Jawstock was a gentleman well known in the Runnymede country, +who had himself been instrumental in bringing the Major into these +parts. There is often someone in a hunting country who never +becomes a master of hounds himself, but who has almost as much to +say about the business as the master himself. Sometimes at hunt +meetings he is rather unpopular, as he is always inclined to talk. +But there are occasions on which his services are felt to be +valuable,--as were Mr Jawstock's at present. He was about forty- +five years of age, and was not much given to riding, owned no +coverts himself, and was not a man of wealth; but he understood +the nature of hunting, knew all its laws, and was a judge of +horses, of hounds,--and of men; and could say a thing when he had +to say it. + +Mr Jawstock sat on the right hand of Mr Topps, and a place was +left for the master opposite. The task to be performed was neither +easy nor pleasant. It was necessary that the orator should accuse +the gentleman opposite to him,--a man with whom he himself had been +very intimate,--of iniquity so gross and so mean, that nothing +worse can be conceived. 'You are a swindler, a cheat, a rascal of +the very deepest dye;--a rogue so mean that it is revolting to be +in the same room with you!' That was what Mr Jawstock had to say. +And he said it. Looking round the room, occasionally appealing to +Mr Topps, who on these occasions would lift up his hands in +horror, but never letting his eye fall for a moment on the Major. +Mr Jawstock told his story. 'I did not see it done,' said he. 'I +know nothing about it. I never was at Doncaster in my life. But +you have evidence of what the Jockey Club thinks. The Master of +our Hunt has been banished from racecourses.' Here there was +considerable opposition, and a few short but excited little +dialogues were maintained;--throughout all which Tifto restrained +himself like a Spartan. 'At any rate he has been thoroughly +disgraced,' continued Mr Jawstock, 'as a sporting man. He has been +driven out of the Beargarden Club.' 'He resigned in disgust at +their treatment,' said a friend of the Major's. 'Then let him +resign in disgust at ours,' said Mr Jawstock, 'for we won't have +him here. Caesar wouldn't keep a wife who was suspected of +infidelity, nor will the Runnymede country endure a Master of +Hounds who is supposed to have driven a nail into a horse's foot.' + +Two or three other gentlemen had something to say before the Major +was allowed to speak,--the upshot of the discourse of all of them +being the same. The Major must go. + +Then the Major got up, and certainly as far as attention went he +had full justice done him. However clamorous they might intend to +be afterwards that amount of fair play they were all determined to +afford him. The Major was not excellent at speaking, but he did +perhaps better than might have been expected. 'This is a very +disagreeable position,' he said, 'very disagreeable indeed. As for +the nail in the horse's foot I know no more about it than the babe +unborn. But I've got two things to say, and I'll say what aren't +the most consequence first. These hounds belong to me.' Here he +paused, and a loud contradiction came from many parts of the room. +Mr Jawstock, however, proposed that the Major should be heard to +the end. 'I say they belong to me,' repeated the Major. 'If +anybody tries his hand at anything else the law will soon set that +to rights. But that aren't of much consequence. What I've got to +say is this. Let the matter be referred. If that 'orse had a nail +in run into his foot,--and I don't say he hadn't,--who was the man +most injured? Why, Lord Silverbridge. Everybody knows that. I +suppose he dropped well on to eighty thousand pounds! I propose +to leave it to him. Let him say. He ought to know more about it +than anyone. He and I were partners in the horse. His Lordship +aren't very sweet upon me at the just at present. Nobody need fear +that he'll do me a good turn. I say leave it to him.' + +In the matter the Major had certainly been well advised. A rumour +had come become prevalent among sporting circles that Silverbridge +had refused to condemn the Major. It was known that he had paid +his bets without delay, and that he had, to some extent, declined +to take advice from the leaders of the Jockey Club. The Major's +friends were informed that the young lord had refused to vote +against him at the club. Was it not more than probable that if +this matter were referred to him he would refuse to give a verdict +against his late partner? + +The Major sat down, put on his cap, and folded his arms akimbo, +with his horn sticking out from his left hand. For a time there +was a general silence, broken, however, by murmurs in different +parts of the room. Then Mr Jawstock whispered something into the +ear of the Chairman, and Mr Topps, rising from his seat, suggested +to Tifto that he should retire. 'I think so,' said Jawstock. 'The +proposition that you have made can only be discussed only in your +absence.' Then the Major held a consultation with one of his +friends, and after that did retire. + +When he was gone the real hubbub of the meeting commenced. There +were some there who understood the nature of Lord Silverbridge's +feelings in the matter. 'He would be the last man in England to +declare him guilty,' said Mr Jawstock. 'Whatever my lord says, he +shan't ride across my land,' said a farmer in the background. 'I +don't think any gentleman ever made a fairer proposition,--since +anything was anything,' said a friend of the Major's, a gentleman +who kept livery stables in Long Acre. 'We won't have him here,' +said another farmer,--whereupon Mr Topps shook his head sadly. 'I +don't think any gentleman ought to be condemned without a +'earing,' said one of Tifto's admirers, 'and where you're to get +anyone to hunt in the country like him, I don't know as anybody is +prepared to say.' 'We'll manage that,' said a young gentleman from +the neighbourhood of Bagshot, who thought that he could hunt the +country himself quite as well as Major Tifto. 'He must go from +here; that's the long and short of it,' said Mr Jawstock. 'Put it +to the vote, Mr Jawstock,' said the livery-stable keeper. Mr Topps, +who had had great experience in public meetings, hereupon +expressed an opinion that they might as well go to a vote. No +doubt he was right if the matter was one which must sooner or +later be determined in that manner. + +Mr Jawstock looked round the room trying to calculate what might +be the effect of a show of hands. The majority was with him; but +he was well aware that of this majority some few would be drawn +away by the apparent justice of Tifto's proposition. And what was +the use of voting? Let them vote as they might, it was out of the +question that Tifto should remain master of the hunt. But the +chairman had acceded, and on such occasions it is difficult to go +against the chairman. + +Then there came a show of hands,--first for those who desired to +refer the matter to Lord Silverbridge, and afterwards for Tifto's +direct enemies,--for those who were anxious to banish Tifto out of +hand, without reference to anyone. At last the matter was settled. +To the great annoyance of Mr Jawstock and the farmers the meeting +voted that Lord Silverbridge should be invited to give his opinion +as to the innocence or guilt of his late partner. + +The Major's friends carried the discussion out to him as he sat on +horseback, as though he had altogether gained the battle and was +secure in his position as Master of the Runnymede Hunt for the +next dozen years. But at the same time there came a message from +Mr Mahogany Topps. It was now half-past two, and Mr Topps +expressed a hope that Major Tifto would not draw the country on +the present occasion. The Major, thinking that it might be as well +to conciliate his enemies, road slowly and solemnly home to Tally- +ho Lodge in the middle of his hounds. + + + +CHAPTER 58 + +The Major is Deposed + +When Silverbridge undertook to return with Tregear to London +instead of going direct to Matching, it is to be feared that he +was simply actuated by a desire to postpone his further visit to +his father's house. He had thought that Lady Mabel would surely be +gone before his task at Polpenno was completed. As soon as he +should again find himself in his father's presence he would at +once declare his intention of marrying Isabel Boncassen. But he +could not see his way to doing this while Lady Mabel should be in +the house. + +'I think you will find Mabel still at Matching,' said Tregear on +their way up. 'She will wait for you I fancy.' + +'I don't know why she should wait for me,' said Silverbridge +almost angrily. + +'I thought that you and she were fast friends.' + +'I suppose we are--after a fashion. She might wait for you +perhaps.' + +'I think she would,--if I could go there.' + +'You are much thicker with her than ever I was. You went to see +her at Grex,--when nobody else was there.' + +'Is Miss Cassewary nobody?' + +'Next door to it,' said Silverbridge, half jealous of the favours +shown to Tregear. + +'I thought,' said Tregear, 'that there should be a closer intimacy +between you and her.' + +'I don't know why you should think so.' + +'Had you ever had any such idea yourself? + +'I haven't any now,--so there may be an end of it, I don't think a +fellow ought to be cross-questioned on such a subject.' + +'Then I am very sorry for Mabel,' said Tregear. This was uttered +solemnly, so that Silverbridge found himself debarred from making +any flippant answer. He could not altogether defend himself. He +had been quite justified, he thought, in changing his mind, but he +did not like to awn that he had changed it so quickly. + +'I think we had better not talk any more about it,' he said, after +pausing for a few moments. After that nothing more was said +between them on the subject. + +Up in town Silverbridge spent two or three days pleasantly enough, +while a thunderbolt was being prepared for him, or rather, in +truth, two thunderbolts. During these days he was much with +Tregear, and though he could not speak freely of his own +matrimonial projects, still he was brought round to give some sort +of assent to the engagement between Tregear and his sister. This +new position which his friend had won for himself did in some +degree operate on his judgement. It was not perhaps that he +himself imagined that Tregear as a Member of Parliament would be +worthier, but that he fancied that such would be the Duke's +feelings. The Duke had declared that Tregear was nobody. That +could hardly be said of a man who had a seat in the House of +Commons;--certainly could not be said by so staunch a politician as +the Duke. + +But had he known of those two thunderbolts he would not have +enjoyed his time at the Beargarden. The thunderbolts fell upon him +in the shape of two letters which reached his hands at the same +time, and were as follows: + +'The Bobtailed Fox, 18 December. + +'MY LORD, + +'At a meeting held in this house today in reference to the hunting +of the Runnymede country, it was proposed that the management of +the hounds should be taken out of the hands of Major Tifto, in +consequence of certain conduct of which it is alleged he was +guilty at the last Doncaster races. + +'Major Tifto was present and requested your Lordship's opinion +should he be asked as to his guilt. I do not know myself that we +are warranted in troubling your Lordship on the subject. I am, +however, commissioned by the majority of the gentlemen who were +present to ask you whether you think that Major Tifto's conduct on +that occasion was of such a nature as to make him unfit to be the +depositary of that influence, authority and intimacy which ought +to be at the command of a Master of Hounds. + +'I feel myself bound to inform your Lordship that the hunt +generally will be inclined to place great weight upon your +opinion, but that it does not undertake to reinstate Major Tifto, +even should your opinion be in his favour. + +'I have the honour to be, +My Lord, +Your Lordship's most obedient Servant, +'JEREMIAH JAWSTOCK +'Juniper Lodge, Staines.' + +Mr Jawstock, when he had written this letter, was proud of his own +language, but still felt that the application was a very lame one. +Why ask any man for an opinion, and tell him at the same time that +his opinion might probably not be taken! And yet no other +alternative had been left to him. The meeting had decided that the +application should be made; but Mr Jawstock was well aware that +let the young Lord's answer be what it might, the Major would not +be endured as master in the Runnymede country. Mr Jawstock felt +that the passage in which he explained that a Master of Hounds +should be a depositary of influence and intimacy, was good;--but +yet the application was lame, very lame. + +Lord Silverbridge as he read it thought it was very unfair. It was +a most disagreeable thunderbolt. Then he opened the second letter, +of which he well knew the handwriting. It was from the Major. +Tifto's letters were very legible, but the writing was cramped, +showing that the operation had been performed with difficulty. +Silverbridge had hoped that he might never receive another epistle +from his late partner! The letter, as follows, had been drawn out +for Tifto in rough by the livery-stable keeper in Long Acre. + +'MY DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'I venture respectfully to appeal to your Lordship for an act of +justice. Nobody has more of a true-born Englishman's feeling of +fair play between man and man than your Lordship; and as you and +me have been a good deal together, and your Lordship ought to know +me pretty well, I venture to appeal to your Lordship for a good +word. + +'All that story from Doncaster has got down into the country where +I am M.F.H. Nobody could have been more sorry than me that your +Lordship dropped your money. Would not I have been prouder than +anything to have had a horse in my name win the race! Was it +likely I should lame him? Anyways I didn't, and I don't think +your Lordship thinks it was me. Of course your Lordship and me is +two now,--but that don't alter facts. + +'What I want is your Lordship to s\end me a line, just stating +your Lordship's opinion that I didn't do it, and didn't have +nothing to do with it;--which I didn't. There was a meeting at The +Bobtailed Fox yesterday, and gentlemen was all of one mind to go +by what your Lordship would say. I couldn't desire nothing fairer. +So I hope your Lordship will stand to me now, and write something +that will pull me through. +'With all respects I beg to remain, +Your Lordship's most dutiful Servant, +T. TIFTO.' + +There was something in this letter which the Major himself did not +quite approve. There was an absence of familiarity about it which +annoyed him. He would have liked to call upon his late partner to +declare that a more honourable man than Major Tifto had never been +known on the turf. But he felt himself to be so far down in the +world that it was not safe for him to hold an opinion of his own, +even against the livery-stable keeper! + +Silverbridge was for a time in doubt whether he should answer the +letters at all, and if so how he should answer them. In regard to +Mr Jawstock and the meeting at large, he regarded the application +as an impertinence. But as to Tifto himself, he vacillated between +pity, contempt, and absolute condemnation. Everybody had assured +him that the man had certainly been guilty. The fact that he had +made bets against their joint horse,--bets as to which he had said +nothing till after the race was over,--had been admitted by +himself. And yet it was possible that the man might not be such a +rascal as to be unfit to manage the Runnymede hounds. Having +himself got rid of Tifto, he would have been glad that the poor +wretch should have been left with his hunting honours. But he did +not think that he could write to his late partner any letter that +would preserve those honours to him. + +At Tregear's advice he referred the matter to Mr Lupton. Mr Lupton +was of opinion that both the letters should be answered, but that +the answer to each should be very short. 'There is a prejudice +about the world just at present,' said Mr Lupton, 'in favour of +answering letters. I don't see why I am to be subjected to an +annoyance because another man has taken a liberty. But it is +better to submit to public opinion. Public opinion thinks that +letter should be answered.' Then Mr Lupton dictated the answers. + +'Lord Silverbridge presents his compliments to Mr Jawstock, and +begs to say that he does not feel himself called upon to express +any opinion as to Major Tifto's conduct at Doncaster.' + +That was the first. The second was rather less simple, but not +much longer. + +'SIR, + +'I do not feel myself called upon to express any opinion either to +you or to others as to your conduct at Doncaster. Having received +a letter on the subject from Mr Jawstock I have written to him to +this effect. +'Your obedient Servant, +SILVERBRIDGE.' + +Poor Tifto, when he got this very curt epistle, was broken- +hearted. He did not dare to show it. Day after day he told the +livery-stable keeper that he had received no reply, and at last +asserted that his appeal had remained altogether unanswered. Even +this he thought was better than acknowledging the rebuff which had +reached him. As regarded the meeting which had been held,--any +further meetings which might be held,--at The Bobtailed Fox, he did +not see the necessity, as he explained it to the livery-stable +keeper, of acknowledging that he had written any letter to Lord +Silverbridge. + +The letter to Mr Jawstock was of course brought forward. Another +meeting at The Bobtailed Fox was convened. But in the meantime +hunting had been discontinued in the Runnymede country. The Major +with all his pluck, with infinite cherry brandy, could not do it. +Men who had a few weeks since been on very friendly terms, and who +had called each other Dick and Harry when the squabble first +began, were now talking of 'punching' each other's heads. Special +whips had been procured by men who intended to ride, and special +bludgeons by the young farmers who intended that nobody should +ride as long as Major Tifto kept the hounds. It was said that the +police would interfere. It was whispered that the hounds would be +shot,--though Mr Topps, Mr Jawstock, and others declared that no +crime so heinous as that had ever been contemplated in the +Runnymede country. + +The difficulties were too many for poor Tifto, and the hounds were +not brought out again under his influence. + +A second meeting was summoned, and an invitation was sent to the +Major similar to that which he had before received;--but on this +occasion he did not appear. Nor were there any gentlemen down from +London. The second meeting might almost have been called select. +Mr Mahogany Topps was there of course, in the chair, and Mr +Jawstock took the place of honour and of difficulty on his right +hand. There was the young gentleman from Bagshot, who considered +himself quite fit to take Tifto's place if somebody else would pay +the bills and settle the money, and there was the sporting old +parson from Croppingham. Three or four other members of the hunt +were present, and perhaps half-a-dozen farmers, ready to declare +that Major Tifto should never be allowed to cross their fields +again. + +But there was no opposition. Mr Jawstock read the young lord's +note, and declared that it was quite as much as he expected. He +considered that the note, short as it was, must be decisive. Major +Tifto in appealing to Lord Silverbridge, had agreed to abide by +his Lordship's answer, and that answer was now before them. Mr +Jawstock ventured to propose that Major Tifto should be declared +to be no longer Master of the Runnymede Hounds. The parson from +Croppingham seconded the proposition, and Major Tifto was formally +deposed. + + + +CHAPTER 59 + +No One Can Tell What May Come to Pass + +Then Lord Silverbridge necessarily went down to Matching, knowing +that he must meet Mabel Grex. Why should she have prolonged her +visit? No doubt it might have been very pleasant for her to be +his father's guest at Matching, but she had been there above a +month! He could understand that his father should ask her to +remain. His father was still brooding over that foolish +communication which had been made to him on the night of the +dinner at the Beargarden. His father was still intending to take +Mabel to his arms as a daughter-in-law. But Lady Mabel herself +knew that it could not be so! The whole truth had been told to +her. Why should she remain at Matching for the sake of being mixed +up in a scene the acting of which could not fail to be +disagreeable to her? + +He found the house very quiet and nearly empty. Mrs Finn was there +with the two girls, and Mr Warburton had come back. Miss Cassewary +had gone to a brother's house. Other guests to make Christmas +merry there were none. As he looked round at the large rooms he +reflected that he himself was there only for a special purpose. It +was his duty to break the news of his intended marriage to his +father. As he stood before the fire, thinking how best he might do +this, it occurred to him that a letter from a distance would have +been the ready and simple way. But then it had occurred to him +also, when at a distance, that a declaration of his purpose face +to face was the simplest and readiest way. If you have to go +headlong into the water you should take your plunge without +hesitating. So he told himself, making up his mind that he would +have it all out that evening. + +At dinner Lady Mabel sat next to his father, and he could watch +the special courtesy with which the Duke treated the girl who he +was so desirous of introducing to his house. Silverbridge could +not talk about the election of Polpenno because all conversation +about Tregear was interdicted by the presence of his sister. He +could say nothing as to the Runnymede hunt and the two +thunderbolts which had fallen on him, as Major Tifto was not a +subject on which he could expatiate in the presence of his father. +He asked a few questions about the shooting, and referred with +great regret to his absence from the Brake country. + +'I am sure Mr Cassewary could spare you for another fortnight,' +the Duke said to his neighbour, alluding to a visit which she now +intended to make. + +'If so he would have to spare me altogether,' said Mabel, 'for I +must meet my father in London in the middle of January.' + +'Could you not put it off for another year?' + +'You would think I had taken root and was growing at Matching.' + +'Of all our products you would be the most delightful, and the +most charming,--and we would hope the most permanent,' said the +courteous Duke. + +'After being here so long I need hardly say that I like Matching +better than any place in the world. I suppose it is the contrast +to Grex.' + +'Grex was a palace,' said the Duke, 'before a wall of this house +had been built.' + +'Grex is very old and very wild,--and very uncomfortable. But I +love it dearly. Matching is the very reverse of Grex.' + +'Not I hope in your affections.' + +'I did not mean that. I think one likes a contrast. But I must go, +say on the first of January, to pick up Miss Cassewary.' + +It was certain, therefore, that she was going on the first of +January. How would it be if he put off the telling of his story +for yet another week, till she should be gone? Then he looked +around and bethought himself that the time would hang very heavy +with him. And his father would daily expect from him a declaration +exactly opposed to that which he had to make. He had no horses to +ride. As he went on listening he almost convinced himself that the +proper thing to do would be to go back to London and thence write +to his father. He made no confession to his father on that night. + +On the next morning there was a heavy fall of snow, but +nevertheless everybody managed to go to church. The Duke, as he +looked at Lady Mabel tripping along the swept paths in her furs +and short petticoats and well-made boots, though that his son was +a lucky fellow to have the chance of winning the love of such a +girl. No remembrance of Miss Boncassen came across his mind as he +saw them close together. It was so important that Silverbridge +should marry and thus he kept from further follies! And it was so +momentous to the fortunes of the Palliser family generally that he +should marry well! In thinking so it did not occur to him that +the granddaughter of an American labourer might be offered to him. +A young lady fit to be the Duchess of Omnium was not to be found +everywhere. But this girl, he thought as he saw her walking +briskly and strongly through the snow, with every mark of health +about her, with every sign of high breeding, very beautiful, +exquisite in manner, gracious as a goddess, was fit to be a +Duchess! Silverbridge at this moment was walking close to her +side,--in good looks, in gracious manner, in high breeding her +equal,--in worldly gifts infinitely her superior. Surely she would +not despise him! Silverbridge at the moment was expressing a hope +that the sermon would not be very long. + +After lunch Mabel came suddenly behind the chair on which +Silverbridge was sitting and asked him to take a walk with her. +Was she not afraid of the snow? 'Perhaps you are,' she said +laughing. 'I do not mind it in the least.' When they were but a +few yards from the front door, she put her hand upon his arm, and +spoke to him as though she had arranged the walk with reference to +that special question. 'And now tell me all about Frank.' + +She had arranged everything. She had a plan before hew now, and +had determined in accordance with that plan she would say nothing +to disturb him on this occasion. If she could succeed in bringing +him into good humour with herself, that should be sufficient for +today. 'Now tell me everything about Frank.' + +'Frank is member of Parliament for Polpenno. That is all.' + +'That is so like a man, and so unlike a woman. What did he say? +What did he do? How did he look? What did you say? What did you +do? How did you look?' + +'We looked very miserable, when we got wet through, walking about +all day in the rain.' + +'Was that necessary?' + +'Quite necessary. We looked so mean and draggled that nobody would +have voted for us, only that poor Mr Carbotttle looked meaner and +more draggled.' + +'The Duke says you made every so many speeches.' + +'I should think I did. It is very easy to make speeches down at a +place like that. Tregear spoke like a book.' + +'He spoke well?' + +'Awfully well. He told them that all the good things that had +every been done in Parliament had been done by the Tories. He went +back to Pitt's time, and had it all at his fingers' ends.' + +'And quite true.' + +'That's just what it was not. It was all a crammer. But it did +well.' + +'I am glad he is a member. Don't you think the Duke will come +around a little now?' + +When Tregear and the election had been sufficiently discussed, +they came by degrees to Major Tifto and the two thunderbolts. +Silverbridge, when he perceived that nothing was to be said about +Isabel Boncassen, or his own freedom in the matter of love-making, +was not sorry to have a friend from whom he could find sympathy +for himself in his own troubles. With some encouragement from +Mabel the whole story was told. 'Was it not a great impertinence?' +she asked. + +'It was an awful bore. What could I say? I was not going to +pronounce judgement against the poor devil, I daresay he was good +enough for Mr Jawstock.' + +'But I suppose he did cheat horribly.' + +'I daresay he did. A great many of them do cheat. But what of +that? I was not bound to give him a character, bad or good.' + +'Certainly not.' + +'He had not been my servant. It was such a letter. I'll show it to +you when we get in!-asking whether Tifto was fit to be the +depository of the intimacy of the Runnymeded hunt! And then Tif's +letter;--I almost wept over that.' + +'How could he have had the audacity to write at all?' + +'He said that "him and me had been a good deal together". +Unfortunately that was true. Even now I am not quite sure that he +lamed the horse himself.' + +'Everybody thinks he did. Percival says there is no doubt about +it.' + +'Percival knows nothing about it. Three of the gang ran away, and +he stood his ground. That's about all we do know.' + +'What did you say to him?' + +'I had to address him as Sir, and beg him not to write to me any +more. Of course hey mean to get rid of him, and I couldn't do him +any good. Poor Tifto! Upon the whole I think I hate Jawstock +worse than Tifto.' + +Lady Mabel was content with her afternoon's work. When they had +been at Matching before the Polpenno election, there had +apparently been no friendship between them;--at any rate no +confidential friendship. Miss Boncassen had been there, and he had +neither ears nor eyes for anyone else. But now something like the +feeling of old days had been restored. She had not done much +towards her great object,--but then she had known that nothing +could be done till he should again be in good humour with her. + +On the Sunday, the Monday, and the Tuesday they were again +together. In some of these interviews Silverbridge described the +Polpenno people, and told her how Miss Tregear had been reassured +by his eloquence. He also read to her the Jawstock and Tifto +correspondence, and was complimented by her as to his prudence and +foresight. 'To tell the truth I consulted Mr Lupton,' he said, not +liking to take credit for wisdom which had not been his own. Then +they talked about Grex, and Killancodlem, about Gerald and the +shooting, about Mary's love for Tregear, and about the work for +the coming session. On all these subjects they were comfortable +and confidential,--Miss Boncassen's name never having been as yet +so much as mentioned. + +But still the real work was before her. She had not hoped to bring +him round to kneel once more at her feet by such gentle measures +as these. She had not dared to dream that he could in this way be +taught to forget the past autumn and all its charms. She knew well +that there was something very difficult before her. But, if that +difficult thing might be done at all, these were the preparations +which must be made for the doing of it. + +It was arranged that she should leave Matching on Saturday, the +first day of the new year. Things had gone on in the manner +described till the Thursday had come. The Duke had been impatient +but had restrained himself. He had seen that they were much +together and that they were apparently friends. He had told +himself that there were two more days, and that before the end of +those days everything might be pleasantly settled! + +It had become a matter of course that Silverbridge and Mabel +should walk together in the afternoon. He himself had felt that +there was danger in this,--not danger that he should be untrue to +Isabel, but that he should make others think that he was true to +Mabel. But he excused himself on the plea that he and Mabel had +been intimate friends,--were still intimate friends, and that she +was going away in a day or two. Mary, who watched it all, was sure +that misery was being prepared for someone. She was aware that by +this time her father was anxious to welcome Mabel as his daughter- +in-law. She strongly suspected that something had been said +between her father and her brother on the subject. But then she +had Isabel Boncassen's direct assurance that Silverbridge was +engaged to her! Now when Isabel's back was turned, Silverbridge +and Mabel were always together. + +On the Thursday after lunch they were again together. It had +become so much a habit that the walk repeated itself without an +effort. It had been part of Mabel's scheme that it should be so. +During all this morning she had been thinking of her scheme. It +was all hopeless. So much she had declared to herself. But +forlorn hopes do sometimes end in splendid triumphs. That which +she might gain was so much! And what could she lose? The sweet +bloom of her maiden shame? That, she told herself, with bitterest +inward tears, was already gone from her. Frank Tregear at any rate +knew where her heart had been given. Frank Tregear knew that +having lost her heart to one man she was anxious to marry another. +He knew that she was willing to accept the coronet of a duchess as +her consolation. That bloom of her maiden shame, of which she +quite understood the sweetness of the charm, the value--was gone +when she had brought herself to such a state that any human being +should know that, loving one man, she should be willing to marry +another. The sweet treasure was gone from her. Its aroma was fled. +It behoved her now to be ambitious, cautious,--and if possible +successful. + +When first she had so resolved, success seemed to be easily within +her reach. Of all the golden youths that crossed her path no one +was so pleasant to her eye, to her ear, to her feelings generally +as this Duke's young heir. There was a coming manliness about him +which she liked,---and she liked even the slight want of present +manliness. Putting aside Frank Tregear she could go nearer to +loving him than any other man she had ever seen. With him she +would not be turned from her duties by disgust, by dislike, or +dismay. She could even think that the time would come when she +might really love him. Then she had all but succeeded, and she +might have succeeded altogether had she been a little more +prudent. But she had allowed her great prize to escape from her +fingers. + +But the prize was not yet utterly beyond her grasp. To recover +it,--to recover even the smallest chance of recovering it, there +would be need of great exertion. She must be bold, sudden, +unwomanlike,--and yet with such display of woman's charms that he +at least should discover no want. She must be false, but false +with such perfect deceit, that he must regard her as a pearl of +truth. If anything could lure him back it must be his conviction +of her passionate love. And she must be strong;--so strong as to +overcome not only his weakness, but all that was strong in him. +She knew that he did love that other girl,--and she must overcome +even that. And to do this she must prostrate herself at his feet,-- +as, since the world began, it has been the man's province to +prostrate himself at the feet of the woman he loves. + +To do this she must indeed bid adieu to the sweet bloom of her +maiden shame! But had she not done so already when, by the side +of the brook at Killancodlem, she had declared to him plainly +enough her despair at hearing that he loved that other girl? +Though she were to grovel at his feet she could not speak more +plainly than she had done then; but--though the chances were +small,--perchance she might tell it more effectually. + +'Perhaps this will be our last walk,' she said. 'Come down to the +seat over the river.' + +'Why should it be the last? You'll be her tomorrow.' + +'There are so many slips in such things,' she said laughing. 'You +may get a letter from your constituents that will want all day to +answer. Or your father may have a political communication to make +to me. But at any rate come.' So they went to the seat. + +It was a spot in the park from whence there was a distant view +over many lands, and low beneath the bench, which stood at the +edge of a steep bank, ran a stream which made a sweeping bend in +this place, so that a reach of the little river might be seen both +to the right and to the left. Though the sun was shining, the snow +under their feet was hard with frost. It was an air such as one +sometimes finds in England, and often in America. Though the cold +was very perceptible, though water in the shade was freezing at +this moment, there was no feeling of damp, no sense of bitter +wind. It was a sweet and jocund air, such as would make young +people prone to run and skip. 'You are not going to sit down with +all the snow on the bench,' said Silverbridge. + +On their way thither she had not said a word that would disturb +him. She had spoken to him of the coming session, and had managed +to display to him the interest which she took in his parliamentary +career. In doing this she had flattered him to the top of his +bent. If he would return to his father's politics, then would she +too become a renegade. Would he speak in the next session? She +hoped he would speak. And if he did, might she be there to hear +him? She was cautious not to say a word of Frank Tregear, +understanding something of that strange jealousy which could exist +even when he who was jealous did not love the woman who caused it. + +'No,' she said, 'I do not think we can sit. But still I like to be +here with you. All that some day will be your own.' Then she +stretched her hands out to the far view. + +'Some of it, I suppose. I don't think it is all ours. As for that, +if we cared for extent of acres, one ought to go to Barsetshire.' + +'Is that larger?' + +'Twice as large, I believe, and yet none of the family like being +there. The rental is very well.' + +'And the borough,' she said, leaning on his arm and looking up +into his face. 'What a happy fellow you ought to be.' + +'Bar Tifto,--and Mr Jawstock.' + +'You have got rid of Tifto and all those troubles very easily.' + +'Thanks to the governor.' + +'Yes, indeed. I do love your father so dearly.' + +'So do I--rather.' + +'May I tell you something about him?' As she asked the question +she was standing very close to him, leaning upon his arm, with her +left hand crossed upon her right. Had others been there, of course +she would not have stood in such a guise. She knew that,--and he +knew it too. Of course there was something in it of declared +affection,--of that kind of love which most of us have been happy +enough to give and receive, without intending to show more than +true friendship will allow at special moments. + +'Don't tell me anything about him I shan't like to hear.' + +'Ah;--that is so hard to know. I wish you would like to hear it.' + +'What can it be?' + +'I cannot tell you now.' + +'Why not? And why did you offer?' + +'Because,--Oh, Silverbridge.' + +He certainly as yet did not understand it. It had never occurred +to him that she would know what were his father's wishes. Perhaps +he was slow of comprehension as he urged her to tell him what this +was about his father. 'What can you tell me about him, that I +should not like to hear?' + +'You do not know? Oh, Silverbridge, I think you know.' Then there +came upon him a glimmering of the truth. 'You do know.' And she +stood apart looking him full in the face. + +'I do not know what you can have to tell me.' + +'No;--no. It is not that I should tell you. But yet it is so, +Silverbridge, what did you say to me that morning when you came to +me that morning in the Square?' + +'What did I say?' + +'Was I not entitled to think that you--loved me?' To this he had +nothing to reply, but stood before her silent and frowning. 'Think +of it, Silverbridge. Was it not so? And because I did not at once +tell you all the truth, because I did not there say that my heart +was all yours, were you right to leave?' + +'You only laughed at me.' + +'No;--no; no; I never laughed at you. How could I laugh when you +were all the world to me? Ask Frank; he knew. Ask Miss Cass;--she +knew. And can you say that you did not know; you, you, yourself? +Can any girl suppose that such words as these are to mean nothing +when they have been spoken? You knew I loved you.' + +'No;--no.' + +'You must have known it. I will never believe but that you knew +it. Why should your father be so sure of it?' + +'He never was sure of it.' + +'Yes, Silverbridge, yes. There is not one in the house who does +not see that he treats me as though he expected me to be his son's +wife. Do you not know that he wishes it?' He fain would not have +answered this; but she paused for his answer and then repeated her +question. 'Do you not know that he wishes it?' + +'I think he does,' said Silverbridge; 'but it can never be so.' + +'Oh, Silverbridge;--oh my loved one. Do not say that to me! Do not +kill me at once!' Now she placed her hands one on each arm as she +stood opposite to him and looked up into his face. 'You said that +you loved me once. Why do you desert me now? Have you a right to +treat me like that;--when I tell you that you have all my heart?' +The tears were now streaming down her face, and they were not +counterfeit tears. + +'You know,' he said, submitting to her hands, but not lifting his +arm to embrace her. + +'What do I know?' + +'That I have given all I have to another.' As he said this he +looked away sternly, over her shoulder, to the distance. + +'That American girl!' she exclaimed starting back, with some show +of sternness on her brow. + +'Yes;--that American girl' said Silverbridge. + +Then she recovered herself immediately. Indignation natural +indignation, would not serve her turn in the present emergency. +'You know that cannot be. You ought to know it. What will your +father say? You have not dared to tell him. That is so natural,' +she added, trying to appease his frown. 'How possibly can it be +told to him? I will not say a word against her.' + +'No; do not do that.' + +'But there are fitnesses of things which such a one as you cannot +disregard without preparing yourself for a whole life of +repentance.' + +'Look here, Mabel.' + +'Well.' + +'I will tell you the truth.' + +'I would sooner lose all;--the rank I have, the rank that I am to +have, all these lands that you have been looking on; my father's +wealth, would give them all up, sooner than lose her.' Now at any +rate he was a man. She was sure of that now. This was more, very +much more, not only than she had expected from him, but more than +she had thought it possible that his character should have +produced. + +His strength reduced her to weakness. 'And I am nothing,' she +said. + +'Yes, indeed; you are Lady Grex,--whom all women envy, and whom all +men honour.' + +'The poorest wretch this day under the sun.' + +'Do not say that. You should take shame to say that.' + +'I do take shame;--and I do say it. Sir, do you feel what you owe +me? Do you not know that you have made me the wretch I am? How +did you dare to talk to me s you did talk when you were in London? + You tell me that I am Lady Mabel Grex;--and yet you come to me +with a lie on your lips;--with such a lie as that! You must have +taken me for some nursemaid on whom you had condescended to cast +your eye! It cannot be that even you should have dared to treat +Lady Mabel Grex after such a fashion as that! And now you have +cast your eye at this other girl. You can never marry her!' + +'I shall endeavour to do so.' + +'You can never marry her,' she said, stamping her foot. She had +now lost all the caution which she had taught herself for the +prosecution of her scheme,--all the care with which she had +burdened herself. Now she was natural enough. 'No,--you can never +marry her. You could not show yourself after it in your clubs, or +in Parliament, or in the world. Come home, do you say? No, I will +not go to your home. It is not my home. Cold;--of course I am +cold;--cold through to the heart.' + +'I cannot leave you alone here,' he said, for she had now turned +from him, and was walking with hurried steps and short turns on +the edge of the bank, which at this place was almost a precipice. + +'You have left me,--utterly to the cold--more desolate than I am +here even though I should spend the night among the trees. But I +will go back, and will tell your father everything. If my father +were other than he is,--if my brother were better to me, you would +not have done this.' + +'If you had a legion of brothers it would have been the same,' he +said, turning sharp upon her. + +They walked on together, but without a word till the house was in +sight. Then she looked round on him, and stopped him on the path +as she caught his eye.' Silverbridge!' she said. + +'Lady Mabel.' + +'Call me Mabel. At any rate call me Mabel. If I have said anything +to offend you--I beg your pardon.' + +'I am not offended--but unhappy.' + +'If you are unhappy, what must I be? What have I to look forward +to? Give me your hand, and say that we are friends.' + +'Certainly we are friends,' he said, and gave her his hand. + +'Who can tell what may come to pass?' To this he would make no +answer, as it seemed to imply that some division between himself +and Isabel Boncassen might possibly come to pass. 'You will not +tell anyone that I love you.' + +'I tell such a thing as that!' + +'But never forget it yourself. No one can tell what may come to +pass.' + +Lady Mabel at once went up to her room. She had played her scene, +but was well aware that she had played it altogether +unsuccessfully. + + + +CHAPTER 60 + +Lord Gerald in Further Trouble + +When Silverbridge got back to the house he was by no means well +pleased with himself. In the first place he was unhappy to think +that Mabel was unhappy, and that he had made he so. And then she +had told him that he would not have dared to have acted as he had +done, but that her father and brother were careless to defend her. +He had replied fiercely that a legion of brothers ready to act on +her behalf would not have altered his conduct; but not the less +did he feel that he had behaved badly to her. It could not now be +altered. He could not now be untrue to Isabel. But certainly he +had said a word or two to Mabel which he could not remember +without regret. He had not though that a word from him could have +been so powerful. Now, when that word was recalled to his memory +by the girl to whom it had been spoken he could not acquit +himself. + +And Mabel had declared to him that she would at once appeal to his +father. There was an absurdity in this at which he could not but +smile,--that the girl should complain to his father because he +would not marry her! But even in doing this she might cause him +great vexation. He could not bring himself to ask her not to tell +her story to the Duke. He must take all that as it might come. + +While he was thinking of all this in his own room a servant +brought him two letters. From the first which he opened he +perceived that it contained an account of more troubles. It was +from his brother Gerald, and was written from Auld Reikie, the +name of a house in Scotland belonging to Lord Nidderdale's people. + +'DEAR SILVER, + +'I have got into a most awful scrape. That fellow Percival is +here, and Dolly Longstaff, and Nidderdale, and Popplecourt, and +Jack Hindes and Perry who is in the Coldstreams, and one or two +more, and there has been a lot of cards, and I have lost ever so +much money. I wouldn't mind so much but Percival has won it all,--a +fellow I hate; and now I owe him--three thousand four hundred +pounds! He has just told me he is hard up and that he wants the +money before the week is over. He can't be hard up because he has +won from everybody;--but of course I had to tell him that I would +pay him. + +'Can you help me? Of course I know that I have been a fool. +Percival knows what he is about and plays regularly for money. +When I began I didn't think that I would lose above twenty or +thirty pounds. But it got on from one thing to another, and when I +woke this morning I felt I didn't know what to do with myself. You +can't think how the luck went against me. Everybody says they +never saw such cards. + +'And now do tell me how I am to get out of it. Could you manage it +with Mr Morton? Of course I will make it all right with you some +day. Morton always lets you have whatever you want. But perhaps +you couldn't do this without letting the governor know. I would +rather anything than that. There is some money owing at Oxford +also which of course he must know. + +'I was thinking that perhaps I might get it from some of those +fellows in London. There are people called Comfort and Criball, +who let men have money constantly. I know two or three up at +Oxford, who have had money from them. Of course I couldn't go to +them as you could do, for, in spite of what the governor said to +us up in London one day, there is nothing that must come to me. +But you could do anything in that way, and of course I would stand +to it. + +'I know you won't throw me over, because you have always been such +a brick. But above all things don't tell the governor. Percival is +such a nasty fellow, otherwise I shouldn't mind it. He spoke this +morning as though I was treating him badly,--though the money was +only lost last night; and he looked at me in a way that made me +long to kick him. I told him not to flurry himself, and that he +should have his money. If he speaks to me like that again I will +kick him. + +'I will be at Matching as soon as possible, but I cannot go till +this is settled. Nid'--meaning Lord Nidderdale,--'is a brick. + +'Your affectionate Brother, +GERALD.' + +The other was from Nidderdale, and referred to the same subject. + +'DEAR SILVERBRIDGE, + +'Here has been a terrible nuisance. Last night some of the men got +to playing cards, and Gerald lost a terribly large sum to +Percival. I did all that I could to stop it, because I saw that +Percival was going in for a big thing. I fancy he got as much from +Dolly Longstaff as he did from Gerald;--but it won't matter much to +Dolly; or if it does, nobody cares. Gerald told me he was writing +to you about it, so I am not betraying him. + +'What is to be done? Of course Percival is behaving badly. He +always does. I can't turn him out of the house, and he seems to +intend to stick to Gerald till he has got the money. He has taken +a cheque from Dolly dated two months hence. I am in an awful funk +for fear Gerald should pitch into him. He will in a minute if +anything rough is said to him. I suppose the straightest thing +would be to go to the Duke at once, but Gerald won't hear of it. I +hope you won't think me wrong to tell you. If I could help him I +would. You know what a bad doctor I am for that sort of complaint. + +'Yours always, +NIDDERDALE.' + +The dinner-bell had rung before Silverbridge had come to an end of +thinking of this new vexation, and he had not as yet made up his +mind what he had better do for his brother. There was one thing as +to which he was determined,--that it should not be done by him, +nor, if he could prevent it, by Gerald. There should be no +dealings with Comfort and Criball. The Duke had succeeded, at any +rate, in filling his son's mind with a horror of aid of that sort. +Nidderdale had suggested that the 'straightest' thing would be to +go direct to the Duke. That no doubt would be straight,--and +efficacious. The Duke would not have allowed a boy of his to be a +debtor to Lord Percival for a day, let the debt have been +contracted how it might. But Gerald had declared against this +course,--and Silverbridge himself would have been most unwilling to +adopt it. How could he have told that story to the Duke, while +there was that other infinitely more important story of his own, +which must be told at once? + +In the midst of all these troubles he went down to dinner. 'Lady +Mabel,' said the Duke, 'tells me that you two have been to see Sir +Guy's look-out.' + +She was standing close to the Duke and whispered a word into his +ear. 'You said you would call me Mabel.' + +'Yes sir,' said Silverbridge, 'and I have made up my mind that Sir +Guy never stayed there very long in winter. It was awfully cold.' + +'I had furs on,' said Mabel. 'What a lovely spot it is, even in +this weather.' Then dinner was announced. She had not been cold. +She could still feel the tingling of her blood as she had implored +him to love her. + +Silverbridge felt that he must write to his brother by the first +post. The communication was of a nature that would bear no delay. +If his hands had been free he would himself have gone off to Auld +Reikie. At last he made up his mind. The first letter he wrote was +neither to Nidderdale nor to Gerald, but to Lord Percival himself. + +'DEAR PERCIVAL, + +'Gerald writes me word that he has lost to you at cards 3,400 +pounds, and he wants me to get the money. It is a terrible +nuisance, and he has been an ass. But of course I shall stand to +him for anything he wants. I haven't got 3,400 pounds in my +pocket, and I don't know anyone who has,--that is among our set. +But I send you my I O U for the amount, and will promise to get +you the money in two months. I suppose that will be sufficient and +that you will not bother Gerald any more about it. +'Yours truly, +SILVERBRIDGE.' +Then he copied this letter and enclosed the copy in another which +he wrote to his brother. + +'DEAR GERALD, + +'What an ass you have been! But I don't suppose you are worse +than I was at Doncaster. I will have nothing to do with such +people as Comfort and Criball. That is the sure way to the D-! As +for telling Morton, that is only a polite and roundabout way of +telling the governor. He would immediately ask the governor what +was to be done. You will see what I have done. Of course I must +tell the governor before the end of February, as I cannot get the +money in any other way. But that I will do. It does seem hard upon +him. Not that the money will hurt him much; but that he would like +to have a steady-going son. + +'I suppose Percival won't make any bother about the I O U. He'll +be a fool if he does. I wouldn't kick him if I were you,--unless he +says anything very bad. You would be sure to come to grief +somehow. He is a beast. + +'Your affectionate Brother, +SILVERBRIDGE.' + +With these letters that special grief was removed from his mind +for awhile. Looking over the dark river of possible trouble which +seemed to run between the present moment and the time at which the +money must be procured, he thought that he had driven off this +calamity of Gerald's to infinite distance. But into that dark +river he must now plunge almost at once. On the next day, he +managed so that there should be no walk with Mabel. In the evening +he could see that the Duke was uneasy;--but not a word was said to +him. On the following morning Lady Mabel took her departure. When +she went from the door, both the Duke and Silverbridge were there +to bid her farewell. She smiled and was as gracious as though +everything had gone according to her heart's delight. 'Dear Duke, +I am so obliged to you for your kindness,' she said, as she put up +her cheek for him to kiss. Then she gave her hand to Silverbridge. +'Of course you will come and see me in town.' And she smiled upon +them all;--having courage enough to keep down all her sufferings. + +'Come in here a moment, Silverbridge,' said the father as they +returned into the house together. 'How is it now between you and +her?' + + + +CHAPTER 61 + +'Bone of my Bone' + +'How is it between you and her?' That was the question which the +Duke put to his son as soon as he had closed the door of the +study. Lady Mabel had been dismissed from the front door on her +journey, and there could be no doubt as to the 'her' intended. No +such question would have been asked had not Silverbridge himself +declared to his father his purpose of making Lady Mabel his wife. +On that subject the Duke, without such authority, would not have +interfered. But he had been consulted, had acceded, and had +encouraged the idea by excessive liberality on his part. He had +never dropped it out of his mind for a moment. But when he found +that the girl was leaving his house without any explanation, then +he became restless and inquisitive. + +They say that perfect love casteth out fear. If it be so the love +of children to their parents is seldom altogether perfect,--and +perhaps had better not be quite perfect. With this young man it +was not that he feared anything which his father could do to him, +that he believed that in consequence of his declaration which he +had to make his comforts and pleasures would be curtailed, or his +independence diminished. But he feared that he would make his +father unhappy, and he was conscious that he had so often sinned +in that way. He had stumbled so frequently! Though in action he +would so often be thoughtless,--yet he understood perfectly the +effect which had been produced on his father's mind by his +conduct. He had it at heart 'to be good to the governor', to +gratify that most loving of all possible friends, who, as he well +knew, was always thinking of his welfare. And yet he never had +been 'good to the governor';--nor had Gerald;--and to all this was +added his sister's determined perversity. It was thus he feared +his father. + +He paused for a moment, while the Duke stood with his back to the +fire looking at him. 'I'm afraid that it is all over, sir,' he +said. + +'All over!' + +'I am afraid so, sir.' + +'Why is it all over? Has she refused you?' + +'Well, sir;--it isn't quite that.' Then he paused again. It was so +difficult to begin about Isabel Boncassen. + +'I am sorry for that,' said the Duke, almost hesitating; 'very +sorry. You will understand, I hope, that I should make no inquiry +into the matter, unless I felt myself warranted in doing so by +what you had yourself told me in London.' + +'I understand all that.' + +'I have been very anxious about it, and have even gone so far as +to make some preparations for what I had hoped would be your early +marriage.' + +'Preparations!' exclaimed Silverbridge, thinking of church bells, +bride cake, and wedding presents. + +'As to the property. I am anxious that you should enjoy all the +settled independence which can belong to an English gentleman. I +never plough or sow. I know no more of sheep and bulls than of the +extinct animals of earlier ages. I would not have it so with you. +I would fain see you surrounded by those things which ought to +interest a nobleman in this country. Why is it all over with Lady +Mabel Grex?' + +The young man looked imploringly at his father, as though +earnestly begging that nothing more might be said about Mabel. 'I +had changed my mind before I found out that she was really in love +with me!' He could not say that. He could not hint that he might +still have Mabel if he would. The only thing for him was to tell +everything about Isabel Boncassen. He felt that in doing this he +must begin with himself. 'I have rather changed my mind, sir,' he +said, 'since we were walking together in London that night.' + +'Have you quarrelled with Lady Mabel?' + +'Oh dear no. I am very fond of Mabel;--only not just like that.' + +'Not just like what?' + +'I had better tell the whole truth at once.' + +'Certainly tell the truth, Silverbridge. I cannot say that you are +bound in duty to tell the whole truth even to your father in such +a matter.' + +'But I mean to tell you everything. Mabel did not seem to care for +me much--in London. And then I saw someone,--someone I liked +better.' Then he stopped, but as the Duke did not ask any +questions he plunged on. 'It was Miss Boncassen.' + +'Miss Boncassen!' + +'Yes sir,' said Silverbridge, with a little access of decision. + +'The American young lady?' + +'Yes sir.' + +'Do you know anything of her family?' + +'I think I know all about her family. It is not much in the way +of--family.' + +'You have not spoken to her about it?' + +'Yes sir;--I have settled it all with her, on condition--' + +'Settled it with her that she is to be your wife.' + +'Yes, sir,--on condition that you will approve.' + +'Did you go to her, Silverbridge, with such a stipulation as +that?' + +'It was not like that.' + +'How was it then?' + +'She stipulated. She will marry me if you consent.' + +'It was she then who thought of my wishes and feeling;--not you?' + +'I knew that I loved her. What is a man to do when he feels like +that? Of course I meant to tell you.' The Duke was looking very +black. 'I thought you liked her, sir.' + +'Liked her! I did like her. I do like her. What has that to do +with it? Do you think I like none but those with whom I should +think it fitting to ally myself in marriage? Is there to be no +duty in such matters, no restraint, no feeling of what is due to +your own name, and to others who bear it? The lad who is out there +sweeping the walks can marry the first girl that pleases his eye +if she will take him. Perhaps his lot is the happier because he +owns such liberty. Have you the same freedom?' + +'I suppose I have,--by law.' + +'Do you recognise no duty but what the law imposes upon you? +Should you be disposed to eat in drink in bestial excess, because +the laws would not hinder you? Should you lie and sleep all the +day, the law would say nothing! Should you neglect every duty +which your position imposes on you, the law could not interfere! +To such a one as you the law can be no guide. You should so live +as not to come near the law,--or to have the law come near to you. +From all evil against which the law bars you, you should be +barred, at an infinite distance, by honour, by conscience, and +nobility. Does the law require patriotism, philanthropy, self- +abnegation, public service, purity of purpose, devotion to the +needs of others who have been placed in the world below you? The +law is a great thing,--because men are poor and weak, and bad. And +it is great, because where it exists in strength, no tyrant can be +above it. But between you and me there should be no mention of law +as the guide of conduct. Speak to me of honour, of duty, and of +nobility; and tell me what they require of you.' + +Silverbridge listened in silence and with something of admiration +in his heart. But he felt the strong necessity of declaring his +own convictions on the special point here, at once, in this new +crisis of the conversation. That accident in regard to the colour +of the Dean's lodge had stood in the way of his logical studies,-- +so that he was unable to put his argument into proper shape; but +there belonged to him a certain natural astuteness which told him +that he must put his rejoinder at this particular point. 'I think +I am bound in honour and in duty to marry Miss Boncassen,' he +said. 'And if I understand what you mean, by nobility just as +much.' + +'Because you have promised.' + +'Not only for that. I have promised and therefore I am bound. She +has;--well, she has said that she loves me, and therefore of course +I am bound. But it not only that.' + +'What do you mean?' + +'I suppose a man ought to marry the woman he loves;--if he can get +her.' + +'No; no; no; not always so. Do you think that love is a passion +that cannot be withstood?' + +'But here we are of one mind, sir. When I say how you seemed to +take to her--' + +'Take to her! Can I not interest myself in human beings without +wishing to make them flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone? What am +I to think of you? It was but the other day that all that you are +now telling me of Miss Boncassen, you were telling me of Lady +Mabel Grex.' Here poor Silverbridge bit his lips and shook his +head, and looked down upon the ground. This was the weak part of +his case. He could not tell his father the whole story about +Mabel,--that she had coyed his love, so that he had been justified +in thinking himself free from any claim in that direction when he +had encountered the infinitely sweeter charms of Isabel Boncassen. +'You are as weak as water,' said the unhappy father. + +'I am not weak in this.' + +'Did you not say exactly the same about Lady Mabel?' + +There was a pause, so that he was driven to reply. 'I found her as +I thought indifferent, and then,---I changed my mind.' + +'Indifferent! What does she think about it now? Does she know of +this? How does it stand between you two at the present moment?' + +'She knows that I am engaged to--Miss Boncassen.' + +'Does she approve of it?' + +'Why should I ask her? I have not asked her.' + +'Then why did you tell her? She could not but have spoken her mind +when you told her. There must have been much between you when she +was talked of.' + +The unfortunate young man was obliged to take some time before he +could answer this appeal. He had to own that his father had some +justice on his side, but at the same time he could reveal nothing +of Mabel's secret. 'I told her because we were friends. I did not +ask her approval; but she did not disapprove. She thought that you +son should not marry an American girl without a family.' + +'Of course she would feel that.' + +'Now I have told you what she said, and I hope you will ask me no +further questions about her. I cannot make Lady Mabel my wife;--- +though, for the matter of that I ought not to presume that she +would take me if I wished it. I had intended to ask you today to +consent to my marriage with Miss Boncassen.' + +'I cannot give you my consent.' + +'Then I am very unhappy.' + +'How can I believe as to your unhappiness when you would have said +the same about Lady Mabel Grex a few weeks ago?' + +'Nearly eight months,' said Silverbridge. + +'What is the difference? It is not the time, but the disposition +of the man! I cannot give you my consent. The young lady sees it +in the right light, and that will make your escape easy.' + +'I do not want to escape.' + +'She has indicated the cause which will separate you.' + +'I will not be separated from her,' said Silverbridge, who was +beginning to feel that he was subjugated to tyranny. If he chose +to marry Isabel, no one could have a right to hinder him. + +'I can only hope that you will think the better of it, and that +when next you speak to me on that or on any other subject you will +answer me with less arrogance.' + +This rebuke was terrible to the son, whose mind at the present +moment was filled with two ideas, that of constancy to Isabel +Boncassen, and then of respect and affection for his father. +'Indeed, sir,' he said, 'I am not arrogant, and if I have answered +improperly I beg your pardon. But my mind is made up about this, +and I thought you had better know how it is.' + +'I do not see that I can say anything else to you.' + +'I think of going to Harrington this afternoon.' Then the Duke +with further very visible annoyance, asked where Harrington was. +it was explained that Harrington was Lord Chiltern's seat, Lord +Chiltern being the Master of the Brake hounds;--that it was his +son's purpose to remain six weeks among the Brake hounds, but that +he should stay only a day of two with Lord Chiltern. Then it +appeared that Silverbridge intended to put himself up at a hunting +inn in the neighbourhood, and the Duke did not at all like the +plan. That his son should choose to live at an inn, when the +comforts of an English country house were open to him, was +distasteful and almost offensive to the Duke. And the matter was +not improved when he was made to understand that all this was to +be done for the sake of hunting. There had been the shooting in +Scotland; then the racing;--ah alas yes;--the racing, and the +betting at Doncaster! Then the shooting at Matching had been made +to appear to be the chief reason why he himself had been living in +his own house! And now his son was going away to live at an inn +in order that more time might be devoted to hunting! 'Why can't +you live here at home, if you must hunt?' + +'It is all woodland,' said Silverbridge. + +'I thought you wanted woods. Lord Chiltern is always troubling me +about Trumpington Wood.' + +This breeze about the hunting enabled the son to escape without +any further allusion to Miss Boncassen. He did escape, and +proceeded to turn over in his mind all that had been said. His +tale had been told. A great burden was thus taken off his +shoulders. He could tell Isabel so much, and thus free himself +from the suspicion of having been afraid to declare his purpose. +She should know what he had done, and should be made to understand +that he had been firm. He had, he thought, been very firm and gave +himself some credit on that head. His father, no doubt, had been +firm too, but that he had expected. His father had said much. All +that about honour and duty had been very good; but this was +certain;--that when a young man had promised a young woman he ought +to keep his word. And he thought that there were certain changes +going on in the management of the world which his father did not +quite understand. Fathers never do quite understand changes which +are manifest to their sons. Some years ago it might have been +improper that an American girl should be elevated to the rank of +an English Duchess, but now all that was altered. + +The Duke spent the rest of the day alone, and was not happy in his +solitude. All that Silverbridge had told him was sad to him. He +had taught himself to think that he could love Lady Mabel as an +affectionate father wishes to love his son's wife. He had set +himself to wish to like her, and had been successful. Being most +anxious that his son should marry he had prepared himself to be +more than ordinarily liberal,--to be in every way gracious. His +children were now everything to him, and among his children his +son and heir was the chief. From the moment in which he had heard +from Silverbridge that Lady Mabel was chosen he had given himself +up to considering how he might best promote their interests,--how +he might best enable them to live, with that dignity and splendour +which he himself had unwisely despised. That the son who was to +come after him should be worthy of the place assigned to his name +had been, of personal objects, the nearest to his heart. There had +been failures, but still there had been left room for hope. The +boy had been immature at Eton;--but how many unfortunate boys had +become great men! He had disgraced himself by his folly at +college,--but although some lads will be men at twenty, others are +then little more than children. The fruit that ripens the soonest +is seldom the best. Then had come Tifto and the racing mania. +Nothing could be worse than Tifto and racehorses. But from that +evil Silverbridge had seemed to be made free by the very disgust +which the vileness of the circumstance had produced. Perhaps Tifto +driving a nail into his horse's foot had on the whole been +serviceable. That apostasy from the political creed of the +Pallisers had been a blow,--much more felt than the loss of the +seventy thousand pounds;--but even under that blow he had consoled +himself by thinking that a conservative patriotic nobleman may +serve his country,--even as a Conservative. In the midst of this he +had felt that the surest resource for his son against evil would +be in an early marriage. If he would marry becomingly, then might +everything still be made pleasant. If his son should marry +becomingly nothing which a father could do should be wanting to +add splendour and dignity to his son's life. + +In thinking of all this he had by no means regarded his own mode +of life with favour. He knew how jejune his life had been,--now +devoid of other interests than that of the public service to which +he had devoted himself. He was thinking of this when he told his +son that he had neither ploughed and sowed or been the owner of +sheep or oxen. He often thought of this, when he heard those round +him talking of the sports, which, though he condemned them as the +employment of a life, he now regarded wistfully, hopelessly as far +as he himself was concerned, as proper recreations for a man of +wealth. Silverbridge should have it all, if he could arrange it. +The one thing necessary was a fitting wife,--and the fitting wife +had been absolutely chosen by Silverbridge himself. + +It may be conceived, therefore, that he was again unhappy. He had +already been driven to acknowledge that these children of his,-- +thoughtless, restless, though they seemed to be,--still had a will +of their own. In all which how like they were to their mother! +With her, however, his word, though it might be resisted, had +never lost its authority. When he had declared that a thing should +not be done, she had never persisted in saying that she would do +it. But with his children it was otherwise. What power he had over +Silverbridge,--or for the matter of that, even his daughter? They +had only to be firm and he knew that he must be conquered. + +'I thought that you liked her,' Silverbridge had said to him. How +utterly unconscious, thought the Duke, must the young man have +been of all that his position required of him when he used such an +argument! Liked her. He did like her. She was clever, +accomplished, beautiful, well-mannered,--as far as he knew endowed +with all good qualities! Would not many an old Roman have said as +much for some favourite Greek slave,--for some freedmen whom he +would admit to his very heart? But what old Roman ever dreamed of +giving his daughter to the son of a Greek bondsman! Had he done +so, what would have become of the name of a Roman citizen? And was +it not his duty to fortify and maintain that higher, smaller, more +precious pinnacle of rank on which Fortune had placed him and his +children? + +Like her! Yes! he liked her certainly. He had by no means always +found that he best liked the companionship of his own order. He +had liked to feel around him the free battle of the House of +Commons. He liked the power of attack and defence in carrying on +which an English politician cares nothing for rank. He liked to +remember that the son of any tradesman might, by his own merits, +become a peer of Parliament. He would have liked to think that his +son should share all these tastes with him. Yes;--he liked Isabel +Boncassen. But how different was that liking from a desire that +she should be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh! + + + +CHAPTER 62 + +The Brake Country + +'What does your father mean to do about Trumpington Wood?' That +was the first word from Lord Chiltern after he had shaken hands +with his guest. + +'Isn't it all right yet?' + +'All right? No! How can a wood like that be all right without a +man about the place who knows anything of the nature of a fox? In +your grandfather's time--' + +'My great-uncle you mean.' + +'Well--your great-uncle!--they used to trap the foxes there. There +was a fellow named Fothergill who used to come there for shooting. +Now it is worse than ever. Nobody shoots there because there is +nothing to shoot. There isn't a keeper. Every scamp is allowed to +go where he pleases, and of course there isn't a fox in the whole +place. My huntsman laughs at me when I ask him to draw it.' As +the indignant Master of the Brake Hounds said this the very fire +flashed from his eyes. + +'My dear,' said Lady Chiltern expostulating, 'Lord Silverbridge +hasn't been in the house above half an hour.' + +'What does that matter? When a thing has to be said it had better +be said at once.' + +Phineas Finn was staying at Harrington with his intimate friends +the Chilterns, as were a certain Mr and Mrs Maule, both of whom +were addicted to hunting,--the lady whose maiden name was Palliser, +being a cousin of Lord Silverbridge. On that day also a certain Mr +and Mrs Spooner dined at Harrington. Mr and Mrs Spooner were both +very much given to hunting, as seemed to be necessarily the case +with everybody admitted to the house. Mr Spooner was a gentleman +who might be on the wrong side of fifty, with a red nose, very +vigorous, and submissive in regard to all things but port-wine. +His wife was perhaps something more than half his age, a stout, +hard-riding, handsome woman. She had been the penniless daughter +of a retired officer,--but yet had managed to ride on whatever +animal anyone would lend her. Then Mr Spooner, who had for many +years been part and parcel of the Brake hunt, and who was much in +want of a wife, had, luckily for her, cast his eyes upon Miss +Leatherside. It was thought that upon the whole she made him a +good wife. She hunted four days a week, and he could afford to +keep horses for her. She never flirted, and wanted no one to open +gates. Tom Spooner himself was not always so forward as he used to +be; but his wife was always there and would tell him all that he +did not see himself. And she was a good housewife, taking care +that nothing should be spent lavishly, except upon the stable. Of +him, too, and of his health, she was careful, never scrupling to +say a word in season when he was likely to hurt himself, either +among the fences, or among the decanters. 'You ain't so young as +you were, Tom. Don't think of doing it.' This she would say to +him with a loud voice when she would find him pausing at a fence. +Then she would hop over herself and he would go round. She as +'quite a providence to him', as her mother, old Mrs Leatherside, +would say. + +She was hardly the woman that one would have expected to meet as a +friend in the drawing-room of Lady Chiltern. Lord Chiltern was +perhaps a little rough, but Lady Chiltern was all that a mother, a +wife, and a lady ought to be. She probably felt that some little +apology ought to be made for Mrs Spooner. 'I hope you like +hunting,' she said to Silverbridge. + +'Best of all things,' he said enthusiastically. + +'Because you know this is Castle Nimrod, in which nothing is +allowed to interfere with the one great business in life.' + +'It's like that, is it?' + +'Quite like that. Lord Chiltern has taken up hunting as his duty +in life, and he does it with his might and main. Not to have a +good day is a misery to him;--not for himself but because he feels +that he is responsible. We had one blank day last year, and I +thought he never would recover it. It was that unfortunate +Trumpington Wood.' + +'How he will hate me.' + +'Not if you praise the hounds judiciously. And then there is a Mr +Spooner coming here tonight. He is the first-lieutenant. He +understands all about the foxes, and all about the farmers. He has +got a wife.' + +'Does she understand anything?' + +'She understands him. She is coming too. They have not been +married long, and he never goes anywhere without her.' + +'Does she ride?' + +'Well; yes. I never go myself now because I have so much of it all +at home. But I fancy she does ride a good deal. She will talk +hunting too. If Chiltern were to leave the country I think they +ought to make her master. Perhaps you'll think her rather odd; but +really she is a very good woman.' + +'I am sure I will like her.' + +'I hope you will. You know Mr Finn. He is here. He and my husband +are very old friends. And Adelaide Maule is your cousin. She hunts +too. And so does Mr Maule,--only not quite so energetically. I +think that is all we shall have.' + +Immediately after that all the guests came in at once, and a +discussion was heard as they were passing through the hall. 'No;-- +that wasn't it,' said Mrs Spooner loudly. 'I don't care what Dick +said.' Dick Rabbit was the first whip, and seemed to have been +much exercised with the matter now under dispute. 'The fox never +went into Grobby Gorse at all. I was there and saw Sappho give him +a line down the bank.' + +'I think he must have gone into the gorse, my dear,' said her +husband. 'The earth was open, you know.' + +'I tell you she didn't. You weren't there, and you can't know. I'm +sure it was a vixen by her running. We ought to have killed that +fox, my Lord.' Then Mrs Spooner made her obeisance to her +hostess. Perhaps she was rather slow in doing this, but the +greatness of the subject had been the cause. These are matters so +important, that the ordinary civilities of the world should not +stand in their way. + +'What do you say, Chiltern?' asked the husband. + +'I say that Mrs Spooner isn't very often wrong, and the Dick +Rabbit isn't very often right about a fox.' + +'It was a pretty run,' said Phineas.' + +'Just thirty-four minutes,' said Mr Spooner. + +'Thirty-two up to Grobby Gorse,' asserted Mrs Spooner. 'The hounds +never hunted a yard after that. Dick hurried them into the gorse, +and the old hound wouldn't stick to her line when she found that +no one believed her.' + +This was on Monday evening, and the Brake hounds went out +generally five days a week. 'You'll hunt tomorrow, I suppose,' +Lady Chiltern said to Silverbridge. + +'I hope so.' + +'You must hunt tomorrow. Indeed there is nothing else to do. +Chiltern has taken such a dislike to shooting-men, that he won't +shoot pheasants himself. We don't hunt on Wednesdays or Sundays, +and then everybody lies in bed. Here is Mr Maule, he lies in bed +on other mornings as well, and spend the rest of his day riding +about the country looking for the hounds. + +'Does he ever find them?' + +'What did become of you all today?' said Mr Maule, as he took his +place at the dinner-table. 'You can't have drawn any of the +coverts regularly.' + +'Then we found our foxes without drawing them,' said the master. + +'We chopped one at Bromley's,' said Mr Spooner. + +'I went there.' + +'Then you ought to have known better,' said Mrs Spooner. 'When a +man loses the hounds in that country, he ought to go direct to +Brackett's Wood. If you had come on to Brackett's Wood, you'd have +seen as good a thirty-two minutes as ever you wished to ride.' +When the ladies went out of the room Mrs Spooner gave a parting +word of advice to her husband, and to the host. 'Now, Tom, don't +you drink port-wine. Lord Chiltern, look after him, and don't let +him have port-wine.' + +Then there began an altogether different phase of hunting +conversation. As long as the ladies were there it was all very +well to talk of hunting as an amusement, good sport, a thirty +minutes or so, the delight of having a friend in a ditch, or the +glory of a still-built rail were fitting subjects for a higher +hour. But now the business of the night was to begin. The +difficulties, the enmities, the precautions, the resolutions, the +resources of the Brake hunt were to be discussed. And from thence +the conversation of these devotees strayed away to the perils at +large to which hunting in these modern days is subjected;--not the +perils of broken necks and crushed ribs, which can be reduced to +an average, and so an end made of that small matter; but the +perils from outsiders, the perils of newfangled prejudices, the +perils from more modern sports, the perils from over-cultivation, +the perils from extended population, the perils from intruding +cads, the perils from indifferent magistrates,--the Duke of Omnium +for instance,--and that peril of perils, the peril of decrease of +funds and increase of expenditure! The jaunty gentleman who puts +on his dainty breeches and his pair of boots, and his single horse +rides out on a pleasant morning to some neighbouring meet, +thinking himself a sportsman, has but a faint idea of the troubles +which a few staunch workmen endure in order that he may not be +made to think that his boots, and his breeches, and his horse, +have not been in vain. + +A word or two further was at first said about that unfortunate +wood for which Silverbridge at the present felt himself +responsible. Finn said that he was sure the Duke would look to it, +if Silverbridge would mention it. Chiltern simply groaned. +Silverbridge said nothing, remembering how many troubles he had on +hand at this moment. Then by degrees their solicitude worked +itself round to the cares of a neighbouring hunt. The A.R.U. had +lost their master. One Captain Glomax was going, and the county +had been driven to the necessity of advertising for a successor. +'When hunting comes to that,' said Lord Chiltern, 'one begins to +think that it is in a bad way.' It may always be observed that +when hunting-men speak seriously of their sport, they speak +despondingly. Everything is going wrong. Perhaps the same thing +may be remarked in other pursuits. Farmers are generally on the +verge of ruin. Trade is always bad. The church is in danger. The +House of Lords isn't worth a dozen years' purchase. The throne +totters. + +'An itinerant master with a carpet-bag never can carry on a +country,' said Mr Spooner. + +'You ought really to have a gentleman of property in the country,' +said Lord Chiltern, in a self-deprecating tone. His father's acres +lay elsewhere. + +'It should be someone who has a real stake in the country,' +replied Mr Spooner,--'whom the farmers can respect. Glomax +understood hunting no doubt, but the farmers didn't care for him. +If you don't have the farmers with you, you can't have hunting.' +Then he filled a glass of port. + +'If you don't approve of Glomax, what do you think of a man like +Major Tifto?' asked Mr Maule. + +'That was in the Runnymede,' said Spooner contemptuously. + +'Who is Major Tifto?' asked Lord Chiltern. + +'He is the man,' said Silverbridge boldly, 'who owned Prime +Minister with me, when he didn't win the Leger last September.' + +'There was a deuce of a row,' said Maule. Then Mr Spooner, who read +his 'Bell's Life' and 'Field' very religiously, and who never +missed an article in 'Bayley's', proceeded to give them an account +of everything that had taken place in the Runnymede Hunt. It +mattered but little that he was wrong in all his details. +Narrations always are. The result to which he nearly came right +when he declared that the Major had been turned off, that a +committed had been appointed, and that Messrs Topps and Jawstock +had been threatened with a lawsuit. + +'That comes,' said Lord Chiltern solemnly, 'of employing men like +Major Tifto in places for which they are radically unfit. I +daresay Major Tifto knew how to handle a pack of hounds,--perhaps +almost as well as my huntsman. But I don't think a county would +get on very well which appointed Fowler as Master of Hounds. He is +an honest man, and therefore would be better than Tifto. But--it +would not do. It is a position in which a man should at any rate +be a gentleman. If he be not, all those who should be concerned in +maintaining the hunt will turn their backs on him. When I take my +hounds over this man's ground, and that man's ground, certainly +without doing him any good, I have to think of a great many +things. I have to understand that those whom I cannot compensate +by money, I have to compensate by courtesy. When I shake hands +with a farmer and express my obligation to him because he does not +lock his gates, he is gratified. I don't think any decent farmer +would care much for shaking hands with Major Tifto. If we fall +into that kind of thing there must soon be an end of hunting. +Major Tiftos are cheap no doubt; but in hunting, as in most other +things, cheap and nasty go together. If men don't choose to put +their hands in their pockets they had better say so, and give the +thing up altogether. If you won't take any more wine, we'll go to +the ladies. Silverbridge, the trap will start from the door +tomorrow morning precisely at 9.30 am. Grantingham Cross is +fourteen miles.' Then they all left their chairs,--but as they did +so Mr Spooner finished the bottle of port-wine. + +'I never heard Chiltern speak so much like a book before,' said +Spooner to his wife as she drove him home that night. + +The next morning everybody was ready for a start at half-past +nine, except Mr Maule,--as to whom his wife declared that she had +left him in bed when she came down to breakfast. 'He can never get +there if we don't take him,' said Lord Chiltern, who was in truth +the most good-natured man in the world. Five minutes were allowed +him, and then he came down with a large sandwich in one hand and a +button-hook in the other, with which he was prepared to complete +his toilet. 'What the deuce makes you always in such a hurry?' +were the first words he spoke as Lord Chiltern got on the box. The +Master knew him too well to argue the point. 'Well;--he always is +in a hurry,' said the sinner, when his wife accused him of +ingratitude. + +'Where's Spooner?' asked the Master when he saw Mrs Spooner +without her husband at the meet. + +'I knew how it would be when I saw the port-wine,' she said in a +whisper that could be heard all round. 'He has got it this time +sharp,--in his great toe. We shan't find at Grantingham. They were +cutting wood there last week. If I were you, my Lord, I'd go away +to the Spinnies at once.' + +'I must draw the country regularly,' muttered the Master. + +The country was drawn regularly, but in vain till about two +o'clock. Not only was there no fox at Grantingham Wood, but none +even at the Spinnies. And at two, Fowler, with an anxious face, +held a consultation with his more anxious master. Trumpington Wood +lay on their right, and that no doubt would have been the proper +draw. 'I suppose we must try it,' said Lord Chiltern. + +Old Fowler looked very sour. 'You might as well look for a fox +under my wife's bed, my Lord.' + +'I daresay we should find one there,' said one of the wags of the +hunt. Fowler shook his head, feeling that this was no time for +joking. + +'It ought to be drawn,' said Chiltern. + +'Of course you know best, my Lord. I wouldn't touch it,--never no +more. Let 'em all know what the Duke's Wood is.' + +'This is Lord Silverbridge, the Duke's son,' said Chiltern +laughing. + +'I beg his Lordship's pardon,' said Fowler, taking off his cap. +'We shall have a good time coming some day. Let me trot 'em off to +Michaelmas Daisies, my Lord. I'll be there in thirty minutes.' In +the neighbouring parish of St Michael de Dezier there was a +favourite little gorse which among hunting-men had acquired this +unreasonable name. After a little consideration the Master +yielded, and away they trotted. + +'You'll cross the ford, Fowler?' asked Mrs Spooner. + +'Oh yes, ma'am; we couldn't draw the Daisies this afternoon if we +didn't.' + +'It'll be up to the horses' bellies.' + +'Those who don't like it can go round.' + +'They'd never be there in time, Fowler.' + +'There's many a man, ma'am, as don't mind that. You won't be one +to stay behind.' The water was up to the horses' bellies, but, +nevertheless, Mrs Spooner was at the gorse side when the Daisies +were drawn. + +They found and were away in a minute. It was all done so quickly +that Fowler, who had along gone into the gorse, had hardly time to +get out with his hounds. The fox ran right back, as though he were +making for the Duke's pernicious wood. In the first field or two +there was a succession of gates, and there was not much to do in +the way of jumping. Then the fox, keeping straight ahead, deviated +from the line by which they had come, making for the brook by a +more direct course. The ruck of the horsemen, understanding the +matter very well, left the hounds, and went to the right, riding +for the ford. The ford was of such a nature that but one horse +could pass it at a time, and that one had to scramble through deep +mud. 'There'll be the devil to pay here,' said Lord Chiltern, +going straight with his hounds. Phineas Finn and Dick Rabbit were +close after him. Old Fowler had craftily gone to the ford; but Mrs +Spooner, who did not intend to be shaken off, followed the Master, +and close with her was Lord Silverbridge. 'Lord Chiltern hasn't +got it right,' she said. 'He can't do it among these bushes.' As +she spoke the Master put his horse at the bushes and then-- +disappeared. The lady had been right. There was no ground at that +spot to take off from, and the bushes had impeded him. Lord +Chiltern had got over, but his horse was in the water. Dick Rabbit +and poor Phineas Finn were stopped in their course by the +necessity of helping the Master in his trouble. + +But Mrs Spooner, the judicious Mrs Spooner, rode at the stream +where it was, indeed, a little wider, but at a place in which the +horse could see what he was about, and where he could jump from +and to firm ground. Lord Silverbridge followed her gallantly. They +both jumped the brook well, and then were together. 'You'll beat +me in pace,' said the lady as he rode up alongside of her. 'Take +the fence ahead straight, and then turn sharp to your right.' +With all her faults, Mrs Spooner was a thorough sporstman. + +He did take the fence ahead,--or rather tried to do so. It was a +bank and a double ditch,--not very great in itself, but requiring a +horse to land on the top and go off with a second spring. Our +young friend's nag, not quite understanding the nature of the +impediment, endeavoured to 'swallow it whole', as hard-riding men +say, and came down in the further ditch. Silverbridge came down on +his head, but the horse pursued his course,--across a heavily- +ploughed field. + +This was very disagreeable. He was not in the least hurt, but it +became his duty to run after his horse. A very few furrows of that +work suffice to make a man think that hunting was a 'beastly sort +of thing'. Mrs Spooner's horse, who had shown himself to be a +little less quick of foot than his own, had known all about the +bank and the double ditch, and had, apparently of his own accord, +turned down to the right, either seeing or hearing the hounds, and +knowing that the ploughed ground was to be avoided. But his rider +changed his course. She went straight after the riderless horse, +and when Silverbridge had reduced himself to utter speechlessness +by his exertions, brought him back his steed. + +'I am,--I am, I am--so sorry,' he struggled to say,--and then as she +held his horse for him he struggled up into his saddle. + +'Keep down this furrow,' said Mrs Spooner, 'and we shall be with +them in the second field. There's nobody near them yet.' + + + +CHAPTER 63 + +'I've Seen 'em Like That Before' + +On this occasion Silverbridge stayed only a few days at +Harrington, having promised Tregear to entertain him at The +Baldfaced Stag. It was here that his horses were standing, and he +now intended, by limiting himself to one horse a day, to mount his +friend for a couple of weeks. It was settled at last that Tregear +should ride his friend's horse one day, hire the next, and so on. +'I wonder what you'll think of Mrs Spooner?' he said. + +'Why should I think anything of her?' + +'Because I doubt whether you ever saw such a woman before. She +does nothing but hunt.' + +'Then I certainly shan't want to see her again.' + +'And she talks as never I heard a lady talk before.' + +'Then I don't care if I don't see her at all.' + +'But she is the most plucky and most good-natured human being I +ever saw in my life. After all, hunting is good fun.' + +'Very; if you don't do it so often as to be sick of it.' + +'Long as I have known you I don't think I ever saw you ride yet.' + +'We used to have hunting down in Cornwall, and thought we did it +pretty well. And I have ridden in South Wales, which I can assure +you isn't an easy thing to do. But you mustn't expect much from +me.' + +They were both out the Monday and Tuesday in that week, and then +again on the Thursday without anything special in the way of +sport. Lord Chiltern, who had found Silverbridge to be a young man +after his own heart, was anxious that he should come back to +Harrington and bring Tregear with him. But to this Tregear would +not assent, alleging that he should feel himself to be a burden +both to Lord and Lady Chiltern. On the Friday Tregear did not go +out, saying that he would avoid the expense, and on that day there +was a good run. 'It is always the way,' said Silverbridge. 'If you +miss a day, it is sure to be the best thing of the season. An hour +and a quarter with hardly anything you could call a check! It is +the only very good thing I have seen since I have been here. Mrs +Spooner was with them all through.' + +'And I suppose you were with Mrs Spooner.' + +'I wasn't far off. I wish you had been there.' + +On the next day the meet was at the kennels, close to Harrington, +and Silverbridge drove his friend over in a gig. The Master and +Lady Chiltern, Spooner and Mrs Spooner, Maule, and Mrs Maule, +Phineas Finn, and host of others condoled with the unfortunate +young man because he had not seen the good thing yesterday. 'We've +had it a little faster once or twice,' said Mrs Spooner with +deliberation, 'but never for so long. Then it was straight as a +line, and a real open kill. No changing you know. We did go +through the Daisies, but I'll swear to its being the same fox.' +All of which set Tregear wondering. How could she swear to her +fox? And if they had changed, what did it matter? And if it had +been a little crooked, why would it have been less enjoyable? And +was she really so exact a judge of pace as she pretended to be? +'I'm afraid we shan't have anything like that today,' she +continued. 'The wind's in the west, and I never do like a westerly +wind.' + +'A little to the north,' said her husband, looking round the +compass. + +'My dear,' said the lady, 'you never know where the wind comes +from. Now don't you think of taking off your comforter, I won't +have it.' + +Tregear was riding his friend's favourite hunter, a thoroughbred +bay horse, very much more than up to his rider's weight, and +supposed to be peculiarly good at timber, water, or any well- +defined kind of fence, however high or broad. They found a covert +near the kennels, and killed their fox after a burst of a few +minutes. They found again, and having lost their fox, all declared +that there was not a yard of scent. 'I always know what a west +wind means,' said Mrs Spooner. + +Then they lunched, and smoked, and trotted about with an apparent +acknowledgement that there wasn't much to be done. It was not +right that they should expect much after so good a thing as they +had had yesterday. At half-past two Mr Spooner had been sent home +by his Providence, and Mrs Spooner was calculating that she would +be able to ride her horse again on the Tuesday. When on a sudden +the hounds were on a fox. It turned out afterwards that Dick +Rabbit had absolutely ridden him up among the stubble, and that +the hounds had nearly killed him before he had gone a yard. But +the astute animal making the best use of his legs till he could +get the advantage of the first ditch, ran, and crept, and jumped +absolutely through the pack. Then there was shouting, and yelling, +and riding. The men who were idly smoking threw away their cigars. +Those who were loitering at a distance lost their chance. But the +real sportsmen, always on the alert, always thinking of the +business in hand, always mindful that there may be at any moment a +fox just before the hounds, had a glorious opportunity of getting +'well away'. Among these no one was more intent, or, when the +moment came, 'better away' than Mrs Spooner. + +Silverbridge had been talking to her and had the full advantage of +her care. Tregear was riding behind with Lord Chiltern, who had +been pressing him to come with his friend to Harrington. As soon +as the shouting was heard Chiltern was off like a rocket. It was +not only that he was anxious to 'get well away', but that a sense +of duty compelled him to see how the thing was being done. Old +Fowler was certainly a little slow, and Dick Rabbit, with the true +bloody-minded instinct of a whip, was a little apt to bustle a fox +back into the covert. And then, when a run commences with a fast +rush, riders are apt to over-ride the hounds, and then the hounds +will over-run the fox. All of which has to be seen to by a Master +who knows his business. + +Tregear followed, and being mounted on a fast horse was soon as +forward as a judicious rider would desire. 'Now, Runks, don't you +press on and spoil it all,' said Mrs Spooner to the hard-riding +objectionable son of old Runks the vet from Rufford. But young +Runks did press on till the Master spoke a word. The word shall +not be repeated, but it was efficacious. + +At that moment there had been a check,--as there is generally after +a short spurt, when fox, hounds, and horsemen get off together, +and not always in the order in which they have been placed there. +There is too much bustle, and the pack becomes disconcerted. But +it enable Fowler to get up, and by dint of growling at the men and +conciliating his hounds, he soon picked up the scent. 'If they'd +all stand still for two minutes and be d-d to them,' he muttered +aloud to himself, 'they'd 'ave some'at to ride arter. They might +go then, and there's some of 'em'd soon be nowhere.' + +But in spite of Fowler's denunciations there was, of course, +another rush. Runks had slunk away, but by making a little +distance was now again ahead of the hounds. And unfortunately +there was half-a-dozen with him. Lord Chiltern was very wrath. +'When he's like that,' said Mrs Spooner to Tregear, 'it's always +well to give him a wide berth.' But as the hounds were now +running fast it was necessary, that even in taking this precaution +due regard should be had to the fox's line. 'He's back for +Harrington bushes,' said Mrs Spooner. And as she said so, she rode +at a bank, with a rail at the top of it perhaps a foot-and-a-half +high, with a deep drop in the field beyond. It was not a very nice +place, but it was apparently the only available spot in the fence. +She seemed to know it well, for as she got close to it she brought +her horse almost to a stand and so took it. The horse cleared the +rail, seemed just to touch the bank on the other side, while she +threw herself back almost on to his crupper, and so came down with +perfect case. But she, knowing that it would not be easy to all +horses, paused a moment to see what would happen. + +Tregear was next to her and was intending to 'fly' the fence. But +when he saw Mrs Spooner pull her horse and pause, he also had to +pull his horse. This he did so to enable her to take her leap +without danger or encumbrance from him, but hardly so as to bring +his horse to the bank in the same way. It may be doubted whether +the animal he was riding would have known enough and been quiet +enough to have performed the acrobatic manoeuvre which had carried +Mrs Spooner so pleasantly over the peril. He had some idea of +this, for the thought occurred to him that he would turn and ride +fast at the jump. But before he could turn he saw that +Silverbridge was pressing on him. It was thus his only resource to +do as Mrs Spooner had done. He was too close to the rail, but +still he tried it. The horse attempted to jump, caught his foot +against the bar, and of course went over head-foremost. This +probably would have been nothing, had not Silverbridge with his +rushing beast been immediately after them. When the young lord saw +that his friend was down it was too late for him to stop his +course. His horse was determined to have the fence,--and did have +it. He touched nothing, and would have skimmed in glory over the +next field had he not come right down on Tregear and Tregear's +steed. There they were, four of them, two men and two horses in +one confused heap. + +The first person with them was Mrs Spooner, who was off her horse +in a minute. And Silverbridge too was very soon on his legs. He at +any rate was unhurt, and the two horses were up before Mrs Spooner +was out of her saddle. But Tregear did not move. 'What are we to +do?' said Lord Silverbridge, kneeling down over his friend. 'Oh, +Mrs Spooner, what are we to do?' + +The hunt had passed on and no one else was immediately with them. +But at this moment Dick Rabbit, who had been left behind to bring +up his hounds, appeared above the bank. 'Leave your horse and come +down,' said Mrs Spooner. 'Here is a gentleman who has hurt +himself.' Dick wouldn't leave his horse, but was soon on the +scene, having found his way through another part of the fence. + +'No; he ain't dead,' said Dick--'I've seen 'em like that before, +and they wurn't dead. But he's had a hawful squeege.' Then he +passed his hand over the man's neck and chest. 'There's a lot of +'em is broke,' said he. 'We must get him to farmer Tooby's.' + +After awhile he was got into farmer Tooby's, when that surgeon +came who is always in attendance on a hunting-field. The surgeon +declared that he had broken his collar-bone, two of his ribs, and +his left arm. And then one of the animals had struck him on the +chest as he raised himself. A little brandy was poured down his +throat, but even under that operation he gave no sign of life. +'No, missis, he aren't dead,' said Dick Rabbit to Mrs Tooby; 'no +more he won't die this bout; but he's got it very nasty.' + +That night Silverbridge was sitting by his friend's bedside at ten +o'clock in Lord Chiltern's house. Tregear had spoken a few words, +and the bones had been set. But the doctor had not felt himself +justified in speaking with that assurance which Dick had +expressed. The man's whole body had been bruised by the horse +which had fallen on him. The agony of Silverbridge was extreme, +for he knew that it had been his doing. 'You were a little too +close,' Mrs Spooner had said to him, 'but nobody saw it, and we'll +hold our tongues.' Silverbridge however would not hold his +tongue. He told everybody how it had happened, how he had been +unable to stop his horse, how had jumped upon his friend, and +perhaps had killed him. 'I don't know what I am to do. I am so +miserable,' he said to Lady Chiltern with the tears running down +his face. + +The two remained at Harrington and the luggage was brought over +from The Baldfaced Stag. The accident happened on a Saturday. On +the Sunday there was no comfort. On the Monday the patient's +recollection and mind were re-established, and the doctor thought +that perhaps, with great care, his constitution would pull him +through. On that day the consternation at Harrington was so great +that Mrs Spooner would not go to the meet. She came over from +Spoon Hall, and spent a considerable part of the day in the sick +man's room. 'It's sure to come right if it's above the vitals,' +she said expressing an opinion which had come from much +experience. 'That is,' she added, 'unless the neck's broke. When +poor old Jack Stubbs drove his head into his cap and dislocated +his wertebury, of course it was all up with him.' The patient +heard this and was seen to smile. + +On the Tuesday there arose the question of family communication. +As the accident would make its way into the papers a message had +been sent to Polwenning to say that various bones had been broken, +but that the patient was upon the whole doing well. Then there had +been different messages backwards and forwards, in all of which +there had been an attempt to comfort old Mr Tregear. But on the +Tuesday letters were written. Silverbridge, sitting in his +friend's room, sent a long account of the accident to Mrs Tregear, +giving a list of the injuries done. + +'Your sister,' whispered the poor fellow from the pillow. + +'Yes,--yes;--yes, I will.' + +'And Mabel Grex.' Silverbridge nodded assent and again went to the +writing-table. He did write to his sister, and in plain words told +her everything. 'The doctor says he is not now in danger.' Then +he added a postscript. 'As long as I am here I will let you know +how he is.' + + + +CHAPTER 64 + +'I Believe Him to be a Worthy Young Man' + +Lady Mary and Mrs Finn were alone when the tidings came from +Silverbridge. The Duke had been absent, having gone to spend an +unpleasant week in Barsetshire. Mary had taken the opportunity of +his absence to discuss her own prospects at full length. 'My +dear,' said Mrs Finn, 'I will not express an opinion. Now can I +after all that has passed? I have told the Duke the same. I +cannot be heart and hand with either without being false to the +other.' But still Lady Mary continued to talk about Tregear. + +'I don't think papa has a right to treat me in this way,' she +said. 'He wouldn't be allowed to kill me, and this is killing me.' + +'While there is life there is hope,' said Mrs Finn. + +'Yes; while there is life there is hope. But one doesn't want to +grow old first.' + +'There is no danger of that, Mary.' + +'I feel very old. What is the use of life without something to +make it sweet? I am not even allowed to hear anything that he is +doing. If he were to ask me, I think I would go away with him +tomorrow.' + +'He would not be foolish enough for that.' + +'Because he does not suffer as I do. He has his borough, and his +public life, and a hundred things to think of. I have got nothing +but him. I know he is true;--quite as true as I am. But it is I +that have the suffering in all this. A man can never be like a +girl. Papa ought not to make me suffer like this.' + +That took place on the Monday. On the Tuesday Mrs Finn received a +letter from her husband giving an account of the accident. 'As far +as I can learn,' he said, 'Silverbridge will write about it +tomorrow.' Then he went on to give a by no means good account of +the state of the patient. The doctor had declared him to be out of +immediate danger, and had set the broken bones. As tidings would +be sent on the next day she had better say nothing about the +accident to Lady Mary. This letter reached Matching on Tuesday and +made the position of Mrs Finn very disagreeable. She was bound to +carry herself as though nothing was amiss, knowing as she did so, +the condition of Mary's lover. + +On the evening of the next day Lady Mary was more lively than +usual, though her liveliness was hardly of a happy nature. 'I +don't know what papa can expect. I've heard him say a hundred +times that to be in Parliament is the highest place a gentleman +can fill, and now Frank is in Parliament.' Mrs Finn looked at her +with beseeching eyes, as though begging her not to speak of +Tregear. 'And then think of their having that Lord Popplecourt +there! I shall always hate Lady Cantrip, for it was her place. +That she should have thought it possible! Lord Popplecourt! Such +a creature. Hyperion to a satyr. Isn't it true? Oh that papa +should have thought it possible!' Then she got up, and walked +about the room, beating her hands together. All this time Mrs Finn +knew that Tregear was lying at Harrington with half his bones +broken, and in danger of his life! + +On the next morning Lady Mary received her letters. There were two +lying before her plate when she came into breakfast, one from her +father and the other from Silverbridge. She read that from the +Duke first while Mrs Finn was watching her. 'Papa will be home on +Saturday,' she said. 'He declares that the people in the borough +are quite delighted with Silverbridge for a member. And he is +quite jocose. "They used to be delighted with me once," he says, +"but I suppose everybody changes."' Then she began to pour out +the tea before she opened her brother's letter. Mrs Finn's eyes +were still on her anxiously. 'I wonder what Silverbridge has got +to say about the Brake Hunt.' Then she opened her letter. + +'Oh;--oh!' she exclaimed,--'Frank has killed himself.' + +'Killed himself! Not that. It is not so bad as that.' + +'You had heard it before?' + +'How is he, Mary?' + +'Oh, heavens! I cannot read it. Do you read it. Tell me all. Tell +me the truth. What am I to do? Where shall I go?' Then she threw +up her hands, and with a loud scream fell on her knees with her +head upon the chair. In the next moment Mrs Finn was down beside +her on the floor. 'Read it; why do you not read it? If you will +not read it, give it to me.' + +Mrs Finn did read the letter, which was very short, but still +giving by no means an unfavourable account of the patient. 'I am +sorry to say he has broken ever so many bones, and we were very +much frightened about him.' Then the writer went into details, +from which the reader who did not read the whole words carefully +might well imagine that the man's life was still in danger. + +Mrs Finn did read it all, and did her best to comfort her friend. +'It has been a bad accident,' she said, 'but it is clear that he +id getting better. Men do so often break their bones, and then +seem to think nothing of it afterwards.' + +'Silverbridge says it was his fault. What does he mean?' + +'I suppose he was riding too close to Mr Tregear, and that they +came down together. Of course it is distressing, but I do not +think you need make yourself positively unhappy about it.' + +'Would you not be unhappy if it were Mr Finn?' said Mary, jumping +up from her knees. 'I shall go to him. I should go mad if I were +to remain here and know nothing about it but what Silverbridge +will tell me.' + +'I will telegraph Mr Finn.' + +'Mr Finn won't care. Men are so heartless. They write about each +other just as though it did not signify in the least whether +anybody were dead or alive. I shall go to him.' + +'You cannot do that.' + +'I don't care now what anybody may think. I choose to be +considered as belonging to him, and if papa were here I would do +the same.' It was of course not difficult to make her understand +that she could not go to Harrington, but it was by no means easy +to keep her tranquil. She would send a telegram herself. This was +debated for a long time, till at last Lady Mary insisted that she +was not subject to Mrs Finn's authority. 'If papa were here, even +then I would send it.' And she did send it, in her own name, +regardless of the fact pointed out to her by Mrs Finn, that the +people at the post-office would thus know her secret. 'It is no +secret,' she said. 'I don't want it to be a secret.' The telegram +went in the following words. 'I have heard it. I am so wretched. +Send me one word to say how you are.' She got an answer back, +with Tregear's own name to it, on that afternoon. 'Do not be +unhappy. I am doing well. Silverbridge is with me.' + +On the Thursday Gerald came home from Scotland. He had arranged +his little affair with Lord Percival, not however without some +difficulty. Lord Percival had declared that he did not understand +I.O.U.s in an affair of that kind. He had always thought that +gentlemen did not play for stakes for which they could not pay at +once. This was not said to Gerald himself;--or the result would +have been calamitous. Nidderdale was the go-between, and at last +arranged it,--not however till he had pointed out that Percival +having won so large a sum of money from a lad under twenty-one +years was very lucky in receiving substantial security for its +payment. + +Gerald has chosen the period of his father's absence for his +return. It was necessary that the story of the gambling debt +should be told the Duke in February! Silverbridge had explained +that to him, and he had quite understood it. He, indeed, would be +up at Oxford in February, and, in that case, the first horror of +the thing would be left to poor Silverbridge! Thinking of this, +Gerald felt that he was bound to tell his father himself. He +resolved that he would do so, but he was anxious to postpone the +evil day. He lingered therefore in Scotland till he knew that his +father was in Barsetshire. + +On his arrival he was told of Tregear's accident. 'Oh Gerald, have +you heard?' said his sister. He had not as yet heard, and then the +history was repeated to him. Mary did not attempt to conceal her +own feelings. She was as open with her brother as she had been +with Mrs Finn. + +'I suppose he'll get over it,' said Gerald. + +'Is that all you say?' she asked. + +'What can I say better? I suppose he will. Fellows always do get +over that kind of thing. Herbert de Burgh smashed both his thighs, +and now he can move about again,--of course with crutches.' + +'Gerald. How can you be so unfeeling!' + +'I don't know what you mean. I always liked Tregear, and I am very +sorry for him. If you would take it a little quieter, I think it +would be better.' + +'I could not take it quietly. How can I take it quietly when he is +more than the world to me?' + +'You should keep that to yourself.' + +'Yes,--and so let people think that I didn't care, till I broke my +heart! I shall say just the same to papa when he comes home.' +After than the brother and sister were not on very good terms with +each other for the remainder of the day. + +On the Saturday there was a letter from Silverbridge to Mrs Finn. +Tregear was better; but was unhappy because it had been decided +that he could not be moved for the next month. This entailed two +misfortunes on him;--first that of being enforced guest of persons +who were not,--or, hitherto had not been his own friends,--and then +his absence from the first meeting of Parliament. When a gentleman +has been in Parliament some years he may be able to reconcile +himself to an obligatory vacation with a calm mind. But when the +honours and glory are new, and the tedium of the benches has not +yet been experienced, then such an accident is felt to be a +grievance. But the young member was out of danger, and was, as +Silverbridge declared in the very best quarters which could be +provided for a man in his position. + +Phineas Finn told him all the politics; Mrs Spooner related to +him, on Sundays and Wednesdays, all the hunting details; while +Lady Chiltern read to him light literature, because he was not +allowed to hold a book in his hand. 'I wish it were me,' said +Gerald. 'I wish I were there to read to him,' said Mary. + +Then the Duke came home. 'Mary,' said he, 'I have been distressed +to hear of this accident.' This seemed to her to be the kindest +word she had heard from him for a long time. 'I believe him to be +a worthy young man. I am sorry that he should be the cause of so +much sorrow to you--and to me.' + +'Of course I was sorry for his accident,' she replied, after +pausing awhile; 'but now that he is better I will not cause him a +cause of sorrow--to me.' Then the Duke said nothing further about +Tregear; nor did she. + +'So you have come at last,' he said to Gerald. That was the first +greeting,--to which the son responded by an awkward smile. But in +the course of the evening he walked straight up to his father--'I +have something to tell you, sir,' said he. + +'Something to tell me?' + +'Something that will make you very angry.' + + + +CHAPTER 65 + +'Do You Ever Think What Money Is?' + +Gerald told his story, standing bolt upright, and looking his +father full in the face as he told it. 'You lost three thousand +four hundred pounds at one sitting to Lord Percival--at cards!' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'In Lord Nidderdale's house.' + +'Yes, sir. Nidderdale wasn't playing. It wasn't his fault.' + +'Who were playing?' + +'Percival, and Dolly Longstaff, and Jack Hinde,--and I. Popplecourt +was playing at first.' + +'Lord Popplecourt!' + +'Yes, sir. But he went away when he began to lose.' + +'Three thousand four hundred pounds! How old are you?' + +'I am just twenty-one.' + +'You are beginning the world well, Gerald! What is the engagement +which Silverbridge has made with Lord Percival?' + +'To pay him the money at the end of next month.' + +'What had Silverbridge to do with it?' + +'Nothing, sir. I wrote to Silverbridge because I didn't know what +to do. I knew he would stand me.' + +'Who is to stand either of you if you go on thus I do not know.' +To this Gerald of course made no reply, but an idea came across +his mind that he knew who would stand both himself and his +brother. 'How did Silverbridge mean to get the money?' + +'He said he would ask you. But I thought that I ought to tell +you.' + +'Is that all?' + +'All what, sir?' + +'Are there other debts?' To this Gerald made no reply. 'Other +gambling debts?' + +'No, sir;--not a shilling of that kind. I have never played +before.' + +'Does it ever occur to you that going on at that rate you may very +soon lose all the fortune that will ever come to you? You were +not yet of age and you lost three thousand four hundred pounds at +cards to a man whom you probably knew to be a professed gambler!' + Then the Duke seemed to wait for a reply, but poor Gerald had not +a word to say. 'Can you explain to me what benefit you proposed to +yourself when you played for such stakes as that?' + +'I hoped to win back what I had lost.' + +'Facilis descensus Averni!' said the Duke, shaking his head. +'Noctes atque dies patet atri jauna Ditis.' No doubt, he thought, +that as his son was at Oxford, admonitions in Latin would serve +him better than in his native tongue. But Gerald, when he heard +the grand hexameter rolled out in his father's grandest tone, +entertained a comfortable feeling that the worst of the interview +was over. 'Win back what you had lost! Do you think that that is +the common fortune of young gamblers when they fall among those +who are more experienced than themselves?' + +'One goes on, sir, without reflecting.' + +'Go on without reflecting! Yes, and where to? where to? Oh, +Gerald, where to? Whither will such progress without reflection +take you?' 'He means--to the devil,' said the lad inwardly to +himself, without moving his lips. 'There is but one goal for such +going on as that. I can pay three thousand four hundred pounds to +you certainly. I think it hard that I should have to do so; but I +can do it,--and I will do it.' + +'Thank you, sir,' murmured Gerald. + +'But how can I wash your young mind clean from the foul stain +which has already defiled it? Why did you sit down to play? Was +it to win the money which these men had in their pockets?' + +'Not particularly.' + +'It cannot be that a rational being should consent to risk the +money he has himself,--to risk even the money which he has not +himself,--without a desire to win that which as yet belongs to his +opponents. You desired to win.' + +'I suppose I did hope to win.' + +'And why? Why did you want to extract their property from their +pockets, and to put it into your own? That the footpad on the +road should have such desire when, with his pistol, he stops the +traveller on his journey we all understand. And we know what to +think of the footpad,--and what we must do to him. He is a poor +creature, who from his youth upwards has had no good thing done +for him, uneducated, an outcast, whom we should pity more than we +despise him. We take him as a pest which we cannot endure, and +lock him up where he can harm us no more. On my word, Gerald, I +think that the so-called gentleman who sits down with the +deliberate intention of extracting money from the pockets of his +antagonists, who lays out for himself that way of repairing the +shortcomings of fortune, who looks to that resource as an aid to +his means,---is worse, much worse, than the public robber! He is +meaner, more cowardly, and has I think in his bosom less of the +feeling of an honest man. And he probably has been educated,--as +you have been. He calls himself a gentleman. He should know black +from whit. It is considered terrible to cheat at cards.' + +'There was nothing of that, sir.' + +'The man who plays and cheats has fallen low indeed. + +'I understand that, sir.' + +'He who plays that he may make an income, but does not cheat, has +fallen nearly as low. Do you ever think what money is?' + +The Duke paused so long, collecting his own thoughts and thinking +of his own words, that Gerald found himself obliged to answer. +'Cheques, and sovereigns, and bank-notes,' he replied with much +hesitation. + +'Money is the reward of labour,' said the Duke, 'or rather, in the +shape it reaches you, it is your representation of that reward. +You may earn it yourself, or, as is, I am afraid, more likely to +be the case with you, you may possess it honestly as prepared for +you by the labour of others who have stored it up for you. But it +is a commodity of which you are bound to see that the source is +not only clean but noble. You would not let Lord Percival give you +money.' + +'He wouldn't do that, sir, I am sure.' + +'Nor would you take it. There is nothing so comfortable as money,-- +but nothing so defiling if it be come by unworthily; nothing so +comfortable, but nothing so noxious if the mind be allowed to +dwell upon it constantly. If a man have enough, let him spend it +freely. If he wants it, let him earn it honestly. Let him do +something for it, so that the man who pays it to him may get its +value. But to think that it may be got by gambling, to hope to +live after that fashion, to sit down with your fingers almost in +your neighbours' pockets, with your eye on his purse, trusting +that you may know better than he some studied calculations as to +the pips' concealed in your hands, praying to the only god you +worship that some special card may be vouchsafed to you,--that I +say is to have left far, far behind you, all nobility, all +gentleness, all manhood! Write me down Lord Percival's address +and I will send him the money. + +Then the Duke wrote a cheque for the money claimed and sent it +with a note as follows: + +'The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to Lord Percival. The +Duke has been informed by Lord Gerald Palliser that Lord Percival +has won at cards from him the sum of three thousand four hundred +pounds. The Duke now encloses a cheque for that amount, and +requests that the document which Lord Percival holds from Lord +Silverbridge as security for that amount, may be returned to Lord +Gerald.' + +Let the noble gambler have his prey. He was little solicitous +about that. If he could only operate on the mind of this son,--so +operate on the minds of both his sons, as to make them see the +foolishness of folly, the ugliness of what is mean, the squalor +and dirt of ignoble pursuits, then he could easily pardon past +faults. If it were half his wealth what would it signify if he +could teach his children to accept those lessons without which no +man can live as a gentleman, let his rank be the highest known, +let his wealth be as the sands, his fashion unrivalled? + +The word or two which his daughter had said to him, declaring that +she still took pride in her lover's love, and then this new +misfortune on Gerald's part, upset him greatly. He almost +sickened of politics when he thought of his domestic bereavement +and his domestic misfortunes. How completely had he failed to +indoctrinate his children with the ideas by which his own mind was +fortified and controlled! Nothing was so base to him as a +gambler, and they had both commenced their career by gambling. +From their young boyhood nothing had seemed so desirable to him as +that they should be accustomed by early training to devote +themselves to the service of their country. He saw other young +noblemen around him who at eighteen were known as debaters at +their colleges, or at twenty-five were already deep in politics, +social science, and educational projects. What good would all his +wealth or all his position do for his children if their minds +could rise to nothing beyond the shooting of deer and the hunting +of foxes? There was young Lord Buttercup, the son of the Earl of +Woolantallow, only a few months older than Silverbridge,--who was +already a junior lord, and as constant at his office, or during +the Session on the Treasury Bench, as though there were not a pack +of hounds or a card-table in Great Britain! Lord Buttercup, too, +had already written an article in 'The Fortnightly' on the subject +of Turkish finance. How long would it be before Silverbridge would +write an article, or Gerald sign his name in the service of the +public? + +And then those proposed marriages,--as to which he was beginning to +know that his children would be too strong for him! Anxious as he +was that both his sons should be permeated by liberal politics, +studious as he had ever been to teach them that the highest duty +of those high in rank was to use their authority to elevate those +beneath them, still he was hardly less anxious to make them +understand that their second duty required them to maintain their +own position. It was by feeling this, second duty,--by feeling it +and performing it,--that they would be enabled to perform the first. +And now both Silverbridge and his girl were bent upon marriages by +which they would depart out of their own order! Let Silverbridge +marry whom he might, he could not be other than the heir to the +honours of the family. But by his marriage he might either support +or derogate from these honours. And now, having at first made a +choice that was good, he had altered his mind from simple freak, +captivated by a pair of bright eyes and an arch smile, and without +a feeling in regard to his family, was anxious to take to his +bosom the granddaughter of an American day-labourer! + +And then his girl,--of whose beauty he was so proud, from whose +manners, and tastes, and modes of life he had expected to reap +those good things, in a feminine degree, which his sons as young +men seemed so little fitted to give him! By slow degrees he had +been brought round to acknowledge that the young man was worthy. +Tregear's conduct had been felt by the Duke to be manly. The +letter he had written was a good letter. And then he had won for +himself a seat in the House of Commons. When forced to speak of +him to his girl he had been driven by justice to call him worthy. +But how could he serve to support and strengthen the nobility, the +endurance and perpetuation of which should be the peculiar care of +every Palliser? + +And yet as the Duke walked about his room he felt that his +opposition either to the one marriage or to the other was vain. Of +course they would marry according to their wills. + +That same night Gerald wrote to his brother before he went to bed, +as follows: + +'DEAR SILVER,--I was awfully obliged to you for sending me the I O +U for that brute Percival. He only sneered when he took it, and +would have said something disagreeable, but that he saw that I was +in earnest. I know he did say something to Nid, only I can't find +out what. Nid is an easy-going fellow, and, as I saw, didn't want +to have a rumpus. + +'But now what do you think I've done? Directly I got home I told +the governor all about it! As I was in the train I made up my +mind that I would. I went slap at it. If there is anything that +never does any good, it is craning. I did it all at one rush, +just as though I was swallowing a dose of physic. I wish I could +tell you all that the governor said, because it was really tip- +top. What is a fellow to get by playing high,--a fellow like you +and me? I didn't want any of that beast's money. I don't suppose +he had any. But one's dander gets up, and one doesn't like to be +done, and so it goes on. I shall cut that kind of thing +altogether. You should have heard the governor spouting Latin! +And then the way he sat upon Percival, without mentioning the +fellow's name! I do think it mean to set yourself to work to win +money at cards,--and it is awfully mean to lose more than you have +got to pay. + +'Then at the end the governor said he'd send the beast a cheque +for the amount. You know his way of finishing up, just like two +fellows fighting,--when one has awfully punished the other he goes +up and shakes hands with him. He did pitch it into me,--not abusing +me, nor even saying a word about the money, which he at once +promised to pay, but laying it on to gambling with a regular cat- +o'-ninetails. And then there was an end of it. He just asked the +fellow's address and said that he would send him the money. I will +say this;--I don't think there's a greater brick than the governor +anywhere. + +'I am awfully sorry about Tregear. I can't make out how it +happened. I suppose you were too near him, and Melrose always does +rush at his fences. One fellow shouldn't be too near another +fellow,--only it so often happens that it can't be helped. It's +just like anything else, if nothing comes of it then it's all +right. But if anybody comes to grief then he's got to be pitched +into. Do you remember when I nearly cut over old Sir Simon +Slowbody? Didn't I hear about it! + +'I am awfully glad you didn't smash up Tregear altogether because +of Mary. I am quite sure it is no good anybody setting up his back +against that. It's one of the things that have got to be. You +always have said that he is a good fellow. If so, what's the harm? + At any rate it has got to be. + +'Your affectionate Brother, +GERALD.' + +'I go up in about a week.' + + + +CHAPTER 66 + +The Three Attacks + +During the following week the communication between Harrington and +Matching were very frequent. There were no further direct messages +between Tregear and Lady Mary, but she heard daily of his +progress. The Duke was conscious of the special interest which +existed in his house as to the condition of the young man, but, +after his arrival not a word had been spoken for some days between +him and his daughter on the subject. Then Gerald went back to his +college, and the Duke made his preparations for going up to town +and making some attempt at parliamentary activity. + +It was by no concert that an attack was made upon him from three +quarters at once as he was preparing to leave Matching. On the +Sunday morning during church time, for on that day Lady Mary went +to her devotions alone,--Mrs Finn was closeted an hour with the +Duke in his study. 'I think you ought to be aware,' she said to +the Duke, 'that though I trust Mary implicitly and know her to be +thoroughly high principled, I cannot be responsible for her, if I +remain here.' + +'I do not quite follow your meaning.' + +'Of course there is but one matter on which there can, probably, +be any difference between us. If she should choose to write to Mr +Tregear, or to send him any message, or even to go to him, I could +not prevent it.' + +'Go to him!' exclaimed the horrified Duke. + +'I merely suggest such a thing in order to make you understand +that I have absolutely no control over her.' + +'What control have I?' + +'Nay; I cannot define that. You are her father, and she +acknowledges your authority. She regards me as a friend,--and as +such treats me with the sweetest affection. Nothing can be more +gratifying than her manner to me personally.' + +'It ought to be so.' + +'She has thoroughly won my heart. But still I know that if there +were a difference between us she would not obey me. Why should +she?' + +'Because you hold my deputed authority.' + +'Oh, Duke, that goes for very little anywhere. No one can depute +authority. It comes too much from personal accidents, and too +little from reason or law to be handed over to others. Besides, I +fear, that on one matter concerning her you and I are not agreed.' + +'I shall be sorry if it be so.' + +'I feel that I am bound to tell you my opinion.' + +'Oh yes.' + +'You think that in the end Lady Mary will allow herself to be +separated from Tregear. I think that in the end they will become +man and wife.' + +This seemed to the Duke to be not quite so bad as it might have +been. Any speculation as to results were very different from an +expressed opinion as to propriety. Were he to tell the truth as to +his own mind, he might perhaps have said the same thing. But one +is not to relax in one's endeavours to prevent that which is +wrong, because one fears that the wrong may be ultimately +perpetuated. 'Let that be as it may,' he said, 'it cannot alter my +duty.' + +'Nor mine, Duke, if I may presume to think that I have a duty in +this matter.' + +'That you should encounter the burden of the duty binds me to you +for ever.' + +'If it be that they will certainly be married one day--' + +'Who has said that? Who has admitted that?' + +'If it be so; if it seems to me that it must be so,--then how can I +be anxious to prolong her sufferings? She does suffer terribly.' +Upon this the Duke frowned, but there was more of tenderness in +his frown than in the hard smile which he had hitherto worn. 'I do +not know whether you see it all.' He well remembered all that he +had seen when he and Mary were travelling together. 'I see it, and +I do not pass half an hour with her without sorrowing for her.' +On hearing this he sighed and turned his face away. 'Girls are so +different! There are many who though they be genuinely in love, +though their natures are sweet and affectionate, are not strong +enough to support their own feelings in resistance to the will of +those who have authority over them.' Had it been so with his +wife? At this moment all the former history passed through his +mind. 'They yield to that which seems to be inevitable, and allow +themselves to be fashioned by the purposes of others. It is well +for them often that they are so plastic. Whether it would be +better for her that she should be so I will not say.' + +'It would be better,' said the Duke doggedly. + +'But such is not her nature. She is as determined as ever.' + +'I may be determined too.' + +'But if at last it will be of no use,--if it be her fate either to +be married to this man or to die of a broken heart,--' + +'What justifies you in saying that? How can you torture me by such +a threat?' + +'If I think so, Duke, I am justified. Of late I have been with her +daily,--almost hourly. I do not say that this will kill her now,--in +her youth. It is not often, I fancy, that women die after that +fashion. But a broken heart may bring the sufferer to the grave +after a lapse of many years. How will it be with you if she should +live like a ghost beside you for the next twenty years, and you +should then see her die, faded and withered before her time,--all +her life gone without a joy,--because she had loved a man whose +position in life was displeasing to you? Would the ground on +which the sacrifices had been made then justify itself to you? In +that performing your duty to your order would you feel satisfied +that you had performed that to your child?' + +She had come there determined to say it all,--to liberate her own +soul as it were,--but had much doubted the spirit in which the Duke +would listen to her. That he would listen to her she was sure,--and +then if he chose to cast her out, she would endure his wrath. It +would not be to her now as it had been when he accused her of +treachery. But, nevertheless, bold as she was and independent, he +had imbued her, as he did all those around him, with so strong a +sense of his personal dignity, that when she had finished she +almost trembled as she looked in his face. Since he had asked how +she could justify to herself the threats which she was using he +had sat still with his eyes fixed upon her. Now, when she had +done, he was in no hurry to speak. He rose slowly and walking +towards the fireplace stood with his back towards her, looking +down upon the fire. She was the first to speak again. 'Shall I +leave you now?' she said in a low voice. + +'Perhaps it will be better,' he answered. His voice, too was very +low. In truth he was so moved that he hardly knew how to speak at +all. Then she rose and was already on her way on to the door when +he followed her. 'One moment if you please,' he said almost +sternly. 'I am under a debt of gratitude to you of which I cannot +express my sense in words. How far I may agree with you, and where +I may disagree I will not attempt to point out to you now.' + +'Oh no.' + +'But all that you have troubled yourself to think and to feel in +this matter, and all that true friendship has compelled you to say +to me, shall be written down in the tablets of my memory.' + +'Duke!' + +'My child has at any rate been fortunate in securing the +friendship of such a friend.' Then he turned back to the +fireplace, and she was constrained to leave the room without +another word. + +She had determined to make the best plea in her power for Mary; +and while she was making the plea had been almost surprised by her +own vehemence; but the greater had been her vehemence, the +stronger, she thought, would have been the Duke's anger. And as +she had watched the workings of his face she had felt for the +moment, that the vials of his wrath were about to be poured upon +her. Even when she left the room she almost believed that had he +not taken those moments for consideration at the fireplace his +parting words would have been different. But, as it was, there +could be no question now of her departure. No power was left to +her of separating herself from Lady Mary. Though the Duke had not +as yet acknowledged himself to be conquered, there was no doubt to +her now but that he would be conquered. And she, either here or in +London, must be the girl's nearest friend up to the day when she +should be given over to Mr Tregear. That was one of the three +attacks which were made upon the Duke before he went up to his +parliamentary duties. + +The second was as follows. Among the letters on the following +morning one was brought to him from Tregear. It is hoped that the +reader will remember the lover's former letter and the very +unsatisfactory answer which had been sent to it. Nothing could +have been colder, less propitious, or more inveterately hostile +than the reply. As he lay in bed with his broken bones at +Harrington he had ample time for thinking over all this. He knew +every word of the Duke's distressing note by heart, and had often +lashed himself to rage as he had repeated it. But he could effect +nothing by showing his anger. He must go on an still do something. +Since the writing of that letter he had done something. He had got +his seat in Parliament. And he had secured the interest of his +friend Silverbridge. This had been partially done at Polwenning, +but the accident in the Brake country had completed the work. The +brother had at last declared himself in his friend's favour. 'Of +course I should be glad to see it,' he had said while sitting by +Tregear's bedside. 'The worst is that everything does seem to go +against the poor governor.' + +Then Tregear made up his mind that he would write another letter. +Personally he was not in the best condition for doing this as he +was lying in bed with his left arm tied up, and with straps and +bandages all round his body. But he could sit up in bed, and his +right hand and arm were free. So he declared to Lady Chiltern his +purpose of writing a letter. She tried to dissuade him gently and +offered to be his secretary. But when he assured her that no +secretary could write his letter for him she understood pretty +well what would be the subject of the letter. With considerable +difficulty Tregear wrote his letter. + +'MY LORD DUKE,'--On this occasion he left out the epithet which he +had before used-- + +'Your Grace's reply to my last letter was not encouraging, but in +spite of your prohibition I venture to write to you again. If I +had the slightest reason for thinking that your daughter was +estranged from me, I would not persecute either you or her. But if +it be true that she is as devoted to me as I am to her, can I be +wrong in pleading my case? Is it not evident to you that she is +made of such stuff that she will not be controlled in her choice,-- +even by your will? + +'I have had an accident in the hunting-field and an now writing +from Lord Chiltern's house, where I am confined to bed. But I +think you will understand me when I say that even in this helpless +condition I feel myself constrained to do something. Of course I +ask for nothing from you on my own behalf,--but on her behalf may I +not add my prayers to hers? + +'I have the honour to be, +'Your Grace's faithful Servant, +'FRANCIS TREGEAR.' + +This coming alone would perhaps have had no effect. The Duke had +desired the young man not to address him again; and the young man +had disobeyed him. No mere courtesy would now have constrained him +to send any reply further to this letter. But coming as it did +while his heart was still throbbing with the effects of Mrs Finn's +words, it was allowed to have a certain force. The argument was a +true argument. His girl was devoted to the man who sought her +hand. Mrs Finn had told him that sooner or later he must yield,-- +unless he was prepared to see his child wither and fade at his +side. He had once thought that he would be prepared even for that. +He had endeavoured to strengthen his own will by arguing with +himself that when he saw a duty plainly before him, he should +cleave to that let the results be what they might. But that +picture of her face withered and wan after twenty years of +sorrowing had had its effect upon his heart. He even made excuses +within his own breast in the young man's favour. He was in +Parliament now, and what may not be done for a young man in +Parliament? Altogether the young man appeared to him in a +different light from that through which he had viewed the +presumptuous, arrogant young suitor who had come to him, now +nearly a year since, in Carlton Terrace. + +He went to breakfast with Tregear's letter in his pocket, and was +then gracious to Mrs Finn, and tender to his daughter. 'When do +you go, papa?' Mary asked. + +'I shall take the 11.45 train. I have ordered the carriage at a +quarter before eleven.' + +'May I go to the train, papa?' + +'Certainly; I shall be delighted.' + +'Papa!' Mary said as soon as she found herself seated beside her +father in the carriage. + +'My dear.' + +'Oh, papa!' and she threw herself on to his breast. He put his arm +round her and kissed her,--as he would have had so much delight in +doing, as he would have done so often before, had there not been +this ground of discord. She was very sweet to him. It had never +seemed to him that she had disgraced herself by loving Tregear--but +that a great misfortune had fallen upon her. Silverbridge when he +had gone into a racing partnership with Tifto, and Gerald when he +had played for money which he did not possess, had--degraded +themselves in his estimation. He would not have used such a word; +but it was his feeling. They were less noble, less pure than they +might have been, had the kept themselves free from such stain. But +this girl,--whether she should live and fade by his side, or +whether she should give her hand to some fitting noble suitor,--or +even though she might at last become the wife of this man who +loved her, would always have been pure. It was sweet to him to +have something to caress. Now in the solitude of his life, as +years were coming on him, he felt how necessary it was that he +should have someone who would love him. Since his wife had left +him he had been debarred from these caresses, by the necessity of +showing his antagonism to her dearest wishes. It had been his duty +to be stern. In all his words to his daughter he had been governed +by a conviction that he never ought to allow the duty of +separating her from her lover to be absent from his mind. He was +not prepared to acknowledge that that duty had ceased;--but yet +there had crept over him a feeling that as he was half conquered, +why should he not seek some recompense in his daughter's love. +'Papa,' she said, 'you do not hate me?' + +'Hate you, my darling!' + +'Because I am disobedient. Oh, papa, I cannot help it. He should +not have come. He should not have been let to come.' He had not a +word to say to her. He could not as yet bring himself to tell +her,--that it should be as she desired. Much less could he now +argue with her as to the impossibility of such a marriage as he +had done on former occasions when the matter had been discussed. +He could only press his arm tightly round her waist, and be +silent. 'It cannot be altered now, papa. Look at me. Tell me that +you love me.' + +'Have you doubted my love?' + +'No, papa,--but I would do anything to make you happy; anything +that I could do. Papa, you do not want me to marry Lord +Popplecourt?' + +'I would not have you marry any man without loving him.' + +'I never can love anybody else. That is what I wanted you to know, +papa.' + +To this he made no reply, nor was there anything else said upon +the subject before the carriage drove up to the railway station. +'Do not get out, dear,' he said, seeing that her eyes had been +filled with tears. 'It is not worth while. God bless you my child! + You will be up in London I hope in a fortnight, and we must try +to make the house a little less dull for you.' + +And so he encountered the third attack. + +Lady Mary, as she was driven home, recovered her spirits +wonderfully. Not a word had fallen from her father which she could +use hereafter as a refuge from her embarrassments. He had made her +no promise. He had assented to nothing. But there had been +something in his manner, in his gait, in his eye, in the pressure +of his arm, which made her feel that her troubles would soon be at +an end. + +'I do love you so much,' she said to Mrs Finn late on that +afternoon. + +'I am glad of that, dear.' + +'I shall always love you,--because you have been on my side all +through.' + +'No, Mary;--that is not so.' + +'I know it is so. Of course you have to be wise because you are +older. And papa would not have you here with me if you were not +wise. But I know you are on my side,--and papa knows it too. And +someone else shall know it some day.' + + + +CHAPTER 67 + +'He is Such a Beast' + +Lord Silverbridge remained in the Brake country till a few days +before the meeting of Parliament, and had he been left to himself +he would have had another week in the country and might probably +have overstayed the opening day; but he had not been left to +himself. In the last week in January an important despatch reached +his hands, from no less important person than Sir Timothy Beeswax, +suggesting to him that he should undertake the duty of seconding +the address in the House of Commons. When the proposition first +reached him it made his hair stand on end. He had never yet risen +to his feet in the House. He had spoken at those election meetings +in Cornwall, and had found it easy enough. After the first or +second time he had thought it good fun. But he knew that standing +up in the House of Commons would be different from that. Then +there would be the dress! 'I should so hate to fig myself out and +look like a guy,' he said to Tregear, to whom of course he +confided the offer that was made to him. Tregear was very anxious +that he should accept it. 'A man should never refuse anything of +that kind which comes his way,' Tregear said. + +'It is only because I am the governor's son,' Silverbridge +pleaded. + +'Partly so perhaps. But if it be altogether so, what of that? Take +the goods the gods provide you. Of course all these things which +our ambition coverts are easier to Duke's sons than to others. But +not on that account should a Duke's son refuse them. A man when he +sees a rung vacant on the ladder should always put his foot +there.' + +'I'll tell you what,' said Silverbridge. 'If I thought this was +all fair sailing I'd do it. I should feel certain that I should +come a cropper, but still I'd try it. As you say, a fellow should +try. But it's all meant as a blow at the governor. Old Beeswax +thinks that if he can get me up to swear that he and his crew are +real first-chop hands, that will hit the governor hard. It's as +much as saying to the governor,--"This chap belongs to me, not to +you." That's a thing I won't go in for.' Then Tregear counselled +him to write to his father for advice, and at the same time ask +Sir Timothy to allow him a day or two for consideration. This +counsel he took. His letter reached his father two days before he +left Matching. In answer to it there came first a telegram begging +Silverbridge to be in London on the Monday, and then a letter, in +which the Duke expressed himself as being anxious to see his son +before giving a final answer to the question. Thus it was that +Silverbridge had been taken away from his hunting. + +Isabel Boncassen, however, was now in London, and from her it was +possible that he might find consolation. He had written to her +soon after reaching Harrington, telling her that he had had it all +out with the governor. 'There is a good deal that I can only tell +you when I see you,' he said. Then he assured her with many +lover's protestations that he was and always would be till death +altogether her own most loving S. To this he had received an +answer by return of post. She would be delighted to see him up in +town,--as would her father and mother. They had now got a +comfortable house in Brook Street. And then she signed herself his +sincere friend, Isabel. Silverbridge thought that it was cold, and +remembered certain scraps of another feminine handwriting in which +more passion was expressed. Perhaps this was the way with American +young ladies when they were in love. + +'Yes,' said the Duke, 'I am glad that you have come up at once, as +Sir Timothy should have his answer without further delay.' + +'But what shall I say?' + +The Duke, though he had already considered the matter very +seriously, nevertheless took a few minutes to consider it again. +'The offer,' said he, 'must be acknowledged as very flattering.' + +'But the circumstances are not usual.' + +'It cannot often be the case that a minister should ask the son of +his keenest political opponent to render him such a service. But, +however, we will put that aside.' + +'Not quite, sir.' + +'For the present we will put that on one side. Not looking at the +party which you may be called upon to support, having for the +moment no regard to this or that line in politics, there is no +opening to the real duties of parliamentary life which I would +sooner see accorded to you than this.' + +'But if I were to break down?' Talking to his father he could not +quite venture to ask what might happen if he were to 'come a +cropper'. + +'None but the brave deserve the fair,' said the Duke slapping his +hands upon the table. 'Why, if "We fail, we fail! But screw your +courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail." What high +point would ever be reached if caution such as that were allowed +to prevail? What young men have done before cannot you do? I +have no doubt of your capacity. None.' + +'Haven't you, sir,' said Silverbridge, considerably gratified,--and +also surprised. + +'None in the least. But, perhaps, some of your diligence.' + +'I could learn it by heart, sir,--if you mean that.' + +'But I don't mean that; or rather I mean much more than that. You +have first to realise in your mind the thing to be said, and then +the words in which you should say it, before you come to learning +by heart.' + +'Some of them I suppose would tell me what to say.' + +'No doubt with your inexperience it would be unfit that you should +be left entirely to yourself. But I would wish you to know,-- +perhaps I should say to feel, that the sentiments expressed by you +were just.' + +'I should have to praise Sir Timothy.' + +'Not that necessarily. But you would have to advocate that course +in Parliament which Sir Timothy and his friends have taken and +propose to take.' + +'But I hate him like poison.' + +'There need be no personal feeling in the matter. I remember that +when I moved the address in your house Mr Mildmay was Prime +Minister,--a man for whom my regard and esteem was unbounded,--who +had been in political matters the preceptor of my youth, whom as a +patriotic statesman I almost worshipped, whom I now remember as a +man whose departure from the arena of politics left the country +very destitute. No one has sprung up since like him,--or hardly +second to him. But in speaking on so large a subject as the policy +of a party, I thought it beneath me to eulogise a man. The same +policy reversed may keep you silent respecting Sir Timothy.' + +'I needn't of course say what I think about him.' + +'I suppose you do agree with Sir Timothy as to his general policy? + On no other condition can you undertake such a duty.' + +'Of course I have voted with him.' + +'So I have observed,--not so regularly perhaps as Mr Roby would +have desired.' Mr Roby was the Conservative whip. + +'And I suppose the people at Silverbridge expect me to support +him.' + +'I hardly know how that may be. They used to be contented with +more poor services. No doubt they feel they have changed for the +better.' + +'You shouldn't say that, sir.' + +'I am bound to suppose that they think so, because when the matter +was left in their own hands they at once elected a Conservative. +You need not fear that you will offend them by seconding the +address. They will probably feel proud to see their young member +brought forward on such an occasion; as I shall be proud to see my +son.' + +'You would if it were on the other side, sir.' + +'Yes, Silverbridge, yes; I should be very proud if it were on the +other side. But there is a useful old adage which bids us not cry +for spilt milk. You have a right to your opinions, though perhaps +I may think that in adopting what I must call new opinions you +were a little precipitate. We cannot act together in politics. But +not on the less on that account do I wish to see you take an +active and useful part on that side to which you have attached +yourself.' As he said this he rose from his seat and spoke with +emphasis, as though he were addressing some imaginary Speaker or a +house of legislators around. 'I shall be proud to hear you second +the address. If you do it as gracefully and fitly as I am sure you +may if you will give yourself the trouble, I shall hear you do it +with infinite satisfaction, even though I shall feel at the same +time anxious to answer all your arguments and to disprove your +assertions. I should be listening no doubt to my opponent;--but I +should be proud to feel that I was listening to my son. My advice +to you is to do as Sir Timothy has asked you.' + +'He is such a beast, sir,' said Silverbridge. + +'Pray do not speak in that way on matters so serious.' + +'I do not think you understand it, sir.' + +'Perhaps not. Can you enlighten me?' + +'I believe he has done this only to annoy you.' The Duke, who had +again seated himself, and was leaning back in his chair, raised +himself up, placed his hands on the table before him, and looked +his son hard in the face. The idea which Silverbridge had just +expressed had certainly occurred to himself. He remembered well +all the circumstances of the time when he and Sir Timothy Beeswax +had been members of the same government,--and he remembered how +animosities had grown, and how treacherous he had thought the man. +From the moment in which he had read the minister's letter to the +young member, he had felt that the offer had too probably come +from a desire to make the political separation between himself and +his son complete. But he had thought that in counselling his son +he was bound to ignore such a feeling; and it certainly had not +occurred to him that Silverbridge would have been astute enough to +perceive the same thing. + +'What makes you fancy that?' said the Duke, striving to conceal by +his manner, but not altogether successful in concealing, the +gratification he certainly felt. + +'Well, sir, I am not sure that I can explain it. Of course it is +putting you in a different boat from me.' + +'You have already chosen your boat.' + +'Perhaps he thinks I may get out again. I dislike the skipper so +much, that I am not sure that I shall not.' + +'Oh, Silverbridge,--that is such a fault! So much is included in +that which is unstatesmanlike, unpatriotic, almost dishonest! Do +you mean to say that you would be this or that in politics +according to your personal liking for an individual?' + +'When you don't trust the leader, you can't believe very firmly in +the followers,' said Silverbridge doggedly. 'I won't say, sir, +what I may do. Though I daresay that what I think is not of much +account, I do think a good deal about it.' + +'I am glad of that.' + +'And as I think it not at all improbable that I may go back again, +if you don't mind it, I will refuse.' Of course after that the +Duke had no further arguments to use in favour of Sir Timothy's +proposition. + + + +CHAPTER 68 + +Brook Street + +Silverbridge had now a week on his hands which he felt he might +devote to the lady of his love. It was a comfort to him that he +need having nothing to do with the address. To have to go, day +after day, to the Treasury in order that he might learn his +lesson, would have been disagreeable to him. He did not quite know +how the lesson would have been communicated, but fancied it would +have come from 'Old Roby', whom he did not love much better than +Sir Timothy. Then the speech must have been composed, and +afterwards submitted to someone,--probably to old Roby again, by +whom no doubt it would be cut and slashed, and made quite a +different speech than he had intended. If he had not praised Sir +Timothy himself, Roby,--or whatever other tutor might have been +assigned to him,--would have put the praise in. And then how many +hours it would have taken to learn 'the horrid thing' by heart. He +proudly felt that he had not been prompted by idleness to decline +the task; but not the less was he glad to have shuffled the burden +from off his shoulders. + +Early the next morning he was in Brook Street, having sent a note +to say he would call, and having named the hour. And yet when he +knocked at the door, he was told with the utmost indifference by a +London footman, that Miss Boncassen was not at home,--also that Mrs +Boncassen was not at home,--also that Mr Boncassen was not at home. +When he asked at what hour Miss Boncassen was expected home, the +man answered him, just as though he had been anyone else, that he +knew nothing about it. He turned away in disgust, and had himself +driven to the Beargarden. In his misery he had recourse to game- +pie and a pint of champagne for his lunch. 'Halloa, old fellow, +what is this I hear about you?' said Nidderdale, coming in, and +sitting opposite to him. + +'I don't know what you have heard.' + +'You are going to second the address. What made them pick you out +from the lot of us?' + +'It is just what I am not going to do.' + +'I saw it all in the papers.' + +'I daresay;--and yet it isn't true. I shouldn't wonder if they ask +you.' + +At this moment a waiter handed a large official letter to Lord +Nidderdable, saying that the messenger who had brought it was +waiting for an answer in the hall. The letter bore the important +signature of T. Beeswax on the corner of the envelope, and so +disturbed Lord Nidderdale that he called at once for a glass of +soda-and-brandy. When opened it was found to be very nearly a +counterpart of that which Silverbridge had received down in the +country. There was, however, added a little prayer that Lord +Nidderdale would at once come down to the Treasury Chambers. + +'They must be very hard up,' said Lord Nidderdale. 'But I shall do +it. Cantrip is always at me to do something, and you see if I +don't butter them up properly.' Then having fortified himself +with game-pie and a glass of brown sherry he went away at once to +the Treasury Chambers. + +Silverbridge felt himself a little better after his lunch,--better +still when he had smoked a couple of cigarettes walking about the +empty smoking-room. And as he walked he collected his thoughts. +She could hardly have meant to slight him. No doubt her letter +down to him at Harrington had been very cold. No doubt he had been +ill-treated in being sent away so unceremoniously from the door. +But yet she could hardly intend that everything between them +should be over. Even an American girl could not be so unreasonable +as that. He remembered the passionate way in which she had assured +him of her love. All that could not have been forgotten! He had +done nothing by which he could have forfeited her esteem. She had +desired him to tell the whole affair to her father, and he had +done so. Mr Boncassen might perhaps objected. It might be that +this American was so prejudiced against the English aristocrats as +to desire no commerce with them. There were not many Englishmen +who would not have welcomed him as a son-in-law, but Americans +might be different. Still,--still Isabel would hardly have shown +her obedience to her father in this way. She was too independent +to obey her father in a matter concerning her own heart. And if he +had not been the possessor of her heart at that last interview, +then she must have been false indeed! So he got once more into +his hansom and had himself taken back to Brook Street. + +Mrs Boncassen was in the drawing-room alone. + +'I am so sorry,' said the lady,' but Mr Boncassen has, I think, +just gone out.' + +'Indeed! and where is Isabel?' + +'Isabel is downstairs,--that is if she hasn't gone out too. She did +talk of going with her father to the Museum. She is getting quite +bookish. She has got a ticket, and goes there, and has all the +things brought to her just like the other learned folk.' + +'I am anxious to see her, Mrs Boncassen.' + +'My! If she has gone out it will be a pity. She was only saying +yesterday she wouldn't wonder if you shouldn't turn up.' + +'Of course I've turned up, Mrs Boncassen. I was here an hour ago.' + +'Was it you who called and asked all them questions? My! We +couldn't make out who it was. The man said it was a flurried +young gentleman who wouldn't leave a card,--but who wanted to see +Mr Boncassen most special.' + +'It was Isabel I wanted to see. Didn't I leave a card? No; I don't +think I did. I felt so--almost at home, that I didn't think of a +card.' + +'That's very kind of you, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I hope you are going to be my friend, Mrs Boncassen.' + +'I am sure I don't know, Lord Silverbridge. Isabel is most used to +having her own way I guess. I think when hearts are joined almost +nothing ought to stand between them. But Mr Boncassen does have +doubts. He don't wish Isabel should force herself anywhere. But +here she is, and now she can speak for herself.' Whereupon not +only did Isabel enter the room, but at the same time Mrs Boncassen +most discreetly left it. It must be confessed that American +mothers are not afraid of their daughters.' + +Silverbridge, when the door was closed, stood looking at the girl +for a moment and thought that she was more lovely than ever. She +was dressed for walking. She still had on her fur jacket, but had +taken off her hat. 'I was in the parlour downstairs,' she said, +'when you came in, with papa; and we were going out together; but +when I heard who was here, I made him go alone. Was I not good?' + +He had not thought of a word to say, or a thing to do;--but he felt +as he looked at her that the only thing in the world worth living +for, was to have her for his own. For a moment he was half- +abashed. Then in the next she was close in his arms with his lips +pressed to hers. He had been so sudden that she had been unable, +at any rate thought that she had been unable to repress him. 'Lord +Silverbridge,' she said, 'I told you I would not have it. You have +offended me.' + +'Isabel!' + +'Yes; Isabel! Isabel is offended with you. Why did you do it?' + +Why did he do it? It seemed to him to be the most unnecessary +question. 'I want you to know how I love you.' + +'Will that tell me? That only tells me how little you think of +me.' + +'Then it tells you a falsehood;--for I am thinking of you always. +And I always think of you as being the best and dearest and +sweetest thing in the world. And now I think you dearer and +sweeter than ever.' Upon this she tried to frown; but her frown +at once broke out into a smile. 'When I wrote to say that I was +coming why did you not stay at home for me this morning?' + +'I got no letter, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'Why didn't you get it?' + +'That I cannot say, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'Isabel, if you are so formal, you will kill me.' + +'Lord Silverbridge, if you are so forward, you will offend me.' +Then it turned out that no letter from him had reached the house; +and as the letter had been addressed to Bruton Street instead of +Brook Street, the failure on the part of the post-office was not +surprising. + +Whether or no she was offended or he killed remained with her the +whole afternoon. 'Of course I love you,' she said. 'Do you suppose +I should be here with you if I did not, or that you could have +remained in the house after what you did just now? I am not given +to run into rhapsodies quite so much as you are,--and being a woman +perhaps it is as well that I don't. But I think I can be quite as +true to you as you are to me.' + +'I am so much obliged to you for that,' he said, grasping at her +hand. + +'But I am sure that rhapsodies won't do any good. Now I'll tell +you my mind.' + +'You know mine,' said Silverbridge. + +'I will take it for granted that I do. Your mind is to marry me +will ye nil ye, as the people say.' He answered this by merely +nodding his head and getting a little nearer to her. 'That is all +very well in its way, and I am not going to say but what I am +gratified.' Then he did grasp her hand. 'If it pleases you to +hear me say so, Lord Silverbridge--' + +'Not Lord!' + +'Then I shall call you Plantagenet;--only it sounds so horribly +historical. Why are you not Thomas or Abraham? But if it will +please you to hear me say so, I am ready to acknowledge that +nothing in all my life ever came near to the delight I have in +your love.' Hereupon he almost succeeded in getting his arm round +her waist. But she was strong, and seized his hand and held it. +'And I speak no rhapsodies. I tell you a truth which I want you to +know and to keep to your heart,--so that you may be always, always +sure to. + +'I will never doubt it.' + +'But that marrying will ye nill ye, will not suit me. There is so +much wanted for happiness in life.' + +'I will do all that I can.' + +'Yes. Even though it be hazardous, I am willing to trust you. If +you were as other men are, if you could do as you please as lower +men may do, I would leave father and mother and my own country,-- +that I might be your wife. I would do that because I love you. But +what will my life be here, if they who are your friends turn their +backs upon me? What will your life be, if, through all that, you +continued to love me?' + +'That will all come right.' + +'And what will your life be, or mine,' she said, going on with her +own thoughts without seeming to have heard his last words, 'if in +such a condition as that you did not continue to love me?' + +'I should always love you.' + +'It might be very hard:--and if once felt to be hard, then +impossible. You have not looked at it as I have done. Why should +you? Even with a wife that was a trouble to you--' + +'Oh, Isabel!' + +His arm was now round her waist, but she continued speaking as +though she were not aware of the embrace. 'Yes, a trouble! I +shall not be always just what I am now. Now I can be bright and +pretty and hold my own with others because I am so. But are you +sure,--I am not,--that I am such stuff as an English lady should be +made of? If in ten years' time you found that others did not +think so,--that, worse again, you did not think so yourself, would +you be true to me then?' + +'I will always be true to you.' + +She gently extricated herself, as though she had done so that she +might better turn round and look into his face. 'Oh, my own one, +who can say of himself that it would be so? How could it be so, +when you would have all the world against you? You would be still +what you are,--with a clog round your leg while at home. In +Parliament, among your friends, at your clubs, you would be just +what you are. You would be that Lord Silverbridge who had all the +good things at his disposal,--except that he had been unfortunate +in his marriage! But what should I be?' Though she paused he +could not answer her,--not yet. There was a solemnity in her speech +which made it necessary that he should hear her to the end. 'I, +too, have my friends in my own country. It is not disgrace to me +there that my grandfather worked on the quays. No one holds her +head higher than I do, or is more sure of being able to hold it. I +have there that assurance of esteem and honour which you have +here. I would lose it all to do you a good. But I will not lose it +all to do you an injury.' + +'I don't know about injuries,' he said, getting up and walking +about the room. 'But I am sure of this. You will have to be my +wife.' + +'If your father will take me by the hand and say that I shall be +his daughter, I will risk the rest. Even then it might not be +wise; but we love each other too well not run some peril. Do you +think I want anything better than to preside in your home, to +soften you cares, to welcome your joys, to be mother perhaps of +your children, and to know that you are proud that I should be so? + No, my darling. I can see a Paradise;--only, only, I may not be +fit to enter it. I must use some judgement better that my own, +sounder, dear, than yours. Tell the Duke what I say;--tell him that +with what language a son may use to his father. And remember that +all you ask for yourself you will ask doubly for me.' + +'I will ask him so that he cannot refuse me.' + +'If you do I shall be contented. And now go. I have said ever so +much, and I am tired.' + +'Isabel! Oh, my love.' + +'Yes; Isabel;--your love! I am that at any rate for the present,-- +and proud to be so as a queen. Well, if it must be, this once,--as +I have been so hard to you.' Then she gave him her cheek to kiss, +but of course he took much more than she gave. + +When he got into the street it was dark, and there was sill +standing the faithful cab. But he felt that at the present moment +it would be impossible to sit still, and he dismissed the +equipage. He walked rapidly along Brook Street into Park Lane, and +from thence to the park, hardly knowing whither he went in the +enthusiasm of the moment. He walked back to the Marble Arch, and +thence round by the drive to the Guard House and the bridge over +the Serpentine, by the Knightsbridge Barracks to Hyde Park Corner. +Though he should give up everything and go and live in her own +country with her, he would marry her. His politics, his hunting, +this address to the Queen, his horses, his guns, his father's +wealth, and his own rank,--what were they all to Isabel Boncassen? + In meeting her he had net the one human being in all the world +who could really be anything to him either in friendship or in +love. When she had told him what she would do for him to make his +home happy, it had seemed to him that all other delights must fade +away from him for ever. How odious were Tifto and his racehorses, +how unmeaning the noise of his club, how terrible the tedium of +those parliamentary benches! He could not tell his love as she +had told hers! He acknowledged to himself that his words could +not be as her words,--nor his intellect as hers. But his heart +could be as true. She had spoken to him of his name, his rank, and +all his outside world around him. He would make her understand at +last that there were nothing to him in comparison with her. When +he had got round to Hyde Park Corner, he felt that he was almost +compelled to go back again to Brook Street. In no other place +could there be anything to interest him;--nowhere else could there +be light, or warmth, or joy! But what would she think of him? To +go back hot, and soiled with mud, in order that he might say one +more adieu,--that possibly he might ravish one more kiss,--would +hardly be manly. He must postpone all that for the morrow. On the +morrow of course he would be there. + +But his word was before him! That prayer had to be made to his +father, or rather some wonderful effort of eloquence must be made +by which his father might be convinced that this girl was so +infinitely superior to anything of feminine creation that had ever +hitherto been seen or heard of, that all ideas as to birth, +country, rank, or name ought in this instance to count for +nothing. He did believe himself that he had found such a pearl, +that no question of seeing need be taken into consideration. If +the Duke would not see it the fault would be in the Duke's eyes, +or perhaps in his own words,--but certainly not in the pearl. + +Then he compared her to poor Lady Mabel, and in doing so did +arrive at something near the truth in his inward delineation of +the two characters. Lady Mabel with all her grace, with all her +beauty, with all her talent, was a creature of efforts, or, as it +might be called, a manufactured article. She strove to be +graceful, to be lovely, to be agreeable and clever. Isabel was all +this and infinitely more without any struggle. When he was most +fond of Mabel, most anxious to make her his wife, there had always +been present to him a feeling that she was old. Though he knew her +age to a day,--and knew her to be younger than himself, yet she was +old. Something had gone of her native bloom, something had been +scratched and chipped from the first fair surface, and this had +been repaired by varnish and veneering. Though he had love her he +had never been altogether satisfied with her. But Isabel was as +young as Hebe. He knew nothing of her actual years, but he did +know that to have seemed younger, or to have seemed older,--to have +seemed in any way different from what she was,--would have been to +be less perfect. + + + +CHAPTER 69 + +Pert Poppet + +On a Sunday morning,--while Lord Silverbridge was alone in a +certain apartment in the house at Carlton Terrace which was called +his own sitting-room, the name was brought to him of a gentleman +who was anxious to see him. He had seen his father and had used +all the eloquence of which he was master,--but not quite with the +effect which he had desired. His father had been very kind to him, +but he, too, had been eloquent;--and had, as is often the case with +orators, been apparently more moved by his own words than by those +of his adversary. If he had not absolutely declared himself as +irrevocably hostile to Miss Boncassen he had not said a word that +might be supposed to give a token of assent. + +Silverbridge, therefore, was moody, contemplative, and desirous of +solitude. Nothing that the Duke had said had shaken him. He was +still sure of his pearl, and quite determined that he would wear +it. Various thoughts were running through his brain. What if he +were to abdicate the title and become a republican? He was +inclined to think that he could not abdicate, but he was quite +sure that no one could prevent him from going to America and +calling himself Mr Palliser. That his father would forgive him and +accept his daughter-in-law brought to him, were he in the first +place to marry without sanction, he felt quite sure. What was +there that his father would not forgive? But then Isabel would +not assent to this. He was turning all this in his head and ever +and anon trying to relieve his mind by 'Clarissa', which he was +reading in conformity with his father's advice, when the +gentleman's card was put into his hand. 'Whatever does he want +here?' he said to himself; and then ordered that the gentleman +might be shown up. The gentleman in question was our old friend +Dolly Longstaff. Dolly Longstaff and Silverbridge had been +intimate as young men are. But they were not friends, nor, as far +as Silverbridge knew, had Dolly ever set foot in that house +before. 'Well, Dolly,' said he, 'what's the matter now?' + +'I suppose you are surprised to see me?' + +'I didn't think that you were ever up so early.' It was at this +time almost noon. + +'Oh, come now, that's nonsense. I can get up as early as anybody +else. I have changed all that for the last four months. I was at +breakfast this morning very soon after ten.' + +'What a miracle! Is there anything I can do for you?' + +'Well yes,--there is. Of course you are surprised to see me?' + +'You never were here before; and therefore it is odd.' + +'It is odd. I felt that myself. And when I tell you what I have +come about you will think it more odd. I know I can trust you with +a secret.' + +'That depends, Dolly.' + +'What I mean is, I know you are good-natured. There are ever so +many fellows that are one's most intimate friends that would say +anything on earth they could that was ill-natured.' + +'I hope they are not my friends.' + +'Oh yes they are. Think of Glasslough, or Popplecourt, or Hindes! + If they knew anything about you that you didn't want to have +known,--about a young lady or anything of that kind,--don't you +think they'd tell everybody?' + +'A man can't tell anything he doesn't know.' + +'That's true. I had thought of that myself. But then there's a +particular reason for my telling you this. It is about a young +lady! You won't tell; will you?' + +'No, I won't. But I can't see why on earth you should come to me. +You are ever so many years older than I am.' + +'I had thought of that too. But you are just the person I must +tell. I want you to help me.' + +These last words were said almost in a whisper, and Dolly as he +said them had drawn nearer to his friend. Silverbridge remained in +suspense, saying nothing by way of encouragement. Dolly, either in +love with his own mystery or doubtful of his own purpose, sat +still, looking eagerly at his companion. 'What the mischief is +it?' asked Silverbridge impatiently. + +'I have quite made up my own mind.' + +'That's a good thing at any rate.' + +'I am not what you would have called a marrying sort of man.' + +'I should have said,--no. But I suppose most men do marry sooner or +later.' + +'That's just what I said to myself. It has to be done, you know. +There are three different properties coming to me. At least one +has come already.' + +'You're a lucky fellow.' + +'I've made up my mind; and when I say a thing I mean to do it.' + +'But what can I do?' + +'That's just what I'm coming to. If a man does marry I think he +ought to be attached to her.' To this, a broad proposition, +Silverbridge was ready to accede. But, regarding Dolly, a middle- +aged sort of fellow, one of those men who marry because it is +convenient to have a house kept for them, he simply nodded his +head. 'I am awfully attached to her,' Dolly went on to say. + +'That's all right.' + +'Of course there are fellows who marry girls for their money. I've +known men who had married their grandmothers.' + +'Not really!' + +'That kind of thing. When a woman is old it does not much matter +who she is. But my one! She's not old!' + +'Nor rich?' + +'Well;--I don't know about that. But I'm not after her money. Pray +understand that. It's because I'm downright fond of her. She's an +American.' + +'A what!' said Silverbridge, startled. + +'You know her. That's the reason I've come to you. It's Miss +Boncassen.' A dark frown came across the young man's face. That +all this should be said to him was disgusting. That an owl like +that should dare to talk of loving Miss Boncassen was offensive to +him. + +'It's because you know her that I've come to you. She thinks that +you're after her.' Dolly as he said this lifted himself quickly +up in his seat, and nodded his head mysteriously as he looked into +his companion's face. It was as much as though he should say, 'I +see you are surprised, but so it is.' Then he went on. 'She does, +pert poppet!' This was almost too much for Silverbridge; but +still he contained himself. 'She won't look at me because she has +got it into her head that perhaps some day she may become Duchess +of Omnium! That of course is out of the question.' + +'Upon my word all this seems to me to be so very--very,--distasteful +that I think you had better say nothing more about it.' + +'It is distasteful,' said Dolly; 'but in truth I am so downright,-- +what you may call enamoured--' + +'Don't talk such stuff as that here,' said Silverbridge, jumping +up. 'I won't have it.' + +'But I am. There is nothing I wouldn't do to get her. Of course +it's a good match for her. I've got three separate properties; and +when the governor goes off I shall have a clear fifteen thousand a +year.' + +'Oh, bother!' + +'Of course that's nothing to you, but it is a very tidy income for +a commoner. And how is she to do better?' + +'I don't know how she could do much worse,' said Silverbridge in a +transport of rage. Then he pulled his moustache in vexation, angry +with himself that he should have allowed himself to say even a +word on so preposterous a supposition. Isabel Boncassen and Dolly +Longstaff! It was Titania and Bottom over again. It was +absolutely necessary that he should get rid of this intruder, and +he began to be afraid that he could not do this without using +language which would have been uncivil. 'Upon my word,' he said, +'I think you had better not talk about it any more. The young lady +is one for whom I have a very great respect.' + +'I mean to marry her,' said Dolly, thinking to vindicate himself. + +'You might as well think of marrying one of the stars.' + +'One of the stars!' + +'Or a royal princess.' + +'Well! Perhaps that is your opinion, but I can't say that I agree +with you. I don't see why she shouldn't take me. I can give her a +position which you may call A1 out of the Peerage. I can bring her +into society. I can make an English lady of her.' + +'You can't make anything of her,--except to insult her,--and me too +by talking of her.' + +'I don't quite understand this,' said the unfortunate lover +getting up from his seat. 'Very likely she won't have me. Perhaps +she has told you so.' + +'She never mentioned your name to me in her life. I don't suppose +she remembers your existence.' + +'But I say that there can be no insult in such a one as me asking +such a one as her to be my wife. To say that she doesn't remember +my existence is absurd.' + +'Why should I be troubled with all this?' + +'Because I think you are making a fool of her, and because I am +honest. That's why,' said Dolly with much energy. There was +something in this which partly reconciled Silverbridge to his +despised rival. There was a touch of truth about the man, though +he was so utterly mistaken in his ideas. 'I want you to give over +in order that I may try again. I don't think you ought to keep a +girl from her promotion, merely for the fun of a flirtation. +Perhaps you're fond of her;--but you won't marry her. I am fond of +her, and I shall.' + +After a minute's pause, Silverbridge resolved that he would be +magnanimous. 'Miss Boncassen is going to be my wife,' he said. + +'Your wife!' + +'Yes;--my wife. And now I think you will see that nothing further +can be said about this matter.' + +'Duchess of Omnium!' + +'She will be Lady Silverbridge.' + +'Oh; of course she'll be that first. Then I've got nothing further +to say. I'm not going to enter myself to run against you. Only I +shouldn't have believed it if anybody else had told me.' + +'Such is my good fortune.' + +'Oh ah,--yes; of course. That is one way of looking at it. Well, +Silverbridge. I'll tell you what I shall do; I shall hook it.' + +'No; not you.' + +'Yes, I shall. I daresay you won't believe me, but I've got such a +feeling about me here'--as he said this he laid his hand upon his +heart,--'that if I stayed I should go for hard drinking. I shall +take the great Asiatic tour. I know a fellow that wants to go, but +he hasn't got any money. I daresay I shall be off before the end +of next month. You don't know any fellow that would buy a half-a- +dozen hunters; do you?' Silverbridge shook his head. 'Good-bye,' +said Dolly, in a melancholy tone. 'I am sure I am very much +obliged to you for telling me. If I'd known you'd meant it, I +shouldn't have meddled, of course. Duchess of Omnium!' + +'Look here, Dolly, I have told you what I should have not have +told anyone, but I wanted to screen the young lady's name.' + +'It was so kind of you.' + +'Do not repeat it. It is a kind of thing that ladies are +particular about. They choose their own time of letting everybody +know.' Then Dolly promised to be as mute as a fish, and took his +departure. + +Silverbridge had felt, towards the interview, that he had been +arrogant to the unfortunate man,--particular in saying that the +young lady would not remember the existence of such a suitor,--and +had also recognised a certain honesty in the man's purpose, which +had not been less honest because it was so absurd. Actuated by the +consciousness of this, he had swallowed his anger, and had told +the whole truth. Nevertheless things had been said which were +horrible to him. This buffoon of a man had called his Isabel a- +pert poppet! How was he to get over the remembrance of such an +offence? And then the wretch had declared that he was--enamoured! + There was sacrilege in the term when applied by such a man to +Isabel Boncassen. He had thought of days to come, when everything +would be settled, when he might sit close to her, and call her +pretty names,--when he might in sweet familiarity tell that she was +a little Yankee and a fierce republican, and 'chaff' her about the +stars and stripes; and then, as he pictured the scene to himself +in his imagination, she would lean upon him and would give him +back his chaff, and would call him an aristocrat and would laugh +at his titles. As he thought of all this he would be proud with +the feeling that such privileges would be his own. And now this +wretched man had called her a pert poppet! + +There was a sanctity about her,--a divinity which made it almost a +profanity to have talked about her at all to such a one as Dolly +Longstaff. She was his Holy of Holies, at which vulgar eyes should +not even be allowed to gaze. It had been a most unfortunate +interview. But this was clear, that, as he had announced his +engagement to such a one as Dolly Longstaff, the matter now would +admit of no delay. He would explain to his father that as tidings +of the engagement had got abroad, honour to the young lady would +compel him to come forward openly as her suitor at once. If this +argument might serve him, then perhaps this intrusion would not +have been altogether a misfortune. + + + +CHAPTER 70 + +'Love May be a Great Misfortune' + +Silverbridge when he reached Brook Street that day was surprised +to find that a large party was going to lunch there. Isabel had +asked him to come, and he had thought her the dearest girl in the +world for doing so. but now his gratitude for that favour was +considerably abated. He did not care just now for the honour of +eating his lunch in the presence of Mr Gotobed, the American +minister, whom he found there already in the drawing-room with Mrs +Gotobed, nor with Ezekiel Sevenkings, the great American poet from +the far West, who sat silent and stared at him in an unpleasant +way. When Sir Timothy Beeswax was announced, with Lady Beeswax, +and her daughter, his gratification certainly was not increased. +And the last comer,--who did to arrive till they were all seated at +the table,--almost made him start from his chair and take his +departure suddenly. That last comer was no other than Mr Adolphus +Longstaff. As it happened he was seated next to Dolly, with Lady +Beeswax on the other side of him. Whereas his Holy of Holies was +on the other side of Dolly! The arrangement made seemed to have +been monstrous. He had endeavoured to get next to Isabel; but she +had so manoeuvred that there should be a vacant seat between them. +He had not much regarded this because a vacant chair may be pushed +on one side. But before he had made all his calculations Dolly +Longstaff was sitting there! He almost thought that Dolly winked +at him in triumph,--that very Dolly, who an hour ago had promised +to take himself upon his Asiatic travels! + +Sir Timothy and the minister kept up the conversation very much +between them, Sir Timothy flattering everything that was American, +and the minister finding fault with very many things which were +English. Now and then Mr Boncassen would put in a word to soften +the severe honesty of his countryman, or to correct the +euphemistic falsehoods of Sir Timothy. The poet seemed always to +be biding his time. Dolly ventured to whisper a word to his +neighbour. It was but to say that the frost had broken up. But +Silverbridge heard it and looked daggers at everyone. Then Lady +Beeswax expressed to him a hope that he was going to do great +things in Parliament this session. 'I don't mean to go near the +place,' he said, not at all conveying any purpose to which he had +really come, but driven by the stress of the moment to say +something that should express his general hatred of everybody. Mr +Lupton was there, on the other side of Isabel, and was soon +engaged with her in a pleasant familiar conversation. Then +Silverbridge remembered that he had always thought Lupton to be a +most conceited prig. Nobody gave himself so many airs, or was so +careful as to the dyeing of his whiskers. It was astonishing that +Isabel should allow herself to be amused by such an antiquated +coxcomb. When they had finished eating they moved about and +changed their places. Mr Boncassen being rather anxious to stop +the flood of American eloquence which came from his friend Mr +Gotobed. British viands had become subject to his criticism, and +Mr Gotobed had declared to Mr Lupton that he didn't believe that +London could produce a dish of squash tomatoes. He was quite sure +you couldn't have sweet corn. Then there had been a moving of +seats in which the minister was shuffled off to Lady Beeswax, and +the poet found himself by the side of Isabel. 'Do you not regret +our mountains and our prairies?' said the poet; 'our great waters +and our green savannahs?' 'I think more perhaps of Fifth Avenue,' +said Miss Boncassen. Silverbridge, who at this moment was being +interrogated by Sir Timothy, heard every word of it. + +'I was so sorry, Lord Silverbridge,' said Sir Timothy, 'that you +could not accede to our little request.' + +'I did not quite see my way,' said Silverbridge, with his eye upon +Isabel. + +'So I understood, but I hope that things will make themselves +clearer to you shortly. There is nothing that I desire so much as +the support of young men such as yourself,--the very cream, I may +say, of the whole country. It is to the young conservative +thoughtfulness and the truly British spirit of our springing +aristocracy that I look for that reaction which I am sure will at +last carry us safely over the rocks and shoals of communistic +propensities.' + +'I shouldn't wonder if it did,' said Silverbridge. They didn't +think that he was going to remain down there talking politics to +an old humbug like Sir Timothy when the sun and moon, and all the +stars had gone up into the drawing-room! For at that moment +Isabel was making her way to the door. + +But Sir Timothy had buttonholed him. 'Of course it is late now to +say anything further about that address. We have arranged that. +Not quite as I would have wished, for I had set my heart upon +initiating you into the rapturous pleasure of parliamentary +debate. But I hope that a good time is coming. And pray remember +this, Lord Silverbridge;--there is no member sitting on our side of +the House, and I need hardly say on the other, whom I would go +farther to oblige than your father's son.' + +'I'm sure that's very kind,' said Silverbridge, absolutely using a +little force as he disengaged himself. Then at once he followed +the ladies upstairs passing the poet on the stairs. 'You have +hardly spoken to me,' he whispered to Isabel. He knew that to +whisper to her now, with the eyes of so many upon him, with the +ears of many open, was an absurdity; but he could not refrain +himself. + +'There are so many to be,--entertained, as people say! I don't +think I ought to have to entertain you,' she answered, laughing. +No one heard her but Silverbridge, yet she did not seem to +whisper. She left him, however, at once, and was soon engaged in +conversation with Sir Timothy. + +A convivial lunch I hold to be altogether bad, but the worst of +its many evils is that vacillating mind which does not know when +to take its owner off. Silverbridge was on this occasion +determined not to take himself off at all. As it was only lunch +the people must go, and then he would be left with Isabel. But the +vacillation of the others was distressing to him. Mr Lupton went, +and poor Dolly got away apparently without a word. But the +Beeswaxes and the Gotobeds would not go, and the poet sat staring +immovably. In the meantime Silverbridge endeavoured to make the +time pass lightly by talking to Mrs Boncassen. He had been so +determined to accept Isabel with all her adjuncts that he had come +almost to like Mrs Boncassen, and would certainly have taken her +part violently had anyone spoke ill of her in his presence. + +Then suddenly he found that the room was almost empty. The +Beeswaxes and the Gotobeds were gone, and at last the poet +himself, with a final glare of admiration at Isabel, had taken his +departure. When Silverbridge looked round, Isabel was also gone. +Then to Mrs Boncassen had left the room suddenly. At the same +instant Mr Boncassen entered by another door, and the two men were +alone together. 'My dear Lord Silverbridge,' said the father, 'I +want to have a few words with you.' Of course there was nothing +for him but to submit. 'You remember what you said to me down at +Matching?' + +'Oh yes; I remember that.' + +'You did me the great honour of expressing a wish to make my child +your wife.' + +'I was asking for a very great favour.' + +'That also;--for there is no greater favour I could do to any man +than to give him my daughter. Nevertheless, you were doing me a +great honour,--and you did it, as you do everything, with an honest +grace that went far to win my heart. I am not at all surprised, +sir, that you should have won hers.' The young man as he heard +this could only blush and look foolish. 'If I know my girl, +neither your money nor your title would go for anything.' + +'I think much more of her love, Mr Boncassen, than I do of +anything else in the world.' + +'But love, my Lord, may be a great misfortune.' As he said this +the tone of his voice was altered, and there was a melancholy +solemnity not only in his words but in his countenance. 'I take it +that young people when they love rarely think of more than the +present moment. If they did so the bloom would be gone from their +romance. But others have to do this for them. If Isabel had come +to me saying that she loved a poor man, there would not have been +much to disquiet me. A poor man may earn bread for himself and his +wife, and if he failed I could have found them bread. Nor had she +loved somewhat below her degree, should I have opposed her. So +long as her husband had been an educated man, there might have +been no future punishment to fear.' + +'I don't think she could have done that,' said Silverbridge. + +'At any rate she has not done so. But how am I to look upon this +that she has done?' + +'I'll do my best for her, Mr Boncassen.' + +'I believe you would. But even your love can't make her an +English-woman. You can make her a Duchess.' + +'Not that, sir.' + +'But you can't give her a parentage fit for a Duchess;--not fit at +least in the opinion of those with whom you will pass your life, +with whom,--or perhaps without whom,--she will be destined to pass +her life, if she becomes your wife! Unfortunately it does not +suffice that you should think it fit. Though you loved each other +as well as any man and woman that ever were brought into each +other's arms by the beneficence of God, you cannot make her +happy,--unless you can ensure her the respect of those around her.' + +'All the world will respect her.' + +'Her conduct;--yes. I think the world, your world, would learn to +do that. I do not thing it could help itself. But that would not +suffice. I may respect the man who cleans my boots, but he would +be a wretched man if her thrown on me for society. I would not +give him my society. Will your Duchesses and Countesses give her +theirs?' + +'Certainly they will.' + +'I do not ask for it as thinking it to be of more value than that +of others; but were she to become your wife she would be so +abnormally placed as to require it for her comfort. She would have +become a lady of high rank,--not because she loves rank, but +because she loves you.' + +'Yes, yes, yes,' said Silverbridge, hardly himself knowing why +became impetuous. + +'But having removed herself into that position, being as she would +be, a Countess, or a Duchess, or what not, how could she be happy +if he were excluded from the community of Countesses and +Duchesses?' + +'They are not all like that,' said Silverbridge. + +'I will not say that they are, but I do not know. Having Anglican +tendencies I have been wont to contradict my countrymen when they +have told me of the narrow exclusiveness of your nobles. Having +found your nobles and your commoners all alike in their courtesy,-- +which is a cold word; in their hospitable friendships,--I would now +not only contradict, but would laugh to scorn any such charge,'--so +far he spoke somewhat loudly, and then dropped his voice as he +concluded,--'were it anything less than the happiness of my child +that is in question.' + +'What am I to say, sir? I only know this; I am not going to lose +her.' + +'You are a fine fellow. I was going to say that I wished you were +an American, so that Isabel need not lose you. But, my boy, I have +told you that I do not know how it might be. Of all whom you know, +who could best tell me the truth on such a subject? Who is there, +whose age will have given him experience, whose rank will have +made him familiar with this matter, who from friendship to you +would be least likely to decide against your wishes, who from his +own native honesty would be most likely to tell the truth?' + +'You mean my father,' said Silverbridge. + +'I do mean your father. Happily he has taken no dislike to the +girl herself. I have seen enough of him to feel that he is devoted +to his own children.' + +'Indeed he is.' + +'A just and liberal man;--one whom I should say not carried away by +prejudices! Well,--my girl and I have just put our heads together, +and we have come to a conclusion. If the Duke of Omnium will tell +us that she would be safe as your wife,--safe from the contempt of +those around her,--you shall have her. And I shall rejoice to give +her to you,--not because you are Lord Silverbridge, not because of +your rank and wealth; but because your are--that individual human +being whom I now hold by the hand.' + + + +CHAPTER 71 + +'What am I to Say, Sir?' + +When Silverbridge left Mr Boncassen's house he was resolved to go +to his father without an hour's delay, and represent to the Duke +exactly how the case stood. He would be urgent, piteous, +submissive, and eloquent. In any other matter he would promise to +make whatever arrangements his father might desire. He would make +his father understand that all his happiness depended on this +marriage. When once married he would settle down, even at Gatherum +Castle if the Duke should wish it. He would not think of +racehorses, he would desert the Beargarden, he would learn blue- +books by heart, and only do as much shooting and hunting as would +become a young nobleman in his position. All this he would say as +eagerly and as pleasantly as it might be said. But he would add to +all this an assurance of his unchangeable intention. It was his +purpose to marry Isabel Boncassen. If he could do this with his +father's good will,--so best. But at any rate he would marry her! + +The world at this time was altogether busy with political rumours; +and it was supposed that Sir Timothy Beeswax would do something +very clever. It was supposed also that he would sever himself from +some of his present companions. On that point everybody was +agreed,--and on that point only everybody was right. Lord Drummond, +who was the titular Prime Minister, and Sir Timothy, had, during a +considerable part of the last session, and through the whole +vacation, so belarded each other with praise in their public +expressions that it was quite manifest that they had quarrelled. +When any body of statesmen make public asseverations by one or +various voices, that there is no discord among them, not a +dissentient voice on any subject, people are apt to suppose that +they cannot hang together much longer. It is the man who has not +peace at home declares abroad that his wife is an angel. He who +lives on comfortable terms with the partner of his troubles can +afford to acknowledge the ordinary rubs of life. Old Mr Mildmay, +who was Prime Minister for so many years, and whom his party +worshipped, used to say that he had never found a gentleman who +had quite agreed with him all round; but Sir Timothy has always +been in exact accord with all his colleagues,--till he has left +them, or they him. Never had there been such concord as of late,-- +and men, clubs, and newspapers now protested that as a natural +consequence there would soon be a break-up. + +But not on that account would it perhaps be necessary that Sir +Timothy should resign,--or not necessary that his resignation +should be permanent. The Conservative majority had dwindled,--but +still there was a majority. It certainly was the case that Lord +Drummond could not get on without Sir Timothy. But might it not be +possible that Sir Timothy should get on without Lord Drummond? If +so he must begin his action in that direction by resigning. He +would have to place his resignation, no doubt with infinite +regret, in the hands of Lord Drummond. But if such a step were to +be taken now, just as Parliament was about to assemble, what would +become of the Queen's speech, of the address, and of the noble +peers and noble and other commoners who were to propose and second +it in the two Houses of Parliament? There were those who said +that such a trick played at the last moment would be very shabby. +But then again there were those who foresaw that the shabbiness +would be made to rest anywhere than on the shoulders of Sir +Timothy. If it should turn out that he had striven manfully to +make things run smoothly,--that the Premier's incompetence, or the +Chancellor's obstinacy, or this or that Secretary's peculiarity of +temper had done it all;--might not Sir Timothy then be able to +emerge from the confused flood, and swim along pleasantly with his +head higher than ever above the waters? + +In these great matters parliamentary management goes for so much! +If a man be really clever and handy at his trade, if he can work +hard and knows what he is about, if he can give and take and be +not thin-skinned or sore-boned, if he can ask pardon for a +peccadillo and seem to be sorry with a good grace, if above all +things he be able to surround himself with the prestige of +success, then so much will be forgiven him! Great gifts of +eloquence are hardly wanted, or a deep-seated patriotism which is +capable of strong indignation. A party has to be managed, and he +who can manage it best, will probably be its best leader. The +subordinate task of legislation and of executive government may +well fall into the inferior hands of less astute practitioners. It +was admitted on both sides that there was no man like Sir Timothy +for managing the House or coercing a party, and there was +therefore a general feeling that it would be a pity that Sir +Timothy should be squeezed out. He knew all the little secrets of +the business;--could arrange let the cause be what it might, to get +a full House for himself and his friends, and empty benches for +his opponents,--could foresee a thousand little things to which +even a Walpole would have been blind, which a Pitt would not have +condescended to regard, but with which his familiarity made him a +very comfortable leader of the House of Commons. There were +various ideas prevalent as to the politics of the coming session; +but the prevailing idea was in favour of Sir Timothy. + +The Duke was at Longroyston, the seat of his old political ally +the Duke of St Bungay, and had been absent from Sunday the sixth +till the morning of Friday the eleventh, on which day Parliament +was to meet. On that morning at about noon a letter came to the +son saying that his father had returned and would be glad to see +him. Silverbridge was going to the House on that day and was not +without his own political anxieties. If Lord Drummond remained in, +he thought that he must for the present stand by the party which +he had adopted. If, however, Sir Timothy should become Prime +Minister there would be a loophole for escape. There were some +three or four besides himself who detested Sir Timothy, and in +such case he might perhaps have company in his desertions. All +this was on his mind; but through all this he was aware that there +was a matter of much deeper moment which required his energies. +When his father's message was brought to him he told himself at +once that now was the time for eloquence. + +'Well, Silverbridge,' said the Duke, 'how are matters going on +with you?' There seemed to be something in his father's manner +more than ordinarily jocund and good-humoured. + +'With me, sir?' + +'I don't mean to ask any party secrets. If you and Sir Timothy +understand each other, of course you will be discreet.' + +'I can't be discreet, sir, because I don't know anything about +him.' + +'When I heard,' said the Duke smiling, 'of your being in close +conference with Sir Timothy--' + +'I, sir?' + +'Yes, you. Mr Boncassen told me that you and he were so deeply +taken up with each other at his house that nobody could get a word +with either of you.' + +'Have you seen Mr Boncassen?' asked the son, whose attention was +immediately diverted from his father's political badinage. + +'Yes;--I have seen him. I happened to meet him where I was dining +last Sunday, and he walked home with me. He was so intent upon +what he was saying that I fear he allowed me to take him out of +his way.' + +'What was he talking about,' said Silverbridge. All his +preparations, all his eloquence, all his method, now seemed to +have departed from him. + +'He was talking about you,' said the Duke. + +'He had told me that he wanted to see you. What did he say, sir?' + +'I suppose you can guess what he said. He wished to know what I +thought of the offer you have made to his daughter.' The great +subject had come up so easily, so readily, that he was almost +aghast when he found himself in the middle of it. And yet he must +speak of the matter, and that at once. + +'I hope you raised no objection, sir,' he said. + +'The objection came mainly from him; and I am bound to say that +every word that fell from him was spoken with wisdom.' + +'But still he asked you to consent.' + +'By no means. He told me his opinion,--and then he asked me a +question.' + +'I am sure he did not say that we ought not to be married.' + +'He did say that he thought you ought not to be married if--' + +'If what, sir?' + +'If there were probability that his daughter would not be well +received as your wife. Then he asked me what would be my reception +of her.' Silverbridge looked up into his father's face with +beseeching imploring eyes as though everything now depended on the +few next words that he might utter. 'I shall think it an unwise +marriage,' said the Duke. Silverbridge when he heard this at once +knew that he had gained his cause. His father had spoken of the +marriage as a thing that was to happen. A joyous light dawned in +his eyes, and the look of pain went from his brow, all which the +Duke was not slow to perceive. 'I shall think it an unwise +marriage,' he continued, repeating his words; 'but I was bound to +tell him that were Miss Boncassen to become your wife she would +also become my daughter.' + +'Oh sir.' + +'I told him why the marriage would be distasteful to me. Whether I +may be wrong or right I think it to be for the good of our +country, for the good of our order, for the good of our individual +families, that we should support each other by marriage. It is not +as though we were a narrow class, already too closely bound +together by family alliances. The room for choice might be wide +enough for you without going across the Atlantic to look for her +who is to be the mother of your children. To this Mr Boncassen +replied that he was to look solely to his daughter's happiness. He +meant me to understand that he cared nothing for my feelings. Why +should he? That which to me is deep wisdom is to him an empty +prejudice. He asked me then how others would receive her.' + +'I am sure everybody would like her,' said Silverbridge. + +'I like her. I like her very much.' + +'I am so glad.' + +'But still all this is a sorrow to me. When however he put that +question to me about the world around her,--as to those among whom +her lot would be cast, I could not say I thought she would be +rejected.' + +'Oh no!' The idea of rejecting Isabel. + +'She has a brightness and a grace all her own,' continued the +Duke, 'which will ensure her acceptance in all societies.' + +'Yes, yes;--it is just that, sir.' + +'You will be a nine days' wonder,--the foolish thing young nobleman +who chose to marry an American.' + +'I think it will be just other way up, sir--among the men.' + +'But her place will I think be secure to her. That is what I told +Mr Boncassen.' + +'It is all right with him, then,--now?' + +'If you call it all right. You will understand of course that you +are acting in opposition to my advice,--and my wishes.' + +'What am I to say, sir?' exclaimed Silverbridge, almost in +despair. 'When I love the girl better than my life, and when you +tell me that she can be mine if I choose to take her; when I have +asked her to be my wife, and have got her to say that she likes +me, when her father has given way, and all the rest of it, would +it be possible that I should say now that I will give her up?' + +'My opinion is to go for nothing,--in anything?' The Duke as he +said this knew that he was expressing aloud a feeling which should +have been restrained within his own bosom. It was natural that +there should have been such plaints. The same suffering must be +encountered in regard to Tregear and his daughter. In every way he +had been thwarted. In every direction he was driven to yield. And +yet now he had to undergo rebuke from his own son, because one of +the inward plaints would force itself from his lips! Of course +this girl was to be taken among the Pallisers and treated with an +idolatrous love,--as perfect as though 'all the blood of all the +Howards' were running in her veins. What further inch of ground +was there for a fight? And if the fight were over, why should he +rob his boy of one sparkle from the joy of his triumph? +Silverbridge was now standing before him abashed by that plaint, +inwardly sustained no doubt by the conviction of his great +success, but subdued by his father's wailing. 'However,--perhaps we +had better let that pass,' said the Duke, with a long sigh. Then +Silverbridge took his father's hand, and looked up in his face. 'I +most sincerely hope that she may make you a good and loving wife,' +said the Duke, 'and that she may do her duty by you in that not +easy sphere of life to which she will be called.' + +'I am quite sure she will,' said Silverbridge, whose ideas as to +Isabel's duties were confined at present to a feeling that she +would now have to give him kisses without stint. + +'What I have seen of her personally recommends her to me,' said +the Duke. 'Some girls are fools--' + +'That's quite true, sir.' + +'Who think that the world is to be nothing but dancing, and going +to parties.' + +'Many have been doing it for many years,' said Silverbridge, 'that +they can't understand that there should be an end of it.' + +'A wife ought to feel the great responsibility of her position. I +hope she will.' + +'And the sooner she begins the better,' said Silverbridge stoutly. + +'And now,' said the Duke, looking at his watch, 'we might as well +have lunch and go down to the House. I will walk with you if you +please. It will be about time for each of us.' Then the son was +forced to go down and see a somewhat faded ceremony of seeing +Parliament opened by three Lords sitting in commission before the +throne. Whereas but for such stress as his father had laid upon +him, he would have disregarded his parliamentary duties and have +rushed at once up to Brook Street. As it was he was so handed over +from one political pundit to another, was so buttonholed by Sir +Timothy, so chaffed as to the address by Phineas Finn, and at last +so occupied with the whole matter that he was compelled to sit in +his place till he had heard Nidderdale make his speech. This the +young Scotch Lord did so well, and received so much praise for the +doing of it, and looked so well in his uniform, that Silverbridge +almost regretted the opportunity that he had lost. At seven the +sitting was over, the speeches, though full of interest, having +been shorter than usual. They had been full of interest, but +nobody understood in the least what was going to happen. 'I don't +know anything about the Prime Minister,' said Mr Lupton as he left +the House with our hero and another not very staunch supporter of +the Government, 'but I'll back Sir Timothy to be the Leader of the +House on the last day of the session, against all comers. I don't +think it much matters who is Prime Minister nowadays.' + +At half-past seven Silverbridge was at the door at Brook Street. +Yes; Miss Boncassen was at home. The servant thought that she was +upstairs dressing. Then Silverbridge made his way without further +invitation into the drawing-room. There he remained alone for ten +minutes. At last the door opened, and Mrs Boncassen entered. +'Dear! Lord Silverbridge, who ever dreamed of seeing you? I +thought all you Parliament gentlemen were going through your +ceremonies. Isabel had a ticket and went down, and saw your +father.' + +'Where is Isabel?' + +'She's gone.' + +'Gone! Where on earth has she gone to?' asked Silverbridge, as +though fearing lest she had been already carried off to the other +side of the Atlantic. Then Mrs Boncassen explained. Within the +last three minutes Mrs Montacute Jones had called and carried +Isabel off to the play. Mrs Jones was up in town for a week and +this had been a very old engagement. 'I hope you did not want her +particularly,' said Mrs Boncassen. + +'But I did,--not particularly,' said Lord Silverbridge. The door +was opened and Mr Boncassen entered the room. 'I beg your pardon +for coming at such a time,' said the lover, 'but I did so want to +see Isabel.' + +'I rather thinks she wants to see you,' said the father. + +'I shall go to the theatre after her.' + +'That might be awkward,--particularly as I doubt whether anybody +knows what theatre they are gone to. Can I receive a message for +her, my lord?' This was certainly not what Lord Silverbridge had +intended. 'You know, perhaps, that I have seen the Duke?' + +'Oh yes;--I have seen him. Everything is settled.' + +'That is the only message she will want to hear when she comes +home. She is a happy girl and I am proud to think that I should +live to call such a grand young Briton as you my son-in-law.' +Then he American took the young man's two hands and shook them +cordially, while Mrs Boncassen bursting into tears insisted on +kissing him. + +'Indeed she is a happy girl,' said she; 'but I hope Isabel won't +be carried away too high and mighty.' + + + +CHAPTER 72 + +Carlton Terrace + +Three days after this it was arranged that Isabel should be taken +to Carlton Terrace to be accepted there into the full good graces +of her future father-in-law, and to go through the pleasant +ceremony of seeing the house which it was her destiny to be +mistress. What can be more interesting to a girl than this first +visit to her future home? And now Isabel Boncassen was to make +her first visit to the house In Carlton Terrace, which the Duke +had already declared his purpose of surrendering to the young +couple. She was going among very grand things,--so grand that those +whose affairs in life are less magnificent may think that her mind +should have soared altogether above the chairs and tables, and +reposed itself among diamonds, gold and silver ornaments, rich +necklaces, the old masters, and alabaster statuary. But Dukes and +Duchesses must sit upon chairs,--or at any rate on sofas,--as well +as their poorer brethren, and probably have the same regard for +their comfort. Isabel was not above her future furniture, or the +rooms that were to be her rooms, or the stairs which she would +have to tread, or the pillow on which her head must rest. She had +never yet seen the outside of the house in which she was to live, +and was now prepared to make her visit with as much enthusiasm as +though her future abode was to be prepared for her in a small +house in a small street beyond Islington. + +But the Duke was no doubt more than the house, the father-in-law +more than the tables. Isabel, in the ordinary way of society, he +had known almost with intimacy. She, the while, had been well +aware that if all things could possibly be made to run smoothly +with her, this lordly host, who was so pleasantly courteous to +her, would become her father-in-law. But she had known also that, +in his courtesy, had been altogether unaware of any such intention +on her part, and that she would now present herself to him in an +aspect very different from that in which she had hitherto been +regarded. She was well aware that the Duke had not wished to take +her into the family,--would not himself have chosen her for his +son's wife. She had seen enough to make her sure that he had even +chosen another bride for his heir. She had been too clever not to +perceive that Lady Mabel Grex had been not only selected,--but +almost accepted as though the thing had been certain. She had +learned nearly the whole truth from Silverbridge, who was not good +at keeping a secret from one to whom his heart was open. That +story had been read by her with exactness. 'I cannot lose you +now,' she had said to him, leaning on his arm;--'I cannot afford to +lose you now. But I fear that someone else is losing you.' To +this he answered nothing, but simply pressed her closer to his +side. 'Someone else,' she continued, 'who perhaps may have reason +to think that you have injured her.' 'No,' he said boldly; 'no; +there is no such person.' For he had never ceased to assure +himself that in all that matter with Mabel Grex he had been guilty +of no treachery. There had been a moment, indeed, in which she +might have taken him; but she had chosen to let it pass from her. +All of which, or nearly all of which,--Isabel now saw, and had seen +also that the Duke had been a consenting party to that other +arrangement. She had reason therefore to doubt the manner of her +acceptance. + +But she had been accepted. She had made such acceptance by him a +stipulation in her acceptance of her son. She was sure of the +ground on which she trod and was determined to carry herself, if +not with pride, yet with dignity. There might be difficulties +before her, but it should not be her fault if she were not as good +as a Countess, and,--when time would have it so,--as good a Duchess +as another. + +The visit was not quite in the fashion in which Silverbridge +himself had wished. His idea had been to call for Isabel in his +cab and take her down to Carlton Terrace. 'Mother must go with +me,' she had said. Then he looked blank,--as he could look when he +was disappointed, as he had looked when she would not talk to him +at the lunch, when she told him that it was not her business to +entertain him. 'Don't be selfish,' she added, laughing. 'Do you +think that mother will not want to have seen the house that I am +to live in?' + +'She shall come afterwards as often as she likes.' + +'What,--paying me morning visits from New York! She must come now, +if you please. Love me, love my mother.' + +'I am awfully fond of her,' said Silverbridge, who felt that he +really had behaved well to the old lady. + +'So am I,--and therefore she shall go to see the house now. You are +as good as gold,--and do everything just as I tell you. But a good +time is coming, when I shall have to do everything that you tell +me.' Then it was arranged that Mrs and Miss Boncassen were to be +taken down to the house in their own carriage, and were to be +received at the door by Lord Silverbridge. + +Another arrangement had also been made. Isabel was to be taken to +the Duke immediately upon her arrival, and to be left for a while +with him, so that he might express himself as might find fit to do +to this newly-adopted child. It was a matter to him of such +importance that nothing remaining to him in his life could equal +it. It was not simply that she was to be the wife of his son,-- +though that in itself was a consideration very sacred. Had it been +Gerald who was bringing to him a bride, the occasion would have +had less of awe. But this girl, this American girl, was to be the +mother and grandmother of future Dukes of Omnium,--the ancestress, +it was to be hoped, of all future Dukes of Omnium! By what she +might be, by what she might have in her of mental fibre, of high +or low quality, of true or untrue womanliness, were to be +fashioned those who in days to come might be amongst the strongest +and most faithful bulwarks of the constitution. An England without +a Duke of Omnium,--or at any rate without any Duke,--what would it +be? And yet he knew that with bad Dukes his country would be in +worse stress than though she had none at all. An aristocracy;--yes; +but an aristocracy that shall be of the very best! He believed +himself thoroughly in this order; but if this order or many of his +order, should become as was now Lord Grex, then, he thought, that +his order not only must go to the wall, but that, in the cause of +humanity, it had better do so. With all this daily, hourly, +always in his mind, this matter in the choice of a wife for his +heir was to him of solemn importance. + +When they arrived Silverbridge was there and led them first of all +into the dining-room. 'My!' said Mrs Boncassen, as she looked +around her. 'I thought that our Fifth Avenue parlous whipped up +everything in the way of city houses.' + +'What a nice little room for Darby and Joan to sit down to eat a +mutton-chop in,' said Isabel. + +'It's a beastly great barrack,' said Silverbridge;--'but the best +of it is that we never use it. We'll have a cosy little place for +Darby and Joan;--you'll see. Now come to the governor. I've got to +leave you with him.' + +'Oh me! I am in such a fright.' + +'He can't eat you,' said Mrs Boncassen. + +'And he won't even bite,' said Silverbridge. + +'I should not mind that because I could bite again. But if he +looks as though he thought I shouldn't do, I shall drop.' + +'My belief is that he's almost as much in love with you as I am,' +said Silverbridge, as he took her to the door of the Duke's room. +'Here we are, sir.' + +'My dear,' said the Duke, rising up and coming to her, 'I am very +glad to see you. It is good of you to come to me.' Then he took +her in both his hands and kissed her forehead and her lips. She, +as she put her face up to him, stood quite still in his embrace, +but her eyes were bright with pleasure. + +'Shall I leave her?' said Silverbridge. + +'For a few minutes.' + +'Don't keep her too long, for I want to take her all over the +house.' + +'A few minutes,--and then I will bring her up to the drawing-room.' + Upon this the door was closed, and Isabel was alone with her new +father. 'And so, my dear, you are to be my child.' + +'If you will have me.' + +'Come here and sit down by me. Your father has already told you +that;--has he not? + +'He has told me that you had consented.' + +'And Silverbridge has said as much?' + +'I would sooner hear it from you than from either of them.' + +'Then hear it from me. You shall be my child. And if you will love +me you shall be very dear to me. You shall be my own child,--as +dear to me as my own. I must either love his wife very dearly, or +else I must be an unhappy man. And she most love me dearly, or I +must be unhappy.' + +'I will love you,' she said, pressing his hand. + +'And now let me say some few words to you, only let there be no +bitterness in them to your young heart. When I say that I take you +to my own heart, you may be sure that I do so thoroughly. You +shall be as dear to me and as near as though you had been all +English.' + +'Shall I?' + +'There shall be no difference made. My boy's wife shall be my +daughter in very deed. But I had not wished it to be so.' + +'I knew that,--but could I have given up?' + +'He at any rate could not give up. There were little prejudices;-- +you can understand that.' + +'Oh yes.' + +'We who wear black coats could not bring ourselves readily to put +on scarlet garments; nor should we sit comfortably with our legs +crossed like Turks.' + +'I am your scarlet coat and our cross-legged Turk,' she said, with +feigned self-reproach in her voice, but with a sparkle of mirth in +her eye. + +'But when I have once got into my scarlet coat I can be very proud +of it, and when I am once seated in my divan I shall find it of +all postures the easiest. Do you understand me?' + +'I think so.' + +'Not a shade of any prejudice shall be left to darken my mind. +There shall be no feeling but that you are in truth his chosen +wife. After all neither can country, nor race, nor rank, nor +wealth, make a good woman. Education can do much. But nature must +have done much also.' + +'Do not expect too much of me.' + +'I will so expect that all shall be taken for the best. You know, +I think, that I have liked you since I first saw you.' + +'I know that you have always been good to me.' + +'I have liked you from the first. That you are lovely perhaps is +no merit, though, to speak the truth, I am well pleased that +Silverbridge should have found so much beauty.' + +'That is all a matter of taste, I suppose,' she said, laughing. + +'But there is much a young woman may do for herself, which I think +you have done. A silly girl, though she be a second Helen, would +hardly have satisfied me.' + +'Or perhaps him,' said Isabel. + +'Or him; and it is in that feeling that I find my chief +satisfaction,--that he should have the sense to have liked such a +one as you better than others. Now I have said it. As not being +one of us I did at first object to his choice. As being what you +are yourself, I am altogether reconciled to it. Do not keep him +long waiting.' + +'I do not think he likes being kept waiting for anything.' + +'I dare say not. I dare say not. And how there is one thing else.' + Then the Duke unlocked a little drawer that was close to his +hand, and taking out a ring put it on her finger. It was a bar of +diamonds, perhaps a dozen or them, fixed in a little circlet of +gold. 'This must never leave you,' he said. + +'It never shall,--having come from you.' + +'It was the first present that I gave to my wife, and it is the +first that I shall give to you. You may imagine how sacred it is +to me. On no other hand could it be worn without something which +to me would be akin to sacrilege. Now I must not keep you longer +or Silverbridge will be storming about the house. He of course +will tell me when it is to be; but do not you keep him long +waiting.' Then he kissed her and led her up into the drawing- +room. When he had spoken a word of greeting to Mrs Boncassen, he +left them to their own devices. + +After that they spent the best part of an hour in going over the +house; but even that was done in a manner unsatisfactory to +Silverbridge. Wherever Isabel went, there Mrs Boncassen went also. +There might have been some fun in showing even the back kitchens +to his bride-elect by herself;--but there was one in wandering +about those vast underground regions with a stout old lady who was +really interested with the cooking apparatus and the washhouses. +The bedrooms one after another became tedious to him when Mrs +Boncassen would make communications respecting each of them to her +daughter. 'That is Gerald's room,' said Silverbridge. 'You have +never seen Gerald. He is such a brick.' Mrs Boncassen was charmed +with the whips and sticks and boxing-gloves in Gerald's room, and +expressed an opinion that young men in the States mostly carried +their knickknacks about with them to the Universities. When she +was told that he had another collection of 'knickknacks' at +Matching, and another at Oxford, she thought that he was a very +extravagant young man. Isabel who had heard all about the gambling +in Scotland, looked round her lover and smiled. + +'Well, my dear,' said Mrs Boncassen, as they took their leave, 'it +is a very grand house, and I hope with all my heart you may have +your health there and be happy. But I don't know that you'll be +any happier because it's so big.' + +'Wait till you see Gatherum,' said Silverbridge. 'That, I own, +does make me unhappy. It has been calculated that three months at +Gatherum Castle would drive a philosopher mad.' + +In all this there had been a certain amount of disappointment for +Silverbridge; but on that evening, before dinner in Brook Street, +he received compensation. As the day was one somewhat peculiar in +its nature he decided that it should be kept together as a +holiday, and he did not therefore go down to the House. And not +going to the House of course he spent the time with the +Boncassens. 'You know you ought to go,' Isabel said to him when +the found themselves alone together in the back drawing-room. + +'Of course I ought.' + +'Then go. Do you think I would keep a Briton from his duties?' + +'Not though the constitution should fall in ruins. Do you suppose +that a man wants no rest after inspecting all the pots and pans in +that establishment? A woman, I believe, could go on doing that +kind of thing all day long.' + +'You should remember at least that the--woman was interesting +herself about your pots and pans.' + +'And now, Bella, tell me what the governor said to you.' Then she +showed him the ring. 'Did he give you that?' She nodded her head +in assent. 'I did not think he would ever part with that.' + +'It was your mother's.' + +'She wore it always. I almost think that I never saw her hand +without it. He would not have given you that unless he had meant +to be very good to you.' + +'He was very good to me, Silverbridge, I have a great deal to do, +to learn to be your wife.'' + +'I'll teach you.' + +'Yes; you will teach me. But will you teach me right? There is +something almost awful in your father's serious dignity and solemn +appreciation of the responsibilities of his position. Will you +ever come to that?' + +'I shall never be a great man as he is.' + +'It seem to me that life to him is a load;--which he does not +object to carry, but which he knows must be carried with a great +struggle.' + +'I suppose it ought to be so with everyone.' + +'Yes,' she said, 'but the higher you put your foot on the ladder +the more constant should be your thought that your stepping +requires care. I fear that I am climbing too high.' + +'You can't come down now, young woman.' + +'I have to go on now,--and do the best I can. I will try to do my +best. I will try to do my best. I told him so, and now I tell you +so. I will try to do my best.' + +'Perhaps after all I am only a "pert poppet",' she said half an +hour afterwards, for Silverbridge had told her of the terrible +mistake made by poor Dolly Longstaff. + +'Brute!' he exclaimed. + +'Not at all. And when we are settled down in the real Darby-and- +Joan way I shall hope to see Mr Longstaff very often. I daresay he +won't call me a pert poppet, and I shall not remind him of the +word. But I shall always think of it; and remembering the way in +which my character struck an educated Englishman,--who was not +altogether ill-disposed towards me,--I may hope to improve myself.' + + + +CHAPTER 73 + +'I Have Never Loved You.' + +Silverbridge had now been in town three or four weeks, and Lady +Mabel Grex had also been in London all that time, and yet he had +not seen her. She had told him that she loved him and had asked +him plainly to make her his wife. He had told her he could not do +so,--that he was altogether resolved to make another woman his +wife. Then she had rebuked him, and had demanded from him how he +had dared to treat her as he had done. His conscience was clear. +He had his own code or morals as to such matters; and had, as he +regarded it, kept within the law. But she thought that she was +badly treated, and had declared that she was now left out in the +cold for ever through his treachery. Then her last word had been +almost the worst of all, 'Who can tell what may come to pass?'-- +showing too plainly that she would not even now give up her hope. +Before the month was up she wrote to him as follows: + +'DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'Why do you not come and see me? Are friends so plentiful with +you that one so staunch as I may be thrown over? But of course I +know why you do not come. Put all that aside,--and come. I cannot +hurt you. I have learned to feel that certain things which the +world regards as too awful to be talked of,--except in the way of +scandal, may be discussed and then laid aside just like other +subjects. What though I wear a wig or a wooden leg, I may still be +fairly comfortable among my companions unless I crucify myself by +trying to hide my misfortune. It is not the presence of the +skeleton that crushes us. Not even that will hurt us much if we +let him go about the house as he lists. It is the everlasting +effort which the horror makes to peep out of his cupboard that +robs us of our ease. At any rate come and see me. + +'Of course I know that you are to be married to Miss Boncassen. +Who does not know it? The trumpeters have been at work for the +last week. + +'Your very sincere Friend, +'MABEL.' + +He wished that she had not written. Of course he must go to her. +And though there was a word or two in her letter which angered +him, his feelings towards her were kindly. Had not that American +angel flown across the Atlantic to his arms he could have been +well content to make her his wife. But the interview at the +present moment could hardly be other than painful. She could, she +said, talk of her own misfortunes, but the subject would be very +painful to him. It was not to him a skeleton, to be locked out of +sight, but it had been a misfortune, and the sooner that such +misfortune could be forgotten the better. + +He knew what she meant about trumpeters. She had intended to +signify that Isabel in her pride had boasted of her matrimonial +prospects. Of course there had been trumpets. Are there not always +trumpets when a marriage is contemplated, magnificent enough to be +called an alliance? As for that he himself had blown the +trumpets. He had told everybody that he was going to be married to +Miss Boncassen. Isabel had blown no trumpets. In her own +straightforward way she had told the truth to whom it concerned. +Of course he would go and see Lady Mabel, but he trusted that for +her own sake nothing would be said about trumpets. + +'So you have come at last,' Mabel said when he entered the room. +'No;--Miss Cassewary is not here. As I wanted to see you alone I +got her to go out this morning. Why did you not come before?' + +'You said in your letter you knew why.' + +'But in saying so I was accusing you of cowardice;--was I not?' + +'It was not cowardice.' + +'Why then did you not come?' + +'I thought you would hardly wish to see me so soon,--after what +passed.' + +'That is honest at any rate. You felt that I must be too much +ashamed of what I said to be able to look you in the face.' + +'Not that exactly.' + +'Any other man would have felt the same, but no other man would be +honest enough to tell me so. I do not think that ever in your life +you have constrained yourself to the civility of a lie.' + +'I hope not.' + +'To be civil and false is often better than to be harsh and true. + I may be soothed by the courtesy and yet not deceived by the lie. +But what I told you in my letter,--which I hope you have destroyed--' + +'I will destroy it.' + +'Do. It was not intended for the partner of your future joys. As I +told you then I can talk freely. Why not? We know it,--both of us. +How your conscience may be I cannot tell; but mine is clear from +that soil with which you think it should be smirched.' + +'I think nothing of the sort.' + +'Yes, Silverbridge, you do. You have said to yourself this;--That +girl has determined to get me, and she has not stopped as to how +she would do it.' + +'No such idea ever crossed my mind.' + +'But you have never told yourself of the engagement which you gave +me. Such condemnation as I have spoken of would have been just if +my efforts had been sanctioned by no words, no looks, no deeds +from you. Did you give me warrant for thinking that you were my +lover?' + +That theory by which he had justified himself to himself seemed to +fall away from him under her questioning. He could not now +remember his words to her in those old days before Miss Boncassen +had crossed his path; but he did know that he had once intended to +make her understand that he loved her. She had not understood +him;--or understanding, had not accepted his words; and therefore +he had thought himself free. But it now seemed that he had not +been entitled so to regard himself. There she sat, looking at him, +waiting for his answer; and he who had been so sure that he had +committed no sin against her, had not a word to say to her. + +'I want you to answer that, Lord Silverbridge. I have told you +that I would have no skeleton in the cupboard. Down at Matching, +and before that at Killancodlem, I appealed to you, asking you to +take me as your wife.' + +'Hardly that.' + +'Altogether that! I will have nothing denied what I have done,-- +nor will I be ashamed of anything. I did do so,--even after this +infatuation. I thought then that one so volatile might perhaps fly +back again.' + +'I shall not do that,' said he, frowning at her.' + +'You need trouble yourself with no assurance, my friend. Let us +understand each other now. I am not now supposing that you can fly +back again. You have found your perch, and you must settle on it +like a good domestic barn-door fowl.' Again he scowled. If she +were too hard upon him he would certainly turn upon her. 'No; you +will not fly back again now;--but was I, or was I not, justified +when you came to Killancodlem in thinking that my lover had come +there?' + +'How can I tell? It is my own justification I am thinking of.' + +'I see all that. But we cannot both be justified. Did you mean me +to suppose that you were speaking to me words in earnest when +there,--sitting in that very spot,--you spoke to me of your love.' + +'Did I speak of my love?' + +'Did you speak of your love! And now, Silverbridge,--for if there +be an English gentleman on earth I think you are one,--as a +gentleman tell me this. Did you not even tell your father that I +should be your wife? I know you did.' + +'Did he tell you?' + +'Men such as you and he, who cannot even lie with your eyelids, +who will not condescend to cover up a secret by a moment of +feigned inanimation, have many voices. He did tell me; but he +broke no confidence. He told me, but did not mean to tell me. Now +you also have told me.' + +'I did. I told him so. And then I changed my mind.' + +'I know you changed your mind. Men often do. A pinker pink, a +whiter white,--a finger that will press you just half an ounce the +closer,--a cheek that will consent to let itself come just a little +nearer-!' + +'No; no; no! It was because Isabel had not easily consented to +such approaches!' + +'Trifles such as these will do it;--and some such trifles have done +it with you. It would be beneath me to make comparisons where I +might seem to be the gainer. I grant her beauty. She is very +lovely. She has succeeded.' + +'I have succeeded.' + +'But;--I am justified, and you are condemned. Is it not so? Tell +me like a man.' + +'You are justified.' + +'And you are condemned? When you told me that I should be your +wife, and then told your father the same story, was I to think it +all meant nothing? Have you deceived me?' + +'I did not mean it.' + +'Have you deceived me? What; you cannot deny it, and yet have not +the manliness to own it to a poor woman who can only save herself +from humiliation by extorting the truth from you!' + +'Oh, Mabel, I am so sorry that it should be so.' + +'I believe you are,--with a sorrow that will last till she is again +sitting close to you. Nor, Silverbridge, do I wish it to be +longer. No;--no;--no. Your fault after all has not been great. You +deceived, but did not mean to deceive me?' + +'Never, never.' + +'And I fancy you have never known how much you bore about with +you. Your modesty has been so perfect that you have not thought of +yourself as more than other men. You have forgotten that you have +had in your hand the disposal to some one woman of a throne in +Paradise.' + +'I don't suppose you thought of that.' + +'But I did. Why should I tell falsehoods now. I have determined +that you should know everything,--but I could better confess to you +my own sins, when I had shown that you too have not been innocent. +Not think of it! Do not men think of high titles and great wealth +and power and place? And if men, why should not women? Do not +men try to get them;--and are they not even applauded for their +energy? A woman has but one way to try. I tried.' + +'I do not think it was well for that.' + +'How shall I answer that without a confession which even I am not +hardened enough to make? In truth, Silverbridge, I have never +loved you.' + +He drew himself up slowly before he answered her, and gradually +assumed a look very different from that easy boyish smile which +was customary to him. 'I am glad of that,' he said. + +'Why are you glad?' + +'Now I can have no regrets.' + +'You need have none. It was necessary to me that I should have my +little triumph;--that I should show you that I knew how far you had +wronged me! But now I wish you should know everything. I have +never loved you.' + +'There is an end of it then.' + +'But I have liked you so well;--so much better than all others! A +dozen men have asked me to marry them. And though they might be +nothing till they made the request, then they became,--things of +horror to me. But you were not a thing of horror. I could have +become your wife, and I think I would have learned to love you.' + +'It is best as it is.' + +'I ought to say so too; but I have a doubt I should have liked to +be Duchess of Omnium, and perhaps I might have fitted the place +better than one who can as yet know but little of its duties or +its privileges. I may, perhaps, think that that other arrangement +would have been better even for you.' + +'I can take care of myself in that.' + +'I should have married you without loving you, but I should have +done so determined to serve you with a devotion which a woman who +does love hardly thinks necessary. I would have so done my duty +that you should never have guessed that my heart had been in the +keeping of another man.' + +'Another man!' + +'Yes; of course. If there had been no other man, why not you? Am +I so hard, do you think that I can love no one? Are you not such +a one that a girl would naturally love,--were she not preoccupied? + That a woman should love seems as necessary as that a man should +not.' + +'A man can love too.' + +'No;--hardly. He can admire, and he can like, and he can fondle and +be fond. He can admire, and approve, and perhaps worship. He can +know of a woman that she is part of himself, the most sacred part, +and therefore will protect her from the very winds. But all that +will not make love. It does not come to a man that to be separated +from a woman is to be dislocated from his very self. A man has but +one centre, and that is himself. A woman has two. Though the +second may never be seen by her, may live in the arms of another, +may do all for that other that man can do for a woman,--still, +still, though he be half the globe asunder from her, still he is +to her the other half of her existence. If she really love, there +is, I fancy, no end of it. To the end of time I shall love Frank +Tregear.' + +'Tregear!' + +'Who else?' + +'He is engaged to Mary.' + +'Of course he is. Why not;--to her or to whomsoever else he might +like best? He is as true I doubt not to your sister as you are to +your American beauty,--or as you would have been to me had fancy +held. He used to love me.' + +'You were always friends.' + +'Always;--dear friends. And he would have loved me if a man were +capable of loving. But he could sever himself from me easily, just +when he was told to do so. I thought that I could do the same. +But I cannot. A jackal is born a jackal, and not lion, and cannot +help himself. So is a woman born--a woman. They are clinging, +parasite things, which cannot but adhere; though they destroy +themselves by adhering. Do not suppose that I take pride in it. I +would give one of my eyes to be able to disregard him.' + +'Time will do it.' + +'Yes; time,--that brings wrinkles and rouge-pots and rheumatism. +Though I have so hated those men as to be unable to endure them, +still I want some man's house, and his name,--some man's bread and +wine,--some man's jewels and titles and woods and parks and +gardens,--if I can get them. Time can help a man in his sorrow. If +he begins at forty to make speeches, or to win races, or to breed +oxen, he can yet live a prosperous life. Time is but a poor +consoler for a young woman who has to be married.' + +'Oh Mabel.' + +'And now let there be not a word more about it. I know--that I can +trust you.' + +'Indeed you may.' + +'Though you will tell her everything else you will not tell her +this.' + +'No;--not this.' + +'And surely you will not tell your sister!' + +'I shall tell no one.' + +'It is because you are so true that I have dared to trust you. I +had to justify myself,--and then to confess. Had I at that moment +taken you at your word, you would have never have known anything +of all this. "There is a tide in the affairs of men-!" But I let +the flood go by! I shall not see you again before you are +married; but come to me afterwards.' + + + +CHAPTER 74 + +'Let Us Drink a Glass of Wine Together' + +Silverbridge pondered it all much as he went home. What a terrible +story was that he had heard! The horror to him was chiefly in +this,--that she should yet be driven to marry some man without even +fancying that she could love him! And his was Lady Mabel Grex, +who, on his own first entrance into London life, now not much more +than twelve months ago, had seemed to him to stand above all other +girls in beauty, charm, and popularity! + +As he opened the door of his house with his latch-key, who should +be coming out but Frank Tregear,--Frank Tregear with his arm in a +sling, but still with an unmistakable look of general +satisfaction. 'When on earth did you come up?' asked Silverbridge. +Tregear told him that he had arrived on the previous evening from +Harrington. 'And why? The doctor would not have let you come if +he could have helped it.' + +'When he found he could not help it, he did let me come. I am +nearly all right. If I had been nearly all wrong I should have had +to come.' + +'And what are you doing here?' + +'Well; if you'll allow me I'll go back with you for a moment. What +do you think I have been doing?' + +'Have you seen my sister?' + +'Yes, I have seen your sister. And I have done better than that. I +have seen your father. Lord Silverbridge,--behold your brother-in- +law.' + +'You don't mean to say that it is arranged?' + +'I do.' + +'What did he say?' + +'He made me understand by most unanswerable arguments, that I had +no business to think of such a thing. I did not fight the point +with him,--but simply stood there, as conclusive evidence of my +business. He told me that we should have nothing to live on unless +he gave us an income. I assured him that I would never ask him +for a shilling. "But I cannot allow her to marry a man without an +income," he said.' + +'I know his way so well.' + +'I have just two facts to go upon,--that I would not give her up, +and that she would not give me up. When I pointed that out he tore +up his hair,--in a mild way, and said that he did not understand +that kind of thing at all.' + +'And yet he gave way.' + +'Of course he did. They say that when a king of old would consent +to see a petitioner for his life, he was bound by his royalty to +mercy. So it was with the Duke. Then, very early in the argument, +he forgot himself, and called her,--Mary. I knew that he had +thrown up the sponge then.' + +'How did he give way at last?' + +'He asked me what were my ideas about life in general. I said that +I thought Parliament was a good sort of thing, that I was lucky +enough to have a seat, and that I should take lodgings somewhere +near Westminster till-"Till what?" he asked. Till something is +settled I replied. Then he turned away from me and remained +silent. May I see Lady Mary? I asked. "Yes; you may see her," he +replied, as he rang the bell. Then when the servant was gone he +stopped me. "I love her too dearly to see her grieve," he said. "I +hope you will show that you can be worthy of her." Then I made +some sort of protestation and went upstairs. While I was with Mary +there came a message to me, telling me to come to dinner.' + +'The Boncassens are all dining there.' + +'Then we shall be a family party. So far I suppose I may say it is +settled. When he will let us marry heaven only knows. Mary +declares that she will not press him. I certainly cannot do so. +It is all a matter of money.' + +'He won't care about that.' + +'But he may perhaps think that a little patience will do us good. +You will have to soften him.' Then Silverbridge told all he knew +about himself. He was to be married in May; was to go to Matching +for a week or two after his wedding, was then to see the Session +to an end, and after that to travel with his wife to the United +States. 'I don't suppose we shall be allowed to run about the +world together so soon as that,' said Tregear, 'but I am too well +satisfied with my day's work to complain.' + +'Did he say what he meant to give her?' + +'Oh dear no;--nor even that he meant to give her anything. I should +not dream of asking a question about it. Nor when he makes any +proposition shall I think of having any opinion of my own.' + +'He'll make it all right;--for her sake you know.' + +'My chief object as regards him, is that he should not think I +have been looking for her money. Well; good-bye. I suppose we +shall all meet at dinner?' + +When Tregear left him Silverbridge went to his father's room. He +was anxious that they should understand each other as to Mary's +engagement. 'I thought you were at the House,' said the Duke. + +'I was going there, but I met Tregear at the door. He tells me you +have accepted him for Mary.' + +'I wish that he had never seen her. Do you think that a man can be +thwarted in everything and not feel it?' + +'I thought--you had reconciled yourself--to Isabel.' + +'If it were that alone I could do so the more easily, because +personally she wins upon me. And this man too;--it is not that I +find fault with himself.' + +'He is in all respects a high-minded gentleman.' + +'I hope so. But yet, had he a right to set his heart there, where +he could make his fortune,--having none of his own?' + +'He did not think of it.' + +'A gentleman should do more than not think of it. He should think +that it shall not be so. a man should own his means or should earn +them.' + +'How many, sir, do neither?' + +'Yes, I know,' said the Duke. 'Such a doctrine nowadays is caviare +to the general. One must live as others live around one, I +suppose. I could not see her suffer. It was too much for me. When +I became convinced that this was no temporary passion, no romantic +love which time might banish, that she was of such a temperament +that she could not change,--that I had to give way. Gerald I +suppose will bring me some kitchen-maid for his wife.' + +'Oh sir, you should not say that to me.' + +'No;--I should not have said it to you. I beg your pardon, +Silverbridge.' Then he paused a moment, turning over certain +thoughts within his own bosom. 'Perhaps after all it is well that +a pride of which I am conscious should be rebuked. And it may be +that the rebuke has come in such a form that I should be thankful. +I know that I can love Isabel.' + +'That to me will be everything.' + +'And this young man has nothing that should revolt me. I think he +has been wrong. But now that I have said it I will let all that +pass from me. He will dine with us today.' + +Silverbridge then went to see his sister. 'So you have settled +your little business, Mary.' + +'Oh Silverbridge, you will wish me joy?' + +'Certainly. Why not?' + +'Papa is so stern with me. Of course he has given way, and of +course I am grateful. But he looks at me as though I had done +something to be forgiven.' + +'Take the good the gods provide you, Mary. That will all come +right.' + +'But I have not done anything wrong, have I?' + +'That is a matter of opinion. How can I answer you when I don't +quite know whether I have done anything wrong or not myself. I am +going to marry the girl that I have chosen. That's enough for me.' + +'But you did change.' + +'We need not say anything about that.' + +'But I have never changed. Papa just told me that he would +consent, and that I might write to him. So I did write, and he +came. But papa looks at me as though I had broken his heart.' + +'I tell you what it is, Mary. You expect too much from him. He has +not had his own way with either of us, and of course he feels it.' + +As Tregear had said there was quite a family party in Carlton +Terrace, though as yet the family was not bound together by family +ties. All the Boncassens were there, the father, the mother, and +the promised bride. Mr Boncassen bore himself with more ease than +anyone in the company, having at his command a gift of manliness +which enabled him to regard this marriage exactly as he would have +done any other. America was not so far distant but what he would +be able to see his girl occasionally. He liked the young man and +he believed in the comfort of wealth. Therefore he was satisfied. +But when the marriage was spoken of, or written of, as an +'alliance', then he would say a hard word or two about dukes and +lords in general. On such an occasion as this he was happy and at +his ease. + +So much could not be said for his wife, with whom the Duke +attempted to place himself on terms of family equality. But in +doing this he failed to hide the attempt even from her, and she +broke down under it. Had he simply walked into the room with her +as he would have done on any other occasion, and then remarked +that the frost was keen or the thaw disagreeable, it would have +been better for her. But when he told her that he hoped that she +would often make herself at home in that house, and looked, as he +said it, as though he were asking her to take a place among the +goddesses of Olympus, she was troubled as to her answer. 'Oh, my +Lord Duke,' she said, 'when I think of Isabel living here and +being called by such a name, it almost upsets me.' + +Isabel had all her father's courage, but she was more sensitive; +and though she would have borne her honours well, was oppressed by +the feeling that the weight was too much for her mother. She could +not keep her ear from listening to her mother's words, or her eye +from watching her mother's motions. She was prepared to carry her +mother everywhere. 'As other girls have to be taken with their +belongings, so must I, if I be taken at all.' This she had said +plainly enough. There should be no division between her and her +mother. But still knowing that her mother was not quite at ease, +she was hardly at ease herself. + +Silverbridge came in at the last moment, and of course occupied a +chair next to Isabel. As the House was sitting, it was natural +that he should come in a flurry. 'I left Phineas,' he said, +'pounding away in his old style at Sir Timothy. By-the-bye, +Isabel, you must come down some day and hear Sir Timothy badgered. +I must be back again about ten. Well, Gerald, how are they all at +Lazarus?' He made an effort to be free and easy, but even he soon +found that it was an effort. + +Gerald had come up from Oxford for the occasion that he might make +acquaintance with the Boncassens. He had taken Isabel in to +dinner, but had been turned out of his place when his brother came +in. He had been a little confused by the first impression made +upon him by Mrs Boncassen, and had involuntarily watched his +father. 'Silver is going to have an odd sort of mother-in-law,' he +said afterwards to Mary, who remarked in reply that this would not +signify, as the mother-in-law would be in New York. + +Tregear's part was very difficult to play. He could not but feel +that though he had succeeded, still he was looked upon askance. +Silverbridge had told him that by degrees the Duke would be won +round, but that it was not to be expected that he should swallow +at once all his regrets. The truth of this could not but be +accepted. The immediate inconvenience, however, was not the less +felt. Each and everyone there knew the position of each and +everyone;--but Tregear felt it difficult to act up to his. He +could not play the well-pleased lover openly, as did Silverbridge. +Mary herself was disposed to be very silent. The heart-breaking +tedium of her dull life had been removed. Her determination had +been rewarded. All that she had wanted had been granted to her, +and she was happy. But she was not prepared to show off her +happiness before others. And she was aware that she was thought to +have done evil by introducing her lover into her august family. + +But it was the Duke who made the greatest efforts, and with the +least success. He had told himself again and again that he was +bound be every sense of duty to swallow all regrets. He had taken +himself to task on this matter. He had done so even out loud to +his son. He had declared that he would 'let it all pass from' him. +But who does not know how hard it is for a man in such matters to +keep his word to himself? Who has not said to himself at the very +moment of his own delinquency, 'Now,--it is now,--at this very +instant of time, that I should abate my greed, or smother my ill- +humour, or abandon my hatred. It is now, and here, that I should +drive out the fiend, as I have sworn to myself that I would do.'-- +and yet has failed? + +That it would be done, would be done at last, by this man was very +certain. When Silverbridge assured his sister that 'it would all +come right very soon,' he had understood his father's character. +But it could not be completed quite at once. Had he been required +to take Isabel only to his heart, it would have been comparatively +easy. There are men, who do not seem at first sight very +susceptible to feminine attractions, who nevertheless are +dominated by the grace of flounces, who succumb to petticoats +unconsciously, and who are half in love with every woman merely +for her womanhood. So it was with the Duke. He had given way in +regard to Isabel with less than half the effort that Frank Tregear +was likely to cost him. + +'You were not at the House, sir,' said Silverbridge when he felt +that there was a pause. + +'No, not today.' Then there was a pause again. + +'I think that we shall beat Cambridge this year to a moral,' said +Gerald, who was sitting at the round table opposite to his father. +Mr Boncassen, who was next him, asked, in irony probably rather +than in ignorance, whether the victory was to be achieved by +mathematical or classical proficiency. Gerald turned and looked +at him. 'Do you mean to say that you have never heard of the +University boat-races?' + +'Papa, you have disgraced yourself for ever,' said Isabel. + +'Have I, my dear? Yes, I have heard of them. But I thought Lord +Gerald's protestation was too great for a mere aquatic triumph.' + +'Now you are poking your fun at me,' said Gerald. + +'Well he may,' said the Duke sententiously. 'We have laid +ourselves very open to having fun poked at us in this matter.' + +'I think,' said Tregear, 'that they are learning to do the same +sort of thing in American Universities.' + +'Oh, indeed,' said the Duke in a solemn, dry, funereal tone. And +then all the little life which Gerald's remark about the boat-race +had produced, was quenched at once. The Duke was not angry with +Tregear for his little word of defence,--but he was not able to +bring himself into harmony with this one guest, and was almost +savage to him without meaning it. He was continually asking +himself why Destiny had been so hard upon him as to force him to +receive there at his table as his son-in-law a man who was +distasteful to him. And he was endeavouring to answer the +question, taking himself to task and telling himself that his +destiny had done him no injury, and that the pride which had been +wounded was a false pride. He was making a brave fight; but during +the fight he was hardly fit to be the genial father and father-in- +law of young people who were going to be married to one another. +But before the dinner was over he made a great effort. 'Tregear,' +he said,--and even that was an effort, for he had never hitherto +mentioned the man's name without the formal Mister, 'Tregear, as +this is the first time you have sat at my table, let me be old- +fashioned, and ask you to drink a glass of wine with me.' + +The glass of wine was drunk and the ceremony afforded infinite +satisfaction to one person there. Mary could not keep herself from +some expression of joy by pressing her finger for a moment against +her lover's arm. He, though not usually given to such +manifestations, blushed up to his eyes. But the feeling produced +on the company was solemn rather than jovial. Everyone there +understood it all. Mr Boncassen could read the Duke's mind down to +the last line. Even Mrs Boncassen was aware that an act of +reconciliation had been intended. 'When the governor drank that +glass of wine it seemed as though half the marriage ceremony had +been performed,' Gerald said to his brother that evening. When the +Duke's glass was replaced on the table, he himself was conscious +of the solemnity of what he had done, and was half ashamed of it. + +When the ladies had gone upstairs the conversation became +political and lively. The Duke could talk freely about the state +of things to Mr Boncassen, and was able gradually to include +Tregear in the badinage with which he attacked the conservatism of +his son. And so the half hour passed well. Upstairs the two girls +immediately came together, leaving Mrs Boncassen to chew the cud +of the grandeur around her in the sleepy comfort of an arm-chair. +'And so everything is settled for both of us,' said Isabel. + +'Of course I knew it was to be settled for you. You told me so at +Custins.' + +'I did not know it then. I only told you that he had asked me. And +you hardly believed me.' + +'I certainly believed you.' + +'But you knew about--Lady Mabel Grex.' + +'I only suspected something, and now I know it was a mistake. It +has never been more than a suspicion.' + +'And why, when we were at Custins, did you not tell me about +yourself?' + +'I had nothing to tell.' + +'I can understand that. But is it not joyful that it should all be +settled? Only poor Lady Mabel! You have got no Lady Mabel to +trouble your conscience.' From which it was evident that +Silverbridge had not told all. + + + +CHAPTER 75 + +The Major's Story + +By the end of March Isabel was in Paris, whither she had forbidden +her lover to follow her. Silverbridge was therefore reduced to the +shifts of a bachelor's life, in which his friends seemed to think +that he ought now to take special delight. Perhaps he did not take +much delight in them. He was no doubt impatient to commence that +steady married life for which he had prepared himself. But +nevertheless, just at present, he lived a good deal at the +Beargarden. Where was he to live? The Boncassens were in Paris, +his sister was at Matching with a houseful of other Pallisers, and +his father was again deep in politics. + +Of course he was much in the House of Commons, but that also was +stupid. Indeed everything would be stupid till Isabel came back. +Perhaps dinner was more comfortable at the club than at the House. + And then, as everybody knew, it was a good thing to change the +scene. Therefore he dined at the club, and though he would keep +his hansom and do down to the House again in the course of the +evening, he spent many long hours at the Beargarden. 'There'll +very soon be an end of this as far as you are concerned,' said Mr +Lupton to him one evening as they were sitting in the smoking-room +after dinner. + +'The sooner the better as far as this place is concerned.' + +'This place is as good as any other. For the matter of that I like +the Beargarden since we got rid of two or three not very charming +characters.' + +'You mean my poor friend Tifto,' said Silverbridge. + +'No;--I was not thinking of Tifto. There were one or two here who +were quite as bad as Tifto. I wonder what has become of that poor +devil?' + +'I don't know in the least. You heard of that row about the +hounds?' + +'And his letter to you.' + +'He wrote to me,--and I answered him, as you know. But whither he +vanished or what he is doing, or how he is living, I have not the +least idea.' + +'Gone to join those other fellows abroad I should say. Among them +they got a lot of money,--as the Duke ought to remember.' + +'He is not with them,' said Silverbridge, as though he were in +some degree mourning over the fate of his unfortunate friend. + +'I suppose Captain Green was the leader in all that.' + +'Now it is all done and gone I own to a certain regard for the +Major. He was true to me till he thought I snubbed him. I would +not let him go down to Silverbridge with me. I always thought that +I drove the poor Major to his malpractice.' + +At this moment Dolly Longstaff sauntered into the room and came up +to them. It may be remembered that Dolly had declared his purpose +of emigrating. As soon as he heard that the Duke's heir had +serious thoughts of marrying the lady whom he loved he withdrew at +once from the contest, but, as he did so, he acknowledged that +there could be no longer a home for him in the country which +Isabel was to inhabit as the wife of another man. Gradually, +however, better thoughts returned to him. After all, what was she +but a 'pert poppet'? He determined that marriage 'clips a +fellow's wings confoundedly', and so he set himself to enjoy life +after his old fashion. There was perhaps a little swagger as he +threw himself into a chair and addressed the happy lover. 'I'll be +shot if I didn't meet Tifto at the corner of the street.' + +'Tifto!' + +'Yes, Tifto. He looked awfully seedy, with a greatcoat buttoned up +to his chin, a shabby hat and gloves.' + +'Did he speak to you?' asked Silverbridge. + +'No;--nor I to him. He hadn't time to think whether he would speak +or not, and you may be sure I didn't.' + +Nothing further was said about the man, but Silverbridge was +uneasy and silent. When his cigar was finished he got up saying +that he should go back to the House. As he left the club he looked +about him as though expecting to see his old friend, and when he +had passed through the first street and had got into the Haymarket +there he was! The Major came up to him, touched his hat, asked to +be allowed to say a few words. 'I don't think it can do any good,' +said Silverbridge. The man had not attempted to shake hands with +him, or affected familiarity; but seemed to be thoroughly +humiliated. 'I don't think I can be of any service to you, and +therefore I had rather decline.' + +'I don't want you to be of any service, my Lord.' + +'Then what's the good?' + +'I have something to say. May I come to you tomorrow?' + +Then Silverbridge allowed himself to make an appointment, and an +hour was named at which Tifto might call into Carlton Terrace. He +felt that he almost owed some reparation to the wretched man,--whom +he had unfortunately admitted among his friends, whom he had used, +and to whom he had been uncourteous. Exactly at the hour named the +Major was shown into the room. + +Dolly had said that he was shabby,--but the man was altered rather +than shabby. He still had rings on his fingers and studs in his +shirt, and a jewelled pin in his cravat,--but he had shaven off his +moustache and the tuft from his chin, and his hair had been cut +short, and in spite of his jewellery there was a hang-dog look +about him. 'I've got something that I particularly want to say to +you, my Lord.' Silverbridge would not shake hands with him, but +could not refrain from offering him a chair. + +'Well;--you can say it now.' + +'Yes;--but it isn't so very easy to be said. There are some things, +though you want to say them ever, so you don't quite know how to +do it.' + +'You have your choice, Major Tifto. You can speak or hold your +tongue.' + +Then there was a pause, during which Silverbridge sat with his +hands in his pockets trying to look unconcerned. 'But if you've +got it here, and feel it as I do,'--the poor man as he said this +put his hand upon his heart,--'you can't sleep in your bed till +it's out. I did that thing that they said I did.' + +'What thing?' + +'Why, the nail! It was I lamed the horse.' + +'I am sorry for it. I can say nothing else.' + +'You ain't so sorry for it as I am. Oh no; you can never be that, +my Lord. After all what does it matter to you.' + +'Very little. I meant that I was sorry for your sake.' + +'I believe you are, my Lord. For though you could be rough you was +always kind. Now I will tell you everything, and then you can do +as you please.' + +'I wish to do nothing. As far as I am concerned the matter is +over. It made me sick of horses, and I do not wish to have to +think of it again.' + +'Nevertheless, my Lord, I've got to tell it. It was Green who put +me up to it. He did it just for the plunder. As God is my judge it +was not for the money I did it.' + +'Then it was revenge.' + +'It was the devil got hold of me, my Lord. Up to that I had always +been square,--square as a die! I got to think that your Lordship +was upsetting. I don't know whether your Lordship remembers, but +you did put me down once or twice rather uncommon.' + +'I hope I was not unjust.' + +'I don't say you was, my Lord. But I got a feeling on me that you +wanted to get rid of me, and I all the time doing the best I could +for the 'orses. I did do the best I could up to that very morning +at Doncaster. Well;--it was Green put me up to it. I don't say I +was to get nothing; but it wasn't so much more than I could have +got by the 'orse winning. And I've lost pretty nearly all that I +did get. Do you remember, my Lord,'--and now the Major sank his +voice to a whisper,--'when I come up to your bedroom that morning?' + +'I remember it.' + +'The first time?' + +'Yes; I remember it.' + +'Because I came twice, my Lord. When I came first it hadn't been +done. You turned me out.' + +'That is true, Major Tifto.' + +'You was very rough then. Wasn't you rough?' + +'A man's bedroom is generally supposed to be private.' + +'Yes, my Lord,--that's true. I ought to have sent your man first. I +came then to confess it all, before it was done.' + +'Then why couldn't you let the horse alone?' + +'I was in their hands. And then you was so rough with me! So I +said to myself I might as well do it,--and I did it.' + +'What do you want me to say? As far as my forgiveness goes, you +have it!' + +'That saying a great deal, my Lord,--a great deal,' said Tifto, now +in tears. 'But I ain't said it all yet. He's here; in London!' + +'Who's here.' + +'Green. He's here. He doesn't think I know, but I could lay my +hands on him tomorrow.' + +'There is no human being alive, Major Tifto, whose presence or +absence could be a matter of more indifference to me.' + +'I'll tell you what I'll do, my Lord. I'll go before any judge, or +magistrate, or police-officer in the country, and tell the truth. +I won't ask even for a pardon. They shall punish me and him too. +I'm in that state of mind that any change would be for the better. +But he,--he ought to have it heavy.' + +'It won't be done by me, Major Tifto. Look here, Major Tifto, you + have come here to confess that you have done me a great injury.' + +'Yes, I have.' + +'And you say you are sorry for it.' + +'Indeed I am.' + +'And I have forgiven you. There is only one way in which you can +show your gratitude. Hold your tongue about it. Let it be as a +thing done and gone. The money has been paid. The horse has been +sold. The whole thing has gone out of my mind, and I don't want to +have it brought back again.' + +'And nothing is to be done to Green?' + +'I should say nothing,--on that score.' + +'And he has got they say five-and-twenty thousand pounds clear +money.' + +'It is a pity, but it cannot be helped. I will have nothing +further to do with it. Of course I cannot bind you, but I have +told you my wishes.' The poor wretch was silent, but still it +seemed as though he did not wish to go quite yet. 'If you have +said what you have got to say, Major Tifto, I may as well tell you +that my time is engaged.' + +'And must that be all?' + +'What else?' + +'I am in such a state of mind, Lord Silverbridge, that it would be +satisfaction to tell it all, even against myself.' + +'I can't prevent you.' + +Then Tifto got up from his chair, as though he were going. 'I wish +I knew what I was going to do with myself.' + +'I don't know that I can help you, Major Tifto.' + +'I suppose not, my Lord. I haven't twenty pounds left in all the +world. It's the only thing that wasn't square that ever I did in +all my life. Your Lordship couldn't do anything for me? We was +very much together at one time, my Lord.' + +'Yes, Major Tifto, we were.' + +'Of course I was a villain. But it was only once; and your +Lordship was so rough with me! I am not saying but what I was a +villain. Think of what I did for myself by that one piece of +wickedness! Master of Hounds! Member of the club! And the horse +would have run in my name and won the Leger! And everybody knew +as your Lordship and me was together in him!' Then he burst out +into a paroxysm of tears and sobbing. + +The young Lord certainly could not take the man into partnership +again, nor could he restore to him either the hounds or his club,-- +or his clean hands. Nor did he know in what way he could serve the +man, except by putting his hand into his pocket,--which he did. +Tifto accepted the gratuity, and ultimately became an annual +pensioner on his former noble partner, living on the allowance +made him in some obscure corner of South Wales. + + + +CHAPTER 76 + +On Deportment + +Frank Tregear had come up to town at the end of February. He +remained in London, with an understanding that he was not to see +Lady Mary again till the Easter holidays. He was then to pay a +visit to Matching, and to enter it, it may be presumed, on the +full fruition of his advantages as accepted suitor. All this had +been arranged with a good deal of precision,--as though there had +still been a hope left that Lady Mary might change her mind. Of +course there was no such hope. When the Duke asked the young man +to dine with him, when he invited him to drink that memorable +glass of wine, when the young man was allowed, in the presence of +the Boncassens, to sit next to Lady Mary, it was of course +settled. But the father probably found some relief in yielding by +slow degrees. 'I would rather that there should be no +correspondence till then,' he said both to Tregear and to his +daughter. And they had promised there should be no correspondence. + At Easter they would meet. After Easter Mary was to come up to +London to be present at her brother's wedding, to which also +Tregear had been formally invited; and it was hoped that then +something might be settled as to their own marriage. Tregear, with +the surgeon's permission, took his seat in Parliament. He was +introduced by two leading Members on the conservative side, but +immediately afterwards found himself seated next to his friend +Silverbridge on the top bench behind the ministers. The House was +very full, as there was a feverish report abroad that Sir Timothy +Beeswax intended to make a statement. No one quite knew what the +statement was to be; but every politician in the House and out of +it thought that he knew that the statement would be a bid for +higher power on the part of Sir Timothy himself. If there had been +dissensions in the Cabinet, the secret of them had been well kept. +To Tregear who was not as yet familiar with the House there was no +special appearance of activity; but Silverbridge could see that +there was more than wonted animation. That the Treasury bench +should be full at this time was a thing of custom. A whole +broadside of questions would be fired off, one after another, like +a rattle of musketry down the ranks, when as nearly as possible +the report of each gun is made to follow close upon that of the +gun before,--with this exception, that in such case each little +sound is intended to be as like as possible to the preceding, +whereas with the rattle of the questions and answers, each +question and each answer becomes a little more authoritative and +less courteous than the last. The Treasury bench was ready for its +usual responsive firing, as the questioners were of course in +their places. The opposition front bench was also crowded, and +those behind were nearly equally full. There were many Peers in +the gallery, and a general feeling of sensation prevailed. All +this Silverbridge had been long enough in the House to +appreciate;--but to Tregear the House was simply the House. + +'It's odd enough we should have a row the very first day you +come,' said Silverbridge. + +'You think there will be a row?' + +'Beeswax has something special to say. He's not here yet you see. +They've left about six inches for him between Roper and Sir +Orlando. You'll have the privilege of looking just down on the top +of his head when he does come. I shan't stay much longer after +that.' + +'Where are you going?' + +'I don't mean today. But I should not have been here now,--in this +very place I mean,--but I want to stick to you just at first. I +shall move down below the gangway; and not improbably creep over +to the other side before long.' + +'You don't mean it?' + +'I think I shall. I begin to feel I've made a mistake.' + +'In coming to this side at all?' + +'I think I have. After all it is not very important.' + +'What is not important? I think it is very important.' + +'Perhaps it may be to you, and perhaps you may be able to keep it +up. But the more I think of it the less excuse I seem to have for +deserting the old ways of the family. What is there in those +fellows down there to make a fellow feel that he ought to bind +himself to them neck and heels?' + +'Their principles.' + +'Yes, their principles! I believe I have some vague idea as to +supporting property and land and all that kind of thing. I don't +know that anybody wants to attack anything.' + +'Somebody soon would want to attack if there no defenders.' + +'I suppose there is an outside power,--the people, or public +opinion, or whatever they choose to call it. And the country will +have to go very much as that outside power chooses. Here, in +Parliament, everybody will be as conservative as the outside will +let them. I don't think it matters on which side you sit;--but it +does matter that you shouldn't have to act with those who go +against the grain with you.' + +'I never heard worse political arguments in my life.' + +'I daresay not. However, there's Sir Timothy. When he looks in +that way, all buckram, deportment, and solemnity, I know he's +going to pitch into somebody.' + +At this moment the Leader of the House came in from behind the +Speaker's chair and took his place between Mr Roper and Sir +Orlando Drought. When a man has to declare a solemn purpose on a +solemn occasion in a solemn place, it is needful that he should be +solemn himself. And though the solemnity which befits a man best +will be that which the importance of the moment may produce, +without thought given by himself to his own outward person, still, +who is there can refrain himself from some attempt? Who can boast, +who that has been versed in the ways and duties of high places, +that he has kept himself free from all study of grace, of feature, +or attitude, of gait--or even of dress? For most of our bishops, +for most of our judges, or our statesmen, our orators, our +generals, for many even of our doctors and our parsons, even our +attorneys, our taxgatherers, and certainly our butlers and our +coachmen. Mr Turveydrop, the great professor of deportment, has +done much. But there should always be the art to underlie and +protect the art;--the art that can hide the art. The really clever +archbishop,--the really potent chief justice, the man, who as a +politician, will succeed in becoming a king of men, should know +how to carry his buckram without showing it. It was in this that +Sir Timothy perhaps failed a little. There are men who look as +though they were born to wear blue ribbons. It has come, probably, +from study, but it seems to be natural. Sir Timothy did not impose +on those who looked at him as do these men. You see a little of +the paint, you could hear the crumple of the starch and the +padding; you could trace something of the uneasiness in the would- +be composed grandeur of the brow. 'Turveydrop!' the spectator +would say to himself. But after all it may be a question whether a +man be open to reproach for not doing that well which the greatest +among us,--if we could find one great enough,--would not do at all. + +For I think we must hold that true personal dignity should be +achieved,--must, if it is to be quite true, have been achieved,-- +without any personal effort. Though it be evinced, in part, by the +carriage of the body, that carriage should be the fruit of the +operation of the mind. Even when it be assisted by external +garniture such as special clothes, and wigs, and ornaments, such +garniture should be prescribed by the sovereign or by custom, and +should not have been selected by the wearer. In regard to speech a +man may study all that which may make him suasive, but if he go +beyond that he will trench on those histrionic efforts, which he +will know to be wrong because he will be ashamed to acknowledge +them. It is good to be beautiful, but it should come of God and +not of the hairdresser. And personal dignity is a great +possession; but a man should struggle for it no more than he would +for beauty. Many, however, do struggle for it, and with such +success that, though they do not achieve quite the real thing, +still they get something on which they can bolster themselves up +and be mighty. + +Others, older men than Silverbridge, saw as much as did our young +friends, but they were more complaisant and more reasonable. They, +too, heard the crackle of the buckram, and were aware that the +last touch of awe had come upon that brow just as its owner was +emerging from the shadow of the Speaker's chair;--but to them it +was a thing of course. A real Csar is not to be found every day, +nor can we always have a Pitt to control our debates. That kind of +thing, that last touch has its effect. Of course it is all paint,-- +but how would the poor girl look before the gaslights if there +were no paint? The House of Commons likes a little deportment on +occasions. If a special man looks bigger than you, you can console +yourself by reflecting that he also looks bigger than your +fellows. Sir Timothy probably knew what he was about, and did +himself on the whole more good than harm by his little tricks. + +As soon as Sir Timothy had taken his seat, Mr Rattler got up from +the opposition bench to ask him some questions on a matter of +finance. The brewers were anxious about publican licences. Could +the Chancellor of the Exchequer say a word on the matter? Notice +had of course been given, and the questioner had stated a quarter +of an hour previously that he would postpone his query till the +Chancellor of the Exchequer was in the House. + +Sir Timothy rose from his seat, and in his blandest manner began +by apologising for his late appearance. He was sorry that he had +been prevented by public business from being in place to answer +the honourable gentleman's question in proper turn. And even now, +he feared, that he must decline to give any answer which could be +supposed to be satisfactory. It would probably be his duty to make +a statement to the House on the following day,--a statement which +he was not quite prepared to make at the present moment. But in +the existing state of things he was unwilling to make any reply to +any question by which he might seem to bind the government to any +opinion. Then he sat down. And rising again not long afterwards, +when the House had gone through certain formal duties, he moved +that it should be adjourned till the next day. Then all the +members trooped out, and with the others Tregear and Lord +Silverbridge. 'So that is the end our your first day in +Parliament,' said Silverbridge. + +'What does it all mean?' + +'Let us go down to the Carlton and hear what the fellows are +saying.' + +On that evening both the young men dined at Mr Boncassen's house. +Though Tregear had been cautioned not to write to Lady Mary, and +though he was not to see her before Easter, still it was so +completely understood that he was about to become her husband, +that he was entertained in that capacity by all those who were +concerned in the family. 'And so they will all go out,' said Mr +Boncassen. + +'That seems to be the general idea,' said the expectant son-in- +law. 'When two men want to be first and neither will give way, +they can't very well get on in the same boat together.' Then he +expatiated angrily on the treachery of Sir Timothy, and Tregear in +a more moderate way joined in the same opinion. + +'Upon my word, young men, I doubt whether you are right,' said Mr +Boncassen. 'Whether it can be possible that a man should have +risen to such a position with so little patriotism as you +attribute to our friend, I will not pretend to say. I should think +that in England it was impossible. But of this I am sure, that the +facility which exists here for a minister or ministers to go out +of office without disturbance of the Crown, is a great blessing. +You say the other party will come in.' + +'That is most probable,' said Silverbridge. + +'With us the other party never comes in,--never has a chance of +coming in,--except once in four years, when the President is +elected. That one event binds us for four years.' + +'But you do change your ministers,' said Tregear. + +'A secretary may quarrel with the President, or he may have the +gout, or be convicted of peculation.' + +'And yet you think yourselves more nearly free than we are.' + +'I am not so sure of that. We have had a pretty difficult task, +that of carrying on a government in a new country, which is +nevertheless more populous than almost any old country. The +influxions are so rapid, that every ten years the nature of the +people is changed. It isn't easy; and though I think on the whole +we've done pretty well, I am not going to boast that Washington is +as yet a seat of political Paradise.' + + + +CHAPTER 77 + +'Mabel, Good-Bye' + +When Tregear first came to town with his arm in a sling, and +bandages all round him,--in order that he might be formally +accepted by the Duke,--he had himself taken to one other house +besides the house in Carlton Terrace. He went to Belgrave Square, +to announce his fate to Lady Mabel Grex;--but Lady Mabel Grex was +not there. The Earl was ill at Brighton, and Lady Mabel had gone +down to nurse him. The old woman who came to him in the hall told +him that the Earl was very ill;--he had been attacked by the gout, +but in spite of the gout, and in spite of the doctors, he had +insisted on being taken to his club. Then he had been removed to +Brighton, under the doctor's advice, chiefly in order that he +might be kept out of the way of temptation. Now he was supposed to +be very ill indeed. 'My Lord is so imprudent!' said the old woman, +shaking her old head in real unhappiness. For though the Earl had +been a tyrant to everyone near him, yet when a poor woman becomes +old it is something to have a tyrant to protect her. 'My Lord!' +always had been imprudent. Tregear knew that it had been the +theory of my Lord's life that to eat and drink, and die was better +than to abstain and live. Then Tregear wrote to his friend as +follows: + +'MY DEAR MABEL, + +'I am up in town again as you will perceive, although I am still +in a helpless condition and hardly able to write even this letter. +I called today and was very sorry to hear so bad an account of +your father. Had I been able to travel I should have come down to +you. When I am able I will do so if you would wish to see me. In +the meantime pray tell me how he is, and how you are. + +'My news is this. The Duke accepted me. It is great news to me, +and I hope will be acceptable to you. I do believe that if a +friend has been anxious for a friend's welfare you have been +anxious for mine,--as I have been and ever shall be for yours.' + +'Of course this thing will be very much to me. I will not speak +now of my love for the girl who is to become my wife. You might +again call me Romeo. Nor do I like to say much of what may now be +pecuniary prospects. I did not ask Mary to become my wife because +I supposed she would be rich. But I could not have married her or +anyone else who had not money. What are the Duke's intentions I +have not the slightest idea, nor shall I ask him. I am to go down +to Matching at Easter, and shall endeavour to have some time +fixed. I suppose the Duke will say something about money. If he +does not, I shall not. + +'Pray write me at once, and tell me when I shall see you. + +'Your affectionate Cousin, +'F. O. TREGEAR.' + +In answer to this there came a note in a very few words. She +congratulated him,--not very warmly,--but expressed a hope that she +might see him soon. But she told him not to come to Brighton. The +Earl was better but very cross, and she would be up in town before +long. + +Towards the end of the month it became suddenly known in London +that Lord Grex had died at Brighton. There was a Garter to be +given away, and everybody was filled with regret that such an +ornament to the Peerage should have departed from them. The +conservative papers remembered how excellent a politician he had +been in his younger days, and the world was informed that the +family of Grex of Grex was about the oldest in Great Britain of +which authentic records were in existence. Then there came another +note from Lady Mabel to Tregear. + +'I shall be in town on the thirty-first in the old house, with +Miss Cassewary, and will see you if can come down on the first. +Come early, at eleven, if you can.' + +On the day named and at the hour fixed he was in Belgrave Square. +He had known this house since he was a boy, and could well +remember how, when he first entered it, he had thought with some +awe of the grandeur of the Earl. The Earl had then not paid much +attention to him, but he had become very much taken with the grace +and good nature of the girl who had owned him as a cousin. 'You +are my cousin, Frank,' she had said; 'I am so glad to have a +cousin.' He could remember the words now as though they had been +spoken only yesterday. Then there had quickly grown to be +friendship between him and this, as he thought, sweetest of all +girls. At that time he had just gone to Eton; but before he left +Eton they had sworn to love each other. And so it had been and the +thing had grown, till at last, just when he had taken his degree +two matters had been settled between them; the first was that each +loved the other irretrievably, irrevocably, passionately; the +second, that it was altogether out of the question that they +should ever marry each other. + +It is but fair to Tregear to say that this last decision +originated with the lady. He had told her that he certainly would +hold himself engaged to marry her at some future time; but she had +thrown this aside at once. How was it possible, she said, that two +such beings, brought up in luxury, and taught to enjoy all the +good things of the world, should expect to live and be happy +together without an income? He offered to go to the bar;--but she +asked him whether he thought it well that such a one as she should +wait say a dozen years for such a process. 'When the time comes, I +should be an old woman and you would be a wretched man.' She +released him,--declared her own purpose of marrying well; and then, +though there had been a moment in which her own assurance of her +own love had been passionate enough, she went so far as to tell +him that she was heartwhole. 'We have been two foolish children +but we cannot be children any longer,' she said. 'There must be an +end of it.' + +What had hitherto been the result of this the reader knows,--and +Tregear knew also. He had taken the privilege given to him, and +had made so complete a use of it that he had in truth transferred +his heart as well as his allegiance. Where is the young man who +cannot do so;--how few are there who do not do so when their first +passion has come on them at one-and-twenty? And he had thought +that she would do the same. But gradually he found that she had +not done so, did not do so, could not do so! When she first heard +of Lady Mary she had not reprimanded him,--but she could not keep +herself from showing the bitterness of her disappointment. Though +she would still boast of her own strength and of her own purpose, +yet it was too clear to him that she was wounded and very sore. +She would have liked him to remain single at any rate till she +herself had married. But the permission had hardly been given +before he availed himself of it. And then he talked to her not +only of the brilliancy of his prospects,--which she would have +forgiven,--but of his love--his love! + +Then she had refused one offer after another, and he had known it +all. There was nothing in which she was concerned that she did not +tell him. Then young Silverbridge had come across her, and she had +determined that he should be her husband. She had been nearly +successful,--so nearly that at moments she felt sure of success. +But the prize had slipped from her through her own fault. She knew +well enough that it was her own fault. When a girl submits to play +such a game as that, she could not stand on too nice scruples. She +had told herself this many a time since;--but the prize was gone. + +All this Tregear knew, and knowing it almost dreaded the coming +interview. He could not without actual cruelty have avoided her. +Had he done so before he could not have continued to do so now, +when she was left alone in the world. Her father had not been much +to her, but still his presence had enabled her to put herself +before the world as being somebody. Now she would be almost +nobody. And she had lost her rich prize, while he,--out of the same +treasury as it were,--had won his! + +The door opened to him by the same old woman, and he was shown, at +a funereal pace, up into the drawing-room which he had known so +well. He was told that Lady Mabel would be down to him directly. +As he looked about him he could see that already had been +commenced that work of division of spoil which is sure to follow +the death of most of us. Things were already gone which used to be +familiar to his eyes, and the room, though not dismantled, had +been deprived of many of its little prettiness and was ugly. + +In about ten minutes she came down to him,--with so soft a step +that he would not have been aware of her entrance had he not seen +her form in the mirror. Then, when he turned round to greet her, +he was astonished by the blackness of her appearance. She looked +as though she had become ten years older since he had last seen +her. As she came up to him she was grave and almost solemn in her +gait, but there was no sign of any tears. Why should there have +been a tear? Women weep, and men too, not from grief, but from +emotion. Indeed, grave and slow as she was her step, and serious, +almost solemn, as was her gait, there was something of a smile on +her mouth as she gave him her hand. And yet her face was very sad, +declaring to him too plainly something of the hopelessness of her +heart. 'And so the Duke has consented,' she said. He had told her +that in his letter, but since that, her father had died, and she +had been left, he did not as yet know how impoverished, but, he +feared, with no pleasant worldly prospects before her. + +'Yes, Mabel;--that I suppose will be settled. I have been so +shocked to hear all this.' + +'It has been very sad;--has it not? Sit down, Frank. You and I +have a good deal to say to each other now that we have met. It was +no good your going down to Brighton. He would not have seen you, +and at last I never left him.' + +'Was Percival there?' She only shook her head. 'That was +dreadful.' + +'It was not Percival's fault. He would not see him; nor till the +last hour or two would he believe in his own danger. Nor was he +ever to frightened for a moment,--not even then.' + +'Was he good to you?' + +'Good to me! Well;--he liked my being there. Poor papa! It had +gone so far with him that he could not be good to any one. I think +that he felt that it would be unmanly not to be the same till the +end.' + +'He would not see Percival.' + +'When it was suggested he would only ask what good Percival could +do him. I did send for him at last, in my terror, but he did not +see his father alive. When he did come he only told me how badly +his father had treated him! It was very dreadful!' + +'I did so feel for you.' + +'I am sure you did, and will. After all, Frank, I think that the +pious godly people have the best of it in this world. Let them be +ever so covetous, ever so false, ever so hard-hearted, the mere +fact that they must keep up appearances, makes them comfortable to +those around them. Poor papa was not comfortable to me. A little +hypocrisy, a little sacrifice to the feelings of the world, may be +such a blessing.' + +'I am sorry that you should feel it so.' + +'Yes; it is sad. But you;--everything is smiling with you! Let us +talk about your plans.' + +'Another time will do for that. I had come to hear about your own +affairs.' + +'There they are,' she said, pointing round the room. 'I have no +other affairs. You see that I am going from here.' + +'And where are you going?' She shook her head. 'With whom will +you live?' + +'With Miss Cass,--two old maids together. I know nothing further.' + +'But about money? That is if I am justified in asking.' + +'What would you not be justified in asking? Do you not know that +I would tell you every secret of my own heart;--if my heart had a +secret? It seems that I have given up what was to have been my +fortune. There was a claim of twelve thousand pounds on Grex. But +I have abandoned it.' + +'And there is nothing?' + +'There will be scrapings they tell me,--unless Percival refuses to +agree. This house is mortgaged, but not for its value. And there +are some jewels. But all that is detestable,--a mere grovelling +among mean hundreds; whereas you,--you will soar among--' + +'Oh Mabel! do not say hard things to me.' + +'No, indeed! why should I,--I who have been preaching that +comfortable doctrine of hypocrisy? I will say nothing hard. But I +would sooner talk of your good things than my evil ones.' + +'I would not.' + +'Then you must talk about them for my sake. How was it that the +Duke came round at last?' + +'I hardly know. She sent for me.' + +'A fine high-spirited girl. These Pallisers have more courage +about them than one expects from their outward manner. +Silverbridge has plenty of it.' + +'I remember telling you he could be obstinate.' + +'And I remember that I did not believe you. Now I know it. He has +that sort of pluck which enables a man to break a girl's heart,--or +to destroy a girl's hopes,--without wincing. He can tell a girl to +her face that she can go to the--mischief for him. There are so +many men who can't do that, from cowardice, though their hearts be +ever so well inclined. "I have changed my mind." There is +something great in the courage of a man who can say that to a +woman in so many words. Most of them, when they escape by lies and +subterfuges. Or they run away and won't allow themselves to be +heard of. They trust to a chapter of accidents, and leave things +to arrange themselves. But when a man can look a girl in the face +with those seemingly soft eyes, and say with that seemingly soft +mouth,--"I have changed my mind",--though she would look him dead in +return, if she could, still she must admire him.' +'Are you speaking of Silverbridge now?' + +'Of course I am speaking of Silverbridge. I suppose I ought to +hide it all and not tell you. But as you are the only person I do +tell, you must put up with me. Yes;--when I taxed him with his +falsehood,--for he had been false,--he answered me with those very +words! "I have changed my mind." He could not lie. To speak the +truth was a necessity to him, even at the expense of his +gallantry, almost of his humanity.' + +'Has he been false to you, Mabel?' + +'Of course he has. But there is nothing to quarrel about if you +mean that. People do not quarrel now about such things. A girl has +to fight her own battle with her own pluck and her own wits. As +with these weapons she is generally stronger than her enemy, she +succeeds sometimes although everything else is against her. I +think I am courageous, but his courage beat mine. I craned at the +first fence. When he was willing to swallow my bait, my hand was +not firm enough to strike the hook in his jaws. Had I not quailed +then I think I should have-"had him".' + +'It is horrid to hear you talk like this.' She was leaning over +from her seat, looking black as she was, so much older than her +wont, with something about her of the unworldly serious +thoughtfulness which a mourning always gives. And yet her words +were so worldly, so unfeminine! + +'I have got to tell the truth to somebody. It was so, just as I +have said. Of course I did not love him. How could I love him +after what has passed? But there need have been nothing much in +that. I don't suppose that Duke's eldest sons often get married +for love.' + +'Miss Boncassen loves him.' + +'I dare say the beggar's daughter loved King Cophetua. When you +come to distances such as that, there can be love. The very fact +that a man should have descended so far in the quest of beauty,-- +the flattery of it alone,--will produce love. When the angels came +after the daughters of men of course the daughters of men loved +them. The distance between him and me is not great enough to have +produced that sort of worship. There was no reason why Lady Mabel +Grex should not be good enough wife for the son of the Duke of +Omnium.' + +'Certainly not.' + +'And therefore I was not struck, as by the shining of la light +from heaven. I cannot say that I loved him, Frank,--I am beyond +worshipping even an angel from heaven.' + +'Then I do not know that you can blame him,' he said very +seriously. + +'Just so;--and as I have chosen to be honest I have told him +everything. But I had my revenge first.' + +'I would have said nothing.' + +'You would have recommended--delicacy! No doubt you think that +women should be delicate let them suffer what they may. A woman +should not let it be known that she has any human nature in her. I +had him on the hip, and for a moment I used my power. He had +certainly done me a wrong. He had asked for my love,--and with the +delicacy which you commend, I had not at once grasped at all that +such a request conveyed. Then, as he told me so frankly, he +"changed his mind"! Did he not wrong me?' + +'He should not have raised false hopes.' + +'He told me that--he had changed his mind. I think I loved him then +as nearly as I ever did,--because he looked me full in the face. +Then,--I told him that I had never cared for him, and that he need +have nothing on his conscience. But I doubt whether he was glad to +hear it. Men are so vain! I have talked too much about myself. +And so you are to be the Duke's son-in-law. And she will have +hundreds of thousands.' + +'Thousands perhaps, but I do not think very much about it. I feel +that he will provide for her.' + +'And that you, having secured her, can creep under his wing like +an additional ducal chick. It is very comfortable. The Duke will +be quite a Providence to you. I wonder that all young gentlemen do +not marry heiresses;--it is so easy. And you have got your seat in +Parliament too! Oh, your luck! When I look back upon it all it +seems so hard to me! It was for you;--for you that I used to be +anxious. Now it is I who have not an inch of ground to stand +upon.' Then he approached her and put out his hand to her. 'No,' +she said, putting both her hands behind her back, 'for God's sake +let there be no tenderness. But is it not cruel? Think of my +advantages at that moment when you and I agreed that our paths +should be separate. My fortune then had not been made quite +shipwreck by my father and brother. I had before me all that +society could offer. I was called handsome and clever. Where was +there a girl more likely to make her way to the top?' + +'You may do still.' + +'No;--no;--I cannot. And you at least should not tell me so. I did +not know then the virulence of the malady which had fallen on me. +I did not know that, because of you, other men would have been +abhorrent to me. I thought that I was as easy-hearted as you have +proved yourself.' + +'How cruel you can be.' + +'Have I done anything to interfere with you? Have I said a word +even to that young lad when I might have said a word? Yes; to him +I did say something; but I waited, and would not say it, while a +word could hurt you. Shall I tell you what I told him? Just +everything that has ever happened between you and me.' + +'You did?' + +'Yes;--because I saw that I could trust him. I told him because I +wanted him to be quite sure that I had never loved him. But, +Frank, I have put no spoke in your wheel. There has not been a +moment since you told me of your love for this rich young lady in +which I would not have helped you had help been in my power. +Whomever I may have harmed, I have never harmed you.' + +'Am I not as clear from blame towards you?' + +'No, Frank. You have done me the terrible evil of ceasing to love +me.' + +'It was at your own bidding.' + +'Certainly! But if I were to bid you to cut your throat, would +you do it?' + +'Was it not you who decided that we could not wait for each +other?' + +'And should it not have been for you to decide that you would +wait?' + +'You also would have married.' + +'It almost angers me that you should not see the difference. A +girl unless she marries becomes nothing, as I have become nothing +now. A man does not want a pillar on which to lean. A man, when he +has done as you have done with me, and made a girl's heart all his +own, even though his own heart had been flexible and plastic as +yours is, should have been true to her, at least for a while. Did +it never occur to you that you owed something to me?' + +'I have always owed you very much.' + +'There should have been some touch of chivalry if not of love to +make you feel that a second passion should have been postponed for +a year or two. You could wait without growing old. You might have +allowed yourself a little space to dwell--I was going to say on the +sweetness of your memories. But they were not sweet, Frank, they +were not sweet to you.' + +'These rebukes, Mabel, will rob them of their sweetness,--for a +time.' + +'It is gone; all gone,' she said, shaking her head,--'gone from me +because I have been so easily deserted; gone from you because the +change has been so easy to you. How long was it, Frank, after you +had left me before you were basking happily in the smiles of Lady +Mary Palliser?' + +'It was not very long, as months go.' + +'Say days, Frank.' + +'I have to defend myself, and I will do so with truth. It was not +very long,--as months go; but why should it have been less long, +whether for months or days? I had to cure myself of a wound.' + +'To put plaster on a scratch, Frank.' + +'And the sooner a man can do that the more manly he is. Is it a +sign of strength to wail under a sorrow that cannot be cured,--or +of truth to perpetuate the appearance of a woe?' + +'Has it been an appearance with me?' + +'I am speaking of myself now. I am driven to speak of myself by +the bitterness of your words. It was you who decided.' + +'You accepted my decision easily.' + +'Because it was based not only on my unfitness for such a +marriage, but on yours. When I saw that there would be perhaps +some years of misery for you, of course I accepted your decision. +The sweetness had been very sweet to me.' + +'Oh Frank, was it ever sweet to you?' + +'And the triumph of it had been very great. I had been assured of +the love of her who among all the high ones of the world seemed to +me to be the highest. Then came your decision. Do you really +believe that I could abandon the sweetness, that I could be robbed +of my triumph, that I could think I could never again be allowed +to put my arm round your waist, never again feel your cheek close +to mine, that I should lose all that had seemed left to me among +the gods, without feeling it?' + +'Frank, Frank!' she said, rising to her feet, and stretching out +her hands as though she were going to give him back all these +joys. + +'Of course I felt it. I did not then know what was before me.' +When he said this she sank immediately back upon her seat. 'I was +wretched enough. I had lost a limb and could not walk; my eyes, +and must always hereafter be blind; my fitness to be among men, +and must always hereafter be secluded. It is so that a man is +stricken down when some terrible trouble comes upon him. But it is +given to him to retrick his beams.' + +'You have retricked yours.' + +'Yes;--and the strong man will show his strength by doing it +quickly. Mabel, I sorrowed for myself greatly when that word was +spoken, partly because I thought that your love could be so easily +taken from me. And, since I have found that it has not been so, I +have sorrowed for you also. But I do not blame myself, and I will +not submit to have blame even from you.' She stared at him in the +face as he said this. 'A man should never submit to blame.' + +'But if he has deserved it?' + +'Who is to be the judge? But why should we contest this? You do +not really wish to trample on me!' + +'No;--not that.' + +'Nor to disgrace me; nor to make me feel myself disgraced in my +own judgement?' Then there was a pause for some moments as though +he had left her without another word to say. 'Shall I go now?' he +asked. + +'Oh Frank!' + +'I fear that my presence only makes you unhappy.' + +'Then what will your absence do? When shall I see you again? +But, no; I will not see you again. Not for many days,--not for +years. Why should I? Frank, is it wicked that I should love you?' + He could only shake his head in answer to this. 'If it be so +wicked that I must be punished for it eternally, still I love you. +I can never, never, never love another. You cannot understand it. +Oh God,--that I had never understood it myself! I think, I think, +that I would go with you now anywhere, facing all misery, all +judgements, all disgrace. You know, do you not, that if it were +possible, I should not say so. But as I know that you would not +stir a step with me, I do say so.' + +'I know that it is not meant.' + +'It is meant, though it could not be done. Frank, I must not see +her, not for awhile; not for years. I do not wish to hate her, but +how can I help it? Do you remember when she flew into your arms +in this room?' + +'I remember it.' + +'Of course you do. It is your great joy now to remember that, and +such like. She must be very good! Though I hate her!' + +'Do not say that you hate her, Mabel.' + +'Though I hate her she must be good. It was a fine and brave thing +to do. I have done it; but never before the world like that; have +I, Frank? Oh, Frank, I shall never do it again. Go now, and do +not touch me. Let us both pray that in ten years we may meet as +passionate friends.' He came to her hardly knowing what he meant, +but purposing, as though by instinct, to take her hand as he +parted from her. But she, putting both her hands before her face, +and throwing herself on to the sofa, buried her head among the +cushions. + +'Is there not to be another word?' he said. Lying as she did, she +still was able to make a movement of dissent and he left her, +muttering just one word between his teeth, 'Mabel, good-bye.' + + + +CHAPTER 78 + +The Duke Returns to Office + +That farewell took place on the Friday morning. Tregear as he +walked out of the Square knew now that he had been the cause of a +great shipwreck. At first when that passionate love had been +declared,--he could hardly remember whether with the fullest +passion by him or by her,--he had been as a god walking upon air. +That she who seemed to be so much above him should have owned that +she was all his own seemed then to be world enough for him. For a +few weeks he lived a hero to himself, and was able to tell +himself that for him, the glory of a passion was sufficient. In +those halcyon moments no common human care is allowed to intrude +itself. To one who has thus entered in upon the heroism of romance +his own daily work, his dinners, clothes, income, father and +mother, sisters and brothers, his own street and house are +nothing. Hunting, shooting, rowing, Alpine-climbing, even speeches +in Parliament,--if they perchance have been attained to,--all become +leather or prunella. The heavens have been opened to him and he +walks among them like a god. So it had been with Tregear. Then had +come the second phase of his passion,--which is not uncommon young +men who soar high in their first assaults. He was told that it +would not do; and was not so told by the hard-pressed parent, but +by the young lady herself. And she had spoken so reasonably, that +he had yielded, and had walked away with the sudden feeling of a +vile return to his own mean belongings, to his lodgings, and his +income, which not a few ambitious young men have experienced. But +she had convinced him. Then had come the journey to Italy, and the +reader knows all the rest. He certainly had not derogated in +transferring his affections,--but it may be doubted whether in his +second love he had walked among the stars as in the first. A man +can hardly mount twice among the stars. But he had been as eager,-- +and as true. And he had succeeded, without any flaw on his +conscience. It had been agreed, when that first disruption took +place, that he and Mabel should be friends; and, as to friends, he +had told her of his hopes. When first she had mingled something of +sarcasm in her congratulations, though it had annoyed him, it had +hardly made him unhappy. When she called him Romeo and spoke of +herself as Rosaline, he took her remark as indicating some +petulance rather than an enduring love. That had been womanly and +he could forgive it. He had his other great and solid happiness to +support him. Then he had believed that she would soon marry, if +not Silverbridge, then some other fitting young nobleman, and that +all would be well. But now things were very far from well. The +storm which was now howling round her afflicted her much. + +Perhaps the bitterest feeling of all was that her love should have +been so much stronger, so much more enduring than his own. He +could not but remember how in his first agony he had blamed her +because she had declared that they should be severed. He had then +told himself that such severing would be to him impossible, and +that her nature been as high as his, it would have been as +impossible to her. Which nature must he now regard as the higher? + She had done her best to rid herself of the load of her passion +and had failed. But he had freed himself with convenient haste. +All that he had said as the manliness of conquering grief had been +wise enough. But still he could not quit himself of some feeling +of disgrace in that he had changed and she had not. He tried to +comfort himself with reflecting that Mary was all his own,--that in +the matter he had been victorious and happy;--but for an hour or +two he thought more of Mabel than Mary. + +When the time came in which he could employ himself he called for +Silverbridge, and they walked together across the park to +Westminster. Silverbridge was gay and full of eagerness as to the +coming ministerial statement, but Tregear could not turn his mind +from the work of the morning. 'I don't seem to care very much +about it,' he said at last. + +'I do care very much,' said Silverbridge. + +'What difference will it make?' + +'I breakfasted with the governor this morning, and I have not seen +him in such good spirits since,--well for a long time.' The date +to which Silverbridge would have referred, had he not checked +himself was that of the evening on which it had been agreed +between him and his father that Mabel Grex should be promoted to +the seat of the highest honour in the house of Palliser,--but that +was a matter which must henceforward be buried in silence. 'He did +not say much, but I feel perfectly sure that he and Mr Monk have +arranged a new government.' + +'I don't see any matter for joy in that to Conservatives like you +and me.' + +'He is my father,--and as he is going to be your father-in-law I +should have thought that you would have been pleased.' + +'Oh, yes;--if he likes it. But I have heard so often of the +crushing cares of office, and I had thought that of all living men +he had been the most crushed by them.' + +All that had to be done in the House of Commons on that afternoon +was finished before five o'clock. By half-past five the House, and +all the purlieus of the House, were deserted. And yet at four, +immediately after prayers, there had been such a crowd that +members had been unable to find seats! Tregear and Silverbridge +having been early succeeded, but those who had been less careful +were obliged to listen as best they could in the galleries. The +stretching out of necks and the holding of hands behind the ears +did not last long. Sir Timothy had not much to say, but what he +did say was spoken with dignity which seemed to anticipate future +exaltation rather than present downfall. There had arisen a +question in regard to revenue,--he need hardly tell them that it +was the question in reference to brewers' licences which the +honourable gentlemen opposite had alluded on the previous day,--as +to which unfortunately he was not in accord with his noble friend +the Prime Minister. Under the circumstances it was hardly possible +that they should at once proceed to business, and he therefore +moved that the House should stand adjourned till Tuesday next. +That was the whole statement. + +Not very long afterwards the Prime Minister made another statement +in the House of Lords. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer had very +suddenly resigned and had thereby broken up the Ministry, he had +found himself compelled to place his resignation in the hands of +her Majesty. Then that House was also adjourned. On that +afternoon all the clubs were alive with admiration at the great +cleverness played by Sir Timothy in this transaction. It was not +only that he had succeeded in breaking up the Ministry, and that +he had done this without incurring violent disgrace; but he had +done it as to throw all the reproach upon his late unfortunate +colleague. It was thus that Mr Lupton explained it. Sir Timothy +had been at the pains to ascertain on what matters connected with +the revenue, Lord Drummond--or Lord Drummond's closest advisers,-- +had opinions of their own, opinions strong enough not to be +abandoned, and having discovered that, he also discovered +arguments on which to found an exactly opposite opinion. But as +the Revenue had been entrusted specially to his unworthy hands, he +was entitled to his own opinion in the matter. 'The majority of +the House,' said Mr Lupton, 'and the entire public, will no doubt +give him credit for self-abnegation.' + +All this happened on the Friday. During the Saturday it was +considered probable that the Cabinet would come to terms with +itself, and that internal wounds would be healed. The general +opinion was that Lord Drummond would give way. But on the Sunday +morning it was understood that Lord Drummond would not yield. It +was reported that Lord Drummond was willing to purchase his +separation from Sir Timothy even at the expense of his office. +That Sir Timothy should give way seemed to be impossible. Had he +done so it would have been impossible for him to recover the +respect of the House. Then it was rumoured that two or three +others had gone with Sir Timothy. And on Monday morning it was +proclaimed that the Prime Minister was not in a position to +withdraw his resignation. On the Tuesday the House met and Mr Monk +announced, still from Opposition benches, that he had that morning +been with the Queen. Then there was another adjournment, and all +the Liberals knew that the gates of Paradise were again about to +be opened to them. + +This is only interesting to us as affecting the happiness and +character of the Duke. He had consented to assist Mr Monk in +forming a government, and to take office under Mr Monk's +leadership. He had had many contests with himself before he could +bring himself to this submission. He knew that if anything could +once again make him contented it would be work; he knew that if he +could serve his country it was his duty to serve it; and he knew +also that it was only by the adhesion of such men as himself that +the tradition of his party could be maintained. But he had been +Prime Minister,--and he was sure he could never be Prime Minister +again. There are in all matters certain little, almost hidden, +signs, by which we can measure within our own bosoms the extent of +our successes and our failures. Our Duke's friends had told him +that his Ministry had been serviceable to the country; but no one +had ever suggested to him that he would again be asked to fill the +place which he had filled. He had stopped a gap. He would +beforehand have declared himself willing to serve his country even +in this way; but having done so,--having done that and no more than +that,--he felt that he had failed. He had in soreness declared to +himself that he would never more take office. He had much to do to +overcome this promise to himself;--but when he had brought himself +to submit he was certainly a happier man. + +There was no going to see the Queen. That on the present occasion +was done simply by Mr Monk. But on the Wednesday morning is name +appeared in the list of the new Cabinet as President of the +Council. He was perhaps a little fidgety, a little too anxious to +employ himself and to be employed, a little too desirous of +immediate work;--but still he was happy and gracious to all those +around him. 'I suppose you like that particular office,' +Silverbridge said to him. + +'Well; yes;--not best of all, you know,' and he smiled as he made +this admission. + +'You mean Prime Minister.' + +'No, indeed I don't. I am inclined to think that the Premier +should always sit in your House. No, Silverbridge, if I could have +my way,--which is of course impossible, for I cannot put off my +honours,--I would return to my old place. I would return to the +Exchequer where the work is hard and certain, where a man can do, +or at any rate attempt to do, some special thing. A man there if +he stick to that and does not travel beyond it, need not be +popular, need not be a partisan, need not be eloquent, need not be +a courtier. He should understand his profession, as should a +lawyer or doctor. If he does that thoroughly he can serve his +country without recourse to that parliamentary strategy for which +I know that I am unfit.' + +'You can't do that in the House of Lords, sir.' + +'No; no. I wish the title could have passed over my head, +Silverbridge, and gone to you at once. I think we both should have +been suited better. But there are things which one should not +consider. Even in this place I may perhaps do something. Shall you +attack us very bitterly?' + +'I am the only man who does not mean to change.' + +'How so?' + +'I shall stay where I am,--on the Government side of the House.' + +'Are you clear about that, my boy?' + +'Quite clear.' + +'Such changes should not be made without very much consideration.' + +'I have already written to them at Silverbridge and have had three +or four answers. Mr De Boung says that the borough is more than +grateful. Mr Sprout regrets it much, and suggests a few months' +consideration. Mr Sprugeon seems to think it does not much +signify.' + +'That is hardly complimentary.' + +'No;--not to me. But he is very civil to the family. As long as a +Palliser represents the borough, Mr Sprugeon thinks that it does +not matter on which side he may sit. I have had my little vagary, +and I don't think that I shall change again.' + +'I suppose that it is your republican bride-elect that has done +that,' said the Duke laughing. + + + +CHAPTER 79 + +The First Wedding + +As Easter Sunday fell on the seventeenth of April, and as the +arrangement of the new Cabinet, with its inferior offices, was not +completed till the sixth of that month, there was only just time +for the new elections before the holidays. Mr Monk sat on his +bench so comfortably that he hardly seemed ever to have been off +it. And Phineas Finn resumed the peculiar ministerial tone of +voice just as though he had never allowed himself to use the free +and indignant strains of the opposition. As to a majority,--nothing +as yet was known about that. Some few besides Silverbridge might +probably transfer themselves to the Government. None of the +ministers lost their seats in the new elections. The opposite +party seemed for a while to have been paralysed by the defection +of Sir Timothy, and men who liked a quiet life were able to +comfort themselves with the reflection that nothing could be done +this session. + +For our loves this was convenient. Neither of them would have +allowed their parliamentary energies to have interfered at such a +crisis with his domestic affairs; but still it was well to have +time at command. The day for the marriage of Isabel and +Silverbridge had been now fixed. That was to take place on the +Wednesday after Easter, and was to be celebrated by special royal +favour in the chapel at Whitehall. All the Pallisers would be +there, and all the relations of the Pallisers, all the +ambassadors, and of course all the Americans in London. It would +be a 'wretched grind', as Silverbridge said, but it had to be +done. In the meantime the whole party, including the new President +of the Council, were down at Matching. Even Isabel, though it must +be presumed that she had much to do in looking after her bridal +garments, was able to be there for a day or two. But Tregear was +the person to whom this visit was of the greatest importance. + +He had been allowed to see Lady Mary in London, but hardly to do +more than see her. With her he had been alone for about five +minutes, and then the cruel circumstances,--circumstances, however, +which were not permanently cruel,--had separated them. All their +great difficulties had been settled, and no doubt they were happy. +Tregear, though he had been as it were received into grace by that +glass of wine, still had not entered into the intimacies of the +house. This he felt himself. He had been told that he had better +restrain himself from writing to Mary, and he had restrained +himself. He had therefore no immediate opportunity of creeping +into that perfect intimacy with the house and household which is +generally accorded to a promised son-in-law. + +On this occasion he travelled down alone, and as he approached the +house he, who was not by nature timid, felt himself to be somewhat +cowed. That the Duke should not be cold to him was almost +impossible. Of course he was there in opposition to the Duke's +wishes. Even Silverbridge had never quite liked the match. Of +course he was to have all that he desired. Of course he was the +most fortunate of men. Of course no man had ever stronger reason +to be contented with the girl he loved. But still his heart was a +little low as he was driven up to the door. + +The first person he saw was the Duke himself, who, as the fly from +the station arrived, was returning from his walk. 'You are welcome +to Matching,' he said, taking off his hat with something of +ceremony. This was said before the servants, but Tregear was then +led into the study and the door was closed. 'I never do anything +by halves, Mr Tregear,' he said. 'Since it is to so you shall be +the same to me as though you had come under other auspices. Of +yourself personally I hear all that is good. Consider yourself at +home here, and in all things use me as your friend.' Tregear +endeavoured to make some reply, but could not find words that were +fitting. 'I think that young people are out,' continued the Duke. +'Mr Warburton will help you find them if you like to go upon the +search.' The words had been very gracious, but still there was +something in the manner of the man which made Tregear find it +almost impossible to regard him as he might have regarded another +father-in-law. He had often heard the Duke spoken of as a man who +could become awful if he pleased, almost without an effort. He had +been told of the man's mingled simplicity, courtesy, self- +assertion against which no impudence or raillery could prevail. +And now he seemed to understand it. + +He was not driven to go under the private secretary's escort in +quest of the young people. Mary had understood her business much +better than that. 'If you please, sir, Lady Mary is in the little +drawing-room,' said a well-arrayed young girl to him as soon as +the Duke's door was closed. This was Lady Mary's own maid who had +been on the look-out for the fly. Lady Mary had known all details, +as to the arrival of the trains and the length of the journey from +the station, and had not been walking with the other young people +when the Duke had intercepted her lover. Even the delay she had +thought was hard. The discreet maid opened the door of the little +drawing-room,--and discreetly closed it instantly. 'At last!' she +said, throwing herself into his arms. + +'Yes,--at last.' + +On this occasion time did not envy them. The long afternoons of +spring had come, and as Tregear had reached the house between four +and five they were able to go out together before the sun set. +'No,' she said when he came to inquire as to her life during the +last twelve months, 'you had not much to be afraid of as to my +forgetting.' + +'But when everything was against me?' + +'One thing was not against you. You ought to have been sure of +that.' + +'And so I was. And yet I felt that I ought not to have been sure. +Sometimes, in my solitude, I used to think that I myself had been +wrong. I began to doubt whether under any circumstances I could +have been justified in asking your father's daughter to be my +wife.' + +'Because of his rank?' + +'Not so much his rank as his money.' + +'Ought that to be considered?' + +'A poor man who marries a rich woman will always be suspected.' + +'Because people are so mean and poor-spirited; and because they +think that money is more than anything else. It should be nothing +at all in such matters. I don't know how it can be anything. They +have been saying that to me all along,--as though one were to stop +to think whether one was rich or poor.' Tregear, when this was +said, could not but remember a time not very much prior to that +which Mary had not stopped to think, neither for a while had he +and Mabel. 'I suppose it was worse for me than for you,' she +added. + +'I hope not.' + +'But it was, Frank; and therefore I ought to have made it up to me +now. It was very bad to be alone here, particularly when I felt +that papa always looked at me as though I were a sinner. He did +not mean it, but he could not help looking at me like that. As +there was nobody to whom I could say a word.' + +'It was pretty much the same with me.' + +'Yes; but you were not offending a father who could not keep +himself from looking reproaches at you. I was like a boy at school +who had been put into Coventry. And then they sent me to Lady +Cantrip!' + +'Was that very bad?' + +'I do believe that if I were a young woman with a well-ordered +mind, I should feel myself very much indebted to Lady Cantrip. She +had a terrible task of it. But I could not teach myself to like +her. I believe she knew all through that I should get my way at +last.' + +'That ought to have made you friends.' + +'But yet she tried everything she could. And when I told her about +that meeting up at Lord Grex's, she was so shocked! Do you +remember that?' + +'Do I remember it!' + +'Were you not shocked?' This question was not to be answered by +any word. 'I was,' she continued. 'It was an awful thing to do; +but I was determined to show them all that I was in earnest. Do +you remember how Miss Cassewary looked?' + +'Miss Cassewary knew all about it.' + +'I daresay she did. And so I suppose did Mabel Grex. I had thought +that perhaps I might make Mabel a confidante, but--' + +'But what?' + +'You like Mabel, do you not? I do.' + +'I like her very, very much.' + +'Perhaps you have liked her too well for that, eh, Frank?' + +'Too well for what?' + +'That she should have heard all that I had to say about you with +sympathy. If so, I am sorry.' + +'You need not fear that I have ever for a moment been untrue to +either her or you.' + +'I am sure you have not to me. Poor Mabel! Then they took me to +Custins. That was the worst of all. I cannot quite tell you what +happened there.' Of course he asked her,--but as she had said, she +could not quite tell him about Lord Popplecourt. + +The next morning the Duke asked his guest in a playful tone what +was his Christian name. It could hardly be that he should not have +known, but yet he asked the question. + +'Francis Oliphant,' said Tregear. + +'Frank,' whispered Mary, who was with them. + +'Then I will call you Frank, if you will allow me. The use of +Christian names is, I think, pleasant and hardly common enough +among us. I almost forget my own boy's name because the practice +has grown up of calling him by a title.' + +'I am going to call him Abraham,' said Isabel. + +'Abraham is a good name, only I do not think he got it from his +godfathers and godmothers.' + +'Who can call a man Plantagenet? I should as soon think of +calling my father-in-law Coeur de Lion.' + +'So he is,' said Mary. Whereupon the Duke kissed the two girls and +went his way,--showing that by this time he had adopted the one and +the proposed husband of the other into his heart. + +The day before the Duke had started for London to be present at +the grand marriage he sent for Frank. 'I suppose,' said he, 'that +you would wish that some time should be fixed for your own +marriage.' To this the accepted suitor of course assented. 'But +before we can do that something must be settled about--money.' +Tregear when he heard this became hot all over, and felt that he +could not restrain his blushes. Such must be the feeling of a man +when he finds himself compelled to own to a girl's father that he +intends to live upon her money and not upon his own. 'I do not +like to be troublesome,' continued the Duke, 'or to ask questions +which might seem to be impertinent.' + +'Oh no! Of course I feel my position. I can only say that it was +not because of your daughter might probably have money that I +first sought her love.' + +'It shall be so received. And now--But perhaps it will be best that +you should arrange all this with my man of business. Mr Morton +shall be instructed. Mr Morton lives near my place in Barsetshire, +but is now in London. If you will call on him he shall tell you +what I would suggest. I hope you will find that your affairs will +be comfortable. And now as to time.' + +Isabel's wedding was declared by the newspapers to have been one +of the most brilliant remembered in the metropolis. There were six +bridesmaids, of whom of course Mary was one,--and of whom poor Lady +Mabel Grex was equally of course not another. Poor Lady Mabel was +at this time with Miss Cassewary at Grex, paying what she believed +would be a last visit to the old family home. Among the others +were two American girls, brought into that august society for the +sake of courtesy rather than of personal love. And there were two +other Palliser girls and a Scotch McCloskie cousin. The breakfast +was of course given by Mr Boncassen at his home in Brook Street, +where the bridal presents were displayed. And not only were they +displayed; but a list of them, with an approximate statement as to +their value, appeared in one or two of the next day's newspapers;-- +as to which terrible sin against good taste neither was Mr or Mrs +Boncassen guilty. But in these days, in which such splendid things +were done on so very splendid a scale, a young lady cannot herself +lay out her friends' gifts so as to be properly seen by her +friends. Some well-skilled, well-paid hand is needed even for +that, and hence comes this public information on affairs which +should surely be private. In our grandmothers' time the happy +bride's happy mother herself compounded the cake;--or at any rate +the trusted housekeeper. But we all know that terrible tower of +silver which now stands niddle-noddling with its appendages of +flags and spears on the modern wedding breakfast-table. It will +come to pass with some of us soon that we must deny ourselves the +pleasure of having young friends, because their marriage presents +are so costly. + +Poor Mrs Boncassen had not perhaps a happy time with her august +guests on that morning; but when she retired to give Isabel her +last kiss in privacy she did feel proud to think that her daughter +would some day be an English Duchess. + + + + + +CHAPTER 80 + +The Second Wedding + +November is not altogether an hymeneal month, but it was not till +November that Lady Mary Palliser became the wife of Frank Tregear. +It was postponed a little perhaps, in order that the +Silverbridges,--as they were now called,--might be present. The +Silverbridges, who were now quite Darby and Joan, had gone to the +States when the Session had been brought to a close early in +August, and had remained there nearly three months. Isabel had +taken infinite pleasure in showing her English husband to her +American friends, and the American friends had not doubt taken +pride in seeing so glorious a British husband in the hands of an +American wife. Everything was new to Silverbridge, and he was +happy in his new possession. She too enjoyed it infinitely, and so +it happened that they were unwilling to curtail their sojourn. But +in November they had to return, because Mary had declared that her +marriage should be postponed till it could be graced by the +presence of her elder brother. + +The marriage of Silverbridge had been august. There had been a +manifest intention that it should be so. Nobody knew with whom +this originated. Mrs Boncassen had probably been told that it +ought to be so, and Mr Boncassen was willing to pay the bill. +External forces had perhaps operated. The Duke had simply been +passive and obedient. There had however been a general feeling +that the bride of the heir of the house of Omnium should be +produced to the world amidst a blaze of trumpets and a glare of +torches. So it had been. But both the Duke and Mary were +determined that this wedding should be different. It was to take +place at Matching, and none would be present but they who were +staying in the house, or lived around,--such as tenants and +dependants. Four clergymen united their forces to tie Isabel to +her husband, one of them was a bishop, one a canon, and the two +others royal chaplains; but there was only to be the Vicar of the +parish at Matching. And indeed there were no guests in the house +except the two bridesmaids and Mr and Mrs Finn. As to Mrs Finn +Mary had made a request, and then the Duke had suggested that the +husband should be asked to accompany his wife. + +It was very pretty. The church itself is pretty, standing in the +park, close to the old Priory, not above three hundred yards from +the house. And they all walked, taking the broad path through the +ruins, going under the figure of Sir Guy which Silverbridge had +pointed out to Isabel when they had been whispering together. The +Duke led the way with his girl upon his arm. The two bridesmaids +followed. Then Silverbridge and his wife, with Phineas and his +wife. and Gerald and the bridegroom accompanied them, belonging as +it were to the same party! It was very rustic;--almost improper! +'This is altogether wrong, you know,' said Gerald. 'You should +appear coming from some other part of the world, as if you were +almost unexpected. You ought not to have been in the house at all, +and certainly should have gone under disguise.' + +There had been rich presents too on this occasion, but they were +shown to none except to Mrs Finn and the bridesmaids,--and perhaps +to the favoured servants of the house. At any rate there was +nothing said of them in the newspapers. One present there was,-- +given not to the bride but to the bridegroom,--which he showed to +no one except to her. This came to him only on the morning of his +marriage, and the envelope containing it bore the postmark of +Sedburgh. He knew the handwriting well before he opened the +parcel. It contained a small signet-ring with his crest, and with +it there were but a few words written on a scrap of paper. 'I pray +that you may be happy. This was to have been given to you long +ago, but I kept it back because of that decision.' He showed the +ring to Lady Mary and told her that it had come from Lady Mabel;-- +but the scrap of paper no one say but himself. + +Perhaps the matter most remarkable of the wedding was the hilarity +of the Duke. One who did not know him well might have said that he +was a man with very few cares, and who now took special joy in the +happiness of his children,--who was thoroughly contented to see +them marry after their own hearts. And yet, as he stood there on +the altar-steps giving his daughter to that new son and looking +first at his girl, and then at his married son, he was reminding +himself of all that he had suffered. + +After the breakfast,--which was by no means a grand repast and at +which the cake did not look so like an ill-soldered silver castle +as that other construction had done,--the happy couple were sent +away in a modest chariot to the railway station, and not above +half-a-dozen slippers were thrown after them. There were enough +for luck,---or perhaps there might have been luck even without them, +for the wife thoroughly respected her husband, as did the husband +his wife. Mrs Finn, when she was alone with Phineas, said a word +or two about Tregear. 'When she first told me of her engagement I +did not think it possible that she would marry him. But after he +had been with me I felt sure that he would succeed.' + +'Well, sir,' said Silverbridge to the Duke when they were out +together in the park that afternoon, 'what do you think about +him?' + +'I think he is a manly young man.' + +'He certainly is that. And then he knows things and understands +them. It was never a surprise to me that Mary should have been so +fond of him.' + +'I do not know that one ought to be surprised at anything. Perhaps +what surprised me most was that he should look so high. There +seemed so little to justify it. But now I will accept that as +courage which I before regarded as arrogance.' + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope + diff --git a/old/dkchl10.zip b/old/dkchl10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..044b898 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dkchl10.zip diff --git a/old/dkchl11.txt b/old/dkchl11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce1c560 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dkchl11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26826 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope +#15 in our series by Anthony Trollope + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Duke's Children + +Author: Anthony Trollope + +Release Date: January, 2003 [EBook #3622] +[This file was last updated on October 11, 2002] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE'S CHILDREN *** + + + + +This etext was prepared by KENNETH DAVID COOPER <cooper.kd@bigpond.com> + + + + +THE DUKE'S CHILDREN + +by Anthony Trollope + + + + +CONTENTS + +1 When the Duchess was Dead +2 Lady Mary Palliser +3 Francis Oliphant Tregear +4 It is Impossible +5 Major Tifto +6 Conservative Convictions +8 He is a Gentleman +9 'In Media Res' +10 Why not like Romeo if I Feel like Romeo? +11 Cruel +12 At Richmond +13 The Duke's Injustice +14 The New Member for Silverbridge +15 The Duke Receives a Letter,--and Writes One +16 Poor Boy +17 The Derby +18 One of the Results of the Derby +19 'No; My Lord, I Do Not' +20 Then He will Come Again +21 Sir Timothy Beeswax +22 The Duke in his Study +23 Frank Tregear wants a Friend +24 She Must be Made to Obey +25 A Family Breakfast-Table +26 Dinner at the Beargarden +27 Major Tifto and the Duke +28 Mrs Montacute +29 The Lovers Meet +30 What Came of the Meeting +31 Miss Boncassen's River-Party No. 1 +32 Miss Boncassen's River-Party No. 2 +33 The Langham Hotel +34 Lord Popplecourt +35 'Don't You Think--?' +36 Tally-ho Lodge +37 Grex +38 Crummie-Toddie +39 Killancodlem +40 And Then! +41 Ischl +42 Again at Killancodlem +43 What Happened at Doncaster +44 How It was Done +45 There Shall Not be Another Word About It +46 Lady Mary's Dream +47 Miss Boncassen's Idea of Heaven +48 The Party at Custins is Broken Up +49 The Major's Fate +50 The Duke's Arguments +51 The Duke's Guests +52 Miss Boncassen Tells the Truth +53 The I am Proud as a Queen +54 I Don't Think She is a Snake +55 Polpenno +56 The News is Sent to Matching +57 The Meeting at the Bobtailed Fox +58 The Major is Deposed +59 No One Can Tell What May Come to Pass +60 Lord Gerald in Further Trouble +61 'Bone of My Bone' +62 The Brake Country +63 'I've Seen 'em Like That Before' +64 'I Believe Him to be a Worthy Young Man' +65 'Do You Ever Think What Money Is?' +66 The Three Attacks +67 'He is Such a Beast' +68 Brook Street +69 Pert Popper +70 'Love May be a Great Misfortune' +71 'What am I to Say, Sir?' +72 Carlton Terrace +73 'I Have Never Loved You' +74 'Let Us Drink a Glass of Wine Together' +75 The Major's Story +76 On Deportment +77 'Mabel, Good-Bye' +78 The Duke Returns to Office +79 The First Wedding +80 The Second Wedding + + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +When The Duchess 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. +During the first nine months after he had left office 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 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-month's +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, lady's- +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. 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. + +Then, in the early spring of 187-, they came back to England, +having persistently carried out their project, at any rate in +regard to time. Lord Gerald, the younger son, was at once sent up +to Trinity. For the eldest son a seat was to be found in the House +of Commons, and the fact that a dissolution of Parliament was +expected served to prevent any prolonged sojourn abroad. Lady Mary +Palliser was at that time nineteen, and her entrance into the +world was to be her mother's greatest care and great delight. In +March they spent a few days in London, and then went down to +Marching Priory. When she left town the Duchess was complaining of +cold, sore throat, and debility. A week after their arrival at +Matching she was dead. + +Had the heavens fallen and mixed themselves with the earth, had +the people of London risen in rebellion with French ideas of +equality, had the Queen persistently declined to comply with the +constitutional advice of her ministers, had a majority in the +House of Commons lost its influence in the country,--the utter +prostration of the bereft husband could not have been more +complete. It was not only that his heart was torn to pieces, but +that he did not know how to look out into the world. It was as +though a man should be suddenly called upon to live without hands +or even arms. He was helpless, and knew himself to be helpless. +Hitherto he had never specially acknowledged to himself that his +wife was necessary to him as a component part of his life. Though +he had loved her dearly, and had in all things consulted her +welfare and happiness, he had at times been inclined to think that +in the exuberance of her spirits she had been a trouble rather +than a support to him. But now it was as though all outside +appliances were taken away from him. There was no one of whom he +could ask a question. + +For it may be said of this man that, though throughout his life he +had had many Honourable and Right Honourable friends, and that, +though he had entertained guests by the score, and though he had +achieved for himself the respect of all good men and the thorough +admiration of some few who knew him, he had hardly made for +himself a single intimate friend--except that one who had now +passed away from him. To her he had been able to say what he +thought, even though she would occasionally ridicule him while he +was declaring his feelings. But there had been no other human soul +to whom he could open himself. There was one or two whom he loved, +and perhaps liked; but his loving and his liking had been +exclusively political. He had so habituated himself to devote his +mind and his heart to the service of his country, that he had +almost risen above or sunk below humanity. But she, who had been +essentially human, had been a link between him and the world. + +There were his three children, the youngest of whom was now nearly +nineteen, and they surely were links! At the first moment of his +bereavement they were felt to be hardly more than burdens. A more +loving father there was not in England, but nature had made him so +undemonstrative that as yet they had hardly known his love. In all +their joys and in all their troubles, in all their desires and all +their disappointments, they had ever gone to their mother. She had +been conversant with everything about them, from the boys' bills +and the girl's gloves to the innermost turn in their heart and the +disposition of each. She had known with the utmost accuracy the +nature of the scrapes into which Lord Silverbridge had +precipitated himself, and had known also how probable it was that +Lord Gerald would do the same. The results of such scrapes she, of +course, deplored; and therefore she would give good counsel, +pointing out how imperative it was that such evil-doings should be +avoided; but with the spirit that produced the scrapes she fully +sympathized. The father disliked the spirit almost worse than the +results; and was therefore often irritated and unhappy. + +And the difficulties about the girl were almost worse to bear that +those about the boys. She had done nothing wrong. She had given no +signs of extravagance or other juvenile misconduct. But she was +beautiful and young. How was he to bring her out into the world? +How was he to decide whom she should or whom she should not marry? +How was he to guide her through the shoals and rocks which lay in +the path of such a girl before she can achieve matrimony? + +It was the fate of the family that, with a world of acquaintance, +they had not many friends. From all close connection with +relatives on the side of the Duchess they had been dissevered by +old feelings at first, and afterwards by want of any similitude in +the habits of life. She had, when young been repressed by male and +female guardians with an iron hand. Such repression had been +needed, and had been perhaps salutary, but it had not left behind +it much affection. And then her nearest relatives were not +sympathetic with the Duke. He could obtain no assistance in the +care of his girl from that source. Nor could he even do it from +his own cousins' wives, who were his nearest connections on the +side of the Pallisers. They were women to whom he had ever been +kind, but to whom he had never opened his heart. When, in the +midst of the stunning sorrow of the first week, he tried to think +of all this, it seemed to him that there was nobody. + +There had been one lady, a very dear ally, staying in the house +with them when the Duchess died. This was Mrs Finn, the wife of +Phineas Finn, who had been one of the Duke's colleagues when in +office. How it had come to pass that Mrs Finn and the Duchess had +become singularly bound together has been told elsewhere. But +there had been close bonds,--so close that when the Duchess on +their return from the Continent had passed through London on her +way to Matching, ill at the time and very comfortless, it had been +almost a thing of course, that Mrs Finn should go with her. And as +she had sunk, and then despaired, and then died, it was this woman +who had always been at her side, who had ministered to her, and +had listened to the fears and the wishes and hopes that she had +expressed respecting the children. + +At Matching, amidst the ruins of the old Priory, there is a parish +burying-ground, and there, in accordance with her own wish, almost +within sight of her own bedroom-window, she was buried. On the day +of the funeral a dozen relatives came, Pallisers and McCloskies, +who on such an occasion were bound to show themselves, as members +of the family. With them and his two sons the Duke walked across +to the graveyard, and then walked back; but even to those who +stayed the night at the house he hardly spoke. By noon the +following day they had all left him, and the only stranger in the +house was Mrs Finn. + +On the afternoon of the day after the funeral the Duke and his +guest met, almost for the first time since the sad event. There +had been just a pressure of the hand, just a glance of compassion, +just some murmur of deep sorrow,--but there had been no real speech +between them. Now he had sent for her, and she went down to him in +the room in which he commonly sat at work. He was seated at his +table when she entered, but there was no book open before him, and +no pen ready to his hand. He was dressed of course in black. That, +indeed, was usual with him, but now the tailor by his funeral art +had added some deeper dye of blackness to his appearance. When he +rose and turned to her she thought that he had at once become an +old man. His hair was grey in parts, and he had never accustomed +himself to use that skill in managing his outside person by which +many men are able to preserve for themselves a look, if not of +youth, at any rate of freshness. He was thin, of an adust +complexion, and had acquired a habit of stooping which, when he +was not excited, gave him an appearance of age. All that was +common to him; but now it was so much exaggerated that he who was +not yet fifty might have been taken for over sixty. + +He put out his hand to greet her as she came up to him. +'Silverbridge,' he said, 'tells me that you go back to London +tomorrow.' + +'I thought it would be best, Duke. My presence here can be of no +comfort to you.' + +'I will not say anything can be of comfort. But of course it is +right that you should go. I can have no excuse for asking you to +remain. While there was yet a hope for her--' Then he stopped, +unable to say a word further in that direction, and yet there was +no sign of a tear and no sound of a sob. + +'Of course I would stay, Duke, if I could be of any service.' + +'Mr Finn will expect you to return to him.' + +'Perhaps it would be better that I should say that I would stay +were it not that I know that I can be of no real service.' + +'What do you mean by that, Mrs Finn?' + +'Lady Mary should have with her at such a time some other friend.' + +'There was none other whom her mother loved as she loved you--none, +none.' This he said almost with energy. + +'There was no one lately, Duke, with whom circumstances caused her +mother to be so closely intimate. But even that perhaps was +unfortunate.' + +'I never thought so.' + +'That is a great compliment. But as to Lady Mary, will it not be +well that she should have with her, as soon as possible, someone,-- +perhaps someone of her own kindred if it be possible, or, if not +that, at least one of her own kind?' + +'Who is there? Whom do you mean?' + +'I mean no one. It is hard, Duke, to say what I do mean, but +perhaps I had better try. There will be,--probably there have +been,--some among your friends who have regretted the great +intimacy which chance produced between me and my lost friend. +While she was with us no such feeling would have sufficed to drive +me from her. She had chosen for herself, and if others disapproved +of her choice that was nothing to me. But as regards Lady Mary, it +will better, I think, that from the beginning she should be taught +to look for friendship and guidance to those--to those who are more +naturally connected with her.' + +'I was not thinking of any guidance,' said the Duke. + +'Of course not. But with one so young, where there is intimacy +there will be guidance. There should be somebody with her. It was +almost the last thought that occupied her mother's mind. I could +not tell her, Duke, but I can tell you, that I cannot with any +advantage to your girl be that somebody.' + +'Cora wished it.' + +'Her wishes, probably, were sudden and hardly fixed.' + +'Who should it be, then?' asked the father, after a pause. + +'Who am I, Duke, that I should answer such a question?' + +After that there was another pause, and then the conference was +ended by a request from the Duke that Mrs Finn would stay at +Matching for yet two days longer. At dinner they all met,--the +father, the three children, and Mrs Finn. How far the young people +among themselves had been able to throw off something of the gloom +of death need not here be asked; but in the presence of their +father they were sad and sombre, almost as he was. On the next +day, early in the morning, the younger lad returned to his +college, and Lord Silverbridge went up to London, where he was +supposed to have his home. + +'Perhaps you would not mind reading these letters,' the Duke said +to Mrs Finn, when she again went to him in compliance with a +message from him asking for her presence. Then she sat down and +read two letters, one from Lady Cantrip, and the other from a Mrs +Jeffrey Palliser, each of which contained an invitation for his +daughter, and expressed a hope that Lady Mary would not be +unwilling to spend some time with the writer. Lady Cantrip's +letter was long, and went minutely into circumstances. If Lady +Mary would come to her, she would abstain from having other +company in the house till her young friend's spirits should have +somewhat recovered themselves. Nothing could be more kind, or +proposed in a sweeter fashion. There had, however, been present in +the Duke's mind as he read it a feeling that a proposition to a +bereaved husband to relieve him of the society of an only +daughter, was not one which would usually be made to a father. In +such a position a child's company would probably be his best +solace. But he knew,--at this moment, he painfully remembered,--that +he was not as other men. He acknowledged the truth of this, but he +was not the less grieved and irritated by the reminder. The letter +from Mrs Jeffrey Palliser was to the same effect, but was much +shorter. If it would suit Mary to come to them for a month or six +weeks at their place in Gloucestershire, they would both be +delighted. + +'I should not choose her to go there,' said the Duke, as Mrs Finn +refolded the latter letter. 'My cousin's wife is a very good +woman, but Mary would not be happy with her.' + +'Lady Cantrip is an excellent friend for her.' + +'Excellent. I know no one whom I esteem more than Lady Cantrip.' + +'Would you wish her to go there, Duke?' + +There came a piteous look over the father's face. Why should he be +treated as no other father would be treated? Why should it be +supposed that he would desire to send his girl away from him? But +yet he felt that it would be better that she should go. It was his +present purpose to remain at Matching through a portion of the +summer. What could he do to make a girl happy? What comfort would +there be in his companionship? + +'I suppose she ought to go somewhere,' he said. + +'I had not thought of it,' said Mrs Finn. + +'I understood you to say,' replied the Duke, almost angrily, 'that +she ought to go someone who would take care of her.' + +'I was thinking of some friend coming to her.' + +'Who would come? Who is there that I could possibly ask? You will +not stay.' + +'I certainly would stay, if it were for her good. I was thinking, +Duke, that perhaps you might ask the Greys to come to you.' + +'They would not come,' he said, after a pause. + +'When she was told that it was for her sake, she would come, I +think.' + +Then there was another pause. 'I could not ask them,' he said; +'for his sake I could not have it put to her in that way. Perhaps +Mary had better go to Lady Cantrip. Perhaps I had better be alone +for a time. I do not think that I am fit to have any human being +with me in my sorrow.' + + + +CHAPTER 2 + +Lady Mary Palliser + +It may be said at once that Mrs Finn knew something of Lady Mary +which was not known to her father, and which she was not yet +prepared to make known to him. The last winter abroad had been +passed at Rome, and there Lady Mary Palliser had become acquainted +with a certain Mr Tregear,--Francis Oliver Tregear. The Duchess, +who had been in constant correspondence with her friend, had asked +questions by letter as to Mr Tregear, of whom she had only known +that he was the younger son of a Cornish gentleman, who had become +Lord Silverbridge's friend at Oxford. In this there had certainly +been but little to recommend him to the intimacy of such a girl as +Lady Mary Palliser. Nor had the Duchess, when writing, ever spoken +of him as a probable suitor for her daughter's hand. She had never +connected the two names together. But Mrs Finn had been clever +enough to perceive that the Duchess had become fond of Mr Tregear, +and would willingly have heard something to his advantage. And she +did hear something to his advantage,--something also to his +disadvantage. At his mother's death, this young man would inherit +a property amounting to about fifteen hundred a year. 'And I am +told,' said Mrs Finn, 'that he is quite likely to spend his money +before it comes to him.' There had been nothing more written +specially about Mr Tregear, but Mrs Finn had feared not only that +the young man loved the girl, but that the young man's love had in +some imprudent way been fostered by the mother. + +Then there had been some fitful confidence during those few days +of acute illness. Why should not the girl have the man if he were +lovable? And the Duchess referred to her own early days when she +had loved, and to the great ruin that had come upon her heart when +she had been severed from the man she loved. 'Not but that it has +been all for the best,' she had said. 'Not but that Plantagenet +has been to me all that a husband should be. Only if she can be +spared what I suffered, let her be spared.' Even when these +things had been said to her, Mrs Finn had found herself unable to +ask questions. She could not bring herself to inquire whether the +girl had in truth given her heart to his young Tregear. The one +was nineteen and the other as yet but two-and-twenty! But though +she asked no questions, she almost knew that it must be so. And +she knew also that the father was, as yet, quite in the dark on the +matter. How was it possible that in such circumstances she should +assume the part of the girl's confidential friend and monitress? +Were she to do so she must immediately tell the father everything. +In such a position no one could be a better friend than Lady +Cantrip, and Mrs Finn had already almost made up her mind that, +should Lady Cantrip occupy the place, she would tell her ladyship +all that had passed between herself and the Duchess on the +subject. + +Of what hopes she might have, or what fears, about her girl, the +Duchess had said no word to her husband. But when she had believed +that the things of the world were fading away from her, and when +he was sitting by her bedside,--dumb, because at such a moment he +knew not how to express the tenderness of his heart,--holding her +hand, and trying so to listen to her words, that he might collect +and remember every wish, she had murmured something about the +ultimate division of the great wealth with which she herself had +been endowed. She had never, she said, even tried to remember what +arrangements had been made by lawyers, but she hoped that Mary +might be so circumstanced, that if her happiness depended on +marrying a poor man, want of money need not prevent it. The Duke +suspecting nothing, believing this to be a not unnatural question +expression of maternal interest, had assured her that Mary's +fortune would be ample. + +Mrs Finn made the proposition to Lady Mary in respect to Lady +Cantrip's invitation. Lady Mary was very like her mother, +especially in having exactly her mother's tone of voice, her quick +manner of speech, and her sharp intelligence. She had also her +mother's eyes, large and round, and almost blue, full of life and +full of courage, eyes which never seemed to quail, and her +mother's dark brown hair, never long but very copious in its +thickness. She was, however, taller than her mother, and very much +more graceful in her movement. And she could already assume a +personal dignity of manner which had never been within her +mother's reach. She had become aware of a certain brusqueness of +speech in her mother, a certain aptitude to say sharp things +without thinking whether the sharpness was becoming to the +position which she held, and taking advantage of the example, the +girl had already learned that she might gain more than she would +lose by controlling her words. + +'Papa wants me to go to Lady Cantrip,' she said. + +'I think he would like it,--just for the present, Lady Mary.' + +Though there had been the closest possible intimacy between the +Duchess and Mrs Finn, this had hardly been so as to the +intercourse between Mrs Finn and the children. Of Mrs Finn it must +be acknowledged that she was, perhaps fastidiously, afraid of +appearing to take advantage of her friendship with the Duke's +family. She would tell herself that though circumstances had +compelled her to be the closest and nearest friend of a Duchess, +still her natural place was not among dukes and their children, +and therefore in her intercourse with the girl she did not at +first assume the manner and bearing which her position in the +house would seem to warrant. Hence the 'Lady Mary'. + +'Why does he want to send me away, Mrs Finn?' + +'It is not true that he wants to send you away, but that he thinks +it will be better for you to be with some friend. Here you must be +so much alone.' + +'Why don't you stay? But I suppose Mr Finn wants you to be back +in London.' + +'It is not that only, or, to speak the truth, not that at all. Mr +Finn could come here if that were suitable. Or for a week or two +he might do very well without me. But there are other reasons. +There is no one whom your mother respected more than Lady +Cantrip.' + +'I never heard her speak a word about Lady Cantrip.' + +'Both he and she are your father's intimate friends.' + +'Does Papa want to be--alone here?' + +'It is you, not himself, of whom he is thinking.' + +'Therefore, I must think of him. Mrs Finn, I do not wish him to be +alone. I am sure it would be better that I should stay with him.' + +'He feels that it would not be well that you should live without +the companionship of some lady.' + +'Then let him find some lady. You would be the best, because he +knows you so well. I, however, am not afraid of being alone. I am +sure he ought not to be here quite by himself. If he bids me go, I +must go, and then of course I shall go where he sends me; but I +won't say that I think it best that I should go, and certainly I +do not want to go to Lady Cantrip.' This she said with great +decision, as though the matter was one on which she had altogether +made up her mind. Then she added, in a lower voice: 'Why doesn't +papa speak to me about it?' + +'He is thinking only of what may be best for you.' + +'It would be best for me to stay near him. Whom else has he got?' + +All this Mrs Finn repeated to the Duke as closely as she could, +and then of course the father was obliged to speak to his +daughter. + +'Don't send me away, papa,' she said at once. + +'You life here, Mary, will be inexpressibly sad.' + +'It must be sad anywhere. I cannot go to college like Gerald, or +live anywhere just like Silverbridge.' + +'Do you envy them that?' + +'Sometimes, papa. Only I shall think of more of poor mama by being +alone, and I should like to be thinking of her always.' He shook +his head mournfully. 'I do not mean that I shall always be +unhappy, as I am now.' + +'No, dear; you are too young for that. It is only the old who +suffer in that way.' + +'You will suffer less if I am with you; won't you, papa? I do not +want to go to Lady Cantrip. I hardly remember her at all.' + +'She is very good.' + +'Oh, yes. That is what they used to say to mamma about Lady +Midlothian. Papa, do not send me to Lady Cantrip.' + +Of course it was decided that she should not go to Lady Cantrip at +once, or to Mrs Jeffrey Palliser, and, after a short interval of +doubt, it was decided also that Mrs Finn should remain at Matching +for at least a fortnight. The Duke declared that he would be glad +to see Mr Finn, but she knew in his present mood the society of +any one man to whom he would feel himself called upon to devote +his time, would be a burden to him, and she plainly said that Mr +Finn had better not come to Matching at present. 'There are old +occasions,' she said, 'which will enable you to bear with me as +you will with your butler or your groom, but you are not as yet +quite able to make yourself happy with company.' This he bore +with perfect equanimity, and then, as it were, handed over his +daughter to Mrs Finn's care. + +Very quickly there came a close intimacy between Mrs Finn and +Lady Mary. For a day or two the elder woman, though the place she +filled was one of absolute confidence, rather resisted than +encouraged the intimacy. She always remembered that the girl was +the daughter of a great duke, and that her position in the house +had sprung from circumstances which would not, perhaps, in the +eyes of the world at large, have recommended her for such a +friendship. She knew,--the reader may possibly know--that nothing +had ever been purer, nothing more disinterested than her +friendship. But she knew also--no one knew better--that the +judgement of men and women does not always run parallel with +facts. She entertained, too, a conviction with regard to herself, +that hard words and hard judgements were to be expected from the +world,--and were to be accepted by her without any strong feeling +of injustice,--because she had been elevated by chance to the +possession of more good things than she merited. She weighed all +this with a very fine balance, and even after the encouragement +she had received from the Duke, was intent on confining herself to +some position about the girl inferior to that which such a friend +as Lady Cantrip might have occupied. But the girl's manner and the +girl's speech about her own mother, overcame her. It was the +unintentional revelation of the Duchess's constant reference to +her,--the way in which Lady Mary would assert that 'Mamma used +always to say this of you; mamma always knew that you would think +so and so; mamma used to say that you had told her'. It was the +feeling thus conveyed, that the mother who was now dead had in her +daily dealings with her own child spoke of her as her nearest +friend, which mainly served to conquer the deference of manner +which she had assumed. + +Then gradually there came confidences,--and at last absolute +confidence. The whole story of Mr Tregear was told. Yes; she loved +Mr Tregear. She had given him her heart, and had told him so. + +'Then, my dear, your father ought to know about it,' said Mrs +Finn. + +'No; not yet. Mamma knew it.' + +'Did she know all that you have told me?' + +'Yes; all. And Mr Tregear spoke to her, and she said that papa +ought not to be told quite yet.' Mrs Finn could not but remember +that the friend she had lost was not, among women, the one best +able to give a girl good counsel in such a crisis. + +'Why not yet, dear?' + +'Well, because-. It is very hard to explain. In the first place, +because Mr Tregear himself does not wish it.' + +'That is a very bad reason; the worst in the world.' + +'Of course you will say so. Of course everybody would say so. But +when there is one person whom one loves better than all the rest, +for whom one would be ready to die, to whom one is determined that +everything shall be devoted, surely the wishes of the person so +dear as that ought to have weight.' + +'Not in persuading you to do that which is acknowledged to be +wrong.' + +'What wrong? I am going to do nothing wrong.' + +'The very concealment of your love is wrong, after that love has +been not only given but declared. A girl's position in such +matters is so delicate, especially that of such a girl as you!' + +'I know all about that,' said Lady Mary, with something almost +like scorn in her tone. 'Of course I have to be--delicate. I don't +quite know what the word means. I am not ashamed of being in love +with Mr Tregear. He is a gentleman, highly educated, very clever, +of an old family,--older, I believe, than papa's. And he is manly +and handsome; just what a man should be. Only he is not rich.' + +'If he be all that you say, ought you not to trust your papa? If +he approve of it, he should give you money.' + +'Of course he must be told; but not now. He is nearly broken- +hearted about dear mamma. He could not bring himself to care about +anything of that kind at present. And then it is Mr Tregear that +should speak to him first.' + +'Not now, Mary.' + +'How do you mean not now?' + +'If you had a mother you would talk to her about it.' + +'Mamma knew.' + +'If she were still living she would tell your father.' + +'But she didn't tell him, though she did know. She didn't mean to +tell him quite yet. She wanted to see Mr Tregear here in England +first. Of course I shall do nothing till papa does know.' + +'You will not see him?' + +'How can I see him here? He will not come here, if you mean +that.' + +'You do not correspond with him?' Here for the first time the +girl blushed. 'Oh, Mary! if you are writing to him your father +ought to know it.' + +'I have not written to him; but when he heard how ill poor mamma +was, then he wrote to me--twice. You may see his letters. It is all +about her. No one worshiped mamma as he did.' + +Gradually the whole story was told. These two young persons +considered themselves to be engaged, but had agreed that their +engagement should not be made known to the Duke till something had +occurred, or some time had arrived, as to which Mr Tregear was to +be the judge. In Mrs Finn's opinion nothing could be more unwise, +and she made to induce the girl to confess everything to her +father at once. But in all her arguments she was opposed by the +girl's reference to her mother. 'Mamma knew it.' And it did +certainly seem to Mrs Finn as though the mother had assented to +this imprudent concealment. When she endeavoured, in her own mind, +to make excuse for her friend, she felt almost sure that the +Duchess, with all her courage, had been afraid to propose to her +husband that their daughter should marry a commoner without an +income. But in thinking all that, there could be now nothing +gained. What ought she to do--at once? The girl, in telling her, +had exacted no promise of secrecy, nor would she have given any +such promise; but yet she did not like the idea of telling the +tale behind the girl's back. It was evident that Lady Mary had +considered herself to be safe in confiding her story to her +mother's old friend. Lady Mary no doubt had had her confidence +with her mother,--confidences from which it had been intended by +both that the father should be excluded; and now she seemed +naturally to expect that this new ally should look at this great +question as her mother had looked at it. The father had been +regarded as a great outside power, which could hardly be overcome, +but which might be evaded, or made inoperative by stratagem. It +was not that the daughter did not love him. She loved him and +venerated him highly,--the veneration perhaps being stronger than +the love. The Duchess, too, had loved him dearly,--more dearly in +late years than in her early life. But her husband to her had +always been an outside power which had in many cases to be evaded. +Lady Mary, though she did not express all this, evidently thought +that in this new friend she had found a woman whose wishes and +aspirations for her would be those which her mother had +entertained. + +But Mrs Finn was much troubled in her mind, thinking that it was +her duty to tell the story to the Duke. It was not only the +daughter who had trusted her, but the father also; and the +father's confidence had been not only the first but by far the +holier of the two. And the question was one so important to the +girl's future happiness! There could be no doubt that the peril +of her present position was very great. + +'Mary,' she said one morning, when the fortnight was nearly at an +end, 'your father ought to know all this. I should feel that I had +betrayed him were I to go away leaving him in ignorance.' + +'You do not mean to say that you will tell?' said the girl, +horrified at the idea of such treachery. + +'I wish that I could induce you to do so. Every day that he is +kept in the dark is an injury to you.' + +'I am doing nothing. What harm can come? It is not as though I was +seeing him every day.' + +'This harm will come; your father of course will know that you +became engaged to Mr Tregear in Italy, and that a fact so +important to him has been kept back from him.' + +'If there is anything in that, the evil has been done already. Of +course poor mamma did mean to tell him.' + +'She cannot tell him now, and therefore you ought to do what she +would have done.' + +'I cannot break my promise to him.' 'Him' always meant Mr Tregear. +'I have told him that I would not do so till I had his consent, +and I will not.' + +This was very dreadful to Mrs Finn, and yet she was most unwilling +to take upon herself the part of stern elder, and declare that +under the circumstances she must tell the tale. The story had been +told to her under the supposition that she was not a stern elder, +that she was regarded as the special friend of the dear mother who +was gone, that she might be trusted against the terrible weight of +parental authority. She could not endure to be regarded at once a +traitor by this young friend who had sweetly inherited the +affection with which the Duchess had regarded her. And yet if she +were to be silent now how could she forgive herself? 'The Duke +certainly ought to know at once,' said she, repeating her words +merely that she might gain some time for thinking, and pluck up +courage to declare her purpose, should she resolve on betraying +the secret. + +'If you tell him now, I will never forgive you,' said Lady Mary. + +'I am bound in honour to see that your father knows a thing which +is of such vital importance to him and to you. Having heard all +this I have no right to keep it from him. If Mr Tregear really +loves you'--Lady Mary smiled at the doubt implied by this +suggestion--'he ought to feel that for your sake there should be no +secret from your father.' Then she paused a moment to think. +'Will you let me see Mr Tregear myself, and talk to him about it?' + +To this Lady Mary at first demurred, but when she found that in no +other way could she prevent Mrs Finn from going at once to the +Duke and telling him everything, she consented. Under Mrs Finn's +directions she wrote a note to her lover, which Mrs Finn saw, and +then undertook to send it, with a letter from herself, to Mr +Tregear's address in London. The note was very short, and was +indeed dictated by the elder lady, with some dispute, however, as +to certain terms, in which the younger lady had her way. It was as +follows: + +'DEAREST FRANK, +'I wish you to see Mrs Finn, who, as you know, +was dear mamma's most particular friend. Please go to +her, as she will ask you to do so. When you hear what +she says I think you ought to do what she advises. +'Yours for ever and always, +'M.P.' + +This Mrs Finn sent enclosed in an envelope, with a few words from +herself, asking the gentleman to call upon her in Park Lane, on a +day and hour fixed. + + + +CHAPTER 3 + +Francis Oliphant Tregear + +Mr Francis Oliphant Tregear was a young man who might not +improbably make a figure in the world, should circumstances be +kind to him, but as to whom it might be doubted whether +circumstances would be sufficiently kind to enable him to use +serviceably his unquestionable talents and great personal gifts. +He had taught himself to regard himself as a young English +gentleman of the first water, qualified by his birth and position +to live with all that was most noble and most elegant, and he +could have lived in that sphere naturally and gracefully were it +not that part of the 'sphere' which he specially affected requires +wealth as well as birth and intellect. Wealth he had not, and yet +he did not abandon the sphere. As a consequence of all this, it +was possible that the predictions of his friends as to that figure +which he was to make in the world might be disappointed. + +He had been educated at Eton, from whence he had been sent to +Christ Church; and both at school and at college had been the most +intimate friend of the son and heir of a great and wealthy duke. +He and Lord Silverbridge had been always together, and they who +were interested in the career of young noblemen had generally +thought he had chosen his friend well. Tregear had gone out in +honours, having been a second-class man. His friend Silverbridge, +we know, had been allowed to take no degree at all; but the +terrible practical joke by which the whole front of the Dean's +house had been coloured scarlet in the middle of the night, had +been carried on without any assistance from Tregear. The two young +men had then been separated for a year; but immediately after +taking his degree, Tregear, at the invitation of Lord +Silverbridge, had gone to Italy, and had there completely made +good his footing with the Duchess,--with what effect on another +member of the Palliser family the reader already knows. + +The young man was certainly clever. When the Duchess found that he +cold talk without any shyness, that he could speak French +fluently, and that after a month in Italy could chatter Italian, +at any rate without reticence or shame, when she perceived that +all the women liked the lad's society and impudence, and that all +the young men were anxious to know him, she was glad to find that +Silverbridge had chosen so valuable a friend. And then he was +beautiful to look at,--putting her almost in mind of another man on +whom her eyes had once loved to dwell. He was dark, with hair that +was almost black, but yet was not black; with clear brown eyes, a +nose as regular as Apollo's, and a mouth in which was ever to be +found that expression of manliness, which of all characteristics +is the one which women love the best. He was five feet ten in +height. He was always well dressed, and yet always so dressed as +to seem to show that his outside garniture had not been matter of +trouble to him. Before the Duchess had dreamed what might take +place between the young man and her daughter she had been urgent +in her congratulations to her son as to the possession of such a +friend. + +For though she now and then would catch a glimpse of the outer +man, which would remind her of that other beautiful one whom she +had known in her youth, and though, as these glimpses came, she +would remember how poor in spirit and how unmanly that other one +had been, though she would confess to herself how terrible had +been the heart-shipwreck which that other one had brought upon +herself; still she was able completely to assure herself that this +man, though not superior in external grace, was altogether +different in mind and character. She was old enough now to see all +this and to appreciate it. Young Tregear had his own ideas about +the politics of the day, and they were ideas with which she +sympathised, though they were antagonistic to the politics of her +life. He had his ideas about books too, as to manners of life, as +to art, and even ethics. Whether or no in all this there was not +much that was superficial only, she was not herself deep enough to +discover. Nor would she have been deterred from admiring him had +she been told that it was tinsel. Such were the acquirements, such +the charms, that she loved. Here was a young man who dared to +speak, and had always something ready to be spoken, who was not +afraid of beauty, nor daunted by superiority of rank; who, if he +had not money, could carry himself on equal terms among those who +had. In this way he won the Duchess's heart, and having done that, +was it odd that he should win the heart of her daughter also? + +His father was a Cornwall squire of comfortable means, having +joined the property of his wife to his own for the period of his +own life. She had possessed land also in Cornwall, supposed to be +worth fifteen hundred a year, and his own paternal estate at +Polwenning was said to be double the value. Being a prudent man, +he lived at home as a country gentleman, and thus was able in his +county to hold his head as high as richer men. But Frank Tregear +was only his second son; and though Frank would hereafter inherit +his mother's fortune, he was by no means now in a position to +assume the right of living as an idle man. Yet he was idle. The +elder brother, who was considerably older than Frank, was an odd +man, much addicted to quarreling with his family, and who spent +his time chiefly in traveling about the world. Frank's mother, who +was not the mother of the heir also, would sometimes surmise in +Frank's hearing, that the entire property must ultimately come to +him. That other Tregear, who was now supposed to be investigating +the mountains of Crim Tartary, would surely never marry. And Frank +was the favourite also with his father, who paid his debts at +Oxford with not much grumbling, who was proud of his friendship +with a future duke, who did not urge, as he ought to have urged, +that vital question of a profession; and who, when he allowed his +son four hundred pounds a year, was almost content with that son's +protestations that he knew how to live as a poor man among rich +men, without chagrin and without trouble. + +Such was the young man who now, in lieu of a profession, had taken +upon himself the responsibility of an engagement with Lady Mary +Palliser. He was tolerably certain that, should he be able to +overcome the parental obstacles which he would no doubt find in +his path, money would be forthcoming sufficient for the purposes +of matrimonial life. The Duke's wealth was fabulous, and as a +great part of it, if not the greater, had come from his wife, +there would probably be ample provision for the younger children. +And when the Duchess had found out how things were going, and had +yielded to her daughter, after an opposition which never had the +appearance even of being in earnest, she had taken upon herself to +say that she would use her influence to prevent any great weight +of trouble from pecuniary matters. Frank Tregear, young and +bright, and full of hearty ambitions, was certainly not the man to +pursue a girl simply because of her fortune; nor was he weak +enough to be attracted simply by the glitter of rank; but he was +wise enough with worldly wisdom to understand thoroughly the +comforts of a good income, and he was sufficiently attached to +high position to feel the advantage of marrying a daughter of the +Duke of Omnium. + +There was one member of the family who had hitherto been half- +hearted in the matter. Lord Silverbridge had vacillated between +loyalty to his friend and a certain feeling as to the impropriety +of such a match for his sister. He was aware that something very +much better should be expected for her, and still was unable to +explain his objection to Tregear. He had not at first been +admitted into confidence, either by his sister or by Tregear, but +had questioned his friend when he saw what was going on. +'Certainly I love your sister,' Tregear had said; 'do you object?' + Lord Silverbridge was the weaker of the two, and much subject to +the influence of his friend; but he could on occasion be firm, and +he did at first object. But he did not object strongly, and +allowed himself at last to be content with declaring that the Duke +would never give his consent. + +While Tregear was with his love, or near her, his hopes and fears +were sufficient to occupy his mind; and immediately upon his +return, all the world was nothing to him, except as far as the +world was concerned with Lady Mary Palliser. He had come back to +England somewhat before the ducal party, and the pleasures and +occupations of London life had not abated his love, but enabled +him to feel that there was something in life over and beyond his +love, whereas to Lady Mary, down at Matching, there had been +nothing over and beyond her love--except the infinite grief and +desolation produced by her mother's death. + +Tregear, when he received the note from Mrs Finn, was staying at +the Duke's house in Carlton Terrace. Silverbridge was there, and, +on leaving Matching, had asked the Duke's permission to have his +friend with him. The Duke at that time was not well pleased with +his son as to the matter of politics, and gave his son's friend +credit for the evil counsel which had produced his displeasure. +But still he had not refused his consent to this proposition. Had +he done so, Silverbridge would probably have gone elsewhere: and +though there was a matter in respect to Tregear of which the Duke +disapproved, it was not a matter, as he thought, which would have +justified him in expelling the young man from his house. The young +man was a strong Conservative; and now Silverbridge had declared +his purpose of entering the House of Commons, if he did enter it, +as one of the Conservative party. + +This had been a terrible blow to the Duke; and he believed that it +all came from the young Tregear. Still he must do his duty, and +not more than his duty. He knew nothing against Tregear. That a +Tregear should be a Conservative was natural enough--at any rate, +was not disgraceful; that he should have his political creed +sufficiently at heart to be able to persuade another man, was to +his credit. He was a gentleman, well educated, superior in many +things to Silverbridge himself. There were those who said that +Silverbridge had redeemed himself from contempt--from that sort of +contempt which might be supposed to await a young nobleman who had +painted scarlet the residence of the Head of his college--by the +fact of his having chosen such a friend. The Duke was essentially +a just man; and though, at the very moment in which the request +was made, his heart was half crushed by his son's apostasy, he +gave the permission asked. + +'You know Mrs Finn,' Tregear said to his friend one morning at +breakfast. + +'I remember her all my life. She used to be a great deal with my +grandfather. I believe he left her a lot of diamonds and money, +and that she wouldn't have them. I don't know whether the diamonds +are not locked up somewhere now, so that she can take them when +she pleases.' + +'What a singular woman!' + +'It was odd; but she had some fad about it. What makes you ask +about Mrs Finn?' + +'She wants me to go and see her.' + +'What about?' + +'I think I have heard your mother speak of her as though she loved +her dearly,' said Tregear. + +'I don't know about loving her dearly. They were intimate, and Mrs +Finn used to be with her very much when she was in the country. +She was at Matching just now, when my poor mother died. Why does +she want to see you?' + +'She has written to me from Matching. She wants to see me-' + +'Well?' + +'To tell you the truth. I do not know what she has to say to me; +though I can guess.' + +'What do you guess?' + +'It is something about your sister.' + +'You will have to give that up, Tregear.' + +'I think not.' + +'Yes you will; my father will never stand it.' + +'I don't know what there is to stand. I am not noble, nor am I +rich; but I am as good a gentleman as he is.' + +'My dear fellow,' said the young lord, 'you know very well what I +think about all that. A fellow is not better to me because he has +got a title, nor yet because he owns half a county. But men have +their ideas and feelings about it. My father is a rich man, and of +course he'll want his daughter to marry a rich man. My father is +noble, and he'll want his daughter to marry a nobleman. You can't +very well marry Mary without his permission, and therefore you had +better let it alone.' + +'I haven't even asked his permission as yet.' + +'Even my mother was afraid to speak to him about it, and I never +knew her to be afraid to say anything else to him.' + +'I shall not be afraid,' said Tregear, looking grimly. + +'I should. That's the difference between us.' + +'He can't very well eat me.' + +'Nor even bite you;--nor will he abuse you. But he can look at you, +and he can say a word or two which you will find it very hard to +bear. My governor is the quietest man I know, but he has a way of +making himself disagreeable when he wishes, that I never saw +equalled.' + +'At any rate, I had better go and see your Mrs Finn.' Then +Tregear wrote a line to Mrs Finn, and made his appointment. + + + +CHAPTER 4 + +Park Lane + +From the beginning of the affair Tregear had found the necessity +of bolstering himself up inwardly in his attempt by mottoes, +proverbs, and instigations of courage addressed to himself. 'None +but the brave deserve the fair.' 'De l'audace, et encore de +l'audace, et toujours de l'audace.' He was a man naturally of +good heart in such matters, who was not afraid of his brother-men, +nor yet of women, his sisters. But in this affair he knew very +much persistence would be required of him, and that even with such +persistence he might probably fail, unless he should find that +more than ordinary constancy in the girl. That the Duke could not +eat him, indeed that nobody could eat him as long as he carried +himself as an honest man and a gentleman, was to him an inward +assurance on which he leaned much. And yet he was conscious, +almost with a feeling of shame, that in Italy he had not spoken to +the Duke about his daughter because he was afraid lest the Duke +might eat him. In such an affair he should have been careful from +the first to keep his own hands thoroughly clean. Had it not been +his duty as a gentleman to communicate with the father, if not +before he gained the girl's heart, at any rate as soon as he knew +he had done so? He had left Italy thinking that he would +certainly meet the Duchess and her daughter in London, and that +then he might go to the Duke as though this love of his had arisen +from the sweetness of those meetings in London. But all these +ideas had been dissipated by the great misfortune of the death of +Lady Mary's mother. From all this he was driven to acknowledge to +himself that his silence in Italy had been wrong, that he had been +weak in allowing himself to be guided by the counsel of the +Duchess, and that he had already armed the Duke with one strong +argument against him. + +He did not doubt but that Mrs Finn would be opposed to him. Of +course he could not doubt but that all the world would now be +opposed to him,--except the girl herself. He would find no other +friend so generous, so romantic, so unworldly as the Duchess had +been. It was clear to him that Lady Mary had told the story of her +engagement to Mrs Finn, and that Mrs Finn had not as yet told the +Duke. From this he was justified in regarding Mrs Finn as the +girl's friend. The request made was that he should at once do +something which Mrs Finn was to suggest. He could hardly have been +so requested, and that in terms of such warm affection, had it +been Mrs Finn's intention to ask him to desist altogether from his +courtship. This woman was regarded by Lady Mary as her mother's +dearest friend. It was therefore incumbent on him now to induce +her to believe in him as the Duchess had believed. + +He knocked at the door of Mrs Finn's little house in Park Lane a +few minutes before the time appointed, and found himself alone +when he was shown into the drawing-room. He had heard much of this +lady though he had never seen her, and had heard much also of her +husband. There had been a kind of mystery about her. People did +not quite understand how it was that she had been so intimate with +the Duchess, nor why the late Duke had left to her an enormous +legacy, which as yet had never been claimed. There was supposed, +too, to have been something especially in her marriage with her +present husband. It was believed also that she was very rich. The +rumours of all these things together had made her a person of +note, and Tregear, when he found himself alone in the drawing- +room, looked round about him as though a special interest was to +be attached to the belongings of such a woman. It was a pretty +room, somewhat dark, because the curtains were almost closed +across the windows, but furnished with a pretty taste, and now, in +these early April days, filled with flowers. + +'I have to apologise, Mr Tregear, for keeping you waiting,' she +said as she entered the room. + +'I fear I was before my time.' + +'I know that I am after mine,--a few minutes,' said the lady. He +told himself that though she was not a young woman, yet she was +attractive. She was dark, and still wore her black hair in curls, +such as now seldom seen with ladies. Perhaps the reduced light of +the chamber had been regulated with some regard to her complexion +and her age. The effect, however, was good, and Frank Tregear felt +at once interested in her. + +'You have just come up from Matching?' he said. + +'Yes; only the day before yesterday. It is very good of you to +come to me so soon.' + +'Of course I came when you sent for me. I am afraid the Duke felt +his loss severely.' + +'How should he not, such a loss as it was? Few people knew how +much he trusted her, and how dearly he loved her.' + +'Silverbridge has told me that he is awfully cut up.' + +'You have seen Lord Silverbridge then?' + +'Just at present I am living with him, at Carlton Terrace.' + +'In the Duke's house?' she asked, with some surprise. + +'Yes, in the Duke's house. Silverbridge and I have been very +intimate. Of course the Duke knows that I am there. Is there any +chance of him coming to town?' + +'Not yet, I fear. He is determined to be alone. I wish it were +otherwise, as I am sure he would better bear his sorrow, if he +would go about with other men.' + +'No doubt he would suffer less,' said Tregear. Then there was a +pause. Each wished that the other would introduce the matter which +both knew was to be the subject of their conversation. But Tregear +would not begin. 'When I left them all at Florence,' he said, 'I +little thought that I would ever see her again.' + +'You had been intimate with them, Mr Tregear?' + +'Yes; I think I may say that I have been intimate with them. I had +been at Eton and Christ Church with Silverbridge, and we have +always been much together.' + +'I have understood that. Have you and the Duke been good friends?' + +'We have never been enemies.' + +'I suppose not that.' + +'The Duke, I think, does not much care about young people. I +hardly know what he used to do with himself. When I dined with +them, I saw him, but I did not often do that. I think he used to +read a good deal, and walk about alone. We were always riding.' + +'Lady Mary used to ride?' + +'Oh, yes; and Silverbridge and Lord Gerald. And the Duchess used +to drive. One of us would always be with her.' + +'And so you became intimate with the whole family?' + +'So I became intimate with the whole family.' + +'And especially so with Lady Mary?' This she said in her sweetest +possible tone, and with a most gracious smile. + +'Especially so with Lady Mary,' he replied. + +'It will be very good of you, Mr Tregear, if you endure and +forgive all this cross-questioning from me, who am a perfect +stranger to you.' + +'But you are not a perfect stranger to her.' + +'That is it, of course. Now, if you will allow me, I will explain +to you exactly what my footing with her is. When the Duchess +returned, and when I found her to be so ill, as she passed through +London, I went down with her into the country,--quite as a matter +of course.' + +'So I understand.' + +'And there she died,--in my arms. I will not try to harass you by +telling you what those few days were; how absolutely he was struck +to the ground, how terrible was the grief of the daughter, how the +boys were astonished by the feeling of their loss. After a few +days they went away. It was, I think, their father's wish that +they should go. And I too was going away,--and had felt, indeed, +directly her spirit had parted from her, that I was only in the +way in his house. But I stayed at his request, because he did not +wish his daughter to be alone.' + +'I can easily understand that, Mrs Finn.' + +'I wanted her to go to Lady Cantrip who had invited her, but she +would not. In that way we were thrown together in the closest +intercourse. For two or three weeks. Then she told me the story of +your engagement.' + +'That was natural, I suppose.' + +'Surely so. Think of her position, left without a mother! It was +incumbent on her to tell someone. There was, however, one other +person in whom it would have been much better that she should have +confided.' + +'What person?' + +'Her father.' + +'I rather fancy that it is I who ought to tell him.' + +'As far as I understand things, Mr Tregear,--which, indeed, is very +imperfectly,--I think it is natural that a girl should at once tell +her mother when a gentleman has made her understand that he loves +her.' + +'She did so, Mrs Finn.' + +'And I suppose that generally the mother would tell the father.' + +'She did not.' + +'No; and therefore the position of the young lady is now one of +great embarrassment. The Duchess has gone from us, and we must now +make up our minds as to what had better be done. It is out of the +question that Lady Mary should be allowed to consider herself to +be engaged, and that her father should be kept in ignorance of her +position.' She paused for his reply, but as he said nothing, she +continued: 'Either you must tell the Duke, or she must do so, or I +must do so.' + +'I suppose she told you in confidence.' + +'No doubt. She told me presuming that I would not betray her; but +I shall,--if that be a betrayal. The Duke must know it. It will be +infinitely better that he should know it through you, or through +her, than through me. But he must be told.' + +'I can't quite see why,' said Tregear. + +'For her sake,--whom I suppose you love.' + +'Certainly I love her.' + +'In order that she may not suffer. I wonder you do not see it, Mr +Tregear. Perhaps you have a sister.' + +'I have no sister as it happens.' + +'But you can imagine what your feelings would be. Should you like +to think of a sister as being engaged to a man without the +knowledge of any of her family?' + +'It was not so. The Duchess knew it. The present condition of +things is altogether an accident.' + +'It is an accident that must be brought to an end.' + +'Of course it must be brought to an end. I am not such a fool as +to suppose that I can make her my wife without telling her +father.' + +'I mean at once, Mr Tregear.' + +'It seems to me that you are rather dictating to me, Mrs Finn.' + +'I owe you an apology of course, for meddling in your affairs at +all. But as it will be more conducive to your success that the +Duke should hear this from you than from me, and as I feel I am +bound by my duty to him and to Lady Mary to see that he be not +left in ignorance, I think that I am doing you a service.' + +'I do not like to have a constraint put upon me.' + +'That, Mr Tregear, is what a gentleman, I fancy, very often feels +in regard to ladies. But the constraint of which you speak is +necessary for their protection. Are you unwilling to see the +Duke?' + +He was very unwilling, but he would not confess so much. He gave +various reasons for delay, urging repeatedly the question of his +marriage was one which he could not press upon the Duke so soon +after the death of the Duchess. And when she assured him that this +was a matter of importance so great, that even the death of the +man's wife should not be held by him to justify delay, he became +angry, and for awhile insisted that must be allowed to follow his +own judgement. But he gave her a promise that he would see the +Duke before a week was over. Nevertheless he left the house in +dudgeon, having told Mrs Finn more than once that she was taking +advantage of Lady Mary's confidence. They hardly parted as +friends, and her feeling was, on the whole, hostile to him and to +his love. It could not, she thought, be for the happiness of such +a one as Lady Mary that she should give herself to one who seemed +to have so little to recommend him. + +He, when he had left her, was angry with his own weakness. He had +not only promised that he would make his application to the Duke, +but that he would do so within the period of a week. Who was she +that she should exact terms from him after this fashion, and +prescribe days and hours? And now, because this strange woman had +spoken to him, he was compelled to make a journey down to the +Duke's country house, and seek an interview in which he would be +surely snubbed? + +This occurred on a Wednesday, and he resolved that he would go +down to Matching on the next Monday. He said nothing of his plan +to anyone, and not a word passed between him and Lord Silverbridge +about Lady Mary during the first two or three days. But on +Saturday Silverbridge appeared at breakfast with a letter in his +hand. 'The governor is coming up to town,' he said. + +'Immediately?' + +'In the course of next week. He says that he thinks he shall be +here on Wednesday.' + +It immediately struck Tregear that this sudden journey must have +some reference to Lady Mary and her engagement. 'Do you know why +he is coming?' + +'Because of these vacancies in Parliament.' + +'Why should that bring him up?' + +'I suppose he hopes to be able to talk me into obedience. He wants +me to stand for the county--as a Liberal, of course. I intend to +stand for the borough as a Conservative, and I have told them so +down at Silverbridge. I am very sorry to annoy him, and all that +kind of thing. But what the deuce is a fellow to do? If a man has +got political convictions of his own, of course he must stick to +them.' This the young Lord said with a good deal of self- +assurance, as though he, by the light of his own reason, had +ascertained on which side the truth lay in the political contests +of the day. + +'There is a good deal to be said on both sides of the question, my +boy.' At this particular moment Tregear felt that the Duke ought +to be propitiated. + +'You wouldn't have me give up my convictions!' + +'A seat in Parliament is a great thing.' + +'I can probably secure that, whichever side I take. I thought you +were so devilish hot against the Radicals.' + +'So I am. But then you are, as it were, bound by family +allegiance.' + +'I'll be shot if I am. One never knows how to understand you +nowadays. It used to be a great doctrine with you that nothing +should induce a man to vote against his political opinion.' + +'So it is,--if he has really got any. However, as your father is +coming to London, I need not go down to Matching.' + +'You don't mean that you were going to Matching?' + +'I had intended to beard the lion in his country den; but now the +lion will find me in his own town den, and I must beard him here.' + +Then Tregear wrote a most chilling note to Mrs Finn, informing her +with great precision, that, as the Duke of Omnium intended to be +in town one day next week, he would postpone the performance of +his promise for a day or two beyond the allotted time. + + + +CHAPTER 5 + +It is Impossible + +Down at Matching Lady Mary's life was very dull after Mrs Finn had +left her. She had a horse to ride, but had no one to ride with +her; she had a carriage in which to be driven, but no one to be +driven with her, and no special places whither to go. Her father +would walk daily for two hours, and she would accompany him when +he encouraged her to do so; but she had an idea that he preferred +taking his walks alone, and when they were together there was no +feeling of confidence between them. There could be none on her +part, as she knew that she was keeping back information which he +was entitled to possess. On this matter she received two letters +from Mrs Finn, in the first of which she was told that Mr Tregear +intended to present himself at Matching within a few days, and was +advised in the same letter not to endeavour to see her lover on +that occasion; and then, in the second she was informed that this +interview with her father was to be sought not at Matching but in +London. From this letter there was of course some disappointment, +though some feeling of relief. Had he come there she might +possibly have seen him after the interview. But she would have +been subjected to the immediate sternness of her father's anger. +That she would now escape. She would not be called on to meet him +just when the first blow had fallen upon him. She was quite sure +that he would disapprove of the thing. She was quite sure that he +would be very angry. She knew that he was a peculiarly just man, +and yet she thought that in this he would be unjust. Had she been +called upon to sing the praises of her father she would have +insisted above all things on the absolute integrity of his mind, +and yet, knowing as she did that he would be opposed to her +marriage with Mr Tregear, she assured herself every day and every +hour that he had no right to make any such objection. The man she +loved was a gentleman, and an honest man, by no means a fool, and +subject to no vices. Her father had no right to demand that she +should give her heart to a rich man, or to one of high rank. Rank! + As for rank, she told herself that she had the most supreme +contempt for it. She thought that she had seen it near enough +already to be sure that it ought to have no special allurements. +What was it doing for her? Simply restraining her choice among +comparatively a few who seemed to her by no means best endowed of +God's creatures. + +Of one thing she was very sure, that under no pressure whatsoever +would she abandon her engagement to Mr Tregear. That to her had +become a bond almost as holy as matrimony itself could be. She had +told the man that she loved him, and after that there could be no +retreat. He had kissed her, and she had returned his caress. He +had told her that she was his, as his arm was round her; and she +had acknowledged that it was so, that she belonged to him, and +could not be taken away from him. All this was to her a compact so +sacred that nothing could break it but a desire on his part to +have it annulled. No other man had an idea entered into her mind +that it could be pleasant to join her lot in life with his. With +her it had been all new and all sacred. Love with her had that +religion which nothing but freshness can give it. That freshness, +that bloom, may last through a long life. But every change impairs +it, and after many changes it has perished forever. There was no +question with her but that she must bear her father's anger, +should he be angry; put up with his continued opposition, should +he resolutely oppose her; bear all that the countesses of the +world might say to her;--for it was thus that she thought of Lady +Cantrip now. And retrogression was beyond her power. + +She was walking with her father when she first heard of the +intended trip to London. At that time she had received Mrs Finn's +first letter, but not the second. 'I suppose you will see +Silverbridge,' she said. She knew that Frank Tregear was living +with her brother. + +'I am going up on purpose to see him. He is causing me much +annoyance.' + +'Is he extravagant?' + +'It is not that--at present.' He winced even as he said this, for +he had in truth suffered somewhat from demands made upon him for +money; which had hurt him not so much by their amount as by their +nature. Lord Silverbridge had taken upon himself to 'own a horse +or two', very much to his father's chagrin, and was at that moment +part proprietor of an animal supposed to stand well for the Derby. +The fact was not announced in the papers with his lordship's name, +but his father was aware of it, and did not like it the better +because his son held the horse in partnership with a certain Major +Tifto, who was well known in the sporting world. + +'What is it, papa?' + +'Of course he ought to go into Parliament.' + +'I think he wishes it himself.' + +'Yes, but how? By a piece of extreme good fortune. West +Barsetshire is open to him. The two seats are vacant together. +There is hardly another agricultural county in England that will +return a Liberal, and I fear I am not asserting too much in saying +that no other Liberal could carry the seat but one of our family.' + +'You used to sit for Silverbridge, papa.' + +'Yes, I did. In those days the county returned four Conservatives. +I cannot explain it all to you, but it is his duty to contest the +county on the Liberal side.' + +'But if he is a Conservative himself, papa?' asked Lady Mary, who +had some political ideas suggested to her own mind by her lover. + +'It is all rubbish. It has come from that young man Tregear, with +whom he has been associating.' + +'But, papa,' said Lady Mary, who felt that even in this matter she +was bound to be firm on what was now her side of the question. 'I +suppose it is as--as--as respectable to be a Conservative as a +Liberal.' + +'I don't know that at all,' said the Duke angrily. + +'I thought that--the two sides were--' + +She was going to express an opinion that the two parties might be +supposed to stand as equal in the respect of the country, when he +interrupted her. 'The Pallisers have always been Liberal. It will +be a blow to me, indeed, if Silverbridge deserts his colours. I +know that as yet he himself has had no deep thoughts on the +subject, that unfortunately he does not give himself much to +thinking, and that in this matter he is being taken over by a +young man whose position in life hardly justified the great +intimacy which has existed.' + +This was very far from being comfortable to her, but of course she +said nothing in defence of Tregear's politics. Nor at present was +she disposed to say anything to his position in life, though at +some future time she might not be so silent. A few days later they +were again walking together, when he spoke to her about himself. +'I cannot bear that you should be left her alone while I am away,' +he said. + +'You will not be long gone, I suppose?' + +'Only for three of four days now.' + +'I shall not mind, papa.' + +'But very probably I may have to go to Barsetshire. Would you not +be happier if you would let me write to Lady Cantrip, and tell her +that you will go to her?' + +'No, papa, I think not. There are times when one feels that one +ought to be almost alone. Don't you feel that?' + +'I do not wish you to feel it, nor would you do so long if you had +other people round you. With me it is different. I am an old man, +and cannot look for new pleasures in society. It has been the +fault of my life to be too much alone. I do not want to see my +children follow me in that.' + +'It is so very short time as yet,' said she, thinking of her +mother's death. + +'But I think that you should be with somebody,--with some woman who +would be kind to you. I like to see you with books, but books +alone should not be sufficient at your age.' How little, she +thought, did he know of the state either of her heart or mind! +'Do you dislike Lady Cantrip?' + +'I do not know her. I can't say that I dislike a person whom I +don't think I ever spoke to, and never saw above once or twice. +But how can I say that I like her?' She did, however, know that +Lady Cantrip was a countess all over, and would be shocked at the +idea of a daughter of a Duke of Omnium marrying the younger son of +a country squire. Nothing further was then said on the matter, and +when the Duke went to town, Lady Mary was left quite alone, with +an understanding that if he went into Barsetshire he should come +back and take her with him. + +He arrived at his own house in Carlton Terrace about five o'clock +in the afternoon, and immediately went to his study, intending to +dine and spend the evening there alone. His son had already +pleaded an engagement for that afternoon, but had consented to +devote the following morning to his father's wishes. Of the other +sojourner in his house the Duke had thought nothing; but the other +sojourner had thought very much of the Duke. Frank Tregear was +fully possessed of that courage which induces a man who knows that +he must be thrown over a precipice, to choose the first possible +moment for his fall. He had sounded Silverbridge about the change +in his politics, and had found his friend quite determined not to +go back to the family doctrine. Such being the case, the Duke's +ill-will and hardness and general severity would probably be +enhanced by his interview with his son. Tregear, therefore, +thinking that nothing could be got by delay, sent his name in to +the Duke before he had been an hour in the house, and asked for an +interview. The servant brought back word that his Grace was +fatigued, but would see Mr Tregear if the matter in question was +one of importance. Frank's heart quailed for a moment, but only +for a moment. He took up a pen and wrote a note. + +'MY DEAR DUKE OF OMNIUM, +'If your Grace can spare a moment, I think you +will find that what I have to say will justify the +intrusion. +'Your very faithful servant, +F.O.TREGEAR' + +Of course the Duke admitted him. There was but one idea on his +head as to what was coming. His son had taken this way of making +some communication to him respecting his political creed. Some +overture or some demand was to be preferred through Tregear. If +so, it was proof of a certain anxiety on the matter on his son's +part which was not displeasing to him. But he was not left long in +the mistake after Tregear had entered the room. 'Sir,' he said, +speaking quite at once, as soon as the door was closed behind him, +but still speaking very slowly, looking beautiful as Apollo as he +stood upright before his wished-for father-in-law--'Sir, I have +come to ask you to give me the hand of your daughter.' The few +words had been all arranged beforehand, and were now spoken +without any appearance of fear or shame. No one hearing them would +have imagined that an almost penniless young gentleman was asking +in marriage the daughter of the richest and greatest nobleman in +England. + +'The hand of my daughter!' said the Duke, rising from his chair. + +'I know how very great is the prize,' said Frank, 'and how +unworthy I am of it. But--as she thinks me worthy--' + +'She! What she?' + +'Lady Mary.' + +'She think you worthy!' + +'Yes, your Grace.' + +'I do not believe it.' On hearing this, Frank simply bowed his +head. 'I beg your pardon, Mr Tregear. I do not mean to say that I +do not believe you. I never gave the lie to any gentleman, and I +hope I never may be driven to do so. But there must be some +mistake in this.' + +'I am complying with Lady Mary's wishes in asking your permission +to enter your house as a suitor.' The Duke stood for a moment +biting his lips in silence. 'I cannot believe it,' he said at +last. 'I cannot bring myself to believe it. There must be some +mistake. My daughter! Lady Mary Palliser!' Again the young man +bowed his head. 'What are your pretensions?' + +'Simply her regard.' + +'Of course it is impossible. You are not so ignorant but that you +must have known as much when you came to me.' + +There was so much scorn in his words, and in the tone in which +they were uttered, that Tregear in his turn was becoming angry. He +had prepared himself to bow humbly before the great man, before +the Duke, before the Croesus, before the late Prime Minister, +before the man who was to be regarded as certainly the most +exalted of the earth; but he had not prepared himself to be looked +at as the Duke looked at him. 'The truth, my Lord Duke, is this,' +he said, 'that your daughter loves me, and that we are engaged to +each other,--as far as that engagement can be made without your +sanction as her father.' + +'It cannot have been made at all,' said the Duke. + +'I can only hope,--we can both of us only hope that a little time +may soften-' + +'It is out of the question. There must be an end of this +altogether. You must neither see her, nor hear from her, no in any +way communicate with her. It is altogether impossible. I believe, +sir, that you have no means?' + +'Very little at present, Duke.' + +'How did you think you were to live? But it is altogether +unnecessary to speak of such a matter as that. There are so many +reasons to make this impossible, that it would be useless to +discuss one as being more important than the others. Has any other +one of my family known of this?' This he added, wishing to +ascertain whether Lord Silverbridge had disgraced himself by +lending his hand to such a disposition of his sister. + +'Oh, yes,' said Tregear. + +'Who has known it?' + +'The Duchess, sir. We had all her sympathy and approval.' + +'I do not believe a word of it,' said the Duke, becoming extremely +red in the face. He was forced to do now that which he had just +declared that he had never done in his life,--driven by the desire +of his heart to acquit the wife he had lost of the terrible +imprudence, worse than imprudence, of which she was now accused. + +'That is the second time, my Lord, that you have found it +necessary to tell me that you have not believed direct assertions +which I made to you. But, luckily for me, the two assertions are +capable of the earliest and most direct proof. You will believe +Lady Mary, and she will confirm me in the one and the other.' + +The Duke was almost beside himself with emotion and grief. He did +know,--though now at this moment he was most loath to own to +himself that it was so,--that his dear wife had been the most +imprudent of women. And he recognized in her encouragement of this +most pernicious courtship,---if she had encouraged it,---a repetition +of that romantic folly by which she had so nearly brought herself +to shipwreck her own early life. If it had been so,---even whether +it had been so or not,--he had been wrong to tell the man that he +did not believe him. And the man had rebuked him with dignity. 'At +any rate it is impossible,' he repeated. + +'I cannot allow that it is impossible.' + +'That is for me to judge, sir.' + +'I trust that you will excuse me when I say that I also must hold +myself to be in some degree a judge in the matter. If you were in +my place, you would feel--' + +'I could not possibly be in your place.' + +'If your Grace were in my place you would feel that as long as you +were assured by the young lady that your affection was valued by +her you would not be deterred by the opposition of her father. +That you should yield to me, of course, I do not expect; that Lady +Mary should be persistent in her present feelings when she knows +your mind, perhaps I have no right to hope. But should she be so +persistent as to make you feel that her happiness depends, as mine +does, on our marriage, then I shall believe that you will yield at +last.' + +'Never!' said the Duke. 'Never! I shall never believe that my +daughter's happiness can be assured by a step which I should regard +as disgraceful to her.' + +'Disgraceful is a violent word, my Lord.' + +'It is the only word that will express my meaning.' + +'And one which I must be bold enough to say you are not justified +in using. Should she become my wife tomorrow, no one in England +would think that she had disgraced herself. The Queen would +receive her on her marriage. All your friends would hold their +hands out to us,--presuming that we had your good-will.' + +'But you would not have it.' + +'Her disgrace would not depend upon that, my Lord. Should your +daughter so dispose herself, as to disgrace herself,--which I think +to be impossible,--your countenance could not set her right. Nor +can the withdrawal of your countenance condemn her before the +world if she does that with herself which any other lady might do +and remain a lady.' + +The Duke, when he heard this, even in the midst of his wrath, +which was very violent, and the in the midst of his anger, which +was very acute, felt that he had to deal with a man,--with one whom +he could not put off from him into the gutter, and there leave as +buried in the mud. And there came, too, a feeling upon him, which +he had no time to analyse, but of which he was part aware, that +this terrible indiscretion on the part of his daughter and of his +late wife was less wonderful than it had at first appeared to be. +But not on that account was he the less determined to make the +young man feel that his parental opposition would be invincible. +'It is quite impossible, sir. I do not think that I need say +anything more.' Then, while Tregear was meditating whether to +make any reply; the Duke asked a question which had better have +been left unasked. The asking of it diminished somewhat from that +ducal, grand-ducal, quasi-archducal, almost Godlike superiority +which he had assumed, and showed the curiosity of a mere man. 'Has +anybody else been aware of this?' he said, still wishing to know +whether he had cause for anger against Silverbridge in the matter. + +'Mrs Finn is aware of it,' said Tregear. + +'Mrs Finn!' exclaimed the Duke, as though he had been stung by an +adder. This was the woman whom he had prayed to remain awhile with +his daughter after his wife had been laid in her grave, in order +that there might be someone near whom he could trust! And this +very woman whom he had so trusted,--whom, in his early associations +with her, he had disliked and distrusted, but had taught himself +both to like and to trust because his wife had loved her,--this +woman was the she-Pandarus who had managed matters between Tregear +and his daughter! His wife had been too much subject to her +influence. That he had always known. And now, in this last act of +her life, she had allowed herself to be persuaded to give up her +daughter by the baneful wiles of this most pernicious woman. Such +were the workings of the Duke's mind when the young man told him +that Mrs Finn was acquainted with the whole affair. As the reader +is aware, nothing could have been more unjust. + +'I mentioned her name,' said Tregear, 'because I thought she had +been a friend of the family.' + +'That will do, sir. I have been greatly pained as well as +surprised by what I have heard. Of the real state of the case I +can form no opinion till I see my daughter. You, of course, will +hold no further intercourse with her.' He paused as though for a +promise, but Tregear did not feel himself called upon to say a +word in one direction or the other. 'It will be my care that you +shall not do so. Good-morning, sir.' + +Tregear, who during the interview had been standing, then bowed, +turned upon his heel and left the room. + +The Duke seated himself, and, crossing his arms upon his chest, +sat for an hour looking up at the ceiling. Why was it that, for +him, such a world of misery had been prepared? What wrong had he +done, of what imprudence had been guilty, that, at every turn of +life, something should occur so grievous as to make him think of +himself the most wretched of men? No man had ever loved his wife +more dearly than he had done; and yet now, in that very excess of +tenderness which her death had occasioned, he was driven to accuse +her of a great sin against himself, in that she had kept from him +her knowledge of this affair;--for, when he came to turn the matter +over in his mind, he did believe Tregear's statement as to her +encouragement. Then, too, he had been proud of his daughter. He +was a man so reticent and undemonstrative in his manner that he +had never known how to make confidential friends of his children. +In his sons hitherto he had not taken pride. They were gallant, +well-grown, handsome boys with a certain dash of cleverness,--more +like their mother than their father; but they had not as yet done +anything as he would have made them do it. But the girl, in the +perfection of her beauty, in the quiescence of her manner, in the +nature of her studies, and in the general dignity of her bearing, +had seemed to be all that he had desired. And now she had engaged +herself, behind his back, to the younger son of a county squire! + +But his anger against Mrs Finn was hotter than the anger against +anyone in his own family. + + + +CHAPTER 6 + +Major Tifto + +Major Tifto had lately become a member of the Beargarden Club, +under the auspices of his friend Lord Silverbridge. It was +believed, by those who had made some inquiry into the matter, that +the Major had really served a campaign as a volunteer in the +Carlist army in the north of Spain. When, therefore, it was +declared by someone else that he was not a major at all, his +friends were able to contradict the assertion, and to impute it to +slander. Instances were brought up,--declared by these friends to be +innumerable, but which did, in truth, amount to three of four,--of +English gentlemen who had come up from a former Carlist war, +bearing the title of colonel, without any contradiction or +invidious remark. Had this gallant officer appeared as Colonel +Tifto, perhaps less might have been said about it. There was a +little lack of courage in the title which he did choose. But it +was accepted at last, and, as Major Tifto, he was proposed, +seconded, and elected at the Beargarden. + +But he had other points in his favour besides the friendship of +Lord Silverbridge,--points which had probably led to that +friendship. He was, without doubt, one of the best horsemen in +England. There were some who said that, across country, he was the +very best, and that, as a judge of hunters few excelled him. Of +late years he had crept into credit as a betting-man. No one +supposed that he had much capital to work with, but still, when he +lost a bet he paid it. + +Soon after his return from Spain, he was chosen as Master of the +Runnymede Fox Hounds, and was thus enabled to write the letters +M.F.H. after his name. The gentlemen who rode in the Runnymede +were not very liberal in their terms, and had lately been +compelled to change their Master rather more frequently than was +good for that quasi-suburban hunt; but now they had fitted +themselves well. How he was to hunt the county five days a +fortnight, finding servants and horses, and feeding the hounds, +for eight hundred pounds a year, no one could understand. But +Major Tifto not only undertook to do it, but did it. And he +actually succeeded in obtaining for the Runnymede a degree of +popularity which for many years previous it had not possessed. +Such a man,--even though no one did know anything of his father or +mother, though no one had ever heard him speak of a brother or a +sister, though it was believed that he had no real income,--was +felt by many to be the very man for the Beargarden; and when his +name was brought up at the committee, Lord Silverbridge was able +to say so much in his favour that only two blackballs were given +against him. Under the mild rule of the club, three would have +been necessary to exclude him; and therefore Major Tifto was now +as good a member as anyone else. + +He was a well-made little man, good-looking for those who like +such good looks. He was light-haired and blue-eyed, with regular +and yet not inexpressive features. But his eyes were small and +never tranquil, and rarely capable of looking at the person who +was speaking to him. He had small, well-trimmed, glossy whiskers, +with the best-kept mustache, and the best-kept tuft on his chin +which were to be seen anywhere. His face still bore the freshness +of youth, which was a marvel to many, who declared that, from +facts within their knowledge, Tifto must be far on the wrong side +of forty. At a first glance you would hardly have called him +thirty. No doubt, when, on close inspection, you came to look into +his eyes, you could see the hand of time. Even if you believed the +common assertion that he painted,--which it was very hard to +believe of a man who passed the most of his time in the hunting- +field or on a race-course,--yet the paint on his cheeks would not +enable him to move with the elasticity which seemed to belong to +all his limbs. He rode flat races and steeple chases,--if jump +races may still be so called; and with his own hounds and with the +Queen's did incredible things on horseback. He could jump over +chairs too,--the backs of four chairs in a dining-room after +dinner,--a feat which no gentleman of forty-five could perform, +even though he painted himself ever so. + +So much in praise of Major Tifto honesty has compelled the present +chronicler to say. But there were traits of character in which he +fell off a little, even in the estimation of those whose pursuits +endeared him to them. He could not refrain from boasting,--and +especially from boasting about women. His desire for glory in that +direction knew no bounds, and he would sometimes mention names, +and bring himself into trouble. It was told of him that at one +period of his life, when misfortune had almost overcome him, when +sorrow had produced prostration, and prostration some expression +of truth, he had owned to a friend his own conviction that could +he have kept his tongue from talking of women, he might have risen +to prosperity in his profession. From these misfortunes he had +emerged, and, no doubt, had often reflected on what he himself had +then said. But we know that the drunkard, though he hates +drunkenness, cannot but drink,--that the gambler cannot keep from +the dice. Major Tifto still lied about women, and could not keep +his tongue from the subject. He would boast, too, about other +matters,--much to his own disadvantage. He was, too, very 'deep', +and some men, who could put up with his other failings, could not +endure that. Whatever he wanted to do he would attempt round three +corners. Though he could ride straight, he could do nothing else +straight. He was full of mysteries. If he wanted to draw Charter +Wood he would take his hounds out of the street at Egham directly +in the other direction. If he had made up his mind to ride Lord +Pottlepot's horse for the great Leamington handicap, he would be +sure to tell even his intimate friends that he was almost +determined to take the 'baronet's' offer of a mount. This he would +do even when there was no possible turn in the betting to be +affected by such falsehood. So that his companions were apt to +complain that there was no knowing where to have Tifto. And then, +they who were old enough in the world to have had some experience +in men, perceived that peculiar quality of his eyes, which never +allowed him to look anyone in the face. + +That Major Tifto should make money by selling horses was, perhaps, +a necessity to his position. No one grumbled at him because he did +so, or thought that such a pursuit was incompatible with his +character as a sporting gentleman. But there were some who +considered that they had suffered unduly under his hands, and in +their bargains with him had been made to pay more than a proper +amount of tax for the advantages of his general assistance. When a +man has perhaps made fifty pounds by using a 'straight tip' as to +a horse at Newmarket, in doing which he had of course encountered +some risks, he feels he ought not be made to pay the amount back +into the pockets of the 'tipper', and at the same time to find +himself saddled with the possession of a perfectly useless animal. +In this way there were rocks in the course through which Tifto was +called on to steer his bark. Of course he was anxious, when +preying upon his acquaintances, to spare those who were useful +friends to him. Now and again he would sell a serviceable animal +at a fair price, and would endeavour to make such a sale in favour +of someone whose countenance would be a rock to him. He knew his +business well, but yet there would be mistakes. + +Now, at this very moment, was the culmination of the Major's life. +He was Master of Runnymede Hounds, he was partner with the eldest +son of a Duke in the possession of that magnificent colt, the +Prime Minister, and he was a member of the Beargarden. He was a +man who had often been despondent about himself, but was now +disposed to be little triumphant. He had finished his season well +with the Runnymede, and were it not that, let him work as he +would, his expenses always exceeded his means, he would have been +fairly comfortable. + +At eight o'clock Lord Silverbridge and his friend met in the +dining-room of the Beargarden. 'Have you been here before?' asked +the Lord. + +'Not in here, my Lord. I just looked in at the smoking-room last +night. Glasslough and Nidderdale were there. I thought we should +have got up a rubber, but they didn't seem to see it.' + +'There is whist there generally. You'll find out all about it +before long. Perhaps they are a little afraid of you.' + +'I'm the worst hand at cards, I suppose, In England. A dash at loo +for about an hour, and half-a-dozen cuts at blind hookey,--that's +about my form. I know I drop more than I pick up. If I knew what I +was about I should never touch a card.' + +'Horses; eh, Tifto?' + +'Horses, yes. They've pretty good claret, here, eh, Silverbridge?' +He could never hit off his familiarity quite right. He had my- +Lorded his young friend at first, and now brought out the name +with a hesitating twang, which the young nobleman appreciated. But +then the young nobleman was quite aware that the Major was a +friend for club purposes, and sporting purposes, and not for home +use. + +'Everything of that kind is pretty good here,' said the Lord. + +'You were saying--horses.' + +'I dare say you deal better with them than cards.' + +'If I didn't I don't know where I should be, seeing what a lot +pass through my hands in the year. Anyone of our fellows who has a +horse to sell thinks that I am bound to buy him. And I do buy 'em. +Last May I had forty-two hunters on my hands.' + +'How many of them have you got now?' + +'Three. Three of that lot,--though a goodish many have come up +since. But what does it amount to? When I have anything that is +very good, some fellow that I like gets it from me.' + +'After paying for him?' + +'After paying for him! Yes, I don't mean that I make a fellow a +present. But the man who buys has a deal the best of it. Did you +ever get anything better than that spotted chestnut in your life?' + +'What, old Sarcinet?' + +'You had her for one hundred and sixty pounds. Now, if you were on +your oath, what is she worth?' + +'She suits me, Major, and of course I shouldn't sell her.' + +'I rather think not. I knew what that mare was well enough. A +dealer would have had three hundred and fifty pounds for her. I +could have got the money easily if I had taken her down into the +shires, and ridden her a day or two myself.' + +'I gave you what you asked.' + +'Yes, you did. It isn't often that I take less than I ask. But the +fact is, about horses. I don't know whether I shouldn't do better +if I never owned an animal at all but those I want for my own use. +When I am dealing with a man I call a friend, I can't bear to make +money of him. I don't think fellows give me all the credit they +should do for sticking to them.' The Major, as he said this, +leaned back in his chair, put his hand up to his mustache, and +looked sadly away into the vacancy of the room, as though he were +meditating sorrowfully on the ingratitude of the world. + +'I suppose it's all right about Cream Cheese?' asked the Lord. + +'Well; it ought to be.' And now the Major spoke like an oracle, +leaning forward on the table, uttering his words in a low voice, +but very plainly, so that not a syllable might be lost. 'When you +remember how he ran at the Craven with 9st 12lb on him, that it +took Archbishop all he knew to beat him with only 9st 2lb, and +what the lot at Chester are likely to be, I don't think that there +can be seven to one against him. I should be very glad to take it +off your hands, only the figures are a little too heavy for me.' + +'I suppose Sunflower'll be the best animal there?' + +'Not a doubt of it, if he's all right, and if his temper will +stand. Think what a course Chester is for an ill-conditioned brute +like that! And then he's the most uncertain horse in training. +There are times he won't feed. From what I hear, I shouldn't +wonder if he don't turn up at all.' + +'Solomon says he's all right.' + +'You won't get Solomon to take four to one against him, nor yet +four and a half. I suppose you'll go down my Lord?' + +'Well, yes; if there's nothing else doing just then. I don't know +how it may be about this electioneering business. I shall go and +smoke upstairs.' + +At the Beargarden there were,--I was going to say, two smoking- +rooms; but in truth the house was a smoking-room all over. It was, +however, the custom of those who habitually played cards, to have +their cigars and coffee upstairs. Into this sanctum Major Tifto +had not yet been introduced, but now he was taken there under Lord +Silverbridge's wing. There were already four or five assembled, +among whom was Mr Adolphus Longstaff, a young man of about thirty- +five years of age, who spent very much of his time at the +Beargarden. 'Do you know my friend Tifto?' said the Lord. 'Tifto, +this is Mr Longstaff, whom men within the walls of this asylum +sometimes call Dolly.' Whereupon the Major bowed and smiled +graciously. + +'I have heard of Major Tifto,' said Dolly. + +'Who has not?' said Lord Nidderdale, another middle-aged young +man, who made one of the company. Again the Major bowed. + +'Last season I was always intending to get down to your country +and have a day with the Tiftoes,' said Dolly. 'Don't they call +your hounds the Tiftoes?' + +'They shall be called so if you like,' said the Major. 'And why +didn't you come?' + +'It always was such a grind.' + +'Train down from Paddington every day at 10.30.' + +'That's all very well if you happen to be up. Well, Silverbridge, +how's the Prime Minister?' + +'How is he, Tifto?' asked the noble partner. + +'I don't think there's a man in England just at present enjoying a +very much better state of health,' said the Major pleasantly. + +'Safe to run?' asked Dolly. + +'Safe to run! Why shouldn't he be safe to run?' + +'I means sure to start.' + +'I think we mean him to start, don't we, Silverbridge?' said the +Major. + +There was something perhaps in the tone in which the last remark +was made which jarred a little against the young lord's dignity. +At any rate he got up and declared his purpose of going to the +opera. He should look in, he said, and hear a song from +Mademoiselle Stuffa. Mademoiselle Stuffa was the nightingale of +the season, and Lord Silverbridge, when he had nothing else to do, +would sometimes think that he was fond of music. Soon after he was +gone Major Tifto had some whisky-and-water, lit his third cigar, +and began to feel the glory of belonging to the Beargarden. With +Lord Silverbridge, to whom it was essentially necessary that he +should make himself agreeable at all times, he was somewhat +overweighted as it were. Though he attempted an easy familiarity, +he was a little afraid of Lord Silverbridge. With Dolly Longstaff +he felt that he might be comfortable,--not, perhaps, understanding +that gentleman's character. With Lord Nidderdale he had previously +been acquainted, and had found him to be good-natured. So he +sipped his whisky, he became confidential and comfortable. + +'I never thought so much about her good looks,' he said. They were +talking of the singer, the charm of whose voice had carried Lord +Silverbridge away. + +'Did you ever see her off the stage?' asked Nidderdale. + +'Oh dear yes.' + +'She does not go about very much, I fancy,' said someone. + +'I dare say not,' said Tifto. 'But she and I have had a day or two +together, for all that.' + +'You must have been very much favoured,' said Dolly. + +'We've been pals ever since she has been over here,' said Tifto, +with an enormous lie. + +'How do you get on with her husband?' asked Dolly,--in the simplest +voice, as though not in the least surprised at his companion's +statement. + +'Husband!' exclaimed the Major; who was not possessed of +sufficient presence of mind to suppress all signs of ignorance. + +'Ah,' said Dolly; 'you are not probably aware that your pal has +been married to Mr Thomas Jones for the last year and a half.' +Soon after that Major Tifto left the club,--with considerable +enhanced respect for Mr Longstaff. + + + +CHAPTER 7 + +Conservative Convictions + +Lord Silverbridge had engaged himself to be with his father the +next morning at half-past nine, and he entered the breakfast-room +a very few minutes after that hour. He had made up his mind as to +what he would say to his father. He meant to call himself a +Conservative, and to go into the House of Commons under that +denomination. All the men among whom he lived were Conservatives. +It was a matter on which, as he thought, his father could have no +right to command him. Down in Barsetshire, as well as up in +London, there was some little difference of opinion in this +matter. The people of Silverbridge declared that they would prefer +to have a conservative member, as indeed they had had one for the +last session. They had loyally returned the Duke himself while he +was a commoner, but they had returned him as being part and parcel +of the Omnium appendages. That was all over now. As a constituency +they were not endowed with advanced views, and thought that a +Conservative would suit them best. That being so, and as they had +been told that the Duke's son was a Conservative, they fancied +that by electing him they would be pleasing everybody. But, in +truth, by so doing they would by no means please the Duke. He had +told them on previous occasions that they might elect whom they +pleased, and felt no anger because they had elected a +Conservative. They might send up to Parliament the most +antediluvian old Tory they could find in England if they wished, +on not his son, not a Palliser as a Tory or Conservative. And +then, though the little town had gone back in the ways of the +world, the county, or the Duke's division of the county, had made +so much progress, that a Liberal candidate recommended by him +would almost certainly be returned. It was just the occasion on +which a Palliser should show himself ready to serve his country. +There would be an expense, but he would think nothing of expense +in such a matter. Ten thousand pounds spent on such an object +would not vex him. The very contest would have given him new life. +All this Lord Silverbridge understood, but had said to himself and +to all his friends that it was a matter in which he did not intend +to be controlled. + +The Duke had passed a very unhappy night. He had told himself that +any such marriage as that spoken of was out of the question. He +believed that the matter might be so represented to his girl as to +make her feel that it was out of the question. He hardly doubted +but that he could stamp it out. Though he should have to take her +away to some further corner of the world, he would stamp it out. +But she, when this foolish passion of hers should have been thus +stamped out, could never be the pure, the bright, the unsullied, +unsoiled thing, of the possession of which he had thought so much. +He had never spoken of his hopes about her even to his wife, but +in the silence of his very silent life he had thought much of the +day when he would give her to some noble youth,--noble with all the +gifts of nobility, including rank and wealth,--who might be fit to +receive her. Now, even though no one else should know it,--and all +would know it,--she would be the girl who had condescended to love +young Tregear. + +His own Duchess, she whose loss to him now was as though he had +lost half of his limbs,--had not she in the same way loved a +Tregear, or worse than a Tregear, in her early days? Ah, yes! +And though his Cora had been so much to him, had he not often +felt, had he not been feeling all his days, that Fate had robbed +him of the sweetest joy that is given to man, in that she had not +come to him loving him with her early spring of love, as she had +loved that poor ne'er-do-well? How infinite had been his regrets. +How often had he told himself that, with all that Fortune had +given him, still Fortune had been unjust to him because he had +been robbed of that. Not to save his life could he have whispered +a word of this to anyone, but he had felt it. He had felt it for +years. Dear as she had been, she had not been quite what she +should have been but for that. And now this girl of his, who was +so much dearer to him than anything else left to him, was doing +exactly as her mother had done. The young man might be stamped +out. He might be made to vanish as that other young man had +vanished. But the fact that he had been there, cherished in the +girl's heart,--that could not be stamped out. + +He struggled gallantly to acquit the memory of his wife. He could +best do that by leaning with the full weight of his mind on the +presumed iniquity of Mrs Finn. Had he not known from the first +that the woman was an adventuress? And had he not declared to +himself over and over again that between such a one and himself +there should be no intercourse, no common feeling? He had allowed +himself to be talked into an intimacy, to be talked into an +affection. And this was the result! + +And how should he treat this matter in his coming interview with +his son,--or should he make allusion to it? At first it seemed as +though it would be impossible for him to give his mind to that +other subject. How could he enforce the merits of political +liberalism, and the duty of adhering to the old family party, +while his mind was entirely preoccupied with his daughter? It had +suddenly become almost indifferent to him whether Silverbridge +should be a Conservative or a Liberal. But as he dressed he told +himself, that, as a man, he ought to be able to do a plain duty, +marked out for him as this had been by his own judgement, without +regard to personal suffering. The hedger and ditcher must make his +hedge clean and clean his ditch even though he be tormented by +rheumatism. His duty by his son he must do, even though his heart +were torn to pieces. + +During breakfast he tried to be gracious, and condescended to ask +a question about Prime Minister. Racing was an amusement to which +English noblemen had been addicted for many ages, and had been +held to be serviceable rather than disgraceful, if conducted in a +noble fashion. He did not credit Tifto with much nobility. He knew +but little about the Major. He would much have preferred that his +son should have owned a horse alone, if he must have anything to +do with ownership. 'Would it not be better to buy the other +share?' asked the Duke. + +'It would take a deal of money, sir. The Major would ask a couple +of thousand, I should think.' + +'That is a great deal.' + +'And then the Major is a very useful man. He thoroughly +understands the turf.' + +'I hope he doesn't live by it?' + +'Oh no, he doesn't live by it. That is, he has a great many irons +in the fire.' + +'I do not mind a young man owning a horse, if he can afford the +expense,--as you perhaps can do; but I hope you don't bet.' + +'Nothing to speak of.' + +'Nothing to speak of is so apt to grow into that which has to be +spoken of.' So much that father said at breakfast, hardly giving +his mind to the matter discussed,--his mind being on other things. +But when their breakfast was eaten, then it was necessary that he +should begin. 'Silverbridge,' he said, 'I hope you have thought +better of what we were talking about as to these coming +elections.' + +'Well, sir,--of course I have thought about it.' + +'And can you do as I would have you?' + +'You see, sir, a man's political opinion is a kind of thing he +can't get rid of.' + +'You can hardly as yet have any confirmed political opinion. You +are still young, and I do not suppose that you have thought much +about politics.' + +'Well, sir; I think I have. I've got my own ideas. We've got to +protect our position as well as we can against the Radicals and +Communists.' + +'I cannot admit that at all, Silverbridge. There is no great +political party in this county anxious either for communism or for +revolution. But, putting all that aside for the present, do you +think that a man's political opinions should be held in regard to +his own individual interests, or to the much wider interests of +others, whom we call the public?' + +'To his own interest,' said the young man with decision. + +'It is simply self-protection then?' + +'His own and his class. The people will look after themselves, and +we must look after ourselves. We are so few and they are so many, +that we shall have quite enough to do.' + +Then the Duke gave his son a somewhat lengthy political lecture, +which was intended to teach him that the greatest benefit of the +greatest number was the object to which all political studies +should tend. The son listened with attention, and when it was +over, expressed his opinion that there was a great deal in what +his father had said. 'I trust, if you will consider it,' said the +Duke, 'that you will not find yourself obliged to desert the +school of politics in which your father has not been an inactive +supporter, and to which your family has belonged for many years.' + +'I could not call myself a Liberal,' said the young politician. + +'Why not?' + +'Because I am a Conservative.' + +'And you won't stand for the county on the Liberal interest?' + +'I should be obliged to tell them that I should always give a +Conservative vote.' + +'Then you refuse to do as I ask?' + +'I do not know how I can help refusing it. If you wanted me to +grow a couple of inches taller, I couldn't do it, even though I +should be ever so anxious to oblige you.' + +'But a very young man, as you are, may have so much deference for +his elders as to be induced to believe that he has been in error.' + +'Oh yes; of course.' + +'You cannot but be aware that the political condition of the +country is the one subject to which I have devoted the labour of +my life.' + +'I know that very well; and of course, I know how much they all +think of you.' + +'Then my opinion might go for something with you?' + +'So it does, sir; I shouldn't have doubted at all only for that. +Still, you see, as the thing is,--how am I to help myself?' + +'You believe that you must be right,--you who have never given an +hour's study to the subject.' + +'No, sir. In comparison with a great many men, I know that I am a +fool. Perhaps it is because I know that, that I am a Conservative. +The Radicals are always saying that a Conservative must be a fool. +Then a fool ought to be a Conservative.' + +Hereupon the father got up from his chair and turned round, facing +the fire, with his back to his son. He was becoming very angry, +but endeavoured to restrain his anger. The matter in dispute +between them was of so great importance, that he could hardly be +justified in abandoning it in consequence of arguments so trifling +in themselves as these which his son adduced. As he stood there +for some minutes thinking of it all, he was tempted again and +again to burst out in wrath and threaten the lad,--to threaten him +as to money, as to his amusements, as to the general tenure of his +life. The pity was so great that the lad should be so stubborn and +so foolish! He would never ask his son to be a slave to the +Liberal party, as he had been. But that a Palliser should not be a +Liberal,--and his son, as the first recreant Palliser,--was +wormwood to him! As he stood there he more than once clenched his +fist in eager desire to turn upon the young man; but he restrained +himself, telling himself that in justice he should not be angry +for such offence as this. To become a Conservative, when the path +to liberalism was so fairly open, might be the part of a fool, but +could not fairly be imputed as a crime. To endeavour to be just +was the study of his life, and in no condition of life can justice +be more imperatively due than from a father to his son. + +'You mean to stand for Silverbridge?' he said at last. + +'Not if you object, sir.' + +This made it worse. It became now still more difficult for him to +scold the young man. 'You are aware that I should not meddle in +any way.' + +'That is what I supposed. They will return a Conservative at any +rate.' + +'It is not that I care about,' said the Duke sadly. + +'Upon my word, sir, I am very sorry to vex you; but what would you +have me do? I will give up Parliament altogether, if you say that +you wish it.' + +'No; I do not wish that.' + +'You wouldn't have me tell a lie?' + +'No.' + +'What can I do then?' + +'Learn what there is to learn from some master fit to teach you.' + +'There are so many masters.' + +'I believe it to be that most arrogant ill-behaved young man who +was with me yesterday who has done this evil.' + +'You mean Frank Tregear?' + +'I do mean Mr Tregear.' + +'He's a Conservative, of course; and of course he and I have been +much together. Was he with you yesterday, sir?' + +'Yes, he was.' + +'What was that about?' asked Lord Silverbridge, in a voice that +almost betrayed fear, for he knew very well what cause had +produced the interview. + +'He has been speaking to me-' When the Duke had got so far as this +he paused, finding himself hardly able to declare the disgrace +which had fallen upon himself and his family. As he did tell the +story, both his face and his voice was altered, so that the son, +in truth, was scared. 'He has been speaking to me about your +sister. Did you know of this?' + +'I knew there was something between them.' + +'And you encouraged it?' + +'No, sir; just the contrary. I have told him that I was quite sure +it would never do.' + +'And why did you not tell me?' + +'Well, sir; it was hardly my business, was it?' + +'Not to guard the honour of your sister?' + +'You see, sir; so many things have happened all at once.' + +'What things?' + +'My dear mother, sir, thought well of him.' The Duke uttered a +deep sigh, and turned round to the fire. 'I always told him you +would never consent.' + +'I should think not.' + +'It has come so suddenly. I should have spoken to you about it as +soon as--as soon-' He had meant to say as soon as the husband's +grief for the loss of his wife had been in some degree appeased, +but could not speak the words. The Duke, however, perfectly +understood him. 'In the meantime, they were not seeing each +other.' + +'Nor writing?' + +'I think not.' + +'Mrs Finn has known it all.' + +'Mrs Finn!' + +'Certainly. She has known all through.' + +'I do not see how it can have been so.' + +'He told me so himself,' said the Duke, unwittingly putting words +into Tregear's mouth which Tregear had never uttered. 'There must +be an end of this. I will speak to your sister. In the meantime, +the less, I think, you see of Mr Tregear the better. Of course it +is out of the question he should be allowed to remain in this +house. You will make him understand that at once, if you please.' + +'Oh, certainly,' said Silverbridge. + + + +CHAPTER 8 + +He is a Gentleman + +The Duke returned to Matching an almost broken-hearted man. He had +intended to go down into Barsetshire, in reference to the coming +elections;--not with the view of interfering in any unlordly, or +rather, unpeerlike fashion, but thinking that if his eldest son +were to stand for the county in a proper constitutional spirit, as +the eldest son of so great a county magnate ought to do, his +presence at Gatherum Castle, among his own people, might properly +be serviceable, and would certainly be gracious. There would be no +question of entertainment. His bereavement would make that +impossible. But there would come from his presence a certain +savour of proprietorship, and a sense of power, which would be +beneficial to his son, and would not, as the Duke thought, be +contrary to the spirit of the constitution. But all this was now +at an end. He told himself that he did not care how the elections +might go;--that he did not care much how anything might go. +Silverbridge might stand for Silverbridge if he so pleased. He +would give neither assistance nor obstruction, either in the +county or in the borough. He wrote to this effect to his agent, Mr +Morton;--but at the same time desired that gentleman to pay Lord +Silverbridge's electioneering expenses, feeling it to be his duty +as a father to do so much for his son. + +But though he endeavoured to engage his thoughts in these +parliamentary matters, though he tried to make himself believe +that this political apostasy was the trouble which vexed him, in +truth that other misery was so crushing, as to make the affairs of +his son insignificant. How should he express himself to her? That +was the thought present to his mind as he went down to Matching. +Should he content himself with simply telling her that such a wish +on her part was disgraceful, and that it could never be fulfilled; +or should he argue the matter with her, endeavouring as he did so +to persuade her gently that she was wrong to place her affections +so low, and so to obtain from her an assurance that the idea +should be abandoned? + +The latter course would be infinitely the better,--if only he could +accomplish it. But he was conscious of his own hardness of manner, +and was aware that he had never succeeded in establishing +confidence between himself and his daughter. It was a thing for +which he had longed,--as a plain girl might long to possess the +charms of an acknowledged beauty;--as a poor little fellow, five +feet in height, might long to a cubit added to his stature. + +Though he was angry with her, how willingly would he take her into +his arms and assure her of his forgiveness! How anxious he would +be to make her understand that nothing should be spared by him to +add beauty and grace to her life! Only, as a matter of course, Mr +Tregear must be abandoned. But he knew of himself that he would +not know how to begin to be tender and forgiving. He knew that he +would not know not to be stern and hard. + +But he must find out the history of it all. No doubt the man had +been his son's friend, and had joined the party in Italy at his +son's instance. But yet he had come to entertain the idea that Mrs +Finn had been the great promoter of this sin, and he thought that +Tregear had told him that that lady had been concerned with the +matter from the beginning. In all this there was a craving in his +heart to lessen the amount of culpable responsibility which might +seem to attach itself to the wife he had lost. + +He reached Matching about eight, and ordered his dinner to be +brought to him in his own study. When Lady Mary came to welcome +him, he kissed her forehead, and bade her to come to him after his +dinner. 'Shall I not sit with you, papa, whilst you are eating +it?' she asked; but he merely told her that he would not trouble +her to do that. Even in saying this, he was so unusually tender to +her that she assured herself that her lover had not as yet told +his tale. + +The Duke's meals were generally not feasts for a Lucullus. No man +living, perhaps, cared less what he ate, or knew less what he +drank. In such matters he took what was provided for him, making +his dinner off the first bit of meat that was brought, and simply +ignoring anything offered to him afterwards. And he would drink +what wine the servant gave him, mixing it, whatever it might be, +with seltzer water. He had never been given much the pleasures of +the table; but this habit of simplicity had grown on him of late, +till the Duchess used to tell him that his wants were so few that +it was a pity he was not a hermit, vowed to poverty. + +Very shortly a message was brought to Lady Mary, saying that her +father wished to see her. She went at once, and found him seated +on a sofa, which stood close along the bookshelves on one side of +the room. The table had already been cleared, and he was alone. He +not only was alone, but had not even a pamphlet or newspaper in +his hand. + +Then she knew that Tregear must have told the story. As this +occurred to her, her legs almost gave way under her. 'Come and sit +down, Mary,' he said, pointing to the seat on the sofa beside +himself. + +She sat down and took one of his hands within her own. Then, as he +did not begin at once, she asked a question. 'Will Silverbridge +stand for the county, papa?' + +'No, my dear.' + +'But for the town.' + +'Yes, my dear.' + +'And he won't be a Liberal?' + +'I am afraid not. It is a cause of great unhappiness to me; but I +do not know that I should be justified in any absolute opposition. +A man is entitled to his own opinion, even though he be a very +young man.' + +'I am so sorry that it should be so, papa, because it vexes you.' + +'I have many things to vex me;--things to break my heart.' + +'Poor mamma!' she exclaimed. + +'Yes; that above all others. But life and death are in God's +hands, and even though we may complain we can alter nothing. But +whatever our sorrows are, while we are here we must do our duty.' + +'I suppose he may be a good Member of Parliament, though he has +turned Conservative.' + +'I am not thinking about your brother. I am thinking about you.' +The poor girl gave a little start on the sofa. 'Do you know-Mr +Tregear?' he added. + +'Yes, papa; of course I know him. You used to see him in Italy.' + +'I believe I did; I understood that he was there as a friend of +Silverbridge.' + +'His most intimate friend, papa.' + +'I dare say. He came to me in London yesterday, and told me,--! Oh +Mary, can it be true?' + +'Yes, papa,' she said, covered up to her forehead with blushes, +and with her eyes turned down. In the ordinary affairs of life she +was a girl of great courage, who was not given to be shaken from +her constancy by the pressures of any present difficulty; but now +the terror inspired by her father's voice almost overpowered her. + +'Do you mean to tell me that you have engaged yourself to that +young man without my approval?' + +'Of course you were to have been asked, papa.' + +'Is that in accordance with your idea of what should be the +conduct of a young lady in your position?' + +'Nobody meant to conceal anything from you, papa.' + +'It has been so far concealed. And yet this young man has the +self-confidence to come to me and to demand your hand as though it +were a matter of course that I should accede to so trivial a +request. It is, as a matter of course, quite impossible. You +understand that; do you not?' When she did not answer him at +once, he repeated the question. 'I ask you whether you do not feel +that it is altogether impossible?' + +'No, papa,' she said, in the lowest possible whisper, but still in +such a whisper that he could hear the word, and with so much +clearness that he could judge from her face the obstinacy of her +mind. + +'Then, Mary, it becomes my duty to tell you that it is quite +impossible. I will not have it thought of. There must be an end of +it.' + +'Why, papa?' + +'Why! I am astonished that you should ask me why.' + +'I should not have allowed him, papa, to go to you unless I had,-- +unless I had loved him.' + +'Then you must conquer your love. It is disgraceful and must be +conquered.' + +'Disgraceful!' + +'Yes. I am sorry to use such word to my own child, but it is so. +If you will promise to be guided by me in this matter, if you will +undertake not to see him any more, I will,--if not forget it,--at +any rate pardon it, and be silent. I will excuse it because you +were young, and were thrown imprudently in his way. There has, I +believe, been someone at work in the matter with whom I ought to +be more angry than with you. Say that you will obey me, and there +is nothing within a father's power that I will not do for you, to +make your life happy.' It was thus that he strove to be stern. +His heart, indeed, was tender enough, but there was nothing tender +in the tone of his voice or in the glance of his eye. Though he +was very positive in what he said, yet he was shy and shamefaced +even with his own daughter. He, too, had blushed when he told her +that she must conquer her love. + +That she should be told that she had disgraced herself was +terrible to her. That her father should speak of her marriage with +this man as an event that was impossible made her very unhappy. +That he should talk of pardoning her, as for some great fault, was +in itself a misery. But she had not on that account the least idea +of giving up her lover. Young as she was, she had her own peculiar +theory on that matter, her own code of conduct and honour, from +which she did not mean to be driven. Of course she had not +expected that her father would yield at the first word. He, no +doubt, would wish that she should make a more exalted marriage. +She had known that she would have to encounter opposition, though +she had not expected to be told that she had disgraced herself. As +she sat there she resolved that under no pretence would she give +up her lover;--but she was so far abashed that she could not find +words to express herself. He, too, had been silent for a few +moments before he again asked her for her promise. + +'Will you tell me, Mary, that you will not see him again?' + +'I don't think I can say that, papa.' + +'Why not?' + +'Oh, papa, how can I, when of all people in the world I love him +the best.' + +It is not without a pang that anyone can be told that she who is +of all the dearest has some other one who is to her the dearest. +Such pain fathers and mothers have to bear; and though, I think, +the arrow is never so blunted but that it leaves something of a +wound behind, there is in most cases, if not a perfect salve, +still an ample consolation. The mother knows that it is good that +her child should love some man better than all the world beside, +and that she should be taken away to become a wife and a mother. +And the father, when that delight of his eye ceases to assure him +that he is her nearest and dearest, though he abandon the treasure +of the nearestness and dearestness with a soft melancholy, still +knows that it should be. Of course that other 'him' is the person +she loves the best in the world. Were it not so how evil a thing +it would be that she should marry him? Were it not so with +reference to some 'him', how void would her life be! But now, to +the poor Duke the wound had no salve, no consolation. When he was +told that this young Tregear was the owner of the girl's sweet +love, was the treasure of her heart, he shrank as though arrows +with sharp points were pricking him all over. 'I will not hear of +such love,' he said. + +'What am I to say, papa?' + +'Say that you will obey me.' + +Then she sat silent. 'Do you not know that he is not fit to be +your husband?' + +'No, papa.' + +'Then you cannot have thought much either of your position or of +mine.' + +'He is a gentleman, papa.' + +'So is my private secretary. There is not a clerk in one of our +public offices who does not consider himself to be a gentleman. +The curate of the parish is a gentleman, and the medical man who +comes here from Bradstock. The word is too vague to carry with it +any meaning that ought to be serviceable to you in thinking of +such a matter.' + +'I do not know of any other way of dividing people,' said she, +showing thereby that she had altogether made up her mind as to +what ought to be serviceable to her. + +'You are not called upon to divide people. That division requires +so much experience that you are bound in this matter to rely upon +those to whom your obedience is due. I cannot but think you must +have known that you were not entitled to give your love to any man +without being assured that the man would be approved of by--by--by +me.' He was going to say 'your parents', but was stopped by the +remembrance of his wife's imprudence. + +She saw it all, and was too noble to plead her mother's authority. +But she was not too dutiful to cast a reproach upon him, when he +was so stern to her. 'You have been so little with me, papa.' + +'That is true,' he said, after a pause. 'That is true. It has been +a fault and I will need to mend it. It is a reason for +forgiveness, and I will forgive you. But you must tell me that +there shall be an end to this.' + +'No, papa.' + +'What do you mean?' + +'That I love Mr Tregear, and as I have told him so, and as I have +promised him, I will be true to him. I cannot let there be an end +to it.' + +'You do not suppose that you will be allowed to see him again?' + +'I hope so.' + +'Most assuredly not. Do you write to him?' + +'No, papa.' + +'Never?' + +'Never since we have been back in England.' + +'You must promise me that you will not write.' + +She paused for a moment before she answered him, and now she was +looking him full in the face. 'I shall not write to him. I do not +think I shall write to him; but I will not promise.' + +'Not promise me,--your father!' + +'No, papa. It might be that--that I should do it.' + +'You would not wish me so to guard you that you should have no +power of sending a letter but by permission?' + +'I should not like that.' + +'But it will have to be so.' + +'If I do write I will tell you.' + +'And show me what you write?' + +'No, papa; not that, but I will tell you what I have written.' + +Then it occurred to him that this bargaining was altogether +derogatory to his parental authority, and by no means likely to +impress upon her mind the conviction that Tregear must be +completely banished from her thoughts. He began already to find +how difficult it would be for him to have the charge of such a +daughter,--how impossible that he should conduct such a charge with +sufficient firmness, and yet with sufficient tenderness! At +present he had done no good. He had only been made more wretched +than ever by her obstinacy. Surely he must pass her over to the +charge of some lady,--but of some lady who would be as determined +as he was himself that she should not throw herself away by +marrying Mr Tregear. 'There shall be no writing,' he said, 'no +visiting, no communication of any kind. As you refuse to obey me +now, you had better go to your room.' + + + +CHAPTER 9 + +'In Media Res' + +Perhaps the method of rushing at once 'in media res' is, of all +the ways of beginning a story, or a separate branch of a story, +the least objectionable. The reader is made to think that the gold +lies so near the surface that he will be required to take very +little trouble in digging for it. And the writer is enabled,--at +any rate for a time, and till his neck has become, as it were, +warm to the collar,--to throw off from him the difficulties and +dangers, the tedium and prolixity, of description. This rushing +'in media res' has doubtless the charm of ease. 'Certainly when I +threw her from the garret window to the stony pavement below, I +did not anticipate that she would fall so far without injury to +life or limb.' When a story has been begun after this fashion, +without any prelude, without description of the garret or of the +pavement, or of the lady thrown, or of the speaker, a great amount +of trouble seems to have been saved. The mind of the reader fills +up the blanks,--if erroneously, still satisfactorily. He knows, at +least, that the heroine has encountered a terrible danger, and has +escaped from it with almost incredible good fortune, that the +demon of the piece is a bold demon, not ashamed to speak of his +own iniquity, and that the heroine and the demon are so far united +that they have been in a garret together. But there is the +drawback on the system,--that it is almost impossible to avoid the +necessity of doing, sooner or later, that which would naturally be +done at first. It answers, perhaps, for a half-a-dozen chapters;-- +and to carry the reader pleasantly for half-a-dozen chapters is a +great matter!-but after that a certain nebulous darkness gradually +seems to envelope the characters and the incidents. 'Is all this +going on in the country, or is it in town,--or perhaps in the +Colonies? How old was she? Was she tall? Is she fair? Is she +heroine-like in her form and gait? And, after all, how high was +the garret window? I have always found that the details would +insist on being told at last, and that by rushing 'in media res' I +was simply presenting the cart before the horse. But as readers +like the cart the best, I will do it once again,--trying it only +for a branch of my story,--and will endeavour to let as little as +possible of the horse be seen afterwards. + +'And so poor Frank has been turned out of heaven?' said Lady Mabel +Grex to young Lord Silverbridge. + +'Who told you that? I have said nothing to anybody.' + +'Of course he told me himself,' said the young beauty. I am aware +that, in the word beauty, and perhaps, also, the word young, a +little bit of the horse appearing; and I am already sure that I +shall have to show his head and neck, even if not his very tail. +'Poor Frank! Did you hear it all?' + +'I heard nothing, Lady Mab, and know nothing.' + +'You know that your awful governor won't let him stay any longer +in Carlton Terrace?' + +'Yes, I know that.' + +'And why not?' + +'Would Lord Grex allow Percival to have his friends living here?' + Lord Grex was Lady Mabel's father, Lord Percival was the Earl's +son;--and the Earl lived in Belgrave Square. All these little bits +of the horse. + +'Certainly not. In the first place, I am here.' + +'That makes a difference, certainly.' + +'Of course it makes a difference. They would be wanting to make +love to me.' + +'No doubt. I should, I know.' + +'And therefore it wouldn't do for you to live here, and then papa +is living here himself. And then the permission never has been +given. I suppose Frank did not go there without the Duke knowing +it.' + +'I daresay that I mentioned it.' + +'You might as well tell me about it. We are cousins, you know.' +Frank Tregear, through his mother's family, was second cousin to +Lady Mabel; as was also Lord Silverbridge, one of the Grexes +having, at some remote period, married a Palliser. This is another +bit of the horse. + +'The governor merely seemed to think that he would like to have +his own house to himself,--like other people. What an ass Tregear +was to say anything to you about it.' + +'I don't think he was an ass at all. Of course he had to tell us +that he was changing his residence. He says that he is going to +take a back bedroom somewhere near the Seven Dials.' + +'He has got very nice rooms in Duke Street.' + +'Have you seen him, then?' + +'Of course I have.' + +'Poor fellow! I wish he had a little money; he is so nice. And +now, Lord Silverbridge, do you mean to say that there is something +in the wind about Lady Mary?' + +'If there were I should not talk about it,' said Lord +Silverbridge. + +'You are a very innocent young gentleman.' + +'And you are a very interesting young lady.' + +'You ought to think me so, for I interest myself very much about +you. Was the Duke very angry about your not standing for the +county?' + +'He was vexed.' + +'I do think it is so odd that a man should be expected to be this +or that in politics because his father happened to be so before +him! I don't understand how he should expect that you should +remain with a party so utterly snobbish and down in the world as +the Radicals. Everybody that is worth anything is leaving them.' + +'He has not left them.' + +'No, I don't suppose he could; but you have.' + +'I never belonged to them, Lady Mab.' + +'And never will, I hope. I always told papa that you would +certainly be one of us.' All this took place in the drawing-room +of Lord Grex's house. There was no Lady Grex alive, but there +lived with the Earl, a certain elderly lady, reported in some +distant way a cousin of the family, named Miss Cassewary, who in +the matter of looking after Lady Mab, did what was supposed to be +absolutely necessary. She now entered the room with her bonnet on, +having just returned from church. 'What was the text?' asked Lady +Mab at once. + +'If you had gone to church, as you ought to have done, my dear, +you would have heard it.' + +'But as I didn't?' + +'I don't think the text alone will do you any good.' + +'And probably you forget it.' + +'No, I don't, my dear. How do you do, Lord Silverbridge?' + +'He is a Conservative, Miss Cass.' + +'Of course he is. I am quite sure that a young nobleman of so much +taste and intellect would take the better side.' + +'You forget that all you are saying is against my father and my +family, Miss Cassewary.' + +'I dare say it was different when your father was a young man. And +your father, too, was not very long since, at the head of a +government which contained many Conservatives. I don't look upon +your father as a Radical, though perhaps I should not be justified +in calling him a Conservative.' + +'Well; certainly not, I think.' + +'But now it is necessary that all noblemen in England should rally +to the defence of their order.' Miss Cassewary was a great +politician, and was one of those who are always foreseeing the +ruin of their country. 'My dear, I will go up and take my bonnet +off. Perhaps you will have tea when I come down.' + +'Don't you go,' said Lady Mabel, when Silverbridge got up to take +his departure. + +'I always do when tea comes.' + +'But you are going to dine here?' + +'Not that I know of. In the first place, nobody has asked me. In +the second place, I am engaged. Thirdly, I don't care about having +to talk politics to Miss Cass; and fourthly, I hate family dinners +on Sunday.' + +'In the first place, I ask you. Secondly, I know you are going to +dine with Frank Tregear, at the club. Thirdly, I want you to talk +to me, and not to Miss Cass. And, fourthly, you are an uncivil +young,--young,--young,--I should say cub, if I dared, to tell me that +you don't like dining with me any day of the week.' + +'Of course you know what I mean is, that I don't like troubling +your father.' + +'Leave that to me. I shall tell him you are coming, and Frank too. +Of course you can bring him. Then he can talk to me when papa goes +down to his club, and you can arrange your politics with Miss +Cass.' So it was settled, and at eight o'clock Lord Silverbridge +reappeared in Belgrave Square with Frank Tregear. + +Earl Grex was a nobleman of a very ancient family, the Grexes +having held the parish of Grex, in Yorkshire, from some time long +prior to the Conquest. In saying all this, I am, I know, allowing +the horse to appear wholesale;--but I find that he cannot be kept +out. I may as well go on to say that the present Earl was better +known at Newmarket and the Beaufort,--where he spent a large part +of his life in playing whist,--than in the House of Lords. He was a +grey-haired, handsome, worn-out old man, who through a long life +of pleasure had greatly impaired a fortune, which, for an earl, +had never been magnificent, and who now strove hard, but not +always successfully, to remedy that evil by gambling. As he could +no longer eat and drink as he used to do, and as he cared no +longer for the light that lies in a lady's eye, there was not much +left to him but cards and racing. Nevertheless he was a handsome +old man, of polished manners, when he chose to use them; a staunch +Conservative and much regarded by his party, for whom in his early +life he had done some work in the House of Commons. + +'Silverbridge is all very well,' he had said; 'but I don't see why +that young Tregear is to dine here every night of his life.' + +'This is the second time since he has been up in town. Papa.' + +'He was here last week, I know.' + +'Silverbridge wouldn't come without him.' + +'That's d-d nonsense,' said the Earl. Miss Cassewary gave a +start,--not, we may presume, because she was shocked, for she could +not be much shocked, having heard the same word from the same lips +very often; but she thought it right always to enter a protest. +Then the two young men were announced. + +Frank Tregear, having been known by the family as a boy, was Frank +to all of them,--as was Lady Mabel, Mabel to him, somewhat to the +disgust of the father and not altogether with the approbation of +Miss Cass. But Lady Mabel had declared that she would not be +guilty of the folly of changing old habits. Silverbridge, being +Silverbridge to all his own people, hardly seemed to have a +Christian name;--his godfathers and godmothers had indeed called +him Plantagenet;--but having only become acquainted with the family +since his Oxford days he was Lord Silverbridge to Lady Mabel. Lady +Mabel had not as yet become Mabel to him, but, as by her very +intimate friends she was called Mab, had allowed herself to be +addressed by him as Lady Mab. There was thus between them all +considerable intimacy. + +'I'm deuced glad to hear it,' said the Earl when dinner was +announced. For although he could not eat much, Lord Grex was +always impatient when the time of eating was at hand. Then he +walked down alone. Lord Silverbridge followed with his daughter, +and Frank Tregear gave his arm to Miss Cassewary. 'If that woman +can't clear her soup better than that, she might as well go to the +d-,' said the Earl;--upon which remark no one in the company made +any observation. As there were two men-servants in the room when +it was made the cook probably had the advantage of it. It may be +almost unnecessary to add that though the Earl had polished +manners for certain occasions he would sometimes throw them off in +the bosom of his own family. + +'My Lord,' said Miss Cassewary--she always called him 'My Lord'-- +'Lord Silverbridge is going to stand for the Duke's borough in the +conservative interest.' + +'I didn't know the Duke had a borough.' + +'He had one till he thought it proper to give it up,' said the son, +taking his father's part. + +'And you are going to pay him off for what he has done by standing +against him. It's just the sort of thing a son to do in these +days. If I had a borough Percival would go down and make radical +speeches there.' + +'There isn't a better Conservative in England than Percival,' said +Lady Mabel, bridling up. + +'Nor a worse son,' said the father. 'I believe he would do +anything he could lay his hand on to oppose me.' During the past +week there had been some little difference of opinion between the +father and the son as to the signing of a deed. + +'My father does not take it in bad part at all,' said +Silverbridge. + +'Perhaps he is ratting himself,' said the Earl. 'When a man lends +himself to a coalition he is as good as half gone.' + +'I do not think that in all England there is so thorough a Liberal +as my father,' said Lord Silverbridge. 'And when I say that he +doesn't take this badly, I don't mean that it doesn't vex him. I +know it vexes him. But he doesn't quarrel with me, he even wrote +to Barsetshire to say that all my expenses at Silverbridge were to +be paid.' + +'I call that bad politics,' said the Earl. + +'It seems to me to be very grand,' said Frank. + +'Perhaps, sir, you don't know what is good or what is bad in +politics,' said the Earl, trying to snub his guest. + +But it was difficult to snub Frank. 'I know a gentleman when I see +him, I think,' he said. 'Of course Silverbridge is right to be a +Conservative. Nobody has a stronger opinion about that than I +have. But the Duke is behaving so well that if I were he I should +almost regret it.' + +'And so I do,' said Silverbridge. + +When the ladies were gone the old Earl turned himself round the +fire, having filled his glass and pushed the bottles away from +him, as though he meant to leave the two young men to themselves. +He sat leaning with his head on his hand, looking the picture of +woe. It was now only nine o'clock, and there would be no more +whist at the Beaufort till eleven. There was still more than a +hour to be endured before the brougham would come to fetch him. 'I +suppose we shall have a majority,' said Frank, trying to rouse +him. + +'Who does "We" mean?' asked the Earl. + +'The Conservatives, of whom I take the liberty to call myself +one.' + +'It sounded as though you were a very influential member of the +party.' + +'I consider myself to be one of the party, and so I say "We".' + +Upstairs in the drawing-room Miss Cassewary did her duty loyally. +It was quite right that young ladies and young gentlemen should be +allowed to talk together, and very right indeed that such a young +gentleman as Lord Silverbridge should be allowed to talk so such a +young lady as Lady Mabel. What could be so nice as a marriage +between the heir of the house of Omnium and Lady Mabel Grex? Lady +Mabel looked indeed to be the elder,--but they were in truth the +same age. All the world acknowledged that Lady Mabel was very +clever and very beautiful and fit to be a Duchess. Even the Earl, +when Miss Cassewary hinted at the matter to him, grunted an +assent. Lady Mabel had already refused one or two not ineligible +offers, and it was necessary that something should be done. There +had been at one time a fear in Miss Cassewary's bosom lest her +charge should fall too deeply in love with Frank Tregear,--but Miss +Cassewary knew that whatever danger there might have been in that +respect had passed away. Frank was willing to talk to her, while +Mabel and Lord Silverbridge were in a corner together. + +'I shall be on tenterhooks now till I know how it is to be at +Silverbridge,' said the young lady. + +'It is very good of you to feel so much interest.' + +'Of course I feel an interest. Are you not one of us? When is to +be?' + +'They say that the elections will be over before the Derby.' + +'And which do you care for the most?' + +'I should like to pull off the Derby, I own.' + +'From what papa says, I should think the other event is more +probable.' + +'Doesn't the Earl stand to win on Prime Minister?' + +'I never know anything about his betting. But,--you know his way,-- +he said you were going to drop a lot of money like a-I can't quite +tell you what he likened you to.' + +'The Earl may be mistaken.' + +'You are not betting much, I hope.' + +'Not plunging. But I have a little money on.' + +'Don't get into the way of betting.' + +'Why:--what difference does it make,--to you?' + +'Is that kind, Lord Silverbridge?' + +'I meant to say that if I did make a mess of it you wouldn't care +about it.' + +'Yes, I should. I should care very much. I dare say you could lose +a great deal of money and care nothing about it.' + +'Indeed I could not.' + +'What would be a great deal of money to me. But you would want to +get it back again. And in that way you would be regularly on the +turf.' + +'And why not?' + +'I want to see better things from you.' + +'You ought not to preach against the turf, Lady Mab.' + +'Because of papa? But I am not preaching against the turf. If I +were such as you are I would have a horse or two myself. A man in +your position should do a little of everything. You should hunt +and have a yacht, and stalk deer and keep your own trainer at +Newmarket.' + +'I wish you would say all that to my father.' + +'Of course I mean if you can afford it. I like a man to like +pleasure. But I despise a man who makes a business of his +pleasures. When I hear that this man is the best whist-player in +London, and that man the best billiard-player, I always know that +they can do nothing else, and then I despise them.' + +'You needn't despise me, because I do nothing well,' said he, as +he got up to take his leave. + +'I do so hope you'll get the seat,--and win the Derby.' + +These were her last words to him as she wished him good-night. + + + +CHAPTER 10 + +Why if not Romeo if I Feel like Romeo? + +'That's nonsense, Miss Cass, and I shall,' said Lady Mabel. They +were together on the morning after the little dinner-party +described in the last chapter, in a small back sitting-room which +was supposed to be Lady Mabel's own, and the servant had just +announced that Mr Tregear was below. + +'Then I shall go down too,' said Miss Cassewary. + +'You'll do nothing of the kind. Will you please to tell me what it +is you are afraid of? Do you think that Frank is going to make +love to me again?' + +'No.' + +'Or that if I chose that he should I would let you stop me? He is +in love with somebody else,--and perhaps I am too. And we are two +paupers.' + +'My lord would not approve of it.' + +'If you know what my lord approves of and he disapproves you +understand a great deal better than I do. And if you mind what he +approves or disapproves, you care for his opinion a great deal +more than I do. My cousin is here now to talk to me,--about his +own affairs, and I mean to see him,--alone.' Then she left the +room, and went down to that in which Frank was waiting for her, +without the company of Miss Cassewary. + +'Do you really mean,' she said, after they had been together for +some minutes, 'that you had the courage to ask the Duke for his +daughter's hand?' + +'Why not?' + +'I believe you would dare to do anything.' + +'I couldn't very well take it without asking him.' + +'As I am not acquainted with the young lady I don't know how that +might be.' + +'And if I took her so, I should have to take her empty-handed.' + +'Which wouldn't suit;--would it?' + +'It wouldn't suit for her,--whose comforts and happiness are much +more to me than my own.' + +'No doubt! Of course you are terribly in love.' + +'Very thoroughly in love, I think I am.' + +'For the tenth time, I should say.' + +'For the second only. I don't regard myself as a monument of +constancy, but I think I am less fickle than some other people.' + +'Meaning me?' + +'Not especially.' + +'Frank, that is ill-natured, and almost unmanly,--and false also. +When have been I fickle? You say that there was one before with you. +I say that thee has never really been one with me at all. No one +knows that better than yourself. I cannot afford to be in love +till I am quite sure that the man is fit to be, and will be, my +husband. + +'I doubt sometimes whether you are capable of being in love with +anyone.' + +'I think I am,' she said, very gently. 'But I am at any rate +capable of not being in love till I wish it. Come, Frank, do not +quarrel with me. You know,--you ought to know,--that I should have +loved you had not been that such love would have been bad for both +of us.' + +'It is a kind of self-restraint I do not understand.' + +'Because you are not a woman.' + +'Why did you twit me with changing my love?' + +'Because I am a woman. Can't you forgive as much as that to me?' + +'Certainly. Only you must not think that I have been false because +I now love so dearly.' + +'I do not think you are false. I would do anything to help you if +there were anything I could do. But when you spoke so like a Romeo +of your love,--' + +'Why not like a Romeo, if I feel like a Romeo?' + +'But I doubt whether Romeo talked much to Rosaline of his love for +Juliet. But you shall talk to me of yours for Lady Mary, and I +will listen to you patiently and encourage you, and will not even +think of those former vows.' + +'The former vows were foolish.' + +'Oh--of course.' + +'You at least used to say so.' + +'I say so now, and they shall be as though they had never been +spoken. So you bearded the Duke in his den, and asked him for Lady +Mary's hand,--just as though you had been a young Duke yourself and +owned half a county?' + +'Just the same.' + +'And what did he say?' + +'He swore that it was impossible.-Of course I knew all that +before.' + +'How will it be now? You will not give it up?' + +'Certainly not.' + +'And Lady Mary?' + +'One human being can perhaps never answer for another with perfect +security.' + +'But you feel sure of her.' + +'I do.' + +'He, I should think, be very imperious.' + +'And so can she. The Pallisers are all obstinate.' + +'Is Silverbridge obstinate?' she asked. + +'Stiff-necked as a bull if he takes it into his head to be so.' + +'I shouldn't have thought it.' + +'No;--because he is so soft in his manner, and often finds it +easier to be led by others than to direct himself.' + +Then she remained silent for a few seconds. They were both +thinking of the same thing, and both wishing to speak of it. But +the words came to her first. 'I wonder what he thinks of me.' +Whereupon Tregear only smiled. 'I suppose he has spoken to you +about me?' + +'Why do you ask?' + +'Why?' + +'And why should I tell you? Suppose he should have said to me in +the confidence of friendship that he thinks you ugly and stupid.' + +'I am sure he has not said that. He has eyes to see and ears to +hear. But, though I am neither ugly nor stupid, he needn't like +me.' + +'Do you want him to like you?' + +'Yes, I do. Oh yes; you may laugh; but if I did not think that I +could be a good wife to him I would not take his hand even to +become the Duchess of Omnium.' + +'Do you mean that you love him, Mabel?' + +'No; I do not mean that. But I would learn to love him. You do not +believe that?' Here he again smiled and shook his head. 'It is as +I said before, because you are not a woman, and do not understand +how woman are trammelled. Do you think ill of me because I say +this?' + +'No, indeed.' + +'Do not think ill of me if you can help it, because you are almost +the only friend that I trust. I almost trust dear old Cass, but +not quite. She is old-fashioned and I shock her. As for other +women, there isn't one anywhere to whom I would say a word. Only +think how a girl such as I am is placed; or indeed any girl. You, +if you see a woman that you fancy, can pursue her, can win her and +triumph, or lose her and gnaw your heart;--at any rate you can do +something. You can tell her that you love her; can tell her so +again and again even though she should scorn you. You can set +yourself about the business you have taken in hand and can work +hard at it. What can a girl do?' + +'Girls work hard sometimes.' + +'Of course they do;--but everybody feels that they are sinning +against their sex. Of love, such as a man's is, a woman ought to +know nothing. How can she love with passion when she should never +give her love till it has been asked, and not then unless her +friends tell her that the thing is suitable? Love such as that to +me is out of the question. But, as it is fit that I should be +married, I wish to be married well.' + +'And you will love him after a fashion?' + +'Yes;--after a very sterling fashion. I will make his wishes my +wishes, his ways my ways, his party my party, his home my home, +his ambition my ambition,--his honour my honour.' As she said this +she stood up with her hands clenched and head erect, and her eyes +flashing. 'Do you not know me well enough to be sure that I should +be loyal to him?' + +'Yes;--I think that you would be loyal.' + +'Whether I loved him or not, he should love me.' + +'And you think that Silverbridge would do?' + +'Yes. I think that Silverbridge would do. You, no doubt, will say +that I am flying high.' + +'Not too high. Why should you not fly high? If I can justify +myself, surely I cannot accuse you.' + +'It is hardly the same thing, Frank. Of course there is not a girl +in London to whom Lord Silverbridge would not be the best match +that she could make. He has the choice of us all.' + +'Most girls would think twice before refusing him.' + +'Very few would think twice before accepting him. Perhaps he +wishes to add to his wealth by marrying richly,--as his father +did.' + +'No thought on that subject would ever trouble him. That will be +all as it happens. As soon as he takes sufficient fancy to a girl +he will ask her straight off. I do not say that he might not +change afterwards, but he would mean it at the time.' + +'If he had once said the word to me, he should not change. But +then what right have I to expect it? What has he ever said about +me?' + +'Very little. But had he said much I should not tell you.' + +'You are my friend,--but you are his too; and he, perhaps, is more +to you than I am. As his friend it may be your duty to tell him +all that I am saying. If so, I have been wrong.' + +'Do you think that I shall do that, Mabel?' + +'I do not know. Men are so strong in their friendships.' + +'Mine with you is the older, and the sweeter. Though we may not be +more than friends, I will say that it is the more tender. In my +heart of hearts, I do not think that Silverbridge could do +better.' + +'Thanks for that, Frank.' + +'I shall tell him nothing of you that can set him against you.' + +'And you would be glad to see me his wife?' she said. + +'As you must be somebody's wife, and not mine.' + +'I cannot be yours, Frank.' + +'And not mine,' he repeated. 'I will endeavour to be glad. Who can +explain his feelings in such a matter? Though I most truly love +the girl I hope to marry, yet my heart goes back to former things +and opens itself to past regrets.' + +'I know it all,' she whispered. + +'But you and I must be too wise to permit ourselves to be +tormented by such foolish melancholy.' As he said this he took +her hand, half with the purpose of bidding her good-bye, but +partly with the idea of giving some expression of tenderness of +his feelings. But as he did so, the door was opened, and the old +Earl shambled into the room. + +'What the deuce are you doing here?' he said. + +'I have been talking to Lady Mabel.' + +'For about an hour.' + +'Indeed I do not know for how long.' + +'Papa, he is going to be married.' When she said this Frank +Tregear turned round and looked at her almost in anger. + +'Going to be married, is he? And who is the fortunate woman? + +'I don't think he will let me tell you.' + +'Not yet, I think,' said Frank, gloomily. 'There is nothing +settled.' + +The old Earl looked puzzled, but Lady Mabel's craft had been +successful. If this objectionable young second-cousin had come +there to talk about his marriage with another young woman, the +conversation must have been innocent. 'Where is Miss Cassewary?' +asked the Earl. + +'I asked her not to come down with me because Frank wished to +speak to me about his own affairs. You have no objection to his +coming, papa?' + +There had been objections raised to any intimacy with Frank +Tregear, but all that was now nearly two years since. He had been +assured over and over again by Miss Cassewary that he need not be +afraid of Frank Tregear, and had in a sort of way assented to the +young man's visits. 'I think he might find something better to do +with his time than hanging about here all day.' Frank, shrugging +his shoulders, and having shaken hands with both the daughter and +father, took his hat and departed. 'Who is the girl?' asked the +Earl. + +'You heard him say that I was not to tell.' + +'Has she got money?' + +'I believe she will have a great deal.' + +'Then she is a great fool for her pains,' said the Earl, shambling +off again. + +Lady Mabel spent the greater part of the afternoon alone, +endeavouring to recall to her mind all that she had said to Frank +Tregear, and questioning herself as to the wisdom and truth of her +own words. She had intended to tell the truth,--but hardly perhaps +the whole truth. The life which was before her,--which it was +necessary that she should lead,--seemed to her to be so difficult! + She could not clearly see her way to be pure and good and +feminine, and at the same time wise. She had been false now,--so +far false that she had told her friend that she had never been in +love. But she was in love;--in love with him, Frank Tregear. She +knew it as thoroughly as it was possible for her to know +anything;--and had acknowledged it to herself a score of times. + +But, she could not marry him. And it was expected, nay, almost +necessary that she should marry someone. To that someone, how good +she would be! How she would strive by duty and attention, and if +possible by affection, to make up for the misfortune of her early +love. + +And so I hope that I have brought my cart to its appointed place +in the front, without showing too much of the horse. + + + +CHAPTER 11 + +Cruel + +For two or three days after the first scene between the Duke and +his daughter,--that scene in which she was forbidden either to see +or to write to her lover,--not a word was said at Matching about Mr +Tregear, nor were any steps taken towards curtailing her liberty +of action. She had said she would not write to him without telling +her father, and the Duke was too proud of the honour of his family +to believe it to be possible that she should deceive him. Nor was +it possible. Not only would her own idea of duty prevent her from +writing to her lover, although she had stipulated for the right to +do so in some possible emergency,--but, carried far beyond that in +her sense of what was right and wrong, she felt it now incumbent +on her to have no secret from her father at all. The secret, as +long as it had been a secret, had been a legacy from her mother,-- +and had been kept, at her lover's instance, during that period of +mourning for her mother in which it would, she thought, have been +indecorous that there should be any question of love or of giving +in marriage. It had been a burden to her, though a necessary +burden. She had been very clear that the revelation should be made +to her father, when it was made, by her lover. That had been +done,--and now it was open to her to live without any secrecy,--as +was her nature. She meant to cling to her lover. She was quite +sure of that. Nothing could divide her from him but his death or +hers,--or falseness on his part. But as to marriage, that would not +be possible till her father had assented. And as to seeing the +man,--ah, yes if she could do so with her father's assent! She +would not be ashamed to own her great desire to see him. She would +tell her father that all her happiness depended on seeing him, she +would not be coy in speaking of her love. But she would obey her +father. + +She had a strong idea that she would ultimately prevail,--and idea +also that that 'ultimately' should not be postponed to some +undefined middle-aged period in her life. As she intended to +belong to Frank Tregear, she thought it expedient that he should +have the best of her days as well as what might be supposed to be +the worst; and she therefore resolved that it would be her duty to +make her father understand that though she would certainly obey +him, she would look to be treated humanely by him, and not to be +made miserable for an indefinite term of years. + +The first word spoken between them on the subject,--the first word +after that discussion, began with him and was caused by his +feeling that her present life at Matching must be sad and lonely. +Lady Cantrip had again written that she would be delighted to take +her;--but Lady Cantrip was in London and must be in London, at any +rate when Parliament would again be sitting. A London life would +perhaps, at present, hardly suit Lady Mary. Then a plan had been +prepared which might be convenient. The Duke had a house at +Richmond, on the river, called The Horns. That should be lent to +Lady Cantrip, and Mary should there be her guest. So it was +settled between the Duke and Lady Cantrip. But as yet Lady Mary +knew nothing of the arrangement. + +'I think I shall go up to town tomorrow,' said the Duke to his +daughter. + +'For long?' + +'I shall be gone only one night. It is on your behalf that I am +going.' + +'On my behalf, papa?' + +'I have been writing to Lady Cantrip.' + +'Not about Mr Tregear?' + +'No;--not about Mr Tregear,' said the father with a mixture of +anger and solemnity in his tone. 'It is my desire to regard Mr +Tregear as though he did not exist.' + +'That is not possible, papa.' + +'I have alluded to the inconvenience of your position here.' + +'Why is it inconvenience?' + +'You are too young to be without a companion. It is not fit that +you should be much alone.' + +'I do not feel it.' + +'It is very melancholy for you, and cannot be good for you. They +will go down to The Horns so that you will not be absolutely in +London, and you will find Lady Cantrip a very nice person.' + +'I don't care for new people just now, papa,' she said. But to +this he paid but little heed; nor was she prepared to say that she +would not do as he directed. When therefore he left Matching, she +understood that he was going to prepare a temporary home for her. +Nothing further was said about Tregear. She was too proud to ask +that no mention of his name should be made to Lady Cantrip. And he +when he left the house did not think that he would find himself +called upon to allude to the subject. + +But when Lady Cantrip made some inquiry about the girl and her +habits,--asking what were her ordinary occupations, how she was +accustomed to pass her hours, to what she chiefly devoted +herself,--then at last with much difficulty the Duke did bring +himself to tell the story. 'Perhaps it is better that you should +know it all,' he said as he told it. + +'Poor girl! Yes, Duke, upon the whole it is better that I should +know it all,' said Lady Cantrip. 'Of course he will not come +here.' + +'Oh dear; I hope not.' + +'Nor to The Horns.' + +'I hope he will never see her again anywhere,' said the Duke. + +'Poor girl!' + +'Have I not been right? Is it not best to put an end to such a +thing at once?' + +'Certainly at once, if it has to be put an end to,--and can be put +an end to.' + +'It must be put an end to,' said the Duke, very decidedly. 'Do you +not see that it must be so? Who is Mr Tregear?' + +'I suppose they were allowed to be together?' + +'He was unfortunately intimate with Silverbridge, who took him +over to Italy. He has nothing; not even a profession.' Lady +Cantrip could not but smile when she remembered the immense wealth +of the man who was speaking to her;--and the Duke saw the smile and +understood it. 'You will understand what I mean, Lady Cantrip. If +this young man were in other respects suitable, of course I could +find an income for them. But he is nothing; just an idle seeker +for pleasure without the means of obtaining it.' + +'That is very bad.' + +'As for rank,' continued the Duke energetically, 'I do not think +that I am specially wedded to it. I have found myself as willing +to associate with those who are without it as with those who have +it. But for my child, I would wish her to mate with one of her own +class.' + +'It would be best.' + +'When a young man comes to me, though I believe him to be what is +called a gentleman, has neither rank, nor means, nor profession, +nor name, and asks for my daughter, surely I am right to say that +such a marriage shall not be thought of. Was I not right?' +demanded the Duke persistently. + +'But it is a pity that it should be so. It is a pity that they +should ever have come together.' + +'It is indeed, indeed to be lamented,--and I will own at once that +the fault was not hers. Though I must be firm in this, you are not +to suppose that I am angry with her. I have myself been to blame.' + This he said with a resolution that,--as he and his wife had been +one flesh,--all faults committed by her should, now that she was +dead, be accepted by him as his faults. 'It had not occurred to me +that as yet she would love any man.' + +'Has it gone deep with her, Duke?' + +'I fear that all things go deep with her.' + +'Poor girl!' + +'But they shall be kept apart! As long as your great kindness is +continued for her they shall be kept apart!' + +'I do not think that I should be found good at watching a young +lady.' + +'She will require no watching.' + +'Then of course they will not meet. She had better know that you +have told me.' + +'She shall know it.' + +'And let her know also that anything I can do to make her happy +shall be done. But, Duke, there is but one cure.' + +'Time you mean.' + +'Yes; time; but I did not mean time.' Then she smiled as she went +on. 'You must not suppose that I am speaking against my own sex if +I say that she will not forget Mr Tregear till someone else has +made himself agreeable to her. We must wait till she can go out a +little more into society. Then she will find out that there are +others in the world besides Mr Tregear. It so often is the case +that a girl's love means her sympathy for him who has chanced to +be nearest her.' + +The Duke as he went away thought very much of what Lady Cantrip +had said to him;--particularly of those last words. 'Till some one +else has made himself agreeable to her.' Was he to send his girl +into the world in order that she might find a lover? There was +something in the idea which was thoroughly distasteful to him. He +had not given his mind much to the matter, but had felt that a +woman should be sought for,--sought for and extracted, cunningly, +as it were, from some hiding-place, and not sent out into a market +to be exposed as for sale. In his own personal history there had +been a misfortune,--a misfortune, the sense of which he could +never, at any moment, have expressed to any ears, the memory of +which had been always buried deep in his own bosom,--but a +misfortune in that no such cunning extraction on his part had won +for him the woman to whose hands had been confided the strings of +his heart. His wife had undergone that process of extraction +before he had seen her, and his marriage with her had been a +matter of sagacious bargaining. He was now told that his daughter +must be sent out among young men in order that she might become +sufficiently fond of some special one to be regardless of Tregear. +There was a feeling that in doing so she must lose something of +the freshness of the bloom of her innocence. How was this transfer +of her love to be effected? Let her go here because she will meet +the heir of this wealthy house who may probably be smitten by her +charms; or there because that other young lordling would make a +fit husband for her. Let us contrive to throw her into the arms of +this man, or put her into the way of that man. Was his girl to be +exposed to this? Surely that method of bargaining to which he had +owed his own wife would be better than that. Let it be said,--only +he himself most certainly could not be the person to say it,--let +it be said to some man of rank and means and fairly good +character, 'Here is a wife for you with so many thousand pounds, +with beauty, as you can see for yourself, with rank and belongings +of the highest; very good in every respect;--only that as regards +her heart she thinks she has given it to a young man named +Tregear. No marriage there is possible; but perhaps the young lady +might suit you?' It was thus he had been married. There was an +absence in it of that romance which, though he had never +experienced it in his own life, was always present to his +imagination. His wife had often ridiculed him because he could +only live among figures and official details; but to her had not +been given the power of looking into a man's heart and feeling all +that was there. Yes;--in such bargaining for a wife, in such +bargaining for a husband, there could be nothing of the tremulous +delicacy of feminine romance; but it would be better than standing +at a stall in the market till the sufficient purchaser should +come. It never occurred to him that the delicacy, the innocence, +the romance, the bloom might all be preserved if he would give his +girl to the man whom she said she loved. Could he have modeled her +future course according to his own wishes, he would have had her +live a gentle life for the next three years, with a pencil perhaps +in her hand or a music-book before her;--and then come forth, +cleaned as it were by such quarantine from the impurity to which +she had been subjected. + +When he was back at Matching he at once told his daughter what he +had arranged for her, and then there took place a prolonged +discussion both as to his view of her future life and as to her +own. 'You did tell her then about Mr Tregear?' she asked. + +'As she is to have charge of you for a time I thought it best.' + +'Perhaps it is. Perhaps--you were afraid.' + +'No; I was not afraid, he said angrily. + +'You need not be afraid. I shall do nothing elsewhere that I would +not do here, and nothing anywhere without telling you.' + +'I know that I can trust you.' + +'But, papa, I shall always intend to marry Mr Tregear.' + +'No!' he exclaimed. + +'Yes;--always. I want you to understand exactly how it is. Nothing +you can do can separate me from him.' + +'Mary, that is very wicked.' + +'It cannot be wicked to tell the truth, papa. I mean to try to do +all you tell me. I shall not see him, or write to him,--unless +there should be some very particular reason. And if I did see him, +or write to him I would tell you. And of course I should not think +of--of marrying without your leave. But I shall expect you to let +me marry him.' + +'Never!' + +'Then I shall think you are--cruel; and you will break my heart.' + +'You should not call your father cruel.' + +'I hope you will not be cruel.' + +'I can never permit you to marry this man. It would be altogether +improper. I cannot allow you to say that I am cruel because I do +what I feel to be my duty. You will see other people.' + +'A great many perhaps.' + +'And will learn to,--to,--to forget him.' + +'Never! I will not forget him. I should hate myself if I thought +it possible. What would love be worth if it could be forgotten in +that way?' As he heard this he reflected whether his own wife, +this girl's mother, had ever forgotten her early love for that +Burgo Fitzgerald whom in her girlhood she had wished to marry. + +When he was leaving her she called him back again. 'There is one +other thing I think I ought to say, papa. If Lady Cantrip speaks +to me about Mr Tregear, I can only tell her what I have told you. +I shall never give him up.' When he heard this he turned angrily +from her, almost stamping his foot upon the ground, when she +quietly left the room. + +Cruel! She had told him that he would be cruel, if he opposed her +love. He thought he knew of himself that he could not be cruel,-- +even to a fly, even to a political opponent. There could be no +cruelty without dishonesty, and did he not always struggle to be +honest? Cruel to his own daughter! + + + +CHAPTER 12 + +At Richmond + +The pity of it! The pity of it! It was thus that Lady Cantrip +looked at it. From what the girl's father had said to her she was +disposed to believe that the malady had gone deep with her. 'All +things go deep with her,' he had said. And she too from other +sources had heard something of this girl. She was afraid that it +would go deep. It was a thousand pities! Then she asked herself +whether the marriage ought to be regarded as impossible. The Duke +had been very positive,--had declared again and again that it was +quite impossible, had so expressed himself as to make her aware +that he intended her to understand that he would not yield +whatever the sufferings of the girl might be. But Lady Cantrip +knew the world well and was aware that in such matters daughters +are apt to be stronger than their fathers. He had declared Tregear +to be a young man with very small means, and intent on such +pleasures as require great means for their enjoyment. No worse +character could be given to a gentleman who had proposed himself +as a son-in-law. But Lady Cantrip thought it possible that the +Duke might be mistaken in this. She had never seen Mr Tregear, but +she fancied that she had heard his name, and that the name was +connected with a character different from that which the Duke had +given him. + +Lady Cantrip, who at this time was a young-looking woman, not much +above forty, had two daughters, both of whom were married. The +younger about a year since had become the wife of Lord Nidderdale, +a middle-aged young man who had been long about town, a cousin of +the late Duchess, the heir to a marquisate, and a Member of +Parliament. The marriage had not been considered very brilliant; +but the husband was himself good-natured and pleasant, and Lady +Cantrip was fond of him. In the first place she went to him for +information. + +'Oh yes, I know him. He's one of our set at the Beargarden.' + +'Not your set now, I hope,' she said laughing. + +'Well;--I don't see so much of them as I used to. Tregear is not a +bad fellow at all. He's always with Silverbridge. When +Silverbridge does what Tregear tells him, he goes along pretty +straight. But unfortunately there's another man called Tifto, and +when Tifto is in the ascendant then Silverbridge is apt to go a +little astray.' + +'He's not in debt, then?' + +'Who?-Tregear? I should think he's the last man in the world to owe +a penny to anyone.' + +'Is he a betting man?' + +'Oh dear no; quite the other way up. He's a severe, sarcastic, +bookish sort of fellow,--a chap who knows everything and turns up +his nose at people who know nothing.' + +'Has he got anything of his own?' + +'Not much I should say. If he had had any money he would have +married Lady Mab Grex last year.' + +Lady Cantrip was inclined from what she now learned to think that +the Duke must be wrong about the young man. But before Lady Mary +joined her she made further inquiry. She too knew Lady Mabel, and +knowing Lady Mabel, she knew Miss Cassewary. She contrived to find +herself alone with Miss Cassewary, and asked some further +questions about Mr Tregear. 'He's a cousin of my Lord's,' said +Miss Cass. + +'So I thought. I wonder what sort of young man he is. He is a good +deal with Lord Silverbridge.' + +Then Miss Cassewary spoke her opinion very plainly. 'If Lord +Silverbridge has nobody worse about him than Mr Tregear he would +not come to much harm.' + +'I suppose he's not very well off?' + +'No;--certainly not. He will have a property of some kind, I +believe, when his mother dies. I think very well of Mr Tregear;-- +only I wish that he had a profession. But why are you asking about +him, Lady Cantrip?' + +'Nidderdale was talking to me about him and saying that he was so +much with Lord Silverbridge. Lord Silverbridge is going into +Parliament now, and, as it were, beginning the world, and it would +be a thousand pities that he should get into bad hands.' It may, +however, be doubted whether Miss Cassewary was hoodwinked by this +little story. + +Early in the second week of May the Duke brought his daughter up +to The Horns, and at the same time expressed his intention of +remaining in London. When he did so Lady Mary at once asked +whether she might not be with him, but he would not permit it. The +house in London would, he said, be more gloomy even than Matching. + +'I am quite ashamed of giving so much trouble,' Lady Mary said to +her new friend. + +'We are delighted to have you, my dear.' + +'But I know you have been obliged to leave London because I am +with you.' + +'There is nothing I like so much as this place, which your father +has been kind enough to lend us. As for London, there is nothing +now to make me like being there. Both my girls are married, and +therefore I regard myself as an old woman who has done her work. +Don't you think this place very much nicer than London at this +time of the year?' + +'I don't know London at all. I had only just been brought out when +poor mamma want abroad.' + +The life they led was very quiet, and most probably have been felt +to be dull by Lady Cantrip, in spite of her old age and desire for +retirement. But the place itself was very lovely. May of all the +months of the year is in England the most insidious, the most +dangerous, and the most inclement. A greatcoat can not be endured, +and without a greatcoat who can endure a May wind and live? But +of all months it is the prettiest. The grasses are then the +greenest, and the young foliage of the trees, while it has all the +glory and all the colour of spring vegetation, does not hide the +form of the branches as do the heavy masses of the larger leaves +which come in the advancing summer. And of all the villas near +London The Horns was the sweetest. The broad green lawn swept down +to the very margins of the Thames, which absolutely washed the +fringe of grass when the tide was high. And here, along the bank, +was a row of flowering ashes the drooping boughs of which in +places touched the water. It was one of those spots which when +they are first seen make the beholder feel that to be able to live +there and look at it always would be happiness for life. + +At the end of the week there came a visitor to see Lady Mary. A +very pretty carriage was driven up to the door of The Horns, and +the servant asked for Lady Mary Palliser. The owner of the +carriage was Mrs Finn. Now it must be explained to the reader that +there had never been any friendship between Mrs Finn and Lady +Cantrip, though the ladies had met each other. The great political +intimacy which had existed between the Duke and Lord Cantrip had +created some intimacy between their wives. The Duchess and Lady +Cantrip had been friends,--after a fashion. But Mrs Finn had never +been cordially accepted by those among whom Lady Cantrip chiefly +lived. When therefore the name was announced, the servant +expressly stating that the visitor had asked for Lady Mary, Lady +Cantrip, who was with her guest, had to bethink herself what she +would do. The Duke, who was at this time very full of wrath +against Mrs Finn, had not mentioned this lady's name when +delivering up the charge of his daughter to Lady Cantrip. At this +moment it occurred to her that not improbably Mrs Finn would cease +to be included in the intimacies of the Palliser family from the +time of the death of the Duchess,---that the Duke would not care to +maintain the old relations, and that he would be as little anxious +to do it for his daughter as for himself. If so, could it be right +that Mrs Finn should come down her, to a house which was now in +the occupation of a lady with whom she was not on inviting terms, +in order that she might thus force herself on the Duke's daughter? +Mrs Finn had not left her carriage, but had sent to ask of Lady +Mary could see her. In all this there was considerable +embarrassment. She looked round at her guest, who had at once +risen from her chair. 'Would you wish to see her?' asked Lady +Cantrip. + +'Oh yes, certainly.' + +'Have you seen her since,--since you came home from Italy?' + +'Oh dear, yes! She was down at Matching when poor mamma died. And +papa persuaded her to remain afterwards. Of course I will see +her.' Then the servant was desired to ask Mrs Finn to come in;-- +and while this was being done Lady Cantrip retired. + +Mrs Finn embraced her young friend, and asked after her welfare, +and after the welfare of the house in which she was staying,--a +house with which Mrs Finn had been well acquainted,--and said half- +a-dozen pretty little things in her own quiet pretty way, before +she spoke of the matter which had really brought her to The Horns +on that day. + +'I have had a correspondence with your father, Mary,' + +'Indeed.' + +'And unfortunately one that has been far from agreeable to me.' + +'I am sorry for that, Mrs Finn.' + +So am I, very sorry. I may say with perfect truth that there is no +man in the world, except my own husband, for whom I feel so +perfect an esteem as I do for your father. If it were not that I +do not like to be carried away by strong language, I would speak +of more than esteem. Through your dear mother I have watched his +conduct closely, and have come to think that perhaps no other man +at the same time so just and patriotic. Now he is very angry with +me,--and most unjustly angry.' + +'Is it about me?' + +'Yes;--it is about you. Had it not been altogether about you I +would not have troubled you.' + +'And about-?' + +'Yes;--about Mr Tregear also. When I tell you that there has been a +correspondence I must explain that I have written one long letter +to the Duke, and that in answer I have received a very short one. +That his been the whole correspondence. Here is your father's +letter to me.' Then she brought out of her pocket a note, which +Lady Mary read,--covered with blushes as she did so. The note was +as follows: + +'The Duke of Omnium understands from Mrs Finn's +letter that Mrs Finn, while she was the Duke's guest at +Matching, was aware of a certain circumstance affecting +the Duke's honour and happiness,--which circumstance she +certainly did not communicate to the Duke. The Duke +thinks that the trust which had been placed in Mrs Finn +should have made such a communication imperative. The +Duke feels that no further correspondence between +himself and Mrs Finn on the matter could lead to any +good result.' + +'Do you understand it?' asked Mrs Finn. + +'I think so.' + +'It simply means this,--that when at Matching he had thought me +worthy of having for a time the charge of you and your welfare, +that he had trusted me, who was the friend of your dear mother, to +take for time in regard to you the place which had been so +unhappily left vacant by her death; and it means also that I +deceived and betrayed that trust by being privy to an engagement +on your part, of which he disapproves, and of which he was not +then aware.' + +'I suppose he does mean that.' + +'Yes, Lady Mary; that is what he means. And he means further to +let me know that as I did so foully betray the trust which he had +placed in me,--that as I had consented to play the part of +assistant to you in that secret engagement,--therefore he casts me +off as altogether unworthy of his esteem and acquaintance. It is +as though he had told me in so many words that among women he had +known none more vile or more false than I.' + +'Not that, Mrs Finn.' + +'Yes, that;--all of that. He tells me that, and then says that +there shall be no more words spoken or written about it. I can +hardly submit to so stern a judgement. You know the truth, Lady +Mary.' + +'Do not call me Lady Mary. Do not quarrel with me.' + +'If your father has quarrelled with me, it would not be fit that +you and I should be friends. Your duty to him would forbid it. I +should not have come to you now did I not feel that I am bound to +justify myself. The thing of which I am accused is so repugnant to +me, that I am obliged to do something and to say something, even +though the subject itself be one on which I would willing be +silent.' + +'What can I do, Mrs Finn?' + +'It was Mr Tregear who first told me that your father was very +angry with me. He knew what I had done and why, and he was bound +to tell me in order that I might have an opportunity of setting +myself right with the Duke. Then I wrote and explained +everything,--how you had told me of the engagement, and how I then +urged Mr Tregear that he should not keep such a matter secret from +your father. In answer to my letter I have received--that.' + +'Shall I write and tell papa?' + +'He should be made to understand that from the moment in which I +heard of the engagement I was urgent with you and with Mr Tregear +that he should be informed of it. You will remember what passed.' + +'I remember it all.' + +'I did not conceive it to my duty to tell the Duke myself, but I +did conceive it to be my duty to see that he should be told. Now +he writes to as though I had known the secret from the first, and +as though I had been concealing it from him at the very moment in +which he was asking me to remain at Matching on your behalf. That +I consider to be hard,--and unjust. I cannot deny what he says I +did know of it while I was at Matching, for it was at Matching +that you told me. But he implies that I knew it before. When you +told me your story I did feel that it was my duty to see that the +matter was not kept longer from him;--and I did my duty. Now your +father takes it upon himself to rebuke me,--and takes upon himself +at the same time to forbid me to write to him again!' + +'I will tell him, Mrs Finn.' + +'Let him understand this. I do not wish to write to him again. +After what has passed I cannot say I wish to see him again. But I +think he should acknowledge to me that he has been mistaken. He +need not then fear that I shall trouble him with any reply. But I +shall know that he has acquitted me of a fault of which I cannot +bear to think I should be accused.' Then she took a somewhat +formal though still an affectionate farewell to the girl. + +'I want to see papa as soon as possible,' said Lady Mary when she +was again with Lady Cantrip. The reason for her wish was soon +given, and then the whole story told. 'You do not think that she +should have gone to papa at once?' Lady Mary asked. It was a point +of moral law on which the elder woman, who had girls of her own, +found it hard to give an immediate answer. It certainly is +expedient that parents should know at once of any engagement by +which their daughters may seek to contract themselves. It is +expedient that they should be able to prevent any secret +contracts. Lady Cantrip felt strongly that Mrs Finn having +accepted the confidential charge of the daughter, could not, +without gross betrayal of trust, allow herself to be the +depositary of such a secret. 'But she did not allow herself,' said +Lady Mary, pleading for her friend. + +'But she left the house without telling him, my dear.' + +'But it was because of what she did that he was told.' + +'That is true; but I doubt whether she should have left him an +hour in ignorance.' + +'But it was I who told her. She would have betrayed me.' + +'She was not a fit recipient for your confidence, Mary. But I do +not wish to accuse her. She seems a high-minded woman, and I think +that your papa has been hard upon her.' + +'And mamma knew it always,' said Mary. To this Lady Cantrip could +give no answer. Whatever the cause for anger the Duke might have +against Mrs Finn, there had been cause for much more against his +wife. But she had freed herself from all accusation by death. + +Lady Mary wrote to her father, declaring that she was most +particularly anxious to see him and talk to him about Mrs Finn. + + + +CHAPTER 13 + +The Duke's Injustice + +No advantage whatever was obtained by Lady Mary's interview with +her father. He persisted that Mrs Finn had been untrue to him when +she left Matching without telling him all that she knew of his +daughter's engagement with Mr Tregear. No doubt by degrees that +idea which he at first entertained was expelled from his heat,--the +idea that she had been cognizant of the whole thing before she +came to Matching; but even this was done so slowly that there was +no moment at which he became aware of any lessened feeling of +indignation. To his thinking she had betrayed her trust, and he +could not be got by his daughter to say that he would forgive her. +He certainly could not be got to say that he would apologise for +the accusation he had made. It was nothing less that his daughter +asked; and he could hardly refrain himself from anger when she +asked it. 'There should not have been a moment,' he said, 'before +she came and told me and told me all.' Poor Lady Mary's position +was certainly uncomfortable enough. The great sin,--the sin which +was so great that to have known it for a day without revealing it +was in itself a damning sin on the part of Mrs Finn,--was Lady +Mary's sin. And she differed so entirely from her father as to +think that the sin of her own was a virtue, and that to have +spoken of it to him would have been, on the part of Mrs Finn, a +treachery so deep that no woman ought to have forgive it! When he +spoke of a matter which deeply affected his honour,--she could +hardly refrain from asserting that his honour was quite safe in +his daughter's hands. And when in his heart he declared that it +should have been Mrs Finn's first care to save him from disgrace, +Lady Mary did break out, 'Papa there could be no disgrace.' 'That +for a moment shall be laid aside,' he said, with that manner by +which even his peers in council had never been able not to be +awed, 'but if you communicate with Mrs Finn at all you must be +made to understand that I regard her conduct as inexcusable.' + +Nothing had been gained, and poor Lady Mary was compelled to write +a few lines which were to her most painful in writing. + +'MY DEAR MRS FINN, +'I have seen papa, and he thinks that you +ought to have told him when I told you. It occurs to me +that it would have been a cruel thing to do, and most +unfair to Mr Tregear, who was quite willing to go to +papa, and had only put off doing so because of poor +mamma's death. As I had told mamma, of course it was +right that he should tell papa. Then I told you, +because you were so kind to me! I am so sorry that I +have got you into this trouble; but what can I do? + +'I told him I must write to you. I suppose it is +better that I should, although what I have to say is so +unpleasant. I hope it will all blow over in time, +because I love you dearly. You may be quite sure of one +thing,--that I shall never change.' (In this assurance +the writer was alluding not to her friendship for her +friend but her love for her lover,--and so the friend +understood her) I hope things will be settled some day, +and then we may be able to meet. + + 'Your very affectionate +Friend, + 'MARY PALLISER' + +Mrs Finn, when she received this, was alone in her house in Park +Lane. Her husband was down in the North of England. On this +subject she had not spoken to him, fearing that he would feel +himself bound to take some steps to support his wife under the +treatment she had received. Even though she must quarrel with the +Duke, she was most anxious that her husband should not be +compelled to do so. Their connection had been political rather +than personal. There were many reasons why there should be no open +cause of disruption between them. But her husband was hot-headed, +and, were al this to be told to him and that letter shown to him +which the Duke had written, there would be words between him and +the Duke which would probably make impossible any further +connection between them. + +It troubled her very much. She was by no means not alive to the +honour of the Duke's friendship. Throughout her intimacy with the +Duchess she had abstained from pressing herself on him, not +because she had been indifferent about him, but that she had +perceived that she might make her way with him better by standing +aloof than by thrusting herself forward. And she had known that +she had been successful. She could tell herself with pride that her +conduct towards him had been always such as would become a lady of +high spirit and fine feeling. She knew that she had deserved well +of him, that in all her intercourse with him, with his uncle, and +with his wife, she had given much and had taken little. She was +the last woman in the world to let a word on such a matter pass +her lips; but not the less was she conscious of her merit towards +him. And she had been led to act as she had done by sincere +admiration for the man. In all their political troubles, she had +understood him better than the Duchess had done. Looking on from a +distance she had understood the man's character as it had come to +her both from his wife and from her own husband. + +That he was unjust to her,--cruelly unjust, she was quite sure. He +accused her of intentional privity as to a secret which it +behooved him to know, and of being a party to that secrecy. +Whereas from the moment in which she had heard the secret she had +determined that it must be made known to him. She felt that she +had deserved his good opinion in all things, but in nothing more +than in the way in which she had acted in this matter. And yet he +had treated her with an imperious harshness which amounted to +insolence. What a letter it was that he had written to her! The +very tips of her ears tingled with heat as she read again to +herself. None of the ordinary courtesies of epistle-craft had been +preserved either in the beginning or in the end. It was worse even +than if he had called her, Madam without an epithet. 'The Duke +understands--' 'The Duke thinks--' 'The Duke feels--' feels that he +should not be troubled with either letters or conversation; the +upshot of it all being that the Duke declared her to have shown +herself unworthy of being treated like a lady! And this is after +all she had done! + +She would not bear it. That at present was all that she could say +to herself. She was not angry with Lady Mary. She did not doubt +but that the girl had done the best in her power to bring her +father to reason. But because Lady Mary had failed, she, Mrs Finn, +was not going to put up with so grievous an injury. And she was +forced to bear all this alone! There was none with whom she could +communicate;--no one from whom she could ask advice. She would not +bring her husband into a quarrel which might be prejudicial to his +position as a member of his political party. There was no one else +to whom she would tell the secret of Lady Mary's love. And yet she +could not bear this injustice done to her. + +Then she wrote as follows to the Duke: + +'Mrs Finn presents her compliments to the Duke of +Omnium. Mrs Finn finds it to be essential to her that +she should see the Duke in reference to his letter to +her. If his Grace will let her know on what day and at +what hour he will be kind enough to call on her, Mrs +Finn will be at home to receive him. +'Park Lane. Thursday 12th May, 18-' + + + +CHAPTER 14 + +The New Member for Silverbridge + +Lord Silverbridge was informed that it would be right that he +should go down to Silverbridge a few days before the election, to +make himself known to the electors. As the day for the election +drew near it was understood that there would be no other +candidate. The Conservative side was the popular side among the +tradesmen of Silverbridge. Silverbridge had been proud to be +honoured by the services of the heir of the House of Omnium, even +while that heir had been a Liberal,--had regarded it as so much a +matter of course that the borough should be at his disposal that +no question as to politics had ever arisen while he retained the +seat. And had the Duke chosen to continue to send them Liberals, +one after another, when he went into the House of Lords, there +would have been no question as to the fitness of the man, or men +so sent. Silverbridge had been supposed to be a Liberal as a +matter of course;--because the Pallisers were Liberals. But when +the matter was remitted to themselves;--when the Duke declared that +he would not interfere any more, for it was thus that the borough +had obtained its freedom;--then the borough began to feel +conservative predilections. 'If his Grace really does mean us to +do just what we please ourselves which is a thing we never thought +of asking from his Grace, then we find, having turned the matter +over among ourselves, that we are upon the whole Conservative.' +In this spirit the borough had elected a certain Mr Fletcher; but +in doing so the borough had still a shade of fear that it would +offend the Duke. The House of Palliser, Gatherum Castle, the Duke +of Omnium, and this special Duke himself, were all so great in the +eyes of the borough, that the first and only strong feeling in the +borough was the one of duty. The borough did not altogether enjoy +being enfranchised. But when the Duke had spoken once, twice, and +thrice, then with a hesitating heart the borough returned Mr +Fletcher. Now Mr Fletcher was wanted elsewhere, having been +persuaded to stand for the county, and it was a comfort to the +borough that it could resettle itself beneath the warmth of the +wings of the Pallisers. + +So the matter stood when Lord Silverbridge was told that his +presence in the borough for a few hours would be taken as a +compliment. Hitherto no one knew him at Silverbridge. During his +boyhood he had not been much at Gatherum Castle, and had done his +best to eschew the place since he had ceased to be a boy. All the +Pallisers took a pride in Gatherum Castle, but they all disliked +it. 'Oh yes, I'll go down,' he said to Mr Morton, who was up in +town. 'I needn't go to the great barrack I suppose.' The great +barrack was the Castle. 'I'll put up at the Inn.' Mr Morton begged +the heir to come to his own house; but Silverbridge declared that +he would prefer the Inn, and so the matter was settled. He was to +meet sundry politicians,--Mr Spurgeon and Mr Sprout and Mr Du +Boung,--who would like to be thanked for what they had been done. +But who was to go with him? He would naturally have asked Tregear, +but from Tregear he had for the last week or two been, not perhaps +estranged, but separated. He had been much taken up with racing. +He had gone down to Chester with Major Tifto, and under the +Major's auspicious influences had won a little money;--and now he +was very anxiously preparing himself for the Newmarket Second +Spring Meeting. He had therefore passed much of his time with +Major Tifto. And when this visit to Silverbridge was pressed on +him he thoughtlessly asked Tifto to go with him. Tifto was +delighted. Lord Silverbridge was to be met at Silverbridge by +various well-known politicians from the neighbourhood, and Major +Tifto was greatly elated by the prospect of such an introduction +into the political world. + +But no sooner had the offer been made by Lord Silverbridge than he +saw his own indiscretion. Tifto was very well for Chester or +Newmarket, very well perhaps for the Beargarden, but not very well +for an electioneering expedition. An idea came to the young +nobleman that if it should be his fate to represent Silverbridge +in Parliament for the next twenty years, it would be well that +Silverbridge should entertain respecting him some exalted +estimation,--that Silverbridge should be taught to regard him as a +fit son of his father and a worthy specimen of the British +political nobility. Struck by serious reflection of this nature he +did open his mind to Tregear. 'I am very fond of Tifto,' he said, +'but I don't know whether he's just the sort of fellow to take +down to an election.' + +'I should think not,' said Tregear very decidedly. + +'He's a very good fellow, you know,' said Silverbridge. 'I don't +know an honester man than Tifto anywhere.' + +'I dare say. Or rather, I don't dare say. I know nothing about the +Major's honesty, and I doubt whether you do. He rides very well.' + +'What has that to do with it?' + +'Nothing on earth. Therefore I advise you not to take him to +Silverbridge.' + +'You needn't preach.' + +'You may call it what you like. Tifto would not hold his tongue, +and there is nothing he could say there which would not be to your +prejudice.' + +'Will you go?' + +'If you wish it,' said Tregear. + +'What will the governor say?' + +'That must be your look out. In a political point of view I shall +not disgrace you. I shall hold my tongue and look like a +gentleman,--neither of which is in Tifto's power.' + +And so it was settled, that on the day but one after this +conversation Lord Silverbridge and Tregear should go together to +Silverbridge. But the Major, when on that same night his noble +friend's altered plans were explained to him, did not bear the +disappointment with equanimity. 'Isn't that a little strange?' he +said, becoming very red in the face. + +'What do you call strange?' said the Lord. + +'Well;--I'd made all my arrangements. When a man has been asked to +do a thing like that, he doesn't like to be put off.' + +'The truth is, Tifto, when I came to think of it, I saw that, +going down to these fellows about Parliament and all that sort of +thing, I ought to have a political atmosphere, and not a racing or +a betting or a hunting atmosphere.' + +'There isn't a man in London who cares more about politics than I +do,--and not many perhaps who understand them better. To tell you +the truth, my Lord, I think you are throwing me over.' + +'I'll make it up to you,' said Silverbridge, meaning to be kind. +'I'll go down to Newmarket with you and stick to you like wax.' + +'No doubt you'll do that,' said Tifto, who, like a fool, failed to +see where his advantage lay. 'I can be useful at Newmarket, and so +you'll stick to me.' + +'Look here, Major Tifto,' said Silverbridge; 'if you are +dissatisfied, you and I can easily separate ourselves.' + +'I am not dissatisfied,' said the little man, almost crying. + +'Then don't talk as though you were. As to Silverbridge, I shall +not want you there. When I asked you I was only thinking what +would be pleasant to both of us; but since that I have remembered +that business must be business.' Even this did not reconcile the +angry little man, who as he turned away declared himself within +his own little bosom that he would 'take it out of Silverbridge +for that.' + +Lord Silverbridge and Tregear went down to the borough together, +and on the journey something was said about Lady Mary,--and +something also about Lady Mabel. 'From the first, you know,' said +Lady Mary's brother, 'I never thought it would answer.' + +'Why not answer?' + +'Because I knew the governor would not have it. Money and rank and +those sort of things are not particular charming to me. But still +things should go together. It is all very silly for you and me to +be pals, but of course it will be expected that Mary should marry +some--' + +'Some swell?' + +'Some swell if you would have it.' + +'You mean to call yourself a swell.' + +'Yes I do,' said Silverbridge, with considerable resolution. 'You +ought not to make yourself disagreeable, because you understand +all about it as well as anybody. Chance has me the eldest son of a +Duke and heir to an enormous fortune. Chance has made my sister +the daughter of a Duke, and an heiress also. My intimacy ought to +be proof at any rate to you that I don't on that account set +myself up above other fellows. But when you come to talk of +marriage of course it is a serious thing.' + +'But you have told me more than once that you have no objection on +your own score.' + +'Nor have I.' + +'You are only saying what the Duke will think.' + +'I am telling you that it is impossible, and I told you so before. +You and she will be kept apart, and so--' + +'And so she'll forget me.' + +'Something of that kind.' + +'Of course I have to trust her for that. If she forgets me, well +and good.' + +'She needn't forget you. Lord bless me! you talk as though the +thing were not done every day. You'll hear some morning that she +is going to marry some fellow who has a lot of money and a good +position; and what difference will it make then whether she has +forgotten you or no? It might almost have been supposed that the +young man had been acquainted with his mother's history.' + +After this there was a pause, and there arose some conversation +about other things, and a cigar was smoked. Then Tregear returned +once more to the subject. 'There is one thing I wish to say about +it all.' + +'What is that?' + +'I want you to understand that nothing else will turn me away from +my intention but such a marriage on her part as that of which you +speak. Nothing that your father can do will turn me.' + +'She can't marry without his leave.' + +'Perhaps not.' + +'That he'll never give,--and I don't suppose you look forward to +waiting till his death.' + +'If he sees her happiness really depends on it he will give his +leave. It all depends on that. If I judge your father rightly, +he's just as soft-hearted as other people. The man who holds out +is not the man of the firmest opinion, but the man of the hardest +heart.' + +'Somebody will talk Mary over.' + +'If so, the thing is over. It all depends on her.' Then he went +on to tell his friend that he had spoken of his engagement with +Lady Mabel. 'I have mentioned it to no soul but to your father and +her.' + +'Why to her?' + +'Because we were friends together as children. I never had a +sister, but she has been more like a sister to me than anyone +else. Do you object to her knowing it?' + +'Not particularly. It seems to me now that everybody knows +everything. There are no longer any secrets.' + +'She is a special friend.' + +'Of yours,' said Silverbridge. + +'And of yours,' said Tregear. + +'Well, yes;--in a sort of way. She is the jolliest girl I know.' + +'Take her all round, for beauty, intellect, good sense, and fun at +the same time. I don't know anyone equal to her.' + +'It's a pity you didn't fall in love with her.' + +'We knew each other too early for that. And then she has not a +shilling. I should think myself dishonest if I did not tell you +that I could not afford any girl who hadn't money. A man must +live,--and a woman too.' + +At the station they were met by Mr Spurgeon and Mr Sprout, who, +with many apologies for the meanness of such entertainment, took +them up to the George and Vulture, which was supposed for the +nonce to be the Conservative hotel in the town. Here they were met +by other men of importance in the borough, and among them by Mr Du +Boung. Now Mr Sprout and Mr Spurgeon were Conservatives but Mr Du +Boung was a strong Liberal. + +'We are, all of us, particularly glad to see your Lordship among +us,' said Mr Du Boung. + +'I have told his Lordship how perfectly satisfied you are to see +the borough in his Lordship's hands,' said Mr Spurgeon. + +'I am sure it could not be in better,' said Mr Du Boung. 'For +myself I an quite willing to postpone any particular shade of +politics to the advantage of having your father's son as our +representative.' This Mr Du Boung said with much intention of +imparting both grace and dignity to the occasion. He thought that +he was doing a great thing for the House of Omnium, and that the +House of Omnium ought to know it. + +'That's very kind of you,' said Lord Silverbridge, who had not +read as carefully as he should have done the letters which had +been sent to him, and did not therefore quite understand the +position. + +'Mr Du Boung had intended to stand himself,' said Mr Sprout. + +'But retired in your lordship's favour,' said Mr Spurgeon. + +'I thought you gave it up because there was hardly a footing for +a Liberal,' said his Lordship, very imprudently. + +'The borough was always liberal till the last election,' said Mr +Du Boung, drawing himself up. + +'The borough wishes on this occasion to be magnanimous,' said Mr +Sprout, probably having on his mind some confusion between +magnanimity and unanimity. + +'As your Lordship is coming among us, the borough is anxious to +sink politics altogether for the moment,' said Mr Spurgeon. There +had no doubt been a compact between the Spurgeon and the Sprout +party and the Du Boung party in accordance with which it had been +arranged that Mr Du Boung should be entitled to a certain amount +of glorification in the presence of Lord Silverbridge. + +'And it was in compliance with that wish on the part of the +borough, my Lord,' said Mr Du Boung,--'as to which my own feelings +were quite as strong as that of any other gentleman in the +borough,--that I conceived it to be my duty to give way.' + +'His Lordship is quite aware how much he owes to Mr Du Boung,' +said Tregear. Whereupon Lord Silverbridge bowed. + +'And now what are we to do?' said Lord Silverbridge. + +Then there was a little whispering between Mr Sprout and Mr +Spurgeon. 'Perhaps, Mr Du Boung,' said Spurgeon, 'his lordship had +better call first on Dr Tempest.' + +'Perhaps,' said the injured brewer, 'as it is to be a party affair +after all I had better retire from the scene.' + +'I thought all that was to be given up,' said Tregear. + +'Oh, certainly,' said Sprout. 'Suppose we go to Mr Walker first?' + +'I'm up to anything,' said Lord Silverbridge; 'but of course +everybody understands that I am a Conservative.' + +'Oh dear, yes,' said Spurgeon. + +'We are all aware of that,' said Sprout. + +'And very glad we've all of us been to hear of it,' said the +landlord. + +'Though there are some in the borough who could have wished, my +Lord, that you had stuck to the old Palliser politics,' said Mr Du +Boung. + +'But I haven't stuck to the Palliser politics. Just at present I +think that order and all that sort of thing should be maintained.' + +'Hear, hear!' said the landlord. + +'And now, as I have expressed my views generally, I am willing to +go anywhere.' + +'Then we'll go to Mr Walker first,' said Spurgeon. Now it was +understood that in the borough, among those who really had +opinions of their own, Mr Walker the old attorney stood first as a +Liberal, and Dr Tempest the old rector as a Conservative. + +'I am glad to see your Lordship in the town which gives you its +name,' said Mr Walker, who was a hale old gentleman with silvery- +white hair, over seventy years of age. 'I proposed your father for +this borough on, I think, six or seven different occasions. They +used to go in and out then whenever they changed their offices.' + +'We hope you'll propose Lord Silverbridge now,' said Mr Spurgeon. + +'Oh; well;--yes. He's his father's son, and I never knew anything +but good of the family. I wish you were going to sit on the same +side, my Lord.' + +'Times are changed a little, perhaps,' said his Lordship. + +'The matter is not to be discussed now,' said the old attorney. +'I understand that. Only I hope you'll excuse me if I say that +a man ought to get up very early in the morning if he means to +see further into politics than your father.' + +'Very early indeed,' said Mr Du Boung, shaking his head. + +'That's all right,' said Lord Silverbridge. + +'I'll propose you, my Lord. I need not wish you success, because +there is no one to stand against you.' + +Then they went to Dr Tempest, who was also an old man. 'Yes, my +Lord, I shall be proud to second you,' said the rector. 'I didn't +think that I should ever do that to one of your name of +Silverbridge.' + +'I hope you think I've made a change for the better,' said the +candidate. + +'You've come over to my school of course, and I suppose I am bound +to think that a change for the better. Nevertheless I have a kind +of idea that certain people ought to be Tories and that other +certain people ought to be Whigs. What does your father say about +it?' + +'My father wishes me to be in the House, and that he has not +quarrelled with me you may know by the fact that had there been a +contest he would have paid my expenses.' + +'A father generally has to do that whether he approves of what his +son is about or not,' said the caustic old gentleman. + +There was nothing else to be done. They all went back to the +hotel, and Mr Spurgeon with Mr Sprout and the landlord clerk drank +a glass of sherry at the candidate's expense, wishing him +political long life and prosperity. There was no one else whom it +was thought necessary that the candidate should visit, and the +next day he returned to town with the understanding that on the +day appointed in the next week he should come back again to be +elected. + +And on the appointed day the two young men again went to +Silverbridge, and after he had been declared duly elected, the new +Member of Parliament made his first speech. There was a meeting in +the town-hall and many were assembled anxious to hear,--not the +lad's opinions, for which the probably nobody cared much,--but the +tone of his voice and to see his manner. Of what sort was the +eldest son of the man of whom the neighbourhood had been so proud? + For the county was in truth proud of their Duke. Of this son whom +they had now made a Member of Parliament they at present only knew +that he had been sent away from Oxford,--not so very long ago,--for +painting the Dean's house scarlet. The speech was not very +brilliant. He told them that he was very much obliged to them for +the honour they had done him. Though he could not follow exactly +his father's political opinions,--he would always have before his +eyes his father's honesty and independence. He broke down two or +three times and blushed, and repeated himself, and knocked his +words a great deal too quickly one on top of another. But it was +taken very well, and was better than expected. When it was over he +wrote a line to the Duke. + +'MY DEAR FATHER, + +'I am Member of Parliament for Silverbridge,--as you +used to be in the days which I can first remember. I +hope you won't think that it does not make me unhappy +to have differed from you. Indeed it does. I don't +think that anybody has ever done so well in politics as +you have. But when a man does take up an opinion, I +don't see how he can help himself. Of course I could +have kept myself quiet;--but then you wished me to be in +the House. They were all very civil to me at +Silverbridge, but there was very little said. + +'Your affectionate Son, +'SILVERBRIDGE.' + + + +CHAPTER 15 + +The Duke Receives a Letter,--and Writes One. + +The Duke, when he received Mrs Finn's note, demanding an +interview, thought much upon the matter before he replied. She had +made her demand as though the Duke had been no more than any other +gentleman, almost as though she had a right to call upon him to +wait upon her. He understood and admitted the courage of this;--but +nevertheless he would not go to her. He had trusted her with that +which of all things was the most sacred to him, and she had +deceived him! He wrote her as follows: + +'The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to +Mrs Finn. As the Duke thinks that no good could result +either to Mrs Finn or to himself from an interview, he +is obliged to say that he would rather not do as Mrs +Finn has requested. + +'But for the strength of this conviction the Duke +would have waited upon Mrs Finn most willingly.' + +Mrs Finn when she received this was not surprised. She had felt +sure that such would be the nature of the Duke's answer; but she +was also sure that is such an answer did come, she would not let +the matter rest. The accusation was so bitter to her that she +would spare nothing in defending herself,--nothing in labour and +nothing in time. She would make him know that she was in earnest. +As she could not succeed in getting into his presence she must do +so by letter,--and she wrote her letter, taking two days to think +of her words. + +'May 18, 18- + +'MY DEAR DUKE OF OMNIUM, + +'As you will not come to me, I must trouble your +Grace to read what I fear will be a long letter. For it +is absolutely necessary that I should explain my +conduct to you. That you have condemned me I am sure +you will not deny;--nor that you have punished me as far +as the power of punishment was in your hands. If I can +succeed in making you see that you have judged me +wrongly, I think you will admit you error and beg my +pardon. You are not one who from your nature can be +brought easily to do this; but you are the one who will +certainly do it if you can be made to feel that by not +doing so you would be unjust. I am myself so clear as +to my own rectitude of purpose and conduct, and I am so +well aware of your perspicuity, that I venture to +believe that if you will read this letter I shall +convince you. + +'Before I go any further I will confess that the +matter is one,--I was going to say almost of life and +death to me. Circumstances, not of my own seeking, have +for some years past thrown me so closely into +intercourse with your family that now to be cast off, +and to be put on one side as a disgraced person,--and +that so quickly after the death of her who loved me so +dearly, and who was dear to me,--is such an affront as I +cannot bear and hold up my head afterwards. I have come +to be known as her whom your uncle trusted and loved, +as her whom your wife trusted and loved,--obscure as I +was before;--and as her whom, may I not say, you +yourself trusted? As there was much of honour and very +much of pleasure in this, so also was their something +of misfortune. Friendships are safest when the friends +are of the same standing. I have always felt there was +a danger, and now the thing I have feared has come home +to me. + +'Now I will plead my case. I fancy, that when you +first heard that I had been cognizant of your +daughter's engagement, you imagined that I was aware of +it before I went to Matching. Had I been so, I should +have been guilty of that treachery of which you accuse +me. I did know nothing of it till Lady Mary told me on +the day before I left Matching. That she should tell me +was natural enough. Her mother had known of it, and for +the moment,--if I am not assuming too much in saying +so,--I was filling her mother's place. But, in reference +to you, I could not exercise the discretion which a +mother might have used, and I told her at once, most +decidedly, that you must be made acquainted with the +fact. + +'Then Lady Mary expressed to me her wish,--not +that this matter should be kept any longer from you, +for that it should be told to you by Mr Tregear. It was +not for me to raise any question as to Mr Tregear's +fitness or unfitness,--as to which indeed I could know +nothing. All I could do was to say that if Mr Tregear +would make communications at once, I should feel that I +had done my duty. The upshot was that Mr Tregear came +to me immediately on my return to London, and agreeing +with me that it was imperative for you to be informed, +went to you and did inform you. In all of that, if I +have told the story truly, where has been my offence? +I suppose you will believe me, but your daughter can +give evidence as to every word that I have written. + +'I think that you have got into your mind that I +have befriended Mr Tregear' suit, and that, having +received this impression, you hold it with the tenacity +which is usual to you. There never was a greater +mistake. I went to Matching as the friend of my dear +friend;---but I stayed there at your request, as your +friend. Had I been, when you asked me to do so, a +participator in that secret I could not have honestly +remained in the position you assigned to me. Had I done +so, I should have deserved your ill opinion. As it is I +have not deserved it, and your condemnation of me has +been altogether unjust. Should I not now receive from +you a full withdrawal of all charges against me, I +shall be driven to think that after all the insight +which circumstances have given me into your character, +I have nevertheless been mistaken in the reading of it. +'I remain, +'Dear Duke of Omnium, +'Yours truly, +M. FINN' + +'I find on looking over my letter that I must add +one word further. It might seem that I am asking for a +return of your friendship. Such is not my purpose. +Neither can you forget that you have accused me,--nor +can I. What I expect is that you should tell me that +you in your conduct to me have been wrong and that I in +mine to you have been right. I must be enabled to feel +that the separation between us has come from injury +done to me, and not by me.' + +He did read the letter more than once, and read it with tingling +ears, and hot cheeks, and a knitted brow. As the letter went on, +and as the woman's sense of wrong grew hot from her own telling of +her own story, her words became stronger and still stronger, till +at last they were almost insolent in their strength. Were it not +that they came from one who did think herself to have been +wronged, then certainly they would be insolent. A sense of injury, +a burning conviction of wrong sustained, will justify language +which otherwise would be unbearable. The Duke felt that, though +his ears were tingling and his brow knitted, he could have +forgiven the language, if only he could have admitted the +argument. He understood every word of it. When she spoke of +tenacity she intended to charge him with obstinacy. Though she had +dwelt but lightly on her own services she had made her thoughts on +the matter clear enough. 'I, Mrs Finn, who am nobody, have done +much to succour and assist you, the Duke of Omnium; and this is +the return which I have received!' And then she told him to his +face that unless he did something which it would be impossible +that he should do, she would revoke her opinion of his honesty! +He tried to persuade himself that her opinion about his honesty +was nothing to him;--but he failed. Her opinion was very much to +him. Though in his anger he had determined to throw her off from +him, he knew her to be one whose good opinion was worth having. + +Not a word of overt accusation had been made against his wife. +Every allusion to her was full of love. But yet how heavy a charge +was really made! That such a secret should be kept from him, the +father, was acknowledged to be a heinous fault;--but the wife had +known the secret and had kept it from him the father! And then +how wretched a thing it was for him that anyone should dare to +write to him about the wife that had been taken away from him! In +spite of all her faults her name was so holy to him that it had +never once passed his lips since her death, except in low whispers +to himself,--low whispers made in the perfect, double-guarded +seclusion of his own chamber. 'Cora, Cora,' he had murmured, so +that the sense of the sound and not the sound itself had come to +him from his own lips. And now this woman wrote to him about her +freely, as though there were nothing sacred, no religion in the +memory of her. + +'It was not for me to raise any question as to Mr Tregear's +fitness'. Was it not palpable to all the world that he was unfit? +Unfit! How could a man be more unfit? He was asking for the hand +of one who was second only to royalty--who possessed of everything, +who was beautiful, well-born, rich, who was the daughter of the +Duke of Omnium, and he had absolutely nothing of his own to offer. + +But it was necessary that he should at last come to the +consideration of the actual point as to which she had written to +him so forcibly. He tried to set himself to the task of perfect +honestly. He certainly had condemned her. He had condemned her and +had no doubt punished her to the extent of his power. And if he +could be brought to see that he had done this unjustly, then +certainly he must beg pardon. And when he considered it all, he +had to own that her intimacy with his uncle and his wife had not +been so much of her seeking as of theirs. It grieved him now that +it should have been so, but so it was. And after all this,--after +the affectionate surrender of herself to his wife's caprices which +the woman had made,--he had turned upon her and driven her away +with ignominy. That all was true. As he thought of it he became +hot, and was conscious of a quivering feeling round his heart. +These were bonds indeed; but they were bonds of such a nature as to +be capable of being rescinded and cut away altogether by absolute +bad conduct. If he could make it good to himself that in a matter +of such magnitude as the charge of his daughter she had been +untrue to him and had leagued herself against him, with an +unworthy lover, then, then,--all bonds would be rescinded! Then +would his wrath be altogether justified! Then would it have been +impossible that he should have done aught else than cast her out! + As he thought of this he felt sure that she had betrayed him! How +great would be the ignominy to him should he be driven to own to +himself that she had not betrayed him! 'There should not have +been a moment,' he said to himself over and over again,--'not a +moment!' Yes; she certainly had betrayed him. + +There might still be safety for him in that confident assertion of +'not a moment'; but had there been anything of that conspiracy of +which he had certainly at first judged her to be guilty? She had +told her story, and had then appealed to Lady Mary for evidence. +After five minutes of perfect stillness,--but five minutes of +misery, five minutes during which great beads of perspiration +broke out from him and stood upon his brow, he had to confess to +himself that he did not want any evidence. He did believe her +story. When he allowed himself to think she had been in league +with Tregear he had wronged her. He wiped away the beads from his +brow, and again repeated to himself those words which were now his +only comfort, 'There should not have been a moment;--not a moment!' + +It was thus and only thus that he was enabled to assure himself +that there need be no acknowledgment of wrong done on his part. +Having settled this in his own mind he forced himself to attend a +meeting at which his assistance had been asked to a complex +question on Law Reform. The Duke endeavoured to give himself up +entirely to the matter; but through it all there was the picture +before him of Mrs Finn waiting for an answer to her letter. If he +should confirm himself in his opinion that he had been right, then +would any answer be necessary? He might just acknowledge the +letter, after the fashion which has come up in official life, than +which silence is an insult much more bearable. But he did not wish +to insult, nor to punish her further. He would willingly have +withdrawn the punishment under which she was groaning could he +have done so with self-abasement. Or he might write as she had +done,--advocating his own cause with all his strength, using that +last one strong argument,--there should not have been a 'moment'. +But there would be something repulsive to his personal dignity in +the continued correspondence which this would produce. 'The Duke +of Omnium regrets to say, in answer to Mrs Finn's letter, that he +thinks no good can be attained by a prolonged correspondence.' +Such, or of such kind, he thought must be his answer. But would +this be a fair return for the solicitude shown to her by his +uncle, for the love which had made her so patient a friend to his +wife, for the nobility of her own conduct in many things? Then +his mind reverted to certain jewels,--supposed to be of enormous +value,--which were still in his possession though they were the +property of this woman. They had been left to her by his uncle, +and she had obstinately refused to take them. Now they were lying +packed in the cellars of certain bankers,--but still they were in +his custody. What should he do now in this matter? Hitherto, +perhaps once in every six months, he had notified to her that he +was keeping them as her curator, and she had always repeated that +it was a charge from which she could not relieve him. It had +become almost a joke between them. But how could he joke with a +woman with whom he had quarrelled after this internecine fashion? + +What if he were to consult Lady Cantrip? He could not do so +without a pang that would have been very bitter to him,--but any +agony would be better than arising from a fear that he had been +unjust to one who had deserved so well of him. No doubt Lady +Cantrip would see it in the same light as he had done. And then he +would be able to support himself by the assurance that that which +had judged to be right was approved of by one whom the world would +acknowledge to be a good judge on such a matter. + +When he got home he found his son's letter telling him of the +election at Silverbridge. There was something in it which softened +his heart to that young man,--or perhaps it was that in the midst +of his many discomforts he wished to find something which at least +was not painful to him. That his son and heir should insist in +entering political life in opposition to him was of course a +source of pain; but, putting that aside, the thing had been done +pleasantly enough, and the young member's letter had been written +with some good feeling. So he answered the letter as pleasantly as +he knew how. + +'MY DEAR SILVERBRIDGE + +'I am glad you are in Parliament and am glad also +that you should have been returned by the old borough; +though I would that you could have reconciled yourself +to the politics of your family. But there is nothing +disgraceful in such a change, and I am able to +congratulate you as a father should a son and to wish +you long life and success as a legislator. + +'There are one or two things I would ask you to +remember;--and firstly this, that as you have +voluntarily undertaken certain duties you are bound as +an honest man to perform them as scrupulously as though +you were paid for doing them. There was no obligation +in you to seek the post;--but having sought it and +acquired it you cannot neglect the work attached to it +without being untrue to the covenant you have made. It +is necessary that a young member of Parliament should +bear this in mind, and especially a member who has not +worked his way up to notoriety outside the House, +because to him there will be great facility for +idleness and neglect. + +'And then I would have you always remember the +purpose for which there is a parliament elected in this +happy and free country. It is not that some men may +shine there, that some may acquire power, or that all +may plume themselves on being the elect of the nation. +It often appears to me that some members of Parliament +so regard their success in life,--as the fellows of our +colleges do too often, thinking that their fellowships +were awarded for their comfort and not for the +furtherance of any object such as education or +religion. I have known gentlemen who have felt that in +becoming members of Parliament they had achieved an +object for themselves instead of thinking that they had +put themselves in the way of achieving something for +others. A member of Parliament should feel himself to +be the servant of his country,--and like every other +servant, he should serve. If this be distasteful to a +man he need not go into Parliament. If the harness gall +him he need not wear it. But if he takes the trappings, +then he should draw the coach. You are there as the +guardian of your fellow-countrymen,--that they may be +safe, they may be prosperous, that they may be well +governed and lightly burdened,--above all that they may +be free. If you cannot feel this to be your duty, you +should not be there at all. + +'And I would have you remember also that the work +of a member of Parliament can seldom be of that +brilliant nature which is of itself charming; and that +the young member should think of such brilliancy as +being possible to him only at a distance. It should be +your first care to sit and listen so that the forms and +methods of the House may as it were soak into you +gradually. And then you must bear in mind that speaking +in the House is but a very small part of a member's +work, perhaps that part he may lay aside altogether +with the least stain on his conscience. A good member +of Parliament will be good upstairs in the Committee +Rooms, good downstairs to make and to keep a House, +good to vote, for his party if it may be nothing +better, but for the measures also which he believes to +be for the good of the country. + +'Gradually, if you will give your thoughts to it, +and above all your time, the theory of legislation will +sink into your mind, and you will find that there will +come upon you the ineffable delight of having served +your country to the best of your ability. + +'It is the only pleasure in life which has been +enjoyed without alloy by your affectionate father, + +'OMNIUM.' + +The Duke in writing this letter was able for a few moments to +forget Mrs Finn, and to enjoy the work which he had on hand. + + + +CHAPTER 16 + +Poor Boy + +The new member for Silverbridge, when he entered the House to take +the oath, was supported on the right and left by two staunch old +Tories. Mr Monk had seen him a few minutes previously,--Mr Monk who +of all Liberals was the firmest and than whom no one had been more +staunch to the Duke,--and had congratulated him on his election, +expressing at the same time some gentle regrets. 'I only wish you +could have come among us on the other side,' he said. + +'But I couldn't,' said the young Lord. + +'I am sure nothing but a conscientious feeling would have +separated you from your father's friends,' said the old Liberal. +And then they were parted, and the member for Silverbridge was +bustled up to the table between the two staunch Tories. + +Of what else was done on that occasion nothing shall be said here. +No political work was required from him, except that of helping +for an hour or two to crowd the Government benches. But we will +follow him as he left the House. There were one or two others +quite as anxious as to his political career as any staunch old +Liberal. At any rate one other. He had promised that as soon as he +could get away from the House he would go to Belgrave Square and +tell Lady Mabel Grex all about it. When he reached the square it +was past seven, but Lady Mabel and Miss Cassewary were still in +the drawing-room. 'There seemed to be a great deal of bustle, and +I didn't understand much about it, said the Member. + +'But you heard speeches?' These were the speeches made on the +proposing and seconding of the address. + +'Oh yes;--Lupon did it very well. Lord George didn't seem to be +quite as good. Then Sir Timothy Beeswax made a speech, and then Mr +Monk. After that I saw other fellows going away, so I bolted too.' + +'If I were a member of Parliament I would never leave it while the +House was sitting,' said Miss Cassewary. + +'If all were like that there wouldn't be seats for them to sit on, +said Silverbridge. + +'A persistent member will always find a seat,' continued the +positive old lady. + +'I am sure that Lord Silverbridge means to do his duty,' said Lady +Mabel. + +'Oh yes;--I've thought a good deal about it, and I mean to try. As +long as a man isn't called upon to speak I don't see why it +shouldn't be easy enough.' + +'I'm so glad to hear you say so! Of course after a little time +you will speak. I should like to hear you make your first speech.' + +'If I thought you were there, I'm sure I should not make it at +all.' Just at this period Miss Cassewary, saying something as to +the necessity of dressing, and cautioning her young friend that +there was not much time to be lost, left the room. + +'Dressing does not take me more than ten minutes,' said Lady +Mabel. Miss Cassewary declared this to be nonsense, but she +nevertheless left the room. Whether she would have done so if Lord +Silverbridge had not been Lord Silverbridge, but had been some +young man with whom it would not have been expedient that Lady +Mabel should fall in love, may perhaps be doubted. Lady Mabel +herself would not have remained. She had quite related the duties +of life, had had her little romance,--and had acknowledged that it +was foolish. + +'I do so hope that you will do well,' she said, going back to the +parliamentary duties. + +'I don't think I shall ever do much. I shall never be like my +father.' + +'I don't see why not.' + +'There never was anybody like him. I am always amusing myself, but +he never cared for amusement.' + +'You are very young.' + +'As far as I can learn he was just as he is now at my age. My +mother has told me that long before she married him he used to +spend all his time in the House. I wonder whether you would mind +reading the letter he wrote to me when he heard of my election.' +Then he took the epistle out of his pocket and handed it to Lady +Mabel. + +'He means what he says.' + +'He always does that.' + +'And he really hopes that you will put your shoulder to the +wheel,--even though you must do so in opposition to him.' + +'That makes no difference. I think my father is a very fine +fellow.' + +'Shall you do as he tells you?' + +'Well,--I suppose not;--except that he advises me to hold my tongue. +I think I shall do that. I mean to go down there, you know, and I +daresay I shall be much the same as others.' + +'Has he talked to you much about it?' + +'No;--he never talks much. Every now and then he will give me a +downright lecture, or he will write me a letter like that; but he +never talks to any of us.' + +'How very odd.' + +'Yes; he is odd. He seems to be fretful when we are with him. A +good many things make him unhappy.' + +'Your poor mother's death.' + +'That first;--and then there are other things. I suppose he didn't +like the way I came to an end in Oxford.' + +'You were a boy then.' + +'Of course I was very sorry for it,--though I hated Oxford. It was +neither one thing nor another. You were your own master and yet +you were not.' + +'Now you must be your own master.' + +'I suppose so.' + +'You must marry, and become a lord of the Treasury. When I was a +child I acted as a child. You know all about that.' + +'Oh yes. And now I must throw off childish things. You mean that I +mustn't paint any man's house? Eh, Lady Mab.' + +'That and the rest of it. You are a legislator now.' + +'So is Popplecourt, who took his seat in the House of Lords two or +three months ago. He's the biggest young fool I know out. He +couldn't even paint a house.' + +'He is not an elected legislator. It makes all the difference. I +quite agree with what the Duke says. Lord Popplecourt can't help +himself. Whether he's an idle young scamp or not, he must be a +legislator. But when a man goes into if for himself, as you have +done, he should make up his mind to be useful.' + +'I shall vote with my party of course.' + +'More than that, much more than that. if you didn't care for +politics you couldn't have taken that line of your own.' When she +said this she knew that he had been talked into what he had done +by Tregear,--by Tregear, who had ambition, and intelligence, and +capacity for forming an opinion of his own. 'If you do not do it +for your own sake, you will for the sake of those who,--who,--who +are your friends,' she said at last, not feeling quite able to +tell him that he must do it for the sake of those that loved him. + +'There are not very many I suppose who care about it.' + +'Your father.' + +'Oh yes,--my father.' + +'And Tregear.' + +'Tregear has got his own fish to fry.' + +'Are there none others? Do you think we care nothing about it +here?' + +'Miss Cassewary?' + +'Well;--Miss Cassewary! A man might have a worse friend than Miss +Cassewary;--and my father.' + +'I don't suppose Lord Grex cares a straw about me.' + +'Indeed he does,--a great many straws. And so do I. Do you think I +don't care a straw about you?' + +'I don't know why you should.' + +'Because it is in my nature to be earnest. A girl comes out into +the world so young that she becomes serious, and steady as it +were, so much sooner than a man does.' + +'I always think that nobody is so full of chaff as you are, Lady +Mab.' + +'I am not chaffing now in recommending you go to work in the world +like a man.' As she said this they were sitting on the same sofa, +but with some space between them. When Miss Cassewary had left the +room Lord Silverbridge was standing, but after a little he had +fallen into the seat, at the extreme corner, and had gradually +come a little nearer to her. Now in her energy she put our her +hand, meaning perhaps to touch lightly the sleeve of his coat, +meaning perhaps not quite to touch him at all. But as she did so +he put out his hand and took hold of hers. + +She drew it away, not seeming to allow it to remain in his grasp +for a moment, but she did so, not angrily, or hurriedly, or with +any flurry. She did it as though it were natural that he should +take her hand and as natural that she should recover it. 'Indeed I +have hardly more than ten minutes left before dressing,' she said, +rising from her seat. + +'If you will say that you care about it, you yourself, I will do +my best.' As he made this declaration blushes covered his cheeks +and forehead. + +'I do care about it,--very much; I myself,' said Lady Mabel, not +blushing at all. Then there was a knock at the door, and Lady +Mabel's maid, putting her head in, declared that my Lord had come +in and had already been some time in the dressing-room. 'Good-bye, +Lord Silverbridge,' she said quite gaily, and rather more aloud +than would have been necessary, had she not intended that the maid +should also hear her. + +'Poor boy!' she said to herself as she was dressing. 'Poor boy!' +Then, when the evening was over she spoke to herself again about +him. 'Dear sweet boy!' And then she sat and thought. How was it +that she was so old a woman, while he was so little more than a +child? How fair he was, how far removed from conceit, how capable +of being made into man--in the process of time! What might not be +expected from him if he could be kept in good hands for the next +ten years! But in whose hands? What would she be in ten years, +she who already seemed to know the town and all its belongings so +well? And yet she was as young in years as he. He, as she knew, +had passed his twenty-second birthday,--and so had she. That was +all. It might be good for her that she should marry him. She was +ambitious. And such a marriage would satisfy her ambition. Through +her father's fault, and her brother's she was likely to be poor. +This man would certainly be rich. Many of those who were buzzing +around her from day to day, were distasteful to her. From among +them she knew that she could not take a husband, let their rank +and wealth be what it might. She was too fastidious, too proud, +too prone to think that things could be with her as she liked +them! This last was in all things pleasant to her. Though he was +but a boy, there was a certain boyish manliness about him. The very +way in which he had grasped at her hand and had then blushed ruby- +red at his own daring, had gone far with her. How gracious he was +to look at! Dear sweet boy! Love him? No;--she did not know that +she loved him. That dream was over. She was sure however that she +liked him. + +But could she love him? That a woman should not marry a man +without loving him, she partly knew. But she thought she knew also +that there must be exceptions. She would do her very best to love +him. That other man should be banished from her very thoughts. She +would be such a wife to him that he should never know that he +lacked anything. Poor boy! Sweet dear boy! He, as he went away to +his dinner, had his thoughts also about her. Of all the girls he +knew she was the jolliest,--and of all his friends she was the +pleasantest. As she was anxious that he should go to work in the +House of Commons he would go to work there. As for loving her! +Well;--of course he must marry some day, and why not Lady Mab as +well as anyone else. + + + +CHAPTER 17 + +The Derby + +An attendance at the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting had +unfortunately not been compatible with the Silverbridge election. +Major Tifto had therefore been obliged to look after the affair +alone. 'A very useful mare,' as Tifto had been in the habit of +calling a leggy, thoroughbred, meagre-looking brute named +Coalition, was on this occasion confided to the Major's sole care +and judgement. But Coalition failed, as coalitions always do, and +Tifto had to report to his noble patron that they had not pulled +off the event. It had been a match for four hundred pounds, made +indeed by Lord Silverbridge, but made at the suggestion of Tifto;-- +and now Tifto wrote in a very bad humour about it. It had been +altogether his Lordship's fault in submitting to carry two pounds +more than Tifto had thought to be fair and equitable. The match +had been lost. Would Lord Silverbridge be so good as to pay the +money to Mr Green Griffin and debit him, Tifto, with the share of +the loss? + +We must acknowledge that the unpleasant tone of the Major's letter +was due quite as much to the ill-usage he had received in +reference to that journey to Silverbridge, as to the loss of the +race. Within that little body there was a high-mounting heart, and +that heart had been greatly wounded by his Lordship's treatment. +Tifto had felt himself to have been treated like a servant. Hardly +an excuse had even been made. He had been simply told that he was +not wanted. He was apt sometimes to tell himself that he knew on +which side his bread was buttered. But perhaps he hardly knew how +best to keep the butter going. There was a little pride about him +which was antagonistic to the best interests of such a trade as +his. Perhaps it was well that he should inwardly suffer when +injured. But it could not be well that he should declare to such +men as Nidderdale, and Dolly Longstaff, and Popplecourt that he +didn't mean to put up with that sort of thing. He certainly should +not have spoken in this strain before Tregear. Of all men living +he hated and feared him the most. And he knew that no other man +loved Silverbridge as did Tregear. Had he been thinking of his +bread-and-butter, instead of giving way to the mighty anger of his +little bosom, he would have hardly declared openly at the club +that he would let Lord Silverbridge know that he did not mean to +stand any man's airs. But these extravagances were due perhaps to +whisky-and-water, and that kind of intoxication which comes to +certain men from momentary triumphs. Tifto could always be got to +make a fool of himself when surrounded by three or four men of +rank who, for the occasion, would talk to him as an equal. He +almost declared that Coalition had lost her match because he had +not been taken down at Silverbridge. + +'Tifto is in a deuce of a way with you,' said Dolly Longstaff to +the young member. + +'I know all about it,' said Silverbridge, who had had an interview +with his partner since the race. + +'If you don't take care he'll dismiss you.' + +Silverbridge did not care much about this, knowing that words of +wisdom did not ordinarily fall from the mouth of Dolly Longstaff. +But he was more moved when his friend Tregear spoke to him. 'I +wish you knew the kind of things that fellow Tifto says behind +your back.' + +'As if I cared.' + +'But you ought to care.' + +'Do you care what every fellow says about you?' + +'I care very much what those say whom I choose to live with me. +Whatever Tifto might say about me would be quite indifferent to +me, because we have nothing in common. But you and he are bound +together.' + +'We have a horse or two in common; that's all.' + +'But that is a great deal. The truth is he's a nasty, brawling, +boasting, ill-conditioned little reptile.' + +Silverbridge of course did not acknowledge that this was true. But +he felt it, and almost repented of his trust in Tifto. But still +Prime Minister stood very well for the Derby. He was second +favourite, the odds against him being only four to one. The glory +of being part owner of a probable winner of the Derby was so much +to him that he could not bring himself to be altogether angry with +Tifto. There was no doubt that the horse's present condition was +due entirely to Tifto's care. Tifto spent in these few days just +before the race the greatest part of his time in the close +vicinity of the horse, only running up to London now and then, as +a fish comes up to the surface, for a breath of air. It is +impossible that Lord Silverbridge should separate himself from the +Major,--at any rate till after the Epsom meeting. + +He had paid the money for the match without a word of reproach to +his partner, but still with a feeling that things were not quite +as they ought to be. In money matters his father had been liberal, +but not very definite. He had been told that he ought not to spend +above two thousand pounds a year, and had been reminded that there +was a house for him to use both in town and in the country. But he +had been given to understand also that any application made to Mr +Morton, if not very unreasonable, would be attended with success. +A solemn promise had been exacted from him that he would have no +dealings with money-lenders;--and then he had been set afloat. +There had been a rather frequent correspondence with Mr Morton, +who had once or twice submitted a total of the money paid on +behalf of his correspondent. Lord Silverbridge, who imagined +himself to be anything but extravagant, had wondered how the +figures could mount up so rapidly. But the money needed was always +forthcoming, and the raising of objections never seemed to be +carried back beyond Mr Morton. His promise to his father about the +money-lenders had been scrupulously kept. As long as ready money +can be made to be forthcoming without any charge for interest, a +young man must be very foolish who will prefer to borrow it at +twenty-five per cent. + +Now had come the night before the Derby, and it must be +acknowledged that the young Lord was much fluttered by the +greatness of the coming struggle. Tifto, having seen his horse +conveyed to Epsom, had come up to London in order that he might +dine with his partner and hear what was being said about the race +at the Beargarden. The party dining there consisted of +Silverbridge, Dolly Longstaff, Popplecourt, and Tifto. Nidderdale +was to have joined them, but he told them on the day before, with +a sigh, that domestic duties were too strong for him. Lady +Nidderdale,--or if not Lady Nidderdale herself, then Lady +Nidderdale's mother,--was so far potent over the young nobleman as +to induce him to confine his Derby practices to the Derby-day. +Another guest had also been expected, the reason for whose non- +appearance must be explained somewhat at length. Lord Gerald +Palliser, the Duke's second son, was at this time at Cambridge,-- +being almost as popular at Trinity as his brother had been at +Christ Church. It was to him quite a matter of course that he +should see his brother's horse run for the Derby. But, +unfortunately, in this very year a stand was being made by the +University pundits against a practice which they thought had +become too general. For the last year or two, it had been +considered almost as much a matter of course that a Cambridge +undergraduate should go to the Derby as that a Member of +Parliament should do so. Against this three or four rigid +disciplinarians had raised their voices,--and as a result, no young +man up at Trinity could get leave to be away on the Derby pretext. + +Lord Gerald raged against the restriction very loudly. He at first +proclaimed his intention of ignoring the college authorities +altogether. Of course he would be expelled. But the order itself +was to his thinking so absurd,--the idea that he should not see his +brother's horse run was so extravagant,--that he argued that his +father could not be angry with him for incurring dismissal in so +excellent a cause. But his brother saw things in a different +light. He knew how his father had looked at him when he had been +sent away from Oxford, and he counselled moderation. Gerald should +see the Derby, but should not encounter that heaviest wrath of all +which comes from a man's not sleeping beneath his college roof. +There was a train which left Cambridge at an early hour, and would +bring him into London in time to accompany his friends to the +racecourse;--and another train, a special, which would take him +down after dinner, so that he and others should reach Cambridge +before the college gates were shut. + +The dinner at the Beargarden was very joyous. Of course the state +of the betting in regard to Prime Minister was the subject +generally popular for the night. Mr Lupton came in, a gentleman +well known in all fashionable circles, parliamentary, social, and +racing, who was rather older than the company on this occasion, +but still not so much so as to be found to be an incumbrance. +Lord Glasslough too, and others joined them, and a good deal was +said about the horse. 'I never kept these things dark,' said +Tifto. 'Of course he is an uncertain horse.' + +'Most horses are,' said Lupton. + +'Just so, Mr Lupton. What I mean is, the Minister has got a bit of +a temper. But if he likes to do his best I don't think any three- +year-old in England can get his nose past him.' + +'For half a mile he'd be nowhere with the Provence filly,' said +Glasslough. + +'I'm speaking of a Derby distance, my Lord.' + +'That's a kind of thing nobody really knows,' said Lupton. + +'I've seen him 'ave his gallops,' said the little man, who in his +moments of excitement would sometimes fall away from that exact +pronunciation which had been one of the studies of his life,' and +have measured his stride. I think I know what pace means. Of +course I'm not going to answer for the 'orse. He's a temper, but +if things go favourably, no animal that ever showed on the Downs +was more likely to do the trick. Is there any gentleman here who +would like to bet me fifteen to one in hundreds against the two +events,--the Derby and the Leger?' The desired odds were at once +offered by Mr Lupton, and the bet was booked. + +This gave rise to other betting, and before the evening was over +Lord Silverbridge had taken three-and-a-half to one against his +horse to such an extent that he stood to lose twelve hundred +pounds. The champagne which he had drunk, and the news that +Quousque, the first favourite, had so gone to pieces that now +there was a question which was the first favourite, had so +inflated him, that, had he been left alone, he would almost have +wagered even money on his horse. In the midst of his excitement +there came to him a feeling that he was allowing himself to do +just that which he had intended to avoid. But then the occasion +was so peculiar! How often can it happen to a man in his life +that he shall own a favourite for the Derby! The affair was one +in which it was almost necessary that he should risk a little +money. + +Tifto, when he got into his bed, was altogether happy. He had +added whisky-and-water to his champagne, and feared nothing. If +Prime Minister should win the Derby he would be able to pay all +that he owed, and to make a start with money in his pocket. And +then there would be attached to him all the infinite glory of +being the owner of the winner of the Derby. The horse was run in +his name. Thoughts as to great successes crowded themselves upon +his heated brain. What might not be open to him? Parliament! The +Jockey Club! The mastership of one of the crack shire packs! Might +it not come to pass that he should some day become the great +authority in England upon races, racehorses, and hunters? If he +could be the winner of the Derby and Leger he thought that +Glasslough and Lupton would snub him no longer, that even Tregear +would speak to him, and that his pal the Duke's son would never +throw him aside again. + +Lord Silverbridge had brought a drag with all its appendages. +There was a coach, the four bay horses, the harness, and the two +regulation grooms. When making this purchase he had condescended +to say a word to his father on the subject. 'Everybody belongs to +the four-in-hand club now,' said the son. + +'I never did,' said the Duke. + +'Ah,--if I could be like you!' + +The Duke said that he would think about it, and then had told Mr +Morton that he was to pay the bill for this new toy. He had +thought about it, and had assured himself that driving a coach and +four was at present regarded as a fitting amusement for young men +of rank and wealth. He did not understand it himself. It seemed to +him to be as unnatural as though a gentleman should turn +blacksmith and make horseshoes for his amusement. Driving four +horses was hard work. But the same might be said of rowing. There +were men, he knew, who would spend their day standing at a lathe, +making little boxes for their recreation. He did not sympathise +with it. But the fact was so, and this driving of coaches was +regarded with favour. He had been a little touched by that word +his son had spoken, 'Ah,--if I could be like you!' So he had given +the permission; the drag, horses, harness, and grooms had come +into the possession of Lord Silverbridge; and now they were put +into requisition to take their triumphant owner and his party down +to Epsom. Dolly Longstaff's team was sent down to meet them half- +way. Gerald Palliser, who had come up from Cambridge that morning, +was allowed to drive the first stage out of town to compensate him +for the cruelty done to him by the University pundits. Tifto, with +a cigar in his mouth, with a white hat and a blue veil, and a new +light-coloured coat, was by no means the least happy of the party. + +How that race was run, and how both Prime Minister and Quousque +were beaten by an outsider named Fishknife, Prime Minister, +however, coming in a good second, the present writer having no +aptitude in that way, cannot describe. Such, however, were the +facts, and then Dolly Longstaff and Lord Silverbridge drove the +coach back to London. The coming back was not triumphant, though +the young fellows bore their failure well. Dolly Longstaff had +lost a 'pot of money', Silverbridge would have to draw upon the +inexhaustible Mr Morton for something over two thousand pounds,--in +regard to which he had no doubt as to the certainty with which the +money would be forthcoming, but he feared that it would give rise +to special notice from his father. Even the poor younger brother +had lost a couple of hundred pounds, for which he would have to +make his own special application to Mr Morton. + +But Tifto felt it more than anyone. The horse ought to have won. +Fishknife had been favoured by such a series of accidents that the +whole affair had been a miracle. Tifto had these circumstances at +his fingers' ends, and in the course of the afternoon and evening +explained them accurately to all who would listen to him. He had +this to say on his own behalf,--that before the party had left the +course their horse stood first favourite for the Leger. But Tifto +was unhappy as he came back to town, and in spite of the lunch, +which had been very glorious, sat moody and sometimes even silent +within his gay apparel. + +'It was the unfairest start I ever saw,' said Tifto, almost +getting up from his seat on the coach so as to address Dolly and +Silverbridge on the box. + +'What the ---- is the good of that?' said Dolly from the coach-box. +'Take your licking and don't squeal.' + +'That's all very well. I can take my licking as well as another +man. But one has to look to the causes of these things. I never +saw Peppermint ride so badly. Before he got round the corner I +wished I'd been on the horse myself.' + +'I don't believe it was Peppermint's fault a bit,' said +Silverbridge. + +'Well;--perhaps not. Only I did think I was a pretty good judge of +riding.' Then Tifto again settled down into silence. + +But though much money had been lost, and a great deal of +disappointment had to be endured by our party in reference to the +Derby, the most injurious and most deplorable event in the day's +history had not occurred yet. Dinner had been ordered at the +Beargarden at seven,--an hour earlier than would have been named +had it not been that Lord Gerald must be at Eastern Counties +Railway Station at nine pm. An hour an half for dinner and a cigar +afterwards, and half an hour to get to the railway station would +not be more than time enough. + +But of all men alive Dolly Longstaff was the most unpunctual. He +did not arrive till eight. The others were not there before half- +past seven, and it was nearly eight before any of them sat down. +At half-past eight Silverbridge began to be very anxious about his +brother, and told him that he ought to start without further +delay. A hansom cab was waiting at the door, but Lord Gerald still +delayed. He knew, he said, that the special would not start till +half-past nine. There were a lot of fellows who were dining about +everywhere, and they would never get to the station by the hour +fixed. It became apparent to the elder brother that Gerald would +stay altogether unless he were forced to go, and at last he did +get up and pushed the young fellow out. 'Drive like the very +devil,' he said to the cabman, explaining to him something of the +circumstances. The cabman did do his best, but a cab cannot be +made to travel from the Beargarden, which as all the world knows +is close to St James's Street, to Liverpool Street in the City in +ten minutes. When Lord Gerald reached the station the train had +started. + +At twenty minutes to ten the young man reappeared at the club. +'Why on earth didn't you take a special for yourself?' exclaimed +Silverbridge. + +'They wouldn't give me one.' After it was apparent to all of them +that what had just happened had done more to ruffle our hero's +temper than his failure and loss at the races. + +'I wouldn't have had it to happen for any money you could name,' +said the elder brother to the younger, as he took him home to +Carlton Terrace. + +'If they do send me down, what's the odds?' said the younger +brother, who was not quite as sober as he might have been. + +'After what happened to me it will almost break the governor's +heart,' said the heir. + + + +CHAPTER 18 + +One of the Results of the Derby + +On the following morning at about eleven Silverbridge and his +brother were at breakfast at an hotel in Jermyn Street. They had +slept in Carlton Terrace, but Lord Gerald had done so without the +knowledge of the Duke. Lord Silverbridge, as he was putting +himself to bed, had made up his mind to tell the story to the Duke +at once, but when the morning came his courage failed him. The two +young men therefore slunk out of the house, and as there was no +breakfasting at the Beargarden they went to his hotel. They were +both rather gloomy, but the elder brother was the more sad of the +two. 'I'd give anything I have in the world,' he said, 'that you +hadn't come at all.' + +'Things have been so unfortunate!' + +'Why the deuce wouldn't you go when I told you?' + +'Who on earth would have thought that they'd have been so +punctual? They never are punctual on the Great Eastern. It was an +infernal shame. I think I shall go at once to Harnage and tell him +about it.' Mr Harnage was Lord Gerald's tutor. + +'But you have been in ever so many rows before.' + +'Well;--I've been gated, and once when they'd gated me, I came +right upon Harnage on the bridge at King's' + +'What sort of fellow is he?' + +'He used to be good-natured. Now he has taken ever so many +crotchets into his head. It was he who began all this about none +of the men going to the Derby.' + +'Did you ask him yourself for leave?' + +'Yes; and when I told him about your owning Prime Minister he got +savage and declared that was the very reason why I shouldn't go.' + +'You didn't tell me that.' + +'I was determined I would go. I wasn't going to be made a child +of.' + +At last it was decided that the two brothers should go down to +Cambridge together. Silverbridge would be able to come back to +London the same evening, so as to take his drag down to the Oaks +on the Friday,--a duty from which even his present misery would not +deter him. They reached Cambridge at about three, and Lord +Silverbridge at once called at the Master's lodge and sent in his +card. The Master of Trinity is so great that he cannot be supposed +to see all comers, but on this occasion Lord Silverbridge was +fortunate. With much trepidation he told his story. Such being the +circumstances, could anything be done to moderate the vials of +wrath which must doubtless be poured out over the head of his +unfortunate brother? + +'Why come to me?' said the Master. 'From what you say yourself, it +is evident that you know that must rest with the College tutor.' + +'I thought, sir, if you could say a word.' + +'Do you think that it would be right that I should interfere for +one special man, and that a man of special rank?' + +'Nobody thinks that would count for anything. But--' + +'But what?' asked the Master. + +'If you knew my father, sir!' + +'Everybody knows your father;--every Englishman I mean. Of course I +know your father,--as a public man, and I know how much the country +owes to him.' + +'Yes it does. But it is not that I mean. If you knew who this +would,--would,--break his heart.' Then came a tear into the young +man's eye,--and there was something almost like a tear in the eye +of the old man too. 'Of course it was my fault. I got him to come. +He hadn't the slightest intention of staying. I think you will +believe what I say about that, sir.' + +'I believe every word you say, my Lord.' + +'I got into a row at Oxford. I daresay you heard. There never was +anything so stupid. That was a great grief to my father,--a very +great grief. It is so hard upon him because he never did anything +foolish himself.' + +'You should try to imitate him,' Silverbridge shook his head. 'Or +at least not to grieve him.' + +'That is it. He has got over the affair about me. As I'm the +eldest son I've got into Parliament, and he thinks perhaps that +all has been forgotten. An eldest son may, I fancy, be a greater +ass than his younger brother.' The Master could not but smile as +he thought of the selection which had been made of a legislator. +'But if Gerald is sent down, I don't know how he will get over +it.' And now the tears absolutely rolled down the young man's +face, so that he was forced to wipe them from his eyes. + +The Master was much moved. That a young man should pray for +himself would be nothing to him. The discipline of the college was +not in his hands, and such prayers would avail nothing with him. +Nor would a brother praying simply for a brother avail much. A +father asking for his son might be resisted. But the brother +asking pardon for the brother on behalf of the father was almost +irresistible. But this man had long been in a position in which he +knew that no such prayers should ever prevail at all. In the first +place it was not his business. If he did anything, it would only +be by asking a favour when he knew that no favour should be +granted;--and a favour which he of all men should not ask, because +to him of all men it could not be refused. And then the very +altitude of the great Statesman whom he was invited to befriend,-- +the position of this Duke who had been so powerful and might be +powerful again, was against any such interference. Of himself he +might be sure that he would certainly done this as readily for any +Mr Jones as for the Duke of Omnium; but were he to do it, it would +be said of him that it had been done because the benevolence would +seem to be self-seeking. 'Your father, if he were here,' said he, +'would know that I could not interfere.' + +'And will he be sent down?' + +'I do not know all the circumstances. From your own showing the +case seems to be one of great insubordination. To tell the truth, +Lord Silverbridge, I ought not to have spoken to you on the +subject at all.' + +'You mean that I should not have spoken to you.' + +'Well; I did not say so. And if you had been indiscreet I can +pardon that. I wish I could have served you; but I fear that it is +not in my power.' Then Lord Silverbridge took his leave, and +going to his brother's rooms waited there till Lord Gerald +returned from his interview with the tutor. + +'It's all up,' said he, chucking down his cap, striving to be at +his ease. 'I may pack up and go--just where I please. He says that +on no account will he have anything more to do with me. I asked +him what I was to do, and he said that the Governor had better +take my name off the books of the college. I did ask whether I +couldn't go over to Maclean.' + +'Who is Maclean?' + +'One of the other tutors. But the brute only smiled.' + +'He thought you meant it for chaff.' + +'Well;--I suppose I did mean to show him that I was not going to be +exterminated by him. He will write to the Governor today. And you +will have to talk to the Governor.' + +Yes! As Lord Silverbridge went back that afternoon to London he +thought very much of that talking to the Governor! Never yet had +he been able to say anything very pleasant to 'the Governor.' He +had himself been always in disgrace at Eton, and had been sent +away from Oxford. He had introduced Tregear into the family, which +of all the troubles perhaps was the worst. He had changed his +politics. He had spent more money than he ought to have done, and +now at this very moment must ask for a large sum. And he had +brought Gerald up to see the Derby, thereby causing him to be sent +away from Cambridge! And through it all there was present to him +a feeling that by no words which he could use would he be able to +make his father understand how deeply he felt all this. + +He could not bring himself to see the Duke that evening, and the +next morning he was sent for before he was out of bed. He found +his father at breakfast with the tutor's letter before him. 'Do +you know anything about this?' asked the Duke very calmly. + +'Gerald ran up to see the Derby, and in the evening missed the +train.' + +'Mr Harnage tells me that he had been expressly ordered not to go +to these races.' + +'I suppose he was, sir.' + +Then there was silence between them for some minutes. 'You might +as well sit down and eat your breakfast,' said the father. Then +Lord Silverbridge did sit down and pour himself out a cup of tea. +There was no servant in the room, and he dreaded to ring the bell. +'Is there anything you want?' asked the Duke. There was a small +dish of fried bacon on the table, and some cold mutton on the +sideboard. Silverbridge declaring that he had everything that was +necessary, got up and helped himself to the cold mutton. Then +again there was silence, during which the Duke crunched his toast +and made an attempt at reading the newspaper. But, soon pushing +that aside, he again took up Mr Harnage's letter. Silverbridge +watched every motion of his father as he slowly made his way +through the slice of cold mutton. 'It seems that Gerald is to be +sent away altogether.' + +'I fear so, sir.' + +'He has profited by your example at Oxford. Did you persuade him +to come to these races?' + +'I am afraid I did.' + +'Though you knew the orders which had been given?' + +'I thought it was meant that he should not be away the night.' + +'He had asked permission to go to the Derby and had been +positively refused. Did you know this?' + +Silverbridge sat for some moments considering. He could not at +first quite remember what he had known and what he had not known. +Perhaps he entertained some faint hope that the question would be +allowed to go unanswered. He saw, however, from his father's eye +that that was impossible. And then he did remember it all. 'I +suppose I did know it.' + +'And you were willing to imperil your brother's position in life, +and my happiness, in order that he might see a horse, of which I +believe you call yourself part owner, run a race?' + +'I thought there would be no risk if he got back the same night. I +don't suppose there is any good in my saying it, but I never was +so sorry for anything in all my life. I feel as if I could go and +hang myself.' + +'That is absurd,--and unmanly,' said the Duke. The expression of +sorrow, as it had been made, might be absurd and unmanly, but +nevertheless it had touched him. He was severe because he did not +know how far his severity wounded. 'It is a great blow,--another +great blow! Races! A congregation of all the worst blackguards +in the country mixed up with the greatest fools.' + +'Lord Cantrip was there,' said Silverbridge; 'and I say Sir +Timothy Beeswax.' + +'If the presence of Sir Timothy be an allurement to you I pity you +indeed. I have nothing further to say about it. You have ruined +your brother.' He had been driven to further anger by this +reference to one man whom he respected and to another whom he +despised. + +'Don't say that, sir.' + +'What am I to say?' + +'Let him be an attache, or something of that sort.' + +'Do you believe it possible that he should pass any examination? I +think that my children between them will bring me to my grave. You +had better go now. I suppose you will want to be--at the races +again?' Then the young man crept out of the room, and going to +his own part of the house shut himself up alone for nearly an +hour. What had he better do to give his father some comfort? +Should he abandon racing altogether, sell his share of Prime +Minister and Coalition, and go in hard and strong for committees, +debates, and divisions? Should he get rid of his drag, and resolve +to read up on Parliamentary literature? He was resolved upon one +thing at any rate. He would not go to the Oaks that day. And then +he was resolved on another thing. He would call on Lady Mab Grex +and ask her advice. He felt so disconsolate and insufficient for +himself that he wanted advice from someone whom he could trust. + +He found Tifto, Dolly Longstaff, and one or two others at the +stables, from whence it was intended that the drag should start. +They were waiting, and rather angry because they had been kept +waiting. But the news, when it came, was very sad indeed. 'You +wouldn't mind taking the team down and back yourself; would you, +Dolly?' he said to Longstaff. + +'You aren't going!' said Dolly, assuming a look of much heroic +horror. + +'No;--I am not going today.' + +'What's up?' asked Popplecourt. + +'That's rather sudden, isn't it?' asked the Major. + +'Well; yes. I suppose it is sudden.' + +'It's throwing us over a little, isn't it?' + +'Not that I see. You've got the trap and the horses.' + +'Yes;--we've got the trap and the horses,' said Dolly, 'and I vote +we make a start.' + +'As you are not going yourself, perhaps I'd better drive your +horses,' said Tifto. + +'Dolly will take the team,' said his Lordship. + +'Yes;--decidedly. I will take the team,' said Dolly. 'There isn't a +deal of driving wanted on the road to Epsom, but a man should know +how to hold his reins.' This of course gave rise to some angry +words, but Silverbridge did not stop to hear them. + +The poor Duke had no one to whom he could go for advice and +consolation. When his son left him he turned to his newspaper, and +tried to read it--in vain. His mind was too ill at ease to admit of +political matters. He was greatly grieved by this new misfortune +to Gerald, and by Lord Silverbridge's propensity to racing. + +But though his sorrows were heavy, there was a sorrow heavier than +these. Lady Cantrip had expressed an opinion almost in favour of +Tregear--and had certainly expressed an opinion in favour of Mrs +Finn. The whole affair in regard to Mrs Finn had been explained to +her, and she had told the Duke that, according to her thinking, +Mrs Finn had behaved well! When the Duke, with an energy which +was by no means customary with him, had asked the question, on the +answer to which so much depended, 'Should there have been a moment +lost?' Lady Cantrip had assured him that not a moment had been +lost. Mrs Finn had at once gone to work, and had arranged that the +whole affair should be told to him, the Duke, in the proper way. +'I think she did,' said Lady Cantrip, 'what I myself should have +done in the circumstances.' + +If Lady Cantrip was right, then must his apology to Mrs Finn be +ample, and abject. Perhaps it was this feeling which was at the +moment most vexatious to him. + + + +CHAPTER 19 + +'No; My Lord. I Do Not.' + +Between two and three o'clock Lord Silverbridge, in spite of his +sorrow, found himself able to eat his lunch at his club. The place +was deserted, the Beargarden world having gone to the races. As he +sat eating cold lamb and drinking soda-and-brandy he did confirm +himself in certain modified resolutions, which might be more +probably kept than those sterner laws of absolute renunciation to +which he had thought of pledging himself in his half-starved +morning condition. His father had spoken in very strong language +against racing,--saying that those who went were either fools or +rascals. He was sure this was exaggerated. Half the House of Lords +and two-thirds of the House of Commons were to be seen at the +Derby; but no doubt there were many rascals and fools, and he +could not associate with the legislators without finding himself +among the fools and rascals. He would,--and as soon as he could,-- +separate himself from the Major. And he would not bet. It was on +that side of the sport that the rascals and the fools showed +themselves. Of what service could betting be to him whom +Providence had provided with all things wanted to make life +pleasant? As to the drag, his father had in a certain measure +approved of that, and he would keep the drag, as he must have some +relaxation. But his great effort of all should be made in the +House of Commons. He would endeavour to make his father perceive +that he had appreciated that letter. He would always be in the +House soon after four, and would remain there,--or, if possible, as +long as the Speaker sat in the chair. He had already begun to feel +that there was a difficulty in keeping his seat upon those +benches. The half-hours there would be so much longer than +elsewhere! An irresistible desire of sauntering out would come +upon him. There were men the very sound of whose voices was +already odious to him. There had come upon him a feeling in regard +to certain orators, that when once they had begun there was no +reason why they should ever stop. Words of some sort were always +forthcoming, like spiders' webs. He did not think that he could +learn to take a pleasure in sitting in the House; but he hoped +that he might be man enough to do it, though it was not pleasant. +He would begin today, instead of going to the Oaks. + +But before he went to the House he would see Lady Mabel Grex. And +here it may be well to state that in making his resolutions as to +a better life, he had considered much whether it would not be well +for him to take a wife. His father had once told him that when he +married, the house in Carlton Terrace should be his own. 'I will +be a lodger if you will have me,' said the Duke; 'or if your wife +should not like that, I will find a lodging elsewhere.' This had +been the sadness and tenderness which had immediately followed the +death of the Duchess. Marriage would steady him. Were he a married +man, Tifto would of course disappear. Upon the whole he thought it +would be good that should marry. And, if so, who could be so nice +as Lady Mabel? That his father would be contented with Lady Mab, +he was inclined to believe. There was no better blood in England. +And Lady Mabel was known to be clever, beautiful, and, in her +peculiar circumstances, very wise. + +He was aware, however, of a certain drawback. Lady Mabel as his +wife would be his superior, and in some degrees his master. Though +not older she was wiser than he,--and not only wiser but more +powerful also. And he was not quite sure but that she regarded him +as a boy. He thought that she did love him,--or would do so if he +asked her,--but that her love would be bestowed upon him as on an +inferior creature. He was already jealous of his own dignity, and +fearful lest he should miss the glory of being loved by this +lovely one for his own sake,--for his own manhood, and his own +gifts and character. + +And yet his attraction to her was so great that now in the day of +his sorrow he could think of no solace but what was to be found in +her company. 'Not at the Oaks!' she said as soon as he was shown +into the drawing-room. + +'No,--not at the Oaks. Lord Grex is there, I suppose?' + +'Oh yes;--that is a matter of course. Why are you a recreant?' + +'The House sits today.' + +'How virtuous! Is it coming to that,--that when the House sits you +will never be absent?' + +'That's the kind of life I'm going to lead. You haven't heard +about Gerald?' + +'About your brother?' + +'Yes;--you haven't heard?' + +'Not a word. I hope there is not misfortune.' + +'But indeed there is,--a most terrible misfortune.' Then he told +the whole story. How Gerald had been kept in London, and how he +had gone down to Cambridge,--all in vain; how his father had taken +the matter to heart, telling him that he had ruined his brother; +and how he, in consequence, had determined not to go to the races. +'Then he said,' continued Silverbridge, 'that his children between +them would bring him to his grave.' + +'That was terrible.' + +'Very terrible.' + +'But what did he mean by that?' asked Lady Mabel, anxious to hear +something about Lady Mary and Tregear. + +'Well; of course what I did at Oxford made him unhappy; and now +there is this affair of Gerald's.' + +'He did not allude to your sister?' + +'Yes he did. You have heard of all that. Tregear told you.' + +'He told me something.' + +'Of course my father does not like it.' + +'Do you approve of it?' + +'No,' said he--curtly and sturdily. + +'Why not? You like Tregear.' + +'Certainly I like Tregear. He is the friend among men, whom I like +the best. I have only two real friends.' + +'Who are they?' she asked, sinking her voice very low. + +'He is one;--and you are the other. You know that.' + +'I hoped that I was one,' she said. 'But if you love Tregear so +dearly, why do you not approve of him for your sister?' + +'I always knew that it would not do.' + +'But why not?' + +'Mary ought to marry a man of higher standing.' + +'Of higher rank you mean. The daughter of Dukes have married +commoners before.' + +'It is not exactly that. I don't like to talk of it in that way. I +knew it would make my father unhappy. In point of fact he can't +marry her. What is the good of approving of a thing that is +impossible?' + +'I wish I knew your sister. Is she--firm?' + +'Indeed she is.' + +'I am not so sure you are.' + +'No,' said he, after considering awhile; 'nor am I. But she is not +like Gerald or me. She is more obstinate.' + +'Less fickle perhaps.' + +'Yes, if you choose to call it fickle. I don't know that I am +fickle. If I were in love with a girl I should be true to her.' + +'Are you sure of that?' + +'Quite sure. If I were really in love with her I certainly should +not change. It is possible that I might be bullied out of it.' + +'But she will not be bullied out of it?' + +'Mary? No. That is just it. She will stick to it if he does.' + +'I would if I were she. Where will you find any young man equal to +Frank Tregear?' + +'Perhaps you mean to cut poor Mary out.' + +'That isn't a nice thing for you to say, Lord Silverbridge. Frank +is my cousin,--as indeed you are also; but it so happens that I +have seen a great deal of him all my life. And, though I don't +want to cut your sister out, as you so prettily say, I love him +well enough to understand that any girl whom he loves ought to be +true to him.' So far what she said was very well, but she +afterwards added a word which might have been wisely omitted. +'Frank and I are almost beggars.' + +'What an accursed thing money is,' he exclaimed, jumping up from +his chair. + +'I don't agree with you at all. It is a very comfortable thing.' + +'How is anybody who has got it to know if anybody cares for him?' + +'You must find that out. There is such a thing I suppose as a real +sympathy.' + +'You tell me to my face that you and Tregear would have been +lovers only that you are both poor.' + +'I never said anything of the kind.' + +'And that he is to be passed on to my sister because it is +supposed that she will have some money.' + +'You are putting words into my mouth which I never spoke, and +ideas into my mind which I never thought.' + +'And of course I feel the same about myself. How can a fellow help +it? I wish you had a lot of money, I know.' + +'It is very kind of you;--but why?' + +'Well;--I can't quite explain myself,' he said, blushing as was his +wont. 'I daresay it wouldn't make any difference.' + +'It would make a great difference to me. As it is, having none, +and knowing as I do that papa and Percival are getting things into +a worse mess every day, I am obliged to hope that I may some day +marry a man who has got an income.' + +'I suppose so,' said he, blushing, but frowning at the same time. + +'You see I can be very frank with a real friend. But I am sure of +myself in this--that I shall never marry a man I do not love. A +girl needn't love a man unless she likes it, I suppose. She +doesn't tumble into love as she does into the fire. It would not +suit me to marry a poor man, and so I don't mean to fall in love +with a poor man.' + +'But you do mean to fall in love with a rich one?' + +'That remains to be seen, Lord Silverbridge. The rich man will at +any rate have to fall in love with me first. If you know of any +one you need not tell him to be too sure because he has a good +income.' + +'There's Popplecourt. He's his own master, and fool as he is, he +knows how to keep his money.' + +'I don't want a fool. You must do better for me than Lord +Popplecourt.' + +'What do you say to Dolly Longstaff?' + +'He would be just the man, only he never would take the trouble to +come out and be married.' + +'Or Glasslough?' + +'I'm afraid he's cross, and wouldn't let me have my own way.' + +'I can only think of one other;--but you would not take him.' + +'Then you had better not mention him. It is no good crowding the +list with impossibles.' + +'I was thinking of--myself.' + +'You are certainly one of the impossibles.' + +'Why, Lady Mab?' + +'For twenty reasons. You are too young, and you are bound to +oblige your father, and you are to be wedded to Parliament,--at any +rate for the next ten years. And altogether it wouldn't do,--for a +great many reasons.' + +'I suppose you don't like me well enough?' + +'What a question to ask! No, my Lord I do not. There, that's what +you may call an answer. Don't you pretend to look offended, +because if you do, I shall laugh at you. If you may have your joke +surely I may have mine.' + +'I don't see any joke in it.' + +'But I do. Suppose I were to say the other thing. Oh, Lord +Silverbridge, you do me so much honour! And now I come to think +about it, there is no one in the world I am so fond of as you. +Would that suit you?' + +'Exactly.' + +'But it wouldn't suit me. There's papa. Don't run away.' + +'It's ever so much past five,' said the legislator, 'and I had +intended to be in the House more than an hour ago. Good-bye. Give +my love to Miss Cassewary.' + +'Certainly. Miss Cassewary is your most devoted friend. Won't you +bring your sister to see me some day?' + +'When she is in town I will.' + +'I should like to know her. Good-bye.' + +As he hurried down to the House in a hansom, he thought over it +all, and told himself that he feared it would not do. She might +perhaps accept him, but if so, she would do it simply in order +that she might become Duchess of Omnium. She might, he thought, +have accepted him then, had she chosen. He had spoken plainly +enough. But she had laughed at him. He felt that if she loved him, +there ought to have been something of that feminine tremor, of +that doubting, hesitating half-avowal of which he had perhaps read +in novels, and which his own instincts taught him to desire. But +there had been no tremor nor hesitating. 'No; my Lord, I do not,' +she had said when he asked her to her face whether she liked him +well enough to be his wife. 'No; my Lord I do not.' It was not +the refusal conveyed in these words which annoyed him. He did +believe that if he were to press his suit with the usual forms she +would accept him. But it was that there should be such a total +absence of trepidation in her words and manner. Before her he +blushed and hesitated and felt that he did not know how to express +himself. If she would only have done the same, then there would +have been an equality. Then he could have seized her in his arms +and sworn that never, never, never would he care for any one but +her. + +In truth he saw everything as it was only too truly. Though she +might choose to marry him if he pressed his request, she would +never subject herself to him as he would have the girl do whom he +loved. She was his superior, and in every word uttered between +them showed that it was so. But yet how beautiful she was;--how +much more beautiful than any other thing he had ever seen! + +He sat on one of the high seats behind Sir Timothy Beeswax and Sir +Orlando Drought, listening, or pretending to listen, to the +speeches of three or four gentlemen respecting sugar, thinking of +all this till half-past seven;--and then he went to dine with the +proud consciousness of having done his duty. The forms and methods +of the House were, he flattered himself, soaking into him +gradually,--as his father had desired. The theory of legislation +was sinking into his mind. The welfare of the nation depended +chiefly on sugar. But he thought that, after all, his own welfare +must depend on the possession of Mab Grex. + + + +CHAPTER 20 + +Then He Will Come Again + +Lady Mabel, when her young lover left her, was for a time freed +from the necessity of thinking about him by her father. He had +returned from the Oaks in a very bad humour. Lord Grex had been +very badly treated by his son, whom he hated worse than any one +else in the world. On the Derby-day he had won a large sum of +money, which had been to him at the time a matter of intense +delight,--for he was in great want of money. But on this day he had +discovered that his son and heir had lost more than he had won, +and an arrangement had been suggested to him that his winnings +should go to pay Percival's losings. This was a mode of settling +affairs to which the Earl would not listen for a moment, had he +possessed the power of putting a veto upon it. But there had been +a transaction lately between him and his son with reference to the +cutting off a certain entail under which money was to be paid to +Lord Percival. This money had not yet been forthcoming, and +therefore the Earl was constrained to assent. This was very +distasteful to the Earl, and he came home therefore in a bad +humour, and said a great many disagreeable things to his daughter. +'You know, papa, if I could do anything I would.' This she said +in answer to a threat, which he had made often before and now +repeated, of getting rid altogether of the house in Belgrave +Square. Whenever he made this threat he did not scruple to tell +her that the house had to be kept up solely for her welfare. 'I +don't see why the deuce you don't get married. You'll have to +sooner or later.' That was not a pleasant speech for a daughter +to hear from her father. 'As to that,' she said, 'it must come or +not as chance will have it. If you want me to sign anything I will +sign it;'--for she had been asked to sign papers, or in other words +to surrender rights;--'but for that other matter it must be left to +myself.' Then he had been very disagreeable indeed. + +They dined together,--of course with all the luxury that wealth can +give. There was a well-appointed carriage to take them backwards +and forwards to the next square, such as an Earl should have. She +was splendidly dressed, as became an Earl's daughter, and he was +brilliant with some star which had been accorded to him by his +sovereign's grateful minister in return for staunch parliamentary +support. No one looking at them could have imagined that such a +father could have told such a daughter that she must marry herself +out of the way, because as an unmarried girl she was a burden. + +During the dinner she was very gay. To be gay was a habit,--we may +almost say the work,--of her life. It so chanced that she sat +between Sir Timothy Beeswax, who in these days was a very great +man indeed, and that very Dolly Longstaff, whom Silverbridge in +his irony had proposed to her as a fitting suitor for her hand. + +'Isn't Lord Silverbridge a cousin of yours?' asked Sir Timothy. + +'A very distant one.' + +'He has come over to us, you know. It is such a triumph.' + +'I was so sorry to hear it.' This, however, as the reader knows, +was a fib. + +'Sorry!' said Sir Timothy. 'Surely Lord Grex's daughter must be a +Conservative.' + +'Oh yes;--I am a Conservative because I was born one. I think that +people in politics should remain as they are born,--unless they are +very wise indeed. When men come to be statesmen, and all that kind +of thing, of course they can change backwards and forwards.' + +'I hope that is not intended for me, Lady Mabel.' + +'Certainly not. I don't knew enough about it to be personal.' +That, however, was again not quite true. 'But I have the greatest +possible respect for the Duke, and I think it a pity that he +should be made unhappy by his son. Don't you like the Duke?' + +'Well;--yes;--yes in a way. He is a most respectable man; and has +been a good public servant.' + +'All our lot are ruined, you know,' said Dolly, talking of the +races. + +'Who are your lot, Mr Longstaff?' + +'I'm one myself.' + +'I suppose so.' + +'I'm utterly smashed. Then there's Percival.' + +'I hope he has not lost much. Of course you know he is my +brother.' + +'Oh laws;--so he is. I always put my foot in it. Well;--he has lost +a lot. And so have Silverbridge and Tifto. Perhaps you don't know +Tifto.' + +'I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr Tifto.' + +'He is a major. I think you'd like Major Tifto. He's a sort of +racing coach to Silverbridge. You ought to know Tifto. And Tregear +is pretty nearly cleared out.' + +'Mr Tregear! Mr Frank Tregear!' + +'I'm told he has been hit very heavy. I hope he's not a friend of +yours, Lady Mabel.' + +'Indeed he is;--a very dear friend and cousin.' + +'That's what I hear. He's very much with Silverbridge you know.' + +'I cannot think that Mr Tregear has lost money.' + +'I hope he hasn't. I know I have. I wish someone would stick up +for me and say it was impossible.' + +'But that is not Mr Tregear's way of living. I can understand that +Lord Silverbridge or Percival should lose money.' + +'Or me?' + +'Or you, if you like to say so.' + +'Or Tifto?' + +'I don't know anything about Mr Tifto.' + +'Major Tifto.' + +'Or Major Tifto;--what does it signify?' + +'No;--of course. We inferior people may lose our money just as we +please. But a man who can look clever as Mr Tregear ought to win +always.' + +'I told you just know that he was a friend of mine.' + +'But don't you think that he does look clever?' There could be no +question but that Tregear, when he disliked his company, could +show his dislike by his countenance; and it was not improbable +that he had done so in the presence of Mr Adolphus Longstaff. 'Now +tell the truth, Lady Mabel; does he not look conceited sometimes?' + +'He generally looks as if he knew what he was talking about, which +is more than some other people do.' + +'Of course he is a great deal more clever than I am. I know that. +But I don't think even he can be so clever as he looks, "Or you so +stupid", that's what you ought to say now.' + +'Sometimes, Mr Longstaff, I deny myself the pleasure of saying +what I think.' + +When all this was over she was very angry with herself for the +anxiety she had expressed about Tregear. This Mr Longstaff was, +she thought, exactly the man to report all she had said in the +public-room at the club. But she had been annoyed by what she had +heard as to her friend. She knew that he of all men should keep +himself free from such follies. Those others had, as it were, a +right to make fools of themselves. It had seemed so natural that +the young men of her own class should dissipate their fortunes and +their reputations by every kind of extravagance! Her father had +done so, and she had never even ventured to hope that her brother +would not follow her father's example. But Tregear, if he gave way +to such follies as these, would soon fall headlong into a pit from +which there would be no escape. And if he did fall, she knew +herself well enough to be aware that she could not stifle, nor +even conceal the misery which this would occasion her. As long as +he stood well before the world she would be well able to assume +indifference. But were he to be precipitated into some bottomless +misfortunes then she could only throw herself after him. She could +see him marry, and smile,--and perhaps even like his wife. And +while he was doing so, she could also marry, and resolve that the +husband whom she took should be made to think he had a loving +wife. But were Frank to die,--then must she fall upon his body as +though he had been known by all the world to be her lover. +Something of this feeling came upon her now, when she heard that +he had been betting and had been unfortunate. She had been unable +so to subdue herself as to seem to be perfectly careless about it. +She had begun by saying that she had not believed it;--but she had +believed it. It was so natural that Tregear should have done as +the others did with whom he lived! But then the misfortune would +be to him so terrible,--so irremediable! The reader, however, may +as well know at once there was a not a word of truth in the +assertion. + +After dinner she went home alone. There were other festivities to +be attended, had she pleased to attend them; and poor Miss +Cassewary was dressed ready to go with her as chaperone;--but Miss +Cassewary was quite satisfied to be allowed to go to bed in lieu +of Mrs Montacute Jones's great ball. And she had gone to her +bedroom when Lady Mabel went to her. 'I am glad you are alone,' +she said, 'because I want to speak to you.' + +'Is anything wrong?' + +'Everything is wrong. Papa says he must give up this house.' + +'He says that almost always when he comes back from the races, and +very often when he comes back from the club.' + +'Percival has lost ever so much.' + +'I don't think my Lord will hamper himself for your brother.' + +'I can't explain it, but there is some horrible money +complication. It is hard upon you and me.' + +'Who am I?' said Miss Cassewary. + +'About the dearest friend that ever a poor girl had. It is hard +upon you,--and upon me. I have given up everything,--and what good +have I done?' + +'It is hard, my dear.' + +'But after all I do not care much for all that. The thing has been +going on for so long that one is used to it.' + +'What is it then?' + +'Ah;--yes;--what is it? How am I to tell you?' + +'Surely you can tell me,' said the old woman, putting out her hand +so as to caress the arm of the younger one. + +'I could tell no one else; I am sure of that. Frank Tregear has +taken to gambling,--like the rest of them.' + +'Who says so?' + +'He has lost a lot of money at these races. A man who sat next to +me at dinner,--one of those stupid do-nothing fools that one meets +everywhere,--told me so. He is one of the Beargarden set, and of +course he knows all about it.' + +'Did he say how much?' + +'How is he to pay anything? Of all things men do this is the +worst. A man who would think himself disgraced for ever if he +accepted a present of money will not scruple to use all his wits +to rob his friend of everything that he has by studying the run of +the cards or by watching the paces of some brutes of horses! And +they consider themselves to be fine gentlemen! A real gentleman +should never want the money out of another man's pocket;--should +never think of money at all.' + +'I don't know how that is to be helped, my dear. You have got to +think of money.' + +'Yes; I have to think of it, and do think of it, and because I do +so I am not what I call a gentleman.' + +'No;--my dear, you're a lady.' + +'Psha! you know what I mean. I might have had the feelings of a +gentleman as well as the best man that was ever born. I haven't; +but I have never done anything so mean as gambling. Now I have got +something else to tell you.' + +'What is it? You do frighten me so when you look like that.' + +'You may well be frightened,--for if this all comes round I shall +very soon be able to dispense with you altogether. His Royal +Highness Lord Silverbridge--' + +'What do you mean, Mabel?' + +'He's next door to a Royal Highness at any rate, and a much more +topping man than most of them. Well then;--His Serene Highness the +heir of the Duke of Omnium has done me the inexpressible honour of +asking me--to marry him.' + +'No!' + +'You may well say No. and to tell the exact truth, he didn't.' + +'Then why do you say he did?' + +'I don't think he did quite ask me, but he gave me to understand +that he would do so if I gave him any encouragement.' + +'Did he mean it?' + +'Yes;--poor boy! He meant it. With a word;--with a look, he would +have been down there kneeling. He asked me whether I liked him +well enough. What do you think I did?' + +'What did you do?' + +'I spared him;--out of sheer downright Christian charity! I said +to myself, "Love your neighbours." "Don't be selfish." "Do unto +him as you would he should do unto you,"-that is, I think of his +welfare. Though I had him in my net, I let him go. Shall I go to +heaven for doing that?' + +'I don't know,' said Miss Cassewarey, who was much perturbed by +the news she had just heard as to be unable to come to any opinion +on the point just raised. + +'Or mayn't I rather go to the other place? From how much +embarrassment should I have relieved my father! What a friend I +should have made for Percival! How much I might have been able to +do for Frank! And then what a wife I should have made him!' + +'I think you would.' + +'He'll never get another half so good; and he'll be sure to get +one before long. It is a sort of tenderness that is quite +inefficacious. He will become a prey, as I should have made him a +prey. But where is there another who will treat him so well?' + +'I cannot bear to hear you speak of yourself in that way.' + +'But it is true. I know the sort of girl he should marry. In the +first place she should be two years younger, and four years +fresher. She should be able not only to like him and love him, but +to worship him. How well I can see her! She should have fair +hair, and bright green-grey eyes, with the sweetest complexion, +and the prettiest little dimples;--two inches shorter than me, and +the delight of her life should be to hang with two hands on his +arm. She should have a feeling that her Silverbridge is an Apollo +upon earth. To me he is a rather foolish, but very, very sweet- +tempered young man;--anything rather than a god. If I thought that +he would get the fresh young girl with the dimples then I ought to +abstain.' + +'If he was in earnest,' said Miss Cassewary, throwing aside all +this badinage and thinking of the main point, 'if he was in +earnest he will come again.' + +'He was quite in earnest.' + +'Then he will come again.' + +'I don't think he will,' said Lady Mabel. 'I told him that I was +too old for him, and I tried to laugh him out of it. He does not +like being laughed at. He was been saved, and he will know it.' + +'But if he should come again?' + +'I shall not spare him again. No;--not twice. I felt it to be hard +to do so once, because I so nearly love him! There are so many of +them who are odious to me, as to whom the idea of marrying them +seems to be mixed somehow with an idea of suicide.' + +'Oh, Mabel!' + +'But he is as sweet as a rose. If I were his sister, or his +servant, or his dog, I could be devoted to him. I can fancy that +his comfort and his success and his name should be everything to +me.' + +'That is what a wife ought to feel.' + +'But I could never feel him to be my superior. That is what a wife +ought to feel. Think of those two young men and the difference +between them! Well;--don't look like that at me. I don't often +give way, and I dare say after all I shall live to be the Duchess +of Omnium.' Then she kissed her friend and went away to her own +room. + + + +CHAPTER 21 + +Sir Timothy Beeswax + +There had lately been a great Conservative reaction in the +country, brought about in part by the industry and good management +of gentlemen who were strong on that side;--but due also in part to +the blunders and quarrels of their opponents. That these opponents +should have blundered and quarrelled, being men active and in +earnest, was to have been expected. Such blunderings and +quarrellings have been a matter of course since politics have been +politics, and since religion has been religion. When men combine +to do nothing, how should there be disagreement? When men combine +to do much, how should there not be disagreement? Thirty men can +sit still, each as like the other as peas. But put your thirty men +up to run a race, and they will soon assume different forms. And +in doing nothing, you can hardly do amiss. Let the does of nothing +have something of action forced upon them, and they, too, will +blunder and quarrel. + +The wonder is that there should ever be in a reforming party +enough of consentaneous action to carry any reform. The reforming +or Liberal party in British politics had thus stumbled,--and +stumbled till it fell. And now there had been a great Conservative +reaction! Many of the most Liberal constituencies in the country +had been untrue to their old political convictions. And, as the +result, Lord Drummond was Prime Minister in the House of Lords,-- +with Sir Timothy Beeswax acting as first man in the House of +Commons. + +It cannot be denied that Sir Timothy had his good points as a +politician. He was industrious, patient, clear-sighted, +intelligent, courageous, and determined. Long before he had had a +seat in the House, when he was simply making his way up to the +probability of a seat by making a reputation as an advocate, he +had resolved that he would be more than an Attorney-General, more +than a judge,--more, as he thought it, than a Chief Justice; but at +any rate something different. This plan he had all but gained,--and +it must be acknowledged that he had been moved by a grand and +manly ambition. But there were drawbacks to the utility and beauty +of Sir Timothy's character as a statesman. He had no idea as to +the necessity or non-necessity of any measure whatever in +reference to the well-being of the country. It may, indeed, be +said that all such ideas were to him absurd, and the fact that +they should be held by his friends and supporters was an +inconvenience. He was not in accord with those who declare that a +Parliament is a collection of windbags which puff, and blow, and +crack to the annoyance of honest men. But to him Parliament was a +debating place, by having a majority in which, and by no other +means, he,--or another,--might become the great man of the day. By +no other than parliamentary means could such a one as he come to +be the chief man. And this use of Parliament, either on his own +behalf or on behalf of others, had been for so many years present +to his mind, that there seemed to be nothing absurd in an +institution supported for such a purpose. Parliament was a club so +eligible in its nature that all Englishmen wished to belong to it. +They who succeeded were acknowledged to be the cream of the land. +They who dominated in it were the cream of the cream. Those two +who were elected to be the chiefs of the two parties had more of +cream in their composition than any others. But he who could be +the chief of the strongest party, and who therefore, in accordance +with the prevailing arrangements of the country, should have the +power of making dukes, and bestowing garters and appointing +bishops, he who by attaining the first seat should achieve the +right of snubbing all before him, whether friends or foes, he, +according to the feelings of Sir Timothy, would have gained an +Elysium of creaminess not to be found in any other position on the +earth's surface. No man was more warmly attached to parliamentary +government than Sir Timothy Beeswax; but I do not think that he +ever cared much for legislation. + +Parliamentary management was his forte. There have been various +rocks on which men have shattered their barks in their attempts to +sail successfully into the harbours of parliamentary management. +There is the great Senator who declared to himself that personally +he will have neither friend or foe. There is his country before +him and its welfare. Within his bosom is the fire of patriotism, +and within his mind the examples of all past time. He knows that +he can be just, he teaches himself to be eloquent, and he strives +to be wise. But he will not bend;--and at last, in some great +solitude, though closely surrounded by those whose love he has +neglected to acquire,--he breaks his heart. + +Then there is he who is seeing the misfortune of that great one, +tells himself that patriotism, judgement, industry, and eloquence +will not suffice for him unless he himself can be loved. To do +great things a man must have a great following, and to achieve +that he must be popular. So he smiles and learns the necessary +wiles. He is all for his country and his friends,--but for his +friends first. He too must be eloquent and well instructed in the +ways of Parliament, must be wise and diligent; but in all that he +does and all that he says, he says he must first study his party. +It is well with him for a time;--but he has closed the door of his +Elysium too rigidly. Those without gradually become stronger than +his friends within, and so he falls. + +But may not the door be occasionally opened to an outsider, so +that the exterior force be diminished? We know how great is the +pressure of water, and how the peril of an overwhelming weight of +it may be removed by opening the way for a small current. There +comes therefore the Statesman who acknowledges to himself that he +will be pregnable. That, as a Statesman, he should have enemies is +a matter of course. Against moderate enemies he will hold his own. +But when there comes one immoderately forcible, violently +inimical, then to that man he will open his bosom. He will tempt +him into his camp with an offer of high command any foe that may +be worth his purchase. The loyalty of officers so procured must be +open to suspicion. The man who has said bitter things against you +will never sit at your feet in contented submission, nor will your +friend of any standing long endure to be superseded by such +converts. + +All these dangers Sir Timothy had seen and studied, and for each +of them he had hoped to be able to provide an antidote. Love +cannot do all. Fear acknowledges a superior. Love desires an +equal. Love is to be created by benefits done, and means +gratitude, which we all know to be weak. But hope, which refers +itself to benefits to come, is of all our feelings the strongest. +And Sir Timothy had parliamentary doctrines concealed in the +depths of his own bosom more important even than these. The +Statesman who falls is he who does much, and thus injures many. +The Statesman who stands the longest is he who does nothing and +injures no one. He soon knew that the work which he had taken in +hand required all the art of the great conjurer. He must be +possessed of tricks so marvellous that not even they who sat +nearest to him might know how there were performed. + +For the executive or legislative business of the country he cared +little. The one should be left in the hands of men who liked +work;--of the other there should be little, or, if possible, none. +But Parliament must be managed,--and his party. Of patriotism he +did not know the meaning;--few, perhaps, do, beyond the feeling +that they would like to lick the Russians, or to get the better of +the Americans in a matter of fisheries or frontiers. But he +invented a pseudo-patriotic conjuring phraseology which no one +understood but which many admired. He was ambitious that it should +be said of him that he was far-and-away the cleverest of his +party. He knew himself to be clever. But he could only be far-and- +away the cleverest by saying and doing that which no one could +understand. If he could become master of some great hocus-pocus +system which could be made to be graceful to the ears and eyes of +many, which might for awhile seem to have within it some semi- +divine attribute, which should have all but divine power of +mastering the loaves and fishes, then would they who followed him +believe in him more firmly than other followers who had believed +in their leaders. When you see a young woman read a closed book +placed on her dorsal vertebrae,--if you do believe that she so +reads it, you think that she is endowed with a wonderful faculty! + And should you also be made to believe that the same young woman +had direct communication with Abraham, by means of some invisible +wire, you would be apt to do a great many things as that young +woman might tell you. Conjuring, when not knowing to be conjuring, +is very effective. + +Much, no doubt, of Sir Timothy's power had come from his +praiseworthy industry. Though he cared nothing for the making of +laws, though he knew nothing of finance, though he had abandoned +his legal studies, still he worked hard. And because he had worked +harder in a special direction than others around him, therefore he +was enabled to lead them. The management of a party is a very +great work in itself; and when to that is added the management of +the House of Commons, a man has enough upon his hands even he +neglects altogether the ordinary pursuits of a Statesman. Those +around Sir Timothy were fond of their party; but they were for the +most part men who had not condescended to put their shoulders to +the wheel as he had done. Had there been any great light among +them, had there been a Pitt or a Peel, Sir Timothy would probably +have become Attorney-General and have made his way to the bench;-- +but there had been no Pitt or a Peel, and he had seen his opening. +He had studied the ways of Members. Parliamentary practice had +become familiar to him. He had shown himself to be ready at all +hours to fight the battle of the party he had joined. And no man +knew so well as did Sir Timothy how to elevate a simple +legislative attempt into a good faction fight. He had so mastered +his tricks of conjuring that no one could get to the bottom of +them, and had assumed a look of preternatural gravity which made +many young Members think that Sir Timothy was born to be a king of +men. + +There was no doubt some among his older supporters who felt their +thraldom previously. There were some lords in the Upper House and +some of the sons of lords in the Lower,--with pedigrees going back +far enough for pride,--who found it irksome to recognise Sir +Timothy as a master. No doubt he had worked very hard, and had +worked for them. No doubt he knew how to do the work and they did +not. There was no other man among them to whom the lead could be +conveniently transferred. But yet they were uncomfortable,--and +perhaps a little ashamed. + +It had arisen partly from this cause, that there had been +something of a counter reaction at the last general election. When +the Houses met the Ministers had indeed a majority, but a much +lessened majority. The old Liberal constituencies had returned to +an expression of their real feeling. This reassertion of the +progress of the tide, this recovery from the partial ebb which +checks the violence of every flow, is common enough in politics, +but at the present moment there were many who said that all this +had been accelerated by a feeling in the country that Sir Timothy +was hardly all that the country required as the leader of the +county party. + + + +CHAPTER 22 + +The Duke in his Study + +It was natural that at such a time, when success greater than had +been expected had attended the efforts of the Liberals, when some +dozen unexpected votes had been acquired, the leading politicians +of that party should have found themselves compelled to look about +them and see how these good things might be utilised. In February +they certainly had not expected to be called to power in the +course of the existing session. Perhaps they did not expect it +yet. There was still a Conservative majority,--though but a small +majority. But the strength of the minority consisted, not in the +fact that the majority against them was small, but that it was +decreasing. How quickly does the snowball grow into hugeness as it +is rolled on;--but when the change comes in the weather how quickly +does it melt, and before it is gone become a thing ugly, weak and +formless! Where is the individual who does not assert to himself +that he would be more loyal to a falling than to a rising friend? + Such is perhaps the nature of each one of us. But when any large +number of men act together, the falling friend is apt to be +deserted. There was a general feeling among politicians that Lord +Drummond's ministry,--or Sir Timothy's--was failing, and the +Liberals, though they could not yet count the votes by which they +might hope to be supported in power, nevertheless felt that they +ought to be looking to their arms. + +There had been a coalition. They who are well read in the +political literature of their country will remember all about +that. It had perhaps succeeded in doing that for which it had been +intended. The Queen's government had been carried on for two or +three years. The Duke of Omnium had been the head of that +Ministry; but, during those years had suffered so much as to have +become utterly ashamed of the coalition,--so much as to have said +often to himself that under no circumstances would he again join +any Ministry. At this time there was no idea of another coalition. + That is a state of things which cannot come about frequently,-- +which can only be reproduced by men who have never hitherto felt +the mean insipidity of such a condition. But they who had served +on the Liberal side in that coalition must again put their +shoulders to the wheel. Of course it was in every man's mouth that +the Duke must be induced to forget his miseries and once more to +take upon himself the duties of an active servant of the State. + +But they who were most anxious on the subject, such men as Lord +Cantrip, Mr Monk, our old friend Phineas Finn, and a few others, +were almost afraid to approach him. At the moment when the +coalition was broken up he had been very bitter in spirit, +apparently almost arrogant, holding himself aloof from his late +colleagues,--and since that, troubles had come to him, which had +aggravated the soreness of his heart. His wife had died, and he +had suffered much through his children. What Lord Silverbridge had +done at Oxford was a matter of general conversation, and also what +he had not done. + +That the heir of the family should have become a renegade in +politics was supposed to have greatly affected the father. Now +Lord Gerald had been expelled from Cambridge, and Silverbridge was +on the turf in conjunction with Major Tifto! Something, too, had +oozed out into general ears about Lady Mary,--something which +should have been kept secret as the grave. It had therefore come +to pass that it was difficult even to address the Duke. + +There was but one man, and but one, who could do this with ease to +himself;--and that man was at last put into motion at the instance +of the leaders of the party. The old Duke of St Bungay wrote the +following letter to the Duke of Omnium. The letter purported to be +an excuse for the writer's own defalcations. But the chief object +of the writer was to induce the younger Duke once more to submit +to harness. + +'Longroyston, 3 June, 187- + +'DEAR DUKE OF OMNIUM, + +'How quickly the things come round! I had thought that I should +never again have been called upon even to think of the formation +of another Liberal Ministry; and now, though it was but yesterday +that were all telling ourselves that we were thoroughly manumitted +from our labours by the altered opinions of the country, sundry of +our old friends have again been putting their heads together. + +'Did they not do so they would neglect a manifest duty. Nothing is +more essential to the political well-being of the country than +that the leaders on both sides in politics should be prepared for +their duties. But for myself, I am bound at last to put in the old +plea with a determination that it shall be respected. "Solve +senescentem." It is now, if I calculate rightly, exactly fifty +years since I first entered public life in obedience to the advice +of Lord Grey. I had then already sat five years in the House of +Commons. I had assisted humbly in the emancipation of the Roman +Catholics, and have learned by the legislative troubles of just +half a century that those whom we then invited to sit with us in +Parliament have been in all things our worst enemies. But what +then? had we benefited only those who love us, would not the +sinners also,--or even the Tories,--have done as much as that? + +'But such memories are of no avail now. I write to say that after +so much of active political life, I will at last retire. My +friends when they see me inspecting a pigsty or picking a peach +are apt to remind me that I can still stand on my legs, and with +more of compliment than of kindness will argue therefore that I +ought still to undertake active duties in Parliament. I can select +my own hours for pigs and peaches, and should I, through the +dotage of age, make mistakes as to the breeding of one or the +flavour of the other, the harm done will not go far. In politics I +have done my work. What you and others in the arena do will +interest me more than all other things in this world, I think and +hope, to my dying day. But I will not trouble the workers with the +querulousness of old age. + +'So much for myself. And let me, as I go, say a parting word to +him with whom in politics I have been for many years more in +accord than with any other leading man. As nothing but age or +infirmity would to my own mind have justified me in retiring, so +do I think that you, who can plead neither age nor infirmity, will +find yourself at last to want self-justification, if you permit +yourself to be driven from the task either by pride or +indifference. + +'I should express my feelings better if were I to say by pride and +diffidence. I look to our friendship, to the authority given me by +my age, and to the thorough goodness of your heart for pardon in +thus accusing you. That little men should have ventured to ill-use +you, has hurt your pride. That these little men should have been +able to do so has created your diffidence. Put you to a piece of +work that a man may do, you have less false pride as to the way in +which you may do it than any man I have known; and, let the way be +open to you, as little diffidence as any. But in this political +mill of ours in England, a man cannot always find the way open to +do things. It does not often happen that an English statesman can +go in and make a great score off his own bat. But not the less is +he bound to play the game and to go to the wicket when he finds +that his time has come. + +'There are, I think, two things for you to consider in this +matter, and two only. The first is your capacity, and the other is +your duty. A man may have found by experience that he is unfitted +for public life. You and I have known men in regard to whom we +have thoroughly wished that such experience had been reached. But +this is a matter in which a man who doubts himself is bound to +take the evidence of those around him. The whole party is most +anxious for your co-operation. If this be so,--and I make you the +assurance from most conclusive evidence,--you are bound to accept +the common consent of your political friends on that matter. You +perhaps think that a certain period of your life you failed. They +all agree with me that you did not fail. It is a matter on which +you should be bound by our opinion rather than by your own. + +'As to that matter of duty, I shall have less difficulty in +carrying you with me. Though this renewed task may be personally +disagreeable to you, even though your tastes should lead you to +some other life,--which I think is not the case,--still if your +country wants you, you should serve your country. It is a work as +to which such a one as you has no option. Of most of those who +choose public life,--it may be said that were they not there, there +would be others as serviceable. But when a man such as you, has +shown himself to be necessary, as long as health and age permit, +he cannot recede without breach of manifest duty. The work to be +done is so important, the numbers to be benefited are so great, +that he cannot be justified in even remembering that he has a +self. + +'As I have said before, I trust that my own age and your goodness +will induce you to pardon this great interference. But whether +pardoned or not I shall always be + +'Your most affectionate friend, +'ST BUNGAY.' + +The Duke,--our Duke,--on reading this letter was by no means pleased +by its contents. He could ill bear to be reminded either of his +pride or of his diffidence. And yet the accusations which others +made against him were as nothing to those which he charged +himself. He would do this till at last he was forced to defend +himself against himself by asking himself whether he could be +other than as God had made him. It is the last and poorest +makeshift of a defence to which a man can be brought in his own +court! Was it his fault that he was so thin-skinned that all +things hurt him? When some coarse man said to him that which ought +not to have been said, was it his fault that at every word a +penknife had stabbed him? Other men had borne these buffets +without shrinking, and had shown themselves thereby to be more +useful, much more efficacious; but he could no more imitate them +than he could procure for himself the skin of a rhinoceros, or the +tusk of an elephant. And this shrinking was what man called +pride,--was the pride of which his old friend wrote! 'Have I ever +been haughty, unless in my own defence?' he asked himself, +remembering certain passages of humility in his life,--and certain +passages of haughtiness also. + +And the Duke told him also that he was diffident. Of course he was +diffident. Was it not one and the same thing? The very pride of +which he was accused was no more than a shrinking which comes from +the want of trust in oneself. He was a shy man. All his friends +and all his enemies knew that;--it was thus that he still +discoursed with himself;--a shy, self-conscious, timid, shrinking, +thin-skinned man! Of course he was diffident. Then why urge him +on to tasks for which he was by nature unfitted? + +And yet there was much in his old friend's letter which moved him. +There were certain words which he kept on repeating to himself. +'He cannot be justified in even remembering that he has a self'. +It was a hard thing to say of any man, but yet a true thing of +such a man as his correspondent had described. His correspondent +had spoken of a man who should know himself to be capable of +serving the State. If a man were capable, and was sure within his +own bosom of his own capacity, it would be his duty. But what if +he were not so satisfied? What if he felt that any labours of his +would be vain, and all self-abnegation useless? His friend had +told him that on that matter he was bound to take the opinion of +others. Perhaps so. But if so, had not that opinion been given to +him very plainly when he was told that he was both proud and +diffident? That he was called upon to serve his country, by good +service, if such were within his power, he did acknowledge freely; +but not that he should allow himself to be stuck up as a ninepin +only to be knocked down! There are politicians for whom such +occupation seems to be proper,--and who like it too. A little +office, a little power, a little rank, a little pay, a little +niche in the ephemeral history of the year will reward many men +adequately for being knocked down. + +And yet he loved power, and even when thinking of all this allowed +his mind from time to time to run away into a dreamland of +prosperous political labours. He thought what it would be to be an +all-beneficent Prime Minister, with a loyal majority, with a well- +conditioned unanimous cabinet, with a grateful people, and an +appreciative Sovereign. How well might a man spend himself night +and day, even to death, in the midst of such labours as these. + +Half an hour after receiving the Duke's letter he suddenly jumped +up and sat himself down at his desk. He felt it to be necessary +that he should at once write to his old friend;--and the more +necessary that he should do so at once, because he had resolved +that he would do so before he had made up his mind on the chief +subject of that letter. It did not suit him to say either that he +would or that he would not do as his friend had advised him. The +reply was made in a very few words. 'As to myself,' he said, after +expressing his regret that the Duke should find it necessary to +retire from public life--'as to myself, pray understand that +whatever I may do I shall never cease to be grateful for your +affectionate and high-spirited counsels.' + +Then his mind recurred to a more immediate and, for the moment, a +heavier trouble. He had as yet given no answer to that letter from +Mrs Finn, which the reader will perhaps remember. It might indeed +be passed over without an answer; but that was impossible. She had +accused him in the very strongest language of injustice, and had +made him understand that if he were unjust to her, then would he +be most ungrateful. He, looking at the matter with his own lights, +had thought that he had been right, but had resolved to submit the +question to another person. As judge in the matter he had chosen +Lady Cantrip, and Lady Cantrip had given judgement against him. + +He had pressed Lady Cantrip for a decided opinion, and she had +told him that she, in the same position, would have done just as +Mrs Finn had done. He had constituted Lady Cantrip his judge, and +had resolved that her judgement should be final. He declared to +himself that he did not understand it. If a man's house be on +fire, do you think of certain rules of etiquette before you bid +him send for the engines? If a wild beast be loose, do you go +through some ceremony before you caution the wanderers abroad? +There should not have been a moment! But, nevertheless, it was +now necessary that he should conform himself to the opinion of +Lady Cantrip, and in doing so he must apologise for the bitter +scorn with which he allowed himself to treat his wife's most loyal +and loving friend. + +The few words to the Duke had not been difficult, but this letter +seemed to be an Herculean task. It was made infinitely more +difficult by the fact that Lady Cantrip had not seemed to think +that the marriage was impossible. 'Young people when they have set +their minds upon it do so generally prevail at last!' These had +been her words, and they discomforted him greatly. She had thought +the marriage to be possible. Had she not almost expressed an +opinion that they ought to be allowed to marry? And if so, would +it not be his duty to take his girl away from Lady Cantrip? As to +the idea that young people, because they have declared themselves +to be in love, were to have just what they wanted,--with that he +did not agree at all. Lady Cantrip had told him that young people +generally prevail at last. He knew the story of one young person, +whose position in her youth had been very much the same as that of +his daughter now, and she had not prevailed. And in her case had +not the opposition which had been made to her wishes been most +fortunate? That young person had become his wife, his Glencora, +his Duchess. Had she been allowed to have her own way when she was +a child, what would have been her fate? Ah what! Then he had to +think of it all. Might she not have been alive now, and perhaps +happier than she had ever been with him? And had he remained +always unmarried, devoted simply to politics, would not the +troubles of the world have been lighter on him? But what had that +to do with it? In these matters it was not the happiness of this +or that individual which should be considered. There is a +propriety in things;--and only by an adherence to that propriety on +the part of individuals can the general welfare be maintained. A +King in his country, or the heir or the possible heir to the +throne, is debarred from what might possibly be a happy marriage +by regard to the good of his subjects. To the Duke's thinking the +maintenance of the aristocracy of the country was second only in +importance to the maintenance of the Crown. How should the +aristocracy be maintained if its wealth were allowed to fall into +the hands of an adventurer! + +Such were the opinions with regard to his own order of one who was +as truly Liberal in his ideas as any man in England, and who had +argued out these ideas to their consequences. As by the spread of +education and increase of the general well-being every proletaire +was brought nearer to a Duke, so by such action would the Duke be +brought nearer to a proletaire. Such drawing-nearer of the classes +was the object to which all this man's political action tended. +And yet it was a dreadful thing to him that his own daughter +should desire to marry a man so much beneath her own rank and +fortunes as Frank Tregear. + +He would not allow himself to believe that the young people could +ever prevail; but nevertheless, as the idea of the thing had not +alarmed Lady Cantrip as it had him, it was necessary that he +should make some apology to Mrs Finn. Each moment of +procrastination was a prick to his conscience. He now therefore +dragged out from the secrecy of some close drawer Mrs Finn's +letter and read it through to himself once again. Yet--it was true +that he had condemned her, and that he had punished her. Though he +had done nothing to her, said nothing, and written but very +little, still he had punished her most severely. + +She had written as though the matter was almost one of life and +death to her. He could understand that too. His uncle's conduct to +this woman, and his wife's, had created the intimacy which had +existed. Through their efforts she had become almost as one of the +family. And now to be dismissed, like a servant who had misbehaved +herself! And then her arguments in her own defence were all so +good,--if only that which Lady Cantrip had laid down as law was to +be held as law. He was aware now that she had had no knowledge of +the matter till his daughter had told her of her engagement at +Matching. Then it was evident also that she had sent this Tregear +to him immediately on her return to London. And at the end of the +letter she had accused him of what she had been pleased to call +his usual tenacity in believing ill of her! He had been +obstinate,--too obstinate in this respect; but he did not love her +the better for having told him of it. + +At last he did put his apology into words. + +'MY DEAR MRS FINN, +'I believe I had better acknowledge to you at once that I +have been wrong in my judgement as to your conduct in a certain +matter. You tell me that I owe it to you to make this +acknowledgement,--and I make it. The subject is, as you may +imagine, so painful that I will spare myself if possible, any +further allusion to it. I believe I did you a wrong, and therefore +I ask your pardon. + +'I should perhaps apologise also for delay in my reply. I have had +much to think of in this matter, and have many others also on my +mind. + +'Believe me to be, +Yours faithfully, +OMNIUM.' + +It was very short, and as being short was infinitely less +troublesome at the moment than a fuller epistle; but he was very +angry with himself, knowing that it was too short, feeling that it +was ungracious. He should have expressed a hope that he might soon +see her again,--only he had no such wish. There had been times at +which he had liked her, but he knew that he did not like her now. +And yet he was bound to be her friend! If he could only do some +great thing for her, and thus satisfy his feeling of indebtedness +towards her! But all the favours had been from her to him and +his. + + + +CHAPTER 23 + +Frank Tregear Wants a Friend + +Six or seven weeks had passed since Tregear had made his +communication to the Duke, and during that time he had heard not a +word about the girl he loved. He knew, indeed, that she was at the +Horns, and probably had reason to suppose that she was being +guarded there, as it were, out of his reach. This did not surprise +him; nor did he regard it as a hardship. It was to be expected +that she should be kept out of his sight. But this was a state of +things to which, as he thought, there should not be more than a +moderate amount of submission. Six weeks was not a very long +period, but it was perhaps long enough for evincing that respect +which he owed to the young lady's father. Something must be done +some day. How could he expect her to be true to him unless he took +some means of showing himself to be true to her? + +In these days he did not live very much with her brother. He not +only disliked, but distrusted Major Tifto, and had so expressed +himself as to give rise to angry words. Silverbridge had said that +he knew how to take care of himself. Tregear had replied that he +had his doubts on that matter. Then the Member of Parliament had +declared that at any rate he did not intend to be taken care of by +Frank Tregear! In such a state of things it was not possible that +there should be any close confidence as to Lady Mary. Nor does it +often come to pass that the brother is the confidant of his +sister's lover. Brothers hardly like their sisters to have lovers, +though they are often well satisfied that their sisters should +find husbands. Tregear's want of rank and wealth added something +to this feeling in the mind this brother, so that Silverbridge, +though he felt himself to be deterred by friendship from any open +opposition, still was almost inimical. 'It won't do, you know,' he +had said to his brother Gerald, shaking his head. + +Tregear, however, was determined to be active in the matter, to +make some effort, to speak to somebody. But how to make an +effort,--and to whom should he speak? Thinking of all this he +remembered that Mrs Finn had sent for him and had told him to go +with his love story to the Duke. She had been almost severe with +him;--but after the interview was over, he had felt that she had +acted well and wisely. He therefore determined that he would go to +Mrs Finn. + +She had as yet received no answer from the Duke, though nearly a +fortnight had elapsed since she had written her letter. During +that time she had become very angry. She felt that he was not +treating her as a gentleman should treat a lady, and certainly not +as the husband of her late friend should have treated the friend +of his late wife. She had a proud consciousness of having behaved +well to the Pallisers, and now this head of the Pallisers was +rewarding her by evil treatment. She had been generous; he was +ungenerous. She had been honest; he was deficient even in that +honesty for which she had given him credit. And she had been +unable to obtain any of that consolation which could have come to +her from talking of her wrongs. She could not complain to her +husband because there were reasons that made it essential that her +husband should not quarrel with the Duke. She was hot with +indignation at the very moment that Tregear was announced. + +He began by apologising for his intrusion, and she of course +assured him that he was welcome. 'After the liberty which I took +with you, Mr Tregear, I am only too well pleased that you should +come to see me.' + +'I am afraid,' he said, 'that I was a little rough.' + +'A little warm;--but that was to be expected. A gentleman never +likes to be interfered with on such a matter.' + +'The position was and is difficult, Mrs Finn.' + +'And I am bound to acknowledge the very ready way in which you did +what I asked you to do.' + +'And now, Mrs Finn, what is to come next?' + +'Ah!' + +'Something must be done! You know of course that the Duke did not +receive me with any great favour.' + +'I did not suppose he would.' + +'Nor did I. Of course he would object to such a marriage. But a +man in these days cannot dictate to his daughter what husband she +should marry.' + +'Perhaps he can dictate to her what husband she shall not marry.' + +'Hardly that. He may put impediments in the way; and the Duke will +do so. But if I am happy enough to have won the affection of his +daughter,--so as to make it essential to her happiness that she +should become my wife,--he will give way.' + +'What am I to say, Mr Tregear?' + +'Just what you think.' + +'Why should I be made to say what I think on so delicate a matter? + Or of what use would by my thoughts? Remember how far I am +removed from her.' + +'You are his friend.' + +'Not at all! No one less so!' As she said this she could not +hinder the colour from coming into her face. 'I was her friend,-- +lady Glencora's; but with the death of my friend there was an end +of all that.' + +'You were staying with him,--at his request. You told me so +yourself.' + +'I shall never stay with him again. But all that, Mr Tregear, is +of no matter. I do not mean to say a word against him;--not a word. +But if you wish to interest any one as being the Duke's friend, +then I can assure you that I am the last person in London to whom +you should come. I know no one to whom the Duke is likely to +entertain any feelings so little kind towards me.' This she said +in a peculiarly solemn way that startled Tregear. But before he +could answer her a servant entered the room with a letter. She +recognised at once the Duke's handwriting. Here was the answer for +which she had been so long waiting in silent expectation! She +could not keep it unread till he was gone. 'Will you allow me a +moment,' she whispered, and then she opened the envelope. As she +read the few words her eyes became laden with tears. They quite +sufficed to relieve the injured pride which had sat so heavy at +her heart. 'I believe I did you a wrong, and therefore I ask you +your pardon!' It was so like what she had believed the man to be! + She could not be longer angry with him. And yet the very last +words she had spoken were words complaining of his conduct. 'This +is from the Duke,' she said, putting the letter back into its +envelope. + +'Oh, indeed.' + +'It is odd that it should have come while you were here.' + +'Is it,--is it,--about Lady Mary?' + +'No;--at least,--not directly. I perhaps spoke more harshly about +him than I should have done. The truth is I had expected a line +from him, and it had not come. Now it is here; but I do not +suppose I shall ever see much of him. My intimacy was with her. +But I would not wish you to remember what I said just now, if--if--' + +'If what, Mrs Finn? You mean perhaps, if I should ever be allowed +to call myself his son-in-law. It may seem to you to be arrogant, +but it is an honour which I expect to win.' + +'Faint heart,--you know, Mr Tregear.' + +'Exactly. One has to tell oneself that very often. You will help +me?' + +'Certainly not,' she said, as though she were much startled. 'How +can I help you?' + +'By telling me what I should do. I suppose if I were to go down to +Richmond I should not be admitted.' + +'If you ask me, I think not;--not to see Lady Mary. Lady Cantrip +would perhaps see you.' + +'She is acting the part of-Duenna.' + +'As I should do so, if Lady Mary were staying with me. You don't +suppose that if she were here I would let her see you in my house +without her father's leave?' + +'I suppose not.' + +'Certainly not; and therefore I conceive that Lady Cantrip will +not do so either.' + +'I wish she were here.' + +'It would be of no use. I should be a dragon in guarding her.' + +'I wish you would let me feel that you were like a sister to me in +this matter.' + +'But I am not your sister, nor yet your aunt, nor yet your +grandmother. What I mean is that I cannot be on your side.' + +'Can you not?' + +'No, Mr Tregear. Think how long I have known these other people.' + +'But just now you said that he was your enemy.' + +'I did say so; but as I have unsaid it since, you as a gentleman +will not remember my words. At any rate I cannot help you in +this.' + +'I shall write to her.' + +'It can be nothing to me. If you write she will show your letter +either to her father or to Lady Cantrip.' + +'But she will read it first.' + +'I cannot tell you how that may be. In fact I am the very last +person in the world to whom you should come for assistance in this +matter. If I gave any assistance to anybody I should be bound to +give it to the Duke.' + +'I cannot understand that, Mrs Finn.' + +'Nor can I explain it, but it would be so. I shall always be very +glad to see you, and I do feel that we ought to be friends,-- +because I took such a liberty with you. But in this matter I +cannot help you.' + +When she said this he had to take his leave. It was impossible +that he should further press his case upon her, though he would +have been very glad to extract from her some kindly word. It is +such a help in a difficulty to have somebody who will express even +a hope that the difficulty is perhaps not invincible! He had no +one to comfort him in this matter. There was one dear friend,--as a +friend dearer than any other,--to whom he might go, and who would +after some fashion bid him prosper. Mabel would encourage him. She +had said that she would do so. But in making that promise she had +told him that Romeo would not have spoken of his love for Juliet +to Rosaline, whom he had loved before he saw Juliet. No doubt she +had gone on to tell him that he might come to her and talk freely +of his love for Lady Mary,--but after what had been said before he +felt that he could not do so without leaving a sting behind. When +a man's heart goes well with him,--so well as to be in some degree +oppressive to him even by its prosperity,--when the young lady has +jumped into his arms, and the father and the mother have been +quite willing, then he wants no confidant. He does not care to +speak very much off the matter which among his friends is apt to +become a subject for raillery. When you call a man Benedict he +does not come to you with ecstatic descriptions of the beauty and +the wit of his Beatrice. But no one was likely to call him +Benedict in reference to Lady Mary. + +In spite of his manner, in spite of his apparent self-sufficiency, +this man was very soft within. Less than two years back he had +been willing to sacrifice all the world for his cousin Mabel, and +his cousin Mabel had told him that he was wrong. 'It does not pay +to sacrifice the world for love.' So cousin Mabel had said, and +had added something as to its being necessary that she should +marry a rich man, and expedient that he should marry a rich woman. +He had thought much about it, and had declared to himself that on +no account would he marry a woman for her money. Then he had +encountered Lady Mary Palliser. There had been no doubt, no +resolution after that, no thinking about it,--but downright love. +There was nothing left of real regret for his cousin in his bosom. +She had been right. That love had been impossible. But this would +be possible,--ah, so deliciously possible,--if only her father and +mother would assist! The mother, imprudent in this as in all +things, had assented. The reader knows the rest. + +It was in every way possible. 'She will have money enough,' the +Duchess had said, 'if only her father can be brought to give it to +you.' So Tregear had set his heart upon it, and had said to +himself that the thing was to be done. Then his friend the Duchess +had died, and the real difficulties had commenced. From that day +he had not seen his love, or heard from her. How was he to know +whether she would be true to him? And where was he to seek for +that sympathy which he felt to be so necessary to him? A wild +idea had come into his head that Mrs Finn would be his friend;--but +she had repudiated him. + +He went straight home and at once wrote to the girl. The letter +was a simple love-letter, and as such need not be given here. In +what sweetest language he could find he assured her that even +though he should never be allowed to see her or to hear from her, +that still he should cling to her. And then he added this passage: +'If your love for me be what I think it is to be, no one can have +a right to keep us apart. Pray be sure that I shall not change. If +you change let me know it;--but I shall as soon expect the heavens +to fall.' + + + +CHAPTER 24 + +She Must Be Made to Obey + +Lady Mary Palliser down at the Horns had as much liberty allowed +to as is usually given to young ladies in these very free days. +There was indeed no restriction placed upon her at all. Had +Tregear gone down to Richmond and asked for the young lady, and +had Lady Cantrip at the time been out and the young lady at home, +it would have depended altogether upon the young lady whether she +would have seen her lover or not. Nevertheless Lady Cantrip kept +her eyes open, and when the letter came from Tregear she was aware +that the letter had come. But the letter found its way into Lady +Mary's hands and was read in the seclusion of her own bedroom. 'I +wonder whether you would mind reading that,' she said very shortly +afterwards to Lady Cantrip. 'What answer ought I to make?' + +'Do you think any answer ought to be made, my dear?' + +'Oh yes; I must answer him.' + +'Would your papa wish it?' + +'I told papa that I would not promise not to write to him. I think +I told him that he should see any letters that there were. But if +I show them to you, I suppose that will do as well.' + +'You had better keep your word to him absolutely.' + +'I am not afraid of doing so, if you mean that. I cannot bear to +give him pain, but this is a matter in which I mean to have my own +way.' + +'Mean to have your own way!' said Lady Cantrip, much surprised by +the determined tone of the young lady. + +'Certainly I do. I want you to understand so much! I suppose papa +can keep us from marrying for ever and ever if he pleases, but he +never will make me say that I will give up Mr Tregear. And if he +does not yield I shall think him cruel. Why should he wish to make +me unhappy all my life?' + +'He certainly does not wish that, my dear.' + +'But he will do it.' + +'I cannot go against your father, Mary.' + +'No, I suppose not. I shall write to Mr Tregear, and then I will +show you what I have written. Papa shall see it too if he pleases. +I will do nothing secret, but I will never give up Mr Tregear.' + +Lord Cantrip came down to Richmond that evening, and his wife told +him that in her opinion it would be best that the Duke should +allow the young people to marry, and should give them money enough +to live upon. 'Is not that a strong order?' asked the Earl. The +Countess acknowledged that it was a 'strong order', but suggested +that for the happiness of them all it might as well be done at +first as last. + +The next morning Lady Mary showed her a copy of the reply which +she had already sent to her lover. + +'DEAR FRANK, + +'You may be quite sure that I shall never give you up. I will +not write more at present because papa does not wish me to do so. +I shall show papa your letter and my answer. + +'Your own most affectionate +MARY.' + +'Has it gone?' asked the Countess. + +'I put it myself into the pillar letter-box.' Then Lady Cantrip +felt that she had to deal with a very self-willed young lady +indeed. + +That afternoon Lady Cantrip asked Lady Mary whether she might be +allowed to take the two letters up to town with the express +purpose of showing them to the Duke. 'Oh yes,' said Mary. 'I think +it would be so much the best. Give papa my kindest love, and tell +him from me that if he wants to make his poor little girl happy he +will forgive her and be kind to her in all this.' Then the +Countess made some attempts to argue the matter. There were +proprieties! High rank might be a blessing or might be the +reverse--as people thought of it;--but all men acknowledged that +much was due to it. 'Noblesse oblige.' It was often the case in +life that women were called upon by circumstances to sacrifice +their inclinations! What right had a gentleman to talk of +marriage who had no means? These things she said and very many +more, but it was to no purpose. The young lady asserted that as +the gentleman was a gentleman there need be no question as to +rank, and that in regard to money there need be no difficulty if +one of them had sufficient. 'But you have none but what your +father gives you,' said Lady Cantrip. 'Papa can give it us without +any trouble,' said Lady Mary. This child had a clear idea of what +she thought to be her own rights. Being the child of rich parents +she had the right to money. Being a woman she had a right to a +husband. Having been born free she had a right to choose one for +herself. Having had a man's love given to her she had a right to +keep it. 'One doesn't know which she is most like, her father or +her mother,' Lady Cantrip said afterwards to her husband. 'She has +his cool determination, and her hot-headed obstinacy.' + +She did show the letters to the Duke, and in answer to a word or +two from him explained that she could not take upon herself to +debar her guest from the use of the post. 'But she will write +nothing without letting you know it.' + +'She ought to write nothing at all.' + +'What she feels is much worse than what she writes.' + +'If there were no intercourse she would forget him.' + +'Ah; I don't know,' said the Countess sorrowfully, 'I thought so +once.' + +'All children are determined as long as they are allowed to have +their own way.' + +'I mean to say that it is the nature of her character to be +obstinate. Most girls are prone to yield. They have not character +enough to stand against opposition. I am not speaking now only of +affairs like this. It would be the same with her in any thing. +Have you not always found it so?' + +Then he had to acknowledge to himself that he had never found out +anything in reference to his daughter's character. She had been +properly sweet, affectionate, always obedient to him;--the most +charming plaything in the world on the few occasions in which he +had allowed himself to play. But as to her actual disposition, he +had never taken any trouble to inform himself. She had been left +to her mother,--as other girls are left. And his sons had been left +to their tutors. And now he had no control over any of them. 'She +must be made to obey like others,' he said at last, speaking +through his teeth. + +There was something in this which almost frightened Lady Cantrip. +She could not bear to hear him say that the girl must be made to +yield with that spirit of despotic power under which women were +restrained in years now passed. If she could have spoken her own +mind it would have been to this effect: 'Let us do what we can to +lead her away from this desire of hers; and in order that we may +do so, let us tell her that her marriage with Mr Tregear is out of +the question. But if we do not succeed,--let us give way. Let us +make it a matter of joy that the young man himself is so +acceptable and well-behaved.' That was her idea, and with that +she would have indoctrinated the Duke had she been able. But his +was different. 'She must be made to obey,' he said. And, as he +said it, he seemed to be indifferent to the sorrow which such +enforced obedience might bring upon his child. In answer to this +she could only shake her head. 'What do you mean?' he asked. 'Do +you think we ought to yield?' + +'Not at once, certainly.' + +'But at last?' + +'What can you do, Duke? If she be as firm as you, can you bear to +see her pine away in misery?' + +'Girls do not do like that,' he said. + +'Girls and men are very different. They gradually will yield to +external influences. English girls, though they become the most +loving wives in the world, do not generally become so riven by an +attachment as to become deep sufferers when it is disallowed. But +here, I fear, we have to deal with one who will suffer after this +fashion.' + +'Why should she not be like others?' + +'It may be so. We will try. But you see what she says in her +letter to him. She writes as though your authority were to be +nothing in that matter of giving up. In all that she says to me +there is the same spirit. If she is firm, Duke, you must yield.' + +'Never! She shall never marry him with my sanction.' + +There was nothing more to be said, and Lady Cantrip went her way. +But the Duke, though he could say nothing more, continued to think +of it hour after hour. He went down to the House of Lords to +listen to a debate in which it was intended to cover the ministers +with heavy disgrace. But the Duke could not listen even to his own +friends. He could listen to nothing as he thought of the condition +of his children. + +He had been asked whether he could bear to see his girl suffer, as +though he were indifferent to the sufferings of his child. Did he +not know of himself that there was no father who would do more for +the welfare of his daughter? Was he not sure of the tenderness of +his own heart? In all that he was doing was he governed by +anything but a sense of duty? Was it personal pride or love of +personal aggrandisement? He thought that he could assure himself +that he was open to no such charge. Would he not die for her,--or +for them,--if he could so serve them? Surely this woman had +accused him most wrongfully when she had intimated that he could +see his girl suffer without caring for it. In his indignation he +determined--for a while--that he would remove her from the custody +of Lady Cantrip. But then, where should he place her? He was aware +that his own house would be like a grave to a girl just fit to +come into this world. In this coming autumn she must go +somewhere,--with some one. He himself, in his present state of +mind, would be but a sorry travelling companion. + +Lady Cantrip had said that the best hope of escape would lie in +the prospect of another lover. The prescription was disagreeable, +but it had availed in the case of his own wife. Before he had ever +seen her as Lady Glencora McCloskie she had been desirous of +giving herself and all her wealth to one Burgo Fitzgerald, who had +been altogether unworthy. The Duke could remember well how a +certain old Lady Midlothian had first told him that Lady Glencora's +property was very large, and had then added that the young lady +herself was very beautiful. And he could remember how his uncle, +the last duke, who had seldom taken much trouble in merely human +affairs, had said a word or two--'I have heard a whisper about you +and Lady Glencora McCloskie, nothing could be better.' The result +had been undoubtedly good. His Cora and all her money had been +saved from a worthless spendthrift. He had found a wife who he now +thought had made him happy. And she had found at any rate a +respectable husband. The idea when picked to pieces is not a nice +idea. 'Let us look out for a husband for this girl, so that we may +get her married--out of the way of her lover.' It is not nice. But +it had succeeded in one case, and why should it not succeed in +another? + +But how was it to be done? Who should do it? Whom should he select +to play the part which he had undertaken in that other +arrangement? No worse person could be found then himself in +managing such an affair. When the idea had at first been raised he +had thought that Lady Cantrip would do it all; but now he was +angry with Lady Cantrip. + +How was it to be done? How should it be commenced? How had it been +commenced in his own case? He did not in the least know how he had +been chosen. Was it possible that his uncle, who was the proudest +man in England, should have condescended to make a bargain with an +old dowager whom everybody had despised? And in what way had he +been selected? No doubt he had been known to be the heir-apparent +to a dukedom and ducal reverence. In his case old Lady Midlothian +had begun the matter with him. It occurred to him that in royal +marriages such beginnings are quite common. + +But who should be the happy man? Then he began to count up the +requisite attributes. He must be of high rank, and an eldest son, +and the possessor of, or the heir to a good estate. He did despise +himself when he found that he put these things first,--as a matter +of course. Nevertheless he did put them first. He was ejecting +this other man because he possessed none of these attributes. He +hurried himself on to add that the man must be of good character, +and such as a young girl might learn to love. But yet he was aware +that he added these things for his conscience's sake. Tregear's +character was good, and certainly the girl loved him. But was it +not clear to all who knew anything of such matters that Mr Francis +Tregear should not have dared even to think of marrying the +daughter of the Duke of Omnium? + +Who should be the happy man? There were so many who evidently +were unfit. Young Lord Percival was heir to a ruined estate and +beggared peerage. Lord Glasslough was odious to all men. There +were three or four others of whom he thought that he knew some +fatal objection. But when he remembered Lord Popplecourt there +seemed to be no objection which need be fatal. + +Lord Popplecourt was a young peer whose father had died two years +since and whose estates were large and unembarrassed. The late +lord, who had been a Whig of the old fashion, had been the Duke's +friend. They had been at Oxford and in the House of Commons +together, and Lord Popplecourt had always been true to his party. +As to the son, the Duke remembered to have heard lately that he +was not given to waste his money. He drove about London a good +deal, but had as yet not done anything very foolish. He had taken +his degree at Oxford, taken his seat in the House of Lords and had +once opened his mouth. He had not indeed appeared often again; but +at Lord Popplecourt's age much legislation is not to be expected +from a young peer. Then he thought of the man's appearance. +Popplecourt was not specially attractive, whereas Tregear was a +very handsome man. But so also had been Burgo Fitzgerald,--almost +abnormally beautiful, while he, Plantagenet Palliser, as he was +then, had been quite insignificant in appearance as Lord +Popplecourt. + +Lord Popplecourt might possibly do. But then how should the matter +be spoken of to the young man? After all, would it not be best +that he should trust Lady Cantrip? + + + +CHAPTER 25 + +A Family Breakfast-Table + +Lord Silverbridge had paid all his Derby losses without any +difficulty. They had not been very heavy for a man in his +position, and the money had come without remonstrance. When asking +for it he was half-ashamed of himself, but could still find +consolation in remembering how much worse had plunged many young +men whom he knew. He had never 'plunged'. In fact he had made the +most prudent book in the world; and had so managed his affairs +that even now the horse which had been beaten was worth more than +all he had lost and paid. 'This is getting serious,' he had said +to his partner when, on making out a rough account, he had brought +in the Major in a debtor to him of more than a thousand pounds. +The Major remarked that as he was half-owner of the horses his +partner had good security for the money. Then something of an +unwritten arrangement was made. The 'Prime Minister' was now one +of the favourites for the Leger. If the horse won that race there +would be money enough for everything. If that race were lost, then +there should be a settlement by the transfer of the stud to the +younger partner. 'He's safe to pull it off,' said the Major. + +At this time both his sons were living with the Duke in London. It +had been found impracticable to send Lord Gerald back to +Cambridge. The doors of Trinity were closed against him. But some +interest had been made in his favour, and he was to be transferred +to Oxford. All the truth had been told, and there had been a +feeling that the lad should be allowed another chance. He could +not however go to his new Alma Mater till after the long vacation. +In the meantime he was to be taken by a tutor down to a Cottage on +Dartmoor and there be made to read,--with such amusement in the +meantime as might be got from fishing, and playing cricket with +the West Devon county club. 'It isn't very bright look-out for the +summer,' his brother had said to him, 'but it's better then +breaking out on the loose altogether. You be a credit to the +family and all that sort of thing. Then I'll give up the borough +to you. But mind you stick to the Liberals. I've made an ass of +myself.' However in these early days of June Lord Gerald had not +yet got his tutor. + +Though the father and the two young men were living together they +did not see very much of each other. The Duke breakfasted at nine +and the repast was a very simple one. When they failed to appear, +he did not scold,--but would simply be disappointed. At dinner they +never met. It was supposed that Lord Gerald passed his mornings at +reading, and some little attempts were made in that direction. It +is to be feared they did not come to much. Silverbridge was very +kind to Gerald, feeling an increased tenderness for him on account +of that Cambridge mishap. Now they were much together, and +occasionally, by a strong effort, would grace their father's +breakfast-table with their company. + +It was not often that he either reproached them or preached to +them. Though he could not live with them on almost equal terms, as +some fathers can live with their sons, though he could not laugh +at their fun or make them laugh at his wit, he knew that it would +have been better both for him and them if he had possessed this +capacity. Though the life which they lived was distasteful to +him,--though racehorses were an abomination to him, and the driving +of coaches a folly, and club-life a manifest waste of time, still +he recognised these things as being, if not necessary, yet +unavoidable evils. To Gerald he would talk about Oxford, avoiding +all allusion to past Cambridge misfortunes; but in the presence of +Silverbridge, whose Oxford career had been so peculiarly +unfortunate, he would make no allusion to either of the +universities. To his eldest son he would talk of Parliament which +of all subjects would have been the most congenial had they agreed +in politics. As it was he could speak more freely to him on that +than any other matter. + +One Thursday night as the two brothers went to bed on returning +from the Beargarden, at a not very late hour, they agreed that +they would 'give the governor a turn' the next morning,--by which +they meant that they would drag themselves out of bed in time to +breakfast with him. The worst of it is that he will never let them +get anything to eat, said Gerald. But Silverbridge explained that +he had taken the matter into his own hands, and had specially +ordered broiled salmon and stewed kidneys. 'He won't like it, you +know,' said Gerald. 'I'm sure he thinks it wicked to eat anything +but toasted bacon before lunch.' + +At a very little after nine Silverbridge was in the breakfast- +room, and there found his father. 'I suppose Gerald is not up +yet,' said the Duke almost crossly. + +'Oh yes he is, sir. He'll be here directly.' + +'Have you seen him this morning?' + +'No; I haven't seen him. But I know he'll be here. He said he +would, last night.' + +'You speak of it as if it were an undertaking.' + +'No, not that, sir. But we are not always quite up to time.' + +'No; indeed you are not. Perhaps you sit late at the House.' + +'Sometimes I do,' said the young member, with a feeling almost +akin to shame as he remembered all the hours spent at the +Beargarden. 'I have had Gerald there in the Gallery sometimes. It +is just as well he should know what is being done.' + +'Quite as well.' + +'I shouldn't wonder if he gets a seat some day.' + +'I don't know how that may be.' + +'He won't change as I have done. He'll stick to your side. Indeed +I think he'd do better in the House than I shall. He has more gift +of the gab.' + +'That is not the first requisite.' + +'I know all that, sir. I've read your letter more than once, and I +showed it to him.' + +There was something sweet and pleasant in the young man's manner +by which the father could hardly not be captivated. They had now +sat down, and the servant had brought in the unusual accessories +for a morning feast. 'What is all that?' asked the Duke. + +'Gerald and I are so awfully hungry of a morning,' said the son +apologising. + +'Well;--it's a very good thing to be hungry;--that is if you can get +plenty to eat. Salmon is it? I don't think I'll have any myself. +Kidneys! Not for me. I think I'll take a bit of fried bacon. I +also am hungry, but now awfully hungry.' + +'You never seem to me to eat anything, sir.' + +'Eating is an occupation from which I think a man takes the more +pleasure the less he considers it. A rural labourer who sits on +the ditch-side with his bread and cheese and an onion has more +enjoyment out of it than any Lucullus.' + +'But he likes a good deal of it.' + +'I do not think he ever over-eats himself,--which Lucullus does. I +have envied the ploughman his power,--his dura ilia,--but never an +epicure the appreciative skill of his palate. If Gerald does not +make haste he will have to exercise neither the one nor the other +upon that fish.' + +'I will leave a bit for him, sir,--and here he is. You are twenty +minutes late, Gerald. My father says that bread and cheese and +onions would be better for you than salmon and stewed kidneys.' + +'No, Silverbridge;--I said no such thing; but that if he were a +hedger and ditcher the bread and cheese would be as good.' + +'I should not mind trying them all,' said Gerald. 'Only one never +does have such things for breakfast. Last winter a lot of us +skated to Ely, and we ate two or three loaves of bread and a whole +cheese, at a pot-house! And as for beer, we drank the public +dry.' + +'It was because for the time you had been a hedger and ditcher.' + +'Proby was a ditcher I know, when he went right through into one +of the dykes. Just push on that dish Silverbridge. It's no good +you having the trouble of helping me half-a-dozen times. I don't +think things are a bit the nicer because they cost a lot of money. +I suppose that is what you mean, sir.' + +'Something of that kind, Gerald. Not to have money for your +wants;--that must be troublesome.' + +'Very bad indeed,' said Silverbridge, shaking his head wisely, as +a Member of Parliament might do who felt that something should be +done to put down such a lamentable state of things. + +'I don't complain,' said Gerald. 'No fellow ever had less right to +complain. But I never felt that I had quite enough. Of course it +was my own fault.' + +'I should say so, my boy. But then there are a great many like +you. Let their means be what they may, they never have quite +enough. To be in any difficulty with regard to money,--to owe what +you cannot pay, or even to have to abstain from things which you +have told yourself are necessary to yourself or to those who +depend on you,--creates a feeling of meanness.' + +'That is what I have always felt,' said Silverbridge. 'I cannot +bear to think that I should like to have a thing and that I cannot +afford it.' + +'You do not quite understand me, I fear. The only case in which +you can be justified in desiring that which you cannot afford is +when the thing is necessary;--as bread may be, or clothes.' + +'As when a fellow wants a lot of new breeches before he has paid +his tailor's bill.' + +'As when a poor man,' said the Duke impressively, 'may long to +give his wife a new gown, or his children boots to keep their feet +from the mud and snow.' Then he paused a moment, but the serious +tone of his voice and the energy of his words had sent Gerald +headlong among his kidneys. 'I say that in such cases money must +be regarded as a blessing.' + +'A ten-pound note will do so much,' said Silverbridge. + +'But beyond that it ought to have no power of conferring +happiness, and certainly cannot drive away sorrow. Not though you +build palaces out into the deep, can that help you. You read your +Horace I hope. "Scandunt eodum quo dominus minae."' + +'I recollect that,' said Gerald. 'Black care sits behind the +horseman.' + +'Even though he have groom riding after him beautiful with +exquisite boots. As far as I have been able to look into the +world--' + +'I suppose you know it as well as anybody,' said Silverbridge,--who +was simply desirous of making himself pleasant to the 'dear old +governor'. + +'As far as my experience goes, the happiest man is he who, being +above the troubles which money brings, has his hands the fullest +of work. If I were to name the class of men whose lives are spent +with the most thorough enjoyment, I think I should name that of +barristers who are in large practice and also in Parliament.' + +'Isn't it a great grind, sir?' asked Silverbridge. + +'A very great grind, as you call it. And there may be the grind +and not the success. But--' He had now got up from his seat at the +table and was standing with his back against the chimney-piece, +and as he went on with his lecture,--as the word 'But' came from +his lips--he struck the fingers of one hand lightly on the palm of +the other as he had been known to do at some happy flight of +oratory in the House of Commons. 'But it is the grind that makes +the happiness. To feel that your hours are filled to overflowing, +that you can hardly barely steal minutes enough for sleep, that +the welfare of many is entrusted to you, that the world looks on +and approves, that some good is always being done to others,--above +all things some good to your country;--that is happiness. For +myself I can conceive none other.' + +'Books,' suggested Gerald, as he put the last morsel of the last +kidney into his mouth. + +'Yes, books! Cicero and Ovid have told us that to literature only +could they look for consolation in their banishment. But then they +speak of a remedy for sorrow, not of a source for joy. No young +man should dare to neglect literature. At some period of his life +he will surely need consolation. And he may be certain that should +he live to be an old man, there will be none other,--except +religion. But for that feeling of self-contentment, which creates +happiness--hard work, and hard work alone, can give it to you.' + +'Books are hard work themselves sometimes,' said Gerald. + +'As for money,' continued the father, not caring to note this +interruption, 'if it be regarded in any other light than an as a +shield against want, as a rampart under the protection of which +you may carry on your battle, it will fail you. I was born a rich +man.' + +'Few people have cared so little about it as you,' said the elder +son. + +'And you, both of you, have been born to be rich.' This assertion +did not take the elder son by surprise. It was a matter of course. +But Lord Gerald, who had never as yet heard anything as to his +future destiny from his father, was interested by the statement. +'When I think of all this,--of what constitutes happiness,--I am +almost tempted to grieve that it should be so.' + +'If a large fortune were really a bad thing,' said Gerald, 'a man +could I suppose get rid of it.' + +'No;--it is a thing of which a man cannot get rid,--unless by +shameful means. It is a burden which he must carry to the end.' + +'Does anybody wish to get rid of it, as Sinbad did of the Old +Man?' asked Gerald pertinaciously. 'At any rate I have enjoyed the +kidneys.' + +'You assured us just now that the bread and cheese at Ely were +just as good.' The Duke as he said this looked as though he knew +that he had taken all the wind out of his adversary's sails. +'Though you add carriage to carriage, you will not be carried more +comfortably.' + +'A second horse out hunting is a comfort,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then at any rate don't desire a third for show. But such comforts +will cease to be joys when they become matters of course. That a +boy who does not see a pudding once a year should enjoy a pudding +when it comes I can understand; but the daily pudding, or the +pudding twice a day, is soon no more than a simple daily bread,-- +which will or will not be sweet as it shall or shall not have been +earned.' Then he went slowly to the door, but, as he stood with +the handle of it in his hand, he turned round and spoke another +word. 'When, hereafter, Gerald, you may chance to think of that +bread and cheese at Ely, always remember that you had skated from +Cambridge.' + +The two brothers then took themselves to some remote part of the +house where arrangements had been made for smoking, and there they +finished the conversation. 'I was very glad to hear what he said +about you, old boy.' This of course came from Silverbridge. + +'I didn't quite understand him.' + +'He meant you to understand that you wouldn't be like other +younger brothers.' + +'Then what I have will be taken from you.' + +'There is lots for three or four of us. I do agree that a fellow +has as much as he can spend he ought not to want anything more. +Morton was telling me the other day something about the settled +estates. I sat in that office with him all one morning. I could +not understand it all, but I observed that he said nothing about +the Scotch property. You'll be a laird, and I wish you joy with +all my heart. The governor will tell you all about it before long. +He's going to have two eldest sons.' + +'What an unnatural piece of cruelty to me;--and so unnecessary!' + +'Why?' + +'He says that a property is no better than a burden. But I'll try +and bear it.' + + + +CHAPTER 26 + +Dinner at the Beargarden + +The Duke was in the gallery of the House of Commons which is +devoted to the use of peers, and Silverbridge having heard that +his father was there, had come up to him. It was then about half- +past five, and the House had settled down to business. Prayers had +been read, petitions had been presented, and Ministers had gone +through their course of baiting with that equanimity and air of +superiority which always belongs to a well-trained occupant of the +Treasury bench. + +The Duke was very anxious that his son should attend to his +parliamentary duties, but he was too proud a man and too generous +to come to the House as a spy. It was his present habit always to +be in his own place when the Lords were sitting, and to remain +there while the Lords sat. it was not, for many reasons, an +altogether satisfactory occupation, but it was the best which his +life afforded him. He would never, however, come across into the +other House, without letting his son know of his coming, and Lord +Silverbridge had on this occasion been on the look out, and had +come up to his father at once. 'Don't let me take you away,' said +the Duke, 'if you are particularly interested in your Chief's +defence,' for Sir Timothy Beeswax was defending some measure of +legal reform in which he was said to have fallen into trouble. + +'I can hear it up here you know, sir.' + +'Hardly if you are talking to me.' + +'To tell the truth it's a matter I don't much care about. They've +got into some mess as to the number of Judges and what they ought +to do. Finn was saying that they had so arranged that there was +one Judge who never could possibly do anything.' + +'If Mr Finn said so it would probably be so, with some allowance +for Irish exaggeration. He is a clever man, with less of his +country's hyperbole than others;--but still not without his share.' + +'You know him well, I suppose.' + +'Yes;--as one man does know another in the political world.' + +'But he is a friend of yours? I don't mean an "honourable friend", +which is great bosh; but you know him at home.' + +'Oh yes;--certainly. He has been staying with me at Matching. In +public life such intimacies come from politics.' + +'You don't care much about him then.' + +The Duke paused a moment before he answered. 'Yes I do;--and in +what I said just now perhaps I wronged him. I have been under +obligations to Mr Finn,--in a matter as to which he behaved very +well. I have found him to be a gentleman. If you come across him +in the House I would wish you to be courteous to him. I have not +seen him since we came from abroad. I have been able to see +nobody. But if ever again I should entertain my friends at my +table, Mr Finn would be one who would always be welcome there.' +This he said with a sadly serious air as though wishing that his +words should be noted. At the present moment he was remembering +that he owed recompense to Mrs Finn, and was making an effort to +pay the debt. 'But your leader is striking out into unwonted +eloquence. Surely we ought to listen to him.' + +Sir Timothy was a fluent speaker, and when there was nothing to be +said was possessed of a great plenty of words. And he was gifted +with that peculiar power which enables a man to have the last word +in every encounter,--a power which we are apt to call repartee, +with is in truth the readiness which come from continual practice. +You shall meet two men of whom you shall know the one to be +endowed with the brilliancy of true genius, and the other to be +possessed of but moderate parts, and shall find the former never +able to hold his awn against the latter. In a debate, the man of +moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius. But +this skill of tongue, this glibness of speech is hardly an affair +of intellect at all. It is--as is style to the writer,--not the +wares which he has to take to market, but the vehicle in which +they may be carried. Of what avail to you is it to have filled +granaries with corn if you cannot get your corn to the consumer? +Now Sir Timothy was a great vehicle, but he had not in truth much +corn to send. He could turn a laugh against an adversary;--no man +better. He could seize, at the moment, every advantage which the +opportunity might give him. The Treasury Bench on which he sat and +the big box on the table before him were to him fortifications of +which he knew how to use every stone. The cheers and jeers of the +House had been so measured by him that he knew the value and force +of every sound. Politics had never been to him a study; but to +parliamentary strategy he had devoted all his faculties. No one +knew so well as Sir Timothy how to make arrangements for business, +so that every detail should be troublesome to his opponents. He +could foresee a month beforehand that on a certain day a Royal +concert would make the House empty, and would generously give that +day to a less observant adversary. He knew how to blind the eyes +of members to the truth. Those on the opposite side of the House +would find themselves checkmated by his astuteness,--when with all +their pieces on the board, there should be none which they could +move. And this to him was Government! It was to these purposes +that he conceived that a great Statesman should devote himself! +Parliamentary management! That in his mind, was under the +Constitution of ours the one act essential for Government. + +In all this he was very great; but when it might fall to his duty +either to suggest or defend any real piece of proposed legislation +he was less happy. On this occasion he had been driven to take the +matter in hand because he had previously been concerned in it as a +lawyer. He had allowed himself to wax angry as he endeavoured to +answer certain personal criticisms. Now Sir Timothy was never +stronger then when he simulated anger. His mock indignation was +perhaps his most powerful weapon. But real anger is a passion +which few men can use with judgement. And now Sir Timothy was +really angry, and condescended to speak of our old friend Phineas +who had made the onslaught as a bellicose Irishman. There was an +over-true story as to our friend having once been seduced into +fighting a duel, and those who wished to decry him sometimes +alluded to the adventure. Sir Timothy had been called to order, +but the Speaker had ruled 'bellicose Irishman' was not beyond the +latitude of parliamentary animadversion. Then Sir Timothy had +repeated the phrase with emphasis, and the Duke hearing it in the +gallery had made his remark as to the unwonted eloquence of his +son's parliamentary chief. + +'Surely we ought to listen to him,' said the Duke. And for a short +time they did listen. 'Sir Timothy is not a man I like, you know,' +said the son, feeling himself obliged to apologise for his +subjection to such a chief. + +'I never particularly loved him myself.' + +'They say he is a sort of necessity.' + +'A Conservative Fate,' said the Duke. + +'Well, yes; he is so,--so awfully clever! We all feel that we could +not get on without him. When you were in, he was one of your +party.' + +'Oh yes;--he was one of us. I have no right to complain of you for +using him. But when you say you could not get on without him, does +it not occur to you that should he,--let us say be taken to +heaven,--you would have to get on without him.' + +'Then he would be,--out of the way, sir.' + +'What you mean perhaps is that you do not know how to get rid of +him.' + +'Of course I don't pretend to know much about it; but they all +think that he does know how to keep the party together. I don't +think we are proud of him.' + +'Hardly that.' + +'He is awfully useful. A man has to look out so sharp to be always +ready for those other fellows! I beg your pardon, sir, but I mean +your side.' + +'I understand who the other fellows are.' + +'And it isn't everybody who will go through such a grind. A man to +do it must be always ready. He has so many little things to think +of. As far as I can see we all feel that we could not get along +very well without him.' Upon the whole the Duke was pleased with +what he heard from his son. The young man's ideas about politics +were boyish, but they were the ideas of a clear-headed boy. +Silverbridge had picked up some of the ways of the place, though +he had not yet formed any sound political opinions. + +Then Sir Timothy finished a long speech with a flowery peroration, +in which he declared that if Parliament were desirous of keeping +the realms of Her Majesty free from the invasions of foreigners it +must be done by maintaining the dignity of the Judicial bench. +There were some clamours at this, and although it was now dinner- +time Phineas Finn, who had been called a bellicose Irishman, was +able to say a word or two. 'The Right Honourable gentleman no +doubt means,' said Phineas, 'that we must carry ourselves with +some increased external dignity. The world is bewigging itself, +and we must buy a bigger wig than any we have got, in order to +confront the world with proper self-respect. Turveydrop and +deportment will suffice for us against odds.' + +About half-past seven the House became very empty. 'Where are +going to dine, sir?' asked Silverbridge. The Duke, with something +like a sigh, said he supposed he should dine at home. + +'You never were at the Beargarden;--were you, sir?' asked +Silverbridge suddenly. + +'Never,' said the Duke. + +'Come and dine with me.' + +'I am not a member of the club.' + +'We don't care at all about that. Anybody can take anybody.' + +'Does not that make it promiscuous?' + +'Well;--no; I don't know that it does. It seems to go on very well. +I daresay there are some cads there sometimes. But I don't know +where one doesn't meet cads. There are plenty in the House of +Commons.' + +'There is something in that, Silverbridge, which makes me think +that you have not realised the difference between private and +public life. In the former you choose your own associates and are +responsible for your choice. In the latter you are concerned with +others for the good of the State; and though even for the State's +sake, you would not willingly be closely allied with those whom +you think dishonest, the outward manners and fashions of life need +create no barriers. I should not turn up my nose at the House of +Commons because some constituency might send them an illiterate +shoemaker; but I might probably find the illiterate shoemaker an +unprofitable companion for my private hours.' + +'I don't think there will be any shoemakers at the Beargarden.' + +'Even if there were I would go and dine with you. I shall be glad +to see the place where you, I suppose, pass many hours.' + +'I find it a very good shop to dine at. The place at the House is +so stuffy and nasty. Besides, one likes to get away for a time.' + +'Certainly. I never was an advocate for living in the House. One +should always change the atmosphere.' Then they got into a cab +and went to the club. Silverbridge was a little afraid of what he +was doing. The invitation had come from him on the spur of the +moment, and he hardly ventured to think that his father would +accept it. And now he did not quite know how the Duke would go +through the ceremony. 'The other fellows' would come and stare at +a man whom they had all been taught to regard as the most un- +Beargardenish of men. But he was especially anxious to make things +pleasant for his father. + +'What shall I order?' said the son as he took the Duke into a +dressing-room to wash his hands. The Duke suggested that anything +sufficient for his son would certainly be sufficient for him. + +Nothing especial occurred during the dinner, which the Duke +appeared to enjoy very much. 'Yes; I think it is a very good +soup,' he said. 'I don't think they ever give me any soup at +home.' Then the son expressed his opinion that unless his father +looked about rather more sharply, 'they' very soon would provide +no dinner at all, remarking that experience had taught him that +the less people demanded the more they were 'sat upon'. The Duke +did like his dinner,--or rather he liked the feeling that he was +dining with his son. A report that the Duke of Omnium was with +Lord Silverbridge soon went round the room, and they who were +justified by some previous acquaintance came up to greet him. To +all who did so he was very gracious, and was specially so to Lord +Popplecourt, who happened to pass close by the table. + +'I think he is a fool,' whispered Silverbridge as soon as +Popplecourt had passed. + +'What makes you thinks so?' + +'We thought him an ass at Eton.' + +'He has done pretty well however.' + +'Oh yes, in a way.' + +'Somebody has told me that he is careful about his property.' + +'I believe he is all that,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then I don't see why you should think him a fool.' + +To this Silverbridge made no reply; partly because he had nothing +to say,--but hindered also by the coming in of Tregear. This was an +accident, the possibility of which had not crossed him. +Unfortunately too the Duke's back was turned, so that Tregear, as +he walked up the room, could not see who was sitting at his +friend's table. Tregear coming up stood close to the Duke's elbow +before he recognised the man, and spoke some word or two to +Silverbridge. 'How do you do, Mr Tregear,' said the Duke, turning +round. + +'Oh, my Lord. I did not know that it was you.' + +'You hardly would. I am quite a stranger here. Silverbridge and I +came up from the House together, and he has been hospitable enough +to give me a dinner. I will tell you an odd thing for a London +man, Mr Tregear. I have not dined at a London club for fifteen +years before this.' + +'I hope you like it, sir,' said Silverbridge. + +'Very much indeed. Good-evening, Mr Tregear. I suppose you have to +go to dinner now.' + +Then they went into one of the rooms upstairs to have coffee, the +son declining to go into the smoking-room, and assuring his father +that he did not in the least care about a cigar after dinner. 'You +would be smothered, sir.' The Duke did as he was bidden and went +upstairs. There was in truth a strong reason for avoiding the +publicity of the smoking-room. When bringing his father to the +club he had thought nothing about Tregear but he had thought about +Tifto. As he entered he had seen Tifto at a table dining alone, +and had bobbed his head at him. Then he had taken the Duke to the +further end of the room, and had trusted that fear would keep the +major in his place. Fear had kept the Major in his place. When the +Major learned who the stranger was, he had become silent and +reserved. Before the father and son had finished their dinner, +Tifto had gone to his cigar; and so the danger was over. + +'By George, there's Silverbridge has got his governor to dinner,' +said Tifto, standing in the middle of the room, and looking round +as though he were announcing some confusion of the heavens and +earth. + +'Why shouldn't Silverbridge have his father to dine with him?' +asked Mr Lupton. + +'I believe I know Silverbridge as well as any man, and by George +it is the very last thing of the kind that I should have expected. +There have been no end of quarrels.' + +'There has been no quarrel at all,' said Tregear, who had just +then entered the room. 'Nothing on earth would make Silverbridge +quarrel with his father, and I think it would break the Duke's +heart to quarrel with his son.' Tifto endeavoured to argue the +matter out, but Tregear having made the assertion on behalf of his +friend would not allow himself to be enticed into further speech. + Nevertheless there was a good deal said by others during which +the Major drank two glasses of whisky-and-water. In the dining- +room he had been struck with awe by the Duke's presence, and had +certainly no idea of presenting himself personally to the great +man. But Bacchus lent him aid, and when the discussion was over +and the whisky had been swallowed, it occurred to him that he +would go upstairs and ask to be introduced. + +In the meantime the Duke and his son were seated in close +conversation on one of the upstairs sofas. It was a rule at the +Beargarden that men might smoke all over the house except in the +dining-room;--but there was one small chamber called the library, +in which the practice was not often followed. The room was +generally deserted, and at this moment the father and son were the +only occupants. 'A club,' said the Duke, as he sipped his coffee, +'is a comfortable and economical residence. A man gets what he +wants well-served, and gets it cheap. But it has its drawbacks.' + +'You always see the same fellows,' said Silverbridge. + +'A man who lives much at a club is apt to fall into a selfish mode +of life. He is taught to think that his own comfort should always +be the first object. A man can never be happy unless his first +objects are outside himself. Personal self-indulgence begets a +sense of meanness which sticks to a man even when he has got +beyond all hope of rescue. It is for that reason;--among others,-- +that marriage is so desirable.' + +'A man should marry, I suppose.' + +'Unless a man has on his shoulders the burden of a wife and +children he should, I think, feel that he has shirked out of +school. He is not doing his share of the work of the +Commonwealth.' + +'Pitt was not married, sir.' + +'No;--and a great many other good men have remained unmarried. Do +you mean to be another Pitt?' + +'I don't intend to be Prime Minister.' + +'I would not recommend you to entertain that ambition. Pitt +perhaps hardly had time for marriage. You may be more lucky.' + +'I suppose I shall marry some day.' + +'I should be glad to see you marry early,' said the Duke, speaking +in a low voice, almost solemnly, but in his quietest, sweetest ton +of voice. 'You are peculiarly situated. Though as yet you are only +the heir to the property and honours of our family, still, were +you married, almost everything would be at your disposal. There is +so much I should only be ready to give up to you!' + +'I can't bear to hear you talking of giving up anything,' said +Silverbridge energetically. + +Then the father looked round the room furtively, and seeing that +the door was shut, and that they were assuredly alone, he put out +his hand and gently stroked the young man's hair. It was almost a +caress,--as though he would have said to himself, 'Were he my +daughter, I would kiss him.' 'There is much I would fain give up,' +he said. 'If you were a married man the house in Carlton Terrace +would be fitter for you than for me. I have disqualified myself +for taking that part in society which should be filled by the head +of our family. You who have inherited so much from your mother +would, if you married pleasantly, do all that right well.' He +paused for a moment and then asked a straightforward question, +very quickly--'You have never thought of anyone yet, I suppose?' + +Silverbridge had thought very much of somebody. He was quite aware +that he had almost made an offer to Lady Mabel. She certainly had +not given him any encouragement; but the very fact that she had +not done so allured him all the more. He did believe that he was +thoroughly in love with Lady Mabel. She had told him that he was +too young,--but he was older than Lady Mab herself by a week. She +was beautiful;--that was certain. It was acknowledged by all that +she was clever. As for blood, of which he believed his father +thought much, there was perhaps none better in England. He had +heard it said of her,--as he now well remembered, in his father's +presence,--that she had behaved remarkably well in trying +circumstances. She had no fortune;--everybody knew that; but then +he did not want fortune. Would not this be a good opportunity for +breaking the matter to his father? 'You have never thought of any +one?' asked the Duke,--again very sweetly, very softly. + +'But I have!' Lord Silverbridge as he made the announcement +blushed up to the eyes. + +Then there came over the father something almost of fear. If he +was to be told, how would it be if he could not approve? 'Yes I +have,' said Silverbridge, recovering himself. 'If you wish it, I +will tell you who it is.' + +'Nay, my boy;--as to that consult your own feelings. Are you sure +of yourself?' + +'Oh, yes.' + +'Have you spoken to her?' + +'Well;--yes in part. She has not accepted me, if you mean that. +Rather the contrary.' + +Now the Duke would have been very unwilling to say that his son +would certainly be accepted by any girl in England to whom he +might choose to offer his hand. But when the idea of a doubt was +suggested to him, it did seem odd that his son should ask in vain. +What other young man was there who could offer so much, and who +was at the same time so likely to be loved for his own sake? He +smiled however and was silent. 'I suppose I may as well out with +it,' said Silverbridge. 'You know Lady Mabel Grex?' + +'Lady Mabel Grex. Yes,--I know her.' + +'Is there any objection?' + +'Is she not your senior?' + +'No, sir; she is younger than I am.' + +'Her father is not a man I esteem.' + +'But she has always been so good!' Then the Duke was again +silent. 'Have you not heard that, sir?' + +'I think I have.' + +'Is not that a great deal?' + +'A very great deal. To be good must of all qualities be the best. +She is very beautiful.' + +'I think so, sir. Of course she has no money.' + +'It is not needed. It is not needed. I have no objection to make. +If you are sure of your own mind--' + +'I am quite sure of that, sir.' + +'Then I will raise no objection. Lady Mabel Grex! Her father, I +fear, is not a worthy man. I hear that he is a gambler.' + +'He is so poor!' + +'That makes it worse, Silverbridge. A man who gambles because he +has money that he can afford to lose is, to my thinking, a fool. +But he who gambles because he has none, is--well, let us hope the +best of him. You may give her my love.' + +'She has not accepted me.' + +'But should she do so, you may.' + +'She almost rejected me. But I am not sure that she was in +earnest, and I mean to try again.' Just at that moment the door +was opened and Major Tifto walked into the room. + + + +CHAPTER 27 + +Major Tifto and the Duke + +'I beg your pardon, Silverbridge,' said the Major, entering the +room, 'but I was looking for Longstaff.' + +'He isn't here,' said Silverbridge, who did not wish to be +interrupted by his racing friend. + +'Your father, I believe?' said Tifto. He was red in the face but +was in other respects perhaps improved in appearance by his +liquor. In his more sober moments he was not always able to assume +that appearance of equality with his companions which it was the +ambition of his soul to achieve. But a second glass of whisky-and- +water would always enable him to cock his tail and bark before the +company with all the courage of my lady's pug. 'Would you do me +the great honour to introduce me to his Grace?' + +Silverbridge was not prone to turn his back upon a friend because +he was low in the world. He had begun to understand that he had +made a mistake by connecting himself with the Major, but at the +club he always defended his partner. Though he not infrequently +found himself obliged to snub the Major himself, he always +countenanced the little Master of the Hounds, and was true to his +own idea of 'standing to a fellow'. Nevertheless he did not wish +to introduce his friend to his father. The Duke saw it all at a +glance, and felt that the introduction should be made. 'Perhaps,' +said he, getting up from his chair, 'this is Major Tifto.' + +'Yes;--my Lord Duke. I am Major Tifto.' + +The Duke bowed graciously. 'My father and I were engaged about +private matters.' + +'I beg ten thousand pardons,' exclaimed the Major. 'I did not +intend to intrude.' + +'I think we had done,' said the Duke. 'Pray sit down, Major +Tifto.' The Major sat down. 'Though now I bethink myself, I have +to beg your pardon;--that I a stranger should ask you to sit down +in your own club.' + +'Don't mention it, my Lord Duke.' + +'I am so unused to clubs, that I forgot where I was.' + +'Quite so, my Lord Duke. I hope you think that Silverbridge is +looking well?' + +'Yes;--yes. I think so.' Silverbridge bit his lips, and turned his +face away to the door. + +'We didn't make a very good thing of our Derby nag the other day. +Perhaps your Grace has heard all that?' + +'I did hear that the horse in which you are both interested had +failed to win the race.' + +'Yes, he did. The Prime Minister, we call him, your Grace,--out of +compliment to a certain Ministry which I wish was going on today +instead of the seedy lot we've got in. I think, my Lord Duke, that +any one you ask may tell you that I know what running is. Well;--I +can assure you,--your Grace, that is,--that since I've seen 'orses +I've never seen a 'orse fitter than him. When he got his canter +that morning, it was nearly even betting. Not that I or +Silverbridge were fools enough to put on anything at any rate. But +I never saw a 'orse so bad ridden. I don't mean to say anything, +my Lord Duke, against the man. But if that fellow hadn't been +squared, or else wasn't drunk, or else off his head, that 'orse +must have won,--my Lord Duke.' + +'I do not know anything about racing, Major Tifto.' + +'I suppose not, your Grace. But as I and Silverbridge are together +in this matter I thought I'd just let your Grace know that we +ought to have had a very good thing. I thought that perhaps your +Grace might like to know that.' + +'Tifto, you are making an ass of yourself,' said Silverbridge. + +'Making an ass of myself!' exclaimed the Major. + +'Yes;--considerably.' + +'I think you are a little hard upon your friend,' said the Duke, +with an attempt at a laugh. 'It is not to be supposed that he +should know how utterly indifferent I am to everything connected +with the turf.' + +'I thought, my Lord Duke, you might care about learning how +Silverbridge was going on.' This the poor little man said almost +with a whine. His partner's roughness had knocked out of him +nearly all the courage which Bacchus had given him. + +'So I do; anything that interests him, interests me. But perhaps +of all his pursuits racing is the one to which I am least able to +lend an attentive ear. That every horse has a head, and that all +did have tails till they were ill-used, is the extent of my stable +knowledge.' + +'Very good indeed, my Lord Duke, very good indeed! Ha, ha, ha!-all +horses have heads, and all have tails! Heads and tails. Upon my +word that is the best thing I have heard for a long time. I will +do myself the honour of wishing your Grace good-night. By-bye, +Silverbridge.' Then he left the room, having been made supremely +happy by what he considered to have been the Duke's joke. +Nevertheless he would remember the snubbing and would be even with +Silverbridge some day. Did Lord Silverbridge think that he was +going to look after his Lordship's 'orses, and do this always on +the square, and then be snubbed for doing it! + +'I am very sorry that he should have come in to trouble you,' said +the son. + +'He has not troubled me much. I do not know whether he has +troubled you. If you are coming down to the House again I will +walk with you.' Silverbridge of course had to go down to the +House again, and they started together. 'That man did not trouble +me Silverbridge; but the question is whether such an acquaintance +must not be troublesome to you.' + +'I'm not very proud of him, sir.' + +'But I think one ought to be proud of one's friends.' + +'He isn't my friend in that way at all.' + +'In what way then?' + +'He understands racing.' + +'He is the partner of your pleasure then;--the man whose society +you love to enjoy the recreation of the racecourse.' + +'It is, sir, because he understands it.' + +'I thought that a gentleman on the turf would have a trainer for +that purpose;--not a companion. You mean to imply that you can save +money by leaguing yourself with Major Tifto.' + +'No, sir,--indeed.' + +'If you associate with him, not for pleasure, then it must surely +be for profit. That you should do the former would be to me +surprising that I must regard it as impossible. That you should do +the latter--is, I think, a reproach.' This, he said, with no tone +of anger in his voice,--so gently that Silverbridge at first hardly +understood it. But gradually all that was meant came in upon him, +and he felt himself to be ashamed of himself. + +'He is bad,' he said at last. + +'Whether he is bad I will not say; but I am sure that you can gain +nothing by his companionship.' + +'I will get rid of him,' said Silverbridge, after a considerable +pause. 'I cannot do so at once, but I will do it.' + +'It will be better, I think.' + +'Tregear has been telling me the same thing.' + +'Is he objectionable to Mr Tregear?' asked the Duke. + +'Oh yes. Tregear cannot bear him. You treated him a great deal +better than Tregear ever does.' + +'I do not deny that he is entitled to be treated well;--but so also +is your groom. Let us say no more about him. And so it is to be +Mabel Grex?' + +'I did not say so, sir. How can I answer for her? Only it was so +pleasant for me to know that you would approve if it should come +off.' + +'Yes;--I will approve. When she has accepted you--' + +'But I don't think she will.' + +'If she should, tell her that I will go to her at once. It will be +much to have a new daughter;--very much that you should have a +wife. Where would she like to live?' + +'Oh, sir, we haven't got as far as that.' + +'I dare say not; I dare say not,' said the Duke. 'Gatherum is +always thought to be dull.' + +'She wouldn't like Gatherum, I'm sure.' + +'Have you asked her?' + +'No, sir. But nobody likes Gatherum.' + +'I suppose not. And yet, Silverbridge, what a sum of money it +cost!' + +'I believe it did.' + +'All vanity; and vexation of spirit!' + +The Duke no doubt thinking of certain scenes passed at the great +house in question, which scenes had not been delightful to him. +'No, I don't suppose she would wish to live at Gatherum. The Horns +was given expressly by my uncle to your dear mother, and I should +like Mary to have the place.' + +'Certainly.' + +'You should live among your tenantry. I don't care so very much +for Matching.' + +'It is the one place you do like, sir.' + +'However, we can manage all that. Carlton Terrace I do not +particularly like; but it is a good house, and there you should +hang up your hat when in London. When it is settled, let me know +at once.' + +'But if it should never be settled?' + +'I will ask no questions; but if it be settled tell me.' Then in +Palace Yard he was turning to go, but before he did so, he said +another word leaning on his son's shoulder. 'I do not think that +Mabel Grex and Major Tifto would do well together at all.' + +'There shall be an end to that, sir.' + +'God bless you my boy!' said the Duke. + +Lord Silverbridge sat in the House,--or to speak more accurately, +in the smoking-room of the House--for about an hour thinking over +all that had passed between him and his father. He certainly had +not intended to say anything about Lady Mab, but on the spur of +the moment it had all come out. Now at any rate it was decided for +him that he must, in set terms, ask her to be his wife. The scene +which had just occurred had made him thoroughly sick of Major +Tifto. He must get rid of the Major, and there could be no way of +doing this at once so easy and so little open to observation as +marriage. If he were but once engaged to Mabel Grex the dismissal +of Tifto would be quite a matter of course. He would see Lady +Mabel again on the morrow and ask her in direct language to be his +wife. + + + +CHAPTER 28 + +Mrs Montacute Jones's Garden-Party + +It was known to all the world that Mrs Montacute Jones's first +great garden-party was to come off on Wednesday, the sixteenth of +June, at Roehampton. Mrs Montacute Jones, who lived in Grosvenor +Place and had a country house in Gloucestershire, and a place for +young men to shoot at in Scotland, also kept a suburban elysium in +Roehampton, in order that she might give two garden-parties every +year. When it is said that all these costly luxuries appertained +to Mrs Montacute Jones, it is to be understood that they did in +truth belong to Mr Jones, of whom nobody heard much. But of Mrs +Jones,--that is, Mrs Montacute Jones,--everybody heard a great deal. +She was an old lady who devoted her life to the amusement of--not +only her friends, but very many who were not her friends. No doubt +she was fond of Lords and Countesses, and worked very hard to get +round her all the rank and fashion of the day. It must be +acknowledged that she was a worldly old woman. But no more good- +natured old woman lived in London, and everybody liked to be asked +to her garden-parties. On this occasion there was to be a +considerable infusion of royal blood,--German, Belgian, French, +Spanish, and of native growth. Everybody, who was asked would go, +and everybody had been asked,--who was anybody. Lord Silverbridge +had been asked, and Lord Silverbridge intended to be there. Lady +Mary his sister, could even be asked, because her mother was +hardly more than three months dead; but it is understood in the +world that women mourn longer than men. + +Silverbridge had mounted a private hansom cab in which he could be +taken about rapidly,--and, as he said himself, without being shut +up in a coffin. In this vehicle he had himself taken to +Roehampton, purporting to kill two birds with one stone. He had +not as yet seen his sister since she had been with Lady Cantrip. +He would on this day come back by the Horns. + +He was well aware that Lady Mab would be at the garden-party. What +place could be better for putting the question he had to ask! He +was by no means so confident as the heir to so many good things +might perhaps have been without overdue self-confidence. + +Entering through the house into the lawn he encountered Mrs +Montacute Jones, who, with a seat behind her on the terrace, +surrounded by flowers, was going through the immense labour of +receiving her guests. + +'How very good of you to come all this way, Lord Silverbridge, to +eat my strawberries.' + +'How very good of you to ask me! I did not come to eat your +strawberries but to see your friends.' + +'You ought to have said you came to see me, you know. Have you met +Miss Boncassen yet?' + +'The American beauty? No. Is she here?' + +'Yes; and she particularly wants to be introduced to you; you +won't betray me, will you?' + +'Certainly not; I am true as steel.' + +'She wanted, she said, to see if the eldest son of the Duke of +Omnium really did look like any other man.' + +'Then I don't want to see her,' said Silverbridge, with a look of +vexation. + +'There you are wrong, for there was a real downright fun in the +way she said it. There they are, and I shall introduce you.' Then +Mrs Montacute Jones absolutely left her post for a minute or two, +and taking the young lord down the steps of the terrace did +introduce him to Mr Boncassen, who was standing there amidst a +crowd, and to Miss Boncassen. + +Mr Boncassen was an American who had lately arrived in England +with the object of carrying out certain literary pursuits in which +he was engaged within the British Museum. He was an American who +had nothing to do with politics and nothing to do with trade. He +was a man of wealth and a man of letters. And he had a daughter +who was said to be the prettiest young woman either in Europe or +America at the present time. + +Isabel Boncassen was certainly a very pretty girl. I wish that my +reader would believe my simple assurance. But no such simple +assurance was ever believed, and I doubt even whether any +description will procure for me from the reader that amount of +faith which I desire to achieve. But I must make the attempt. +General opinion generally considered Miss Boncassen to be small, +but she was in truth something above the average height of English +women. She was slight, without that look of slimness which is +common to girls, and especially to American girls. That her figure +was perfect the reader may believe my word, as any detailed +description of her arms, feet, bust, and waist, would be +altogether ineffective. Her hair was dark brown and plentiful; but +it added but little to her charms, which depended on other +matters. Perhaps what struck the beholder first was the excessive +brilliancy of her complexion. No pink was every pinker, no +alabaster whiteness was ever more like alabaster; but under and +around and through it all there was a constant changing hue which +gave a vitality to her countenance which no fixed colours can +produce. Her eyes, too, were full of life and brilliancy, and even +when she was silent her mouth would speak. Nor was there a fault +within the oval of her face upon which the hypercritics of mature +age could set a finger. Her teeth were excellent both in form and +colour, but were seen seldom. Who does not know that look of +ubiquitous ivory produced by teeth which are too perfect in a face +which is otherwise poor? Her nose at the base spread a little,--so +that it was not purely Grecian. But who has ever seen a nose to be +eloquent and expressive, which did not spread? It was, I think, +the vitality of her countenance,--the way in which she could speak +with every feature, the command which she had of pathos, of +humour, of sympathy, of satire, the assurance which she gave by +every glance of her eye, every elevation of her brow, every curl +of her lip, that she was alive to all that was going on,--it was +all this rather than those feminine charms which can be catalogued +and labelled that made all acknowledge that she was beautiful. + +'Lord Silverbridge,' said Mr Boncassen, speaking a little through +his nose, 'I am proud to make your acquaintance, sir. Your father +is a man for whom we in our country have a great respect. I think, +sir, you must be proud of such a father.' + +'Oh yes,--no doubt,' said Silverbridge awkwardly. Then Mr Boncassen +continued his discourse with the gentlemen around him. Upon this +our friend turned to the young lady. 'Have you been long in +England, Miss Boncassen?' + +'Long enough to have heard about you and your father,' she said, +speaking with no slightest twang. + +'I hope you have not heard evil of me.' + +'Well!' + +'I'm sure you can't have heard much good.' + +'I know you didn't win the Derby.' + +'You've been long enough to hear that.' + +'Do you suppose we don't interest ourselves about the Derby in New +York? Why, when we arrived at Queenstown I was leaning over the +taffrail so that I might ask the first man on board the tender +whether the Prime Minister had won.' + +'And he said he hadn't.' + +'I can't conceive why you of all men should call your horse by +such a name. If my father had been President of the United States, +I don't think I'd call a horse President.' + +'I didn't name the horse.' + +'I'd have changed it. But is it not very impudent of me to be +finding fault with you the first time I have ever met you? Shall +you have a horse at Ascot?' + +'There will be something going, I suppose. Nothing that I care +about.' Lord Silverbridge had made up his mind that he would not +go to the races with Tifto before the Leger. The Leger would be an +affair of such moment as to demand his presence. After that should +come the complete rupture between him and Tifto. + +Then there was movement among the elders, and Lord Silverbridge +soon found himself walking alone with Miss Boncassen. It seemed to +her to be quite natural to do so, and there certainly was no +reason why he should decline anything so pleasant. It was thus +that he had intended to walk with Mabel Grex;--only as yet he had +not found her. 'Oh, yes,' said Miss Boncassen, when they had been +together about twenty minutes; 'we shall be here all the summer, +and the fall, and all the winter. Indeed father means to read +every book in the British Museum before he goes back.' + +'He'll have something to do.' + +'He reads by steam, and he has two or three young men with him to +take it all down and make other books out of it;--just as you'll +see a lady take a lace shawl and turn it all about till she has +trimmed a petticoat with it. It is the same lace all through,--and +so I tell father it's the same knowledge.' + +'But he puts it where more people will find it.' + +'The lady endeavours to do the same with the lace. That depends on +whether people look up or down. Father however is a very learned +man. You mustn't suppose that I am laughing at him. He is going to +write a very learned book. Only everybody will be dead before it +can be half finished.' They still went on together, and then he +gave her his arm and took her into the place where the +strawberries and cream were prepared. As he was going in he saw +Mabel Grex walking with Tregear, and she bowed to him pleasantly +and playfully. 'Is that lady a great friend of yours?' asked Miss +Boncassen. + +'A very great friend indeed.' + +'She is very beautiful.' + +'And clever as well,--and good as gold.' + +'Dear me! Do tell me who it is that owns all these qualities.' + +'Lady Mabel Grex. She is daughter of Lord Grex. That man with her +is my particular friend. His name is Frank Tregear, and they are +cousins.' + +'I am so glad they are cousins.' + +'Why glad?' + +'Because his being with her won't make you unhappy.' + +'Supposing I was in love with her,--which I am not,--do you suppose +it would make me jealous to see her with another man?' + +'In our country it would not. A young lady may walk about with a +young gentleman just as she might with another young lady; but I +thought it was different here. Do you know, by judging English +ways, I believe I am behaving very improperly in walking about +with you so long. Ought I not to tell you to go away?' + +'Pray do not.' + +'As I am going to stay here so long I wish to behave well in +English eyes.' + +'People know who you are, and discount all that.' + +'If the difference be very marked they do. For instance, I needn't +wear a hideous long bit of cloth over my face in Constantinople +because I am a woman. But when the discrepancies are small, then +they have to be attended to. So I shan't walk about with you any +more.' + +'Oh yes you will,' said Silverbridge, who began to think that he +liked walking about with Miss Boncassen. + +'Certainly not. There is Mr Sprottle. He is father's Secretary. He +will take me back.' + +'Can not I take you back as well as Mr Sprottle?' + +'Indeed no;--I am not going to monopolise such a man as you. Do you +think that I don't understand that everybody will be making +remarks upon that American girl who won't leave the son of the +Duke of Omnium alone? There is your particular friend Lady Mabel, +and here is my particular friend Mr Sprottle.' + +'May I come and call?' + +'Certainly. Father will only be too proud,--and I shall be prouder. +Mother will be the proudest of all. Mother very seldom goes out. +Till we get a house we are at The Langham. Thank you, Mr Sprottle. +I think we'll go and find father.' + +Lord Silverbridge found himself close to Lady Mabel and Tregear, +and also to Miss Cassewary, who had now joined Lady Mabel. He had +been much struck with the American beauty, but was not on that +account the less anxious to carry out his great plan. It was +essentially necessary that he should do so at once, because the +matter had been settled between him and his father. He was anxious +to assure her that if she would consent, then the Duke would be +ready to pour out all kinds of paternal blessings on their heads. +'Come and take a turn among the haycocks,' he said. + +'Frank declares,' said Lady Mabel, 'that the hay is hired for the +occasion. I wonder whether that is true?' + +'Anybody can see,' said Tregear, 'that it has not been cut off the +grass it stands upon.' + +'If I could find Mrs Montacute Jones I'd ask her where she got +it,' said Lady Mabel. + +'Are you coming?' asked Silverbridge impatiently. + +'I don't think I am. I have been walking round the haycocks till I +am tired of them.' + +'Anywhere else then?' + +'There isn't anywhere else. What have you done with your American +beauty? The truth is, Lord Silverbridge, you ask me for my company +when she won't give you hers any longer. Doesn't it look like it, +Miss Cassewary?' + +'I don't think Lord Silverbridge is the man to forget an old +friend for a new one.' + +'Not though the new friend be as lovely as Miss Boncassen?' + +'I don't know that I ever saw a prettier girl,' said Tregear. + +'I quite admit it,' said Lady Mabel. 'But that is no salve for my +injured feelings. I have heard so much talk about Miss Boncassen's +beauty for the last week, that I mean to get up a company of +British females, limited, for the express purpose of putting her +down. Who is Miss Boncassen that we are all to be put on one side +for her?' + +Of course he knew that she was joking, but he hardly knew how to +take her joke. There is a manner of joking which carries with it +much serious intention. He did feel that Lady Mabel was not +gracious to him because he had spent half an hour with this new +beauty, and he was half inclined to be angry with her. Was it +fitting that she should be cross with him, seeing that he was +resolved to throw at her feet all the good things that he had in +the world? 'Bother Miss Boncassen,' he said; 'you might as well +come and take a turn with a fellow.' + +'Come along, Miss Cassewary,' said she. 'We will go around the +haycocks yet once again.' So they turned and the two ladies +accompanied Lord Silverbridge. + +But this was not what he wanted. He could not say what he had to +say in the presence of Miss Cassewary,--nor could he ask her to +take herself off in another direction. Nor could he take himself +off. Now that he had joined himself to these two ladies he must +make with them the tour of the gardens. All this made him cross. +'These kind of things are a great bore,' he said. + +'I dare say you would rather be in the House of Commons;--or, +better still, at the Beargarden.' + +'You mean to be ill-natured when you say that, Lady Mab.' + +'You ask me to come and walk with you, and then you tell us that +we are bores!' + +'I did nothing of the kind.' + +'I should have thought that you would be particularly pleased with +yourself for coming here today, seeing that you have made Miss +Boncassen's acquaintance. To be allowed to walk half and hour +alone with the acknowledged beauty of the two hemispheres ought to +be enough even for Lord Silverbridge.' + +'That is nonsense, Lady Mab.' + +'Nothing give so much zest to admiration as novelty. A republican +charmer must be exciting after all the blasees habituees of the +London drawing-room.' + +'How can you talk such nonsense, Mabel?' said Miss Cassewary. + +'But it is so. I feel that people must be sick of seeing me. I +know I am very often sick of seeing them. Here is something +fresh,--and not only unlike, but so much more lovely. I quite +acknowledge that I may be jealous, but no one can say that I am +spiteful. I wish that some republican Adonis or Apollo would crop +up,--so that we might have our turn. But I don't think the +republican gentlemen are equal to the republican ladies. Do you, +Lord Silverbridge? + +'I haven't thought about it.' + +'Mr Sprottle for instance.' + +'I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr Sprottle.' + +'Now we've been around the haycocks, and really, Lord +Silverbridge, I don't think we have gained much by it. Those +forced marches never do any good.' And so they parted. + +He was thinking with a bitter spirit of the ill-result of the +morning's work when he again found himself close to Miss barbarian +in the crowd of departing people on the terrace. 'Mind you keep +your word,' she said. And then she turned to her father, 'Lord +Silverbridge has promised to call.' + +'Mrs Boncassen will be delighted to make his acquaintance.' + +He got into his cab and was driven off before Richmond. As he went +he began to think of the two young women with whom he had passed +his morning. Mabel had certainly behaved badly to him. Even if she +suspected nothing of his object, did she not owe it to their +friendship to be more courteous to him than she had been? And if +she suspected that object, should she not at any rate given him +that opportunity? + +Or could it be that she was really jealous of the American girl? +No;--that idea he rejected instantly. It was not compatible with +the innate modesty of his disposition. But no doubt the American +girl was very lovely. Merely as a thing to be looked at she was +superior to Mabel. He did feel that as to mere personal beauty she +was in truth superior to anything he had ever seen before. And she +was clever too;--and good-humoured;--whereas Mabel had been both +ill-natured and unpleasant. + + + +CHAPTER 29 + +The Lovers Meet + +Lord Silverbridge found his sister alone. 'I particularly want +you,' said he, 'to come and call upon Lady Mabel Grex. She wishes +to know you, and I am sure you would like her.' + +'But I haven't been out anywhere yet,' she said. 'I don't feel as +though I wanted to go anywhere.' + +Nevertheless she was very anxious to know Lady Mabel Grex, of whom +she had heard much. A girl if she has had a former love passage +says nothing of it to her new lover; but a man is not so reticent. +Frank Tregear had perhaps not told her everything, but he had told +her something. 'I was very fond of her,--very fond of her,' he had +said. 'And so I am still,' he had added. 'As you are my love of +loves, she is my friend of friends.' Lady Mary had been satisfied +by the assurance, but had become anxious to see the friend of +friends. She resisted at first her brother's entreaties. She felt +that her father in delivering her over to the seclusions of The +Horns had intended to preclude her from showing herself in London. +She was conscious that she was being treated with cruelty, and had +a certain pride in her martyrdom. She would obey her father to the +letter; she would give him no right to call her conduct in +question; but he and any other to whom he might entrust the care +of her, should be made to know that she thought him cruel. He had +his power to which she must submit. But she also had hers,--to +which it was possible he might be made to submit. 'I do not know +that papa would wish me to go,' she said. + +'But it is just what he would wish. He thinks a good deal about +Mabel.' + +'Why should he think of her at all?' + +'I can't exactly explain,' said Silverbridge, 'but he does.' + +'If you mean to tell me that Mabel Grex is anything particular to +you, and that papa approves of it, I will go round the world to +see her.' But he had not meant to tell his this. The request had +been made at Lady Mabel's instance. When his sister had spoken of +her father's possible objection, then he had become eager in +explaining the Duke's feeling, not remembering that such anxiety +might betray himself. At that moment Lady Cantrip came in, and the +question was referred to her. She did not see any objection to +such a visit, and expressed her opinion that it would be a good +thing that Mary should be taken out. 'She should begin to go +somewhere,' said Lady Cantrip. And so it was decided. On the next +Friday he would come down early in his hansom and drive her up to +Belgrave Square. Then he would take her to Carlton Terrace, and +Lady Cantrip's carriage should pick her up there and bring her +home. He would arrange it all. + +'What did you think of the American beauty?' asked Lady Cantrip +when that was settled. + +'I thought she was a beauty.' + +'So I perceived. You had eyes for nobody else,' said Lady Cantrip, +who had been at the garden-party. + +'Somebody introduced her to me, and then I had to walk about the +grounds with her. That's the kind of thing one always does in +these places.' + +'Just so. That is what "those places" are meant for, I suppose. +But it was not apparently a great infliction.' Lord Silverbridge +had to explain that it was not an infliction;--that it was a +privilege, seeing that Miss Boncassen was both clever and lovely; +but that it did not mean anything in particular. + +When he took his leave he asked his sister to go out into the +grounds with him for a moment. This she did almost unwillingly, +fearing that he was about to speak to her of Tregear. But he had +no such purpose on his mind. 'Of course you know,' he began, 'all +that was nonsense you were saying about Mabel.' + +'I did not know.' + +'I was afraid you might blurt out something before her.' + +'I should not be so imprudent.' + +'Girls do make such fools of themselves sometimes. They are always +thinking about people being in love. But it is the truth that my +father said to me the other day how very much he liked what he had +heard of her, and that he would like you to know her.' + +On that same evening Silverbridge wrote from the Beargarden the +shortest possible note to Lady Mabel, telling her what he had +arranged. 'I and Mary propose to call in B. Square on Friday at +two. I must be early because of the House. You will give us lunch. +S.' There was no word of endearment,--none of those ordinary words +which people who hate each other use to one another. But he +received the next day at home a much more kindly-written note from +her: + +'DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'You are so good! You always do just what you think people +will like best. Nothing could please me so much as seeing your +sister, of whom of course I have heard very very much. There shall +be nobody here but Miss Cass. + +'Yours most sincerely, +M.G.' + +'How I do wish I were a man!' his sister said to him when they +were in the hansom together. + +'You'd have a great deal more trouble.' + +'But I'd have a hansom of my own, and go where I pleased. How +would you like to be shut up in a place like The Horn?' + +'You can go out if you like.' + +'Not like you. Papa thinks it's the proper place for me to live +in, and so I must live there. I don't think a woman ever chooses +how or where she shall live herself.' + +'You are not going to take up woman's rights, I hope.' + +'I think I shall if I stay at The Horns much longer. What would +papa say if he heard that I was going to give a lecture at the +Institute?' + +'The governor has had so many things to bear that a trifle such as +that would make but little difference.' + +'Poor papa!' + +'He was dreadfully cut up about Gerald. And then he is so good! He +said more to me about Gerald than he ever did about my own little +misfortune at Oxford; but to Gerald himself he said almost +nothing. Now he has forgiven me because he thinks I am constant at +the House.' + +'And are you?' + +'Not so much as he thinks. I do go there,--for his sake. He has +been so good about my changing sides.' + +'I think you were quite right there.' + +'I am beginning to think I was quite wrong. What did it matter to +me?' + +'I suppose it did make papa unhappy.' + +'Of course it did;--and then this affair of yours.' As soon as +this was said Lady Mary at once hardened her heart against her +father. Whether Silverbridge was or was not entitled to his own +political opinions,--seeing that the Pallisers had for ages been +known as staunch Whigs and Liberals,--might be a matter for +question. But that she had a right to her own lover she thought +there could be no question. As they were sitting in the cab he +could hardly see her face, but he was aware that she was in some +fashion arming herself against opposition. 'I am sure that this +makes him very unhappy,' continued Silverbridge. + +'It cannot be altered,' she said. + +'It will have to be altered.' + +'Nothing can alter it. He might die, indeed;--or so might I.' + +'Or he might see that it is no good,--and change his mind,' +suggested Silverbridge. + +'Of course that is possible,' said Lady Mary very curtly,--showing +plainly by her manner that the subject was one which she did not +choose to discuss any further. + +'It is very good of you to come to me,' said Lady Mabel, kissing +her new acquaintance. 'I have heard so much about you.' + +'And I also of you.' + +'I, you know, am one of your brother's stern Mentors. There are +three or four of us determined to make him a pattern young +legislator. Miss Cassewary is another. Only she is not quite so +stern as I am.' + +'He ought to be very much obliged.' + +'But he is not;--not a bit. Are you, Lord Silverbridge?' + +'Not so much as I ought to be, perhaps.' + +'Of course there is an opposing force. There are the race-horses, +and the drag, and Major Tifto. No doubt you have heard of Major +Tifto. The Major is the Mr Worldly-Wise-man who won't let +Christian go to the Straight Gate. I am afraid he hasn't read his +Pilgrim's Progress. But we shall prevail, Lady Mary, and he will +get to the beautiful city at last.' + +'What is the beautiful city?' he asked. + +'A seat in the Cabinet, I suppose;--or that general respect which a +young nobleman achieves when he shows himself able to sit on a +bench for six consecutive hours without appearing to go to sleep.' + +Then they went to lunch, and Lady Mary found herself to be happy +with her new acquaintance. Her life since her mother's death had +been so sad, that this short escape from it was a relief to her. +Now for awhile she found herself almost gay. There was an easy +liveliness about Lady Mabel,--a grain of humour and playfulness +conjoined,--which made her feel at home at once. And it seemed to +her as though her brother was at home. He called the girl Lady +Mab, and Queen Mab, and once plain Mabel, and the old woman he +called Miss Cass. It surely, she thought, must be the case that +Lady Mabel and her brother were engaged. + +'Come upstairs into my own room,--it is nicer than this,' said Lady +Mabel, and they went from the dining-room into a pretty little +sitting-room with which Silverbridge was very well acquainted. +'Have you heard of Miss Boncassen?' Mary said she had heard +something of Miss Boncassen's great beauty. 'Everybody is talking +about her. Your brother met at Mrs Montacute Jones's garden-party, +and was made a conquest of instantly.' + +'I wasn't made a conquest of at all,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then he ought to have been made a conquest of. I should be if I +were a man. I think she is the loveliest person to look at and the +nicest person to listen to that I ever came across. We all feel +that, as far as this season is concerned, we are cut out. But we +don't mind it so much because she is a foreigner.' Then just as +she said this the door was opened and Frank Tregear was announced. + +Everybody present there knew as well as does the reader, what was +the connection between Tregear and Lady Mary Palliser. And each +knew that the other knew it. It was therefore impossible for them +not to feel themselves guilty among themselves. The two lovers had +not seen each other since they had been together in Italy. Now +they were brought face to face in this unexpected manner! And +nobody except Tregear was at first quite sure whether somebody had +done something to arrange the meeting. Mary might naturally +suspect that Lady Mabel had done this in the interest of her +friend Tregear, and Silverbridge could not but suspect that it was +so. Lady Mabel, who had never before met the other girl, could +hardly refrain from thinking that there had been some underhand +communication,--and Miss Cassewary was clearly of the opinion that +there had been some understanding. + +Silverbridge was the first to speak. 'Halloo, Tregear, I didn't +know that we were to see you.' + +'Nor I, that I should see you,' said he. Then of course there was +a shaking of hands all round, in the course of which ceremony he +came to Mary the last. She gave him her hand, but had not a word +to say to him. 'If I had known that you were here,' he said, 'I +should not have come; but I need hardly say how glad I am to see +you,--even in this way.' Then the two girls were convinced that +the meeting was accidental; but Miss Cass still had her doubts. + +Conversation became at once very difficult. Tregear seated himself +near, but not very near, to Lady Mary, and made some attempt to +talk to both the girls at once. Lady Mabel plainly showed that she +was not at her ease;--whereas Mary seemed to be stricken dumb by +the presence of her lover. Silverbridge was so much annoyed by a +feeling that this interview was a treason to his father, that he +sat cudgelling his brain to think how he should bring it to an +end. Miss Cassewary was dumb-founded by the occasion. She was the +one elder in the company who ought to see that no wrong was +committed. She was not directly responsible to the Duke of Omnium, +but she was thoroughly permeated by a feeling that it was her duty +to take care that there should be no clandestine love meetings in +Lord Grex's house. At last Silverbridge jumped up from his chair. +'Upon my word, Tregear, I think you had better go,' said he. + +'So do I,' said Miss Cassewary. 'If it is an accident--' + +'Of course it is an accident,' said Tregear angrily,--looking round +at Mary, who blushed up to her eyes. + +'I did not mean to doubt it,' said the old lady. 'But as it has +occurred, Mabel, don't you think that he had better go?' + +'He won't bite anybody, Miss Cass.' + +'Certainly not,' said Mary, speaking for the first time. 'But now +he is here--' Then she stopped herself, rose from the sofa, sat +down, and then rising again, stepped up to her lover,--who rose at +the same moment,--and threw herself into his arms and put up her +lips to be kissed. + +'This won't do at all,' said Silverbridge. Miss Cassewary clasped +her hands together and looked up to heaven. She probably had never +seen such a thing done before. Lady Mabel's eyes were filled with +tears, and though in all this there was much to cause her anguish, +still in her heart of hearts, she admired the brave girl who could +thus show her truth to her lover. + +'Now go,' said Mary, through her sobs. + +'Now own one,' ejaculated Tregear. + +'Yes, yes, yes; always your own. Go,--go, go.' She was weeping and +sobbing as she said this, and hiding her face with her +handkerchief. He stood for a moment irresolute, and then left the +room without a word of adieu to anyone. + +'You have behaved very badly,' said the brother. + +'She has behaved like an angel,' said Mabel, throwing her arms +round Mary, as she spoke, 'like an angel. If there had been a girl +whom you loved and who loved you, would you have not wished it? +Would you not have worshipped her for showing that she was not +ashamed of her love?' + +'I am not a bit ashamed,' said Mary. + +'And I say you have no cause. No one knows him like I do. How good +he is, and how worthy!' Immediately after that Silverbridge took +his sister away, and Lady Mabel, escaping from Miss Cass was +alone. 'She loves him almost as I have loved him,' she said to +herself. 'I wonder whether he can love her as he did me?' + + + +CHAPTER 30 + +What Came of the Meeting + +Not a word was said in the cab as Lord Silverbridge took his +sister to Carlton Terrace, and he leaving her without any +reference to the scene which had taken place, when an idea struck +him that this would be cruel. 'Mary,' he said, 'I was very sorry +for all that.' + +'It was not my doing.' + +'I suppose it was nobody's doing. But I am very sorry that it +occurred. I think you should have controlled yourself.' + +'No!' she almost shouted. + +'I think so.' + +'No;--if you mean by controlling myself, holding my tongue. He is +the man I love,--whom I have promised to marry.' + +'But, Mary,--do ladies generally embrace their lovers in public?' + +'No;--nor should I. I never did such a thing in my life before. But +as he was there I had to show that I was not ashamed of him! Do +you think I should have done it if you all had not been there?' +Then again she burst into tears. + +He did not know quite what to make of it. Mabel Grex had declared +that she had behaved like an angel. But yet, as he thought of what +he had seen, he shuddered with vexation. 'I was thinking of the +governor.' + +'He shall be told everything.' + +'That you met Tregear?' + +'Certainly; and that I--kissed him. I will do nothing that I am +ashamed to tell everybody.' + +'He will be very angry.' + +'I cannot help it. He should not treat me as he is doing. Mr +Tregear is a gentleman. Why did he let him come? Why you bring +him? But it is of no use. The thing is settled. Papa can break my +heart, but he cannot make me say that I am not engaged to Mr +Tregear.' + +On that night Mary told the whole of her story to Lady Cantrip. +There was nothing she tried to conceal. 'I got up,' she said, 'and +threw my arms round him. Is he not all the world to me?' + +'Had it been planned?' asked Lady Cantrip. + +'No;--no! Nothing had been planned. They are cousins and very +intimate, and he goes there constantly. Now I want you to tell +papa all about it.' + +Lady Cantrip began to think that it had been an evil day for her +when she had agreed to take charge of this very determined young +lady, but she consented to write to the Duke. As the girl was in +her hands she must take care not to lay herself open to +reproaches. As this objectionable lover had either contrived a +meeting, or had met her without contriving, it was necessary that +the Duke should be informed. 'I would rather you wrote the +letter,' said Lady Mary. 'But pray tell him that all along I have +meant him to know about it.' + +Till Lady Cantrip seated herself at her writing-table she did not +know how great the difficulty would be. It cannot in any +circumstance be easy to write to a father of his daughter's love +for an objectionable lover; but the Duke's character added much to +the severity of the task. And then that embrace! She knew that +the Duke would be struck with horror as he read of such a tale, +and she found herself almost struck with horror as she attempted +to write it. When she came to the point she found that she could +not write it. 'I fear there was a good deal of warmth shown on +both sides,' she said, feeling that she was calumniating the man, +as to whose warmth she had heard nothing. 'It is quite clear,' she +added, 'that this is not a passing fancy on her part.' + +It was impossible that the Duke should be made to understand +exactly what had occurred. That Silverbridge had taken Mary he did +understand, and that they had together gone to Lord Grex's house. +He understood also that the meeting had taken place in the +presence of Silverbridge and Lady Mabel. 'No doubt it was all an +accident,' Lady Cantrip wrote. How could it be an accident? + +'You had Mary up in town on Friday?' he said to his son on the +following Sunday morning. + +'Yes, sir.' + +'And that friend of yours came in?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Do you not know what my wishes are?' + +'Certainly I do;--but I could not help his coming. You do not +suppose that anybody had planned it?' + +'I hope not.' + +'It was simply an accident. Such an accident as must occur over +and over again,--unless Mary is to be locked up.' + +'Who talks of locking anybody up? What right have you to speak in +that way?' + +'I only meant that of course they will stumble across each other +in London.' + +'I think I will go abroad,' said the Duke. He was silent for +awhile, and then repeated his words. 'I think I will go abroad.' + +'Not for long I hope, sir.' + +'Yes;--to live there. Why should I stay here? What good can I do +here? Everything I see and everything I hear is a pain to me.' +The young man of course could not but go back in his mind to the +last interview which he had had with his father, when the Duke had +been so gracious and apparently so well pleased. + +'Is there anything else wrong,--except about Mary?' Silverbridge +asked. + +'I am told Gerald owes about fifteen hundred pounds at Cambridge.' + +'So much as that! I knew that he had a few horses there.' + +'It is not the money, but the absence of principle,--that a young +man should have no feeling that he ought to live within certain +prescribed means! Do you know what you have had from Mr Morton?' + +'Not exactly, sir.' + +'It is different with you. But a man, let him be who he may, +should live within certain means. As for your sister, I think she +will break my heart.' Silverbridge found it impossible to say +anything in answer to this. 'Are you going to church?' asked the +Duke. + +'I was not thinking of doing so particularly.' + +'Do you not ever go?' + +'Yes;--sometimes. I will go with you now, if you like it, sir.' + +'I had thought of going, but my mind is too much harassed. I do +not see why you should not go.' + +But Silverbridge, though he had been willing to sacrifice his +morning to his father,--for it was, I fear, in that way that he +looked at it,--did not see any reason for performing a duty which +his father himself omitted. And there were various matters also +which harassed him. On the previous evening, after dinner, he had +allowed himself to back the Prime Minister for the Leger to a very +serious amount. In fact he had plunged, and now stood to lose some +twenty thousand pounds on the doings of the last night. And he had +made these bets under the influence of Major Tifto. It was the +remembrance of this, after the promise he had made to his father, +that annoyed him the most. He was imbued with a feeling that it +behoved him as a man to 'pull himself together' as he would have +said himself, and to live in accordance with certain rules. He +could make the rules easily enough, but he had never yet succeeded +in keeping any one of them. He had determined to sever himself +from Tifto, and, in doing that, had intended to sever himself from +the affairs of the turf generally. This resolution was not yet a +week old. It was on that evening that he had resolved that Tifto +should no longer be his companion; and now he had to confess to +himself that because he had drunk three or four glasses of +champagne he had been induced by Tifto to make those wretched +bets. + +And he had told his father that he intended to ask Mabel Grex to +be his wife. He had so committed himself that the offer must now +be made. He did not specially regret that, though he wished that +he had been more reticent. 'What a fool a man is to blurt out +everything!' he said to himself. A wife would be a good thing for +him; and where could he possibly find a better wife than Mabel +Grex? In beauty she was no doubt inferior to Miss Boncassen. There +was something about Miss Boncassen which made it impossible to +forget her. But Miss Boncassen was an American, and on many +accounts out of the question. It did not occur to him that he +would fall in love with Miss Boncassen for a few weeks. No doubt +there were objections to marriage. It clipped a fellow's wings. +But then, if he were married, he might be sure that Tifto would be +laid aside. It was a great thing to have got his father's assured +consent to a marriage. It meant complete independence in money +matters. + +Then his mind ran away to a review of his father's affairs. It was +a genuine trouble to him that his father should be so unhappy. Of +all the griefs which weighed upon the Duke's mind, that in +reference to his sister was the heaviest. The money which Gerald +owed at Cambridge would be nothing if that sorrow could be +conquered. Nor had Tifto and his own extravagances caused the Duke +any incurable wounds. If Tregear could be got out of the way his +father, he thought, might be reconciled to other things. He felt +very tender-hearted about his father; but he had no remorse in +regard to his sister as he made up his mind that he would speak +very seriously to Tregear. + +He had wandered into St James's Park, and had lighted by this time +half-a-dozen cigarettes one after another, as he sat on one of the +benches. He was a handsome youth, all but six feet high, with +light hair, with round blue eyes, and with all that aristocratic +look, which had belonged so peculiarly to the late Duke but which +was less conspicuous in the present head of the family. He was a +young man whom you would hardly pass in a crowd without +observing,--but of whom you would say, after due observation, that +he had not as yet put off all his childish ways. He now sat with +his legs stretched out, with his cane in his hands, looking down +upon the water. He was trying to think. He worked hard at +thinking. But the bench was hard, and, upon the whole, he was not +satisfied with his position. He had just made up his mind that he +would look up Tregear, when Tregear himself appeared on the path +before him. + +'Tregear!' exclaimed Silverbridge. + +'Silverbridge!' exclaimed Tregear. + +'What on earth makes you walk about here on a Sunday morning?' + +'What on earth makes you sit there? That I should walk here, which +I often do, does not seem to me odd. But that I should find you is +marvellous. Do you often come?' + +'Never was here in my life before. I strolled because I had things +to think of.' + +'Questions to be asked in Parliament? Notices of motions, +Amendments in Committee, and that kind of thing?' + +'Go on, old fellow.' + +'Or perhaps Major Tifto has made important revelations.' + +'D--- Major Tifto.' + +'With all my heart,' said Tregear. + +'Sit down here,' said Silverbridge. 'As it happened, at the moment +when you came up I was thinking of you.' + +'That was kind.' + +'And I was determined to go to you. All this about my sister must +be given up.' + +'Must be given up!' + +'It can never lead to any good. I meant that there can never be a +marriage.' Then he paused, but Tregear was determined to hear him +out. 'It is making my father so miserable that you would pity him +if you could see him.' + +'I dare say I should. When I see people unhappy I always pity +them. What I would ask you to think of is this. If I were to +commission you to tell your sister that everything between us +should be given up, would not she be so unhappy that you would +have to pity her?' + +'She would get over it.' + +'And so will your father.' + +'He has a right to have his own opinion on such a matter.' + +'And so have I. And so has she. His rights in the matter are very +clear and very potential. I am quite ready to admit that we cannot +marry for many years to come, unless he will provide the money. +You are quite at liberty to tell him that I say so. I have no +right to ask your father for a penny, and I will never do so. The +power is all in his hands. As far as I know my own purposes, I +shall not make any immediate attempt even to see her. We did meet, +as you saw, the other day, by the merest chance. After that, do +you think that your sister wishes me to give her up?' + +'As for supposing that girls are to have what they wish, that is +nonsense.' + +'For young men I suppose equally so. Life ought to be a life of +self-denial no doubt. Perhaps it might be my duty to retire from +this affair, if by doing so I should sacrifice only myself. The +one person of whom I am bound to think in this matter is the girl +I love.' + +'That is just what she says about you.' + +'I hope so.' + +'In that way you support each other. If it were any other man +circumstanced just like you are, and any other girl placed like +Mary, you would be the first to say that the man was behaving +badly. I don't like to use hard language to you, but in such a +case you would be the first to say of another man--that he was +looking after the girl's money.' + +Silverbridge as he said this looked forward steadfastly on to the +water, regretting much that cause for quarrel should have arisen, +but thinking that Tregear would find himself obliged to quarrel. +But Tregear, after a few moments' silence, having thought it out, +determined that he would not quarrel. 'I think I probably might,' +he said laying his hand on Silverbridge's arm. 'I think I perhaps +might express such an opinion.' + +'Well then!' + +'I have to examine myself, and find whether I am guilty of the +meanness which I might perhaps be too ready to impute to another. +I have done so, and I am quite sure that I am not drawn to your +sister by any desire for her money. I did not seek her because she +was a rich man's daughter, nor,--because she is a rich man's +daughter will I give her up. Nothing but a word from her shall +induce me to leave her;--but a word from her, if it comes from her +own lips,--shall do so.' Then he took his friend's hand in his, +and having grasped it, walked away without saying another word. + + + +CHAPTER 31 + +Miss Boncassen's River-Party No. 1 + +Thrice within the next three weeks did Lord Silverbridge go forth +to ask Mabel to be his wife, but thrice in vain. On one occasion +she would talk on other things. On the second Miss Cassewary would +not leave her. On the third the conversation turned in a very +disagreeable way on Miss Boncassen, as to whom Lord Silverbridge +could not but think that Lady Mabel said some very ill-natured +things. It was no doubt true that he, during the last three weeks, +had often been in Miss Boncassen's company, that he had danced +with her, ridden with her, taken her to the House of Lords and the +House of Commons, and was now engaged to attend upon her at a +river-party up above Maidenhead. But Mabel had certainly no right +to complain. Had he not thrice during the same period come there +to lay the coronet at her feet;--and now, at this very moment, was +it not her fault that he was not going through the ceremony? + +'I suppose,' she said, laughing, 'that it is all settled.' + +'What is all settled?' + +'About you and the American beauty.' + +'I am not aware that anything in particular has been settled.' + +'Then it ought to be,--oughtn't it? For her sake, I mean.' + +'That is so like an English woman,' said Lord Silverbridge. +'Because you cannot understand a manner of life a little different +from your own you will impute evil.' + +'I have imputed no evil, Lord Silverbridge, and you have no right +to say so.' + +'If you mean to assert,' said Miss Cass, 'that the manners of +American young ladies are freer than those of English young +ladies, it is you that are taking away their characters.' + +'I don't say it would be at all bad,' continued Lady Mabel. 'She +is a beautiful girl, and very clever, and would make a charming +Duchess. And then it would be such a delicious change to have an +American Duchess.' + +'She wouldn't be a Duchess.' + +'Well, Countess, with Duchessship before her in the remote future. +Wouldn't it be a change, Miss Cass?' + +'Oh decidedly!' said Miss Cass. + +'And very much for the better. Quite a case of new blood, you +know. Pray don't suppose that I mean to object. Everybody who +talks about it approves. I haven't heard a single dissentient +voice. Only as it has gone so far, and English people are too +stupid you know to understand all these new ways,--don't you think +perhaps--?' + +'No, I don't think. I don't think anything except that you are +very ill-natured.' Then he got up and, after making formal adieux +to both the ladies, left the house. + +As soon as he was gone Lady Mabel began to laugh, but the least +apprehensive ears would have perceived that the laughter was +affected. Miss Cassewary did not laugh at all, but sat bolt +upright and looked very serious. 'Upon my honour,' said the +younger lady, 'he is the most beautifully simple-minded human +being I ever knew in my life.' + +'Then I wouldn't laugh at him.' + +'How can one help it? But of course I do it with a purpose.' + +'What purpose?' + +'I think he is making a fool of himself. If somebody does not +interfere he will go so far that he will not be able to draw back +without misbehaving.' + +'I thought,' said Miss Cassewary, in a very low voice, almost +whispering. 'I thought that he was looking for a wife elsewhere.' + +'You need not think of it again,' said Lady Mab, jumping up from +her seat. 'I had thought of it too. But as I told you before, I +spared him. He did not really mean it with me;--nor does he mean it +with this American girl. Such young men seldom mean. They drift +into matrimony. But she will not spare him. It would be a national +triumph. All the States would sing a paean of glory. Fancy a New +York belle having compassed a Duke!' + +'I don't think it possible. It would be too horrid.' + +'I think it is quite possible. As for me, I could teach myself to +think it best as it is, were I not so sure that I should be better +for him than to many others. But I shouldn't love him.' + +'Why not love him?' + +'He is such a boy. I should always treat him like a boy,--spoiling +him and petting him, but never respecting him. Don't run away with +any idea that I should refuse him from conscientious motives, if +he were really to ask me. I too should like to be a Duchess. I +should like to bring all this misery at home to an end.' + +'But you did refuse him.' + +'Not exactly;--because he never asked me. For the moment I was +weak, and so I let have another chance. I shall not have been a +good friend to him if it ends in his marrying this Yankee.' + +Lord Silverbridge went out of the house in a very ill humour,-- +which however left him when in the course of the afternoon he +found himself up at Maidenhead with Miss Boncassen. Miss Boncassen +at any rate did not laugh at him. And then she was so pleasant, so +full of common sense, and so completely intelligent! 'I like +you,' she said, 'because I feel that you will not think that you +ought to make love to me. There is nothing I hate so much as the +idea that a young man and a young woman can't be acquainted with +each other without some tomfoolery as that.' This had exactly +expressed his own feeling. Nothing could be so pleasant as his +intimacy with Isabel Boncassen. + +Mrs Boncassen seemed to be a homely person, with no desire either +to speak, or to be spoken to. She went out but seldom, and on +those rare occasions did not in any way interfere with her +daughter. Mr Boncassen filled a prouder situation. Everybody knew +that Miss Boncassen was in England because it suited Mr Boncassen +to spend many hours in the British Museum. But still the daughter +hardly seemed to be under control from her father. She went alone +where she liked; talked to those she liked; and did what she +liked. Some of the young ladies of the day thought that there was +a good deal to be said in favour of the freedom which she enjoyed. + +There is however a good deal to be said against it. All young +ladies cannot be Miss Boncassens, with such an assurance of +admirers as to be free from all fear of loneliness. There is +comfort for a young lady in having a pied-a-terre to which she may +retreat in case of need. In American circles, where girls +congregate without their mothers, there is a danger felt by young +men that if a lady be once taken in hand, there will be no +possibility of getting rid of her,--no mamma to whom she may be +taken and under whose wings she may be dropped. 'My dear,' said an +old gentleman the other day walking through an American ball-room, +and addressing himself to a girl whom he knew well,--'My dear--' But +the girl bowed and passed on, still clinging to the arm of the +young man who accompanied her. But the old gentleman was cruel, +and possessed of a determined purpose. 'My dear,' he said again, +catching the young man tightly by the collar and holding him fast. +'Don't be afraid; I've got him; he shan't desert you; I'll hold +him here till you have told me how your father does.' The young +lady looked as if she didn't like it, and the sight of her misery +gave rise to a feeling that, after all, mammas perhaps may be a +comfort. + +But in her present phase of life Miss Boncassen suffered no +misfortune of this kind. It had become a privilege to be allowed +to attend upon Miss Boncassen, and the feeling of this privilege +had been enhanced by the manner in which Lord Silverbridge had +devoted himself to her. Fashion of course makes fashion. Had not +Lord Silverbridge been so very much struck by the charm of the +young lady, Lords Glasslough and Popplecourt would not perhaps +have found it necessary to run after her. As it was, even that +most unenergetic of young men, Dolly Longstaff, was moved to +profound admiration. + +On this occasion they were all up the river at Maidenhead. Mr +Boncassen had looked about for some means of returning the +civilities offered to him, and had been instigated by Mrs +Montacute Jones to do it after this fashion. There was a +magnificent banquet spread in a summer-house on the river bank. +There were boats, and there was a band, and there was a sward for +dancing. There was lawn-tennis, and fishing-rods,--which nobody +used,--and better still, long shady secluded walks in which +gentlemen might stroll,--and ladies too, if they were kind enough. +The whole thing had been arranged by Mrs Montacute Jones. As the +day was fine, as many of the old people had abstained from coming, +as there were plenty of young men of the best sort, and as nothing +had been spared in reference to external comforts, the party +promised to be a success. Every most lovely girl in London of +course was there,--except Lady Mabel Grex. Lady Mabel was in the +habit of going everywhere, but on this occasion, she had refused +Mrs Boncassen's invitation. 'I don't want to see her triumphs,' +she had said to Miss Cass. + +Everybody went down by railway of course, and innumerable flies +and carriages had been provided to take them to the scene of +action. Some immediately got into boats and rowed themselves up +from the bridge,--which, as the thermometer was standing at eighty +in the shade, was an inconsiderate proceeding. 'I don't think I am +quite up to that,' said Dolly Longstaff, when it was proposed to +him to take an oar. 'Miss Amazon will do it. She rows so well, and +is strong.' Whereupon Miss Amazon, not at all abashed, did take +the oar; and as Lord Silverbridge was on the seat behind her with +the other oar she probably enjoyed the task. + +'What a very nice sort of person Lady Cantrip is.' This was said +to Silverbridge by that generally silent young nobleman Lord +Popplecourt. The remark was the more singular because Lady Cantrip +was not at the party,--and the more so again because, as +Silverbridge thought, there could be but little in common between +the Countess who had his sister in charge and the young lord +beside him, who was not fast only because he did not like to risk +his money. + +'Well;--I dare say she is.' + +'I thought so, peculiarly. Because I was at that place at Richmond +yesterday.' + +'The devil you were! What were you doing at the Horns?' + +'Lady Cantrip's grandmother was,--I don't quite know what she was, +but something to us. I know I've got a picture of her at +Popplecourt. Lady Cantrip wanted to ask me something about it, and +so I went down. I was so glad to make acquaintance with your +sister.' + +'You saw Mary, did you?' + +'Oh yes; I lunched there. I'm to go down and meet the Duke some +day.' + +'Meet the Duke!' + +'Why not?' + +'No reason on earth,--only I can't imagine the governor going to +Richmond for his dinner. Well! I am very glad to hear it. I hope +you'll get on well with him.' + +'I was so much struck by your sister.' + +'Yes I dare say,' said Silverbridge, turning away into the path +where he saw Miss Boncassen standing with some other ladies. It +certainly did not occur to him that Popplecourt was to be brought +forward as a suitor for his sister's hand. + +'I believe this is the most lovely place in the world,' Miss +Boncassen said to him. + +'We are so much the more obliged to you for bringing us here.' + +'We don't bring you. You allow us to come with you and see all +that is pretty and lovely.' + +'Is it not your party?' +'Father will pay the bill, I suppose,--as far as that goes. And +mother's name was put on the cards. But of course we know what +that means. It is because you and a few others like you have been +so kind to us, that we are able to be here at all.' + +'Everybody, I should think, must be kind to you.' + +'I do have a good time pretty much; but nowhere so good as here. I +fear that when I get back I shall not like New York.' + +'I have heard you say, Miss Boncassen, that Americans were more +likeable than the English.' + +'Have you? Well, yes; I think I have said so. And I think it is +so. I'd sooner have to dance with a bank clerk in New York, than +with a bank clerk here.' + +'Do you ever dance with bank clerks?' + +'Oh dear yes. At least I suppose so. I dance with whoever comes +up. We haven't got lords in America, you know!' + +'You have got gentlemen.' + +'Plenty of them.-but they are not so easily defined as lords. I do +like lords.' + +'Do you?' + +'Oh yes,--and ladies;--Countesses I mean and women of that sort. +Your Lady Mabel Grex is not here. Why wouldn't she come?' + +'Perhaps you didn't ask her.' + +'Oh yes I did;--especially for your sake.' + +'She is not my Lady Mabel Grex,' said Lord Silverbridge with +unnecessary energy. + +'But she will be.' + +'What makes you think that?' + +'You are devoted to her.' + +'Much more to you, Miss Boncassen.' + +'That is nonsense, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'Not at all.' + +'It is also--untrue.' + +'Surely I must be the best judge of that myself.' + +'Not a doubt; a judge not only whether it be true, but if true +whether expedient,--or even possible. What did I say to you when we +first began to know each other?' + +'What did you say?' + +'That I liked knowing you;--that was frank enough;--not that I liked +knowing you because I knew that there would be no tomfoolery of +lovemaking.' Then she paused; but he did not quite know how to go +on with the conversation at once, and she continued her speech. +'When you condescend to tell me that you are devoted to me, as +though that were the kind of thing that I expect to have said when +I take a walk with a young man in a wood, is not that the +tomfoolery of love-making?' She stopped and looked at him, so +that he was obliged to answer. + +'Then why do you ask me if I am devoted to Lady Mabel Grex? Would +not that be tomfoolery too?' + +'No. If I thought so, I would not have asked the question. I did +specially invite her to come her because I thought you would like +it. You have got to marry somebody.' + +'Some day, perhaps.' + +'And why not her?' + +'If you come to that, why not you?' He felt himself to be getting +into deep waters as he said this,--but he had a meaning to express +if only he could find the words to express it. 'I don't say +whether it is tomfoolery, as you call it, or not; but whatever it +is, you began it.' + +'Yes;--yes. I see. You punish me for my unpremeditated impertinence +in suggesting that you are devoted to Lady Mabel by the +premeditated impertinence of pretending to be devoted to me.' + +'Stop a moment. I cannot follow that.' Then she laughed. 'I will +swear that I did not intend to be impertinent.' + +'I hope not.' + +'I am devoted to you.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'I think you are--' + +'Stop, stop. Do not say it.' + +'Well I won't;--not now. But there has been no tomfoolery.' + +'May I ask a question, Lord Silverbridge? You will not be angry? +I would not have you angry with me.' + +'I will not be angry,' he said. + +'Are you not engaged to marry Lady Mabel Grex?' + +'No.' + +'Then I beg your pardon. I was told that you were engaged to her. +And I thought your choice was so fortunate, so happy! I have seen +no girl here that I admire half so much. She almost comes up to my +idea of what a young woman should be.' + +'Almost!' + +'Now I am sure that if you are not engaged to her you must be in +love with her, or my praise would have sufficed.' + +'Though one knows a Lady Mabel Grex, one may become acquainted +with a Miss Boncassen.' + +There are moments in which stupid people say clever things, obtuse +people say sharp things, and good-natured people say ill-natured +things. 'Lord Silverbridge,' she said, 'I did not expect that from +you.' + +'Expect what? I meant it simply.' + +'I have no doubt you meant it simply. We Americans think ourselves +sharp, but I have long since found out that we may meet more than +our matches here. I think we will go back. Mother means to try to +get up a quadrille.' + +'You will dance with me?' + +'I think not. I have been walking with you, and I had better dance +with someone else.' + +'You can let me have one dance.' + +'I think not. There will not be many.' + +'Are you angry with me?' + +'Yes, I am; there.' But as she said this she smiled. 'The truth +is, I thought I was getting the better of you, and you turned +round and gave me a pat on the head to show me that you could be +master when it pleased you. You have defended your intelligence at +the expense of your good-nature.' + +'I'll be shot if I know what it all means,' he said, just as he +was parting with her. + + + +CHAPTER 32 + +Miss Boncassen's River-Party No.2 + +Lord Silverbridge made up his mind that as he could not dance with +Miss Boncassen he would not dance at all. He was not angry at +being rejected, and when he saw her stand up with Dolly Longstaff +he felt no jealousy. She had refused to dance with him not because +she did not like him, but because she did not wish to show that +she did like him. He could understand that, though he had not +quite followed all the ins and outs of her little accusations +against him. She had flattered him--without any intention of +flattery on her part. She had spoken of his intelligence and had +complained that he had been too sharp to her. Mabel Grex when most +sweet to him, when most loving, always made him feel that he was +her inferior. She took no trouble to hide her conviction of his +youthfulness. This was anything but flattering. Miss Boncassen, on +the other hand, professed herself almost to be afraid of him. + +'There shall be no tomfoolery of love-making,' she had said. But +what if it were not tomfoolery at all? What if it were good, +genuine, earnest love-making? He certainly was not pledged to Lady +Mabel. As regarded his father there would be a difficulty. In the +first place he had been fool enough to tell his father that he was +going to make an offer to Mabel Grex. And then his father would +surely refuse his consent to a marriage with an American stranger. +In such case there would be no unlimited income, no immediate +pleasantness of magnificent life such as he knew would be poured +out upon him if he were to marry Mabel Grex. As he thought of +this, however, he told himself that he would not sell himself for +money and magnificence. He could afford to be independent, and +gratify his own taste. Just at this moment he was of the opinion +that Isabel Boncassen would be the sweeter companion of the two. + +He had sauntered down to the place where they were dancing and +stood by, saying a few words to Mrs Boncassen. 'Why are you not +dancing, my Lord?' she asked. + +'There are enough without me.' + +'I guess you young aristocrats are never overfond of doing much +with your own arms and legs.' + +'I don't know about that; polo, you know, for the legs, and lawn- +tennis for the arms, is hard work enough.' + +'But it must always be something new-fangled; and after all it +isn't of much account. Our young men like to have quite a time at +dancing.' + +It all came through her nose! And she looked so common! What +would the Duke say to her, or Mary, or even Gerald? The father was +by no means so objectionable. He was a tall, straight, ungainly +man, who always wore black clothes. He had dark, stiff, short +hair, a long nose, and a forehead that was both high and broad. +Ezekiel Boncassen was the very man,--from his appearance,--- for a +President of the United States; and there were men who talked of +him for that high office. That he had never attended to politics +was supposed to be in his favour. He had the reputation of being +the most learned man in the States, and reputation itself often +suffices to give a man a dignity of manner. He, too, spoke through +his nose, but the peculiar twang coming from a man would be +supposed to be virile and incisive. From a woman, Lord +Silverbridge thought it to be unbearable. But as to Isabel, had +she been born within the confines of some lordly park in +Hertfordshire, she could not have been more completely free from +the abomination. + +'I am sorry that you should not be enjoying yourself,' said Mr +Boncassen, coming to his wife's rescue. + +'Nothing could have been nicer. To tell the truth, I am standing +idle by way of showing my anger against your daughter, who would +not dance with me.' + +'I am sure she would have felt herself honoured,' said Mr +Boncassen. + +'Who is the gentleman with her?' asked the mother. + +'A particular friend of mine--Dolly Longstaff.' + +'Dolly!' ejaculated Mrs Boncassen. + +'Everybody calls him so. His real name I believe to be Adolphus.' + +'Is he,--is he--just anybody?' asked the anxious mother. + +'He is a very great deal,--as people go here. Everybody knows him. +He is asked everywhere, but he goes nowhere. The greatest +compliment paid to you here is his presence.' + +'Nay, my Lord, there are the Countess Montague, and the +Marchioness of Capulet, and Lord Tybalt, and--' + +'They go everywhere. They are nobodies. It is a charity to even +invited them. But to have Dolly Longstaff once is a triumph for +life.' + +'Laws!,' said Mrs Boncassen, looking at the young man who was +dancing. 'What has he done?' + +'He never did anything in his life.' + +'I suppose he's very rich.' + +'I don't know. I should think not. I don't know anything about his +riches, but I can assure you that having him down here will quite +give a character to the day.' + +In the meantime Dolly Longstaff was in a state of great +excitement. Some part of the character assigned to him by Lord +Silverbridge was true. He very rarely did go anywhere, and yet was +asked to a great many places. He was a young man,--though not a +very young man,--with a fortune of his own and the expectation of +future fortune. Few men living could have done less for the world +than Dolly Longstaff,--and yet he had a position of his own. Now he +had taken into his head to fall in love with Miss Boncassen. This +was an accident which had probably never happened to him before, +and which had disturbed him much. He had known Miss Boncassen a +week or two before Lord Silverbridge had seen her, having by some +chance dined out and sat next to her. From that moment he had +become changed, and had gone hither and thither in pursuit of the +American beauty. His passion having become suspected by his +companions had excited their ridicule. Nevertheless he had +persevered;--and now he was absolutely dancing with the lady out in +the open air. 'If this goes on, your friends will have to look +after you and put you somewhere,' Mr Lupton had said to him in one +of the intervals of the dance. Dolly had turned round and scowled, +and suggested that if Mr Lupton would mind his own affairs it +would be as well for the world at large. + +At the present crisis Dolly was very much excited. When the dance +was over, as a matter of course, he offered the lady his arm, and +as a matter of course she accepted it. 'You'll take a turn; won't +you?' he said. + +'It must be a very short turn,' she said,--'as I am expected to +make myself busy.' + +'Oh, bother that.' + +'It bothers me; but it has to be done.' + +'You have set everything going now. They'll begin dancing again +without your telling them.' + +'I hope so.' + +'And I've got something I want to say.' + +'Dear me;--what is it?' + +They were now on a path close to the riverside, in which there +were many loungers. 'Would you mind coming up to the temple?' he +said. + +'What temple?' + +'Oh such a beautiful place. The Temple of the Wind, I think they +call it; or Venus;--or--or--Mrs Arthur de Bever.' + +'Was she a goddess?' + +'It was something built to her memory. Such a view of the river! +I was here once before and they took me up. Everybody who comes +here goes and see Mrs Arthur de Bever. They ought to have told +you.' + +'Let us go then,' said Miss Boncassen. 'Only it must not be long.' + +'Five minutes will do it all.' Then he walked rather quickly up a +flight of rural steps. 'Loverly spot, isn't it?' + +'Yes, indeed.' + +'That's Maidenhead Bridge;--that's somebody's place;--and now, I've +got something to say to you.' + +'You're not going to murder me now you've got me up here alone,' +said Miss Boncassen, laughing. + +'Murder you!' said Dolly, throwing himself into an attitude that +was intended to express devoted affection. 'Oh no!' + +'I am glad of that.' + +'Miss Boncassen!' + +'Mr Longstaff! If you sigh like that you'll burst yourself.' + +'I'll--what?' + +'Burst yourself!' and she nodded her head at him. + +Then he clasped his hands together, and turned his head away from +her towards the little temple. 'I wonder whether she knows what +love is,' he said, as though he were addressing himself to Mrs +Arthur de Bever. + +'No, she don't,' said Miss Boncassen. + +'But I do,' he shouted, turning back towards her. 'I do. If any man +were ever absolutely, actually, really in love, I am the man.' + +'Are you indeed, Mr Longstaff? Isn't this pleasant?' + +'Pleasant;--pleasant? Oh, it could be so pleasant.' + +'But who is the lady? Perhaps you don't mean to tell me that.' + +'You mean to say you don't know?' +'Haven't the least idea in life.' + +'Let me tell you then that it could only be one person. It never +was but one person. It never could have been but one person. It is +you.' + +'Me!' said Miss Boncassen, choosing to be ungrammatical in order +that he might be more absurd. + +'Of course it is you. Do you think that I should have brought you +all the way up here to tell that I was in love with anybody else?' + +'I thought I was brought up here to see Mrs de Somebody, and the +view.' + +'Not at all,' said Dolly emphatically. + +'Then you have deceived me.' + +'I will never deceive you. Only say that you will love me, and I +will be as true to you as the North Pole.' + +'Is that true to me?' + +'You know what I mean.' + +'But if I don't love you?' + +'Yes, you do!' + +'Do I?' + +'I beg your pardon,' said Dolly. 'I didn't mean to say that. Of +course a man shouldn't make sure of a thing.' + +'Not in this case, Mr Longstaff; because really I entertain no +such feeling.' + +'But you can if you please. Just let me tell you who I am.' + +'That will do no good whatever, Mr Longstaff.' + +'Let me tell you at any rate. I have a very good income of my own +as it is.' + +'Money can have nothing to do with it.' + +'But I want you to know that I can afford it. You might perhaps +have thought that I wanted your money.' + +'I will attribute nothing evil to you, Mr Longstaff. Only it is +quite out of the question that I should--respond as I suppose you +wish me to; and therefore, pray, do not say anything further.' + +She went to the head of the little steps but he interrupted her. +'You ought to hear me,' he said. + +'I have heard you.' + +'I can give you as good a position as any man without a title in +England.' + +'Mr Longstaff, I rather fancy that wherever I may be I can make a +position for myself. At any rate I shall not marry with a view of +getting one. If my husband were an English Duke I should think +myself nothing, unless I was something as Isabel Boncassen.' + +When she said that she did not bethink herself that Lord +Silverbridge would be in the course of nature an English Duke. But +the allusion to an English Duke told intensely on Dolly, who had +suspected that he had a noble rival. 'English Dukes aren't so +easily got,' he said. + +'Very likely not. I might have expressed my meaning better had I +said an English Prince.' + +'That's quite out of the question,' said Dolly. 'They can't do +it,--by Act of Parliament,--except in some hugger-mugger left-handed +way, that wouldn't suit you at all.' + +'Mr Longstaff,--you must forgive me,--if I say--that of all the +gentlemen--I have ever met in this country or in any other--you +are the--most obtuse.' This she brought out in little disjointed +sentences, not with any hesitation, but in a way to make every +word she uttered more clear to an intelligence which she did not +believe to be bright. But in this belief she did some injustice to +Dolly. He was quite alive to the disgrace of being called obtuse, +and quick enough to avenge himself at the moment. + +'Am I?' said he. 'How humble-minded you must be when you think me +a fool because I have fallen in love with such a one as yourself.' + +'I like you for that,' she replied laughing, 'and withdraw the +epithet as not being applicable. Now we are quits and can forget +and forgive;--only let there be the forgetting.' + +'Never!' said Dolly, with his hand again on his heart. + +'Then let it be a little dream of your youth,--that you once met a +pretty American girl who was foolish enough to refuse all that you +would have given her.' + +'So pretty! So awfully pretty!' Thereupon she curtsied. 'I have +seen all the handsome woman in England going for the last ten +years, and there has not been one who has made me think that it +would be worth me while to get off my perch for her.' + +'And now you would desert your perch for me?' + +'I have already.' + +'But you can get up again. Let it be all a dream. I know men like +to have had such dreams. And in order that the dream may be +pleasant the last word between us shall be kind. Such admiration +from such a one as you is an honour,--and I will reckon it among my +honours. But it can be no more than a dream.' Then she gave him +her hand. 'It shall be so;--shall it not?' Then she paused. 'It +must be so, Mr Longstaff.' + +'Must it?' + +'That and no more. Now I wish to go down. Will you come with me? +It will be better. Don't you think it is going to rain?' + +Dolly looked up at the clouds. 'I wish it would with all my +heart.' + +'I know you are not so ill-natured. It would spoil it all.' + +'You have spoiled all.' + +'No, no. I have spoiled nothing. It will only be a little dream +about "that strange American girl, who really did make me feel +queer for half an hour". Look at that. A great big drop--and the +cloud has come over us as black as Erebus. Do hurry down.' He was +leading the way. 'What shall we do for carriages to get us to the +inn?' + +'There's the summer-house.' + +'It will hold about half of us. And think what it will be to be in +there waiting till the rain shall be over! Everybody has been so +good-humoured and now they will be so cross!' + +The rain was falling in big heavy drops, slow and far between, but +almost black with their size. And the heaviness of the cloud which +had gathered over them made everything black. + +'Will you have my arm?' said Silverbridge, who saw Miss Boncassen +scudding along, with Dolly Longstaff following as fast as he +could. + +'Oh dear no. I have got to mind my dress. There;--I have gone +right into a puddle. Oh dear!' So she ran on, and Silverbridge +followed close behind her, leaving Dolly Longstaff in the +distance. + +It was not only Miss Boncassen who got her feet into a puddle and +splashed her stockings. Many did so who were not obliged by their +position to maintain good-humour under misfortunes. The storm had +come on with such unexpected quickness that there had been a +general stampede to the summer-house. As Isabel had said, there +was comfortable room for not more than half of them. In a few +minutes people were crushed who never ought to be crushed. A +Countess for whom treble-piled sofas were hardly good enough was +seated on the corner of a table till some younger and less +gorgeous lady could be made to give way. And the Marchioness was +declaring she was as wet through as though she had been dragged in +a river. Mrs Boncassen was so absolutely quelled as to have +retired into the kitchen attached to the summer-house. Mr +Boncassen, with all his country's pluck and pride, was proving to +a knot of gentlemen round him on the verandah, that such treachery +in the weather was a thing unknown in his happier country. Miss +Boncassen had to do her best to console the splashed ladies. 'Oh +Mrs Jones, is it not a pity! What can I do for you?' + +'We must bear it, my dear. It often does rain, but why on this +special day should it come down in buckets?' + +'I never was so wet in all my life,' said Dolly Longstaff, poking +in his head. + +'There's somebody smoking,' said the Countess angrily. There was a +crowd of men smoking out on the verandah. 'I never knew anything +so nasty,' the Countess continued, leaving it in doubt whether she +spoke of the rain, or the smoke, or the party generally. + +Damp gauzes, splashed stockings, trampled muslins, and features +which have perhaps known something of rouge and certainly +encountered something of rain may be made, but can only, by +supreme high breeding, be made compatible with good-humour. To be +moist, muddy, rumpled and smeared, when by the very nature of your +position it is your duty to be clear-starched up to the +pellucidity of crystal, to be spotless as the lily, to be crisp as +the ivy-leaf, and as clear in complexion as a rose,--is it not, O +gentle readers, felt to be a disgrace? It came to pass, therefore, +that many were now very cross. Carriages were ordered under the +idea that some improvement might be made at the inn which was +nearly a mile distant. Very few, however, had their own carriages, +and there was jockeying for the vehicles. In the midst of all this +Silverbridge remained near to Miss Boncassen as circumstances +would admit. 'You are not waiting for me,' she said. + +'Yes I am. We might as well go up to town together.' + +'Leave me with father and mother. Like the captain of a ship, I +must be the last to leave the wreck.' + +'But I'll be the gallant sailor of the day, who always at the risk +of his life sticks to the skipper to the last moment.' + +'Not at all;--just because there will be no gallantry. But come and +see us tomorrow and find out whether we have got through it alive.' + + + +CHAPTER 33 + +The Langham Hotel + +'What an abominable climate,' Mrs Boncassen had said when they +were quite alone at Maidenhead. + +'My dear, you didn't think you were going to bring New York along +with you when you came here,' replied her husband. + +'I wish I was going back tomorrow.' + +'That's a foolish thing to say. People here are very kind, and you +are seeing a great deal more of the world than you would ever see +at home. I am having a very good time. What do you say, Bell?' + +'I wish I could have kept my stockings clean.' + +'But what about the young men?' + +'Young men are pretty much the same everywhere, I guess. They +never have their wits about them. They never mean what they say, +because they don't understand the use of words. They are generally +half impudent and half timid. When in love they do not at all +understand what has befallen them. What they want they try to +compass as a cow does when it stands stretching out its head +towards a stack of hay which it cannot reach. Indeed there is no +such thing as a young man, for a man is not really a man till he +is middle-aged. But take them at their worst they are a deal too +good for us, for they become men some day, whereas we must only be +women to the end.' + +'My word, Bella!' exclaimed the mother. + +'You have managed to be tolerably heavy upon God's creatures, +taking them in a lump,' said the father. 'Boys, girls, and cows! +Something has gone wrong with you besides the rain.' + +Nothing on earth, sir,--except the boredom.' + +'Some young man has been talking to you, Bella.' + +'One or two, mother; and I got to thinking if any one of them +should ask me to marry him, and if moved by some evil destiny I +were to take him, whether I should murder him, or myself, or run +away with one of the others.' + +'Couldn't you bear with him till, according to your own theory, he +would grow out of his folly?' said the father. + +'Being a woman,--no. The present moment is always everything to me. +When that horrid old harridan halloed out that somebody was +smoking, I thought I should have died. It was very bad just then.' + +'Awful!' said Mrs Boncassen, shaking her head. + +'I didn't seem to feel it much,' said the father. 'One doesn't +look to have everything just what one wants always. If I did I +should go nowhere;--but my total of life would be less enjoyable. +If ever you do get married, Bell, you should remember that.' + +'I mean to get married some day, so that I shouldn't be made love +to any longer.' + +'I hope it will have that effect,' said the father. + +'Mr Boncassen!' ejaculated the mother. + +'What I say is true. I hope it will have that effect. It had with +you, my dear.' + +'I don't know that people didn't think of me as much as of anybody +else, even though I was married.' + +'Then, my dear, I never knew it.' + +Miss Boncassen, though she had behaved serenely and with good +temper during the process of Dolly's proposal, had not liked it. +She had a very high opinion of herself, and was certainly entitled +to have it by the undisguised admiration of all that came near +her. She was not more indifferent to the admiration of young men +than are other young ladies. But she was not proud of the +admiration of Dolly Longstaff. She was here among strangers whose +ways were unknown to her, and wonderful in their dimness. She knew +that she was associating with men very different from those at +home where young men were supposed to be under the necessity of +earning their bread. At New York she would dance, as she had said, +with bank clerks. She was not prepared to admit that a young +London lord was better than a New York bank clerk. Judging the men +on their own individual merits she might find the bank clerk to be +the better of the two. But a certain sweetness of the aroma of +rank was beginning to permeate her republican senses. The softness +of life in which no occupation was compulsory had its charms for +her. Though she had complained of the insufficient intelligence of +young men she was alive to the delight of having nothings said to +her pleasantly. All this had affected her so strongly that she had +almost felt that a life among these English luxuries would be a +pleasant life. Like most Americans who do not as yet know the +country, she had come with an inward feeling that as an American +and a republican she might probably be despised. + +There is not uncommonly a savageness of assertion about Americans +which arises from a too great anxiety to be admitted to fellowship +with Britons. She had felt this, and conscious of reputation +already made by herself in the social life of New York, she had +half trusted that she would be well received in London, and had +half convinced herself that she would be rejected. She had not +been rejected. She must have become quite aware of that. She had +dropped very quickly the idea that she would be scorned. Ignorant +as she had been of English life, she perceived that she had at +once become popular. And this had been so in spite of her mother's +homeliness and her father's awkwardness. By herself and by her own +gifts she had done it. She had found out concerning herself that +she had that which would commend her to other society than that of +the Fifth Avenue. Those lords of whom she had heard were as plenty +with her as blackberries. Young Lord Silverbridge, of whom she was +told that of all the young lords of the day he stood first in rank +and wealth, was peculiarly her friend. Her brain was firmer than +that of most girls, but even her brain was a little turned. She +never told herself that it would be well for her to become the +wife of such a one. In her more thoughtful moments she told +herself that it would not be well. But still the allurement was +strong upon her. Park Lane was sweeter than the Fifth Avenue. Lord +Silverbridge was nicer than the bank clerk. + +But Dolly Longstaff was not. She would certainly prefer the bank +clerk to Dolly Longstaff. And yet Dolly Longstaff was the one +among her English admirers who had come forward and spoken out. +She did not desire that anyone should come forward and speak out. +But it was an annoyance to her that this special man should have +done so. + +The waiter at the Langham understood American ways perfectly, and +when a young man called between three and four o'clock, asking for +Mrs Boncassen, said that Miss Boncassen was at home. The young man +took off his hat, brushed up his hair, and followed the waiter up +to the sitting-room. The door was opened and the young man was +announced. 'Mr Longstaff.' + +Miss Boncassen was rather disgusted. She had had enough of this +English lover. Why should he have come here after what had +occurred yesterday? He ought to have felt that he was absolved +from the necessity of making personal inquiries. 'I am glad to see +that you got home safe,' she said as she gave him her hand. + +'And you too, I hope?' + +'Well;--so, so; with my clothes a good deal damaged and my temper +rather worse. + +'I am so sorry.' + +'It should not rain on such days. Mother has gone to church.' + +'Oh;--indeed. I like going to church myself sometimes.' + +'Do you now?' + +'I know what would make me like to go to church.' + +'And father is at the Athenaeum. He goes there to do a little +light reading in the library on Sunday afternoon.' + +'I shall never forget yesterday, Miss Boncassen.' + +'You wouldn't if your clothes had been spoilt as mine were.' + +'Money will repair that.' + +'Well; yes; but when I've had a petticoat flounced particularly to +order I don't like to see it ill-used. There are emotions of the +heart which money can't touch.' + +'Just so;--emotions of the heart. That's the very phrase.' + +She was determined if possible to prevent a repetition of the +scene which had taken place up at Mrs de Bever's temple. 'All my +emotions are about my dress.' + +'All?' + +'Well; yes; all. I guess I don't care much for eating and +drinking.' In saying this she actually contrived to produce +something of a nasal twang. + +'Eating and drinking!' said Dolly. 'Of course they are +necessities;--and so are clothes.' + +'But new things are such ducks!' + +'Trousers may be,' said Dolly. + +Then she took a prolonged gaze at him, wondering whether he was or +was not such a fool as he looked. 'How funny you are,' she said. + +'A man does not generally feel funny after going through what I +suffered yesterday, Miss Boncassen.' + +'Would you mind ringing the bell?' + +'Must it be done, quite at once?' + +'Quite,--quite,' she said. 'I can do it myself for the matter of +that.' and she rang the bell somewhat violently. Dolly sank back +again into his seat, remarking in his usual apathetic way that he +had intended to obey her behest but had not understood that she +was in so great a hurry. 'I am always in a hurry,' she said. 'I +like things to be done--sharp.' And she hit the table with a +crack. 'Please bring me some iced water,' this of course was +addressed to the waiter. 'And a glass for Mr Longstaff.' + +'None for me, thank you.' + +'Perhaps you'd like a soda and brandy?' + +'Oh dear no;--nothing of the kind. But I am much obliged to you all +the same.' As the water-bottle was in fact standing in the room, +and as the waiter had only to hand the glass all this created by +little obstacle. Still it had its effect, and Dolly, when the man +retired, felt that there was a difficulty in proceeding. 'I have +called today--' he began. + +'That has been very kind of you. But mother has gone to church.' + +'I am very glad she has gone to church, because I wish to--' + +'Oh laws! There's a horse tumbled down in the street. I heard +it.' + +'He has got up again,' said Dolly, looking leisurely out of the +window. 'But as I was saying--' + +'I don't think the water we Americans drink can be good. It makes +the women become ugly so young.' + +'You will never become ugly.' + +She got up and curtsied him, and then, still standing, make him a +speech. 'Mr Longstaff, it would be absurd of me to pretend not to +understand what you mean. But I won't have any more of it. Whether +you are making fun of me, or whether you are in earnest, it is +just the same.' + +'Making fun of you!' + +'It does not signify. I don't care which it is. But I won't have +it. There!' + +'A gentleman should be allowed to express his feelings and to +explain his position.' + +'You have expressed and explained more than enough, and I won't +have any more. If you will sit down and talk about something else, +or else go away, there shall be an end of it;--but if you go on, I +will ring the bell again. What can a man gain by going on when a +girl has spoken as I have done?' They were both at this time +standing up, and he was now as angry as she was. + +'I've paid you the greatest compliment a man can pay a woman,' he +began. + +'Very well. If I remember rightly I thanked you for it yesterday. +If you wish it, I will thank you again today. But it is a +compliment which becomes very much the reverse if it be repeated +too often. You are sharp enough to understand that I have done +everything in my power to save us both from this trouble.' + +'What makes you so fierce, Miss Boncassen?' + +'What makes you so foolish?' + +'I suppose it must be something peculiar to American ladies.' + +'Just that;--something peculiar to American ladies. They don't +like;--well; I don't want to say anything more that can be called +fierce.' + +At this moment the door was again opened and Lord Silverbridge was +announced. 'Halloa, Dolly, are you here?' + +'It seems that I am.' + +'And I am here too,' said Miss Boncassen, smiling her prettiest. + +'None the worse for yesterday's troubles, I hope?' + +'A good deal the worse. I have been explaining all that to Mr +Longstaff who has been quite sympathetic with me about my things.' + +'A terrible pity that shower,' said Dolly. + +'For you,' said Silverbridge, 'because if I remember right, Miss +Boncassen was walking with you;--but I was rather glad of it.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'I regarded it as a direct interposition of Providence, because +you would not dance with me.' + +'Any news today, Silverbridge?' asked Dolly. + +'Nothing particular. They say that Coalheaver can't run for the +Leger.' + +'What's the matter?' asked Dolly vigorously. + +'Broke down at Ascot. But I daresay it's a lie.' + +'Sure to be a lie,' said Dolly. 'What do you think of Madame +Scholzdam, Miss Boncassen?' + +'I am not a good judge.' + +'Never heard anything equal to it yet in this world,' said Dolly. +'I wonder whether that's true about Coalheaver.' + +'Tifto says so.' + +'Which at the present moment,' asked Miss Boncassen, 'is the +greater favourite with the public, Madame Scholzdam or +Coalheaver?' + +'Coalheaver is a horse.' + +'Oh--a horse!' + +'Perhaps I ought to say a colt.' + +'Do you suppose, Dolly, that Miss Boncassen doesn't know all +that?' asked Silverbridge. + +'He supposes that my American ferocity has never been sufficiently +softened for the reception of polite erudition. + +'You two have been quarrelling, I fear.' + +'I never quarrel with a woman,' said Dolly. + +'Nor with a man in my presence, I hope, said Miss Boncassen. + +'Somebody seems to have got out of bed at the wrong side,' said +Silverbridge. + +'I did,' said Miss Boncassen. 'I got out of bed at the wrong side. +I am cross. I can't get over the spoiling of my flounces. I think +you had better both go away and leave me. If I could walk about +the room for half an hour and stamp my feet, I should get better.' + Silverbridge thought that as he had come last, he certainly ought +to be left last. Miss Boncassen felt that, at any rate, Mr +Longstaff should go. Dolly felt that his manhood required him to +remain. After what had taken place he was not going to leave the +field vacant for another. Therefore he made no effort to move. + +'That seems rather hard upon me,' said Silverbridge. 'You told me +to come.' + +'I told you to come and ask after us all. You have come and asked +after us, and have been informed that we are very bad. What more +can I say? you accuse me of getting out of bed the wrong side, and +I own that I did.' + +'I meant to say that Dolly Longstaff had done so.' + +'And I say it was Silverbridge,' said Dolly. + +'We are aren't very agreeable together, are we? Upon my word I +think you'd better both go.' Silverbridge immediately got up from +his chair; upon which Dolly also moved. + +'What the mischief is up?' asked Silverbridge, when they were +under the porch together. + +'The truth is, you never can tell what you are to do with those +American girls.' + +'I suppose you have been making up to her.' + +'Nothing in earnest. She seemed to me to like admiration, so I +told her I admired her.' + +'What did she say then?' + +'Upon my word, you seem to be very great at cross-examining. +Perhaps you had better go back and ask her.' + +'I will next time I see her.' Then he stepped into his cab, and +in a loud voice ordered the man to drive him to the Zoo. But when +he had gone a little way up Portland Place, he stopped the driver +and desired that he might be taken back again to the hotel. As he +left the vehicle he looked round for Dolly, but Dolly had +certainly gone. Then he told the waiter to take his card to Miss +Boncassen, and explain that he had something to say which he had +forgotten. + +'So you have come back again?' said Miss Boncassen, laughing. + +'Of course I have. You didn't suppose I was going to let that +fellow get the better of me. Why should I be turned out because he +made an ass of himself?' + +'Who said he made an ass of himself?' + +'But he had; hadn't he?' + +'No;--by no means,' said she after a little pause. + +'Tell me what he had been saying.' + +'Indeed I shall do nothing of the kind. If I told you all he said, +then I should have to tell the next man all that you may say. +Would that be fair?' + +'I should not mind,' said Silverbridge. + +'I dare say not, because you have nothing particular to say. But +the principle is the same. Lawyers and doctors and parsons talk of +privileged communications. Why should not a young lady have her +privileged communications?' + +'But I have something particular to say.' + +'I hope not.' + +'Why should you hope not?' + +'I hate having things said particularly. Nobody likes conversation +so well as I do; but it should never be particular.' + +'I was going to tell you that I came back to London yesterday in +the same carriage with old Lady Clanfiddle, and that she swore +that no consideration on earth would ever induce her to go to +Maidenhead again.' + +'That isn't particular.' + +'She went on to say;--you won't tell of me, will you?' + +'It shall be privileged.' + +'She went on to say that Americans couldn't be expected to +understand English manners.' + +'Perhaps they may all be the better for that.' + +'Then I spoke up. I swore that I was awfully in love with you.' + +'You didn't.' + +'I did;--that you were, out and away, the finest girl I ever saw in +my life. Of course you understand that her two daughters were +there. And that as for manners,--unless the rain could be +attributed to American manners,--I did not think anything had gone +wrong.' + +'What about the smoking?' + +'I told her they were all Englishmen, and that if she had been +giving the party herself they would have smoked just as much. You +must understand that she never does give parties.' + +'How could you be so ill-natured?' + +'There was ever so much more of it. And it ended by her telling me +that I was a schoolboy. I found out the cause of it all. A great +spout of rain had come upon her daughter's hat, and that had +produced a most melancholy catastrophe.' + +'I would have given her mine willingly.' + +'An American hat;--to be worn by Lady Violet Clanfiddle!' + +'It came from Paris last week, sir.' + +'But must have been contaminated by American contact.' + +'Now, Lord Silverbridge,' said she, getting up, 'if I had a stick +I'd whip you.' + +'It was such fun.' + +'And you come here and tell it all to me.' + +'Of course I do. It was a deal too good to keep to myself. +"American manners"!' As he said this he almost succeeded in +looking like Lady Clanfiddle. + +At that moment Mr Boncassen entered the room, and was immediately +appealed to his by his daughter. 'Father, you must turn Lord +Silverbridge out of the room.' + +'Dear me! If I must,--of course I must. But why?' + +'He is saying everything horrid he can about Americans.' + +After this they settled down for a few minutes to general +conversation, and then Lord Silverbridge again took his leave. +When he was gone Isabel Boncassen almost regretted that the +'something particular' which he had threatened to say had not been +less comic in its nature. + + + +CHAPTER 34 + +Lord Popplecourt + +When the reader was told that Lord Popplecourt had found Lady +Cantrip very agreeable it is to be hoped that the reader was +disgusted. Lord Popplecourt would certainly not have given a +second thought to Lady Cantrip unless he had been specifically +flattered. And why should such a man have been flattered by a +woman who was in all respects his superior? The reader will +understand. It had been settled by the wisdom of the elders that +it would be a good thing that Lord Popplecourt should marry Lady +Mary Palliser. + +The mutual assent which leads to marriage should no doubt be +spontaneous. Who does not feel that? Young love should speak from +its first doubtful unconscious spark,--a spark which any breath of +air may quench or cherish,--till it becomes a flame which nothing +can satisfy but the union of two lovers. No one should be told to +love, or bidden to marry this man or that woman. The theory of +this is plain to us all, and till we have sons or daughters whom +we feel imperatively obliged to control, the theory is +unassailable. But the duty is so imperative! The Duke taught +himself to believe that as his wife would have been thrown away on +the world had she been allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald, so would +his daughter be thrown away were she allowed to marry Mr Tregear. +Therefore the theory of spontaneous love must in this case be set +aside. Therefore the spark,--would that it had been no more,--must +be quenched. Therefore there could be no union of two lovers;--but +simply a prudent and perhaps a splendid marriage. + +Lord Popplecourt was a man in possession of a large estate which +was unencumbered. His rank in the peerage was not high, but his +barony was of an old date,--and, if things went well with him, +something higher in rank might be open to him. He had good looks +of that sort which recommend themselves to pastors and masters, to +elders and betters. He had regular features. He looked as though +he were steady. He was not impatient or rollicking. Silverbridge +was also good-looking;--but his good looks were such as would give +a pang to the hearts of anxious mothers of daughters. Tregear was +the handsomest man of the three;--but then he looked as though he +had not betters and did not care for his elders. Lord Popplecourt, +though a very young man, had once stammered through half-a-dozen +words in the House of Lords, and had been known to dine with the +'Benevolent Funds'. Lord Silverbridge had declared him to be a +fool. No one thought him to be bright. But in the eyes of the +Duke,--and of Lady Cantrip,--he had his good qualities. + +But the work was very disagreeable. It was the more hard upon Lady +Cantrip because she did not believe in it. If it could be done, it +would be expedient. But she felt very strongly that it could not +be done. No doubt that Lady Glencora had been turned from her evil +destiny; but Lady Glencora had been younger than her daughter was +now, and possessed of less character. Nor was Lady Cantrip blind +to the difference between a poor man with bad character, such as +that Burgo had been, and a poor man with good character, such as +was Tregear. Nevertheless she undertook to aid the work, and +condescended to pretend to be so interested in the portrait of +some common ancestor as to persuade the young man to have it +photographed, in order that the bringing down of the photograph +might lead to something. + +He took the photograph, and Lady Cantrip said very much to him +about his grandmother, who was the old lady in question. She +could, she said, just remember the features of the dear old woman. +She was not habitually a hypocrite, and she hated herself for what +she was doing, and yet her object was simply good,--to bring +together two young people who might advantageously marry each +other. The mere talking about the old woman would be of no +service. She longed to bring out the offer plainly, and say, +'There is Lady Mary Palliser. Don't you think she'd make a good +wife for you?' But she could not, as yet, bring herself to be so +indelicately plain. 'You haven't seen the Duke since?' she asked. + +'He spoke to me only yesterday in the House. I like the Duke.' + +'If I may be allowed to say so, it would be to your advantage that +he should like you;--that is, if you mean to take a part in +politics.' + +'I suppose I shall,' said Popplecourt. 'There isn't much else to +do.' + +'You don't go to races.' He shook his head. 'I am glad of that,' +said Lady Cantrip. 'Nothing so bad as the turf. I fear Lord +Silverbridge is devoting himself to the turf.' + +'I don't think it can be good for any man to have much to do with +Major Tifto. I suppose Silverbridge knows what he is about.' + +Here was an opportunity which might have been used. It would have +been so easy for her to glide from the imperfections of the +brother to the perfections of the sister. But she could not bring +herself to do it quite at once. She approached the matter however +as nearly as she could without making her grand proposition. She +shook her head sadly in reference to Silverbridge, and then spoke +of the Duke. 'His father is so anxious about him.' + +'I dare say.' + +'I don't know any man who is more painfully anxious about his +children. He feels the responsibility so much since his wife's +death. There is Lady Mary.' + +'She's all right, I should say.' + +'All right! Oh yes. But when a girl is possessed of so many +things,--rank, beauty, intelligence, large fortune,--' + +'Will Lady Mary have much?' + +'A large portion of her mother's money, I should say. When all +these things are joined together, a father of course feels most +anxious as to their disposal.' + +'I suppose she is clever.' + +'Very clever,' said Lady Cantrip. + +'I think a girl may be too clever, you know,' said Lord +Popplecourt. + +'Perhaps she may. But I know more who are too foolish. I am so +much obliged to you for the photograph.' + +'Don't mention it.' + +'I really did mean that you should send a man down.' + +On that occasion the two young people did not see each other. Lady +Mary did not come down, and Lady Cantrip lacked the courage to +send for her. As it was, might it not be possible that the young +man should be induced to make himself agreeable to the young lady +without any further explanation? But love-making between young +people cannot well take place unless they be brought together. +There was a difficulty in bringing them together at Richmond. The +Duke had indeed spoken of meeting Lord Popplecourt at dinner +there;--but this was to have followed the proposition which Lady +Cantrip should make to him. She could not yet make the +proposition, and therefore she hardly knew how to arrange the +dinner. She was obliged at last to let the wished-for lover go +away without arranging anything. When the Duke should have settled +his autumn plans, then an attempt must be made to induce Lord +Popplecourt to travel in the same direction. + +That evening Lady Cantrip said a few words to Mary respecting the +proposed suitor. 'There is nothing I have such a horror of as +gambling.' + +'It is dreadful.' + +'I am very glad to think that Nidderdale does not do anything of +that sort.' It was perhaps on the cards that Nidderdale should do +things of which she knew nothing. 'I hope Silverbridge does not +bet.' + +'I don't think he does.' + +'There's Lord Popplecout,--quite a young man,--with everything at +his own disposal, and a very large estate. Think of the evil he +might do if he given that way.' + +'Does he gamble?' + +'Not at all. It must be such a comfort to his mother.' + +'He looks to me as though he never would do anything,' said Lady +Mary. Then the subject was dropped. + +It was a week after this, towards the end of July, that the Duke +wrote a line to Lady Cantrip, apologising for what he had done, +but explaining that he had asked Lord Popplecourt to dine at The +Horns on a certain Sunday. He had, he said, been assured by Lord +Cantrip that such an arrangement would be quite convenient. It was +clear from his letter that he was much in earnest. Of course there +was no reason why the dinner should not be eaten. Only the +specialty of the invitation to Lord Popplecourt must not be so +glaring that he himself should be struck by the strangeness of it. +There must be a little party made up. Lord Nidderdale and his wife +were therefore bidden to come down, and Silverbridge, who at first +consented rather unwillingly,--and Lady Mabel Grex, as to whom the +Duke had made a special request that she might be asked. This last +invitation was sent express from Lady Mary, and included Miss +Cass. So the party was made up. The careful reader will perceive +that there were to be ten of them. + +'Isn't it odd papa wanting to have Lady Mabel,' Mary said to Lady +Cantrip. + +'Does he not know her, my dear?' + +'He hardly ever spoke to her. I'll tell you what; I expect +Silverbridge is going to marry her.' + +'Why shouldn't he?' + +'I don't know why he shouldn't. She is very beautiful, and very +clever. But if so, papa must know all about it. It does seem odd +that papa of all people should turn match-maker, or even that he +should think of it.' + +'So much is thrown upon him now,' said Lady Cantrip. + +Lady Mabel was surprised by the invitation, but she was not slow +to accept it. 'Papa will be here and will be so glad to meet you.' + Lady Mary had said. Why should the Duke of Omnium wish to meet +her? 'Silverbridge will be there too.' Mary had gone on to say. +'It is just a family party. Papa, you know, is not going anywhere; +nor am I.' By all this Lady Mabel's thoughts were much stirred, +and her bosom somewhat moved. And Silverbridge was also moved by +it. Of course he could not but remember that he had pledged +himself to his father to ask Lady Mabel to be his wife. He had +faltered since. She had been, he thought, unkind to him, or at any +rate indifferent. He had surely said enough to her to make her +know what he meant; and yet she had taken no trouble to meet him +half way. And then Isabel Boncassen had intervened. Now he was +asked to dinner in a most unusual manner! + +Of all the guests invited Lord Popplecourt was perhaps the least +disturbed. He was quite alive to the honour of being noticed by +the Duke of Omnium, and alive also to the flattering courtesy +shown to him by Lady Cantrip. But justice would not be done him +unless it were acknowledged that he had as yet flattered himself +with no hopes in regard to Lady Mary Palliser. He, when he +prepared himself for his journey down to Richmond, thought much +more of the Duke than of the Duke's daughter. + +'Oh yes, I can drive you down if you like that kind of thing,' +Silverbridge said to him on the Saturday evening. + +'And bring me back?' + +'If you will come when I am coming. I hate waiting for a fellow.' + +'Suppose we leave at half-past ten.' + +'I won't fix any time; but if we can't make it suit there'll be +the governor's carriage.' + +'Will the Duke go down in his own carriage?' + +'I suppose so. it's quicker and less trouble than the railway.' +Then Lord Popplecourt reflected that he would certainly come back +with the Duke if he could so manage it, and there floated before +his eyes visions of under-secretaryships, all which might own +their origin to this proposed drive from Richmond. + +At six o'clock on the Sunday evening Silverbridge called for Lord +Popplecourt. 'Upon my word,' said he, 'I didn't ever expect to see +you in my cab.' + +'Why not me especially?' + +'Because you're not one of our lot.' + +'You'd sooner have Tifto.' + +'No, I wouldn't. Tifto is not all a pleasant companion, though he +understands horses. You're going in for heavy politics, I +suppose.' + +'Not particularly heavy.' + +'If not, why on earth does the governor take you up? You won't +mind my smoking I dare say.' After this there was no conversation +between them. + + + +CHAPTER 35 + +'Don't You Think-?' + +It was pretty to see the Duke's reception of Lady Mabel. 'I knew +your mother many years ago,' he said, 'when I was young myself. +Her mother and my mother were first cousins and dear friends.' He +held her hand as he spoke and looked at her as though he meant to +love her. Lady Mabel saw that it was so. could it be possible that +the Duke had heard anything;--that he should wish to receive her? +She had told herself and had told Miss Cassewary that though she +had spared Silverbridge, yet she knew that she would make him a +good wife. If the Duke thought so also, then surely she need not +doubt. + +'I knew we were cousins,' she said, 'and have been so proud of the +connection! Lord Silverbridge does come and see us sometimes.' + +Soon after that Silverbridge and Popplecourt came in. If the story +of the old woman in the portrait may be taken as evidence of a +family connection between Lady Cantrip and Lord Popplecourt, +everybody there was more or less connected with everybody else. +Nidderdale had been a first cousin of Lady Glencora, and he had +married a daughter of Lady Cantrip. They were manifestly a family +party,--thanks to the old woman in the picture. + +It is a point of conscience among the--perhaps not ten thousand, +but say one thousand of bluest blood,--that everybody should know +who everybody is. Our Duke, though he had not given his mind much +to the pursuit, had nevertheless learned his lesson. It is a +knowledge which the possession of the blue blood itself produces. +There are countries with bluer blood than our own in which to be +without such knowledge is a crime. + +When the old lady in the portrait had been discussed, Popplecourt +was close to Lady Mary. They two had no idea why such vicinity had +been planned. The Duke knew of course, and Lady Cantrip. Lady +Cantrip had whispered to her daughter that such a marriage would +be suitable, and the daughter had hinted it to her husband. Lord +Cantrip of course was not in the dark. Lady Mabel had expressed a +hint on the matter to Miss Cass, who had not repudiated it. Even +Silverbridge had suggested to himself that something of the kind +might be in the wind, thinking that, if so, none of them knew very +much about his sister Mary. But Popplecourt himself was divinely +innocent. His ideas of marriage had as yet gone no farther than a +conviction that girls generally were things which would be pressed +on him, and against which he must arm himself with some shield. +Marriage would have to come, no doubt, but not the less was it his +duty to live as though it were a pit towards which he would be +tempted by female allurements. But that a net should be spread +over him here he was much too humble-minded to imagine. + +'Very hot,' he said to Lady Mary. + +'We found it warm in church today.' + +'I dare say. I came down here with your brother in his hansom cab. +What a very odd thing to have a hansom cab!' + +'I should like one.' + +'Should you indeed?' + +'Particularly if I could drive it myself. Silverbridge does, at +night, when he thinks people won't see him.' + +'Drive the cab in the streets! What does he do with his man?' + +'Puts him inside. He was out once without the man and took up a +fare,--an old woman, he said. And when she was going to pay him he +touched his hat and said he never took money from ladies.' + +'Do you believe that?' + +'Oh yes. I call that good fun, because it did no harm. He had his +lark. The lady was taken where she wanted to go, and she saved her +money.' + +'Suppose he had upset her,' said Lord Popplecourt, looking as an +old philosopher might have looked when he had found something +clenching answer to another philosopher's argument. + +'The real cabman might have upset her worse,' said Lady Mary. + +'Don't you feel it odd that we should meet here?' said Lord +Silverbridge to his neighbour Lady Mabel. + +'Anything unexpected is odd,' said Lady Mabel. It seemed to her to +be very odd,--unless certain people had made up their minds as to +the expediency of a certain event. + +'That is what you call logic;--isn't it? Anything unexpected is +odd?' + +'Lord Silverbridge, I won't be laughed at. You have been at Oxford +and ought to know what logic is.' + +'That at any rate is ill-natured,' he replied, turning very red in +the face. + +'You don't think I meant it. Oh, Lord Silverbridge, say that you +don't think I meant it. You cannot think I would willingly wound +you. Indeed, indeed, I was not thinking.' It had, in truth been +an accident. She could speak aloud because they were closely +surrounded by others, but she looked up in his face to see whether +he were angry with her. 'Say that you do not think I meant it.' + +'I do not think you meant it.' + +'I would not say a word to hurt you,--oh for more than I can tell +you.' + +'It is all bosh of course,' said he laughing, 'but I do not like +to hear the old place named. I have always made a fool of myself, +some men do it and don't care about it. But I do it, and yet it +makes me miserable.' + +'If that be so you will soon give over making--what you call a fool +of yourself, for my self I like the idea of wild oats. I look upon +them like measles. Only you should have a doctor ready when the +disease shows itself.' + +'What sort of doctor should I have?' + +'Ah;--you must find that out for yourself. That sort of feeling +which makes you feel miserable;--that is a doctor itself.' + +'Or a wife?' + +'Or a wife,--if you can find a good one. There are wives, you know, +who aggravate the disease. If I had a fast husband I should make +him faster by being fast myself. There is nothing I envy so much +as the power of doing half-mad things.' + +'Women can do that too.' + +'But they go to the dogs. We are dreadfully restricted. If you +like champagne you can have a bucketful. I am obliged to pretend +that I only want a very little. You can bet thousands. I must +confine myself to gloves. You can flirt with any woman you please. +I must wait till somebody comes,--and put up with it if nobody does +come.' + +'Plenty come no doubt.' + +'But I want to pick and choose. A man turns the girls over one +after another as one does the papers when one if fitting up a +room, or rolls them out as one rolls out the carpets. A very +careful young man like Lord Popplecourt might reject a young woman +because her hair didn't suit the colour of his furniture.' + +'I don't think that I shall choose my wife as I would papers and +carpets.' + +The Duke, who sat between Lady Cantrip and her daughter, did his +best to make himself agreeable. The conversation had been semi- +political,--political to the usual feminine extent, and had +consisted chiefly of sarcasms from Lady Cantrip against Sir +Timothy Beeswax. 'That England should put up with such a man,' +Lady Cantrip had said, 'is to me shocking! There used to be a +feeling in favour of gentlemen.' To this the Duke had responded +by asserting that Sir Timothy had displayed great aptitudes for +parliamentary life, and knew the House of Commons better than most +men. He said nothing against his foe, and very much in his foe's +praise. But Lady Cantrip perceived that she had succeeded in +pleasing him. + +When the ladies were gone the politics became more serious. 'That +unfortunate quarrel is to go on the same as ever I suppose,' said +the Duke, addressing himself to the two young men who had seats in +the House of Commons. They were both on the Conservative side in +politics. The three peers were all Liberals. + +'Till next session, I think, sir,' said Silverbridge. + +'Sir Timothy, though he did lose his temper, has managed it well,' +said Lord Cantrip. + +'Phineas Finn lost his temper worse than Sir Timothy,' said Lord +Nidderdale. + +'But yet I think he had the feeling of the House with him,' said +the Duke. 'I happened to be present in the gallery at the time.' + +'Yes,' said Nidderdale, 'because he "owned up". The fact is if you +"own up" in a genial sort of way the House will forgive anything. +If I were to murder my grandmother, and when questioned about it +were to acknowledge that I had done it--' Then Lord Nidderdale +stood up and made his speech as he might have made it in the House +of Commons. 'I regret to say, sir, that the old woman did get in +my way when I was in a passion. Unfortunately I had a heavy stick +in my hand and I did strike her over the head. Nobody can regret +it so much as I do! Nobody can feel so acutely the position in +which I am placed! I have sat in this House for many years, and +many gentlemen know me well. I think, sir, that they will +acknowledge that I am a man not deficient in filial piety or +general humanity. Sir, I am sorry for what I did in a moment of +heat. I have now spoken the truth, and I shall leave myself in the +hands of the House. My belief is that I should get such a round of +applause as I certainly shall never achieve in any other way. It +is not only that a popular man may do it,--like Phineas Finn,--but +the most unpopular man in the House may make himself liked by +owning freely that he has done something that he ought to be +ashamed of.' Nidderdale's unwonted eloquence was received in good +part by the assembled legislators. + +'Taking it altogether,' said the Duke, 'I know of no assembly in +any country in which good-humour prevails so generally, in which +the members behave to each other so well, in which the rules are +so universally followed, or in which the president is so +thoroughly sustained by the feeling of the members. + +'I hear men say that it isn't quite what it used to be,' said +Silverbridge. + +'Nothing will ever be quite what it used to be.' + +'Changes for the worse, I mean. Men are doing all kinds of things, +just because the rules of the House allow them.' + +'If they be within the rule,' said the Duke, 'I don't know who is +to blame them. In my time, if any man stretched a rule too far the +House would not put up with it.' + +'That's just it,' said Nidderdale. 'The House puts up with +anything now. There is a great deal of good feeling no doubt, but +there's no earnestness about anything. I think you are more +earnest than we; but then you are such horrid bores. And each +earnest man is in earnest about something that nobody else cares +for.' + +When they were again in the drawing-room, Lord Popplecourt was +seated next to Lady Mary. 'Where are you going this autumn?' he +asked. + +'I don't know in the least. Papa said something about going +abroad.' + +'You won't be at Custins?' Custins was Lord Cantrip's country seat +in Dorsetshire. + +'I know nothing about myself as yet. But I don't think I shall go +anywhere unless papa goes too.' + +'Lady Cantrip has asked me to be at Custins in the middle of +October. They say it is about the best pheasant shooting in +England.' + +'Do you shoot much?' + +'A great deal. I shall be in Scotland on the Twelfth. I and +Reginald Dobbs have a place together. I shall get to my own +partridges on the first of September. I always manage that. +Popplecourt is in Suffolk, and I don't think any man in England +can beat me for partridges.' + +'What do you do with all you slay?' + +'Leadenhall Market. I make it pay,--or very nearly. Then I shall +run back to Scotland for the end of the stalking, and I can easily +manage to be at Custins by the middle of October. I never touch my +own pheasants till November.' + +'Why are you so abstemious?' + +'The birds are heavier and it answer better. But if I thought you +would be at Custins it would be much nicer.' Lady Mary again told +him that as yet she knew nothing of her father's autumn +movements. + +But at the same time the Duke was arranging his autumn movements, +or at any rate those of his daughter. Lady Cantrip had told him +that the desirable son-in-law had promised to go to Custins, and +suggested that he and Mary should also be there. In his daughter's +name he promised, but he would not bind himself. Would it not be +better that he should be absent? Now that the doing of the thing +was brought nearer to him so that he could see and feel its +details, he was disgusted by it. And yet it had answered so well +with his wife! + +'Is Lord Popplecourt intimate with her?' Lady Mabel asked her +friend, Lord Silverbridge. + +'I don't know. I am not.' + +'Lady Cantrip seems to think a great deal about him.' + +'I daresay. I don't.' + +'Your father seems to like him.' + +'That's possible too. They're going back to London together in the +governor's carriage. My father will talk high politics all the +way, and Popplecourt will agree with everything.' + +'He isn't intended to--to--? You know what I mean.' + +'I can't say that I do.' + +'To cut out poor Frank.' + +'It is quite possible.' + +'Poor Frank!' + +'You had a great deal better say poor Popplecourt!-or poor +governor, or poor Lady Cantrip.' + +'But a hundred countesses can't make your sister marry a man she +doesn't like.' + +'Just that. They don't go the right way about it.' + +'What would you do?' + +'Leave her alone. Let her find out gradually that what she wants +can't be done.' + +'And so linger on for years,' said Lady Mabel reproachfully. + +'I say nothing about that. The man is my friend.' + +'And you ought to be proud of him.' + +'I never knew anybody yet who was proud of his friends. I like him +well enough, but I can quite understand that the governor should +object.' + +'Yes, we all know that,' said she sadly. + +'What would your father say if you wanted to marry someone who +hadn't a shilling?' + +'I should object myself,--without waiting for my father. But then,-- +neither have I a shilling. If I had money, do you think I wouldn't +like to give it to the man I loved?' + +'But this is a case of giving somebody else's money. They won't +make her give it up by bringing such a young ass as that down +here. If my father has persistency enough to let her cry her eyes +out, he'll succeed.' + +'And break her heart. Could you do that?' + +'Certainly not. But then I'm soft. I can't refuse.' + +'Can't you?' + +'Not if the person who asks me is in my good books. You try me.' + +'What shall I ask for?' + +'Anything.' + +'Give me the ring off your finger,' she said. He at once took it +off his hand. 'Of course you know I am in joke. You don't imagine +that I would take it from you.' He still held it towards her. +'Lord Silverbridge, I expect that with you I may say a foolish +thing without being brought to sorrow by it. I know that that ring +belonged to your great uncle,--and to fifty Pallisers before.' + +'What would it matter?' + +'And it would be wholly useless to me, as I would not wear it.' + +'Of course it would be too big,' said he, replacing the ring on +his own finger. 'But when I talk of anyone being in my good books, +I don't mean a thing like that. Don't you know there is nobody on +earth I--' there he paused and blushed, and she sat motionless, +looking at him, expecting, with her colour too somewhat raised,-- +'whom I like so well as I do you?' It was a lame conclusion. She +felt it to be lame. But as regarded him, the lameness of the +moment had come from a timidity which forbade him to say the word +'love' even though he had meant to say it. + +She recovered herself instantly. 'I do believe it,' she said. 'I +do think that we are real friends.' + +'Not that ring;--nor a ring at all after I had asked for it in +joke. You understand it all. But to go back to what we were +talking about,--if you can do anything for Frank, pray do. You know +it will break his heart. A man of course bears it better, but he +does not perhaps suffer the less. It is all his life to him. He +can do nothing while this is going on. Are you not true enough to +your friendship to exert yourself for him?' Silverbridge put his +hand up and rubbed his head as though he were vexed. 'Your aid +would turn everything in his favour.' + +'You do not know my father.' + +'Is he so inexorable?' +'It is not that, Mabel. But he is so unhappy. I cannot add to his +unhappiness by taking part against him.' + +In another part of the room Lady Cantrip was busy with Lord +Popplecourt. She had talked about pheasants, and had talked about +grouse, had talked about moving the address in the House of Lords +in some coming session, and the great value of political alliances +early in life, till the young Peer began to think that Lady +Cantrip was the nicest of women. Then after a short pause she +changed the subject. 'Don't you think Lady Mary very beautiful?' + +'Uncommon,' said his lordship. + +'And her manners so perfect. She has all her mother's ease without +any of that--You know what I mean.' + +'Quite so,' said his lordship. + +'And then she has got so much in her.' + +'Has she though?' + +'I don't know of any girl her age so thoroughly well educated. The +Duke seems to take to you.' + +'Well yes;--the Duke is very kind.' + +'Don't you think-?' + +'Eh!' + +'You have heard of her mother's fortune?' + +'Tremendous!' + +'She will have, I take it, quite a third of it. Whatever I say I'm +sure you will take in confidence; but she is a dear girl; and I am +anxious for her happiness almost as though she belonged to me.' + +Lord Popplecourt went back into town in the Duke's carriage, but +was unable to say a word about politics. His mind was altogether +filled with the wonderful words that had been spoken to him. Could +it be that Lady Mary had fallen violently in love with him? He +would not at once give himself up to the pleasing idea, having so +thoroughly grounded himself in the belief that female nets were to +be avoided. But when he got home he did think favourably of it. +The daughter of a Duke,--and such a Duke! So lovely a girl, and +with such gifts! And then a fortune which would make a material +addition to his own large property! + + + +CHAPTER 36 + +Tally-ho Lodge + +We all know that very clever distich concerning the great fleas +and the little fleas which tell us that no animal is too humble to +have its parasite. Even Major Tifto had his inferior friend. This +was a certain Captain Green,--for the friend also affected military +honours. Tifto, of whose antecedents no one was supposed to know +anything. It was presumed of him that he lived by betting, and it +was boasted by those who wished to defend his character that when +he lost he paid his money like a gentleman. Tifto during the last +year or two had been anxious to support Captain Green, and had +always made use of this argument; 'Where the D---- he gets his +money I don't know;--but when he loses it, there it is.' + +Major Tifto had a little 'box' of his own in the neighbourhood of +Egham, at which he had a set of stables a little bigger than his +house, and a set of kennels a little bigger than his stables. It +was here he kept his horses and hounds, and himself too when +business connected with his sporting life did not take him to +town. It was now the middle of August and he had come to Tally-ho +Lodge, there to look after his establishments, to make +arrangements for cub-hunting, and to prepare for the autumn racing +campaign. On this occasion Captain Green was enjoying his +hospitality and assisting him by sage counsels. Behind the little +box was a little garden,--a garden that was very little; but, +still, thus close to the parlour window, there was room for a +small table to be put on the grass-plat, and for a couple of +armchairs. Here the Major and the Captain were seated about eight +o'clock one evening, with convivial good things within their +reach. The good things were gin-and-water and pipes. The two +gentlemen had not dressed strictly for dinner. They had spent a +great part of the day handling the hounds and the horses, dressing +wounds, curing sores, and ministering to canine ailments, and had +been detained over their work too long to think of their toilet. +As it was they had an eye to business. The stables at one corner +and the kennels at the other were close to the little garden, and +the doings of a man and a boy who were still at their work could +be directed from the armchairs on which the two sportsmen were +sitting. + +It must be explained that ever since the Silverbridge election +there had been a growing feeling in Tifto's mind that he had been +ill-treated by his partner. The feeling was strengthened by the +admirable condition of Prime Minister. Surely more consideration +had been due to a man who had produced such a state of things? + +'I wouldn't quarrel with him, but I'd make him pay his way,' said +the prudent Captain. + +'As for that, of course he does pay,--his share.' + +'Who does all the work?' + +'That's true.' + +'The fact is, Tifto, you don't make enough out of it. When a small +man like you has to deal with a big man like that, he may take it +out of him in one of two ways. But he must be deuced clever if he +can get it both ways.' + +'What are you driving at?' asked Tifto, who did not like being +called a small man, feeling himself to be every inch a master of +foxhounds. + +'Why, this!--Look at d--- fellow fretting that 'orse with a switch. +If you can't strap a 'orse without a stick in your hand, don't you +strap him at all, you--' Then there came volley of abuse out of the +Captain's mouth, in the middle of which the man threw down the +rubber he was using and walked away. + +'You come back,' halloed Tifto, jumping up from his seat with his +pipe in his mouth. Then there was a general quarrel between the +man and his two masters, in which the man was at last victorious. +And the horse was taken into the stable in an unfinished +condition. 'It's all very well to say "Get rid of him", but where +am I to get anybody better? It has come to such a pass that now if +you speak to a fellow he walks out of the yard.' + +They then returned to the state of affairs, as it was between +Tifto and Lord Silverbridge. 'What I was saying is this,' +continued the Captain. 'If you choose to put yourself up to live +with a fellow like that on equal terms--' + +'One gentleman with another, you mean?' + +'Put it so. it don't quite hit it off, but put it so. why then you +get your wages when you take his arm and call him Silverbridge.' + +'I don't want wages from any man,' said the indignant Major. + +'That comes from not knowing what wages is. I do want wages. If I +do a thing I like to be paid for it. You are paid for it after one +fashion, I prefer the other.' + +'Do you mean he should give me--a salary?' + +'I'd have it out of him someway. What's the good of young chaps of +that sort if they aren't made to pay? You've got this young swell +in tow. He's going to be about the richest man in England;--and +what the deuce better are you for it?' Tifto sat meditating, +thinking of the wisdom of the wisdom which was being spoken. The +same ideas had occurred to him. The happy chance which had made in +intimate with Lord Silverbridge had not yet enriched him. 'What is +the good of chaps of that sort if they are not made to pay?' The +words were wise words. But yet how glorious he had been when he +was elected at the Beargarden, and had entered the club as the +special friend of the heir of the Duke of Omnium. + +After a short pause, Captain Green pursued his discourse. 'You +said salary.' + +'I did mention the word.' + +'Salary and wages is one. A salary is a nice thing if it's paid +regular. I had a salary once myself for looking after a stud of +'orses at Newmarket, only the gentleman broke up and it never went +very far.' + +'Was that Marley Bullock?' + +'Yes; that was Marley Bullock. He's abroad somewhere now with +nothing a year paid quarterly to live on. I think he does a little +at cards. He'd had a good bit of money once, but most of it was +gone when he came my way.' + +'You didn't make by him?' + +'I didn't lose nothing. I didn't have a lot of 'orses under me +without getting something out of it.' + +'What am I to do?' asked Tifto. 'I can sell him a horse now and +again. But if I give him anything good there isn't much to come +out of that.' + +'Very little I should say. Don't he put his money on his 'orses?' + +'Not very free. I think he's coming out freer now.' + +'What did he stand to win on the Derby?' + +'A thousand or two perhaps.' + +'There may be something got handsome out of that,' said the +Captain, not venturing to allow his voice above a whisper. Major +Tifto looked hard at him but said nothing. 'Of course you must see +your way.' + +'I don't quite understand.' + +'Race 'orses are expensive animals,--and races generally +expensive.' + +'That's true.' + +'When so much is dropped, somebody has to pick it up. That's what +I've always said to myself. I'm as honest as another man.' + +'That's of course, said the Major civilly. + +'But if I don't keep my mouth shut, somebody'll have my teeth out +of my head. Every one for himself and God for us all. I suppose +there's a deal of money flying about. He'll put a lot of money on +this 'orse of yours for the Leger if he's managed right. There's +more to be got out of that than calling him Silverbridge and +walking arm-in-arm. Business is business. I don't know whether I +make myself understood.' + +The gentleman did not quite make himself understood; but Tifto +endeavoured to read the riddle. He must in some way make money out +of his friend Lord Silverbridge. Hitherto he had contented himself +with the brilliancy of the connection; but now his brilliant +friend had taken to snubbing him, and had on more than one +occasion made himself disagreeable. It seemed to him that Captain +Green counselled him to put up with that, but counselled him at +the same time to--pick up some of his friend's money. He didn't +think he could ask Lord Silverbridge for a salary. He who was +Master of Foxhounds, and a member of the Beargarden. Then his +friend had suggested something about the young Lord's bets. He was +endeavouring to unriddle all this with a brain that was already +somewhat muddled with alcohol, when Captain Green got up from his +chair and standing over the Major spoke his last words for that +night as an oracle. 'Square is all very well, as long as others +are square with you;--but when they aren't, then I say square be +d-. Square! what comes of it? Work your heart out, and then it's +no good.' + +The Major thought about it much that night, and was thinking about +it still when he awoke on the next morning. He would like to make +Lord Silverbridge pay for his late insolence. It would answer his +purpose to make a little money,--as he told himself,--in any honest +way. At the present moment he was in want of money, and on looking +into his affairs declared to himself that he certainly +impoverished himself by his devotion to Lord Silverbridge's +interests. At breakfast on the following morning he endeavoured to +bring his friend back on to the subject. But the Captain was +cross, rather than oracular. 'Everybody,' he said, 'ought to know +his own business.' He wasn't going to meddle or make. What he had +said had been taken amiss. This was hard upon Tifto, who had taken +nothing amiss. + +'Square be d-!' There was a great deal in the lesson there +enunciated which demanded consideration. Hitherto the Major had +fought his battles with a certain adherence to squareness. If his +angles had not all been perfect angles, still there had always +been an attempt at geometrical accuracy. He might now and then +have told a lie about a horse--but who that deals in horses has not +done that? He had been alive to the value of underhand information +from racing-stables, but who won't use a tip if he can get it? He +had lied about the expense of his hounds, in order to enhance the +subscription of his members. Those were things which everybody did +in his line. But Green had meant something beyond this. + +As far as he could see out in the world at large, nobody was +square. You had to keep your mouth shut, or your teeth would be +stolen out of it. He didn't look into a paper without seeing that +on all sides of him men had abandoned the idea of squareness. +Chairmen, directors, members of Parliament, ambassadors,--all the +world, as he told himself,--were trying to get on by their wits. He +didn't see why he should be more square than anybody else. Why +hadn't Silverbridge taken him down to Scotland for the grouse? + + + +CHAPTER 37 + +Grex + +Far away from all known places, in the northern limit of the Craven +district, on the borders of Westmoreland but in Yorkshire, there +stands a large rambling most picturesque old house called Grex. +The people around call it the Castle, but it is not a castle. It +is an old brick building supposed to have been erected in the days +of James the First, having oriel windows, twisted chimneys, long +galleries, gable ends, a quadrangle of which the house surrounds +three sides, terraces, sundials, and fish-ponds. But it is sadly +out of repair as to be altogether unfit for the residence of a +gentleman and his family. It stands not in a park, for the land +about it is divided into paddocks by low stone walls, but in the +midst of lovely scenery, the ground rising all round it in low +irregular hills or fells, and close to it, a quarter of a mile +from the back of the house, there is a small dark lake, not +serenely lovely as are some of the lakes in Westmoreland, but +attractive by the darkness of its waters and the gloom of the +woods around it. + +This is the country seat of Earl Grex,--which however he had not +visited for some years. Gradually the place had got into such a +condition in his absence was not surprising. An owner of Grex, +with large means at his disposal and with a taste for the +picturesque to gratify,--one who could afford to pay for memories +and who was willing to pay dearly for such luxuries, might no +doubt restore Grex, but the Earl had neither the money nor the +taste. + +Lord Grex had latterly never gone near the place, nor was his son +Lord Percival fond of looking upon the ruin of his property. But +Lady Mabel loved it with a fond love. With all her lightness of +spirit she was prone to memories, prone to melancholy, prone at +times almost to seek the gratification of sorrow. Year after year +when the London season was over she would come down to Grex and +spend a week or two amidst its desolation. She was now going to a +seat in Scotland belonging to Mrs Montacute Jones called +Killancodlem; but she was now passing a desolate fortnight in +company with Miss Cassewary. The gardens were let,--and being let +of course were not kept in further order than as profit might +require. The man who rented it lived in the big house with his +wife, and they on occasions as this would cook and wait upon Lady +Mabel. + +Lady Mabel was at the home of her ancestors, and the faithful Miss +Cass was with her. But at the moment and at the spot at which the +reader shall see her, Miss Cass was not with her. She was sitting +on a rock about twelve feet above the lake looking upon the black +water; and on another rock a few feet from her sat Frank Tregear. +'No,' she said, 'you should not have come. Nothing can justify it. +Of course, as you are here I could not refuse to come out with +you. To make a fuss about it would be the worst of all. But you +should not have come.' + +'Why not? Whom does it hurt? It is a pleasure to me. If it be the +reverse to you, I will go.' + +'Men are so unmanly. They take such mean advantages. You know it +is a pleasure to me to see you.' + +'I had hoped so.' + +'But it is a pleasure I ought not to have,--at least not here.' + +'That is what I do not understand,' said he. 'In London, where the +Earl could bark at me if he happened to find me, I could see the +inconvenience of it. But here, where there is nobody but Miss +Cass--' + +'There are a great many others. There are the rooks and stones and +old women;---all of which have ears.' + +'But of what is there to be ashamed? There is nothing in the world +to me so pleasant as the companionship of old friends.' + +'Then go after Silverbridge.' + +'I mean to do so;--but I am taking you by the way.' + +'It is all unmanly,' she said, rising from her stone; 'you know +that it is so. Friends! Do you mean to say that it would make no +difference whether you were here with me or Miss Cass?' + +'The greatest difference in the world.' + +'Because she is an old woman and I am a young one, and because in +intercourse between young men and young women there is something +dangerous to the woman and therefore pleasant to the man.' + +'I never heard anything more unjust. You cannot think I desire +anything injurious to you.' + +'I do think so.' She was still standing and spoke now with great +vehemence. 'I do think so. You force me to throw aside the +reticence I ought to keep. Would it help me in my purpose if your +friend Lord Silverbridge knew that I was here?' + +'How should he know?' + +'But if he did? Do you suppose that I want to have visits paid to +me of which I am afraid to speak? Would you dare tell Lady Mary +that you had been sitting alone with me on the rocks at Grex?' + +'Certainly I would.' + +'Then it would be because you have not dared to tell her certain +other things which have gone before. You have sworn to her no +doubt that you love her better than all the world.' + +'I have.' + +'And you have taken the trouble to come her to tell me that,--to +wound me to the core by saying so; to show me that though I may +still be sick, you have recovered,--that is if you ever suffered! +Go your way and let me go mine. I do not want you.' + +'Mabel!' + +'I do not want you. I know you will not help me, but you need not +destroy me.' + +'You know that you are wronging me.' + +'No! You understand it all though you look so calm. I hate your +Lady Mary Palliser. There! But if by anything I could do I could +secure her to you I would do it,--because you want it.' + +'She will be your sister-in-law,--probably.' + +'Never. It will never be so.' + +'Why do you hate me?' + +'There again! You are so little of a man that you can ask me +why!' Then she turned away as though she intended to go down to +the marge of the lake. + +But he rose up and stopped her. 'Let us have this out, Mabel, +before we go,' he said. 'Unmanly is a heavy word to hear from you, +and you have used it a dozen times.' + +'It is because I have thought it a thousand times. Go and get her +if you can,--but why tell me about it?' + +'You said you would help me.' + +'So I would, as I would help you do anything you might want; but +you can hardly think that after what has passed I can wish to hear +about her.' + +'It was you spoke of her.' + +'I told you you should not be here,--because of her and because of +me. And I tell you again. I hate her. Do you think I can hear you +speak of her as though she were the only woman you had ever seen +without feeling it? Did you ever swear that you loved anyone +else?' + +'Certainly, I have so sworn.' + +'Have you ever said that nothing could alter that love?' + +'Indeed I have.' + +'But it is altered. It has all gone. It has been transferred to +one who has more advantages of beauty, youth, wealth, and +position.' + +'Oh Mabel, Mabel!' + +'But it is so.' + +'When you say this do you think of yourself?' + +'Yes. But I have never been false to anyone. You are false to me.' + +'Have I not offered to face all the world with you?' + +'You would not offer it now?' + +'No,' he said, after a pause,--'not now. Were I to do so, I should +be false. You bade me take my love elsewhere, and I did so.' + +'With the greatest care.' + +'We agreed it should be so; and you have done the same.' + +'That is false. Look me in the face and tell me whether you do not +know it to be false?' + +'And yet I am told that I am injuring you with Silverbridge.' + +'Oh,--so unmanly again! Of course I have to marry. Who does not +know it? Do you want to see me begging my bread about the +streets? You have bread; or if not, you might earn it. If you +marry for money--' + +'The accusation is altogether unjustifiable.' + +'Allow me to finish what I have to say. If you marry for money you +will do that which is in itself bad, and which is also +unnecessary. What other course would you recommend me to take? No +one goes into the gutter while there is a clean path open. If +there be no escape but through the gutter, one has to take it.' + +'You mean that my duty to you should have kept me from marrying +all my life.' + +'Not that;--but a little while, Frank; just a little while. Your +bloom is not fading; your charms are not running from you. Have +you not a strength which I cannot have? Do you not feel that you +are a tree, standing firm in the ground, while I am a bit of ivy +that will be trodden in the dirt unless it can be made to cling to +something? You should not liken yourself to me, Frank.' + +'If I could do you any good!' + +'Good! What is the meaning of good? If you love, it is good to +be loved again. It is good not to have your heart torn to pieces. +You know that I love you.' He was standing close to her, and put +out his hand as though he would twine his arm round her waist. +'Not for worlds,' she said. 'It belongs to the Palliser girl. And +as I have taught myself to think that what there is left of me may +perhaps belong to some other one, worthless as it is, I will keep +it for him. I love you,--but there can be none of that softness of +love between us.' + +Then there was a pause, but as he did not speak she went on. 'But +remember, Frank,--our position is not equal. You have got over your +little complaint. It probably did not go deep with you, and you +have found a cure. Perhaps there is a satisfaction in finding that +two young women love you.' + +'You are trying to be cruel to me.' + +'Why else should you be here? You know I love you,--with all my +heart, with all my strength, and that I would give the world to +cure myself. Knowing this, you come and talk to me of your passion +for this other girl.' + +'I had hoped we might both talk rationally as friends.' + +'Friends! Frank Tregear, I have been bold enough to tell you I +love you; but you are not my friend, and cannot be my friend. If I +have before asked you to help me in this mean catastrophe of mine, +in my attack upon that poor boy, I withdraw my request. I think I +will go back to the house now.' + +'I will walk back to Ledburgh if you wish it without going to the +house again.' + +'No; I will have nothing that looks like being ashamed. You ought +not to have come, but you need not run away.' Then they walked +back to the house together and found Miss Casseawary on the +terrace. 'We have been to the lake,' said Mabel, 'and have been +talking of old days. I have but one ambition now in the world.' +Of course Miss Cassewary asked what the remaining ambition was. +'To get money enough to purchase this place from the ruins of the +Grex property. If I could own the house and the lake, and the +paddocks about, and had enough income to keep one servant and +bread for us to eat--of course including you, Miss Cass--' + +'Thank'ee, my dear; but I am not sure I should like it.' + +'Yes; you would. Frank would come and see us perhaps once a year. +I don't suppose anybody else cares about the place, but to me it +is the dearest spot in the world.' So she went on in almost high +spirits, though alluding to the general decadence of the Grex +family, till Tregear took his leave. + +'I wish he had not come,' said Miss Cassewary when he was gone. + +'Why should you wish that? There is not so much here to amuse me +that you should begrudge me a stray visitor.' + +'I don't think I grudge you anything in the way of pleasure, my +dear, but still he should not have come. My Lord, if he knew it, +would be angry.' + +'Then let him be angry. Papa does not do much for me that I am +bound to think of him at every turn.' + +'But I am,--or rather I am bound to think of myself, if I take his +bread.' + +'Bread!' + +'Well;--I do take his bread, and I take it on the understanding +that I will be to you what a mother might be,--or an aunt.' + +'Well,--and if so! Had I a mother living would not Frank Tregear +have come to visit her, and in visiting her, would he not have +seen me,--and should not we have walked out together?' + +'Not after all that has come and gone.' + +'But you are not a mother nor yet an aunt, and you have to do just +what I tell you. And don't I know that you trust me in all things? +And am I not trustworthy?' + +'I think you are trustworthy.' + +'I know what my duty is and I mean to do it. No one shall ever +have to say of me that I have given way to self-indulgence. I +couldn't help his coming here, you know.' + +That same night, after Miss Cassewary had gone to bed, when the +moon was high in the heavens and the world round her was all +asleep, Lady Mabel again wandered out to the lake, and again +seated herself on the same rock, and there sat thinking of her +past life and trying to think of that before her. It is so much +easier to think of the past than of the future,--to remember what +has been than to resolve what shall be! She had reminded him of +the offer which he had made and repeated to her more than once,--to +share with her all his chances in life. There would have been +almost no income for them. All the world would have been against +her. She would have caused his ruin. Her light on the matter had +been so clear that it had not taken her very long to decide that +such a thing must not be thought of. She had at last been quite +stern in her decision. + +Now she was broken-hearted because she found that he had left her +in very truth. Oh yes;--she would marry the boy, if she could so +arrange. Since that meeting at Richmond he had sent her the ring +reset. She was to meet him down in Scotland within a week or two +from the present time. Mrs Montacute Jones had managed that. He +had all but offered to her a second time at Richmond. But all that +would not serve to make her happy. She declared to herself that +she did not wish to see Frank Tregear again; but still it was a +misery to her that his heart should in truth be given to another +woman. + + + +CHAPTER 38 + +Crummie-Toddie + +Almost at the last moment Silverbridge and his brother Gerald were +induced to join Lord Popplecourt's shooting-party in Scotland. +The party perhaps might more properly be called the party of +Reginald Dobbes, who as a man knowing in such matters. It was he +who made the party up. Popplecourt and Silverbridge were to share +the expense between them, each bringing three guns. Silverbridge +brought his brother and Frank Tregear,--having refused a most +piteous petition on the subject from Major Tifto. With Popplecourt +of course came Reginald Dobbes, who was, in truth, to manage +everything, and Lord Nidderdale, whose wife had generously +permitted him this recreation. The shooting was in the west of +Perthshire, known as Crummie-Toddie, and comprised an enormous +acreage of so-called forest and moor. Mr Dobbes declared that +nothing like it had as yet been produced in Scotland. Everything +had been made to give way to deer and grouse. The thing had been +managed so well that the tourist nuisance had been considerably +abated. There was hardly a potato patch left in the district, nor +a head of cattle to be seen. There were no inhabitants remaining, +or so few that they could be absorbed in game-preserving or +cognate duties. Reginald Dobbes, who was very great at grouse, and +supposed to be capable of outwitting deer by venatical wiles more +perfectly than any other sportsman in Great Britain, regarded +Crummie-Toddie as the nearest thing there was to a Paradise on +Earth. Could he have been allowed to pass one or two special laws +for his own protection, there might still have been improvements. +He would like the right to have all intruders thrashed by the +gillies within an inch of their lives; and he would have had a +clause in his lease against the making of any new roads, opening +of footpaths, or building of bridges. He had seen somewhere in +print a plan for running a railway from Callender to Fort Augustus +right through Crummie-Toddie! If this were done in his time the +beauty of the world would be over. Reginald Dobbes was a man of +about forty, strong, active, well-made, about five feet ten in +height, with broad shoulders and greatly-developed legs. He was +not a handsome man, having a protrusive nose, high cheek-bones, +and long upper lip; but there was a manliness about his face which +redeemed it. Sport was the business of his life, and he thoroughly +despised all who were not sportsmen. He fished and shot and hunted +during nine or ten months of the year, filling up his time as best +he might with coaching polo, and pigeon-shooting. He regarded it +as a great duty to keep his body in the firmest possible +condition. All his eating and all his drinking was done upon a +system, and he would consider himself to be guilty of weak self- +indulgence were he to allow himself to break through sanitary +rules. But it never occurred to him that his whole life was one of +self-indulgence. He could walk his thirty miles with his gun on +his shoulder as well now as he could ten years ago; and being sure +of this, was thoroughly contented with himself. He had a patrimony +amounting to perhaps 1000 pounds a year, which he husbanded so as +to enjoy all his amusements to perfection. No one had ever heard +of his sponging on his friends. Of money he rarely spoke, sport +being in his estimation the only subject worthy of a man's words. +Such was Reginald Dobbes, who was now to be the master of the +shooting at Crummie-Toddie. + +Crummie-Toddie was but twelve miles from Killancodlem, Mrs +Montacute Jones's highland seat; and it was this vicinity which +first induced Lord Silverbridge to join the party. Mabel Grex was +to be at Killancodlem, and, determined as he still was to ask her +to be his wife, he would make this opportunity. Of real +opportunity there had been none at Richmond. Since he had had his +ring altered and had sent it to her there had come but a word or +two of answer. 'What am I to say? You unkindest of men! To keep +it or to send it back would make me equally miserable. I shall +keep it till you are married, and then give it to your wife.' +This affair of the ring had made him more intent than ever. After +that he heard that Isabel Boncassen would also be at Killancodlem, +having been induced to join Mrs Montacute Jones's swarm of +visitors. Though he was dangerously devoid of experience, still he +felt that this was unfortunate. He intended to marry Mabel Grex. +And he could assure himself that he thoroughly loved her. +Nevertheless he liked making love to Isabel Boncassen. He was +quite willing to marry and settle down, and looked forward with +satisfaction to having Mabel Grex for his wife. But it would be +pleasant to have a six-month run of flirting and love-making +before this settlement, and he had certainly never seen anyone +with whom this would be so delightful as with Miss Boncassen. But +that the two ladies should be at the same house was unfortunate. + +He and Gerald reached Crummie-Toddie late on the evening of August +the eleventh, and found Reginald Dobbes alone. That was on +Wednesday. Popplecourt and Niddledale ought to have made their +appearance on that morning, but had telegraphed to say that they +would be detained two days on their route. Tregear, whom hitherto +Dobbes had never seen, had left his arrival uncertain. This +carelessness on such matters was very offensive to Mr Dobbes, who +loved discipline and exactitude. He ought to have received the two +young men with open arms because they were punctual; but he had +been somewhat angered by what he considered the extreme youth of +Lord Gerald. Boys who could not shoot were, he thought, putting +themselves forward before their time. And Silverbridge himself was +by no means a first-rate shot. Such a one as Silverbridge had to +be endured because from his position and wealth he could +facilitate such arrangements as these. It was much to have to do +with a man who could not complain if an extra fifty pounds were +wanted. But he ought to have understood that he was bound in +honour to bring down competent friends. Of Tregear's shooting +Dobbes had been able to learn nothing. Lord Gerald was a lad from +the Universities; and Dobbes hated University lads. Popplecourt +and Niddledale were known to be efficient. They were men who could +work hard and do their part of the required slaughter. Dobbes +proudly knew that he could make up for some deficiency by his own +prowess; but he could not struggle against three bad guns. What +was the use of so perfecting Crummie-Toddie as to make it the best +bit of ground for grouse and deer in Scotland, if the men who came +there failed by their own incapacity to bring up the grand total +of killed to a figure which would render Dobbes and Crummie-Toddie +famous throughout the whole shooting world? He had been hard at +work on other matters. Dogs had gone amiss;--or guns, and he had +been made angry by the champagne which Popplecourt had caused to +be sent down. He knew what champagne meant. Whisky-and-water, and +not much of it, was the liquor which Reginald Dobbes loved in the +mountains. + +'Don't you call this a very ugly country?' Silverbridge asked as +soon as he arrived. Now it is the case that the traveller who +travels into Argyleshire, Perthshire, and Inverness, expects to +find lovely scenery; and it was also true that the country through +which they had passed for the last twenty miles had been not only +bleak and barren, but uninteresting and ugly. It was all rough +open moorland, never rising into mountains, and graced by no +running streams, by no forest scenery, almost by no foliage. The +lodge itself did indeed stand close upon a little river, and was +reached by a bridge that crossed it; but there was nothing pretty +either in the river or the bridge. It was a placid black little +streamlet, which in that portion of its course was hurried by no +steepness, had not broken rocks in its bed, no trees on its low +banks, and played none of those gambols which make running water +beautiful. The bridge was a simple low construction with a low +parapet, carrying an ordinary roadway up to the hall door. The +lodge itself was as ugly a house could be, white, of two stories, +with the door in the middle and windows on each side, with a slate +roof, and without a tree near it. It was in the middle of the +shooting, and did not create a town round itself as do sumptuous +mansions, to the great detriment of that seclusion which is +favourable to game. 'Look at Killancodlem,' Dobbes had been heard +to say--'a very fine house for ladies to flirt in; but if you find +a deer within six miles of it I will eat him first and shoot him +afterwards.' There was a Spartan simplicity about Crummie-Toddie +which pleased the Spartan mind of Reginald Dobbes. + +'Ugly do you call it?' + +'Infernally ugly,' said Lord Gerald. + +'What did you expect to find? A big hotel, and a lot of cockneys. +If you come after grouse, you must come to what the grouse think +pretty.' + +'Nevertheless, it is ugly,' said Silverbridge, who did not choose +to be 'sat upon'. 'I have been at shootings in Scotland before, +and sometimes they are not ugly. This I call beastly.' Whereupon +Reginald Dobbes turned upon his heel and walked away. + +'Can you shoot?' he said afterwards to Lord Gerald. + +'I can fire off a gun, if you mean that,' said Gerald. + +'You have never shot much?' + +'Not what you call very much. I'm not so old as you are, you know. +Everything must have a beginning.' Mr Dobbes wished 'the +beginning' might have taken place elsewhere; but there had been +some truth in the remark. + +'What on earth made you tell him crammers like that?' asked +Silverbridge, as the brothers sat together afterwards smoking on +the wall of the bridge. + +'Because he made an ass of himself; asking me whether I could +shoot.' + +On the next morning they started at seven. Dobbes had determined +to be cross, because, as he thought, the young men would certainly +keep him waiting; and was cross because by their punctuality they +robbed him of any just cause for offence. During the morning on +the moor they were hardly near enough each other for much +conversation, and very little was said. According to the +arrangement made they returned to the house for lunch, it being +their purpose not to go far from home till their numbers were +complete. As they came over the bridge and put down their guns +near the door, Mr Dobbes spoke the first good-humoured word they +had heard from his lips. 'Why did you tell me such an infernal-, I +would say lie, only perhaps you mightn't like it.' + +'I told you no lie,' said Gerald. + +'You've only missed two birds all the morning, and you have shot +forty-two. That's uncommonly good sport.' + +'What have you done?' + +'Only forty,' and Mr Dobbes seemed for the moment to be gratified +by his own inferiority. 'You are a deuced sight better than your +brother.' + +'Gerald's about the best shot I know,' said Silverbridge. + +'Why didn't he tell?' + +'Because you were angry when we said the place was ugly.' + +'I see all about it,' said Dobbes. 'Nevertheless when a fellow +comes to shoot he shouldn't complain because a place isn't pretty. +What you want is a decent house as near as you can have it to your +ground. If there is anything in Scotland to beat Crummie-Toddie I +don't know where to find it. Shooting is shooting you know, and +touring is touring.' + +Upon that he took very kindly to Lord Gerald, who, even after the +arrival of the other men, was second only in skill to Dobbes +himself. With Nidderdale, who was an old companion, he got on very +well. Nidderdale drank and ate too much, and refused to be driven +beyond a certain amount of labour, but was in other respects +obedient and knew what he was about. Popplecourt was disagreeable, +but he was a fairly good shot and understood what was expected of +him. Silverbridge was so good-humoured, that even his manifest +faults,--shooting carelessly, lying in bed, and wanting his +dinner,--were, if not forgiven at least endured. But Tregear was an +abomination. He could shoot well enough and was active, and when +he was at the work seemed to like it;--but he would stay away whole +days by himself, and when spoken to would answer in a manner which +seemed to Dobbes to flat mutiny. 'We are not doing it for our +bread,' said Tregear. + +'I don't know what you mean.' + +'There's not a duty in killing a certain number of these animals.' + They had been driving deer on the day before and were to continue +the work on the day in question. 'I'm not paid fifteen shillings a +week for doing it.' + +'I suppose if you undertake to do a thing you mean to do it. Of +course you're not wanted. We can make the double party without +you.' + +'Then why the mischief should you growl at me?' + +'Because I think a man should do what he undertakes to do. A man +who gets tired after three days' work of this kind would become +tired if he were earning his bread.' + +'Who says I am tired? I came here to amuse myself.' + +'Amuse yourself!' + +'And as long as it amuses me, I shall shoot, and when it does not +I shall give it up.' + +This vexed the governor of Crummie-Toddie much. He had learned to +regard himself as the arbiter of the fate of men while they were +sojourning under the same autumnal roof as himself. But a +defalcation which occurred immediately afterwards was worse. +Silverbridge declared his intention of going over one morning to +Killancodlem. Reginald Dobbes muttered a curse between his teeth, +which was visible by the anger of his brow, to all the party. 'I +shall be back tonight, you know,' said Silverbridge. + +'A lot of men and women who pretend to come here for shooting,' +said Dobbes angrily, 'but do all the mischief they can.' + +'One must go and see one's friends you know.' + +'Some girl!' said Dobbes. + +But worse happened than the evil so lightly mentioned. +Silverbridge did go over to Killancodlem; and presently there came +back a man with a cart, who was to return with a certain not small +proportion of his luggage. + +'It's hardly honest, you know,' said Reginald Dobbes. + + + +CHAPTER 39 + +Killancodlem + +Mr Dobbes was probably right in his opinion that hotels, tourists, +and congregations of men are detrimental to shooting. Crummie- +Toddie was in all respects suited for sport. Killancodlem, though +it had the name of a shooting-place, certainly was not so. Men +going there took their guns. Gamekeepers were provided with +gillies,--and, in a moderate quantity, game. On certain grand days +a deer or two might be shot,--and would be very much talked about +afterwards. But a glance at the place would suffice to show that +Killancodlem was not intended for sport. It was a fine castellated +mansion, with beautiful though narrow grounds, standing in the +valley of the Archay River, with a mountain behind and the river +in front. Between the gates and the river there was a public road +on which a stage-coach ran, with loud-blown horns and the noise of +many tourists. A mile beyond the Castle was the famous +Killancodlem hotel which made up a hundred and twenty beds, and at +which half as many more guests would sleep on occasions under the +tables. And there was the Killancodlem post-office halfway between +the two. At Crummie-Toddie they had to send nine miles for their +letters and newspapers. At Killancodlem there was lawn-tennis and +a billiard-room and dancing every night. The costumes of the +ladies were lovely, and those of the gentlemen, who were wonderful +in knickerbockers, picturesque hats and variegated stockings, +hardly less so. and then there were carriages and saddle-horses, +and paths had been made hither and thither through the rocks and +hills for the sake of the scenery. Scenery! To hear Mr Dobbes +utter the single word was as good as a play. Was it for such +cockney purposes as those that Scotland had been created, fit +mother for grouse and deer? + +Silverbridge arrived just before lunch, and was soon made to +understand that it was impossible that he should go back that day. +Mrs Jones was very great on that occasion. 'You are afraid of +Reginald Dobbes,' she said severely. + +'I think I am rather.' + +'Of course you are. How came it to pass that you of all men should +submit yourself to such a tyrant?' + +'Good shooting, you know,' said Silverbridge. + +'But you dare not call an hour your own,--or your soul. Mr Dobbes +and I are sworn enemies. We both like Scotland, and unfortunately +we have fallen into the same neighbourhood. He looks upon me as +the genius of sloth. I regard him as the incarnation of tyranny. +He once said there should be no women in Scotland,--just an old one +here and there, who would know how to cook grouse. I offered to go +and cook his grouse! + +'Any friend of mine,' continued Mrs Jones, 'who comes down to +Crummie-Toddie without staying a day or two with me,--will never be +my friend any more. I do not hesitate to tell you, Lord +Silverbridge, that I call for your surrender, in order that I may +show my power over Reginald Dobbes. Are you a Dobbite?' + +'Not thorough-going,' said Silverbridge. + +'Then be a Montacute Jones-ite, or a Bocassen-ite, if, as +possible, you prefer a young woman to an old one.' At this moment +Isabel Boncassen was standing close to them. + +'Killancodlem against Crummie-Toddie forever,' said Miss +barbarian, waving her handkerchief. As a matter of course a +messenger was sent back to Crummie-Toddie for the young lord's +evening apparel. + +The whole of that afternoon was spent playing lawn-tennis with +Miss Boncassen. Lady Mabel was asked to join the party, but she +refused, having promised to take a walk to a distant waterfall +where the Codlem falls into the Archay. A gentleman in +knickerbockers was to have gone with her, and two other young +ladies, but when the time came she was weary, she said,--and she +sat almost the entire afternoon looking at the game from a +distance. Silverbridge played well, but not so well as the pretty +American. With them were joined two others, somewhat inferior, so +that Silverbridge and Miss Boncassen were on different sides. They +played game after game, and Miss Boncassen's side always won. + +Very little was said between Silverbridge and Miss Boncassen which +did not refer to the game. But Lady Mabel, looking on, told +herself that they were making love to each other before her eyes. +And why shouldn't they? She asked herself that question in perfect +good faith. Why should they not be lovers? Was ever anything +prettier than the girl in her country dress, active as a fawn and +as graceful? Or could anything be more handsome, more attractive +to a girl, more good-humoured, or better bred in his playful +emulation than Silverbridge? + +'When youth and pleasure meet. To chase the glowing hours with +flying feet!' she said to herself over and over again. + +But why had he sent her the ring? She would certainly give him +back the ring and bid him bestow it at once upon Miss Boncassen. +Inconstant boy! Then she would get up and wander away for a time +and rebuke herself. What right had she even to think of +inconstancy? Could she be so irrational, so unjust, as to be sick +for his love, as to be angry with him because he seemed to prefer +another? Was she not well aware that she herself did not love +him,--but that she did love another man? She had made up her mind +to marry him in order that she might be a duchess, and because she +would give herself to him without any of that horror which would +be her fate in submitting to matrimony with one or another of the +young men around her. There might be disappointment. If he escaped +her there would be bitter disappointment. But seeing how it was, +had she any further ground for hope? She certainly had no ground +for anger! + +It was thus, within her own bosom, she put questions to herself. +And yet all this before her was simply a game of play in which the +girl and the young man were as eager for victory as though they +were children. They were thinking neither of love nor love-making. +That the girl should be so lovely was not doubt a pleasure to +him;--and perhaps to her also that she should be joyous to look at +and sweet of voice. But he, could he have been made to tell all +the truth within him, would have still owned that it was his +purpose to make Mabel his wife. + +When the game was over and the propositions made for further +matches and the like,--Miss Boncassen said that she would betake +herself to her own room. 'I never worked so hard in my life +before,' she said. 'And I feel like a navvie. I could drink beer +out of a jug and eat bread and cheese. I won't play with you any +more, Lord Silverbridge, because I am beginning to think it is +unladylike to exert myself.' + +'Are you not glad you came over?' said Lady Mabel to him as he was +going off the ground without seeing her. + +'Pretty well,' he said. + +'Is it not better than stalking?' + +'Lawn-tennis?' + +'Yes;--lawn-tennis--with Miss Boncassen.' + +'She plays uncommonly well.' + +'And so do you.' + +'Ah, she has such an eye for distances.' + +'And you,--what have you an eye for? Will you answer me a +question?' + +'Well,--yes; I think so.' + +'Truly.' + +'Certainly; if I do answer it.' + +'Do you not think her the most beautiful creature you ever saw in +your life?' He pushed back his cap and looked at her without +making any immediate answer. 'I do. Now tell me what you think.' + +'I think that perhaps she is.' + +'I knew you would say so. You are so honest that you could not +bring yourself to tell a fib,--even to me about that. Come here +and sit down for a moment.' Of course he sat down by her. 'You +know that Frank came to see me at Grex?' + +'He never mentioned it.' + +'Dear me;--how odd!' + +'It was odd,' said he in a voice which showed that he was angry. +She could hardly explain it to herself why she told him at the +present moment. It came partly from jealousy, as though she had +said to herself, 'Though he may neglect me, he shall know that +there is someone else who does not;'--and partly from an eager +half-angry feeling that she would have nothing concealed. There +were moments with her in which she thought that she could arrange +her future life in accordance with certain wise rules over which +her heart should have no influence. There were others, many +others, in which her feelings completely got the better of her. +And now she told herself that she would be afraid of nothing. +There should be no deceit, no lies! + +'He went to see you at Grex?' said Silverbridge. + +'Why should he not have come to me at Grex?' + +'Only it is so odd that he did not mention it. It seems to me that +he is always having secrets with you of some kind.' + +'Poor Frank! There is no one else who would come to see me at +that tumble-down old place. But I have another thing to say to +you. You have behaved badly to me.' + +'Have I?' + +'Yes, sir. After my folly about that ring you should have known +better than to send it to me. You must take it back again.' + +'You shall do exactly what you said you would. You shall give it +to me wife,--when I have one.' + +'That did very well for me to say it in a note. I did not want to +send my anger to you over a distance of two or three hundred miles +by the postman. But now that we are together you must take it +back.' + +'I will do no such thing,' said he sturdily. + +'You speak as though this were a matter in which you can have your +own way.' + +'I mean to have my own about that.' + +'Any lady then must be forced to take any present that a gentleman +may send her! Allow me to assure you that the usages of society +do not run in that direction. Here is the ring. I knew that you +would come over to see,--well, to see someone here, and I have kept +it ready in my pocket.' + +'I came over to see you.' + +'Lord Silverbridge! But we know that in certain employments all +things are fair.' He looked at her not knowing what were the +employments to which she alluded. 'At any rate you will oblige me +by--by--by not being troublesome, and putting this little trinket +into your pocket.' + +'Never! Nothing on earth shall make me do it.' + +At Killancodlem they did not dine till half-past eight. Twilight +was now stealing on these two, who were still out in the garden, +all the others having gone in to dress. She looked round to see +that no other eyes were watching them as she still held the ring. +'It is there,' she said, putting it on the bench between them. +Then she prepared to rise from the seat so that she might leave it +with him. + +But he was too quick for her, and was away at a distance before +she had collected her dress. And from a distance he spoke again. +'If you choose that it shall be lost, so be it.' + +'You had better take it,' said she, following him slowly. But he +would not turn back;--nor would she. They met again in the hall for +a moment. 'I should be sorry it should be lost,' said he, 'because +it belonged to my great uncle. And I had hoped that I might live +to see it very often.' + +'You can fetch it,' she said, as she went to her room. He however +would not fetch it. She had accepted it, and he would not take it +back again, let the fate of the gem be what it might. + +But to the feminine and more cautious mind the very value of the +trinket made its position out there on the bench, within the grasp +of any dishonest gardener, a burden to her. She could not +reconcile it to her conscience that it should be so left. The +diamond was a large one, and she had heard it spoken of as a stone +of great value,--so much so, that Silverbridge had been blamed for +wearing it ordinarily. She had asked for it in a joke, regarding +it as a thing which could not be given away. She could not go down +herself and take it up again; but neither could she allow it to +remain. As she went to her room she met Mrs Jones already coming +from hers. 'You will keep us waiting,' said the hostess. + +'Oh, no;--nobody ever dressed so quickly. But, Mrs Jones, will you +do me a favour?' + +'Certainly.' + +'Any will you let me explain something?' + +'Anything you like;--from a hopeless engagement down to a broken +garter.' + +'I am suffering neither from one or the other. But there is a most +valuable ring lying out in the garden. Will you send for it?' +Then of course the story had to be told. 'You will, I hope, +understand how I came to ask for it foolishly. It was because it +was the one thing which I was sure he would not give away.' + +'Why not take it?' + +'Can't you understand? I wouldn't for the world. But you will be +good enough,--won't you, to see that there is nothing else in it?' + +'Nothing of love?' + +'Nothing in the least. He and I are excellent friends. We are +cousins, and intimate, and all that. I thought I might have had my +joke, and now I am punished for it. As for love, don't you see +that he is head and ears in love with Miss Boncassen?' + +This was very imprudent on the part of Lady Mabel, who, had she +been capable of clinging to her policy, would not now in a moment +of strong feeling have done so much to raise obstacles in her own +way. 'But you will send for it, won't you, and have it put on his +dressing-table tonight?' When he went to bed Lord Silverbridge +found it on his table. + +But before that time came he had twice danced with Miss Boncassen. +Lady Mabel having refused to dance with him. 'No;' she said. 'I am +angry with you. You ought to have felt that it did not become you +as gentleman to subject me to inconvenience by throwing upon me +the charge of that diamond. You may be foolish enough to be +indifferent about its value, but as you have mixed me up with it I +cannot afford to have it lost.' + +'It is yours.' + +'No, sir; it is not mine, nor will it ever be mine. But I wish you +to understand that you have offended me.' + +This made him so unhappy for the time that he almost told the +story to Miss Boncassen. 'If I were to give you a ring,' he said, +'would not you accept it?' + +'What a question!' + +'What I mean is, don't you think all those conventional rules +about men and women are absurd?' + +'As a progressive American, of course I am bound to think all +conventional rules are an abomination.' + +'If you had a brother and I gave him a stick he'd take it.' + +'Not across his back, I hope.' + +'Or if I gave your father a book?' + +'He'd take books to any extent, I should say.' + +'And why not you a ring?' + +'Who said I wouldn't? But after all this you mustn't try me.' + +'I was not thinking of it.' + +'I'm so glad of that! Well;--if you'll promise me that you'll +never offer me one, I'll promise that I'll take it when it comes. +But what does all this mean?' + +'It is not worth talking about.' + +'You have offered someone somebody a ring, and somebody hasn't +taken it. May I guess?' + +'I had rather you did not.' + +'I could, you know.' + +'Never mind about that. Now come and have a turn. I am bound not +to give you a ring; but you are bound to accept anything else I +may offer.' + +'No, Lord Silverbridge;--not at all. Nevertheless we'll have a +turn.' + +That night before he went up to his room he had told Isabel +Boncassen that he loved her. And when he spoke he was telling her +the truth. It had seemed to him that Mabel had become hard to him, +and had over and over again rejected the approaches to tenderness +which he had attempted to make in his intercourse with her. Even +though she were to accept him, what would that be worth to him if +she did not love him? So many things had been added together! Why +had Tregear gone to Grex, and having gone there why had he kept +his journey a secret? Tregear he knew was engaged to his sister;-- +but for all that, there was a closer intimacy between Mabel and +Tregear than between Mabel and himself. And surely she might have +taken his ring! + +And then Isabel Boncassen was so perfect! Since he had first met +her he had heard her loveliness talked of on all sides. It seemed +to be admitted that so beautiful a creature had never before been +seen in London. There is even a certain dignity attached to that +which is praised by all lips. Miss Boncassen as an American girl, +had she been judged to be beautiful only by his own eyes,--might +perhaps have seemed to him to be beneath his serious notice. In +such a case he might have felt himself unable to justify so +extraordinary a choice. But there was an acclamation of assent as +to this girl! Then came the dancing,--the one dance after another; +the pressure of the hand, the entreaty that she would not, just on +this occasion, dance with any other man, the attendance on her +when she took her glass of wine, the whispered encouragement of +Mrs Montacute Jones, the half-resisting and yet half-yielding +conduct of the girl. 'I shall not dance at all again,' she said +when he asked to stand up for another. 'Think of all the lawn- +tennis this morning.' + +'But you will play tomorrow?' + +'I thought you were going.' + +'Of course I shall stay now,' he said, and as he said it he put +his hand on her hand, which was on his arm. She drew it away at +once. 'I love you so dearly,' he whispered to her, 'so dearly.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'I do. I do. Can you say that you will love me in return?' + +'I cannot,' she said slowly. 'I have never dreamed of such a +thing. I hardly know now whether you are in earnest.' + +'Indeed, indeed I am.' + +'Then I will say good-night, and think about it. Everybody is +going. We shall have our game tomorrow at any rate.' + +When he went to his room he found the ring on his dressing-table. + +And Then! + +On the next morning Miss Boncassen did not appear at breakfast. +Word came that she had been so fatigued by the lawn-tennis as not +to be able to leave her bed. 'I have been to see her,' said Mrs +Montacute Jones, whispering to Lord Silverbridge, as though he +were particularly interested. 'There's nothing really the matter. +She will be down to lunch.' + +'I was afraid she might be ill,' said Silverbridge, who was now +hardly anxious to hide his admiration. + +'Oh, no;--nothing of that sort, but she will not be able to play +again today. It was your fault. You should not have made her dance +last night.' After that Mrs Jones said a word about it all to +Lady Mabel. 'I hope the Duke will not be angry with me.' + +'Why should he be angry with you?' + +'I don't suppose he will approve of it, and perhaps he'll say I +brought them together on purpose.' + +Soon afterwards Mabel asked Silverbridge to walk with her to the +waterfall. She had worked herself into such a state of mind that +she hardly knew what to do, what to wish, or how to act. At one +moment she would tell herself that it was better in every respect +that she should cease to think of being the Duchess of Omnium. It +was not fit that she should think of it. She herself cared but +little for the young man, and he,--she would now tell herself,--now +appeared to care as little for her. And yet to be Duchess of +Omnium! But was it not clear that he was absolutely in love with +this other girl? She had played her cards so badly that the game +was now beyond her powers. Then other thoughts would come. Was it +beyond her powers? Had he not told her in London that he loved +her? Had he not given her the ring which she well knew he valued? +Ah;--if she could but have been aware of all that had passed +between Silverbridge and the Duke, how different would have been +her feelings! And then would it be not so much better for him +that he should marry her, one of his own class, than this American +girl, of whom nobody knew anything? And then,--to be the daughter +of the Duke of Omnium, to be the future Duchess, to escape from +all the cares which her father's vices and follies had brought +upon her, to have to come an end all of her troubles! Would it not +be sweet? + +She had made her mind up to nothing when she asked him to walk up +to the waterfall. There was present to her only the glimmer of an +idea that she ought to caution him not to play with the American +girl's feelings. She knew herself to be aware that when the time +for her own action came her feminine feelings would get the better +of her purpose. She could not craftily bring him to the necessity +of bestowing himself upon her. Had that been within the compass of +her powers, opportunities had not been lacking to her. On such +occasions she had always 'spared him'. And should the opportunity +come again, again she would spare him. But she might perhaps do +some good,--not to herself, that was now out of the question,--but +to him by showing him how wrong he was in trifling with this +girl's feelings. + +And so they started for their walk. He of course would have +avoided it had it been possible. When men in such matters have two +strings to their bow, much inconvenience is felt when the two +become entangled. Silverbridge no doubt had come over to +Killancodlem for the sake of making love to Mabel Grex, and +instead of doing so, he had made love to Isabel Boncassen. And +during the wakes of the night, and as he had dressed himself in +the morning, and while Mrs Jones had been whispering to him her +little bulletin as to the state of the young lady's health, he had +not repented himself of the change. Mabel had been, he thought, so +little gracious to him that he would have given up that notion +earlier, but for his indiscreet declaration to his father. On the +other hand, making love to Isabel Boncassen seemed to him to +possess some divine afflatus of joy which made it of all +imaginable occupations the sweetest and most charming. She had +admitted of no embrace. Indeed he had attempted none unless that +touch of the hand might be so called, from which she had +immediately withdrawn. Her conduct had been such that he had felt +it to be incumbent on him, at the very moment, to justify the +touch by a declaration of love. Then she had told him that she +would not promise to love him in return. And yet it had been so +sweet, so heavenly sweet! + +During the morning he had almost forgotten Mabel. When Mrs Jones +told him that Isabel would keep her room, he longed to ask for +leave to go and make some inquiry at the door. She would not play +lawn-tennis with him. Well;--he did not now care much for that. +After what he had said to her she must at any rate give him some +answer. She had been so gracious to him that his hopes ran very +high. It never occurred to him to fancy that she might be gracious +to him because he was heir to the Dukedom of Omnium. She herself +was so infinitely superior to all wealth, to all rank, to all +sublunary arrangements, conventions, and considerations, that +there was no room for confidence of that nature. But he was +confident because he smile had been sweet, her eyes bright,--and +because he was conscious, though unconsciously conscious of +something of the sympathy of love. + +But he had to go to the waterfall with Mabel. Lady Mabel was +always dressed perfectly,--having great gifts of her own in that +direction. There was a freshness about her which made her morning +costume more charming than that of evening, and never did she look +so well as when arrayed for a walk. On this occasion she had +certainly done her best. But he, poor blind idiot, saw nothing of +this. The white gauzy fabric which had covered Isabel's satin +petticoat on the previous evening still filled his eyes. Those +perfect boots, the little glimpses of party-coloured stockings +above them, the looped-up skirt, the jacket fitting but never +binding that lovely body and waist, the jaunty hat with its small +fresh feathers, all were nothing to him. Nor was the bright honest +face beneath the hat anything to him now;--for it was an honest +face, though misfortunes which had come had somewhat marred the +honesty of the heart. + +At first the conversation was about indifferent things,-- +Killancodlem and Mrs Jones, Crummie-Toddie and Reginald Dobbs. +They had gone along the high-road as far as the post-office, and +had turned through the wood and reached a seat whence there was a +beautiful view down upon the Archay before a word was said +affecting either Miss Boncassen or the ring. 'You got the ring +safe,' she said. + +'Oh yes.' + +'How could you be so foolish as to risk it?' + +'I did not regard it as mine. You had accepted it,--I thought.' + +'But if I had, and then repented of my fault in doing so, should +you not have been willing to help me in setting myself right with +myself? Of course after what had passed, it was a trouble to me +when it came. what was I to do? for a day or two I thought I would +take it, not as liking to take it, but as getting rid of the +trouble in that way. Then I remembered its value, its history, the +fact that all who knew you would want to know what had become of +it,--and I felt that it should be given back. There is only one +person to whom we must give it.' + +'Who is that?' he said quickly. + +'Your wife;--or to her who is to become your wife. No other woman +can be justified in accepting such a present.' + +'There has been a great deal more said about it than it's worth,' +said he, not anxious at the present moment to discuss any +matrimonial projects with her. 'Shall we go to the Fall?' Then +she got up and led the way till they came to the little bridge +from which they could see the Falls of the Codlem below them. 'I +call that very pretty,' he said. + +'I thought you would like it.' + +'I never saw anything of that kind more jolly. Do you care for +scenery, Mabel?' + +'Very much. I know no pleasure equal to it. You have never seen +Grex?' + +'Is it like this?' + +'Not in the least. It is wilder than this, and there are not so +many trees; but to my eye it is very beautiful. I wish you had +seen it.' + +'Perhaps I may some day.' + +'That is not likely now,' she said. 'The house is in ruins. If I +had just money enough to keep it for myself, I think I could live +alone there and be happy.' + +'You;--alone. Of course you mean to marry?' + +'Mean to marry! Do persons marry because they mean it? With +nineteen men out of twenty the idea of marrying them would convey +the idea of hating them. No doubt you do mean it.' + +'I suppose I shall,--some day. How very well the house looks from +here.' It was incumbent upon him at the present moment to turn +the conversation. + +But when she had a project in her head it was not easy to turn her +away. 'Yes indeed,' she said, 'very well. But as I was saying,--you +can mean to marry.' + +'Anybody can mean it.' + +'But you can carry out a purpose. What are you thinking of doing +now?' + +'Upon my honour, Mabel, that is unfair.' +'Are we not friends?' + +'I think so.' + +'Dear friends?' + +'I hope so.' + +'Then may I not tell you what I think? If you do not mean to marry +that American young lady you should not raise false hopes.' + +'False hopes!' He had hopes, but he had never thought that Isabel +could have any. + +'False hopes;--certainly. Do you not know that everyone was looking +at you last night?' + +'Certainly not.' + +'And that old woman is going about talking of it as her doing, +pretending to be afraid of your father, whereas nothing would +please her better than to humble a family so high as yours.' + +'Humble!' exclaimed Lord Silverbridge. + +'Do you think your father would like it? Would you think that +another man would be doing well for himself by marrying Miss +Boncassen?' + +'I do,' said he energetically. + +'Then you must be very much in love with her.' + +'I say nothing about that.' + +'If you are so much in love with her that you mean to face the +displeasure of your friends--' + +'I do not say what I mean. I could talk more freely to you than to +anyone else, but I won't talk about that even to you. As regards +Miss Boncassen, I think that any man might marry her, without +discredit. I won't have it said that she can be inferior to me,--or +to anybody.' + +There was a steady manliness in this which took Lady Mabel by +surprise. She was convinced that he intended to offer his hand to +the girl, and now was actuated chiefly by a feeling that his doing +so would be an outrage to all English propriety. If a word might +have an effect it would be her duty to speak the word. 'I think +you are wrong there, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I am sure I am right.' + +'What have you yourself felt about your sister and Mr Tregear?' + +'It is altogether different;--altogether. Frank's wife will be +simply his wife. Mine, should I outlive my father, will be the +Duchess of Omnium.' + +'But your father? I have heard you speak with bitter regret of +this affair of Lady Mary's because it vexes him. Would your +marriage with an American lady vex him less?' + +'Why should it vex him at all? Is she vulgar, or ill to look at, +or stupid?' + +'Think of her mother.' + +'I am not going to marry her mother. Or for that matter am I going +to marry her. You are taking all that for granted in most unfair +way.' + +'How can I help it after what I saw yesterday?' + +'I will not talk any more about it. We had better go down or we +shall get no lunch.' Lady Mabel, as she followed him, tried to +make herself believe that all her sorrow came from regret that so +fine a scion of the British nobility should throw himself away +upon an American adventuress. + +The guests were still at lunch when they entered the dining-room, +and Isabel was seated close to Mrs Jones. Silverbridge at once +went up to her,--and place was made for him as though he had almost +a right to be next to her. Miss Boncassen herself bore the honours +well, seeming to regard the little change at table as though it +was of no moment. 'I became so eager about that game,' she said, +'that I went on too long.' + +'I hope you are now none the worse.' + +'At six o'clock this morning I thought I should never use my legs +again.' + +'Were you awake at six?' said Silverbridge, with pitying voice. + +'That was it. I could not sleep. Now I begin to hope that sooner +or later I shall unstiffen.' + +During every moment, at every word that he uttered, he was +thinking of the declaration of love which he had made to her. But +it seemed to him as though the matter had not dwelt on her mind. +When they drew their chairs away from the table he thought that +not a moment was to be lost before some further explanation of +their feelings for each other should be made. Was not the matter +which had been so far discussed of vital importance for both of +them? And, glorious as she was above all other women, the offer +which he had made must have some weight with her. He did not think +that he proposed to give more than she deserved, but still that +which he was so willing to give was not a little. Or was it +possible that she had not understood his meaning? If so, he would +not willingly lose a moment before he made it plain to her. But +she seemed content to hang about with the other women, and when +she sauntered about the grounds seated herself on a garden-chair +with Lady Mabel, and discussed with great eloquence the general +beauty of Scottish scenery. An hour went on in this way. Could it +be that she knew that he had offered to make her his wife? During +this time he went and returned more than once, but still she was +there, on the same garden-seat, talking to those who came in her +way. + +Then on a sudden she got up and put her hand on his arm. 'Come and +take a turn with me,' she said. 'Lord Silverbridge, do you +remember anything of last night?' + +'Remember!' + +'I thought for a while this morning that I would let it all pass +as though it had been a mere trifling!' + +'It would have wanted two to let it pass in that way,' he said, +almost indignantly. + +On hearing this she looked up at him, and there came over her face +that brilliant smile, which to him was perhaps the most potent of +her spells. 'What do you mean by wanting two?' + +'I must have voice in it as well as you.' + +'And what is your voice?' + +'My voice is this. I told you last night that I loved you. This +morning I ask you to be my wife.' + +'It is a very clear voice,' she said,--almost in a whisper; but in +a tone so serious that it startled him. + +'It ought to be clear,' he said doggedly. + +'Do you think I don't know that? Do you think that if I liked you +well last night I don't like you better now?' + +'But do you like me?' + +'That is just the thing I am going to say nothing about.' + +'Isabel!' + +'Just the one thing I will not allude to. Now you must listen to +me.' + +'Certainly.' + +'I know a great deal about you. We Americans are an inquiring +people, and I have found out pretty much everything.' His mind +misgave him as he felt she had ascertained his former purpose +respecting Mabel. 'You,' she said, 'among young men in England are +about the foremost, and therefore,--as I think,--about the foremost +in the world. And you have all personal gifts;--youth and spirits-- +Well, I will not go on and name the others. You are, no doubt, +supposed to be entitled to the best and sweetest of God's feminine +creatures.' + +'You are she.' + +'Whether you be entitled to me or not I cannot yet say. Now I will +tell you something of myself. My father's father came to New York +as a labourer from Holland, and worked upon the quays in that +city. Then he built houses, and became rich, and was almost a +miser;--with the good sense, however, to educate his only son. What +my father is you see. To me he is sterling gold, but he is not +like your people. My dear mother is not at all like your ladies. +She is not a lady in your sense,--though with her unselfish +devotion to others she is something infinitely better. For myself +I am,--well, meaning to speak honestly, I will call myself pretty +and smart. I think I know how to be true.' + +'I am sure you do.' + +'But what right have you to suppose I shall know how to be a +Duchess?' + +'I am sure you will.' + +'Now listen to me. Go to your friends and ask them. Ask that Lady +Mabel;--ask your father,--ask that Lady Cantrip. And above all, ask +yourself. And allow me to require you to take three months to do +this. Do not come to see me for three months.' + +'And then?' + +'What may happen then I cannot tell, for I want three months also +to think of it myself. Till then, good-bye.' She gave him her +hand and left it in his for a few seconds. He tried to draw her to +him, but she resisted him, still smiling. Then she left him. + + + +CHAPTER 41 + +Ischl + +It was custom with Mrs Finn almost every autumn to go off to +Vienna, where she possessed considerable property, and there to +inspect the circumstances of her estate. Sometimes her husband +would accompany her, and he did so in this year of which we are +now speaking. One morning in September they were together at an +hotel at Ischi, whither they had come from Vienna, when as they +went through the hall into the courtyard, they came, in the very +doorway, upon the Duke of Omnium and his daughter. The Duke and +Lady Mary had just arrived, having passed through the mountains +from the salt-mine district, and were about to take up their +residence in the hotel for a few days. They had travelled very +slowly, for Lady Mary had been ill, and the Duke had expressed his +determination to see a doctor at Ischi. + +There is no greater mistake than in supposing that only the young +blush. But the blushes of middle-life are luckily not seen through +the tan which has come from the sun and the gas and the work and +wiles of the world. Both the Duke and Phineas blushed; and though +their blushes were hidden, that peculiar glance of the eye which +always accompanies a blush was visible enough from the one to the +other. The elder lady kept her countenance admirably, and the +younger one had no occasion for blushing. She at once ran forward +and kissed her friend. The Duke stood with his hat off waiting to +give his hand to the lady, and then took that of his late +colleague. 'How odd that we should meet here,' he said, turning to +Mrs Finn. + +'Odd enough to us that your Grace should be here,' she said, +'because we had heard nothing of your intended coming.' + +'It is so nice to find you,' said Lady Mary. 'We are this moment +come. Don't say that you are this moment going.' + +'At this moment we are only going as far as Halstadt.' + +'And are coming back to dinner? Of course they will dine with us. +Will they not, papa?' The Duke said that he hoped they would. To +declare that you are engaged at an hotel, unless there be some +real engagement is almost an impossibility. There was no escape, +and before they were allowed to get into their carriage they had +promised that they would dine with the Duke and his daughter. + +'I don't know that it is especially a bore,' Mrs Finn said to her +husband in the carriage. 'You may be quite sure that of whatever +trouble there may be in it, he has much more than his share.' + +'His share would be the whole,' said the husband. 'No one else has +done anything wrong.' + +When the Duke's apology had reached her, so that there was no +longer any ground for absolute hostility, then she had told the +whole story to her husband. He at first was very indignant. What +right had the Duke to expect that any ordinary friend should act +duenna over his daughter in accordance with his caprices? This was +said and much more of this kind. But any humour towards +quarrelling which Phineas Finn might have felt for a day or so was +quieted by his wife's prudence. 'A man,' she said, 'can do no more +than apologise. After that there is not room for reproach.' + +At dinner the conversation turned at first on British politics, in +which Mrs Finn was quite able to take her part. Phineas was +decidedly of the opinion that Sir Timothy Beeswax and Lord +Drummond could not live another session. And on this subject a +good deal was said. Later in the evening the Duke found himself +sitting with Mrs Finn in the broad verandah over the hotel garden, +while Lady Mary was playing to Phineas within. 'How do you think +she is looking?' asked the father. + +'Of course I see that she has been ill. She tells me that she was +far from well at Salzburg.' + +'Yes;--indeed for three or four days she frightened me much. She +suffered terribly from headaches.' + +'Nervous headache?' + +'So they said there. I feel quite angry with myself because I did +not bring a doctor with us. The trouble and ceremony of such an +accompaniment is no doubt disagreeable.' + +'And I suppose seemed when you started to be unnecessary.' + +'Quite unnecessary.' + +'Does she complain again now?' + +'She did today;--a little.' + +The next morning Lady Mary could not leave her bed, and the Duke +in his sorrow was obliged to apply to Mrs Finn. After what had +passed on the previous day Mrs Finn of course called, and was +shown at once up to her young friend's room. There she found the +girl in great pain, lying with her two thin hands up to her head, +and hardly able to utter more than a word. Shortly after that Mrs +Finn was alone with the Duke, and then there took place a +conversation between them which the lady thought to be very +remarkable. + +'Had I better send for a doctor from England?' he asked. In answer +to this Mrs Finn expressed her opinion that such a measure was +hardly necessary, that the gentleman from the town who had been +called in seemed to know what he was about, and that the illness, +lamentable as it was, did not seem to be in any way dangerous. +'One cannot tell what it comes from,' said the Duke dubiously. + +'Young people, I fancy, are often subject to such maladies.' + +'It must come from something wrong.' + +'That may be said of all sickness.' + +'And therefore one tries to find out the cause. She says that she +is unhappy.' These last words he spoke slowly and in a low voice. +To this Mrs Finn could make no reply. She did not doubt but that +the girl was unhappy, and she knew well why; but the source of +Lady Mary's misery was one to which she could not very well +allude. 'You know all the misery about that young man.' + +'That is a trouble that requires time to cure it,' she said,--not +meaning to imply that time would cure it by enabling the girl to +forget her lover; but because in truth she had not known what else +to say. + +'If time will cure it.' + +'Time, they say, cures all sorrows.' + +'But what should I do to help time? There is no sacrifice I would +not make,--no sacrifice! Of myself I mean. I would devote myself +to her,--leave everything else on one side. We purpose being back +in England in October; but I would remain here if I thought it +better for her comfort.' + +'I cannot tell, Duke.' + +'Neither can I. But you are a woman and might know better than I +do. It is so hard that a man should be left with the charge of +which from its very nature he cannot understand the duties.' Then +he paused, but she could find no words which would suit the +moment. It was almost incredible to her that after what had passed +he should speak to her at all as to the condition of his daughter. +'I cannot, you know,' he said very seriously, 'encourage a hope +that she should be allowed to marry that man.' + +'I do not know.' + +'You yourself, Mrs Finn, felt that when she told about it at +Matching.' + +'I felt that you would disapprove of it.' + +'Disapprove of it! How could it be otherwise? Of course you felt + that. There are ranks in life in which the first comer that suits +a maiden's eye may be accepted as a flirting lover. I will not say +but that they who are born to such a life may be the happier. They +are, I am sure, free from troubles to which they are incident whom +fate has called to a different sphere. But duty is duty;--and +whatever pang it may cost, duty should be performed.' + +'Certainly.' + +'Certainly;--certainly; certainly,' he said, re-echoing her word. + +'But then, Duke, one has to be so sure what duty requires. In many +matters this is easy enough, and the only difficulty comes from +temptation. There are cases in which it is hard to know.' + +'Is this one of them?' + +'I think so.' + +'Then the maiden should--in any class of life--be allowed to take +the man that just suits her eye?' As he said this his mind was +intent on his Glencora and on Burgo Fitzgerald. + +'I have not said so. A man may be bad, vicious, a spendthrift,-- +eaten up by bad habits.' Then he frowned, thinking that she also +had her mind intent on his Glencora and on that Burgo Fitzgerald, +and being most unwilling to have the difference between Burgo and +Frank Tregear pointed out to him. 'Nor have I said,' she +continued, 'that even were none of these faults apparent in the +character of a suitor, the lady should in all cases be advised to +accept a young man because he has made himself agreeable to her. +There may be discrepancies.' + +'There are,' said he, still with a low voice, but with infinite +energy,--'insurmountable discrepancies.' + +'I only said that this was a case in which it might be difficult +for you to see your duty plainly.' + +'Why should it be?' + +'You would not have her--break her heart?' Then he was silent for +awhile, turning over in his mind the proposition which now seemed +to have been made to him. If the question came to that,--should she +be allowed to break her heart and die, or should he save her from +that fate by sanctioning her marriage with Tregear? If the choice +could be put to him plainly by some supernal power, what then +would he choose? If duty required him to prevent this marriage, +his duty could not be altered by the fact that his girl would +avenge herself upon him by dying! If such a marriage were in +itself wrong, that wrong could not be made right by the fear of +such a catastrophe. Was it not often the case that duty required +that someone should die? And yet as he thought of it,--though that +the someone whom his mind had suggested was the one female +creature now left belonging to him,--he put his hand up to his brow +and trembled with agony. If he knew, if in truth he believed that +such would be the result of firmness on his part,--then he would be +infirm, then must he yield. Sooner than that, he must welcome this +Tregear to his house. But why should he think that she would die? +This woman had now asked him whether he would be willing to break +his girl's heart. It was a frightful question; but he could see +that it had come naturally in the sequence of the conversation +which he had forced upon her. Did girls break their hearts in +such emergencies? Was it not all romance? 'Men have died and +worms have eaten them,--but not for love.' He remembered it all +and carried on the argument in his mind, though the pause was but +for a minute. There might be suffering no doubt. The higher the +duties the keener the pangs! But would it become him to be +deterred from doing right because she for a time might find that +she had made the world bitter for herself? And were there not +feminine wiles,--tricks by which women learn how to have their way +in opposition to the judgement of their lords and masters? He did +not think that his Mary was wilfully guilty of any scheme. The +suffering he knew was true suffering. But not the less did it +become him to be on his guard against any attacks of this nature. + +'No,' he said at last. 'I would not have her break her heart,--if I +understand what such words mean. They are generally, I think, used +fantastically.' + +'You would not wish to see her overwhelmed by sorrow.' + +'Wish it! What a question to ask a father!' + +'I must be more plain in my language, Duke. Though such a marriage +be distasteful to you, it might perhaps be preferable to see her +sorrowing always.' + +'Why should it? I have to sorrow always. We are told that man is +born to sorrow as surely as the sparks fly upwards.' + +'Then I can say nothing further.' + +'You think I am cruel.' + +'If I am to say what I really think I shall offend you.' + +'No;--not unless you mean offence.' + +'I shall never do that to you, Duke. When you talk as you do now +you hardly know yourself. You think you could see her suffering +and not be moved by it. But were it to be continued long you would +give way. Though we know that there is an infinity of grief in +this life, still we struggle to save those we love from grieving. +If she be steadfast enough to cling to her affection for this man, +then at last you will have to yield.' He looked at her frowning, +but did not say a word. 'Then it will perhaps be a comfort for you +to know that the man himself is trustworthy and honest.' + +There was a terrible rebuke in this; but still, as he had called +it down upon himself, he would not resent it, even in his heart. +'Thank you,' he said, rising from his chair. 'Perhaps you will see +her again this afternoon.' Of course she assented, and as the +interview had taken place in his rooms she took her leave. + +This which Mrs Finn had said to him was all to the same effect as +that which had come from Lady Cantrip; only it was said with a +higher spirit. Both the women saw the matter in the same light. +There must be a fight between him and his girl; but she, if she +could hold out for a certain time, would be the conqueror. He +might take her away and try what absence would do, or he might +have recourse to that specific which had answered so well in +reference to his own wife; but if she continued to sorrow during +absence, and if she would have nothing to do with the other +lever,--then he must at last give way! He had declared that he was +willing to sacrifice himself,--meaning thereby that if a lengthened +visit to the cities of China, or a prolonged sojourn in the +Western States of America would wean her from her love, he would +go to China or to the Western States. At present his self- +banishment had been carried no farther than Vienna. During their +travels hitherto Tregear's name had not once been mentioned. The +Duke had come away from home resolved not to mention it,--and she +was minded to keep it in reserve till some seeming catastrophe +should justify a declaration of her purpose. But from first to +last she had been sad, and latterly she had been ill. When asked +as to her complaint she would simply say that she was not happy. +To go on with this through the Chinese cities could hardly be good +for either of them. She could not wake herself to any enthusiasm +in regard to scenery, costume, pictures, or even discomforts. +Wherever she was taken it was barren to her. + +As their plans stood at present they were to return to England so +as to enable her to be at Custins by the middle of October. Had he +taught himself to hope that any good could be done by prolonged +travelling he would readily have thrown over Custins and Lord +Popplecourt. He could not bring himself to trust much to the +Popplecourt scheme. But the same contrivance had answered on that +former occasion. When he spoke to her about their plans, she +expressed herself quite ready to go back to England. When he +suggested those Chinese cities, her face became very long and she +was immediately attacked by paroxysms of headaches. + +'I think I should take her to some place on the seashores of +England,' said Mrs Finn. + +'Custins is close to the sea,' he replied. 'It is Lord Cantrip's +place in Dorsetshire. It was partly settled that she was to go +there.' + +'I suppose she likes Lady Cantrip.' + +'Why should she not?' + +'She has not said a word to me to the contrary. I only fear that +she would feel that she was being sent there,--as to a convent.' + +'What ought I to do then?' + +'How can I venture to answer that? What she would like best, I +think, would be to return to Matching with you, and settle down in +a quiet way for the winter.' The Duke shook his head. That would +be worse than travelling. She would still have headaches and still +tell him that she was unhappy. 'Of course I do not know what your +plans are, and pray believe me that I should not obtrude my advice +if you did not ask me.' + +'I know it,' he said. 'I know how good you are and how reasonable. +I know how much you have to forgive.' + +'Oh no.' + +'And if I have not said so as I should have done it has not been +from want of feeling. I do believe you did what you thought best +when Mary told you that story at Matching.' + +'Why should your Grace go back to that?' + +'Only that I may acknowledge my indebtedness to you, and say to +you somewhat fuller than I could do in my letter that I am sorry +for the pain which I gave you.' + +'All that is over now;--and shall be forgiven.' + +Then he spoke of his immediate plans. He would at once go back to +England by slow stages,--by very slow stages,--staying a day or two +at Salzburg, at Ratisbon, at Nuremberg, at Frankfurt, and so on. +In this way he would reach England about the tenth of October, and +Mary would then be ready to go to Custins by the time appointed. + +In a day or two Lady Mary was better. 'It is terrible while it +lasts,' she said, speaking to Mrs Finn of her headache, 'but when +it has gone then I am quite well. Only'--she added after a pause,-- +'only I can never be happy again while papa thinks as he does now.' + Then there was a party made up before they separated for an +excursion to the Hintersee and the Obersee. On this occasion Lady +Mary seemed to enjoy herself, as she liked the companionship of +Mrs Finn. Against Lady Cantrip she never said a word. But Lady +Cantrip was always a duenna to her, whereas Mrs Finn was a friend. +While the Duke and Phineas were discussing politics together, +thoroughly enjoying the weakness of Lord Drummond and the iniquity +of Sir Timothy, which they did with augmented vehemence from their +ponies' backs, the two women in lower voices talked over their own +affairs. 'I dare say you will be happy at Custins,' said Mrs Finn. + +'No; I shall not. There will be people there whom I don't know, +and I don't want to know. Have you heard anything about him, Mrs +Finn?' + +Mrs Finn turned round and looked at her,--for a moment almost +angrily. Then her heart relented, 'Do you mean--Mr Tregear?' + +'Yes, Mr Tregear.' + +'I think I heard that he was shooting with Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I am glad of that,' said Mary. + +'It will be pleasant for both of them.' + +'I am very glad they should be together. While I know that, I feel +that we are not altogether separated. I will never give it up, Mrs +Finn,--never, never. It is not use taking me to China.' In that +Mrs Finn quite agreed with her. + + + +CHAPTER 42 + +Again at Killancodlem + +Silverbridge remained at Crummie-Toddie under the dominion of +Reginald Dobbes till the second week of September. Popplecourt, +Nidderdale and Gerald Palliser were there also, very obedient and +upon the whole efficient. Tregear was intractable, occasional, and +untrustworthy. He was the cause of much trouble to Mr Dobbes. He +would entertain a most heterodox and injurious idea that he had +come to Crummie-Toddie for amusement, and he was not bound to do +anything that did not amuse him. He would not understand that in +sport as in other matters there was an ambition, driving man on to +excel always and be ahead of others. In spite of this Mr Dobbes +had cause for much triumph. It was going to be the greatest thing +ever done by six guns in Scotland. As for Gerald, whom he had +regarded as a boy; and who had offended him by saying that +Crummie-Toddie was ugly,--he was ready to go round the world for +him. He had indoctrinated Gerald with all his ideas of a +sportsman,--even to a contempt for champagne and a conviction that +tobacco should be moderated. The three lords too had proved +themselves efficient, and the thing was going to be a success. But +just when a day was of vital importance, when it was essential +that there should be a strong party for a drive, Silverbridge +found it absolutely necessary that he should go over to +Killancodlem. + +'She has gone,' said Nidderdale. + +'Who the ---- is she?' asked Silverbridge almost angrily. + +'Everybody know who she is,' said Popplecourt. + +'It will be a good thing when some she has got hold of you, my +boy, so as to keep you in your proper place.' + +'If you cannot withstand that sort of attraction you ought not to +go in for shooting at all,' said Dobbes. + +'I shouldn't wonder at his going,' continued Nidderdale, 'if we +didn't all know that the American is no longer there. She has gone +to--Bath, I think they say.' + +'I suppose it Mrs Jones herself,' said Popplecourt. + +'My dear boy,' said Silverbridge, 'you may be quite sure that when +I say that I am going to Killancodlem I mean to go to +Killancodlem, and that no chaff about young ladies,--which I think +very disgusting,--will stop me. I shall be sorry if Dobbes's roll +of the killed should be lessened by a single hand; seeing that his +ambition sets that way. Considering the amount of slaughter we +have perpetrated, I really think that we need not be over +anxious.' After this nothing further was said. Tregear, who knew +that Mabel Grex was still at Killancodlem, had not spoken. + +In truth Mabel had sent for Lord Silverbridge, and this had been +her letter. + +'MY DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'Mrs Montacute Jones is cut to the heart because you have not been +over to see her again, and she says that it is lamentable to think +that such a man as Reginald Dobbes should have so much power over +you. 'Only twelve miles,' she says, 'and he knows that we are +here!' I told that you knew Miss Boncassen was gone. + +'But though Miss Boncassen has left us we are a very pleasant +party, and surely you must be tired of such a place as Crummie- +Toddie. If only for the sake of getting a good dinner once in a +way do come over again. I shall be here for ten days. As they will +not let me go back to Grex I don't know where I could be more +happy. I have been asked to go to Custins, and suppose I shall +turn up some time in the autumn. + +'And now shall I tell you what I expect? I do expect that you will +come over to--see me. "I did see her the other day," you will say, +"and she did not make herself pleasant." I know that. How was I +to make myself pleasant when I found myself so completely snuffed +out by your American beauty? Now she is away, and Richard will be +himself. Do come, because in truth I want to see you. + +'Yours always sincerely. + +'MABEL GREX.' + +On receiving this he at once made up his mind to go to +Killancodlem, but he could not make up his mind why it was that +she had asked him. He was sure of two things; sure in the first +place that she had intended to let him know that she did not care +about him; and then sure that she was aware of his intention in +regard to Miss Boncassen. Everybody at Killancodlem had seen it,-- +to his disgust; but still that it was so had been manifest. And he +had consoled himself, feeling that it would matter nothing should +he be accepted. She had made an attempt to talk him out of his +purpose. Could it be that she thought it possible a second attempt +might be successful? If so, she did not know him. + +She had in truth thought not only that this, but that something +further than this might be possible. Of course the prize loomed +larger before her eyes as the prospect of obtaining it became +less. She could not doubt that he had intended to offer her his +hand when he had spoken to her of his love in London. Then she had +stopped him;--had 'spared him', as she had told her friend. +Certainly she had then been swayed by some feeling that it would be +ungenerous in her to seize greedily the first opportunity he had +given her. But he had again made an effort. He surely would not +have sent her the ring had he not intended her to regard him as +her lover. When she received the ring her heart had beat very +high. Then she had sent that little note, saying that she would +keep it till she could give it to his wife. When she wrote that +she had intended that the ring should be her own. And other things +pressed upon her mind. Why had she been invited to Custins? Little +hints had reached her of the Duke's goodwill towards her. If on +that side marriage were approved, why should she destroy her own +hopes? + +Then she had seen him with Miss Boncassen, and in her pique had +forced the ring back upon him. During that long game on the lawn +her feelings had been very bitter. Of course the girl was the +lovelier of the two. All the world was raving of her beauty. And +there was no doubt as to the charm of her wit and manner. And then +she had no touch of that blase used-up way of life of which Lady +Mabel was conscious herself. It was natural that it should be so. +and was she, Mabel Grex, the girl to stand in his way, and to +force herself upon him, if he loved another? Certainly not,--though +there might be a triple coronet to be had. + +But were there not other considerations? Could it be well that the +heir of the House of Omnium should marry an American girl, as to +whose humble birth whispers were already afloat? As his friend, +would it not be right that she should tell him what the world +would say? as his friend, therefore, she had given him her +counsel. + +When he was gone the whole thing weighed heavily on her mind. Why +should she lose the prize if it might still be her own? To be +Duchess of Omnium! She had read of many of the other sex and of +one or two of her own who by settled resolution had achieved +greatness in opposition to all obstacles. Was this thing beyond +her reach? To hunt him and catch him, and marry him to his own +injury,--that would be impossible to her. She was sure of herself +there. But how infinitely better would this be for him! Would she +not have all his family with her,--and all the world of England? +In how short a time would he not repent his marriage with Miss +Boncassen? Whereas, were she his wife, she would stir herself for +his joys, for his good, for his honour, that there should be no +possibility of repentance. And he certainly had loved her. Why +else had he followed her, and spoken such words to her? Of course +he had loved her! But then there had come this blaze of beauty +and had carried off,--not his heart, but his imagination. Because +he had yielded to such fascination, was she to desert him, and +also to desert herself? From day to day she thought of it, and +then she wrote that letter. She hardly knew what she would do, +what she might say; but she would trust to the opportunity to do +and say something. + +'If you have no room for me,' he said to Mrs Jones, 'you must +scold Lady Mab. She has told me that you told her to invite me.' + +'Of course I did. Do you think I would not sleep in the stables, +and give you up my own bed if there were no other? It is so good +of you to come!' + +'So good of you, Mrs Jones, to ask me.' + +'So very kind to come when all the attraction has gone!' Then he +blushed and stammered, and was just able to say that his only +object in life was to pour out his adoration at the feet of Mrs +Montacute Jones herself. + +There was a certain Lady Fawn,--a pretty mincing married woman of +about twenty-five, with a husband much older, who liked mild +flirtations with mild young men. 'I am afraid we've lost your +great attraction,' she whispered to him. + +'Certainly not as long as Lady Fawn is here,' he said, seating +himself close to her on a garden bench, and seizing suddenly hold +of her hand. She gave a little scream and a jerk, and so relieved +herself from him. 'You see,' said he, 'people do make such +mistakes about a man's feelings.' + +'Lord Silverbridge!' + +'It's quite true, but I'll tell you about it another time,' and so +he left her. All these little troubles, his experience in the +'House', the necessity of snubbing Tifto, the choice of a wife, +and his battle with Reginald Dobbes, were giving him by degrees +age and flavour. + +Lady Mabel had fluttered about him on his first coming, and had +been very gracious, doing the part of an old friend. 'There is to +be a big shooting tomorrow,' she said, in the presence of Mrs +Jones. + +'If it is to come to that,' he said, 'I might as well go back to +Dobbydom.' + +'You may shoot if you like,' said Mabel. + +'I haven't even brought a gun with me.' + +'Then we'll have a walk,--a whole lot of us,' she said. + +In the evening about an hour before dinner Silverbridge and Lady +Mabel were seated together on the bank of a little stream which +ran on the other side of the road, but on a spot not more than a +furlong from the hall-door. She had brought him there, but she had +done so without any definite scheme. She had made no plan of +campaign for the evening, having felt relieved when she found +herself able to postpone the project of her attack till the +morrow. Of course there must be an attack, but how it should be +made she had never the courage to tell herself. The great women of +the world, the Semiramises, the Pocohontas, the Ida Pfeiffers, and +the Charlotte Cordays, had never been wanting to themselves when +the moment for action came. Now she was pleased to have this +opportunity added to her; this pleasant minute in which some soft +preparatory word might be spoken; but the great effort should be +made on the morrow. + +'Is not this nicer than shooting with Mr Dobbes?' she asked. + +'A great deal nicer. Of course I am bound to say so.' + +'But in truth, I want to find out what you really like. Men are so +different. You need not pay me any compliment; you know that well +enough.' + +'I like you better than Dobbes,--if you mean that.' + +'Even so much is something.' + +'But I am fond of shooting.' + +'Only a man may have enough of it.' + +'Too much, if he is subject to Dobbes, as Dobbes likes them to be. +Gerald likes it.' + +'Did you think it odd,' she said after a pause, 'that I should ask +you to come over again?' + +'Was it odd?' he replied. + +'That is as you may take it. There is certainly no other man in +the world to whom I would have done it.' + +'Not to Tregear?' + +'Yes,' she said; 'yes,--to Tregear, could I have been as sure of a +welcome for him as I am for you. Frank is in all respects the same +as a brother to me. That would not have seemed odd;--I mean to +myself.' + +'And has this been--odd,--to yourself?' + +'Yes. Not that anybody has felt it. Only I,--and perhaps you. You +felt it so?' + +'Not especially. I thought you were a good fellow. I have always +thought that;--except when you made me take back the ring.' + +'Does that still fret you?' + +'No man likes to take back a thing. It makes him seem to have been +awkward and stupid in giving it.' + +'It was the value--' + +'You should have left me to judge of that.' + +'If I have offended you I will beg your pardon. Give me anything +but that, and I will take it.' + +'But why not that?' said he. + +'Now that you have fitted it for a lady's finger it should go to +your wife. No one else should have it.' Upon this he brought the +ring once more out of his pocket and again offered it to her. 'No; +anything but that. That your wife must have.' Then he put the +ring back again. 'It would have been nicer for you had Miss +Boncassen been here.' In saying this she followed no plan. It +came rather from pique. It was almost as though she had asked him +whether Miss Boncassen was to have the ring. + +'What makes you say that?' + +'But it would.' + +'Yes it would,' he replied stoutly, turning round as he lay on the +ground and facing her. + +'Has it come to that?' + +'Come to what? You ask me a question and I will answer it truly.' + +'You cannot be happy without her?' + +'I did not say so. You ask me whether I should like to have her +here,--and I say Yes. What would you think of me if I said No?' + +'My being here is not enough?' This should not have been said, of +course; but the little speech came from the exquisite pain of the +moment. She had meant to have said hardly anything. She had +intended to be happy with him, just touching lightly on things +which might lead to that attack which must be made on the morrow. +But words will often lead whither the speaker has not intended. So +it was now, and in the soreness of her heart she spoke, 'My being +here is not enough?' + +'It would be enough,' he said jumping to his feet, 'if you would +understand all and be kind to me.' + +'I will at any rate be kind to you,' she replied, as she sat upon +the bank looking at the running water. + +'I have asked Miss Boncassen to be my wife.' + +'And she has accepted?' + +'No; not as yet. She is to take three months to think of it. Of +course I love her best of all. If you will sympathise with me in +that, then I will be as happy with you as the day is long.' + +'No,' said she, 'I cannot. I will not.' + +'Very well.' + +'There should be no such marriage. If you have told me this in +confidence--' + +'Of course I have told you in confidence.' + +'It will go no farther; but there can be no sympathy between us. +It--it--it is not,--is not--' Then she burst into tears. + +'Mabel!' + +'No, sir, no; no! What did you mean? But never mind. I have no +question to ask, not a word to say. Why should I? Only this,--that +such a marriage will disgrace your family. To me it is no more +than to anybody else. But it will disgrace your family.' + +How she got back to the house she hardly knew; nor did he. That +evening they did not again speak to each other, and on the +following morning there was no walk to the mountains. Before +dinner he drove himself back to Crummie-Toddie, and when he was +taking his leave she shook hands with him with her usual pleasant +smile. + + + +CHAPTER 43 + +What Happened at Doncaster + +The Leger this year was to be run on the fourteenth of September, +and while Lord Silverbridge was amusing himself with the dear at +Crummie-Toddie and at Killancodlem with the more easily pursued +young ladies, the indefatigable Major was hard at work in the +stables. This came a little hard on him. There was the cub-hunting +to be looked after, which made his presence at Runnymede +necessary, and then that 'pig-headed fellow, Silverbridge', would +not have the horse trained anywhere but at Newmarket. How was he +to be in two places at once? Yet he was in two places, almost at +once, cub-hunting in the morning at Egham and Bagshot, and sitting +on the same evening at the stable-door at Newmarket, with his eyes +fixed upon Prime Minister. + +Gradually had he and Captain Green come to understand each other, +and though they did at last understand each other, Tifto would +talk as though there were no such correct intelligence;--when for +instance he would abuse Lord Silverbridge for being pig-headed. On +such occasions the Captain's remark would generally be short. +'That be blowed!' he would say, implying that that state of things +between the two partners in which such complaints might be +natural, had now been brought to an end. But on one occasion, +about a week before the race, he spoke out a little plainer. +'What's the use of going on with all that, before me? It's settled +what you've got to do.' + +'I don't know that anything is settled,' said the Major. + +'Ain't it? I thought it was. if it aren't you'll find yourself in +the wrong box. You've as straight a tip as a man need wish for, +but if you back out you'll come to grief. Your money's all on the +other way already.' + +On the Friday before the race Silverbridge dined with Tifto at the +Beargarden. On the next morning they went down to Newmarket to see +the horse get a gallop, and came back the same evening. During all +this time, Tifto was more than ordinarily pleasant to his patron. +The horse and the certainty of the horse's success were the only +subjects mooted. 'It isn't what I say,' repeated Tifto, 'but look +at the betting. You can't get five to four against him. They tell +me that if you want to do anything on the Sunday the pull will be +the other way.' + +'I stand to lose twenty thousand pounds already,' said +Silverbridge, almost frightened by the amount. + +'But how much are you to win?' said Tifto. 'I suppose you could +sell your bets for five thousand pounds down.' + +'I wish I knew how to do it,' said Silverbridge. But this was an +arrangement, which, if made just now, would not suit the Major's +views. + +They went to Newmarket, and there they met Captain Green. 'Tifto,' +said the young lord, 'I won't have that fellow with us when that +horse is galloping.' + +'There isn't an honester man, or a man who understands a horse's +pace better in all England,' said Tifto. + +'I won't have him standing alongside of me on the Heath,' said his +lordship. + +'I don't know how I'm to help it.' + +'If he's there I'll send the horse in;--that's all.' Then Tifto +found it best to say a few words to Captain Green. But the Captain +also said a few words to himself. 'D--- young fool; he don't know +what he's dropping into.' Which assertion, if you lay aside the +unnecessary expletive, was true to the letter. Lord Silverbridge +was a young fool, and did not at all know into what a mess he was +being dropped by the united experience, perspicuity, and energy of +the man whose company on the Heath he had declined. + +The horse was quite a picture to look at. Mr Pook the trainer +assured his Lordship that for health and condition he had never +seen anything better. 'Stout all over,' said Mr Pook, 'and not an +ounce of what you may call flesh. And bright! just feel his coat, +my Lord! That's 'ealth,--that is; not dressing, nor yet macassar!' + +And then there were various evidences produced of his pace,--how he +had beaten that horse, giving him two pounds, how he had been +beated by that, but only a mile course; the Leger distance was +just the thing for Prime Minister; how by a lucky chance that +marvellous quick rat of a thing that had won the Derby had not +been entered for the autumn race; how Coalheaver was known to have +bad feet. 'He's a stout 'orse, no doubt,--is the 'Eaver,' said Mr +Pook, 'and that's why the betting-men have stuck to him. But he'll +be nowhere on Wednesday. They're beginning to see it now, my Lord. +I wish they wasn't so sharp-sighted.' + +In the course of the day, however, they met a gentleman who was of +a different opinion. He said loudly that he looked on the Heaver +as the best three-year-old in England. Of course as matters stood +he wasn't going to back the Heaver with even money;--but he'd take +twenty-five to thirty in hundreds between the two. All this ended +in the bet being accepted and duly booked by Lord Silverbridge. +And in this way Silverbridge added two thousand four hundred +pounds to his responsibilities. + +But there was worse than this coming. On the Sunday afternoon he +went down to Doncaster, of course in the company with the Major. +He was alive to the necessity of ridding himself of the Major; but +it had been acknowledged that the duty could not be performed till +after this race had been run. As he sat opposite to his friend on +their journey to Doncaster, he thought of this in the train. It +should be done immediately on their return to London after the +race. But the horse, his Prime Minister, was by this time so dear +to him that he intended if possible to keep possession of the +animal. + +When they reached Doncaster the racing-men were all occupied with +Prime Minister. The horse and Mr Pook had arrived that day from +Newmarket, via Cambridge and Peterborough. Tifto, Silverbridge, +and Mr Pook visited him together three times that afternoon and +evening;--and the Captain also visited the horse, though not in +company with Lord Silverbridge. To do Mr Pook justice, no one +could be more careful. When the Captain came round with the Major +Mr Pook was there. But Captain Green did not enter the box,--had no +wise to do so, was of the opinion that on such occasions no one +whose business did not carry him there should go near a horse. His +only object seemed to be to compliment Mr Pook as to his care, +skill, and good fortune. + +It was on the Tuesday evening that the chief mischief was done. +There was a club at which many of the racing-men dined, and there +Lord Silverbridge spent his evening. He was the hero of the hour, +and everybody flattered him. It must be acknowledged that his head +was turned. They dined at eight and much wine was drunk. No one +was tipsy, but many were elated; and much confidence in their +favourite animals was imparted to men who had been sufficiently +cautious before dinner. Then cigars and soda-and-brandy became +common, and our young friend was not more abstemious than others. +Large sums were named, and at last in three successive bets Lord +Silverbridge backed his horse for more than forty thousand pounds. +As he was making the second bet Mr Lupton came across to him and +begged him to hold his hand. 'It will be a nasty sum for you to +lose, and winning it will be nothing to you,' he said. +Silverbridge took it good-humouredly, but said that he knew what +he was about. 'These men will pay,' whispered Lupton; 'but you +can't be sure what they're at.' The young man's brow was covered +with perspiration. He was smoking quick and had already smoked +more than was good for him. 'All right,' he said. 'I'll mind what +I'm about.' Mr Lupton could do no more, and retired. Before the +night was over bets had been booked to the amount stated, and the +Duke's son, who had promised that he would never plunge, stood to +lose about seventy thousand pounds upon the race. + +While this was going on Tifto sat not far from his patron, but +completely silent. During the day and early in the evening a few +sparks of the glory which scintillated from the favourite horse +flew in his direction. But he was on this occasion unlike himself, +and though the horse was to be run in his name had very little to +say in the matter. Not a boast came out of his mouth during dinner +or after dinner. He was so moody that his partner, who was +generally anxious to keep him quiet, more than once endeavoured to +encourage him. But he was unable to rouse himself. It was still +within his power to run straight; to be on the square, if not with +Captain Green, at any rate with Lord Silverbridge. But to do so he +must make a clean breast with his Lordship and confess the +intended sin. As he heard all that was being done, his conscience +troubled him sorely. With pitch of this sort he had never soiled +himself before. He was to have three thousand pounds from Green, +and then there would be the bets he himself had laid against the +horse,--by Green's assistance! It would be the making of him. Of +what use had been all his 'square' work to him? And then +Silverbridge had behaved so badly to him! But still, as he sat +there during the evening, he would have given a hand to have been +free from the attempt. He had no conception before that he could +become subject to such misery from such a cause. He would make it +straight with Silverbridge this very night,--but that Silverbridge +was ever lighting fresh cigars and ever having his glass refilled. +It was clear to him that on this night Silverbridge could not be +made to understand anything about it. And the deed in which he +himself was to be the chief actor was to be done very early in the +following morning. At last he slunk away to bed. + +On the following morning, the morning of the day on which the race +was to be run, the Major tapped on his patron's door about seven +o'clock. Of course there was no answer though the knock was +repeated. When young men overnight drink as much brandy-and-water +as Silverbridge had done, and smoke as many cigars, they are apt +not to hear knocks at their door made at seven o'clock. But there +was no time, not a minute, to be lost. Now, within this minute +that was pressing on him, Tifto must choose his course. He opened +the door and was standing at the young man's head. + +'What the d- does this mean?' said his Lordship angrily, as soon +as his visitor had succeeded in waking him. Tifto muttered +something about the horse which Silverbridge failed to understand. +The young man's condition was by no means pleasant. His mouth was +furred by the fumes of tobacco. His head was aching. He was heavy +with sleep, and this intrusion seemed to him to be a final +indignity offered to him by the man whom he now hated. 'What +business have you to come in here?' he said, leaning on his elbow. +'I don't care a straw for the horse. If you have anything to say +send my servant. Get out!' + +'Oh;--very well,' said Tifto;--and Tifto got out. + +It was about an hour afterwards that Tifto returned, and on this +occasion a groom from the stables, and the young Lord's own +servant, and two or three other men were with him. Tifto had been +made to understand that the news was about to be communicated, +must be communicated by himself, whether his Lordship were angry +or not. Indeed, after what had been done his Lordship's anger was +not of much moment. In his present visit he was only carrying out +the pleasant little plan which had been arranged for him by +Captain Green. 'What the mischief is up?' said Silverbridge, +rising in his bed. + +Then Tifto told his story, sullenly, doggedly, but still in a +perspicuous manner, and with words which admitted of no doubt. But +before he told the story he had excluded all but himself and the +groom. He and the groom had taken the horse out of the stable, it +being the animal's nature to eat his corn better after a slight +exercise, and while doing so a nail had been picked up. + +'Is it much?' asked Silverbridge, jumping still higher in his bed. +Then he was told that it was very much,--that the iron had driven +itself into the horse's frog, and that there was actually no +possibility that the horse should be run that day. + +'He can't walk, my Lord,' said the groom in that authoritative +voice which grooms use when they desire to have their own way, and +to make their masters understand that they at any rate are not to +have theirs. + +'Where is Pook?' asked Silverbridge. But Mr Pook was also still in +bed. + +It was soon known to Lord Silverbridge as a fact that in very +truth the horse could not run. Then sick with headache, with a +stomach suffering unutterable things, he had, as he dressed +himself, to think of his seventy thousand pounds. Of course the +money would be forthcoming. But how would his father look at him? +How would it be between him and his father now? after such a +misfortune how would he be able to break that other matter to the +Duke, and say that he had changed his mind about his marriage,-- +that he was going to abandon Lady Mabel Grex and give his hand and +a future Duchess's coronet to an American girl whose grandfather +had been a porter. + +A nail in his foot! He had heard of such things before. He knew +that such accidents had happened. What an ass must he have been to +risk such a sum on the well-being and safety of an animal who +might any day pick up a nail in is foot? Then he thought of the +caution which Lupton had given him. What good would the money have +done him had he won it? What more could he have than he now +enjoyed? But to lose such a sum of money! With all his advantages +of wealth he felt himself to be as forlorn and wretched as though +he had nothing left in the world before him. + + + +CHAPTER 44 + +How It was Done + +The story was soon about the town, and was the one matter for +discussion in all racing quarters. About the town! It was about +England, about all Europe. It had travelled to America and the +Indies, to Australia and the Chinese cities before two hours were +over. Before the race was run the accident was discussed and +something like the truth surmised in Cairo, Calcutta, Melbourne, +and San Francisco. But at Doncaster it was so all-pervading a +matter that down to the tradesmen's daughters and the boys at the +free-school the town was divided into two parties, one party +believing it to have been a 'plant', and the other holding that +the cause had been natural. It is hardly necessary to say that the +ring, as a rule, belonged to the former party. The ring always +suspects. It did not behove even those who would win by the +transaction to stand up for its honesty. + +The intention had been to take the horse round a portion of the +outside of the course near to which his stable stood. A boy rode +him and the groom and Tifto went with him. At a certain spot on +their return Tifto had exclaimed that the horse was going lame in +his off fore-foot. As to this exclamation the boy and two men were +agreed. The boy was then made to dismount and run for Mr Pook; and +as he started Tifto commenced to examine the horse's foot. The boy +saw him raise the off fore-leg. He himself had not found the horse +lame under him, but had been so hustled and hurried out of the +saddle by Tifto and the groom that he had not thought on that +matter till he was questioned. So far the story told by Tifto and +the groom was corroborated by the boy,--except as to the horse's +actual lameness. So far the story was believed by all men,--except +in regard to the actual lameness. And so far it was true. Then, +according to Tifto and the groom, the other foot was looked at, +but nothing was seen. This other foot, the near fore-foot, was +examined by the groom, who declared himself to be so flurried by +the lameness of such a horse at such a time, that he hardly knew +what he saw or what he did not see. At any rate then in his +confusion he found no cause of lameness; but the horse was led +into the stable as lame as at tree. Here Tifto found the nail +inserted into the very cleft of the frog of the near fore-foot, +and so inserted that he could not extract it till the farrier +came. That the farrier had extracted the nail from the part of +the foot indicated was certainly a fact. + +Then there was the nail. Only those who were most peculiarly +privileged were allowed to see the nail. But it was buzzed about +the racing quarters that the head of the nail,--and old rusty, +straight, and well-pointed nail,--bore on it the mark of a recent +hammer. In answer to this it was alleged that the blacksmith in +extracting the nail with his pincers, had of course operated on +its head, had removed certain particles of rust, and might easily +have given it the appearance of having been struck. But in answer +to this the farrier, who was a sharp fellow, and quite beyond +suspicion in the matter, declared that he had very particularly +looked at the nail before he extracted it,--had looked at it with +the feeling that something base might too probably have been +done,--and that he was ready to swear that the clear mark on the +head of the nail was there before he touched it. And then not in +the stable, but lying under the little dung-heap away from the +stable-door, there was found a small piece of broken iron bar, +about a foot long, which might have answered for a hammer,--a rusty +bit of iron; and amidst the rust of this there was found such +traces as might have been left had it been used in striking such a +nail. There were some who declared that neither on the nail nor on +the iron could they see anything. And among these was the Major. +But Mr Lupton brought a strong magnifying-glass to bear, and the +world of examiners was satisfied that the marks were there. + +It seemed however to be agreed that nothing could be done. +Silverbridge would not lend himself at all to those who suspected +mischief. He was miserable enough, but in this great trouble he +would not separate himself from Tifto. 'I don't believe a word of +all that,' he said to Mr Lupton. + +'It ought to be investigated at any rate.' + +'Mr Pook may do as he likes, but I will have nothing to do with +it.' + +Then Tifto came to him swaggering. Tifto had to go through a +considerable amount of acting, for which he was not very well +adapted. The Captain would have done it better. He would have +endeavoured to put himself altogether into the same boat with his +partner, and would have imagined neither suspicion or enmity on +his partner's part till suspicion or enmity had been shown. But +Tifto, who had not expected that the matter should be allowed to +pass over without some inquiry, began by assuming that +Silverbridge would think of evil of him. Tifto, who at this moment +would have given all that he had in the world not to have done the +deed, who now hated the instigator of the deed, and felt something +almost akin to love for Silverbridge, found himself to be forced +by circumstances to defend himself by swaggering. 'I don't +understand all this that's going on, my Lord,' he said. + +'Neither do I,' replied Silverbridge. + +'Any horse is subject to an accident. I am, I suppose, as great a +sufferer as you are, and deuced sight less able to bear it.' + +'Who said anything to the contrary? As for bearing it, we must +take it as it comes,--both of us. You may as well know now as later +that I have done with racing--for ever.' + +'What do you do you tell me that for? You can do as you like and I +can do as I like about that. If I had my way about the horse this +never would have happened. Taking a horse out at that time in the +morning,--before a race!' + +'Why, you went out with him yourself.' + +'Yes;---by Pook's orders. You allowed Pook to do just as he +pleased. I should like to know what money Pook had got on it, and +which way he laid it.' This disgusted Silverbridge so much that +he turned away and would have no more to say to Tifto. + +Before one o'clock, at which hour it was stated nominally that the +races would commence, general opinion had formed itself,--and +general opinion had nearly hit the truth. General opinion declared +that the nail had been driven in wilfully,--that it had been done +by Tifto himself, and that Tifto had been instigated by Captain +Green. Captain Green perhaps overacted his part a little. His +intimacy with the Major was well known, and yet, in all this +turmoil, he kept himself apart as though he had no interest in the +matter. 'I have got my little money on, and what little I have I +lose,' he said in answer to inquiries. But everyone knew that he +could not but have a great interest in a race, as to which the +half owner of the favourite was a peculiarly intimate friend of +his own. Had he come down to the stables and been seen about the +place with Tifto it might have been better. As it was, though he +was very quiet, his name was soon mixed up in the matter. There +was one man who asserted it as a fact known to himself that Green +and Villiers,--one Gilbert Villiers,--were in partnership together. +It was very well known that Gilbert Villiers would win two +thousand five hundred pounds from Lord Silverbridge. + +Then minute investigations was made into the betting of certain +individuals. Of course there would be great plunder, and where +would the plunder go? Who would get the money which poor +Silverbridge would lose? It was said that one at least of the +large bets made on that Tuesday evening could be traced to the +same Villiers though not actually made by him. More would be +learned when the settling-day should come. But there was quite +enough already to show that there were many men determined to get +to the bottom of it if possible. + +There came upon Silverbridge in his trouble a keen sense of his +position and a feeling of the dignity which he ought to support. +He clung during great part of the morning to Mr Lupton. Mr Lupton +was much his senior and they had never been intimate; but now +there was comfort in his society. 'I am afraid you are hit +heavily,' said Mr Lupton. + +'Something over seventy thousand pounds.' + +'Looking at what will be your property it is of course nothing. +But if--' + +'If what?' + +'If you go to the Jews for it then it will become a great deal.' + +'I shall certainly not do that.' + +'Then you may regard it as a trifle,' said Lupton. + +'No, I can't. It is not a trifle. I must tell my father. He'll +find the money.' + +'There is no doubt about that.' + +'He will. But I feel at present that I would rather change places +with the poorest gentleman I know than have to tell him. I have +done with races, Lupton.' + +'If so, this will have been a happy day for you. A man in your +position can hardly make money by it, but he may lose so much! If +a man really likes the amusement,--as I do,--and risks no more that +what he has in his pocket, that may be very well.' + +'At any rate I have done with it.' + +Nevertheless he went to see the race run, and everybody seemed to +be touched with pity for him. He carried himself well, saying as +little as he could of his own horse, and taking, or affecting to +take, great interest in the race. After the race he managed to see +all those to whom he has lost heavy stakes,--having to own to +himself as he did so that not one of them was a gentleman to whom +who should like to give his hand. To them he explained that his +father was abroad,--that probably his liabilities could not be +settled till after his father's return. He however would consult +his father's agent and would then appear on settling-day. They +were all full of their blandest courtesies. There was not one of +them who had any doubt as to getting his money,--unless the whole +thing might be disputed on the score of Tifto's villainy. Even +then payment could not be disputed unless it was proved that he +who demanded the money had been one of the actual conspirators. +After having seen his creditors he went away up alone to London. + +When in London he went to Carlton Terrace and spent the night in +absolute solitude. It had been his plan to join Gerald for some +partridge-shooting at Matching, and then to go yachting till such +time as he should be enabled to renew his suit to Miss Boncassen. +Early in November he would again ask her to be his wife. These had +been his plans. But now it seemed that everything was changed. +Partridge-shooting and yachting must be out of the question till +this terrible load was taken off his shoulders. Soon after his +arrival at the house two telegrams followed him from Doncaster. +One was from Gerald. 'What is all this about Prime Minister? Is it +a sell? I am so unhappy.' The other was from Lady Mabel,--for +among other luxuries Mrs Montacute Jones had her own telegraph-wire +at Killancodlem. 'Can this be true? We are all so miserable. I do +hope it is not much.' From which he learned that his misfortune +was already known to all his friends. + +And now what was he to do? He ate his supper, and then without +hesitating for a moment--feeling that if he did hesitate the task +would not be done on that night,--he sat down and wrote the +following letter. + +'Carlton Terrace, Sept. 14, 18-. + +'MY DEAR MR MORETON, + +'I have just come up from Doncaster. You have probably heard what +has been Prime Minister's fate. I don't know whether any horse has +been such a favourite for the Leger. Early in the morning he was +taken out and picked up a nail. The consequence was he could not +run. + +'Now I must come to the bad part of my story. I have lost seventy +thousand pounds! It is no use beating about the bush. The sum is +something over that. What am I to do? If I tell you that I shall +give up racing altogether I dare say you will not believe me. It +is a sort of thing a man always says when he wants money; but I +feel now I cannot help saying it. + +'But what shall I do? Perhaps, if it be not too much trouble, you +will come up to town and see me. You can send me a word by the +wires. + +'You may be sure of this. I shall make no attempt to raise the +money elsewhere, unless I find that my father will not help me. +You will understand that of course it must be paid. You will +understand also what I must feel about telling my father, but I +shall do so at once. I only wait till I can hear from you. + +'Yours faithfully, +'SILVERBRIDGE.' + +During the next day two despatches reached Lord Silverbridge, both +of them coming as he sat down to his solitary dinner. The first +consisted of a short but very civil note. + +'Messrs Comfort and Criball present their compliments to the Earl +of Silverbridge. + +'Messrs C and C beg to offer their apologies for interfering, but +desire to inform his Lordship that should cash be wanting to any +amount in consequence of the late races, they will be happy to +accommodate his Lordship on most reasonable terms at a moment's +notice, upon his Lordship's simple bond. + +'Lord Silverbridge may be sure of absolute secrecy. + +'Crasham Court, Crutched Friars, Sept 15, 18-.' + +The other despatch was a telegram from Mr Moreton, saying that he +would be in Carlton Terrace by noon on the following day. + + + +CHAPTER 45 + +There Shall Not be Another Word About It. + +Early in October the Duke was at Matching with his daughter, and +Phineas Finn and his wife were both with them. On the day after +they parted at Ischl the first news respecting Prime Minister had +reached him,--namely, that his son's horse had lost the race. This +would not have annoyed him at all, but that the papers which he +read contained some vague charge of swindling against somebody, +and hinted that Lord Silverbridge had been a victim. Even this +would not have troubled him,--might in some sort have comforted +him,--were it made evident to him that his son had been closely +associated with swindlers in these transactions. If it were a mere +question of money, that might be settled without difficulty. Even +though the sum lost might have grown out of what he might have +expected into some few thousands, still he would bear it without a +word, if only he could separate his boy from bad companions. Then +came Mr Moreton's letter telling him the whole. + +At the meeting which took place between Silverbridge and his +father's agent at Carlton Terrace it was settled that Mr Moreton +should write the letter. Silverbridge tried and found that he +could not do it. He did not know how to humiliate himself +sufficiently, and yet could not keep himself from making attempts +to prove that according to all recognised chances his bets had +been good bets. + +Mr Moreton was better able to accomplish the task. He knew the +Duke's mind. A very large discretion had been left in Mr Moreton's +hands in regard to moneys which might be needed on behalf of that +dangerous heir!-so large that he had been able to tell Lord +Silverbridge that if the money was in truth lost according to +Jockey Club rules, it should be all forthcoming on the settling- +day,--certainly without assistance from Messrs Comfort and Criball. +The Duke had been nervously afraid of such men of business as +Comfort and Criball, and from the earliest days of his son's semi- +manhood had been on his guard against them. Let any sacrifice be +made so that his son might be kept clear from Comforts and +Criballs. To Mr Moreton he had been very explicit. His own +pecuniary resources were so great that they could bear some +ravaging without serious detriment. It was for his son's character +and standing in the world, for his future respectability and +dignity that his fears were so keen, and not for his own money. By +one so excitable, so fond of pleasure as Lord Silverbridge, some +ravaging would probably be made. Let it be met by ready money. +Such had been the Duke's instructions to his own trusted man of +business, and, acting on these instructions, Mr Moreton was able +to tell the heir that the money should be forthcoming. + +Mr Moreton, after detailing the extent and nature of the loss, and +the steps which he had decided upon taking, went on to explain the +circumstances as best he could. He had made some inquiry, and felt +no doubt that a gigantic swindle had been perpetrated by Major +Tifto and others. The swindle had been successful. Mr Moreton had +consulted certain gentlemen of high character versed in the +affairs of the turf. He mentioned Mr Lupton among others,--and had +been assured that though the swindle was undoubted, the money had +better be paid. It was thought to be impossible to connect the men +who had made the bets with the perpetrators of the fraud;--and if +Lord Silverbridge were to abstain from paying his bets because his +own partner had ruined the animal which belonged to them jointly, +the feeling would be against him rather than in his favour. In +fact the Jockey Club could not sustain him in such refusal. +Therefore the money would be paid. Mr Moreton, with some +expression of doubt, trusted that he might be thought to have +exercised a wise discretion. Then he went on to express his own +opinion in regard to the lasting effect which the matter would +have upon the young man. 'I think,' said he, 'that his Lordship is +heartily sickened of racing, and that he will never return to it.' + +The Duke of course was very wretched when these tidings first +reached him. Though he was a rich man, and of all men the least +careful of his riches, still he felt that seventy thousand pounds +was a large sum of money to throw away amongst a nest of +swindlers. And then it was excessively grievous to him that his +son should have been mixed up with such men. Wishing to screen his +son, even from his own anger, he was careful to remember the +promise made that Tifto should be dismissed, was not to take +effect till after this race had been run. There had been no deceit +in that. But then Silverbridge had promised that he would not +'plunge'. There are, however, promises which from their very +nature may be broken without falsehood. Plunging is a doubtful +word, and the path down to it, like all doubtful paths,--is +slippery and easy! If that assurance with which Mr Moreton ended +his letter could only be made true, he could bring himself to +forgive even this offence. The boy must be made to settle himself +in life. The Duke resolved that his only revenge should be to +press on that marriage with Mabel Grex. + +At Coblenz, on their way home, the Duke and his daughter were +caught up by Mr and Mrs Finn, and the matter of the young man's +losses was discussed. Phineas had heard all about it, and was loud +in denunciations against Tifto, Captain Green, Gilbert Villiers, +and others whose names had reached him. The money he thought +should never have been paid. The Duke however declared that the +money would not cause a moment's regret, if only the whole thing +could be got rid of at that cost. It had reached Finn's ears that +Tifto was already at loggerheads with his associates. There was +some hope that the whole thing might be brought to light by this +means. For all that the Duke cared nothing. If only Silverbridge +and Tifto could for the future be kept apart, as far as he and his +were concerned, good would have been done rather than harm. While +they were in this way away together on the Rhine it was decided +that very soon after their return to England Phineas and Mrs Finn +should go down to Matching. + +When the Duke arrived in London his sons were not there. Gerald +had gone back to Oxford, and Silverbridge had merely left an +address. Then his sister wrote him a very short letter. 'Papa will +be so glad if you will come to Matching. Do come.' Of course he +came, and presented himself some few days after the Duke's +arrival. + +But he dreaded this meeting with his father which, however, let it +be postponed for ever so long, must come at last. In reference to +this he made a great resolution,--that he would go instantly as +soon as he might be sent for. When the summons came he started; +but, though he was by courtesy an Earl, and by fact was not only a +man but a Member of Parliament, though he was half engaged to +marry one young lady and ought to have been engaged to marry +another, though he had come to an age at which Pitt was a great +minister and Pope a great poet, still his heart was in his boots, +as a schoolboy's might be, when he was driven up to the house at +Matching. + +In two minutes before he had washed the dust from his face, and +hands, he was with his father. 'I am glad to see you, +Silverbridge's aid the Duke, putting out his hand. + +'I hope to see you well, sir.' + +'Fairly well. Thank you. Travelling I think agrees with me. I +miss, not my comforts, but a certain knowledge of how things are +going on, which comes to us I think through our skins when we are +at home. A feeling of absence pervades me. Otherwise I like it. +And you,--what have you been doing?' + +'Shooting a little,' said Silverbridge, in a mooncalf tone. + +'Shooting a great deal, if what I see in the newspapers be true +about Mr Reginald Dobbes and his party. I presume it is a religion +to offer up hecatombs to the autumnal gods,--who must surely take a +keener delight in blood and slaughter than those bloodthirsty gods +of old.' + +'You should talk to Gerald about that, sir.' + +'Has Gerald been so great at his sacrifices? How will that suit +with Plato? What does Mr Simcox say?' + +'Of course they were all to have a holiday just at that time. But +Gerald is reading. I fancy that Gerald is clever.' + +'And he is a great Nimrod?' + +'As to hunting.' + +'Nimrod I fancy got his game in any way that he could compass it. +I do not doubt but that he trapped foxes.' + +'With a rifle at deer, say for four hundred yards, I would back +Gerald against any man of his age in England or Scotland.' + +'As to backing, Silverbridge, do not you think we had better have +done with that?' This was hardly in a tone of reproach, with +something even of banter in it; and as the question was asked the +Duke was smiling. But in a moment all that sense of joyousness +which the young man had felt in singing his brother's praises was +expelled. His face fell, and he stood before his father almost +like a culprit. 'We might as well have it out about his racing,' +said the Duke. 'Something has to be said about it. You have lost +an enormous sum of money.' The Duke's tone in saying this became +terribly severe. Such at least was its sound in his son's ears. He +did not mean to be severe. + +But when he did speak of that which displeased him his voice +naturally assumed that tone of indignation with which in days of +yore he had been wont to denounce the public extravagance of his +opponents in the House of Commons. The father paused, but the son +could not speak at the moment. 'And worse than that,' continued +the Duke; 'you have lost it in as bad company as you could have +found had you picked all England through.' + +'Mr Lupton, and Sir Henry Playfair, and Lord Stirling were in the +room when the bets were made.' + +'Were the gentlemen you name concerned with Major Tifto?' + +'No, sir.' + +'Who can tell with whom he may be in a room? Though rooms of that +kind are, I think, best avoided.' Then the Duke paused again, but +Silverbridge was now sobbing so that he could hardly speak. 'I am +sorry that you should be so grieved,' continued the father, 'but +such delights cannot, I think, lead to much real joy.' + +'It is for you, sir,' said the son, rubbing his eyes with the hand +which supported his head. + +'My grief in the matter might soon be cured.' + +'How shall I cure it? I will do anything to cure it.' + +'Let Major Tifto and the horses go.' + +'They are gone,' said Silverbridge energetically, jumping from his +chair as he spoke. 'I will never own a horse again, or a part of a +horse. I will have nothing more to do with races. You will believe +me?' + +'I will believe anything that you tell me.' + +'I won't say I will not go to another race, because--' + +'No; no. I would not have you hamper yourself. Nor shall you bind +yourself by any further promises. You have done with racing.' + +'Indeed, indeed I have, sir.' + +Then the father came up to the son and put his arm round the young +man's shoulders and embraced him. 'Of course it made me unhappy.' + +'I knew it would.' + +'But if you are cured of this evil, the money is nothing. What is +all for but for you and your brother and sister? It was a large +sum, but that shall not grieve me. The thing itself is so +dangerous that if with that much of a loss we can escape, I will +think that we have made not a bad market. Who owns the horse now?' + +'The horse shall be sold.' + +'For anything they may fetch so that we may get clear of this +dirt. And the Major?' + +'I know nothing of him. I have not seen him since that day.' + +'Has he claims on you?' + +'Not a shilling. It is all the other way.' + +'Let it go then. Be quit of him, however it may be. Send a +messenger so that he may understand that you have abandoned racing +altogether. Mr Moreton might perhaps see him.' + +That his father should forgive so readily and yet himself suffer +so deeply, affected the son's feelings so strongly that for a time +he could hardly repress his sobs. 'And now there shall not be a +word more said about it,' said the Duke suddenly. + +Silverbridge in his confusion could make no answer. + +'There shall not be another word said about it,' said the Duke +again. 'And now what do you mean to do with yourself immediately?' + +'I'll stay here, sir, as long as you do. Finn and Warburton, and I +have still a few covers to shoot.' + +'That's a good reason for staying anywhere.' + +'I meant that I would remain while you remained, sir.' + +'That at any rate is a good reason, as far as I am concerned. But +we go to Custins next week.' + +'There's a deal of shooting to be done at Gatherum,' said the +heir. + +'You speak of it as the business of your life,--on which your bread +depended.' + +'One can't expect game to be kept up if nobody goes to shoot it.' + +'Can't one? I didn't know. I should have thought that the less was +shot the more there would be to shoot; but I am ignorant in such +matters.' Silverbridge then broke forth into a long explanation +as to coverts, gamekeepers, poachers, breeding, and the +expectations of the neighbourhood at large, in the middle of which +he was interrupted by the Duke. 'I am afraid, my dear boy, that I +am too old to learn. But as it is so manifestly a duty, go and +perform it like a man. Who will go with you?' + +'I will ask Mr Finn to be one.' + +'He will be very hard on you in the way of politics.' + +'I can answer him better than I can you, sir. Mr Lupton said he +would come for a day or two. He'll stand to me.' + +After that his father stopped him as he was about to leave the +room. 'One more word, Silverbridge. Do you remember what you were +saying when you walked down to the House with me from your club +that night?' Silverbridge remembered very well what he had said. +He had undertaken to ask Mabel Grex to be his wife, and had +received his father's ready approval to the proposition. But at +this moment he was unwilling to refer to the matter. 'I have +thought about it very much since that,' said the Duke. 'I may say +that I have been thinking of it every day. If there were anything +to tell me, you would let me know;--would you not?' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'Then there is nothing to be told? I hope you have not changed +your mind.' + +Silverbridge paused a moment, trusting that he might be able to +escape the making of an answer;--but the Duke evidently intended to +have an answer. 'It appeared to me, sir, that it did not seem to +suit her,' said the hardly-driven young man. He could not now say +that Mabel had shown a disposition to reject his offer, because as +they had been sitting by the brookside at Killancodlem, even he, +with all his self-diffidence, had been forced to see what were her +wishes. Her confusion, and too evident despair when she heard of +the offer to the American girl, had plainly told her tale. He +could not now plead to his father that Mabel Grex would refuse his +offer. But his self-defence, when first he found that he had lost +himself in love for the American, had been based on that idea. He +had done his best to make Mabel understand him. If he had not +actually offered to her, he had done the next thing to it. And he +had run after her, till he was ashamed of such running. She had +given him no encouragement;--and therefore he had been justified. +No doubt he must have been mistaken; that he now perceived; but +still he felt himself to be justified. It was impossible that he +should explain all this to his father. One thing he certainly +could not say,--just at present. After his folly with regard to +those heavy debts he could not at once risk his father's renewed +anger by proposing to him an American daughter-in-law. That must +stand over, at any rate till the girl had accepted him positively. +'I am afraid it won't come off, sir,' he said at last. + +'Then I am to presume that you have changed your mind?' + +'I told you when we were speaking that I was not confident.' + +'She has not--' + +'I can't explain it all, sir,--but I fear it won't come off.' + +Then the Duke, who had been sitting, got up from his chair and +with his back to the fire made a final little speech. 'We decided +just now, Silverbridge, that nothing more should be said about +that unpleasant racing business, and nothing more shall be said by +me. But you must not be surprised if I am anxious to see you +settled in life. No young man could be more bound by duty to marry +early than you are. In the first place you have to repair the +injury done by my inaptitude for society. You have explained to me +that it is your duty to have the Barsetshire coverts properly +shot, and I have acceded to your views. Surely it must be equally +your duty to see your Barsetshire neighbours. And you are a young +man every feature of whose character would be improved by +matrimony. As far as means are concerned you are almost as free to +make arrangements as though you were already head of the family.' + +'No, sir.' + +'I could never bring myself to dictate to a son in regard to his +choice of a wife. But I will own that when you told me that you +had chosen I was much gratified. Try and think again when you are +pausing amidst your sacrifices at Gatherum, whether that be +possible. If it be not, still I would wish you to bear in mind +what is my idea as to your duty.' Silverbridge said that he would +bear this in mind, and then escaped from the room. + + + +CHAPTER 46 + +Lady Mary's Dream + +When the Duke and his daughter reached Custins they found a large +party assembled, and were somewhat surprised at the crowd. Lord +and Lady Nidderdale were there, which might have been expected as +they were part of the family. With Lord Popplecourt had come his +recent friend Adolphus Longstaff. That too might have been +natural. Mr and Miss Boncassen were there also, who at this moment +were quite strangers to the Duke; and Mr Lupton. The Duke also +found Lady Chiltern, whose father-in-law had more than once sat in +the same Cabinet with himself, and Mr Monk, who was generally +spoken of as the head of the coming Liberal Government, and the +Ladies Adelaide and Flora FitzHoward, the still unmarried but not +very juvenile daughters of the Duke of St Bungay. These with a few +others made a large party, and rather confused the Duke, who had +hardly reflected that discreet and profitable love-making was more +likely to go on among numbers, than if the two young people were +thrown together with no other companions. + +Lord Popplecourt had been made to understand what was expected of +him, and after some hesitation had submitted himself to the +conspiracy. There would not be less at any rate than two hundred +thousand pounds,--and the connection would be made with one of the +highest families in Great Britain. Though Lady Cantrip had said +very few words, those words had been expressive; and the young +bachelor peer had given in his adhesion. Some vague half-defined +tale had been told him,--not about Tregear, as Tregear's name had +not been mentioned,--but respecting some dream of a young man who +had flitted across the girl's path during her mother's lifetime. +'All girls have such dreams,' Lady Cantrip had suggested. +Whereupon Lord Popplecourt said that he supposed it was so. 'But a +softer, purer, more unsullied flower never waited upon its stalk +till the proper fingers should choose to come and pluck it,' said +Lady Cantrip, rising to unaccustomed poetry on behalf of her +friend the Duke. Lord Popplecourt accepted the poetry and was +ready to do his best to pluck the flower. + +Soon after the Duke's arrival Lord Popplecourt found himself in +one of the drawing-rooms with Lady Cantrip and his propose father- +in-law. A hint had been given him that he might as well be home +early from shooting, so as to be in the way. As the hour in which +he was to make himself specially agreeable, both to the father and +to the daughter, had drawn nigh, he became somewhat nervous, and +now, at this moment, was not altogether comfortable. Though he had +been concerned in no such matter before, he had an idea that love +was a soft kind of thing which ought to steal on one unawares and +come and go without trouble. In his case it came upon him with a +rough demand for immediate hard work. He had not previously +thought that he was to be subjected to such labours, and at this +moment almost resented the interference with his ease. He was +already a little angry with Lady Cantrip, but at the same time +felt himself to be so much in subjection to her that he could not +rebel. + +The Duke himself when he saw the young man was hardly more +comfortable. He had brought his daughter to Custins, feeling that +it was his duty to be with her; but he would have preferred to +leave the whole operation to the care of Lady Cantrip. He hardly +liked to look at the fish whom he wished to catch for his +daughter. Whenever this aspect of affairs presented itself to him, +he would endeavour to console himself by remembering the past +success of a similar transaction. He thought of his own first +interview with his wife. 'You have heard,' he said, 'what our +friends wish.' She had pouted her lips, and when gently pressed +had at last muttered, with her shoulder turned to him, that she +supposed it was to be so. Very much more coercion had been used to +her than either himself or Lady Cantrip had dared to apply to his +daughter. He did not think that his girl in her present condition +of mind would signify to Lord Popplecourt that she 'supposed it +was to be so'. Now that the time for the transaction was present +he felt almost sure that it would never be transacted. But still +he must go on with it. Were he now to abandon his scheme, would it +not be tantamount to abandoning everything? So he wreathed his +face in smiles,--or made some attempt at it,--as he greeted the +young man. + +'I hope you and Lady Mary had a pleasant journey abroad,' said +Lord Popplecourt. Lord Popplecourt being aware that he had been +chosen as a son-in-law felt himself called upon to be familiar as +well as pleasant. 'I often thought of you and Lady Mary, and +wondered what you were about.' + +'We were visiting lakes and mountains, churches and picture +galleries, cities, and salt mines,' said the Duke. + +'Does Lady Mary like that sort of thing?' + +'I think she was pleased with what she saw. + +'She has been abroad a great deal before, I believe. It depends so +much on whom you meet when abroad.' + +This was unfortunate because it recalled Tregear to the Duke's +mind. 'We saw very few people whom we knew,' he said. + +'I've been shooting in Scotland with Silverbridge, and Gerald, and +Reginald Dobbes, and Nidderdale,--and that fellow Tregear, who is +so thick with Silverbridge.' + +'Indeed!' + +'I'm told that Lord Gerald is going to be the great shot of the +day,' said Lady Cantrip. + +'It is a distinction,' said the Duke bitterly. + +'He did not beat me by so much,' continued Popplecourt. 'I think +Tregear did the best with his rifle. One morning he potted three. +Dobbes was disgusted. He hated Tregear.' + +'Isn't it stupid,--half-a-dozen men getting together in that way?' +asked Lady Cantrip. + +'Nidderdale is always jolly.' + +'I am glad to hear that,' said the mother-in-law. + +'And Gerald is a regular brick.' the Duke bowed. 'Silverbridge +used always to be going off to Killancodlem, where there were a +lot of ladies. He is very sweet, you know, on this American girl +whom you have here.' Again the Duke winced. 'Dobbes is awfully +good as to making out the shooting, but then he his a tyrant. +Nevertheless I agree with him, if you mean to do a thing you +should do it.' + +'Certainly,' said the Duke. 'But you should make up your mind +first whether the thing is worth doing.' + +'Just so,' said Popplecourt. 'And as grouse and deer together are + about the best things out, most of us made up our minds that it +was worth doing. But that fellow Tregear would argue it out. He +said a gentleman oughtn't to play billiards as well as a marker.' + +'I think he was right,' said the Duke. + +'Do you know Mr Tregear, Duke?' + +'I have met him--with my son.' + +'Do you like him?' + +'I have seen very little of him.' + +'I cannot say I do. He thinks so much of himself. Of course he is +very intimate with Silverbridge, and that is all that anyone knows +of him.' The Duke bowed almost haughtily, though why he bowed he +could hardly have explained to himself. Lady Cantrip bit her lips +in disgust. 'He's just the fellow,' continued Popplecourt, 'to +think that some princess has fallen in love with him.' Then the +Duke left the room. + +'You had better not talk to him about Mr Tregear,' said Lady +Cantrip. + +'Why not?' + +'I don't know whether he approves of the intimacy between him and +Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I should think not;--a man without any position or a shilling in +the world.' + +'The Duke is peculiar. If a subject is distasteful to him he does +not like it to be mentioned. You had better not mention Mr +Tregear,' Lady Cantrip as she said this blushed inwardly at her +own hypocrisy. + +It was of course contrived at dinner that Lord Popplecourt should +take out Lady Mary. It is impossible to discover how such things +get wind, but there was already an idea prevalent at Custins that +Lord Popplecourt had matrimonial views, and that these views were +looked upon favourably. 'You may be quite sure of it, Mr Lupton,' +Lady Adelaide FitzHoward had said. 'I'll make a bet they're +married before this time next year.' + +'It will be a terrible case of Beauty and the Beast,' said Lupton. + +Lady Chiltern had whispered a suspicion of the same kind, and had +expressed a hope that the lover would be worthy of the girl. And +Dolly Longstaff had chaffed his friend Popplecourt on the subject, +Popplecourt having laid himself open by indiscreet allusions to +Dolly's love for Miss Boncassen. 'Everybody can't have it as +easily arranged for him as you,--a Duke's daughter and a pot of +money without so much as the trouble of asking for it!' + +'What do you know about the Duke's children?' + +'That's what it is to be a lord and not to have a father.' +Popplecourt tried to show that he was disgusted; but he felt +himself all the more strongly bound to go on with the project. + +It was therefore a matter of course that these should-be lovers +would be sent out of the room together. 'You'll give your arm to +Mary,' Lady Cantrip said, dropping the ceremonial prefix. Lady +Mary of course went out as she was bidden. Though everybody else +knew it, no idea of what was intended had yet come across her +mind. + +The should-be lover immediately reverted to the Austrian tour, +expressing a hope that his neighbour enjoyed herself. 'There's +nothing I like so much myself,' said he, remembering some of the +Duke's words, 'as mountains, cities, salt mines, and all that kind +of thing. There's such a lot of interest about it.' + +'Did you ever see a salt mine?' + +'Well;--not exactly a salt mine; but I have coal mines on my +property in Staffordshire. I'm very fond of coal. I hope you like +coal.' + +'I like salt a great deal better--to look at.' + +'But which do you think pays best? I don't mind telling you,-- +though it's a kind of thing I never talk about to strangers,--the +royalties from the Blogownie and Toodlem mines go up regularly two +thousand pounds every year.' + +'I thought we were talking about what was pretty to look at.' + +'So we were. I'm as fond of pretty things as anybody. Do you know +Reginald Dobbes?' + +'No, I don't. Is he pretty?' + +'He used to be so angry with Silverbridge, because Silverbridge +would say Crummie-Toddie was ugly.' + +'Was Crummie-Toddie ugly?' + +'Just a plain house on a moor.' + +'That sound ugly.' + +'I suppose your family likes pretty things.' + +'I hope so.' + +'I do, I know.' Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to look as though he +intended to understand that she was the pretty thing which he most +particularly liked. She partly conceived his meaning, and was +disgusted accordingly. On the other side of her sat Mr Boncassen, +to whom she had been introduced in the drawing-room,--and who had +said a few words to her about some Norwegian poet. She turned +round to him, and asked him some questions about Skald, and so, +getting into conversation with him, managed to turn her shoulder +to her suitor. On the other side of him sat Lady Rosina De Courcy, +to whom, as being an old woman and an old maid, he felt very +little inclined to be courteous. She said a word, asking him +whether he did not think the weather was treacherous. He answered +her very curtly, and sat bolt upright, looking forward on the +table, and taking his dinner as it came to him. He had been put +there in order that Lady Mary Palliser might talk to him, and he +regarded interference on the part of that old American as being +ungentlemanlike. But the old American disregarded him, and went on +with his quotations from the Scandinavian bard. But Mr Boncassen +sat next to Lady Cantrip, and when at last he was called upon to +give his ear to the countess, Lady Mary was again vacant for +Popplecourt's attentions. 'Are you very fond of poetry?' he asked. + +'Very fond.' + +'So am I. Which do you like best, Tennyson or Shakespeare?' + +'They are very unlike.' + +'Yes;--they are unlike. Or Moore's Melodies. I am very fond of +"When in death I shall calm recline". I think this equal to +anything. I think Reginald Dobbes would have it as all bosh.' + +'Then I think that Mr Reginald Dobbes must be all bosh himself.' + +'There was a man there named Tregear who had brought some books.' + Then there was a pause. Lady Mary had not a word to say. 'Dobbes +used to declare that he was always pretending to read poetry.' + +'Mr Tregear never pretends anything.' + +'Do you know him?' asked the rival. + +'He's my brother's most particular friend.' + +'Ah! yes. I dare say Silverbridge has talked to you about him. I +think he's a stuck-up sort of fellow.' To this there was not a +word of reply. 'Where did your brother pick him up?' + +'They were at Oxford together.' + +'I must say I think he gives himself airs;--because, you know, he's +nobody.' + +'I don't know anything of the kind,' said Lady Mary, becoming very +red. 'And as he is my brother's most particular friend,--his very +friend of friends,--I think you had better not abuse him to me.' + +'I don't think the Duke is very fond of him.' + +'I don't care who is fond of him. I am very fond of Silverbridge, +and I won't hear his friend ill spoken of. I dare say he had some +books with him. He is not at all the sort of man to go to a place +and satisfy himself with doing nothing but killing animals.' + +'Do you know him, Lady Mary?' + +'I have seen him, and of course I have heard a great deal of him +from Silverbridge. I would rather not talk any more about him.' + +'You seem to be very fond of Mr Tregear,' he said angrily. + +'It is no business of yours, Lord Popplecourt, whether I am fond +of anybody or not. I have told you that Mr Tregear is my brother's +friend, and that ought to be enough.' + +Lord Popplecourt was a young man possessed of a certain amount of +ingenuity. It was said of him that he knew on which side his bread +was buttered, and that if you wished to take him in you must get +up early. After dinner, and during the night he pondered a good +deal on what he had heard. Lady Cantrip had told him there had +been a--dream. What was he to believe about that dream? Had he not +better avoid the error of putting too fine a point upon it, and +tell himself at once that a dream in this instance meant a--lover! + Lady Mary had already been troubled by a lover! He was disposed +to believe that young ladies often do have objectionable lovers, +and that things get themselves right afterwards. Young ladies can +be made to understand the beauty of coal mines almost as readily +as young gentlemen. There would be the two hundred thousand +pounds; and there was the girl, beautiful and well-born, and +thoroughly well-mannered. But what if this Tregear and the dream +were one and the same? If so, had he not received plenty of +evidence that the dream had not yet passed away? A remnant of +affection for the dream would not have been a fatal barrier, had +not the girl been so fierce with him in her defence of her dream. +He remembered too, what the Duke had said about Tregear, and Lady +Cantrip's advice to him to be silent in respect to this man. And +then do girls generally defend their brother's friends as she had +defended Tregear? He thought not. Putting all these things +together on the following morning he came to an uncomfortable +belief that Tregear was the dream. + +Soon after that he found himself near to Dolly Longstaff as they +were shooting. 'You know that fellow Tregear, don't you?' + +'Oh Lord yes. He is Silverbridge's pal.' + +'Did you ever hear anything about him?' + +'What sort of thing?' + +'Was he ever--in love with anyone?' + +'I fancy he used to be awfully spooney on Mab Grex. I remember +hearing that they were to have been married, only that neither of +them had sixpence.' + +'Oh--Lady Mabel Grex! That's a horse of another colour.' + +'And which is the horse of your colour?' + +'I haven't got a horse,' said Popplecourt, going away to his own +corner. + + + +CHAPTER 47 + +Miss Boncassen's Idea of Heaven + +It was generally known that Dolly Longstaff had been heavily +smitten by the charms of Miss Boncassen; but the world hardly gave +him credit for the earnestness of his affection. Dolly had never +been known to be in earnest in anything;--but now he was in very +truth in love. He had agreed to be Popplecourt's companion at +Custins because he had heard that Miss Boncassen would be there. +He had thought over the matter with more consideration than he had +ever before given to any subject. He had gone so far as to see his +own man of business, with a view of ascertaining what settlements +he could make and what income he might be able to spend. He had +told himself over and over again that he was not the 'sort of +fellow' that ought to marry; but it was all of no avail. He +confessed to himself that he was completely 'bowled over',-- +'knocked off his pins'! + +'Is a fellow to have no chance?' he said to Miss Boncassen at +Custins. + +'If I understand what a fellow means, I am afraid not.' + +'No man alive was ever more earnest than I am.' + +'Well, Mr Longstaff; I do not suppose that you have been trying to +take me in all this time.' + +'I hope you do not think ill of me.' + +'I may think well of a great many gentlemen without wishing to +marry them.' + +'But does love go for nothing?' said Dolly, putting his hand upon +his heart. 'Perhaps there are so many that love you.' + +'Not above half-a-dozen or so.' + +'You can make a joke of it, when I-. But I don't think, Miss +Boncassen, you at all realise what I feel. As to settlements and +all that, your father could do what he likes with me.' + +'My father has nothing to do with it, and I don't know what +settlements mean. We never think anything of settlements in our +country. If two young people love each other they go and get +married.' + +'Let us do the same here.' + +'But the two young people don't love each other. Look here, Mr +Longstaff, it's my opinion that a young woman ought not to be +pestered.' + +'Pestered!' + +'You force me to speak in that way. I've given you an answer ever +so many times. I will not be made to do it over and over again.' + +'It's that d---- fellow, Silverbridge,' he exclaimed almost angrily. +On hearing this Miss Boncassen left the room without speaking +another word, and Dolly Longstaff found himself alone. He saw what +he had done as soon as she was gone. After that he could hardly +venture to persevere again--here at Custins. He weighed it over in +his mind for a long time, almost coming to a resolution in favour +of hard drink. He had never felt anything like this before. He was +so uncomfortable that he couldn't eat his luncheon, though in +accordance with his usual habit he had breakfasted off soda-and- +brandy and a morsel of devilled toast. He did not know himself in +his changed character. 'I wonder whether she understands that I +have four thousand pounds a year of my own, and shall have twelve +thousand pounds more when my governor goes! She was so headstrong +that it was impossible to explain anything to her.' + +'I'm off to London,' he said to Popplecourt that afternoon. + +'Nonsense! You said you'd stay for ten days.' + +'All the same, I'm going at once. I've sent to Bridport for a +trap, and I shall sleep tonight at Dorchester.' + +'What's the meaning of it all?' + +'I've had some words with somebody. Don't mind asking any more.' + +'Not with the Duke?' + +'The Duke? No; I haven't spoken to him.' + +'Or Lord Cantrip?' + +'I wish you wouldn't ask questions.' + +'If you've quarrelled with anybody you ought to consult a friend.' + +'It's nothing of that kind.' + +'Then it's a lady. It's the American girl!' + +'Don't I tell you. I don't want to talk about it? I'm going. I've +told Lady Cantrip that my mother wasn't well and wants to see me. +You'll stop your time out, I suppose?' + +'I don't know.' + +'You've got it all square, no doubt. I wish I'd a handle to my +name. I never cared for it before.' + +'I'm sorry you're so down in the mouth. Why don't you try again? +The thing is to stick to 'em like wax. If ten times of asking +won't do, go in twenty times.' + +Dolly shook his head despondently. 'What can you do when a girl +walks out of a room and slams the door in your face? She'll get it +hot and heavy before she's done. I know what she's after. She +might as well cry for the moon.' And so Dolly got into the trap +and went to Bridport and slept the night at the hotel at +Dorchester. + +Lord Popplecourt, though he could give such excellent advice to +his friend, had been able as yet to do very little in his own +case. He had been a week at Custins, and had said not a word to +denote his passion. Day after day he had prepared himself for the +encounter, but the lady had never given him the opportunity. When +he sat next to her at dinner she would be very silent. If he +stayed at home on a morning she was not visible. During the short +evenings he could never get her attention. And he made no progress +with the Duke. The Duke had been very courteous to him at +Richmond, but here he was monosyllabic and almost sullen. + +Once or twice Lord Popplecourt had a little conversation with Lady +Cantrip. 'Dear girl!' said her ladyship. 'She is so little given +to seeing admiration.' + +'I dare say.' + +'Girls are so different, Lord Popplecourt. With some of them it +seems that a gentleman need have no trouble in explaining what it +is that he wishes.' + +'I don't think Lady Mary is like that at all.' + +'Not in the least. Anyone who addresses her must be prepared to +explain himself fully. Nor ought he to hope to get much +encouragement at first. I do not think that Lady Mary will bestow +her heart till she is sure she can give it with safety.' There +was an amount of falsehood in this which was proof at any rate of +very strong friendship on the part of Lady Cantrip. + +After a few days Lady Mary became more intimate with the American +and his daughter than with any others of the party. Perhaps she +liked to talk about Scandinavian poets, of whom, Mr Boncassen was +so fond. Perhaps she felt sure that her transatlantic friend would +not make love to her. Perhaps it was that she yielded to the +various allurements of Miss Boncassen. Miss Boncassen saw the Duke +of Omnium for the first time at Custins, and there had the first +opportunity of asking herself how such a man as that would receive +from his son and heir such an announcement as Lord Silverbridge +would have to make him should she at the end of three months +accept his offer. She was quite aware that Lord Silverbridge need +not repeat his offer unless he were so pleased. But she thought +that he would come again. He had so spoken that she was sure of +his love; and had so spoken as to obtain hers. Yes;--she was sure +that she loved him. She had never seen anything like him before;-- +so glorious in his beauty, so gentle in his manhood, so powerful +and yet so little imperious, so great in condition, and yet so +little confident in his own greatness, so bolstered up with +external advantages, and so little apt to trust anything but his +own heart and his own voice. She was glad he was what he was. She +counted at their full value all his natural advantages. To be an +English Duchess! Oh--yes; her ambition understood it all! But she +loved him, because in the expression of his love no hint had +fallen from him of the greatness of the benefits which he could +confer upon her. Yes, she would like to be a Duchess; but not to +be a Duchess would she become the wife of a man who should begin +his courtship by assuming a superiority. + +Now the chances of society had brought her into the company of his +nearest friends. She was in the house with his father and with his +sister. Now and again the Duke spoke a few words to her, and +always did so with a polite courtesy. But she was sure that the +Duke had heard nothing of his son's courtship. And she was equally +sure that the matter had not reached Lady Mary's ears. She +perceived that the Duke and her father would often converse +together. Mr Boncassen would discuss republicanism generally, and +the Duke would explain that theory of monarchy as it prevails in +England, which but very few Americans had been made to understand. +All this Miss Boncassen watched with pleasure. She was still of +opinion that it would not become her to force her way into a +family which would endeavour to repudiate her. She would not +become this young man's wife if all connected with the young man +were resolved to reject the contact. But if she could conquer +them,--then,--then she thought that she could put her little hand +into that young man's grasp with a happy heart. + +It was in this frame of mind that she laid herself out not +unsuccessfully to win the esteem of Lady Mary Palliser. 'I do not +know whether you approve it,' said Lady Cantrip to the Duke; 'but +Mary has become very intimate with our new American friend.' At +this time Lady Cantrip had become very nervous,--so as almost to +wish that Lady Mary's difficulties might be unravelled elsewhere +than at Custins. + +'They seem to be sensible people,' said the Duke. 'I don't know +when I have met a man with higher ideals on politics than Mr +Boncassen.' + +'His daughter is popular with everybody.' + +'A nice ladylike girl,' said the Duke, 'and appears to have been +well educated.' + +It was now near the end of October, and the weather was peculiarly +fine. Perhaps in our climate, October would of all months be the +most delightful if something of its charms were not detracted from +by the feeling that with it depart the last relics of delight of +summer. The leaves are still there with their gorgeous colouring, +but they are going. The last rose still lingers on the bush, but +it is the last. The woodland walks are still pleasant to the feet, +but caution is heard on every side by the coming winter. + +The park at Custins, which was spacious, had many woodland walks +attached to it, from which, through vistas of the timber, distant +glimpses of the sea were caught. Within half a mile of the house +the woods were reached, and within a mile the open sea was in +sight,--and yet the wanderers might walk for miles without going +over the same ground. Here, without other companions, Lady Mary +and Miss Boncassen found themselves one afternoon, and here the +latter told her story to her lover's sister. 'I long to tell you +something,' she said. + +'Is it a secret?' asked Lady Mary. + +'Well; yes it is,--if you will keep it so. I would rather you +should keep it a secret. But I will tell you.' Then she stood +still looking into the other's face. 'I wonder how you will take +it.' + +'What can it be?' + +'Your brother has asked me to be his wife.' + +'Silverbridge!' + +'Yes;--Lord Silverbridge. You are astonished.' + +Lady Mary was much astonished,--so much astonished that words +escaped from her, which she regretted afterwards. 'I thought there +was someone else.' + +'Who else?' + +'Lady Mabel Grex. But I know nothing.' + +'I think not,' said Miss Boncassen slowly. 'I have seen them +together and I think not. There might be somebody, though I think +not her. But why do I say that? Why do I malign him, and make so +little of myself. There is no one else, Lady Mary. Is he not +true?' + +'I think he is true.' + +'I am sure he is true. And he has asked me to be his wife.' + +'What did you say?' + +'Well;--what do you think? What is it probable that such a girl as +I would say when such a man as your brother asks her to be his +wife? Is he not such a man as a girl would love?' + +'Oh yes.' + +'Is he not handsome as a god?' Mary stared at her with all her +eyes. 'And sweeter than any god those pagan races knew? And is he +not good-tempered, and loving; and has he not that perfection of +manly dash without which I do not think I do not think I could +give my heart to any man?' + +'Then you have accepted him?' + +'And his rank and wealth! The highest position in all the world +in my eyes.' + +'I do not think you should take him for that.' + +'Does it not all help? Can you put yourself in my place? Why +should I refuse him? No, not for that. I would not take him for +that. But if I love him,--because he is all that my imagination +tells me that a man ought to be;--if to be his wife seems to be the +greatest bliss that could happen to a woman; if I feel that I +could die to serve him, that I would live to worship him, that his +touch would be sweet to me, his voice music, his strength the only +supports in the world on which I would care to lean,--what then?' + +'Is it so?' + +'Yes it is so. it is after that fashion that I love him. He is my +hero;--and not the less so because there is none higher than he +among the nobles of the greatest land under the sun. Would you +have me for a sister?' Lady Mary could not answer all at once. +She had to think of her father,--and then she thought of her own +lover. Why should not Silverbridge be as well entitled to his +choice as she considered herself to be? And yet how would it be +with her father? Silverbridge would in process of time be the head +of the family. Would it be proper that he should marry an +American? + +'You would not like me for a sister?' + +'I was thinking of my father. For myself I like you.' + +'Shall I tell you what I said to him?' + +'If you will.' + +'I told him that he must ask his friends;--that I would not be his +wife to be rejected by them all. Nor will I. Though it be heaven I +will not creep there through a hole. If I cannot go with my head +upright, I will not go even there.' The she turned round as +though she were prepared in her emotion to walk back to the house +alone. But Lady mare ran after her, and having caught her put her +arm round her waist and kissed her. + +'I at any rate will love you,' said Lady Mary. + +'I will do as I said,' continued Miss Boncassen. 'I will do as I +have said. Though I love your brother down to the ground he shall +not marry me without his father's consent.' Then they returned +arm-in-arm close together; but very little was said between them. + +When Lady Mary entered the house she was told that Lady Cantrip +wished to see her in her own room. + + + +CHAPTER 48 + +The Party at Custins is Broken Up + +The message was given to Lady Mary after so solemn a fashion that +she was sure that some important communication was to be made to +her. Her mind at that moment had been filled with her new friend's +story. She felt that she required some time to meditate before she +could determine what she herself would wish; but when she was +going to her own room, in order that she might think it over, she +was summoned to Lady Cantrip. 'My dear,' said the Countess, 'I +wish you to do something to oblige me.' + +'Of course I will.' + +'Lord Popplecourt wants to speak to you.' + +'Who?' + +'Lord Popplecourt.' + +'What can Lord Popplecourt have to say to me?' + +'Can you not guess? Lord Popplecourt is a young nobleman, +standing very high in the world, possessed of ample means, just in +that position in which it behoves such a man to look about for a +wife.' Lady Mary pressed her lips together, and clenched her two +hands. 'Can you not imagine what such a gentleman may have to +say?' Then there was a pause, but she made no immediate answer. +'I am to tell you, my dear, that your father would approve of it.' + +'Approve of what?' + +'He approves of Lord Popplecourt as a suitor for your hand.' + +'How can he?' + +'Why not, Mary? Of course he has made it his business to ascertain +all particulars as to Lord Popplecourt's character and property.' + +'Papa knows that I love somebody else.' + +'My dear Mary, that is all vanity.' + +'I don't think that papa can want to see me married to a man when +he knows that with all my heart and soul--' + +'Oh, Mary!' + +'When he knows,' continued Mary, who would not be put down, 'that +I love another man with all my heart. What will Lord Popplecourt +say if I tell him that? If he says anything to me, I shall tell +him. Lord Popplecourt! He cares for nothing but his coal mines. +Of course, if you bid me to see him I will; but it can do no good. +I despise him, and if he troubles me I shall hate him. As for +marrying him,--I would sooner die this minute.' + +After this Lady Cantrip did not insist on the interview. She +expressed her regret that things should be as they were,--explained +in sweetly innocent phrases that in a certain rank of life young +ladies could not always marry the gentlemen to whom their fancies +might attach them, but must, not infrequently, postpone their +youthful inclinations to the will of their elders,--or in less +delicate language, that though they might love in one direction +the must marry in another; and then expressed a hope that her dear +Mary would think over these things and try to please her father. +'Why does he not try to please me?' said Mary. Then Lady Cantrip +was obliged to see Lord Popplecourt, a necessity which was a great +nuisance to her. 'Yes;--she understands what you mean. But she is +not prepared for it yet. You must wait awhile.' + +'I don't see why I am to wait.' + +'She is very young,--and so are you, indeed. There is plenty of +time.' + +'There is somebody else I suppose.' + +'Is it that Tregear?' + +'I am not prepared to mention names,' said Lady Cantrip, +astonished that he should know so much. 'But indeed you must +wait.' + +'I don't see it, Lady Cantrip.' + +'What can I say more? If you think that such a girl as Lady Mary +Palliser, the daughter of the Duke of Omnium, possessed of +fortune, beauty, and every good gift, is to come like a bird to +your call, you will find yourself mistaken. All that her friends +can do for you will be done. The rest must remain with yourself.' + During that evening Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to make himself +pleasant to one of the FitzHoward young ladies, and on the next +morning he took his leave of Custins. + +'I will never interfere again in reference to anybody else's child +as long as I live,' Lady Cantrip said to her husband that night. + +Lady Mary was very much tempted to open her heart to Miss +Boncassen. It would be delightful to have a friend; but were she +to engage Miss Boncassen's sympathies on her behalf, she must of +course sympathise with Miss Boncassen in return. And what if, +after all, Silverbridge were not devoted to the American beauty! +What if it should turn out that he was going to marry Lady Mabel +Grex? 'I wish you would call me Isabel,' her friend said to her. +'It is so odd,--since I have left New York I have never heard my +name from any lips except father's and mother's.' + +'Has not Silverbridge ever called you by your christian-name?' + +'I think not. I am sure he never has.' But he had, though it had +passed by her at the moment without attention. 'It all came from +him so suddenly. And yet I expected it. But it was too sudden for +christian-names and pretty talk. I do not even know what his name +is.' + +'Plantagenet,--but we always call him Silverbridge.' + +'Plantagenet is much prettier. I shall always call him +Plantagenet. But I recall that. You will not remember that against +me?' + +'I will remember nothing that you do not wish.' + +'I mean that if,--if all the grandeurs of the Pallisers could +consent to put up with poor me, if heaven were opened to me with a +straight gate, so that I could walk out of our republic into your +aristocracy with my head erect, with the stars and stripes waving +proudly will I had been accepted into the shelter of the Omnium +griffins,--then I would call him--' + +'There's one Palliser would welcome you.' + +'Would you dear? Then I will love you dearly. May I call you Mary?' + +'Of course you may.' + +'Mary is the prettiest name under the sun. But Plantagenet is so +grand! Which of the kings did you branch off from?' + +'I know nothing about it. From none of them I should think. There +is some story about a Sir Guy, who was a king's friend. I never +trouble myself about it. I hate aristocracy.' + +'Do you, dear?' + +'Yes,' said Mary, full of her own grievances. 'It is an abominable +bondage, and I do not see that it does any good at all.' + +'I think it is so glorious,' said the American. 'There is no such +mischievous nonsense in the world as equality. That is what father +says. What men ought to want is liberty.' + +'It is terrible to be tied up in a small circle,' said the Duke's +daughter. + +'What do you mean, Lady Mary?' + +'I thought you were to call me Mary. What I mean is this. Suppose +that Silverbridge loves you better than all the world.' + +'I hope he does. I think he does.' + +'And suppose he cannot marry you, because of his--aristocracy?' + +'But he can.' + +'I thought you were saying yourself--' + +'Saying what? That he could not marry me! No indeed! But that +under certain circumstances I would not marry him. You don't +suppose that I think he would be disgraced? If so I would go away +at once, and he should never again see my face or hear my voice. I +think myself good enough for the best man God every made. But if +others think differently, and those others are closely concerned +with him and would be so closely concerned with me, as to trouble +our joint lives;--then will I neither subject him to such sorrow +nor will I encounter it myself.' + +'It all comes from what you call aristocracy.' + +'No, dear;--but from the prejudices of an aristocracy. To tell the +truth, Mary, the most difficult a place is to get into, the more +right of going in is valued. If everybody could be a Duchess and a +Palliser, I should not perhaps think so much about it.' + +'I thought it was because you loved him.' + +'So I do. I love him entirely. I have said not a word of that to +him;--but I do, if I know at all what love is. But if you love a +star, the pride you have in your star will enhance your love. +Though you know that you must die of your love, still you must +love your star.' + +And yet Mary could not tell her tale in return. She could not show +the reverse picture:--that she being a star was anxious to dispose +of herself after the fashion of poor human rushlights. It was not +that she was ashamed of her love, but that she could not bring +herself to yield altogether in reference to the great descent +which Silverbridge would have to make. + +On the day after this,--the last day of the Duke's sojourn at +Custins, the last also of the Boncassen's visit,--it came to pass +that the Duke and Mr Boncassen with Lady Mary and Isabel, were all +walking in the woods together. And it so happened when they were +at a little distance from the house, each of the girls was walking +with the other girl's father. Isabel had calculated what she would +say to the Duke should a time for speaking come to her. She could +not tell him of his son's love. She could not ask his permission. +She could not explain to him all her feelings, or tell him what +she thought of her proper way of getting into heaven. That must +come afterwards if it should ever come at all. But there was +something that she could tell. 'We are different from you,' she +said, speaking of her own country. + +'And yet so like,' said the Duke, smiling;--'your language, your +laws, your habits!' + +'But still there is such a difference! I do not think there is a +man in the whole union more respected than father.' + +'I dare say not.' + +'Many people think that if he would only allow himself to be put +in nomination, he might be the next president.' + +'The choice, I am sure, would to your country honour.' + +'And yet his father was a poor labourer who earned his bread among +the shipping at New York. That kind of thing would be impossible +here.' + +'My dear young lady, there you wrong us.' + +'Do I?' + +'Certainly! A Prime Minister with us might as easily come from +the same class.' + +'Here you think so much of rank. You are--a Duke.' + +'But a Prime Minister can make a Duke, and if a man can raise +himself by his own intellect to that position, no one will think +of his father or his grandfather. The sons of merchants have with +us been Prime Ministers more than once, and no Englishman ever +were more honoured among their countrymen. Our peerage is being +continually recruited from the ranks of the people, and hence it +gets its strength.' + +'Is it so?' + +'There is no greater mistake than to suppose that inferiority of +birth is a barrier to success in this country.' She listened to +this and to much more on the same subject with attentive ears--not +shaken in her ideas as to the English aristocracy in general, but +thinking that she was perhaps learning something of his own +individual opinion. If he were more liberal than others, on that +liberality might perhaps be based her own happiness and fortune. + +He in all this was quite unconscious of the working of her mind. +Nor in discussing such matters generally did he ever mingle his +own private feelings, his own pride of race and name, his own +ideas of what was due to his ancient rank with the political creed +by which his conduct was governed. The peer who sat next to him +in the House of Lords, whose grandmother had been a washerwoman +and whose father an innkeeper, was to him every whit as good a +peer as himself. And he would as soon sit in counsel with Mr Monk, +whose father had risen from a mechanic to be a merchant, as with +any nobleman who could count ancestors against himself. But there +was an inner feeling in his bosom as to his own family, his own +name, his own children, and his own personal self, which was kept +altogether apart from his grand political theories. It was a +subject on which he never spoke; but the feeling had come to him +as a part of his birthright. And he conceived that it would pass +through him to his children after the same fashion. It was this +which made the idea of a marriage between his daughter and Tregear +intolerable to him, and which would operate as strongly in regard +to any marriage which his son might contemplate. Lord Grex was not +a man with whom he would wish to form any intimacy. He was, we may +say, a wretched unprincipled old man, bad all round; and such the +Duke knew him to be. But the blue blood and the rank were there, +and as the girl was good herself he would have been quite +contented that his son should marry the daughter of Lord Grex. +That one and the same man should have been in one part of himself +so unlike the other part,--that he should have one set of opinions +so contrary to another set,--poor Isabel Boncassen did not +understand. + + + +CHAPTER 49 + +The Major's Fate + +The affair of Prime Minister and the nail was not allowed to fade +away into obscurity. Through September and October it was made +matter for pungent inquiry. The Jockey Club was alive. Mr Pook was +very instant,--with many Pookites anxious to free themselves from +suspicion. Sporting men declared that the honour of the turf +required that every detail of the case should be laid open. But by +the end of October, though every detail had been surmised, nothing +had in truth been discovered. Nobody doubted but that Tifto had +driven the nail into the horse's foot, and that Green and Gilbert +Villiers had shared the bulk of the plunder. They had gone off on +their travels together, and the fact that each of them had been in +possession of about twenty thousand pounds was proved. But then +there is no law against two gentlemen having such a sum of money. +It was notorious that Captain Green and Mr Gilbert Villiers had +enriched themselves to this extent by the failure of Prime +Minister. But yet nothing was proved! + +That the Major had either himself driven the nail or seen it done, +all racing men were agreed. He had been out with the horse in the +morning and had been the first to declare that the animal was +lame. And he had been with the horse till the farrier had come. +But he had concocted a story for himself. He did not dispute that +the horse had been lamed by the machinations of Green and +Villiers,--with the assistance of the groom. No doubt he said, +these men, who had been afraid to face an inquiry, had contrived +and had carried out the iniquity. How the lameness had been caused +he could not pretend to say. The groom who was at the horse's +head, and who evidently knew how these things were done, might +have struck a nerve in the horse's foot with his boot. But when +the horse was got into the stable, he, Tifto,--so he declared,--at +once ran out to send for the farrier. During the minutes so +occupied, the operation must have been made with the nail. That +was Tifto's story,--and as he kept his ground, there were some few +who believed it. + +But though the story was so far good, he had at moments been +imprudent, and had talked when he should have been silent. The +whole matter had been a torment to him. In the first place his +conscience made him miserable. As long as it had been possible to +prevent the evil he had hoped to make a clean breast of it to Lord +Silverbridge. Up to this period of his life everything had been +'square' with him. He had betted 'square', and had ridden +'square', and had run horses 'square'. He had taken a pride in +this, as though it had been a great virtue. It was not without +great inward grief that he had deprived himself of the +consolations of those reflections! But when he had approached his +noble partner, his noble partner snubbed him at every turn,--and he +did the deed. + +His reward was to be three thousand pounds,--and he got his money. +The money was very much to him,--would perhaps have been almost +enough to comfort him in his misery, had not those other rascals +got so much more. When he heard that the groom's fee was higher +than his own, it almost broke his heart. Green and Villiers, men +of infinitely lower standing,--men at whom the Beargarden would not +have looked,--had absolutely netted fortunes on which they could +live in comfort. No doubt they had run away while Tifto still +stood his ground,--but he soon began to doubt whether to have run +away with twenty thousand pounds was not better than to remain +with such small plunder as had fallen to his lot, among such faces +as those which now looked upon him! Then when he had drunk a few +glasses of whisky-and-water, he said something very foolish as to +his power of punishing that swindler Green. + +An attempt had been made to induce Silverbridge to delay the +payment of his bets;--but he had been very eager that they should +be paid. Under the joint auspices of Mr Lupton and Mr Moreton the +horses were sold, and the establishment was annihilated,--with +considerable loss, but with great despatch. The Duke had been +urgent. The Jockey Club, and the racing world, and the horsey +fraternity generally, might do what seemed to them good,--so that +Silverbridge was extricated from the matter. Silverbridge was +extricated,--and the Duke cared nothing for the rest. + +But Silverbridge could not get out of the mess quite so easily as +his father wished. Two questions arose about Major Tifto, outside +the racing world, but within the domain of the world of sport and +pleasure generally, as to one of which it was impossible that +Silverbridge should not express an opinion. The first question had +reference to the mastership of the Runnymede hounds. In this our +young friend was not bound to concern himself. The other affected +the Beargarden Club; and as Lord Silverbridge had introduced the +Major, he could hardly forbear from the expression of an opinion. + +There was a meeting of the subscribers to the hunt in the last +week of October. At that meeting Major Tifto told his story. There +he was, to answer any charge which might be brought against him. +If he had made money by losing the race,--where was it and whence +had it come? Was it not clear that a conspiracy might have been +made without his knowledge;--and clear also that the real +conspirators had levanted? He had not levanted! The hounds were +his own. He had undertaken to hunt the country for this season, +and they had undertaken to pay him a certain sum of money. He +should expect and demand that sum of money. If they chose to make +any other arrangement for the year following they could do so. +then he sat down and the meeting was adjourned,--the secretary +having declared that he would not act in that capacity any longer, +nor collect the funds. A farmer had also asserted that he and his +friends had resolved that Major Tifto should not ride over their +fields. On the next day the Major had his hounds out, and some of +the London men, with a few of the neighbours, joined him. Gates +were locked, but the hounds ran, and those who chose to ride +managed to follow them. There are men who will stick to their +sport though Apollyon himself should carry the horn. Who cares +whether the lady who fills a theatre be or be not a moral young +woman, or whether the bandmaster who keeps such excellent time in +a ball has or has not paid is debts? There were men of this sort +who supported Major Tifto;--but then there was a general opinion +that the Runnymede hunt would come to an end unless a new master +could be found. + +Then in the first week of November a special meeting was called at +the Beargarden, at which Lord Silverbridge was asked to attend. +'It is impossible that he should be allowed to remain in the +club.' This was said to Lord Silverbridge by Mr Lupton. 'Either +he must go or the club must be broken up.' + +Silverbridge was very unhappy on the occasion. He had at last been +reasoned into believing that the horse had been the victim of foul +play; but he persisted in saying that there was no conclusive +evidence against Tifto. The matter was argued with him. Tifto had +laid bets against the horse; Tifto had been hand and glove with +Green; Tifto could not have been absent from the horse above two +minutes; the thing could not have been arranged without Tifto. As +he had brought Tifto into the club, and had been his partner on +the turf, it was his business to look into the matter. 'But for +all that,' said he, 'I'm not going to jump on a man when he's +down, unless I feel sure that he is guilty.' + +Then the meeting was held, and Tifto himself appeared. When the +accusation was made by Mr Lupton, who proposed that he should be +expelled, he burst into tears. The whole story was repeated,--the +nail, the hammer, and the lameness; and the moments were counted +up, and poor Tifto's bets and friendship with Green were made +apparent,--and the case was submitted to the club. An old gentleman +who had been connected with the turf all his life, and who would +not have scrupled, by square betting, to rob his dearest friend of +his last shilling, seconded the proposition,--telling all the story +over again. Then Major Tifto was asked whether he wished to say +anything. + +'I've got to say that I'm here,' said Tifto, still crying, 'and if +I'd done anything of that kind, of course I'd have gone with the +rest of 'em. I put it to Lord Silverbridge to say whether I'm that +sort of fellow.' Then he sat down. + +Upon this there was a pause, and the club was manifestly of the +opinion that Lord Silverbridge ought to say something. 'I think +that Major Tifto should not have betted against the horse,' said +Silverbridge. + +'I can explain that,' said the Major. 'Let me explain that. +Everybody knows that I'm a man of small means. I wanted to 'edge, +I only wanted to 'edge.' + +Mr Lupton shook his head. 'Why have you not shown me your book?' + +'I told you before that it was stolen. Green got hold of it. I did +win a little. I never said I didn't. But what has that to do with +hammering a nail into a horse's foot? I have always been true to +you Lord Silverbridge, and you ought to stick up for me now.' + +'I will have nothing further to do with the matter,' said +Silverbridge, 'one way or the other,' and he walked out of the +room,--and out of the club. The affair was ended by a magnanimous +declaration on the part of the Major that he would not remain +in a club in which he was suspected, and by a consent on the +part of the meeting to receive the Major's instant resignation. + + + +CHAPTER 50 + +The Duke's Arguments + +The Duke before he left Custins had an interview with Lady +Cantrip, at which that lady found herself called upon to speak her +mind freely. 'I don't think she cares about Lord Popplecourt,' +Lady Cantrip said. + +'I am sure I don't know why she should,' said the Duke, who was +often very aggravating even to his friend. + +'But as we had thought--' + +'She ought to do as she is told,' said the Duke, remembering how +obedient Glencora had been. 'Has he spoken to her?' + +'I think not.' + +'Then how can we tell?' + +'I asked her to see him, but she expressed so much dislike that I +could not press it. I am afraid, Duke, that you will find it +difficult to deal with her.' + +'I have found it very difficult!' + +'As you have trusted me so much--' + +'Yes;--I have trusted you, and do trust you. I hope you understand +that I appreciate your kindness.' + +'Perhaps then you will let me say what I think.' + +'Certainly, Lady Cantrip.' + +'Mary is a very peculiar girl,--with great gifts,--but--' + +'But what?' + +'She is obstinate. Perhaps it would be fairer to say that she has +great firmness of character. It is within your power to separate +her from Mr Tregear. It would be foreign to her character to--to-- +leave you, except with your approbation.' + +'You mean, she will not run away.' + +'She will do nothing without your permission. But she will remain +unmarried unless she be allowed to marry Mr Tregear.' + +'What do you advise then?' + +'That you should yield. As regards money, you could give them what +they want. Let him go into public life. You could manage that for +him.' + +'He is Conservative!' + +'What does that matter when the question is one of your daughter's +happiness? Everybody tells me that he is clever and well +conducted.' + +He betrayed nothing by his face as this was said to him. But as he +got into the carriage he was a miserable man. It is very well to +tell a man that he should yield, but there is nothing so wretched +to a man as yielding. Young people and women have to yield,--bur +for such a man as this, to yield is in itself a misery. In this +matter the Duke was quite certain of the propriety of his +judgement. To yield would be not only to mortify himself; but to +do wrong at the same time. He had convinced himself that the +Popplecourt arrangement would come to nothing. Nor had he or Lady +Cantrip combined been able to exercise over her the sort of power +to which Lady Glencora had been subjected. If he had persevered,-- +and he was still sure, almost sure, that he would persevere,--his +object must be achieved after a different fashion. There must be +infinite suffering,--suffering both to him and to her. Could she +have been made to consent to marry someone else, terrible as the +rupture might have been, she would have reconciled herself at last +to her new life. So it had been with Glencora,--after a time. Now +the misery must go on from day to day beneath his eyes, with the +knowledge on his part that he was crushing all the joy out of her +young life, and the conviction on her part that she was being +treated with continued cruelty by her father! It was a terrible +prospect! But if it was manifestly his duty to act after this +fashion, must he not do his duty? + +If he were to find that by persevering in this course he would +doom her to death, or perchance to madness,--what then? If it were +right, he must still do it. He must still do it, if the weakness +incident to his human nature did not rob him of the necessary +firmness. If every foolish girl were indulged, all restraint would +be lost, and there would be an end to those rules as to birth and +position by which he thought his world was kept straight. And +then, mixed with all this, was his feeling of the young man's +arrogance in looking for such a match. Here was a man without a +shilling, whose manifest duty was to go to work so that he might +earn his bread, who instead of doing so, he hoped to raise himself +to wealth and position by entrapping the heart of an unwary girl! + There was something to the Duke's thinking base in this, and much +more base because the unwary girl was his own daughter. That such +a man as Tregear should make an attack upon him and select his +rank, his wealth, and his child as the stepping-stones by which he +intended to rise! What could be so mean as that a man should seek +to live by looking out for a wife with money? But what so +impudent, so arrogant, so unblushingly disregardful of propriety, +as that he should endeavour to select his victim from such a +family as the Pallisers, and that he should lay his impious hand +on the very daughter of the Duke of Omnium? + +But together with all this came upon him his moments of ineffable +tenderness. He felt as though he longed to take her in his arms +and tell her, that if she were unhappy, so would he be unhappy +too,--to make her understand that a hard necessity had made his +sorrow common to them both. He thought that, if she would only +allow it, he could speak of her love as a calamity which had +befallen them, as from the hand of fate, and not as a fault. If he +could make a partnership in misery with her, so that each might +believe that each was acting for the best, then he could endure +all that might come. But, as he was well aware, she regarded him +as being simply cruel to her. She did not understand that he was +performing an imperative duty. She had set her heart upon a +certain object, and having taught herself that in that way +happiness might be reached, had no conception that there should be +something in the world, some idea of personal dignity, more +valuable to her than the fruition of her own desires! And yet +every word he spoke to her was affectionate. He knew that she was +bruised, and if it might be possible he would pour oil into her +wounds,--even though she would not recognise the hand which +relieved her. + +They slept one night in town--where they encountered Silverbridge +soon after his retreat from the Beargarden. 'I cannot quite make +up my mind, sir, about that fellow Tifto,' he said to his father. + +'I hope you have made up your mind that he is not fit companion +for yourself.' + +'That's over. Everybody understands that, sir.' + +'Is anything more necessary?' + +'I don't like feeling that he has been ill-used. They have made +him resign the club, and I fancy they won't have him at the hunt.' + +'He has lost no money by you!' + +'Oh no.' + +'Then I think you may be indifferent. From all that I hear I think +he must have won money,--which will probably be a consolation to +him.' + +'I think they have been hard upon him,' continued Silverbridge. +'Of course he is not a good man, nor a gentleman, nor possessed of +very high feelings. But a man is not to be sacrificed altogether +for that. There are so many men who are not gentlemen, and so many +gentlemen who are bad fellows.' + +'I have no doubt Mr Lupton knew what he was about,' replied the +Duke. + +On the next morning the Duke and Lady Mary went down to Matching, +and as they sat together in the carriage after leaving the railway +the father endeavoured to make himself pleasant to his daughter. +'I suppose we shall stay at Matching till Christmas,' he said. + +'I hope so.' + +'Whom would you like to have here?' + +'I don't want anyone, papa.' + +'You will be very sad without somebody. Would you like the Finns?' + +'If you please, papa. I like her. He never talks anything but +politics.' + +'He is none the worse for that, Mary. I wonder whether Lady Mabel +Grex would come.' + +'Lady Mabel Grex!' + +'Do you not like her?' + +'Oh yes;--but what made you think of her, papa?' + +'Perhaps Silverbridge would come to us then.' + +Lady Mary thought that she knew a great deal more about that than +her father did. 'Is he fond of Lady Mabel, papa?' + +'Well,--I don't know. There are secrets which should not be told. I +think they are very good friends. I would not have her asked +unless it would please you.' + +'I like her very much, papa.' + +'And perhaps we might get the Boncassens to come to us. I did say +a word to him about it.' Now, as Mary felt, difficulty was +heaping itself upon difficulty. 'I have seldom met a man in whose +company I could take more pleasure than in that Mr Boncassen; and +the young lady seems to be worthy of her father.' Mary was +silent, feeling the complication of the difficulties. 'Do you not +like her?' asked the Duke. + +'Very much indeed,' said Mary. + +'Then let us fix a day and ask them. If you will come to me after +dinner with an almanac we will arrange it. Of course you will +invite Miss Cassewary too?' + +The complication seemed to be very bad indeed. In the first place +was it not clear that she, Lady Mary, ought not to be a party to +asking Miss Boncassen to meet her brother at Matching? Would it +not be imperative on her part to tell her father the whole story? +And yet how could she do that? It had been told to her in +confidence, and she remembered what her own feelings had been when +Mrs Finn had suggested the propriety of telling the story which +had been told to her! And how would it be possible to ask Lady +Mabel to come to Matching to meet Miss Boncassen in the presence +of Silverbridge! If the party could be made up without +Silverbridge things might run smoothly. + +As she was thinking of this in her own room, thinking also how +happy she could be if one other name could be added to the list of +guests, the Duke had gone alone into his library. There a pile of +letters reached him, among which he found one marked 'Private', +and addressed in a hand which he did not recognise. This he opened +suddenly,--with a conviction that it would contain a thorn,--and, +turning over the page found the signature to be 'Francis Tregear'. +The man's name was wormwood to him. He at once felt that he would +wish to have his dinner, his fragment brought to him in that +solitary room, and that he might remain secluded for the rest of +the evening. But still he must read the letter,--and he read it. + +'MY DEAR LORD DUKE, + +'If my mode of addressing your Grace be too familiar I hope you +will excuse it. It seems to me that if I were to use one more +distant, I should myself be detracting something from my right to +make the claim which I intend to put forward. You know what my +feelings are in reference to your daughter. I do not pretend to +suppose that they should have the least weight with you. But you +know also what her feelings are for me. A man seems to be vain +when he expresses his conviction of a woman's love for himself. +But this matter is so important to her as well as to me that I am +compelled to lay aside all pretence. If she do not love me as I +love her, then the whole thing drops to the ground. Then it will +be for me to take myself off from out of your notice,--and from +hers, and to keep to myself whatever heart-breaking I may have to +undergo. But if she be as steadfast in this matter as I am,--if her +happiness be fixed on marrying me as mine to marrying her,--then, I +think, I am entitled to ask you whether you are justified in +keeping us apart. + +'I know well what are the discrepancies. Speaking from my own +feeling I regard very little those of rank. I believe myself to be +as good a gentleman as though my father's forefathers had sat for +centuries past in the House of Lords. I believe that you would +have thought so also had you and I been brought in contact on any +other subject. The discrepancy with regard to money is, I own, a +great trouble to me. Having no wealth of my own I wish that your +daughter were so circumstanced that I could go out into the world +and earn bread for her. I know myself so well that I dare say +positively that her money,--if it be that she will have money,--had +no attractions for me when I first became acquainted with her and +adds nothing now to the persistency with which I claim her hand. + +'But I venture to ask whether you can dare to keep us apart if her +happiness depends on her lover for me? It is now more than six +months since I called upon you in London and explained my wishes. +You will understand me when I say that I cannot be contented to +sit idle, trusting simply to the assurance I have of her +affection. Did I doubt it, my way would be more clear. I should +feel in that case that she would yield to your wishes, and I +should then, as I have said before, just take myself out of the +way. But if it be not so, then I am bound to do something,--on her +behalf as well as my own. What am I to do? Any endeavours to meet +her clandestinely is against my instincts, and would certainly be +rejected by her. A secret correspondence would be equally +distasteful to both of us. Whatever I do in this matter, I wish +you to know that I do it. + +'Yours always, +'Most faithfully, and with the deepest respect,' +'FRANCIS TREGEAR.' + +He read the letter very carefully, and was at first simply +astonished by what he considered to be the unparalleled arrogance +of the young man. In regard to rank this young gentleman thought +himself to be as good as anybody else! In regard to money he did +acknowledge some inferiority. But that was a misfortune, and could +not be helped! Not only was the letter arrogant,--but the fact +that he should dare to write any letter on such a subject was +proof of most unpardonable arrogance. The Duke walked about the +room thinking of it till he was almost in a passion. Then he read +the letter again and was gradually pervaded by a feeling of +manliness. Its arrogance remained, but with its arrogance there +was a certain boldness which induced respect. Whether I am such a +son-in-law as you would like or not, it is your duty to accept me, +if by refusing to do so you will render your daughter miserable. +That was Mr Tregear's argument. He himself might be prepared to +argue in answer that it was his duty to reject such a son-in-law, +even though by rejecting him he might make his daughter miserable. +He was not shaken; but with his condemnation of the young man +there was mingled something of respect. + +He continued to digest the letter before the hour of dinner, and +when the almanac was brought to him he fixed on certain days. The +Boncassens he knew would be free from engagements in ten days' +time. As to Lady Mabel, he seemed to think it almost certain that +she would come. 'I believe she is always going about from one +house to another at this time of the year,' said Mary. + +'I think she will come to us if it be possible,' said the Duke. +'And you must write to Silverbridge.' + +'And what about Mr and Mrs Finn?' + +'She promised she would come again, you know. They are at their +own place in Surrey. They will come unless they have friends with +them. They have no shooting, and nothing brings people together +now except shooting. I suppose there are better things here to be +shot. And be sure you write to Silverbridge.' + + + +CHAPTER 51 + +The Duke's Guests + +'The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to Mr Francis +Tregear, and begs to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Tregear's +letter of-. The Duke has no other communication to make to Mr +Tregear, and must beg to decline any further correspondence.' +This was the reply which the Duke wrote to the applicant for his +daughter's hand. And he wrote it at once. He had acknowledged to +himself that Tregear had shown a certain manliness in his appeal; +but not on that account was such a man to have all that he +demanded! It seemed to the Duke that there was no alternative +between such a note as that given above and a total surrender. + +But the post did not go out during the night, and the note lay +hidden in the Duke's private drawer till the morning. There was +still that 'locus poenitentiae' which should be accorded to all +letters written in anger. During the day he thought over it all +constantly, not in any spirit of yielding, not descending a single +step from that attitude of conviction which made him feel that it +might be his duty absolutely to sacrifice his daughter,--but asking +himself whether it might not be better to explain the whole matter +at length to the young man. He thought that he could put the +matter strongly. It was not by his own doing that he belonged to +an aristocracy which, if all exclusiveness were banished from it, +must cease to exist. But being what he was, having been born to +such privileges and such limitations, was he not bound in duty to +maintain a certain exclusiveness? He would appeal to the young man +himself to say whether marriage ought to be free between all +classes of the community. And if not between all, who was to +maintain the limits but they to whom authority in such matters is +given? So much in regard to rank! And then he would ask this +young man whether he thought it fitting that a young man whose +duty according to all known principles it must be to earn bread, +should avoid that manifest duty by taking a wife who could +maintain him. As he roamed about his park alone he felt that he +could write such a letter as would make an impression even upon a +lover. But when he had come back to his study, other reflections +came to his aid. Though he might write the most appropriate letter +in the world, would there not certainly be a reply? As to +conviction, had he ever known an instance of a man who had been +convinced by an adversary? Of course there would be a reply,--and +replies. And to such a correspondence there would no visible end. +Words when once written, remain, or may remain, in testimony for +ever. So at last when the moment came he sent off those three +lines, with his uncourteous compliments and his demand that there +should be no further correspondence. + +At dinner he endeavoured to make up for his harshness by increased +tenderness to his daughter, who was altogether ignorant of the +correspondence. 'Have you written your letters, dear?' She said +she had written them. + +'I hope the people will come.' + +'If it will make you comfortable, papa!' + +'It is for your sake I wish them to be here. I think that Lady +Mabel and Miss Boncassen are just such girls as you would like.' + +'I do like them; only--' + +'Only what?' + +'Miss Boncassen is an American.' + +'Is that an objection? According to my ideas it is desirable to +become acquainted with persons of various nations. I have heard, +no doubt, many stories of the awkward manners displayed by +American ladies. If you look for them you may probably find +American women who are not polished. I do not think I shall +calumniate my own country if I say the same of English women. It +should be our object to select for our own acquaintance the best +we can find of all countries. It seems to me that Miss Boncassen +is a young lady with whom any other young lady might be glad to +form an acquaintance.' + +This was a little sermon which Mary was quite contented to endure +in silence. She was, in truth, fond of the young American beauty, +and had felt a pleasure in the intimacy which the girl had +proposed to her. But she thought it inexpedient that Miss +Boncassen, Lady Mabel, and Silverbridge, should be at Matching +together. Therefore she made a reply to her father's sermon which +hardly seemed to go to the point at issue. 'She is so beautiful!' +she said. + +'Very beautiful,' said the Duke. 'But what has that to do with it? +My girl need not be jealous of any girl's beauty.' Mary laughed +and shook her head. 'What is it then?' + +'Perhaps Silverbridge might admire her.' + +'I have no doubt he would,--or does, for I am aware that they have +met. But why should he not admire her?' + +'I don't know,' said Lady Mary sheepishly. + +'I fancy there is no danger in that direction. I think +Silverbridge understands what is expected from him.' Had not +Silverbridge plainly shown that he had understood what was +expected from him when he selected Lady Mabel? Nothing could have +been more proper, and the Duke had been altogether satisfied. That +in such a matter there should have been a change in so short a +time did not occur to him. Poor Mary was now completely silenced. +She had been told that Silverbridge understood what was expected +from him; and of course could not fail to carry home to herself an +accusation that she failed to understand what was expected from +her. + +She had written her letters, but had not yet sent them. Those to +Mrs Finn and the two younger ladies had been easy enough. Could Mr +and Mrs Finn come to Matching on the twentieth of November? 'Papa +says that you promised to return, and thinks this time will +perhaps suit you.' And then to Lady Mabel: 'Do come if you can; +and papa particularly says that he hopes Miss Cassewary will come +also.' To Miss Boncassen she had written a long letter, but that +too had been written very easily. 'I write to you instead of your +mamma because I know you. You must tell her that, and then she +will not be angry. I am only papa's messenger, and I am to say how +much he hopes that you will come on the twentieth. Mr Boncassen is +to bring the whole British Museum if he wishes.' Then there was a +little postscript which showed that there was already considerable +intimacy between the two young ladies: 'We won't have either Mr L +or Lord P.' Not a word was said about Lord Silverbridge. There +was not even an initial to indicate his name. + +But the letter to her brother was more difficult. In her epistles +to those others she had so framed her words as if possible to +bring them to Matching. But in writing to her brother, she was +anxious to write as to deter him from coming. She was bound to +obey her father's commands. He had desired that Silverbridge +should be asked to come,--and he was asked to come. But she +craftily endeavoured to word the invitation that he should be +induced to remain away. 'It is all papa's doing,' she said; 'and I +am glad that he should like to have people here. I have asked the +Finns with whom papa seems to have made up everything. Mr +Warburton will be here of course, and I think Mr Moreton is +coming. He seems to think that a certain amount of shooting ought +to be done. Then I have invited Lady Mabel Grex and Miss +Cassewary,--all of course of papa's choosing, and the Boncassens. +Now you will know whether the set will suit you. Papa particularly +begged that you will come,--apparently because of Lady Mabel. I +don't know what all that means. Perhaps you do. As I like Lady +Mabel, I hope she will come.' Surely Silverbridge would not run +himself into the jaws of the lion. When he heard that he was +specially expected by his father to come to Matching in order that +he might make himself agreeable to one young lady, he would hardly +venture to come, seeing that he would be bound to make love to +another young lady! + +To Mary's great horror, all the invitations were accepted. Mr and +Mrs Finn were quite at the Duke's disposal. That she had expected. +The Boncassens would all come. This was signified by a note from +Isabel, which covered four sides of the paper and was full of fun. +But under her signature had been written a few words,--not in fun,-- +words which Lady Mary perfectly understood. 'I wonder, I wonder, I +wonder!' Did the Duke when inviting her know anything of his +son's inclinations? Would he be made to know them now, during +this visit? And what would he say when he did know them? + +That the Boncassens would come as a matter of course; but Mary had +thought that Lady Mabel would refuse. She had told Lady Mabel that +the Boncassens had been asked, and to her thinking it had not been +improbable that the young lady would be unwilling to meet her +rival at Matching. But the invitation was accepted. + +But it was her brother's ready acquiescence which trouble Mary +chiefly. He wrote as though there was no doubt about the matter. +'Of course there is a deal of shooting to be done,' he said, 'and +I consider myself bound to look after it. There ought not to be +less than four guns,--particularly if Warburton is to be one of +them. I like Warburton very much, but I think he shoots badly to +ingratiate himself with the governor. I wonder whether the +governor would get leave for Gerald for a week. He has been +sticking to his work like a brick. If not, would he mind my +bringing someone? You ask the governor and let me know. I'll be +there on the twentieth. I wonder whether they'll let me hear what +goes on among them about politics? I'm sure there is not one of +them hates Sir Timothy worse than I do. Lady Mab is a brick, and +I'm glad you have asked her. I don't think she'll come, as she +likes shutting herself up at Grex. Miss Boncassen is another +brick. And if you can manage about Gerald I will say you are a +third.' + +This would have been all very well had she not know that secret. +Could it be that Miss Boncassen had been mistaken? She was forced +to write again to say that her father did not think it right that +Gerald should be brought away from his studies for the sake of +shooting, and that the necessary fourth gun would be there in the +person of Barrington Erle. Then she added: 'Lady Mabel Grex is +coming, and so is Miss Boncassen.' But to this she received no +reply. + +Though Silverbridge had written to his sister in his usual +careless style, he had considered the matter much. The three +months were over. He had no idea of any hesitation on his part. He +had asked her to be his wife, and he was determined to go on with +his suit. Had he ever been enabled to make the same request to +Mabel Grex, or had she answered him when he did half make it in a +serious manner, he would have been true to her. He had not told +his father, or his sister, or his friends, as Isabel had +suggested. He would not do so till he should have received some +more certain answer from her. But in respect to his love he was +prepared to be as quite as obstinate as his sister. It was a +matter for his own consideration, and he would choose for himself. +The three months were over, and it was now his business to present +himself to the lady again. + +That Lady Mabel should also be at Matching, would certainly be a +misfortune. He thought it probable that she, knowing that Isabel +Boncassen and he would be there together, would refuse the +invitation. Surely she ought to do so. That was his opinion when +he wrote to his sister. When he heard afterwards that she intended +to be there, he could only suppose that she was prepared to accept +the circumstances as they stood. + + + +CHAPTER 52 + +Miss Boncassen Tells the Truth + +On the twentieth of the month all the guests came rattling in at +Matching one after the another. The Boncassens were the first, but +Lady Mabel with Miss Cassewary followed them quickly. Then came +the Finns, and with them Barrington Erle. Lord Silverbridge was +the last. He arrived by a train which reached the station at 7pm, +and only entered the house as his father was asking Miss Boncassen +into the dining-room. He dressed himself in ten minutes, and +joined the party as they had finished their fish. 'I am awfully +sorry,' he said, rushing up to his father, 'but I thought that I +should just hit it.' + +'There is no occasion for awe,' said the Duke, 'as sufficiency of +dinner is left. But how you should have hit it, as you say,--seeing +that the train is not due at Bridstock till 7.05--I do not know.' + +'I've often done it, sir,' said Silverbridge, taking the seat left +vacant for him next to Lady Mabel. 'We've had a political caucus +of the party,--all the members who could be got together in +London,--at Sir Timothy's, and I was bound to attend.' + +'We've all heard of that,' said Phineas Finn. + +'And we pretty well know all the points of Sir Timothy's +eloquence,' said Barrington Erle. + +'I am not going to tell any of the secrets. I have no doubt that +there were reporters present, and you will see the whole of it in +the papers tomorrow.' Then Silverbridge turned to his neighbour. +'Well, Lady Mab, and how are you this long time?' + +'But how are you? Think what you have gone through since we were +at Killancodlem!' + +'Don't talk of it.' + +'I suppose it is not to be talked of.' + +'Though upon the whole it has happened very luckily, I have got +rid of the accursed horses, and my governor has shown what a brick +he can be. I don't think there is another man in England who would +have done as he did.' + +'There are not many who could.' + +'There are fewer who would. When they came into my bedroom that +morning and told me that the horse could not run, I thought I +should have broken my heart. Seventy thousand pounds gone!' + +'Seventy thousand pounds!' + +'And the honour and glory of winning the race! And then the +feeling that one had been so awfully swindled! Of course I had to +look as though I did not care a straw about it, and to go and see +the race, with a jaunty air and a cigar in my mouth. That is what +I call hard work.' + +'But you did it!' + +'I tried. I wish I could explain to you my state of mind that day. +In the first place the money had got to be got. Though it was to +go into the hands of swindlers, still it had to be paid. I don't +know how your father and Percival get on together,--but I felt like +the prodigal son.' + +'It is very different with papa.' + +'I suppose so. I felt very like hanging myself when I was alone +that evening. And now everything is right again.' + +'I am glad that everything is right,' she said, with a strong +emphasis on everything. + +'I have done with racing at any rate. The feeling of being in the +power of a lot of low blackguards is so terrible! I did love the +poor brute so dearly. And now what have you been doing?' + +'Just nothing;--and have seen nobody. I went back to Grex after +leaving Killancodlem, and shut myself up in misery.' + +'Why misery?' + +'Why misery! What a question for you to ask! Though I love Grex, I +am not altogether fond of living alone, and though Grex has its +charms, they are of a melancholy kind. And when I think of the +state of our family affairs, that is not reassuring. You father +has just paid seventy thousand pounds for you. My father has been +good enough to take something of less than a quarter of that sum +from me;--but still it was all that I was ever to have.' + +'Girls don't want money.' + +'Don't they? When I look forward it seems to me that a time will +come when I shall want it very much.' + +'You will marry,' he said. She turned round for a moment and +looked at him, full in the face, after a fashion that he did not +dare to promise her future comfort in that direction. 'Things +always do come right, somehow.' + +'Let us hope so. Only nothing has ever come right for me yet. +What is Frank doing?' + +'I haven't seen him since he left Crummie-Toddle.' + +'And your sister?' she whispered. + +'I know nothing about it at all.' + +'And you? I have told you everything about myself.' + +'As for me, I think of nothing but politics now. I have told you +about my racing experiences. Just at present shooting is up. +Before Christmas I shall go into Chiltern's country for a little +hunting.' + +'You can hunt here?' + +'I shan't stay long enough to make it worth while to have my +horses down. If Tregear will go with me to the Brake, I can mount +him for a day or two. But I daresay you know more of his plans +that I do. He went to see you at Grex.' + +'And you did not.' + +'I was not asked.' + +'Nor was he.' + +'Then all I can say is,' replied Silverbridge, speaking in a low +voice, but with considerable energy, 'that he can use a freedom +with Lady Mabel Grex which I cannot venture.' + +'I believe you begrudge me his friendship. If you had no one else +belonging to you with whom you could have sympathy, would not you +find comfort in a relation who could be almost as near to you as a +brother?' + +'I do not grudge him to you.' + +'Yes; you do. And what business have to you interfere?' + +'None at all;--certainly. I will never do it again.' + +'Don't say that, Lord Silverbridge. You ought to have more mercy +on me. You ought to put up with anything from me,--knowing how much +I suffer.' + +'I will put up with anything,' said he. + +'Do, do. And now I will try to talk to Mr Erle.' + +Miss Boncassen was sitting on the other side of the table, between +Mr Monk and Phineas Finn, and throughout the dinner talked mock +politics with the greatest liveliness. Silverbridge when he +entered the room had gone round the table and shaken hands with +everyone. But there had no other greeting between him and Isabel, +nor had any sign passed from one to the other. No such greeting or +sign had been possible. Nothing had been left undone which she had +expected, or hoped. But, though she was lively, nevertheless she +kept her eye upon her lover and Lady Mabel. Lady Mary had said +that she thought her brother was in love with Lady Mabel. Could it +be possible? In her own land she had heard absurd stories, +stories which had seemed to her to be absurd,--of the treachery of +Lords and Countesses, of the baseness of aristocrats, of the +iniquities of high life in London. But her father had told her to +go where she might, she would find people in the main to be very +like each other. It had seemed that nothing could be more +ingenuous than this young man had been in his declaration of his +love. No simplest republican could have spoken more plainly. But +now, at this moment, she could doubt but that her lover was very +intimate with this other girl. Of course he was free. When she had +refused to say a word to him of her own love or want of love, she +had necessarily left him at liberty. When she had put him off for +three months, of course he was to be his own master. But what must +she think of him if it were so? And how could he have the courage +to face her in her father's house if he intended to treat her in +such a fashion? But of all this she showed nothing, nor was there +a tone in her voice which betrayed her. She said her last word to +Mr Monk with so sweet a smile that that old bachelor wished he +were younger for her sake. + +In the evening after dinner there was music. It was discovered +that Miss Boncassen sung divinely, and both Lady Mabel and Lady +Mary accompanied her. Mr Erle, and Mr Warburton, and Mr Monk, all +of whom were unmarried, stood by enraptured. But Lord Silverbridge +kept himself apart, and interested himself in a description which +Mrs Boncassen gave him of their young men and their young ladies +in the States. He had hardly spoken to Miss Boncassen,--till he +offered her sherry or soda-water before she retired for the night. +She refused his courtesy with her usual smile, but showed no more +emotion than though they two had now met for the first time in +their lives. + +He had quite made up his mind as to what he would do. When the +opportunity should come his way he would simply remind her that +the three months were passed. But he was shy of talking to her in +the presence of Lady Mabel and his father. He was quite determined +that the thing should be done at once, but he certainly wished +that Lady Mabel had not been there. In what she had said to him at +the dinner-table she had made him quite understand that she would +be a trouble to him. He remembered her look when he had told her +that she would marry. It was as though she had declared to him +that it was he who ought to be her husband. It referred back to +that proffer of love which he had once made to her. Of course all +this was disagreeable. Of course it made things difficult for him. +But not the less was it a thing quite assured that he would press +his suit to Miss Boncassen. When he was talking to Mrs Boncassen +he was thinking of nothing else. When he was offering Isabel the +glass of sherry he was telling himself that he would find his +opportunity on the morrow,--though, now, at this moment, it was +impossible that he should make a sign. She, as she went to bed, +asked herself whether it was possible that there should be such +treachery;--whether it were possible that he should pass it all by +as though he had never said a word to her! + +During the whole of the next day, which was Sunday, he was equally +silent. Immediately after breakfast, on the Monday, shooting +commenced, and he could not find a moment in which to speak. It +seemed to him that she purposely kept out of his way. With Mabel +he did find himself for a few moments alone, and was then +interrupted by his sister and Isabel. 'I hope you have killed a +lot of things,' said Miss Boncassen. + +'Pretty well, among us all.' + +'What an odd amusement it seems, going out to commit wholesale +slaughter. However it is the proper thing no doubt.' + +'Quite the proper thing,' said Lord Silverbridge, and that was +all. + +On the next morning he dressed himself for shooting,--and then sent +out the party without him. He had heard, he said, of a young horse +for sale in the neighbourhood, and had sent to desire that it +might be brought to him. And now he found his occasion. + +'Come and play a game of billiards,' he said to Isabel, as the +three girls with the other ladies were together in the drawing- +room. She got up very slowly from her seat, and very slowly crept +away to the door. Then she looked round as though expecting the +others to follow her. None of them did follow her. Mary felt that +she ought to do so; but, knowing all that she knew, did not dare. +And what good could she have done by one such interruption? Lady +Mabel would fain have gone too;--but neither did she quite dare. +Had there been no special reason why she should or should not have +gone with them, the thing would have been easy enough. When two +people go to play billiards, a third may surely accompany them. +But now, Lady Mabel found that she could not stir. Mrs Finn, Mrs +Boncassen, and Miss Cassewary were all in the room, but none of +them moved. Silverbridge led the way quickly across the hall, and +Isabel Boncassen followed him very slowly. When she entered the +room she found him standing with a cue in his hand. He at once +shut the door, and walking up to her dropped the butt of the cue +on the floor and spoke one word. 'Well!' he said. + +'What does "Well" mean?' + +'The three months are over.' + +'Certainly the are "over".' +'And I have been a model of patience.' + +'Perhaps your patience is more remarkable than your constancy. Is +not Lady Mabel Grex in the ascendant just now?' + +'What do you mean by that? Why do you ask that? You told me to +wait for three months. I have waited, and here I am.' + +'How very--very--downright you are.' + +'Is it not the proper thing?' + +'I thought I was downright,--but you beat me hollow. Yes, the three +months are over. And now what have you got to say?' He put down +his cue, stretched out his arms as though he were going to take +her and hold her to his heart. 'No;--no, not that,' she said +laughing. 'But if you will speak, I will hear you.' + +'You know what I said before. Will you love me, Isabel?' + +'And you know what I said before. Do they know you love me? Does +your father know it, and your sister? Why did they ask me to come +here?' + +'Nobody knows it. But say that you love me, and everyone shall +know it at once. Yes, one person knows it. Why did you mention +Lady Mabel's name? She knows it.' + +'Did you tell her?' + +'Yes, I went again to Killancodlem after you were gone, and then I +told her.' + +'But why her? Come, Lord Silverbridge. You are straightforward +with me, and I will be the same with you. You have told Lady +Mabel. I have told Lady Mary.' + +'My sister!' + +'Yes;--your sister. And I am sure she disapproves it. She did not +say so; but I am sure it is so. and then she told me something.' + +'What did she tell you?' + +'Has there ever been reason to think that you intended to offer +your hand to Lady Mabel Grex?' + +'Did she tell you so?' + +'You should answer my question, Lord Silverbridge. It is surely +one which I have a right to ask.' Then she stood waiting for his +reply, keeping herself at some little distance from him as though +she were afraid that he would fly upon her. And indeed there +seemed to be cause for such fear from frequent gestures of his +hands. 'Why do you not answer me? Has there been some reason for +such expectations?' + +'Yes;--there has.' + +'There has!' + +'I thought of it,--not knowing myself before I had seen you. You +shall know it all if you will only say that you love me.' + +'I should like to know it first.' + +'You do know it all;--almost. I have told you that she knows what I +said to you at Killancodlem. Is not that enough?' + +'And she approves!' + +'What has it to do with her? Lady Mabel is my friend, but not my +guardian.' + +'Has she a right to expect that she should be your wife?' + +'No;--certainly not. Why should you ask all this? Do you love me? +Come, Isabel; say that you love me. Will you call me vain if I say +that I almost think you do. You cannot doubt my love;--not now.' + +'No;--not now.' + +'You needn't. Why won't you be as honest to me? If you hate me, +say so;--but if you love me-!' + +'I do not hate you, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'And is that all?' + +'You asked me the question.' + +'But you do love me? By George, I thought you would be more honest +and straightforward.' + +Then she dropped her badinage and answered him seriously. 'I +thought I had been more honest and straightforward. When I found +that you were in earnest at Killancodlem--' + +'Why did you ever doubt me?' + +'When I felt that you were in earnest, then I had to be in earnest +too. And I thought so much about it that I lay awake nearly all +that night. Shall I tell you what I thought?' + +'Tell me something I would like to hear.' + +'I will tell you the truth. "Is it possible," I said to myself, +"that such a man as that can want me to be his wife; he an +Englishman, of the highest rank and the greatest wealth, and one +that any girl in the world would love?"' + +'Psha!' he exclaimed. + +'That is what I said to myself.' Then she paused, and looking +into his face he saw that there was a glimmer of a tear in each +eye. 'One that any girl must love when asked for her love;--because +he is so sweet, so good, and so pleasant.' + +'I know that you are chaffing.' + +'Then I went on asking myself questions. And is it possible that +I, who by all his friends will be regarded as a nobody, who am an +American,--with merely human work-a-day blood in her veins,--that +such a one as I should become his wife? Then I told myself that +it was not possible. It was not in accordance with the fitness of +things. All the dukes in England would rise up against it, and +especially that duke whose good will would be imperative.' + +'Why should he rise up against it?' + +'You know he will. But I will go on with my story of myself. When +I had settled that in my mind, I just cried myself to sleep. It +had been a dream. I had come across one who in his own self seemed +to combine all that I had ever thought of as being lovable in a +man--' + +'Isabel!' + +'And in his outward circumstances soared as much above my thoughts +as the heaven is above the earth. And he had whispered to me soft +loving, heavenly words. No;--no, you shall not touch me. But you +shall listen to me. In my sleep I could be happy again and not see +the barriers. But when I woke I made up my mind. "If he comes to +me again," I said-"if it should be that he should come to me +again, I will tell him that he shall be my heaven on earth,--if,-- +if--if the ill will of his friends would not make that heaven a +hell to both of us." I did not tell you quite all that.' + +'You told me nothing but that I was to come back again in three +months.' + +'I said more than that. I bade you ask your father. Now you have +come again. You cannot understand a girl's fears and doubts. How +should you? I thought perhaps you would not come. When I saw you +whispering to that highly-born well-bred beauty, and remembered +what I was myself, I thought that--you would not come.' + +'Then you must love me.' + +'Love you! Oh, my darling!-No, no, no,' she said, as she +retreated from him round the corner of the billiard-table, and +stood guarding herself from him with her little hands. 'You ask if +I love you. You are entitled to know the truth. From the sole of +your foot to the crown of you head I love you as I think a man +would wish to be loved by the girl he loves. You have come across +my life, and have swallowed me up, and made me all your own. But I +will not marry you to be rejected by your people. No; nor shall +there be a kiss between us till I know that it will not be so.' + +'May I speak to your father?' + +'For what good? I have not spoken to father or mother because I +have known that it must depend upon your father. Lord +Silverbridge, if he will tell me that I shall be his daughter, I +will become your wife,--oh with such perfect joy, with such perfect +truth! If it can never be so, then let us be torn apart,--with +whatever struggle, still at once. In that case I will get myself +back to my own country as best I may, and will pray to God that +all this may be forgotten.' Then she made her way round to the +door, leaving him fixed on the spot in which she had been +standing. But as she went she made a little prayer to him. 'Do not +delay my fate. It is all in all to me.' And so he was left alone +in the billiard-room. + + + +CHAPTER 53 + +Then I am as Proud as a Queen + +During the next day or two the shooting went on without much +interruption from love-making. The love-making was not prosperous +all round. Poor Lady Mary had nothing to comfort her. Could she +have been allowed to see the letter which her lover had written to +her father, the comfort would have been, if not ample, still very +great. Mary told herself again and again that she was quite sure +of Tregear;--but it was hard upon her that she could not be made +certain that her certainty was well grounded. Had she known that +Tregear had written, though she had not seen a word of the letter, +it would have comforted her. But she heard nothing of the letter. +In June last she had seen him, by chance, for a few minutes, in +Lady Mabel's drawing-room. Since that she had not heard from him +or of him. That was now more than five months since. How could +love serve her,--how could her very life serve her, if things were +to go on like that? How was she to bear it? Thinking of this she +resolved, she almost resolved, that she would go boldly to her +father and desire that she might be given up to her lover. + +Her brother, although more triumphant,--for how could he fail to +triumph after such words as Isabel had spoken to him,--still felt +his difficulties very seriously. She had imbued him with a strong +sense of her own firmness, and she had declared that she would go +away and leave him altogether if the Duke should be unwilling to +receive her. He knew that the Duke would be unwilling. The Duke, +who certainly was not handy in those duties of match-making which +seemed to have fallen upon him at the death of his wife, showed by +a hundred little signs his anxiety that his son and heir should +arrange his affairs with Lady Mabel. These signs were manifest to +Mary,--were disagreeably manifest to Silverbridge,--and were +unfortunately manifest to Lady Mabel herself. They were manifest +to Mrs Finn, who was clever enough to perceive that the +inclinations of the young heir were turned in another direction. +And gradually they became manifest to Isabel Boncassen. The host +himself, as host, was courteous to all his guests. They had been +of his own selection, and he did his best to make himself pleasant +to them all. But he selected two for his peculiar notice,--and +those two were Miss Boncassen and Lady Mabel. While he would +himself walk, and talk, and argue after his own particular fashion +with the American beauty,--explaining to her matters political and +social, till he persuaded her to promise to read his pamphlet upon +decimal coinage,--he was always making efforts to throw +Silverbridge and Lady Mabel together. The two girls saw it and +knew how the matter was,--knew that they were rivals, and knew each +the ground on which she herself and on which the other stood. But +neither was satisfied with her advantage, or nearly satisfied. +Isabel would not take the prize without the Duke's consent;---and +Mabel could not have it without that other consent. 'If you want +to marry an English Duke,' she once said to Isabel in that anger +which she was unable to restrain, 'there is the Duke himself. I +never saw a man so absolutely in love.' 'But I do not want to +marry an English Duke,' said Isabel, 'and I pity any girl who has +any idea of marriage except that which comes from a wish to give +back love for love.' + +Through it all the father never suspected the real state of his +son's mind. He was too simple to think it possible that the +purpose which Silverbridge had declared to him as they walked +together from the Beargarden had already been thrown to the winds. +He did not like to ask why the thing was not settled. Young men, +he thought, were sometimes shy, and young ladies not always ready +to give immediate encouragement. But when he saw them together he +concluded that matters were going in the right direction. It was, +however, an opinion which he had all to himself. + +During the next three or four days which followed the scene in the +billiard-room Isabel kept herself out of her lover's way. She had +explained to him that which she wished him to do, and she left him +to do it. Day by day she watched the circumstances of the life +around her, and knew that it had not been done. She was sure that +it could not have been done while the Duke was explaining to her +the beauty of quints, and expiating on the horrors of twelve +pennies, and twelve inches, and twelve ounces,--variegated in some +matters by sixteen and fourteen! He could not know that she was +ambitious of becoming his daughter-in-law, while he was opening +out to her the mysteries of the House of Lords, and explaining how +it came to pass that while he was a member of one House of +Parliament, his son should be sitting as a member of another;--how +it was that a nobleman could be a commoner, and how a peer of one +part of the Empire could sit as the representative of a borough in +another part. She was an apt scholar. Had there been a question of +any other young man marrying her, he would probably have thought +that no other young man could have done better. + +Silverbridge was discontented with himself. The greater misfortune +was that Lady Mabel should be there. While she was present to his +father's eyes he did not know how to declare his altered wishes. +Every now and then she would say to him some little word +indicating her feelings of the absurdity of his passion. 'I +declare I don't know whether it is you or your father that Miss +Boncassen most affects,' she said. But to this and to other +similar speeches he would make no answer. She had extracted his +secret from him at Killancodlem, and might use it against him if +she pleased. In his present frame of mind he was not disposed to +joke with her on the subject. + +On that second Sunday,--the Boncassens were to return to London on +the following Tuesday,--he found himself alone with Isabel's +father. The American had been brought out at his own request to +see the stables, and had been accompanied round the premises by +Silverbridge, Mr Wharton, by Isabel, and by Lady Mary. As they got +out into the park the party were divided, and Silverbridge found +himself with Mr Boncassen. Then it occurred to him that the proper +thing for a young man in love was to go, not to his own father, +but to the lady's father. Why should not he do as others always +did? Isabel no doubt had suggested a different course. But that +which Isobel suggested was at the present moment impossible to +him. Now at this instant, without a moment's forethought, he +determined to tell his story to Isabel's father,--as any other +young lover might tell it to any other father. + +'I am very glad to find ourselves alone, Mr Boncassen,' he said. +Mr Boncassen bowed and showed himself prepared to listen. Though +so many at Matching had seen the whole play, Mr Boncassen had seen +nothing of it. + +'I don't know whether you are aware of what I have got to say.' + +'I cannot quite say that I am, my lord. But whatever it is, I am +sure I shall be delighted to hear it.' + +'I want to marry your daughter,' said Silverbridge. Isabel had +told him that he was downright, and in such a matter he had hardly +as yet learned how to express himself with those paraphrases in +which the world delights. Mr Boncassen stood stock still, and in +the excitement of the moment pulled off his hat. 'The proper thing +is to ask your permission to go on with it.' + +'You want to marry my daughter!' + +'Yes. That is what I have got to say.' + +'Is she aware of your--intention?' + +'Quite aware. I believe I may say that if other things go +straight, she will consent.' + +'And your father--the Duke?' + +'He knows nothing about it,--as yet.' + +'Really this takes me by surprise. I am afraid you have not given +enough thought to the matter.' + +'I have been thinking about it for the last three months,' said +Lord Silverbridge. + +'Marriage is a very serious thing.' + +'Of course it is.' + +'And men generally like to marry their equals.' + +'I don't know about that. I don't think that counts for much. +People don't always know who are their equals.' + +'That is quite true. If I were speaking to you or to your father +theoretically I should perhaps be unwilling to admit superiority +on your side because of your rank and wealth. I could make an +argument in favour of any equality with the best Briton that ever +lived,--as would become a true-born Republican.' + +'That is just what I mean.' + +'But when the question becomes one of practising,--a question for +our lives, for our happiness, for our own conduct, then, knowing +what must be the feelings of an aristocracy in such a country as +this, I am prepared to admit that your father would be as well +justified in objecting to a marriage between a child of his and a +child of mine, as I should be in objecting to one between my child +and the son of some mechanic in our native city.' + +'He wouldn't be a gentleman,' said Silverbridge. + +'That is a word of which I don't quite know the meaning.' + +'I do,' said Silverbridge confidently. + +'But you could not define it. If a man be well educated, and can +keep a good house over his head, perhaps you may call him a +gentleman. But there are many such with whom your father would not +wish to be so closely connected to as you propose.' + +'But I may have your sanction?' Mr Boncassen again took off his +hat and walked along thoughtfully. 'I hope you don't object to me +personally.' + +'My dear young lord, your father has gone out of his way to be +civil to me. Am I to return his courtesy by bringing a great +trouble upon him?' + +'He seems to be very fond of Miss Boncassen.' + +'Will he continue to be fond of her when he has heard this? What +does Isabel say?' + +'She says the same as you, of course.' + +'Why of course;--except that it is evident to you as it is to me +that she could not with propriety say anything else.' + +'I think she would,--would like it, you know.' + +'She would like to be your wife!' + +'Well;--yes. If it were all serene, I think she would consent.' + +'I daresay she would consent,--if it were all serene. Why should +she not? do not try her too hard, Lord Silverbridge. You say you +love her?' + +'I do indeed.' + +'Then think of the position in which you are placing her. You are +struggling to win her heart.' Silverbridge as he heard this +assured himself that there was no need for any further struggling +in that direction. 'Perhaps you have won it. Yet she may feel that +she cannot become your wife. She may well say to herself that this +which is offered to her is so great, that she does not know how to +refuse it; and may yet have to say, at the same time, that she +cannot accept it without disgrace. You would not put one that you +love into such a position?' + +'As for disgrace,--that is nonsense. I beg your pardon, Mr +Boncassen.' + +'Would it be no disgrace that she should be known here, in +England, to be your wife, and that none of those of your rank,--of +what would then be her own rank,--should welcome her into the new +world?' + +'That would be out of the question.' + +'If your own father refused to welcome her, would not others +follow suit?' + +'You don't know my father.' + +'You seem to know him well enough to fear that he would object.' + +'Yes;--that is true.' + +'What more do I want to know?' + +'If she were once my wife he would not reject her. Of all human +beings he is in truth the kindest and most affectionate.' + +'And therefore you would try him after this fashion? No, my lord, +I cannot see my way through these difficulties. You can say what +you please to him as to your own wishes. But you must not tell him +that you have any sanction from me.' + +That evening the story was told to Mrs Boncassen, and the matter +was discussed among the family. Isabel in talking to them made no +scruple of declaring her own feelings; and though in speaking to +Lord Silverbridge she had spoken very much as her father had done +afterwards, yet in this family conclave she took her lover's part. +'That is all very well, father,' she said, 'I told him the same +thing myself. But if he is man enough to be firm I shall not throw +him over,--not for all the dukes in Europe. I shall not stay here +to be pointed at. I will go back home. If he follows me to show +that he is in earnest, I shall not disappoint him for the sake of +pleasing his father.' To this neither Mr nor Mrs Boncassen were +able to make any efficient answer. Mrs Boncassen, dear good woman, +could see no reason why two young people who loved each other +should not be married at once. Dukes and duchesses were nothing to +her. If they couldn't be happy in England then let them come and +live in New York. She didn't understand that anybody could be too +good for her daughter. Was there not an idea that Mr Boncassen +would be the next President? And was not the President of the +United States as good as the Queen of England? + +Lord Silverbridge when he left Mr Boncassen wandered about the +park by himself. King Cophetua married the beggar's daughter. He +was sure of that. King Cophetua probably had not a father, and the +beggar, probably, was not high-minded. But the discrepancy in that +case was much greater. He intended to persevere, trusting much to +a belief that when once he was married his father would 'come +round'. His father always did come round. But the more he thought +of it, the more impossible it seemed to him that he should ask his +father's consent at the present moment. Lady Mabel's presence in +the house was an insuperable obstacle. He thought that he could do +it if he and his father were alone together, or comparatively +alone. He must be prepared for an opposition, at any rate of some +days, which opposition would make his father quite unable to +entertain his guests while it lasted. + +But as he could not declare his wishes to his father, and was thus +disobeying Isabel's behests, he must explain the difficulty to +her. He felt already that she would despise him for his +cowardice,--that she would not perceive the difficulties in his +way, or understand that he might injure his cause by +precipitation. Then he considered whether he might not possibly +make some bargain with his father. How would it be if he should +consent to go back to the Liberal party on being allowed to marry +the girl he loved? As far as his political feelings were +concerned he did not think that he would much object to make the +change. There was only one thing certain,--that he must explain his +condition to Miss Boncassen before she went. + +He found no difficulty now in getting the opportunity. She was +equally anxious, and as well disposed to acknowledge her anxiety. +After what had passed between them she was not desirous of +pretending that the matter was of small moment to herself. She had +told him that it was all the world to her, and had begged him to +let her know her fate as quickly as possible. On that last Monday +morning they were in the grounds together, and Lady Mabel, who was +walking with Mrs Finn, saw them pass through a little gate which +led from the gardens into the Priory ruins. 'It all means +nothing,' Mabel said with a little laugh to her companion. + +'If so, I am sorry for the young lady,' said Mrs Finn. + +'Don't you think that one always has to be sorry for the young +ladies? Young ladies generally have a bad time of it. Did you +ever hear of a gentleman who always had to roll a stone to the top +of a hill, but it would always come back on him?' + +'That gentleman I believe never succeeded,' said Mrs Finn. 'The +young ladies sometimes do, I suppose.' + +In the meantime Isabel and Silverbridge were among the ruins +together. 'This is where the old Pallisers used to be buried,' he +said. + +'Oh, indeed. And married, I suppose.' + +'I daresay. They had a priest of their own, no doubt, which must +have been convenient. This block of a fellow without any legs is +supposed to represent Sir Guy. He ran away with half-a-dozen +heiresses, they say. I wish things were as easily done now.' + +'Nobody should have to run away with me. I have no idea of going +on such a journey except on terms of equality,--just step and step +alike.' Then she took hold of his arm and put out one foot. 'Are +you ready?' + +'I am very willing.' + +'But are you ready,--for a straightforward walk off to the church +before all the world? None of your private chaplains, such as Sir +Guy had at his command. Just the registrar, if there is nothing +better,--so that it be public before all the world.' + +'I wish we could start this instant.' + +'But we can't,--can we?' + +'No, dear. So many things have to be settled.' + +'And what have you settled on since you last spoke to me?' + +'I have told your father everything.' + +'Yes;--I know that. What good does that do? Father is not a Duke +of Omnium. No one supposed that he would object.' + +'But he did,' said Silverbridge. + +'Yes;--as I do,--for the same reason; because he would not have his +daughter creep in at a hole. But to your own father you have not +ventured to speak.' Then he told his story, as best he knew how. +It was not that he feared his father, but that he felt that the +present moment was not fit. 'He wishes you to marry that Lady +Mabel Grex,' she said. He nodded his head. 'And you will marry +her?' + +'Never! I might have done so, had I not seen you. I should have +done so, if she had been willing. But now I never can,--never, +never.' Her hand had dropped from his arm, but now she put it up +again for a moment, so that he might feel the pressure of her +fingers. 'Say that you believe me.' + +'I think I do.' + +'You know I love you.' + +'I think you do. I am sure I hope you do. If you don't, then I +am,--a miserable wretch.' + +'With all my heart I do.' + +'Then I am as proud as a queen. You will tell him soon.' + +'As soon as you are gone. As soon as we are alone together. I +will;--and then I will follow you to London. Now shall we not say, +Good-bye?' + +'Good-bye, my own,' she whispered. + +'You will let me have one kiss.' + +Her hand was in his, and she looked as though to see that no eyes +were watching them. But then, as thoughts came rushing to her +mind, she changed her purpose. 'No,' she said. 'What is it but a +trifle! It is nothing in itself. But I have bound myself to +myself by certain promises, and you must not ask me to break them. +You are as sweet to me as I can be to you, but there shall be no +kissing till I know that I shall be your wife. Now take me back.' + + + +CHAPTER 54 + +I Don't Think She is a Snake + +On the following day, Tuesday, the Boncassens went, and then there +were none of the guests left but Mrs Finn and Lady Mabel Grex,-- +with of course Miss Cassewary. The Duke had especially asked both +Mrs Finn and Lady Mabel to remain, the former, through his anxiety +to show his repentance for the injustice he had formerly done her, +and the latter in the hope that something might be settled as soon +as the crowd of visitors should have gone. He had so spoken as to +make Lady Mabel quite aware of his wish. He would not have told +her how sure he was that Silverbridge would keep no more +racehorses, how he trusted that Silverbridge had done with +betting, how he believed that the young member would take a real +interest in the House of Commons, had he not intended that she +should take a special interest in the young man. And then he had +spoken about the house in London. It was to be made over to +Silverbridge as soon as Silverbridge should marry. And then there +was Gatherum Castle. Gatherum was rather a trouble than otherwise. +He had ever felt it to be so, but had nevertheless always kept it +open perhaps for a month in the year. His uncle had always resided +there for a fortnight at Christmas. When Silverbridge was married +it would become the young man's duty to do something of the same +kind. Gatherum was the White Elephant of the family, and +Silverbridge must enter it upon his share of the trouble. He did +not know that in saying all this he was offering his son as a +husband to Lady Mabel, but she understood it as thoroughly as +though he had spoken the words. + +But she knew the son's mind also. He had indeed himself told her +all his mind. 'Of course I love her best of all,' he had said. +When he told her of it she had been so overcome that she had wept +in her despair;--had wept in his presence. She had declared to him +her secret,--that it had been her intention to become his wife, and +then he had rejected her! It had all been shame, and sorrow, and +disappointment to her. And she could not but remember that there +had been a moment when she might have secured him by a word. A +look would have done it; a touch of her finger on that morning. +She had known then that he had intended to be in earnest,--that he +only waited for encouragement. She had not given it because she +had not wish to grasp too eagerly for the prize,--and now the prize +was gone! She had said that she had spared him;--but then she +could afford to joke, thinking that he would surely come back to +her. + +She had begun her world with so fatal a mistake! When she was +quite young, when she was little more than a child but still not a +child, she had given all her love to a man whom she soon found +that it would be impossible she should ever marry. He had offered +to face the world with her, promising to do the best to smooth the +rough places, and to soften the stones for her feet. But she, +young as she was, had felt that both he and she belonged to a +class which could hardly endure poverty with contentment. The +grinding need for money, the absolute necessity of luxurious +living, had been pressed upon her from her childhood. She had seen +it and acknowledged it, and had told him with precocious wisdom, +that that which he offered to do for her sake would be a folly for +them both. She had not stinted the assurance of her love, but had +told him that they must both turn aside and learn to love +elsewhere. He had done so, with too complete a readiness! She +had dreamed of a second love, which should obliterate the first,-- +which might still leave to her the memory of the romance of her +earlier passion. Then this boy had come her way! With him all her +ambition might have been satisfied. She desired high rank and +great wealth. With him she might have had it all. And then, too, +though there would always be the memory of that early passion, yet +she could in another fashion love this youth. He was pleasant to +her, and gracious;--and she had told herself that if it should be +so that this great fortune might be hers, she would atone to him +fully for that past romance by the wife-like devotion of her life. +The cup had come within the reach of her fingers, but she had not +grasped it. Her happiness, her triumphs, her great success had +been there, present to her, and she had dallied with her fortune. +There had been a day on which he had been all but at her feet, and +on the next he had been prostrate at the feet of another. He had +even dared to tell her so,--saying of that American that 'of course +he loved her the best'! + +Over and over again since that she had asked herself whether there +was no chance. Though he had loved that other one best she would +take him if it were possible. When the invitation came from the +Duke she would not lose a chance. She had told him that it was +impossible that he, the heir of the Duke of Omnium, should marry +an American. All his family, all his friends, all his world would +be against him. And then he was so young,--and, as she thought, so +easily led. He was lovable and prone to love,--but surely his love +could not be very strong, or he would not have changed so easily. + +She did not hesitate to own to herself that this American was very +lovely. She too, herself, was beautiful. She too had a reputation +for grace, loveliness, and feminine high-bred charm. She knew all +that, but she knew also that her attractions were not so bright as +those of her rival. She could not smile or laugh or throw sparks +of brilliance around her as did the American girl. Miss Boncassen +could be graceful as a nymph in doing the awkwardest thing! When +she had pretended to walk stiffly along, to some imaginary +marriage ceremony, with her foot stuck before her, with her chin in +the air, and one arm akimbo, Silverbridge had been all afire with +admiration. Lady Mabel understood it all. The American girl must +be taken away,--from out of the reach of the young man's senses,-- +and then the struggle must be made. + +Lady Mabel had not been long at Matching before she learned that +she had much in her favour. She perceived that the Duke himself +had not suspicion of what was going on, and that he was strongly +disposed in her favour. She unravelled it all in her own mind. +There must have been some agreement, between the father and the +son, when the son had all but made his offer to her. More than +once she was half-minded to speak openly to the Duke, to tell him +all that Silverbridge had said to her and all that he had not +said, and to ask the father's help in scheming against that rival. +But she could not find the words with which to begin. And then, +might he not despise her, and despising reject her, were she to +declare her desire to marry a man who had given his heart to +another woman? And so, when the Duke asked her to remain after +the departure of the other guests, she decided that it would be +best to bide her time. The Duke, as she assented, kissed her hand, +and she knew that this sign of grace was given to his intended +daughter-in-law. + +In all this she half-confided her thoughts and her prospects to +her old friend Miss Cassewary. 'That girl has gone at last,' she +said to Miss Cassewary. + +'I fear she has left her spells behind her, my dear.' + +'Of course she has. The venom out of the snake's tooth will poison +all the blood; but still the poor bitten wretch does not always +die.' + +'I don't think she is a snake.' + +'Don't be moral, Cass. She is a snake in my sense. She has got her +weapons, and of course it is natural enough that she should use +them. If I want to be the Duchess of Omnium, why shouldn't she?' + +'I hate to hear you talk of yourself in that way.' + +'Because you have enough of the old school about you to like +conventional falsehood. This young man did in fact ask me to be +his wife. Of course I meant to accept him,--but I didn't. Then +comes this convict's granddaughter.' + +'Not a convict's!' + +'You know what I mean. Had he been a convict it would have been +all the same. I take upon myself to say that, had the world been +informed that an alliance had been arranged between the eldest son +of the Duke of Omnium and the daughter of Earl Grex,--the world +would have been satisfied. Every unmarried daughter of every peer +in England would have envied me,--but it would have been comme il +faut.' + +'Certainly, my dear.' + +'But what would be the feeling as to the convict's granddaughter?' + +'You don't suppose that I would approve it;--but it seems to me +that in these days young men do just as they please.' + +'He shall do what he pleases, but he must be made to be pleased +with me.' So much she said to Miss Cassewary; but she did not +divulge any plan. The Boncassens had just gone off to the station, +and Silverbridge was out shooting. If anything could be done here +at Matching, it must be done quickly, as Silverbridge would soon +take his departure. She did not know it, but, in truth, he was +remaining in order that he might, as he said, 'have all this out +with the governor'. + +She tried to realise for herself some plan, but when the evening +came nothing was fixed. For a quarter of an hour, just as the sun +was setting, the Duke joined her in the gardens,--and spoke to her +more plainly than he had ever spoken before. 'Has Silverbridge +come home?' he asked. + +'I have not seen him.' + +'I hope you and Mary get on well together.' + +'I think so, Duke. I am sure we should if we saw more of each +other.' + +'I sincerely hope you may. There is nothing I wish for Mary so +much as that she should have a sister. And there is no one whom I +would be so glad to hear her call by that name as yourself.' How +could he have spoken plainer? + +The ladies were all together in the drawing-room when Silverbridge +came bursting in rather late. 'Where's the governor?' he asked, +turning to his sister. + +'Dressing I should think; but what is the matter?' + +'I want to see him. I must be off to Cornwall tomorrow morning.' + +'To Cornwall!' said Miss Cassewary. 'Why to Cornwall?' asked Lady +Mabel. But Mary, connecting Cornwall with Frank Tregear, held her +peace. + +'I can't explain it all now, but I must start very early +tomorrow.' Then he went off to his father's study, and finding +the Duke still there explained the cause of his intended journey. + The member for Polpenno had died, and Frank Tregear had been +invited to stand for the borough. He had written to his friend to +ask him to come and assist in the struggle. 'Years ago there used +to be always a Tregear in for Polpenno,' said Silverbridge. + +'But he is a younger son.' + +'I don't know anything about it,' said Silverbridge,' but as he +has asked me to go I think I ought to do it.' The Duke, who was +by no means the man to make light of the political obligations of +friendship, raised no objection. + +'I wish that something could have been arranged between you and +Mabel before you went.' The young man stood in the gloom of the +dark room aghast. This was certainly not the moment for +explaining everything to his father. 'I have set my heart very +much upon it, and you ought to be gratified by knowing that I +quite approve your choice.' + +All that had been years ago,--in last June,--before Mrs Montacute +Jones's garden-party, before that day in the rain at Maidenhead, +before the brightness of Killancodlem, before the glories of Miss +Boncassen had been revealed to him. 'There's no time for that +kind of thing now,' he said weakly. + +'I thought that when you were here together--' + +'I must dress now, sir; but I will tell you about it when I get +back from Cornwall. I will come back direct to Matching, and will +explain everything.' So he escaped. + +It was clear to Lady Mabel that there was no opportunity now for +any scheme. Whatever might be possible must be postponed till +after this Cornish business had been completed. Perhaps it might +be better so. she had thought that she would appeal to himself, +that she would tell him of his father's wishes, of her love for +him,--of the authority which he had once given her for loving him,-- +and of the absolute impossibility of his marriage with the +American. She thought that she could do it, if not efficiently at +any rate effectively. But it could not be done on the very day on +which the American had gone. + +It came out in the course of the evening that he was going to +assist Frank Tregear in his canvass. The matter was not spoken of +openly, as Tregear's name could hardly be mentioned. But everybody +knew it, and it gave occasion to Mabel for a few words apart to +Silverbridge. 'I am so glad you are going to him,' she said in a +little whisper. + +'Of course I go when he wishes me. I don't know whether I can do +him any good.' + +'The greatest good in the world. Your name will go so far! It +will be everything to him to be in Parliament. And when are we to +meet again?' + +'I shall turn up somewhere,' he replied as he gave her his hand to +wish her good-bye. + +On the following morning the Duke said to Lady Mabel that she would +stay at Matching for yet another fortnight,--or even for a month if +it might be possible. Lady Mabel, whose father was still abroad, +was not sorry to accept the invitation. + + + +CHAPTER 55 + +Polpenno + +Polwenning, the seat of Mr Tregear, Frank's father, was close to +the borough of Polpenno,--so close that the gates of the grounds +opened into the town. As Silverbridge had told his father, many +of the Tregear family had sat for the borough. Then there had come +changes, and strangers had made themselves welcome by their money. +When the vacancy had occurred a deputation waited upon Squire +Tregear and asked him to stand. The deputation would guarantee +that the expense should not exceed--a certain limited sum. Mr +Tregear for himself had no such ambition. His eldest son was +abroad and was not at all such a man as one would choose to make +into a Member of Parliament. After much consideration in the +family, Frank was invited to present himself to the constituency. +Frank's aspirations in regard to Lady Mary Palliser were known at +Polwenning, and it was thought that they would have a better +chance of success if he could write the letters M.P. after his +name. Frank acceded, and as he was starting wrote to ask the +assistance of his friend Lord Silverbridge. At that time there +were only nine days more before the election, and Mr Carbottle, +the Liberal candidate, was already living in great style at the +Camborne Arms. + +Mr and Mrs Tregear and an elder sister of Frank's, who quite +acknowledged herself to be an old maid, were very glad to welcome +Frank's friend. On the first morning of course they discussed the +candidate's prospects. 'My best chance of success,' said Frank, +'arises from that fact that Mr Carbottle is fatter than the people +here seem to approve.' + +'If his purse be fat,' said old Mr Tregear, 'that will carry off +any personal defect.' Lord Silverbridge asked whether the +candidate was not too fat to make speeches. Miss Tregear declared +that he had made three speeches daily last week, and that Mr +Williams the rector who had heard him, declared him to be a +godless dissident. Mrs Tregear thought that it would be much +better that the place should be disfranchised altogether than that +such a horrid man should be brought into the neighbourhood. 'A +godless dissenter!' she said, holding up her hands in dismay. +Frank thought that they had better abstain from allusion to their +opponent's religion. Then Mr Tregear made a little speech. 'We +used,' he said, 'to endeavour to get someone to represent us in +Parliament, who would agree with us on vital subjects, such as the +Church of England and the necessity of religion. Now it seems to +be considered ill-mannered to make any allusion to such subjects!' +From which it may be seen that this old Tregear was very +conservative indeed. + +When the old people were gone to bed the two young men discussed +the matter. 'I hope you'll get in,' said Silverbridge. 'And if I +can do anything for you of course I will.' + +'It is always good to have a real member along with one,' said +Tregear. + +'But I begin to think I am a very shaky Conservative myself.' + +'I am sorry for that.' + +'Sir Timothy is such a beast,' said Silverbridge. + +'Is that your notion of a political opinion? Are you to be this +or that in accordance with your own liking or disliking for some +particular man? One is supposed to have opinions of one's own.' + +'Your father would be down on a man because he is a dissenter.' + +'Of course my father is old-fashioned.' + +'It does seem so hard to me,' said Silverbridge, 'to find any +difference between the two sets. You who are a true Conservative +are much more like to my father who is a Liberal than to your own +who is on the same side as yourself.' + +'It may be so, and still I may be a good Conservative.' + +'It seems to me in the house to mean nothing more than choosing +one set of companions or choosing another. There are some awful +cads who sit along with Mr Monk;--fellows that make you sick to +hear them, and whom I couldn't be civil to. But I don't think +there is anybody I hate so much as old Beeswax. He has a +contemptuous way with his nose which makes me long to pull it.' + +'And you mean to go over in order that you may be justified in +doing so. I think I soar a little higher,' said Tregear. + +'Oh, of course. You're a clever fellow,' said Silverbridge, not +without a touch of sarcasm. + +'A man may soar higher than that without being very clever. If the +party that calls itself liberal were to have all its own way who +is there that doesn't believe that the church would go at once, +then all distinction between boroughs, the House of Lords +immediately afterwards, and after that the Crown.' + +'Those are not my governor's ideas.' + +'You governor couldn't help himself. A liberal party, with +plenipotentiary power, must go on right away to the logical +conclusion of its arguments. It is only the conservative feeling +of the country which saves such men as your father from being +carried headlong to ruin by their own machinery. You have read +Carlyle's French Revolution?' + +'Yes, I have read that.' + +'Wasn't it so there? There were a lot of honest men who thought +they could do a deal of good by making everybody equal. A good +many were made equal be having their heads cut off. That's why I +mean to be member of Polpenno and to send Mr Carbottle back to +London. Carbottle probably doesn't want to cut anybody's head +off.' + +'I daresay he's as conservative as anybody.' + +'But he wants to be a member for Parliament; and, as he hasn't +thought much about anything he is quite willing to lend a hand to +communism, radicalism, socialism, chopping people's heads off, or +anything else.' + +'That's all very well,' said Silverbridge, 'but where should we +have been if there had been no Liberals? Robespierre and his pals +cut off a lot of heads, but Louis XIV and Louis XV locked up more +in prison.' And so he had the last word in the argument. + +The whole of the next morning was spent in canvassing, and the +whole of the afternoon. In the evening there was a great meeting +at the Polwenning Assembly Room, which at the present moment was +in the hands of the Conservative Party. Here Frank Tregear made an +oration, in which he declared his political convictions. The +whole speech was said at the time to be very good; but the portion +of it which was apparently esteemed the most, had direct reference +to Mr Carbottle. Who was Mr Carbottle? Why had he come to +Polpenno? Who had sent for him? Why Mr Carbottle rather than +anybody else? Did not the people of Polpenno think that it might +be as well to send Mr Carbottle from the place from whence he had +come? These questions, which seemed to Silverbridge to be as easy +as they were attractive, almost made him desirous of making a +speech himself. + +Then Mr Williams, the rector, followed, a gentleman who had many +staunch friends and many bitter enemies in the town. He addressed +himself chiefly to that bane of the whole country--as he conceived +them,--the godless dissenters; and was felt by Tregear to be +injuring the cause by every word he spoke. It was necessary that +Mr Williams should liberate his own mind, and therefore he +persevered with the godless dissenters at great length,--not +explaining, however, how a man who thought enough about his +religion to be a dissenter could be godless, or how a godless man +should care enough about religion to be a dissenter. + +Mr Williams was heard with impatience, and then there was a +clamour for the young lord. He was the son of an ex-Prime +Minister, and therefore of course should speak. He was himself a +member of Parliament, and therefore should speak. He had boldly +severed himself from the faulty political tenets of the family, +and therefore on such an occasion as this was peculiarly entitled +to speak. When a man goes electioneering, he must speak. At a +dinner-table to refuse is possible:--or in any assembly convened +for any private purpose, a gentleman may declare that he is not +prepared for the occasion. But in such an emergency as this, a +man,--and a member of Parliament,--cannot plead that he is not +prepared. A son of a former Prime Minister who had already taken +so strong a part in politics as to have severed himself from his +father, not prepared to address the voters of a borough whom he +had come to canvass! The plea was so absurd, that he was thrust +on to his feet before he knew what he was about. + +It was in truth his first public speech. At Silverbridge he had +attempted to repeat a few words, and in his failure had been +covered by the Sprugeons and the Sprouts. But now he was on his +legs in a great room, in an unknown town, with all the aristocracy +of the place before him! His eyes at first swam a little, and +there was a moment in which he thought he would run away. But, on +that morning, as he was dressing, there had come to his mind the +idea of the possibility of such a moment as this, and a few words +had occurred to him. 'My friend Frank Tregear,' he began, rushing +at once at his subject, 'is a very good fellow, and I hope you +will elect him.' Then he paused, not remembering what was to come +next; but the sentiment which he had uttered appeared to his +auditors to be so good in itself and so well delivered, that they +filled up a long pause with continued clappings and exclamations. +'Yes,' continued the young member of Parliament, encouraged by the +kindness of the crowd, 'I have known Frank Tregear ever so long, +and I don't think you will find a better member of Parliament +anywhere.' There were many ladies present and they thought that +the Duke's son was just the person who ought to come +electioneering among them. His voice was much pleasanter to their +ears than that of old Mr Williams. The women waved their +handkerchiefs and the men stamped their feet. Here was an orator +come among them. 'You all know all about it just as well as I do,' +continued the orator, 'and I am sure you feel that he ought to be +member for Polpenno.' There could be no doubt about that as far +as the opinion of the audience went. 'There can't be a better +fellow than Frank Tregear, and I ask you all to give three cheers +for the new member.' Ten times three cheers were given, and the +Carbottleites outside the door who had come to report what was +going on at the Tregear meeting were quite of the opinion that +this eldest son of the former Prime Minister was a tower of +strength. 'I don't know anything about Mr Carbottle,' continued +Silverbridge, who was almost getting to like the sound of his own +voice. 'Perhaps he's a good fellow too.' 'No; no, no. A very bad +fellow indeed,' was heard from different parts of the room. 'I +don't know anything about him. I wasn't at school with Carbottle.' + This was taken as a stroke of the keenest wit, and was received +with infinite cheering. Silverbridge was in the pride of his +youth, and Carbottle was sixty at the least. Nothing could have +been funnier. 'He seems to be a stout old party, but I don't think +he's the man for Polpenno. I think you'll return Frank Tregear. I +was at school with him;--and I tell you that you can't find a +better fellow anywhere than Frank Tregear.' Then he sat down, and +I am afraid he felt that he had made the speech of the evening. +'We are so much obliged to you, Lord Silverbridge,' Miss Tregear +said as they were walking home together. 'That's just the sort of +thing that the people like. So reassuring, you know. What Mr +Williams says about the dissenters is of course true; but it isn't +reassuring.' + +'I hope I didn't make a fool of myself tonight,' Silverbridge said +when he was alone with Tregear,--probably with some little pride in +his heart. + +'I ought to say that you did, seeing that you praised me so +violently. But, whatever it was, it was well taken. I don't know +whether they will elect me; but had you come down as a candidate, +I am quite sure they would have elected you.' Silverbridge was +hardly satisfied with this. He wished to have been told that he +had spoken well. He did not, however, resent his friend's +coldness. 'Perhaps, after all, I did make a fool of myself,' he +said to himself as he went to bed. + +On the next day, after breakfast, it was found to be raining +heavily. Canvassing was of course the business of the hour, and +canvassing is a business which cannot be done indoors. It was soon +decided that the rain should go for nothing. Could an agreement +have been come to with the Carbottles it might have been decided +that both parties should abstain, but as that was impossible the +Tregear party could not afford to lose the day. As Mr Carbottle, +by reason of his fatness and natural slowness, would perhaps be +specially averse to walking about in the slush and mud, it might +be that they would gain something; so after breakfast they started +with umbrellas,--Tregear, Silverbridge, Mr Newcomb the curate, Mr +Pinebott the conservative attorney, with four or five followers +who were armed with books and pencils, and who ticked off on the +list of the voters the names of the friendly, the doubtful, and +the inimical. + +Parliamentary canvassing is not a pleasant occupation. Perhaps +nothing more disagreeable, more squalid, more revolting to the +senses, more opposed to personal dignity, can be conceived. The +same words have to be repeated over and over again in the +cottages, hovels, and lodgings of poor men and women who only +understand that the time has come round in which they are to be +flattered instead of being the flatterers. 'I think I am right in +supposing that your husband's principles are conservative, Mrs +Bubbs.' 'I don't know nothing about it. You'd better call again +and see Bubbs hissel.' 'Certainly I will do so. I shouldn't at all +like to leave the borough without seeing Mr Bubbs. I hope we shall +have your influence, Mrs Bubbs.' 'I don't known nothing about it. +My folk at home allays vote buff; and I think Bubbs ought to go +buff too. Only mind this, Bubbs don't never come home to his +dinner. You must come arter six, and I hope he's to have some'at +for his trouble. He won't have my word to vote unless he have +some'at.' Such is the conversation in which the candidate takes a +part, while his cortege at the door is criticising his very +imperfect mode of securing Mrs Bubb's good wishes. Then he goes on +to the next house, and the same thing with some variation is +endured again. Some guide, some philosopher, and friend, who +accompanies him, and who is the chief of the cortege, has +calculated on his behalf that he ought to make twenty such +visitations an hour, and to call on two hundred constituents in +the course of the day. As he is always falling behind in his +number, he is always being driven on by his philosopher, till he +comes to hate the poor creatures to whom he is forced to address +himself, with a most cordial hatred. + +It is a nuisance to which no man should subject himself in any +weather. But when it rains there is superadded a squalor and an +ill humour to all the party which makes it almost impossible for +them not to quarrel before the day is over. To talk politics to +Mrs Bubbs under any circumstances is bad, but to do so with the +conviction that the moisture is penetrating from your greatcoat +through your shirt to your bones, and that while so employed you +are breathing the steam from those seven other wet men, at the +door, is abominable. To have to go through this is enough to take +away all the pride which a man might otherwise take from becoming +a member of Parliament. But to go through it and then not become a +member is base indeed! To go through it and to feel that you are +probably paying the rate of a hundred pounds a day for the +privilege is mot disheartening. Silverbridge as he backed up +Tregear in the uncomfortable work, congratulated himself on the +comfort of having a Mr Sprugeon and Mr Sprout who could manage his +borough for him without a contest. + +They worked on that day all the morning till one, when they took +luncheon, all reeking with wet, at the King's Head,--so that a +little money might be legitimately spent in the cause. Then, at +two, they sallied out again, vainly endeavouring to make their +twenty calls within the hour. About four, when it was beginning to +be dusk, they were very tired, and Silverbridge had ventured to +suggest that as they were all wet through, and as there was to be +another meeting in the Assembly Room that night, and as nobody in +that part of town seemed to be at home, they might perhaps be +allowed to adjourn for the present. He was thinking how nice it +would be to have a glass of brandy-and-water and then lounge till +dinner-time. But the philosophers received the proposition with +stern disdain. Was his Lordship aware that Mr Carbottle had been +out all day from eight in the morning, and was still at work; that +the Carbottleites had already sent for lanterns and were +determined to go on till eight o'clock among the artisans who +would then have returned from their work? When a man had put his +hand to the plough, the philosophers thought that a man should +complete the furrows! + +The philosophers' view had just carried the day, the discussion +having been held under seven or eight wet umbrellas at the corner +of a dirty little lane leading into the High Street, when +suddenly, on the other side of the way, Mr Carbottles cortege made +its appearance. The philosophers at once informed them that on +such occasions it was customary that the rival candidates should +be introduced. 'It will take ten minutes,' said the philosophers; +'but then it will take them ten minutes too.' Upon this Tregear, +as being the younger of the two, crossed over the road, and the +introduction was made. + +There was something comfortable in it to the Tregear party, as no +imagination could conceive anything more wretched than the +appearance of Mr Carbottle. He was a very stout man of sixty, and +seemed to be almost carried along by his companions. He had pulled +his coat-collar up and his hat down till very little of his face +was visible, and in attempting to look at Tregear and Silverbridge +he had to lift up his chin till the rain ran off his hat on to his +nose. He had an umbrella in one hand and a stick in the other, and +was wet through to his very skin. What were his own feelings +cannot be told, but his philosophers, guides, and friends would +allow him no rest. Very hard work, Mr Tregear,' he said, shaking +his head. + +'Very hard indeed, Mr Carbottle.' Then the two parties went on, +each their own way, without another word. + + + +CHAPTER 56 + +The News is Sent to Matching + +There were nine days of this work, during which Lord Silverbridge +became very popular and made many speeches. Tregear did not win +half so many hearts, or recommend himself so thoroughly to the +political predilections of the borough;--but nevertheless he was +returned. It would probably be unjust to attribute his success +chiefly to the young Lord's eloquence. It certainly was not due to +the strong religious feelings of the rector. It is to be feared +that even the thoughtful political convictions of the candidate +did not altogether produce the result. It was that chief man among +the candidates, guides, and friends, that leading philosopher who +would not allow anybody to go home from the rain, and who kept his +eyes so sharply open to the pecuniary doings of the Carbottleites, +that Mr Carbotttle's guides and friends had hardly dared to spend +a shilling;--it was he who had in truth been efficacious. In every +attempt they had made to spend their money they had been looked +into and circumvented. As Mr Carbottle had been brought down to +Polpenno on purpose that he might spend money,--as he had nothing +but his money to recommend him, and as he had not spent it,--the +free and independent electors of the borough had not seen their +way to vote for him. Therefore the Conservatives were very elate +with their triumph. There was a great conservative reaction. But +the electioneering guide, philosopher, and friend, in the humble +retirement of his own home,--he was a tailor in the town, whose +assistance at such periods had long been in requisition,--he knew +very well how the seat had been secured. Ten shillings a head +would have sent three hundred Liberals to the ballot-boxes! The +mode of distributing the money had been arranged; but the +conservative tailor had been too acute, and not a half-sovereign +could be passed. The tailor got twenty-five pounds for his work, +and that was smuggled in among the bills for printing. + +Mr Williams, however, was sure that he had so opened out the +iniquities of the dissenters as to have convinced the borough. +Yes, every Salem and Zion and Ebenezer in his large parish would +be closed. 'It is a great thing for the country,' said Mr +Williams. + +'He'll make a capital member,' said Silverbridge, clapping his +friend on the back. + +'I hope he'll never forget,' said Mr Williams, 'that he owes his +seat to the protestant and Church-of-England principles which have +sunk so deeply into the minds of the thoughtful portion of the +inhabitants of this borough.' + +'Whom should they elect but Tregear?' said the mother, feeling +that her rector took too much of the praise himself. + +'I think you have done more for us than anyone else,' whispered +Miss Tregear to the young Lord. 'What you said was so reassuring!' + The father before he went to bed expressed to his son, with some +trepidation, a hope that all this would lead to no great permanent +increase of expenditure. + +That evening before he went to bed Lord Silverbridge wrote to his +father an account of what had taken place at Polpenno. + +'Polwenning, 15 December + +'MY DEAR FATHER, + +'Among us all we have managed to return Tregear. I am afraid you +will not be quite pleased because it will be a vote lost to your +party. But I really think that he is just the fellow to be in +Parliament. If he were on your side I'm sure he's just the kind of +man you'd like to bring into office. He is always thinking about +those sort of things. He says that, if there were no +Conservatives, such Liberals as you and Mr Monk would be destroyed +by the Jacobins. There is something in that. Whether a man is +Conservative or not himself, I suppose there ought to be +Conservatives.' + +The Duke as he read this made a memorandum in his own mind that he +would explain to his son that every carriage should have a drag to +its wheels, but that an ambitious soul would choose to be the +coachman rather than the drag. + +'It was beastly work!' The Duke made another memorandum to +instruct his son that no gentleman above the age of schoolboy +should allow himself to use such a word in such a sense. 'We had +to go about in the rain up to our knees in mud for eight or nine +days, always saying the same thing. And of course all that we said +was bosh.' Another memorandum--or rather two, one as to the slang, +and another as to the expediency of teaching something to the poor +voters on such occasions. 'Our only comfort was that the Carbottle +people were as quite badly off as us.' Another memorandum as to +the grammar. The absence of Christian charity did not at the +moment affect the Duke. 'I made ever so many speeches, till at +last it seemed quite easy.' Here there was a very grave +memorandum. Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very +difficult to old listeners. 'But of course it was all bosh.' This +required no separate memorandum. + +'I have promised to go up to town with Tregear for a day or two. +After that I will stick to my purpose of going to Matching again. +I will be there about the twenty-second, and then will stay over +Christmas. After that I am going to the Brake country for some +hunting. It is such a shame to have a lot of horses and never to +ride them! +'Your most affectionate Son, +'SILVERBRIDGE.' + +The last sentence gave rise in the Duke's mind to the necessity of +a very elaborate memorandum on the subject of amusements +generally. + +By the same post another letter went from Polpenno to Matching +which also gave rise to some mental memoranda. It was as follows; + +'MY DEAR MABEL, + +I am a Member of the British House of Commons! I have sometimes +regarded myself as being one of the most peculiarly unfortunate +men in the world, and yet now I have achieved that which all +commoners in England think to be the greatest honour within their +reach, and have done so at an age at which very few achieve it but +the sons of the wealthy and the powerful. + +'I now come to my misfortunes. I know that as a poor man I ought +not to be a Member of Parliament. I ought to be earning my bread +as a lawyer or a doctor. I have no business to be what I am, and +when I am forty I shall find that I have eaten up all my good +things instead of having them to eat. + +'I have once chance before me. You know very well what it is. Tell +her that my pride in being a Member of Parliament is much more on +her behalf than on my own. The man who dares to love her ought at +any rate to be something in the world. If it might be,--if ever it +may be,--I should wish to be something for her sake. I am sure you +will be glad of my success yourself, for my own sake. + +'Your affectionate Friend and Cousin, +'FRANCIS TREGEAR.' + +The first mental memorandum in regard to this came from the +writer's assertion that he at forty would have eaten up all his +good things. No! He being a man might make his way to good things +though he was not born to them. But what good things were in store +for her? What chance of success was there for her? But the +reflection on which the most bitter to her of all came from her +assurance that his love for that other girl was so genuine. Even +when he was writing to her there was no spark left of the old +romance! Some hint of a recollection of past feelings, some half- +concealed reference to the former passion might have been allowed +to him! She as a woman,--as a woman all whose fortune must depend +on marriage,--could indulge in so such allusion; but surely he need +not have been so hard! + +But still there was another memorandum. At the present moment she +would do all that he desired as far as it was in her power. She +was anxious that he should marry Lady Mary Palliser, though so +anxious also that something of his love should remain with +herself! She was quite willing to convey that message,--if it +might be done without offence to the Duke. She was there with the +object of ingratiating herself with the Duke. She must not impede +her favour with the Duke by making herself the medium of any +secret communications between Mary and her lover. + +But how should she serve Tregear without risk of offending the +Duke? She read the letter again and again, and thinking it to be +a good letter she determined to show it to the Duke. + +'Mr Tregear has got in at Polpenno,' she said on the day on which +she and the Duke had received the letters. + +'So I hear from Silverbridge.' + +'It will be a good thing for him I suppose.' + +'I do not know,' said the Duke coldly. + +'He is my cousin, and I have always been interested in his +welfare.' + +'That is natural.' + +'And a seat in Parliament will give him something to do.' + +'Certainly it ought,' said the Duke. + +'I do not think he is an idle man.' To this the Duke made no +answer. He did not wish to be made to talk about Tregear. 'May I +tell you why I say all this?' she asked softly, pressing her hand +on the Duke's arm every so gently. To this the Duke assented, but +still coldly. 'Because I want to know what I ought to do. Would +you mind reading that letter? Of course you will remember that +Frank and I have been brought up almost as brother and sister.' + +The Duke took the letter in his hand and read it, very slowly. +'What he says about young men without means going into Parliament +is true enough.' This was not encouraging, but as the Duke went +on reading, Mabel did not think it necessary to argue the matter. +He had to read the last paragraph twice before he understood it. +He did read it twice, and then folding the letter very slowly gave +it back to his companion. + +'What ought I to do?' asked Lady Mabel. + +'As you and I, my dear, are friends, I think that any carrying of +a message to Mary would be breaking confidence. I think that you +should not speak to Mary about Mr Tregear.' Then he changed the +subject. Lady Mabel of course understood that after that she could +not say a word to Mary about the election at Polpenno. + + + +CHAPTER 57 + +The Meeting at The Bobtailed Fox + +It was now the middle of December, and matters were not +comfortable in the Runnymede country. The Major with much pluck +had carried on his operations in opposition to the wishes of the +resident members of the hunt. The owners of coverts had protested, +and farmers had sworn that he should not ride over their lands. +There had even been some talk among the younger men of thrashing +him if he persevered. But he did persevere, and had managed to +have one or two good runs. Now it was the fortune of the Runnymede +hunt that many of those who rode with the hounds were strangers to +the country,--men who came down by train from London, gentlemen +perhaps of no great distinction, who could ride hard, but as to +whom it was thought that as they did not provide the land to ride +over, or the fences to be destroyed, or the coverts for the foxes, +or the greater part of the subscription, they ought not to oppose +those by whom all these things were supplied. But the Major, +knowing where his strength lay, had managed to get a party to +support him. The contract to hunt the country had been made with +him in last March, and was good for one year. Having the kennels +and the hounds under his command he did hunt the country; but he +did so amidst a storm of contumely and ill will. + +At last it was decided that a general meeting of the members of +the hunt should be called together with the express object of +getting rid of the Major. The gentlemen of the neighbourhood felt +that the Major was not to be borne, and the farmers were very much +stronger against him than the gentlemen. It had now become a +settled belief among sporting men in England that the Major had +with his own hands driven the nail into the horse's foot. Was it +to be endured that the Runnymede farmers should ride to hounds +under a master who had been guilty of such an iniquity as that? +The Staines and Egham Gazette, which had always supported the +Runnymede hunt, declared in very plain terms that all who rode with +the Major were enjoying their sport out of the plunder which had +been extracted from Lord Silverbridge. Then a meeting was called +for Saturday, the eighteenth of December, to be held at that well- +known sporting little inn the Bobtailed Fox. The members of the +hunt were earnestly called upon to attend. It was,--so said the +printed document which was issued,--the only means by which the +hunt could be preserved. If gentlemen who were interested did not +put their shoulders to the wheel the Runnymede hunt must be +regarded as a thing of the past. One of the documents was sent to +the Major with an intimation that if he wished to attend no +objection would be made to his presence. The chair would be taken +at half-past twelve punctually at that popular and well-known old +sportsman Mr Mahogany Topps. + +Was ever the master of a hunt treated in such a way! His presence +not objected to! As a rule the master of a hunt does not attend +hunt meetings, because the matter to be discussed is generally +that of the money to be subscribed for him, as to which it was as +well that he should not hear the pros and cons. But it is +presumed that he is to be the hero of the hour, and that he is to +be treated to his face, and spoken of behind his back, with love, +admiration, and respect. But now this matter was told his presence +would be allowed! And then this fox-hunting meeting was summoned +for half-past twelve on a hunting day;--when, as all the world +knew, the hounds were to meet at eleven, twelve miles off! Was +ever anything so base? said the Major to himself. But he resolved +that he would be equal to the occasion. He immediately issued +cards to all the members, stating that on that day the meet had +been changed from Croppingham Bushes, which was ever so much on +the other side of Bagshot, to the Bobtailed Fox,--for the benefit +of the hunt at large, said the card,--and that the hounds would be +there at half-past one. + +Whatever might happen, he must show a spirit. In all this there +were one of two of the London brigade who stood fast to him. 'Cock +your tail, Tifto,' said one hard-riding supporter, 'and show 'em +you aren't afraid of nothing.' So Tifto cocked his tail and went +to the meeting in his best new scarlet coat, and with his whitest +breeches, his pinkest boots, and his neatest little bows at his +knees. He entered the room with his horn in his hand, as a symbol +of authority, and took off his hunting-cap to salute the assembly +with a jaunty air. He had taken two glasses of sherry brandy, and +as long as the stimulant lasted would no doubt be able to support +himself with audacity. + +Old Mr Topps, in rising from his chair, did not say very much. He +had been hunting in the Runnymede country for nearly fifty years, +and had never seen anything so sad as this before. It made him, he +knew, very unhappy. As for foxes, there were always plenty of +foxes in his coverts. His friend Mr Jawstock, on the right, would +explain what all this was about. All he wanted was to see the +Runnymede hunt properly kept up. Then he sat down, and Mr Jawstock +rose to his legs. + +Mr Jawstock was a gentleman well known in the Runnymede country, +who had himself been instrumental in bringing the Major into these +parts. There is often someone in a hunting country who never +becomes a master of hounds himself, but who has almost as much to +say about the business as the master himself. Sometimes at hunt +meetings he is rather unpopular, as he is always inclined to talk. +But there are occasions on which his services are felt to be +valuable,--as were Mr Jawstock's at present. He was about forty- +five years of age, and was not much given to riding, owned no +coverts himself, and was not a man of wealth; but he understood +the nature of hunting, knew all its laws, and was a judge of +horses, of hounds,--and of men; and could say a thing when he had +to say it. + +Mr Jawstock sat on the right hand of Mr Topps, and a place was +left for the master opposite. The task to be performed was neither +easy nor pleasant. It was necessary that the orator should accuse +the gentleman opposite to him,--a man with whom he himself had been +very intimate,--of iniquity so gross and so mean, that nothing +worse can be conceived. 'You are a swindler, a cheat, a rascal of +the very deepest dye;--a rogue so mean that it is revolting to be +in the same room with you!' That was what Mr Jawstock had to say. +And he said it. Looking round the room, occasionally appealing to +Mr Topps, who on these occasions would lift up his hands in +horror, but never letting his eye fall for a moment on the Major. +Mr Jawstock told his story. 'I did not see it done,' said he. 'I +know nothing about it. I never was at Doncaster in my life. But +you have evidence of what the Jockey Club thinks. The Master of +our Hunt has been banished from racecourses.' Here there was +considerable opposition, and a few short but excited little +dialogues were maintained;--throughout all which Tifto restrained +himself like a Spartan. 'At any rate he has been thoroughly +disgraced,' continued Mr Jawstock, 'as a sporting man. He has been +driven out of the Beargarden Club.' 'He resigned in disgust at +their treatment,' said a friend of the Major's. 'Then let him +resign in disgust at ours,' said Mr Jawstock, 'for we won't have +him here. Caesar wouldn't keep a wife who was suspected of +infidelity, nor will the Runnymede country endure a Master of +Hounds who is supposed to have driven a nail into a horse's foot.' + +Two or three other gentlemen had something to say before the Major +was allowed to speak,--the upshot of the discourse of all of them +being the same. The Major must go. + +Then the Major got up, and certainly as far as attention went he +had full justice done him. However clamorous they might intend to +be afterwards that amount of fair play they were all determined to +afford him. The Major was not excellent at speaking, but he did +perhaps better than might have been expected. 'This is a very +disagreeable position,' he said, 'very disagreeable indeed. As for +the nail in the horse's foot I know no more about it than the babe +unborn. But I've got two things to say, and I'll say what aren't +the most consequence first. These hounds belong to me.' Here he +paused, and a loud contradiction came from many parts of the room. +Mr Jawstock, however, proposed that the Major should be heard to +the end. 'I say they belong to me,' repeated the Major. 'If +anybody tries his hand at anything else the law will soon set that +to rights. But that aren't of much consequence. What I've got to +say is this. Let the matter be referred. If that 'orse had a nail +in run into his foot,--and I don't say he hadn't,--who was the man +most injured? Why, Lord Silverbridge. Everybody knows that. I +suppose he dropped well on to eighty thousand pounds! I propose +to leave it to him. Let him say. He ought to know more about it +than anyone. He and I were partners in the horse. His Lordship +aren't very sweet upon me at the just at present. Nobody need fear +that he'll do me a good turn. I say leave it to him.' + +In the matter the Major had certainly been well advised. A rumour +had come become prevalent among sporting circles that Silverbridge +had refused to condemn the Major. It was known that he had paid +his bets without delay, and that he had, to some extent, declined +to take advice from the leaders of the Jockey Club. The Major's +friends were informed that the young lord had refused to vote +against him at the club. Was it not more than probable that if +this matter were referred to him he would refuse to give a verdict +against his late partner? + +The Major sat down, put on his cap, and folded his arms akimbo, +with his horn sticking out from his left hand. For a time there +was a general silence, broken, however, by murmurs in different +parts of the room. Then Mr Jawstock whispered something into the +ear of the Chairman, and Mr Topps, rising from his seat, suggested +to Tifto that he should retire. 'I think so,' said Jawstock. 'The +proposition that you have made can only be discussed only in your +absence.' Then the Major held a consultation with one of his +friends, and after that did retire. + +When he was gone the real hubbub of the meeting commenced. There +were some there who understood the nature of Lord Silverbridge's +feelings in the matter. 'He would be the last man in England to +declare him guilty,' said Mr Jawstock. 'Whatever my lord says, he +shan't ride across my land,' said a farmer in the background. 'I +don't think any gentleman ever made a fairer proposition,--since +anything was anything,' said a friend of the Major's, a gentleman +who kept livery stables in Long Acre. 'We won't have him here,' +said another farmer,--whereupon Mr Topps shook his head sadly. 'I +don't think any gentleman ought to be condemned without a +'earing,' said one of Tifto's admirers, 'and where you're to get +anyone to hunt in the country like him, I don't know as anybody is +prepared to say.' 'We'll manage that,' said a young gentleman from +the neighbourhood of Bagshot, who thought that he could hunt the +country himself quite as well as Major Tifto. 'He must go from +here; that's the long and short of it,' said Mr Jawstock. 'Put it +to the vote, Mr Jawstock,' said the livery-stable keeper. Mr Topps, +who had had great experience in public meetings, hereupon +expressed an opinion that they might as well go to a vote. No +doubt he was right if the matter was one which must sooner or +later be determined in that manner. + +Mr Jawstock looked round the room trying to calculate what might +be the effect of a show of hands. The majority was with him; but +he was well aware that of this majority some few would be drawn +away by the apparent justice of Tifto's proposition. And what was +the use of voting? Let them vote as they might, it was out of the +question that Tifto should remain master of the hunt. But the +chairman had acceded, and on such occasions it is difficult to go +against the chairman. + +Then there came a show of hands,--first for those who desired to +refer the matter to Lord Silverbridge, and afterwards for Tifto's +direct enemies,--for those who were anxious to banish Tifto out of +hand, without reference to anyone. At last the matter was settled. +To the great annoyance of Mr Jawstock and the farmers the meeting +voted that Lord Silverbridge should be invited to give his opinion +as to the innocence or guilt of his late partner. + +The Major's friends carried the discussion out to him as he sat on +horseback, as though he had altogether gained the battle and was +secure in his position as Master of the Runnymede Hunt for the +next dozen years. But at the same time there came a message from +Mr Mahogany Topps. It was now half-past two, and Mr Topps +expressed a hope that Major Tifto would not draw the country on +the present occasion. The Major, thinking that it might be as well +to conciliate his enemies, road slowly and solemnly home to Tally- +ho Lodge in the middle of his hounds. + + + +CHAPTER 58 + +The Major is Deposed + +When Silverbridge undertook to return with Tregear to London +instead of going direct to Matching, it is to be feared that he +was simply actuated by a desire to postpone his further visit to +his father's house. He had thought that Lady Mabel would surely be +gone before his task at Polpenno was completed. As soon as he +should again find himself in his father's presence he would at +once declare his intention of marrying Isabel Boncassen. But he +could not see his way to doing this while Lady Mabel should be in +the house. + +'I think you will find Mabel still at Matching,' said Tregear on +their way up. 'She will wait for you I fancy.' + +'I don't know why she should wait for me,' said Silverbridge +almost angrily. + +'I thought that you and she were fast friends.' + +'I suppose we are--after a fashion. She might wait for you +perhaps.' + +'I think she would,--if I could go there.' + +'You are much thicker with her than ever I was. You went to see +her at Grex,--when nobody else was there.' + +'Is Miss Cassewary nobody?' + +'Next door to it,' said Silverbridge, half jealous of the favours +shown to Tregear. + +'I thought,' said Tregear, 'that there should be a closer intimacy +between you and her.' + +'I don't know why you should think so.' + +'Had you ever had any such idea yourself? + +'I haven't any now,--so there may be an end of it, I don't think a +fellow ought to be cross-questioned on such a subject.' + +'Then I am very sorry for Mabel,' said Tregear. This was uttered +solemnly, so that Silverbridge found himself debarred from making +any flippant answer. He could not altogether defend himself. He +had been quite justified, he thought, in changing his mind, but he +did not like to awn that he had changed it so quickly. + +'I think we had better not talk any more about it,' he said, after +pausing for a few moments. After that nothing more was said +between them on the subject. + +Up in town Silverbridge spent two or three days pleasantly enough, +while a thunderbolt was being prepared for him, or rather, in +truth, two thunderbolts. During these days he was much with +Tregear, and though he could not speak freely of his own +matrimonial projects, still he was brought round to give some sort +of assent to the engagement between Tregear and his sister. This +new position which his friend had won for himself did in some +degree operate on his judgement. It was not perhaps that he +himself imagined that Tregear as a Member of Parliament would be +worthier, but that he fancied that such would be the Duke's +feelings. The Duke had declared that Tregear was nobody. That +could hardly be said of a man who had a seat in the House of +Commons;--certainly could not be said by so staunch a politician as +the Duke. + +But had he known of those two thunderbolts he would not have +enjoyed his time at the Beargarden. The thunderbolts fell upon him +in the shape of two letters which reached his hands at the same +time, and were as follows: + +'The Bobtailed Fox, 18 December. + +'MY LORD, + +'At a meeting held in this house today in reference to the hunting +of the Runnymede country, it was proposed that the management of +the hounds should be taken out of the hands of Major Tifto, in +consequence of certain conduct of which it is alleged he was +guilty at the last Doncaster races. + +'Major Tifto was present and requested your Lordship's opinion +should be asked as to his guilt. I do not know myself that we +are warranted in troubling your Lordship on the subject. I am, +however, commissioned by the majority of the gentlemen who were +present to ask you whether you think that Major Tifto's conduct on +that occasion was of such a nature as to make him unfit to be the +depositary of that influence, authority and intimacy which ought +to be at the command of a Master of Hounds. + +'I feel myself bound to inform your Lordship that the hunt +generally will be inclined to place great weight upon your +opinion, but that it does not undertake to reinstate Major Tifto, +even should your opinion be in his favour. + +'I have the honour to be, +My Lord, +Your Lordship's most obedient Servant, +'JEREMIAH JAWSTOCK +'Juniper Lodge, Staines.' + +Mr Jawstock, when he had written this letter, was proud of his own +language, but still felt that the application was a very lame one. +Why ask any man for an opinion, and tell him at the same time that +his opinion might probably not be taken! And yet no other +alternative had been left to him. The meeting had decided that the +application should be made; but Mr Jawstock was well aware that +let the young Lord's answer be what it might, the Major would not +be endured as master in the Runnymede country. Mr Jawstock felt +that the passage in which he explained that a Master of Hounds +should be a depositary of influence and intimacy, was good;--but +yet the application was lame, very lame. + +Lord Silverbridge as he read it thought it was very unfair. It was +a most disagreeable thunderbolt. Then he opened the second letter, +of which he well knew the handwriting. It was from the Major. +Tifto's letters were very legible, but the writing was cramped, +showing that the operation had been performed with difficulty. +Silverbridge had hoped that he might never receive another epistle +from his late partner! The letter, as follows, had been drawn out +for Tifto in rough by the livery-stable keeper in Long Acre. + +'MY DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'I venture respectfully to appeal to your Lordship for an act of +justice. Nobody has more of a true-born Englishman's feeling of +fair play between man and man than your Lordship; and as you and +me have been a good deal together, and your Lordship ought to know +me pretty well, I venture to appeal to your Lordship for a good +word. + +'All that story from Doncaster has got down into the country where +I am M.F.H. Nobody could have been more sorry than me that your +Lordship dropped your money. Would not I have been prouder than +anything to have had a horse in my name win the race! Was it +likely I should lame him? Anyways I didn't, and I don't think +your Lordship thinks it was me. Of course your Lordship and me is +two now,--but that don't alter facts. + +'What I want is your Lordship to send me a line, just stating +your Lordship's opinion that I didn't do it, and didn't have +nothing to do with it;--which I didn't. There was a meeting at The +Bobtailed Fox yesterday, and gentlemen was all of one mind to go +by what your Lordship would say. I couldn't desire nothing fairer. +So I hope your Lordship will stand to me now, and write something +that will pull me through. +'With all respects I beg to remain, +Your Lordship's most dutiful Servant, +T. TIFTO.' + +There was something in this letter which the Major himself did not +quite approve. There was an absence of familiarity about it which +annoyed him. He would have liked to call upon his late partner to +declare that a more honourable man than Major Tifto had never been +known on the turf. But he felt himself to be so far down in the +world that it was not safe for him to hold an opinion of his own, +even against the livery-stable keeper! + +Silverbridge was for a time in doubt whether he should answer the +letters at all, and if so how he should answer them. In regard to +Mr Jawstock and the meeting at large, he regarded the application +as an impertinence. But as to Tifto himself, he vacillated between +pity, contempt, and absolute condemnation. Everybody had assured +him that the man had certainly been guilty. The fact that he had +made bets against their joint horse,--bets as to which he had said +nothing till after the race was over,--had been admitted by +himself. And yet it was possible that the man might not be such a +rascal as to be unfit to manage the Runnymede hounds. Having +himself got rid of Tifto, he would have been glad that the poor +wretch should have been left with his hunting honours. But he did +not think that he could write to his late partner any letter that +would preserve those honours to him. + +At Tregear's advice he referred the matter to Mr Lupton. Mr Lupton +was of opinion that both the letters should be answered, but that +the answer to each should be very short. 'There is a prejudice +about the world just at present,' said Mr Lupton, 'in favour of +answering letters. I don't see why I am to be subjected to an +annoyance because another man has taken a liberty. But it is +better to submit to public opinion. Public opinion thinks that +letter should be answered.' Then Mr Lupton dictated the answers. + +'Lord Silverbridge presents his compliments to Mr Jawstock, and +begs to say that he does not feel himself called upon to express +any opinion as to Major Tifto's conduct at Doncaster.' + +That was the first. The second was rather less simple, but not +much longer. + +'SIR, + +'I do not feel myself called upon to express any opinion either to +you or to others as to your conduct at Doncaster. Having received +a letter on the subject from Mr Jawstock I have written to him to +this effect. + +'Your obedient Servant, +SILVERBRIDGE.' + +Poor Tifto, when he got this very curt epistle, was broken- +hearted. He did not dare to show it. Day after day he told the +livery-stable keeper that he had received no reply, and at last +asserted that his appeal had remained altogether unanswered. Even +this he thought was better than acknowledging the rebuff which had +reached him. As regarded the meeting which had been held,--any +further meetings which might be held,--at The Bobtailed Fox, he did +not see the necessity, as he explained it to the livery-stable +keeper, of acknowledging that he had written any letter to Lord +Silverbridge. + +The letter to Mr Jawstock was of course brought forward. Another +meeting at The Bobtailed Fox was convened. But in the meantime +hunting had been discontinued in the Runnymede country. The Major +with all his pluck, with infinite cherry brandy, could not do it. +Men who had a few weeks since been on very friendly terms, and who +had called each other Dick and Harry when the squabble first +began, were now talking of 'punching' each other's heads. Special +whips had been procured by men who intended to ride, and special +bludgeons by the young farmers who intended that nobody should +ride as long as Major Tifto kept the hounds. It was said that the +police would interfere. It was whispered that the hounds would be +shot,--though Mr Topps, Mr Jawstock, and others declared that no +crime so heinous as that had ever been contemplated in the +Runnymede country. + +The difficulties were too many for poor Tifto, and the hounds were +not brought out again under his influence. + +A second meeting was summoned, and an invitation was sent to the +Major similar to that which he had before received;--but on this +occasion he did not appear. Nor were there any gentlemen down from +London. The second meeting might almost have been called select. +Mr Mahogany Topps was there of course, in the chair, and Mr +Jawstock took the place of honour and of difficulty on his right +hand. There was the young gentleman from Bagshot, who considered +himself quite fit to take Tifto's place if somebody else would pay +the bills and settle the money, and there was the sporting old +parson from Croppingham. Three or four other members of the hunt +were present, and perhaps half-a-dozen farmers, ready to declare +that Major Tifto should never be allowed to cross their fields +again. + +But there was no opposition. Mr Jawstock read the young lord's +note, and declared that it was quite as much as he expected. He +considered that the note, short as it was, must be decisive. Major +Tifto in appealing to Lord Silverbridge, had agreed to abide by +his Lordship's answer, and that answer was now before them. Mr +Jawstock ventured to propose that Major Tifto should be declared +to be no longer Master of the Runnymede Hounds. The parson from +Croppingham seconded the proposition, and Major Tifto was formally +deposed. + + + +CHAPTER 59 + +No One Can Tell What May Come to Pass + +Then Lord Silverbridge necessarily went down to Matching, knowing +that he must meet Mabel Grex. Why should she have prolonged her +visit? No doubt it might have been very pleasant for her to be +his father's guest at Matching, but she had been there above a +month! He could understand that his father should ask her to +remain. His father was still brooding over that foolish +communication which had been made to him on the night of the +dinner at the Beargarden. His father was still intending to take +Mabel to his arms as a daughter-in-law. But Lady Mabel herself +knew that it could not be so! The whole truth had been told to +her. Why should she remain at Matching for the sake of being mixed +up in a scene the acting of which could not fail to be +disagreeable to her? + +He found the house very quiet and nearly empty. Mrs Finn was there +with the two girls, and Mr Warburton had come back. Miss Cassewary +had gone to a brother's house. Other guests to make Christmas +merry there were none. As he looked round at the large rooms he +reflected that he himself was there only for a special purpose. It +was his duty to break the news of his intended marriage to his +father. As he stood before the fire, thinking how best he might do +this, it occurred to him that a letter from a distance would have +been the ready and simple way. But then it had occurred to him +also, when at a distance, that a declaration of his purpose face +to face was the simplest and readiest way. If you have to go +headlong into the water you should take your plunge without +hesitating. So he told himself, making up his mind that he would +have it all out that evening. + +At dinner Lady Mabel sat next to his father, and he could watch +the special courtesy with which the Duke treated the girl who he +was so desirous of introducing to his house. Silverbridge could +not talk about the election of Polpenno because all conversation +about Tregear was interdicted by the presence of his sister. He +could say nothing as to the Runnymede hunt and the two +thunderbolts which had fallen on him, as Major Tifto was not a +subject on which he could expatiate in the presence of his father. +He asked a few questions about the shooting, and referred with +great regret to his absence from the Brake country. + +'I am sure Mr Cassewary could spare you for another fortnight,' +the Duke said to his neighbour, alluding to a visit which she now +intended to make. + +'If so he would have to spare me altogether,' said Mabel, 'for I +must meet my father in London in the middle of January.' + +'Could you not put it off for another year?' + +'You would think I had taken root and was growing at Matching.' + +'Of all our products you would be the most delightful, and the +most charming,--and we would hope the most permanent,' said the +courteous Duke. + +'After being here so long I need hardly say that I like Matching +better than any place in the world. I suppose it is the contrast +to Grex.' + +'Grex was a palace,' said the Duke, 'before a wall of this house +had been built.' + +'Grex is very old and very wild,--and very uncomfortable. But I +love it dearly. Matching is the very reverse of Grex.' + +'Not I hope in your affections.' + +'I did not mean that. I think one likes a contrast. But I must go, +say on the first of January, to pick up Miss Cassewary.' + +It was certain, therefore, that she was going on the first of +January. How would it be if he put off the telling of his story +for yet another week, till she should be gone? Then he looked +around and bethought himself that the time would hang very heavy +with him. And his father would daily expect from him a declaration +exactly opposed to that which he had to make. He had no horses to +ride. As he went on listening he almost convinced himself that the +proper thing to do would be to go back to London and thence write +to his father. He made no confession to his father on that night. + +On the next morning there was a heavy fall of snow, but +nevertheless everybody managed to go to church. The Duke, as he +looked at Lady Mabel tripping along the swept paths in her furs +and short petticoats and well-made boots, thought that his son was +a lucky fellow to have the chance of winning the love of such a +girl. No remembrance of Miss Boncassen came across his mind as he +saw them close together. It was so important that Silverbridge +should marry and thus he kept from further follies! And it was so +momentous to the fortunes of the Palliser family generally that he +should marry well! In thinking so it did not occur to him that +the granddaughter of an American labourer might be offered to him. +A young lady fit to be the Duchess of Omnium was not to be found +everywhere. But this girl, he thought as he saw her walking +briskly and strongly through the snow, with every mark of health +about her, with every sign of high breeding, very beautiful, +exquisite in manner, gracious as a goddess, was fit to be a +Duchess! Silverbridge at this moment was walking close to her +side,--in good looks, in gracious manner, in high breeding her +equal,--in worldly gifts infinitely her superior. Surely she would +not despise him! Silverbridge at the moment was expressing a hope +that the sermon would not be very long. + +After lunch Mabel came suddenly behind the chair on which +Silverbridge was sitting and asked him to take a walk with her. +Was she not afraid of the snow? 'Perhaps you are,' she said +laughing. 'I do not mind it in the least.' When they were but a +few yards from the front door, she put her hand upon his arm, and +spoke to him as though she had arranged the walk with reference to +that special question. 'And now tell me all about Frank.' + +She had arranged everything. She had a plan before her now, and +had determined in accordance with that plan she would say nothing +to disturb him on this occasion. If she could succeed in bringing +him into good humour with herself, that should be sufficient for +today. 'Now tell me everything about Frank.' + +'Frank is member of Parliament for Polpenno. That is all.' + +'That is so like a man, and so unlike a woman. What did he say? +What did he do? How did he look? What did you say? What did you +do? How did you look?' + +'We looked very miserable, when we got wet through, walking about +all day in the rain.' + +'Was that necessary?' + +'Quite necessary. We looked so mean and draggled that nobody would +have voted for us, only that poor Mr Carbotttle looked meaner and +more draggled.' + +'The Duke says you made every so many speeches.' + +'I should think I did. It is very easy to make speeches down at a +place like that. Tregear spoke like a book.' + +'He spoke well?' + +'Awfully well. He told them that all the good things that had +every been done in Parliament had been done by the Tories. He went +back to Pitt's time, and had it all at his fingers' ends.' + +'And quite true.' + +'That's just what it was not. It was all a crammer. But it did +well.' + +'I am glad he is a member. Don't you think the Duke will come +around a little now?' + +When Tregear and the election had been sufficiently discussed, +they came by degrees to Major Tifto and the two thunderbolts. +Silverbridge, when he perceived that nothing was to be said about +Isabel Boncassen, or his own freedom in the matter of love-making, +was not sorry to have a friend from whom he could find sympathy +for himself in his own troubles. With some encouragement from +Mabel the whole story was told. 'Was it not a great impertinence?' +she asked. + +'It was an awful bore. What could I say? I was not going to +pronounce judgement against the poor devil, I daresay he was good +enough for Mr Jawstock.' + +'But I suppose he did cheat horribly.' + +'I daresay he did. A great many of them do cheat. But what of +that? I was not bound to give him a character, bad or good.' + +'Certainly not.' + +'He had not been my servant. It was such a letter. I'll show it to +you when we get in!-asking whether Tifto was fit to be the +depository of the intimacy of the Runnymeded hunt! And then Tif's +letter;--I almost wept over that.' + +'How could he have had the audacity to write at all?' + +'He said that "him and me had been a good deal together". +Unfortunately that was true. Even now I am not quite sure that he +lamed the horse himself.' + +'Everybody thinks he did. Percival says there is no doubt about +it.' + +'Percival knows nothing about it. Three of the gang ran away, and +he stood his ground. That's about all we do know.' + +'What did you say to him?' + +'I had to address him as Sir, and beg him not to write to me any +more. Of course they mean to get rid of him, and I couldn't do him +any good. Poor Tifto! Upon the whole I think I hate Jawstock +worse than Tifto.' + +Lady Mabel was content with her afternoon's work. When they had +been at Matching before the Polpenno election, there had +apparently been no friendship between them;--at any rate no +confidential friendship. Miss Boncassen had been there, and he had +neither ears nor eyes for anyone else. But now something like the +feeling of old days had been restored. She had not done much +towards her great object,--but then she had known that nothing +could be done till he should again be in good humour with her. + +On the Sunday, the Monday, and the Tuesday they were again +together. In some of these interviews Silverbridge described the +Polpenno people, and told her how Miss Tregear had been reassured +by his eloquence. He also read to her the Jawstock and Tifto +correspondence, and was complimented by her as to his prudence and +foresight. 'To tell the truth I consulted Mr Lupton,' he said, not +liking to take credit for wisdom which had not been his own. Then +they talked about Grex, and Killancodlem, about Gerald and the +shooting, about Mary's love for Tregear, and about the work for +the coming session. On all these subjects they were comfortable +and confidential,--Miss Boncassen's name never having been as yet +so much as mentioned. + +But still the real work was before her. She had not hoped to bring +him round to kneel once more at her feet by such gentle measures +as these. She had not dared to dream that he could in this way be +taught to forget the past autumn and all its charms. She knew well +that there was something very difficult before her. But, if that +difficult thing might be done at all, these were the preparations +which must be made for the doing of it. + +It was arranged that she should leave Matching on Saturday, the +first day of the new year. Things had gone on in the manner +described till the Thursday had come. The Duke had been impatient +but had restrained himself. He had seen that they were much +together and that they were apparently friends. He had told +himself that there were two more days, and that before the end of +those days everything might be pleasantly settled! + +It had become a matter of course that Silverbridge and Mabel +should walk together in the afternoon. He himself had felt that +there was danger in this,--not danger that he should be untrue to +Isabel, but that he should make others think that he was true to +Mabel. But he excused himself on the plea that he and Mabel had +been intimate friends,--were still intimate friends, and that she +was going away in a day or two. Mary, who watched it all, was sure +that misery was being prepared for someone. She was aware that by +this time her father was anxious to welcome Mabel as his daughter- +in-law. She strongly suspected that something had been said +between her father and her brother on the subject. But then she +had Isabel Boncassen's direct assurance that Silverbridge was +engaged to her! Now when Isabel's back was turned, Silverbridge +and Mabel were always together. + +On the Thursday after lunch they were again together. It had +become so much a habit that the walk repeated itself without an +effort. It had been part of Mabel's scheme that it should be so. +During all this morning she had been thinking of her scheme. It +was all hopeless. So much she had declared to herself. But +forlorn hopes do sometimes end in splendid triumphs. That which +she might gain was so much! And what could she lose? The sweet +bloom of her maiden shame? That, she told herself, with bitterest +inward tears, was already gone from her. Frank Tregear at any rate +knew where her heart had been given. Frank Tregear knew that +having lost her heart to one man she was anxious to marry another. +He knew that she was willing to accept the coronet of a duchess as +her consolation. That bloom of her maiden shame, of which she +quite understood the sweetness of the charm, the value--was gone +when she had brought herself to such a state that any human being +should know that, loving one man, she should be willing to marry +another. The sweet treasure was gone from her. Its aroma was fled. +It behoved her now to be ambitious, cautious,--and if possible +successful. + +When first she had so resolved, success seemed to be easily within +her reach. Of all the golden youths that crossed her path no one +was so pleasant to her eye, to her ear, to her feelings generally +as this Duke's young heir. There was a coming manliness about him +which she liked,---and she liked even the slight want of present +manliness. Putting aside Frank Tregear she could go nearer to +loving him than any other man she had ever seen. With him she +would not be turned from her duties by disgust, by dislike, or +dismay. She could even think that the time would come when she +might really love him. Then she had all but succeeded, and she +might have succeeded altogether had she been a little more +prudent. But she had allowed her great prize to escape from her +fingers. + +But the prize was not yet utterly beyond her grasp. To recover +it,--to recover even the smallest chance of recovering it, there +would be need of great exertion. She must be bold, sudden, +unwomanlike,--and yet with such display of woman's charms that he +at least should discover no want. She must be false, but false +with such perfect deceit, that he must regard her as a pearl of +truth. If anything could lure him back it must be his conviction +of her passionate love. And she must be strong;--so strong as to +overcome not only his weakness, but all that was strong in him. +She knew that he did love that other girl,--and she must overcome +even that. And to do this she must prostrate herself at his feet,-- +as, since the world began, it has been the man's province to +prostrate himself at the feet of the woman he loves. + +To do this she must indeed bid adieu to the sweet bloom of her +maiden shame! But had she not done so already when, by the side +of the brook at Killancodlem, she had declared to him plainly +enough her despair at hearing that he loved that other girl? +Though she were to grovel at his feet she could not speak more +plainly than she had done then; but--though the chances were +small,--perchance she might tell it more effectually. + +'Perhaps this will be our last walk,' she said. 'Come down to the +seat over the river.' + +'Why should it be the last? You'll be here tomorrow.' + +'There are so many slips in such things,' she said laughing. 'You +may get a letter from your constituents that will want all day to +answer. Or your father may have a political communication to make +to me. But at any rate come.' So they went to the seat. + +It was a spot in the park from whence there was a distant view +over many lands, and low beneath the bench, which stood at the +edge of a steep bank, ran a stream which made a sweeping bend in +this place, so that a reach of the little river might be seen both +to the right and to the left. Though the sun was shining, the snow +under their feet was hard with frost. It was an air such as one +sometimes finds in England, and often in America. Though the cold +was very perceptible, though water in the shade was freezing at +this moment, there was no feeling of damp, no sense of bitter +wind. It was a sweet and jocund air, such as would make young +people prone to run and skip. 'You are not going to sit down with +all the snow on the bench,' said Silverbridge. + +On their way thither she had not said a word that would disturb +him. She had spoken to him of the coming session, and had managed +to display to him the interest which she took in his parliamentary +career. In doing this she had flattered him to the top of his +bent. If he would return to his father's politics, then would she +too become a renegade. Would he speak in the next session? She +hoped he would speak. And if he did, might she be there to hear +him? She was cautious not to say a word of Frank Tregear, +understanding something of that strange jealousy which could exist +even when he who was jealous did not love the woman who caused it. + +'No,' she said, 'I do not think we can sit. But still I like to be +here with you. All that some day will be your own.' Then she +stretched her hands out to the far view. + +'Some of it, I suppose. I don't think it is all ours. As for that, +if we cared for extent of acres, one ought to go to Barsetshire.' + +'Is that larger?' + +'Twice as large, I believe, and yet none of the family like being +there. The rental is very well.' + +'And the borough,' she said, leaning on his arm and looking up +into his face. 'What a happy fellow you ought to be.' + +'Bar Tifto,--and Mr Jawstock.' + +'You have got rid of Tifto and all those troubles very easily.' + +'Thanks to the governor.' + +'Yes, indeed. I do love your father so dearly.' + +'So do I--rather.' + +'May I tell you something about him?' As she asked the question +she was standing very close to him, leaning upon his arm, with her +left hand crossed upon her right. Had others been there, of course +she would not have stood in such a guise. She knew that,--and he +knew it too. Of course there was something in it of declared +affection,--of that kind of love which most of us have been happy +enough to give and receive, without intending to show more than +true friendship will allow at special moments. + +'Don't tell me anything about him I shan't like to hear.' + +'Ah;--that is so hard to know. I wish you would like to hear it.' + +'What can it be?' + +'I cannot tell you now.' + +'Why not? And why did you offer?' + +'Because,--Oh, Silverbridge.' + +He certainly as yet did not understand it. It had never occurred +to him that she would know what were his father's wishes. Perhaps +he was slow of comprehension as he urged her to tell him what this +was about his father. 'What can you tell me about him, that I +should not like to hear?' + +'You do not know? Oh, Silverbridge, I think you know.' Then there +came upon him a glimmering of the truth. 'You do know.' And she +stood apart looking him full in the face. + +'I do not know what you can have to tell me.' + +'No;--no. It is not that I should tell you. But yet it is so, +Silverbridge, what did you say to me that morning when you came to +me that morning in the Square?' + +'What did I say?' + +'Was I not entitled to think that you--loved me?' To this he had +nothing to reply, but stood before her silent and frowning. 'Think +of it, Silverbridge. Was it not so? And because I did not at once +tell you all the truth, because I did not there say that my heart +was all yours, were you right to leave?' + +'You only laughed at me.' + +'No;--no; no; I never laughed at you. How could I laugh when you +were all the world to me? Ask Frank; he knew. Ask Miss Cass;--she +knew. And can you say that you did not know; you, you, yourself? +Can any girl suppose that such words as these are to mean nothing +when they have been spoken? You knew I loved you.' + +'No;--no.' + +'You must have known it. I will never believe but that you knew +it. Why should your father be so sure of it?' + +'He never was sure of it.' + +'Yes, Silverbridge, yes. There is not one in the house who does +not see that he treats me as though he expected me to be his son's +wife. Do you not know that he wishes it?' He fain would not have +answered this; but she paused for his answer and then repeated her +question. 'Do you not know that he wishes it?' + +'I think he does,' said Silverbridge; 'but it can never be so.' + +'Oh, Silverbridge;--oh my loved one. Do not say that to me! Do not +kill me at once!' Now she placed her hands one on each arm as she +stood opposite to him and looked up into his face. 'You said that +you loved me once. Why do you desert me now? Have you a right to +treat me like that;--when I tell you that you have all my heart?' +The tears were now streaming down her face, and they were not +counterfeit tears. + +'You know,' he said, submitting to her hands, but not lifting his +arm to embrace her. + +'What do I know?' + +'That I have given all I have to another.' As he said this he +looked away sternly, over her shoulder, to the distance. + +'That American girl!' she exclaimed starting back, with some show +of sternness on her brow. + +'Yes;--that American girl' said Silverbridge. + +Then she recovered herself immediately. Indignation natural +indignation, would not serve her turn in the present emergency. +'You know that cannot be. You ought to know it. What will your +father say? You have not dared to tell him. That is so natural,' +she added, trying to appease his frown. 'How possibly can it be +told to him? I will not say a word against her.' + +'No; do not do that.' + +'But there are fitnesses of things which such a one as you cannot +disregard without preparing yourself for a whole life of +repentance.' + +'Look here, Mabel.' + +'Well.' + +'I will tell you the truth.' + +'I would sooner lose all;--the rank I have, the rank that I am to +have, all these lands that you have been looking on; my father's +wealth, would give them all up, sooner than lose her.' Now at any +rate he was a man. She was sure of that now. This was more, very +much more, not only than she had expected from him, but more than +she had thought it possible that his character should have +produced. + +His strength reduced her to weakness. 'And I am nothing,' she +said. + +'Yes, indeed; you are Lady Grex,--whom all women envy, and whom all +men honour.' + +'The poorest wretch this day under the sun.' + +'Do not say that. You should take shame to say that.' + +'I do take shame;--and I do say it. Sir, do you feel what you owe +me? Do you not know that you have made me the wretch I am? How +did you dare to talk to me as you did talk when you were in London? + You tell me that I am Lady Mabel Grex;--and yet you come to me +with a lie on your lips;--with such a lie as that! You must have +taken me for some nursemaid on whom you had condescended to cast +your eye! It cannot be that even you should have dared to treat +Lady Mabel Grex after such a fashion as that! And now you have +cast your eye at this other girl. You can never marry her!' + +'I shall endeavour to do so.' + +'You can never marry her,' she said, stamping her foot. She had +now lost all the caution which she had taught herself for the +prosecution of her scheme,--all the care with which she had +burdened herself. Now she was natural enough. 'No,--you can never +marry her. You could not show yourself after it in your clubs, or +in Parliament, or in the world. Come home, do you say? No, I will +not go to your home. It is not my home. Cold;--of course I am +cold;--cold through to the heart.' + +'I cannot leave you alone here,' he said, for she had now turned +from him, and was walking with hurried steps and short turns on +the edge of the bank, which at this place was almost a precipice. + +'You have left me,--utterly to the cold--more desolate than I am +here even though I should spend the night among the trees. But I +will go back, and will tell your father everything. If my father +were other than he is,--if my brother were better to me, you would +not have done this.' + +'If you had a legion of brothers it would have been the same,' he +said, turning sharp upon her. + +They walked on together, but without a word till the house was in +sight. Then she looked round on him, and stopped him on the path +as she caught his eye.' Silverbridge!' she said. + +'Lady Mabel.' + +'Call me Mabel. At any rate call me Mabel. If I have said anything +to offend you--I beg your pardon.' + +'I am not offended--but unhappy.' + +'If you are unhappy, what must I be? What have I to look forward +to? Give me your hand, and say that we are friends.' + +'Certainly we are friends,' he said, and gave her his hand. + +'Who can tell what may come to pass?' To this he would make no +answer, as it seemed to imply that some division between himself +and Isabel Boncassen might possibly come to pass. 'You will not +tell anyone that I love you.' + +'I tell such a thing as that!' + +'But never forget it yourself. No one can tell what may come to +pass.' + +Lady Mabel at once went up to her room. She had played her scene, +but was well aware that she had played it altogether +unsuccessfully. + + + +CHAPTER 60 + +Lord Gerald in Further Trouble + +When Silverbridge got back to the house he was by no means well +pleased with himself. In the first place he was unhappy to think +that Mabel was unhappy, and that he had made he so. And then she +had told him that he would not have dared to have acted as he had +done, but that her father and brother were careless to defend her. +He had replied fiercely that a legion of brothers ready to act on +her behalf would not have altered his conduct; but not the less +did he feel that he had behaved badly to her. It could not now be +altered. He could not now be untrue to Isabel. But certainly he +had said a word or two to Mabel which he could not remember +without regret. He had not thought that a word from him could have +been so powerful. Now, when that word was recalled to his memory +by the girl to whom it had been spoken he could not acquit +himself. + +And Mabel had declared to him that she would at once appeal to his +father. There was an absurdity in this at which he could not but +smile,--that the girl should complain to his father because he +would not marry her! But even in doing this she might cause him +great vexation. He could not bring himself to ask her not to tell +her story to the Duke. He must take all that as it might come. + +While he was thinking of all this in his own room a servant +brought him two letters. From the first which he opened he +perceived that it contained an account of more troubles. It was +from his brother Gerald, and was written from Auld Reikie, the +name of a house in Scotland belonging to Lord Nidderdale's people. + +'DEAR SILVER, + +'I have got into a most awful scrape. That fellow Percival is +here, and Dolly Longstaff, and Nidderdale, and Popplecourt, and +Jack Hindes and Perry who is in the Coldstreams, and one or two +more, and there has been a lot of cards, and I have lost ever so +much money. I wouldn't mind so much but Percival has won it all,--a +fellow I hate; and now I owe him--three thousand four hundred +pounds! He has just told me he is hard up and that he wants the +money before the week is over. He can't be hard up because he has +won from everybody;--but of course I had to tell him that I would +pay him. + +'Can you help me? Of course I know that I have been a fool. +Percival knows what he is about and plays regularly for money. +When I began I didn't think that I would lose above twenty or +thirty pounds. But it got on from one thing to another, and when I +woke this morning I felt I didn't know what to do with myself. You +can't think how the luck went against me. Everybody says they +never saw such cards. + +'And now do tell me how I am to get out of it. Could you manage it +with Mr Morton? Of course I will make it all right with you some +day. Morton always lets you have whatever you want. But perhaps +you couldn't do this without letting the governor know. I would +rather anything than that. There is some money owing at Oxford +also which of course he must know. + +'I was thinking that perhaps I might get it from some of those +fellows in London. There are people called Comfort and Criball, +who let men have money constantly. I know two or three up at +Oxford, who have had money from them. Of course I couldn't go to +them as you could do, for, in spite of what the governor said to +us up in London one day, there is nothing that must come to me. +But you could do anything in that way, and of course I would stand +to it. + +'I know you won't throw me over, because you have always been such +a brick. But above all things don't tell the governor. Percival is +such a nasty fellow, otherwise I shouldn't mind it. He spoke this +morning as though I was treating him badly,--though the money was +only lost last night; and he looked at me in a way that made me +long to kick him. I told him not to flurry himself, and that he +should have his money. If he speaks to me like that again I will +kick him. + +'I will be at Matching as soon as possible, but I cannot go till +this is settled. Nid'--meaning Lord Nidderdale,--'is a brick. + +'Your affectionate Brother, +GERALD.' + +The other was from Nidderdale, and referred to the same subject. + +'DEAR SILVERBRIDGE, + +'Here has been a terrible nuisance. Last night some of the men got +to playing cards, and Gerald lost a terribly large sum to +Percival. I did all that I could to stop it, because I saw that +Percival was going in for a big thing. I fancy he got as much from +Dolly Longstaff as he did from Gerald;--but it won't matter much to +Dolly; or if it does, nobody cares. Gerald told me he was writing +to you about it, so I am not betraying him. + +'What is to be done? Of course Percival is behaving badly. He +always does. I can't turn him out of the house, and he seems to +intend to stick to Gerald till he has got the money. He has taken +a cheque from Dolly dated two months hence. I am in an awful funk +for fear Gerald should pitch into him. He will in a minute if +anything rough is said to him. I suppose the straightest thing +would be to go to the Duke at once, but Gerald won't hear of it. I +hope you won't think me wrong to tell you. If I could help him I +would. You know what a bad doctor I am for that sort of complaint. + +'Yours always, +NIDDERDALE.' + +The dinner-bell had rung before Silverbridge had come to an end of +thinking of this new vexation, and he had not as yet made up his +mind what he had better do for his brother. There was one thing as +to which he was determined,--that it should not be done by him, +nor, if he could prevent it, by Gerald. There should be no +dealings with Comfort and Criball. The Duke had succeeded, at any +rate, in filling his son's mind with a horror of aid of that sort. +Nidderdale had suggested that the 'straightest' thing would be to +go direct to the Duke. That no doubt would be straight,--and +efficacious. The Duke would not have allowed a boy of his to be a +debtor to Lord Percival for a day, let the debt have been +contracted how it might. But Gerald had declared against this +course,--and Silverbridge himself would have been most unwilling to +adopt it. How could he have told that story to the Duke, while +there was that other infinitely more important story of his own, +which must be told at once? + +In the midst of all these troubles he went down to dinner. 'Lady +Mabel,' said the Duke, 'tells me that you two have been to see Sir +Guy's look-out.' + +She was standing close to the Duke and whispered a word into his +ear. 'You said you would call me Mabel.' + +'Yes sir,' said Silverbridge, 'and I have made up my mind that Sir +Guy never stayed there very long in winter. It was awfully cold.' + +'I had furs on,' said Mabel. 'What a lovely spot it is, even in +this weather.' Then dinner was announced. She had not been cold. +She could still feel the tingling of her blood as she had implored +him to love her. + +Silverbridge felt that he must write to his brother by the first +post. The communication was of a nature that would bear no delay. +If his hands had been free he would himself have gone off to Auld +Reikie. At last he made up his mind. The first letter he wrote was +neither to Nidderdale nor to Gerald, but to Lord Percival himself. + +'DEAR PERCIVAL, + +'Gerald writes me word that he has lost to you at cards 3,400 +pounds, and he wants me to get the money. It is a terrible +nuisance, and he has been an ass. But of course I shall stand to +him for anything he wants. I haven't got 3,400 pounds in my +pocket, and I don't know anyone who has,--that is among our set. +But I send you my I O U for the amount, and will promise to get +you the money in two months. I suppose that will be sufficient and +that you will not bother Gerald any more about it. +'Yours truly, +SILVERBRIDGE.' +Then he copied this letter and enclosed the copy in another which +he wrote to his brother. + +'DEAR GERALD, + +'What an ass you have been! But I don't suppose you are worse +than I was at Doncaster. I will have nothing to do with such +people as Comfort and Criball. That is the sure way to the D-! As +for telling Morton, that is only a polite and roundabout way of +telling the governor. He would immediately ask the governor what +was to be done. You will see what I have done. Of course I must +tell the governor before the end of February, as I cannot get the +money in any other way. But that I will do. It does seem hard upon +him. Not that the money will hurt him much; but that he would like +to have a steady-going son. + +'I suppose Percival won't make any bother about the I O U. He'll +be a fool if he does. I wouldn't kick him if I were you,--unless he +says anything very bad. You would be sure to come to grief +somehow. He is a beast. + +'Your affectionate Brother, +SILVERBRIDGE.' + +With these letters that special grief was removed from his mind +for awhile. Looking over the dark river of possible trouble which +seemed to run between the present moment and the time at which the +money must be procured, he thought that he had driven off this +calamity of Gerald's to infinite distance. But into that dark +river he must now plunge almost at once. On the next day, he +managed so that there should be no walk with Mabel. In the evening +he could see that the Duke was uneasy;--but not a word was said to +him. On the following morning Lady Mabel took her departure. When +she went from the door, both the Duke and Silverbridge were there +to bid her farewell. She smiled and was as gracious as though +everything had gone according to her heart's delight. 'Dear Duke, +I am so obliged to you for your kindness,' she said, as she put up +her cheek for him to kiss. Then she gave her hand to Silverbridge. +'Of course you will come and see me in town.' And she smiled upon +them all;--having courage enough to keep down all her sufferings. + +'Come in here a moment, Silverbridge,' said the father as they +returned into the house together. 'How is it now between you and +her?' + + + +CHAPTER 61 + +'Bone of my Bone' + +'How is it between you and her?' That was the question which the +Duke put to his son as soon as he had closed the door of the +study. Lady Mabel had been dismissed from the front door on her +journey, and there could be no doubt as to the 'her' intended. No +such question would have been asked had not Silverbridge himself +declared to his father his purpose of making Lady Mabel his wife. +On that subject the Duke, without such authority, would not have +interfered. But he had been consulted, had acceded, and had +encouraged the idea by excessive liberality on his part. He had +never dropped it out of his mind for a moment. But when he found +that the girl was leaving his house without any explanation, then +he became restless and inquisitive. + +They say that perfect love casteth out fear. If it be so the love +of children to their parents is seldom altogether perfect,--and +perhaps had better not be quite perfect. With this young man it +was not that he feared anything which his father could do to him, +that he believed that in consequence of his declaration which he +had to make his comforts and pleasures would be curtailed, or his +independence diminished. But he feared that he would make his +father unhappy, and he was conscious that he had so often sinned +in that way. He had stumbled so frequently! Though in action he +would so often be thoughtless,--yet he understood perfectly the +effect which had been produced on his father's mind by his +conduct. He had it at heart 'to be good to the governor', to +gratify that most loving of all possible friends, who, as he well +knew, was always thinking of his welfare. And yet he never had +been 'good to the governor';--nor had Gerald;--and to all this was +added his sister's determined perversity. It was thus he feared +his father. + +He paused for a moment, while the Duke stood with his back to the +fire looking at him. 'I'm afraid that it is all over, sir,' he +said. + +'All over!' + +'I am afraid so, sir.' + +'Why is it all over? Has she refused you?' + +'Well, sir;--it isn't quite that.' Then he paused again. It was so +difficult to begin about Isabel Boncassen. + +'I am sorry for that,' said the Duke, almost hesitating; 'very +sorry. You will understand, I hope, that I should make no inquiry +into the matter, unless I felt myself warranted in doing so by +what you had yourself told me in London.' + +'I understand all that.' + +'I have been very anxious about it, and have even gone so far as +to make some preparations for what I had hoped would be your early +marriage.' + +'Preparations!' exclaimed Silverbridge, thinking of church bells, +bride cake, and wedding presents. + +'As to the property. I am anxious that you should enjoy all the +settled independence which can belong to an English gentleman. I +never plough or sow. I know no more of sheep and bulls than of the +extinct animals of earlier ages. I would not have it so with you. +I would fain see you surrounded by those things which ought to +interest a nobleman in this country. Why is it all over with Lady +Mabel Grex?' + +The young man looked imploringly at his father, as though +earnestly begging that nothing more might be said about Mabel. 'I +had changed my mind before I found out that she was really in love +with me!' He could not say that. He could not hint that he might +still have Mabel if he would. The only thing for him was to tell +everything about Isabel Boncassen. He felt that in doing this he +must begin with himself. 'I have rather changed my mind, sir,' he +said, 'since we were walking together in London that night.' + +'Have you quarrelled with Lady Mabel?' + +'Oh dear no. I am very fond of Mabel;--only not just like that.' + +'Not just like what?' + +'I had better tell the whole truth at once.' + +'Certainly tell the truth, Silverbridge. I cannot say that you are +bound in duty to tell the whole truth even to your father in such +a matter.' + +'But I mean to tell you everything. Mabel did not seem to care for +me much--in London. And then I saw someone,--someone I liked +better.' Then he stopped, but as the Duke did not ask any +questions he plunged on. 'It was Miss Boncassen.' + +'Miss Boncassen!' + +'Yes sir,' said Silverbridge, with a little access of decision. + +'The American young lady?' + +'Yes sir.' + +'Do you know anything of her family?' + +'I think I know all about her family. It is not much in the way +of--family.' + +'You have not spoken to her about it?' + +'Yes sir;--I have settled it all with her, on condition--' + +'Settled it with her that she is to be your wife.' + +'Yes, sir,--on condition that you will approve.' + +'Did you go to her, Silverbridge, with such a stipulation as +that?' + +'It was not like that.' + +'How was it then?' + +'She stipulated. She will marry me if you consent.' + +'It was she then who thought of my wishes and feeling;--not you?' + +'I knew that I loved her. What is a man to do when he feels like +that? Of course I meant to tell you.' The Duke was looking very +black. 'I thought you liked her, sir.' + +'Liked her! I did like her. I do like her. What has that to do +with it? Do you think I like none but those with whom I should +think it fitting to ally myself in marriage? Is there to be no +duty in such matters, no restraint, no feeling of what is due to +your own name, and to others who bear it? The lad who is out there +sweeping the walks can marry the first girl that pleases his eye +if she will take him. Perhaps his lot is the happier because he +owns such liberty. Have you the same freedom?' + +'I suppose I have,--by law.' + +'Do you recognise no duty but what the law imposes upon you? +Should you be disposed to eat in drink in bestial excess, because +the laws would not hinder you? Should you lie and sleep all the +day, the law would say nothing! Should you neglect every duty +which your position imposes on you, the law could not interfere! +To such a one as you the law can be no guide. You should so live +as not to come near the law,--or to have the law come near to you. +From all evil against which the law bars you, you should be +barred, at an infinite distance, by honour, by conscience, and +nobility. Does the law require patriotism, philanthropy, self- +abnegation, public service, purity of purpose, devotion to the +needs of others who have been placed in the world below you? The +law is a great thing,--because men are poor and weak, and bad. And +it is great, because where it exists in strength, no tyrant can be +above it. But between you and me there should be no mention of law +as the guide of conduct. Speak to me of honour, of duty, and of +nobility; and tell me what they require of you.' + +Silverbridge listened in silence and with something of admiration +in his heart. But he felt the strong necessity of declaring his +own convictions on the special point here, at once, in this new +crisis of the conversation. That accident in regard to the colour +of the Dean's lodge had stood in the way of his logical studies,-- +so that he was unable to put his argument into proper shape; but +there belonged to him a certain natural astuteness which told him +that he must put his rejoinder at this particular point. 'I think +I am bound in honour and in duty to marry Miss Boncassen,' he +said. 'And if I understand what you mean, by nobility just as +much.' + +'Because you have promised.' + +'Not only for that. I have promised and therefore I am bound. She +has;--well, she has said that she loves me, and therefore of course +I am bound. But it not only that.' + +'What do you mean?' + +'I suppose a man ought to marry the woman he loves;--if he can get +her.' + +'No; no; no; not always so. Do you think that love is a passion +that cannot be withstood?' + +'But here we are of one mind, sir. When I say how you seemed to +take to her--' + +'Take to her! Can I not interest myself in human beings without +wishing to make them flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone? What am +I to think of you? It was but the other day that all that you are +now telling me of Miss Boncassen, you were telling me of Lady +Mabel Grex.' Here poor Silverbridge bit his lips and shook his +head, and looked down upon the ground. This was the weak part of +his case. He could not tell his father the whole story about +Mabel,--that she had coyed his love, so that he had been justified +in thinking himself free from any claim in that direction when he +had encountered the infinitely sweeter charms of Isabel Boncassen. +'You are as weak as water,' said the unhappy father. + +'I am not weak in this.' + +'Did you not say exactly the same about Lady Mabel?' + +There was a pause, so that he was driven to reply. 'I found her as +I thought indifferent, and then,---I changed my mind.' + +'Indifferent! What does she think about it now? Does she know of +this? How does it stand between you two at the present moment?' + +'She knows that I am engaged to--Miss Boncassen.' + +'Does she approve of it?' + +'Why should I ask her? I have not asked her.' + +'Then why did you tell her? She could not but have spoken her mind +when you told her. There must have been much between you when she +was talked of.' + +The unfortunate young man was obliged to take some time before he +could answer this appeal. He had to own that his father had some +justice on his side, but at the same time he could reveal nothing +of Mabel's secret. 'I told her because we were friends. I did not +ask her approval; but she did not disapprove. She thought that your +son should not marry an American girl without a family.' + +'Of course she would feel that.' + +'Now I have told you what she said, and I hope you will ask me no +further questions about her. I cannot make Lady Mabel my wife;--- +though, for the matter of that I ought not to presume that she +would take me if I wished it. I had intended to ask you today to +consent to my marriage with Miss Boncassen.' + +'I cannot give you my consent.' + +'Then I am very unhappy.' + +'How can I believe as to your unhappiness when you would have said +the same about Lady Mabel Grex a few weeks ago?' + +'Nearly eight months,' said Silverbridge. + +'What is the difference? It is not the time, but the disposition +of the man! I cannot give you my consent. The young lady sees it +in the right light, and that will make your escape easy.' + +'I do not want to escape.' + +'She has indicated the cause which will separate you.' + +'I will not be separated from her,' said Silverbridge, who was +beginning to feel that he was subjugated to tyranny. If he chose +to marry Isabel, no one could have a right to hinder him. + +'I can only hope that you will think the better of it, and that +when next you speak to me on that or on any other subject you will +answer me with less arrogance.' + +This rebuke was terrible to the son, whose mind at the present +moment was filled with two ideas, that of constancy to Isabel +Boncassen, and then of respect and affection for his father. +'Indeed, sir,' he said, 'I am not arrogant, and if I have answered +improperly I beg your pardon. But my mind is made up about this, +and I thought you had better know how it is.' + +'I do not see that I can say anything else to you.' + +'I think of going to Harrington this afternoon.' Then the Duke +with further very visible annoyance, asked where Harrington was. +it was explained that Harrington was Lord Chiltern's seat, Lord +Chiltern being the Master of the Brake hounds;--that it was his +son's purpose to remain six weeks among the Brake hounds, but that +he should stay only a day of two with Lord Chiltern. Then it +appeared that Silverbridge intended to put himself up at a hunting +inn in the neighbourhood, and the Duke did not at all like the +plan. That his son should choose to live at an inn, when the +comforts of an English country house were open to him, was +distasteful and almost offensive to the Duke. And the matter was +not improved when he was made to understand that all this was to +be done for the sake of hunting. There had been the shooting in +Scotland; then the racing;--ah alas yes;--the racing, and the +betting at Doncaster! Then the shooting at Matching had been made +to appear to be the chief reason why he himself had been living in +his own house! And now his son was going away to live at an inn +in order that more time might be devoted to hunting! 'Why can't +you live here at home, if you must hunt?' + +'It is all woodland,' said Silverbridge. + +'I thought you wanted woods. Lord Chiltern is always troubling me +about Trumpington Wood.' + +This breeze about the hunting enabled the son to escape without +any further allusion to Miss Boncassen. He did escape, and +proceeded to turn over in his mind all that had been said. His +tale had been told. A great burden was thus taken off his +shoulders. He could tell Isabel so much, and thus free himself +from the suspicion of having been afraid to declare his purpose. +She should know what he had done, and should be made to understand +that he had been firm. He had, he thought, been very firm and gave +himself some credit on that head. His father, no doubt, had been +firm too, but that he had expected. His father had said much. All +that about honour and duty had been very good; but this was +certain;--that when a young man had promised a young woman he ought +to keep his word. And he thought that there were certain changes +going on in the management of the world which his father did not +quite understand. Fathers never do quite understand changes which +are manifest to their sons. Some years ago it might have been +improper that an American girl should be elevated to the rank of +an English Duchess, but now all that was altered. + +The Duke spent the rest of the day alone, and was not happy in his +solitude. All that Silverbridge had told him was sad to him. He +had taught himself to think that he could love Lady Mabel as an +affectionate father wishes to love his son's wife. He had set +himself to wish to like her, and had been successful. Being most +anxious that his son should marry he had prepared himself to be +more than ordinarily liberal,--to be in every way gracious. His +children were now everything to him, and among his children his +son and heir was the chief. From the moment in which he had heard +from Silverbridge that Lady Mabel was chosen he had given himself +up to considering how he might best promote their interests,--how +he might best enable them to live, with that dignity and splendour +which he himself had unwisely despised. That the son who was to +come after him should be worthy of the place assigned to his name +had been, of personal objects, the nearest to his heart. There had +been failures, but still there had been left room for hope. The +boy had been immature at Eton;--but how many unfortunate boys had +become great men! He had disgraced himself by his folly at +college,--but although some lads will be men at twenty, others are +then little more than children. The fruit that ripens the soonest +is seldom the best. Then had come Tifto and the racing mania. +Nothing could be worse than Tifto and racehorses. But from that +evil Silverbridge had seemed to be made free by the very disgust +which the vileness of the circumstance had produced. Perhaps Tifto +driving a nail into his horse's foot had on the whole been +serviceable. That apostasy from the political creed of the +Pallisers had been a blow,--much more felt than the loss of the +seventy thousand pounds;--but even under that blow he had consoled +himself by thinking that a conservative patriotic nobleman may +serve his country,--even as a Conservative. In the midst of this he +had felt that the surest resource for his son against evil would +be in an early marriage. If he would marry becomingly, then might +everything still be made pleasant. If his son should marry +becomingly nothing which a father could do should be wanting to +add splendour and dignity to his son's life. + +In thinking of all this he had by no means regarded his own mode +of life with favour. He knew how jejune his life had been,--now +devoid of other interests than that of the public service to which +he had devoted himself. He was thinking of this when he told his +son that he had neither ploughed and sowed or been the owner of +sheep or oxen. He often thought of this, when he heard those round +him talking of the sports, which, though he condemned them as the +employment of a life, he now regarded wistfully, hopelessly as far +as he himself was concerned, as proper recreations for a man of +wealth. Silverbridge should have it all, if he could arrange it. +The one thing necessary was a fitting wife,--and the fitting wife +had been absolutely chosen by Silverbridge himself. + +It may be conceived, therefore, that he was again unhappy. He had +already been driven to acknowledge that these children of his,-- +thoughtless, restless, though they seemed to be,--still had a will +of their own. In all which how like they were to their mother! +With her, however, his word, though it might be resisted, had +never lost its authority. When he had declared that a thing should +not be done, she had never persisted in saying that she would do +it. But with his children it was otherwise. What power he had over +Silverbridge,--or for the matter of that, even his daughter? They +had only to be firm and he knew that he must be conquered. + +'I thought that you liked her,' Silverbridge had said to him. How +utterly unconscious, thought the Duke, must the young man have +been of all that his position required of him when he used such an +argument! Liked her. He did like her. She was clever, +accomplished, beautiful, well-mannered,--as far as he knew endowed +with all good qualities! Would not many an old Roman have said as +much for some favourite Greek slave,--for some freedmen whom he +would admit to his very heart? But what old Roman ever dreamed of +giving his daughter to the son of a Greek bondsman! Had he done +so, what would have become of the name of a Roman citizen? And was +it not his duty to fortify and maintain that higher, smaller, more +precious pinnacle of rank on which Fortune had placed him and his +children? + +Like her! Yes! he liked her certainly. He had by no means always +found that he best liked the companionship of his own order. He +had liked to feel around him the free battle of the House of +Commons. He liked the power of attack and defence in carrying on +which an English politician cares nothing for rank. He liked to +remember that the son of any tradesman might, by his own merits, +become a peer of Parliament. He would have liked to think that his +son should share all these tastes with him. Yes;--he liked Isabel +Boncassen. But how different was that liking from a desire that +she should be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh! + + + +CHAPTER 62 + +The Brake Country + +'What does your father mean to do about Trumpington Wood?' That +was the first word from Lord Chiltern after he had shaken hands +with his guest. + +'Isn't it all right yet?' + +'All right? No! How can a wood like that be all right without a +man about the place who knows anything of the nature of a fox? In +your grandfather's time--' + +'My great-uncle you mean.' + +'Well--your great-uncle!--they used to trap the foxes there. There +was a fellow named Fothergill who used to come there for shooting. +Now it is worse than ever. Nobody shoots there because there is +nothing to shoot. There isn't a keeper. Every scamp is allowed to +go where he pleases, and of course there isn't a fox in the whole +place. My huntsman laughs at me when I ask him to draw it.' As +the indignant Master of the Brake Hounds said this the very fire +flashed from his eyes. + +'My dear,' said Lady Chiltern expostulating, 'Lord Silverbridge +hasn't been in the house above half an hour.' + +'What does that matter? When a thing has to be said it had better +be said at once.' + +Phineas Finn was staying at Harrington with his intimate friends +the Chilterns, as were a certain Mr and Mrs Maule, both of whom +were addicted to hunting,--the lady whose maiden name was Palliser, +being a cousin of Lord Silverbridge. On that day also a certain Mr +and Mrs Spooner dined at Harrington. Mr and Mrs Spooner were both +very much given to hunting, as seemed to be necessarily the case +with everybody admitted to the house. Mr Spooner was a gentleman +who might be on the wrong side of fifty, with a red nose, very +vigorous, and submissive in regard to all things but port-wine. +His wife was perhaps something more than half his age, a stout, +hard-riding, handsome woman. She had been the penniless daughter +of a retired officer,--but yet had managed to ride on whatever +animal anyone would lend her. Then Mr Spooner, who had for many +years been part and parcel of the Brake hunt, and who was much in +want of a wife, had, luckily for her, cast his eyes upon Miss +Leatherside. It was thought that upon the whole she made him a +good wife. She hunted four days a week, and he could afford to +keep horses for her. She never flirted, and wanted no one to open +gates. Tom Spooner himself was not always so forward as he used to +be; but his wife was always there and would tell him all that he +did not see himself. And she was a good housewife, taking care +that nothing should be spent lavishly, except upon the stable. Of +him, too, and of his health, she was careful, never scrupling to +say a word in season when he was likely to hurt himself, either +among the fences, or among the decanters. 'You ain't so young as +you were, Tom. Don't think of doing it.' This she would say to +him with a loud voice when she would find him pausing at a fence. +Then she would hop over herself and he would go round. She as +'quite a providence to him', as her mother, old Mrs Leatherside, +would say. + +She was hardly the woman that one would have expected to meet as a +friend in the drawing-room of Lady Chiltern. Lord Chiltern was +perhaps a little rough, but Lady Chiltern was all that a mother, a +wife, and a lady ought to be. She probably felt that some little +apology ought to be made for Mrs Spooner. 'I hope you like +hunting,' she said to Silverbridge. + +'Best of all things,' he said enthusiastically. + +'Because you know this is Castle Nimrod, in which nothing is +allowed to interfere with the one great business in life.' + +'It's like that, is it?' + +'Quite like that. Lord Chiltern has taken up hunting as his duty +in life, and he does it with his might and main. Not to have a +good day is a misery to him;--not for himself but because he feels +that he is responsible. We had one blank day last year, and I +thought he never would recover it. It was that unfortunate +Trumpington Wood.' + +'How he will hate me.' + +'Not if you praise the hounds judiciously. And then there is a Mr +Spooner coming here tonight. He is the first-lieutenant. He +understands all about the foxes, and all about the farmers. He has +got a wife.' + +'Does she understand anything?' + +'She understands him. She is coming too. They have not been +married long, and he never goes anywhere without her.' + +'Does she ride?' + +'Well; yes. I never go myself now because I have so much of it all +at home. But I fancy she does ride a good deal. She will talk +hunting too. If Chiltern were to leave the country I think they +ought to make her master. Perhaps you'll think her rather odd; but +really she is a very good woman.' + +'I am sure I will like her.' + +'I hope you will. You know Mr Finn. He is here. He and my husband +are very old friends. And Adelaide Maule is your cousin. She hunts +too. And so does Mr Maule,--only not quite so energetically. I +think that is all we shall have.' + +Immediately after that all the guests came in at once, and a +discussion was heard as they were passing through the hall. 'No;-- +that wasn't it,' said Mrs Spooner loudly. 'I don't care what Dick +said.' Dick Rabbit was the first whip, and seemed to have been +much exercised with the matter now under dispute. 'The fox never +went into Grobby Gorse at all. I was there and saw Sappho give him +a line down the bank.' + +'I think he must have gone into the gorse, my dear,' said her +husband. 'The earth was open, you know.' + +'I tell you she didn't. You weren't there, and you can't know. I'm +sure it was a vixen by her running. We ought to have killed that +fox, my Lord.' Then Mrs Spooner made her obeisance to her +hostess. Perhaps she was rather slow in doing this, but the +greatness of the subject had been the cause. These are matters so +important, that the ordinary civilities of the world should not +stand in their way. + +'What do you say, Chiltern?' asked the husband. + +'I say that Mrs Spooner isn't very often wrong, and the Dick +Rabbit isn't very often right about a fox.' + +'It was a pretty run,' said Phineas. + +'Just thirty-four minutes,' said Mr Spooner. + +'Thirty-two up to Grobby Gorse,' asserted Mrs Spooner. 'The hounds +never hunted a yard after that. Dick hurried them into the gorse, +and the old hound wouldn't stick to her line when she found that +no one believed her.' + +This was on Monday evening, and the Brake hounds went out +generally five days a week. 'You'll hunt tomorrow, I suppose,' +Lady Chiltern said to Silverbridge. + +'I hope so.' + +'You must hunt tomorrow. Indeed there is nothing else to do. +Chiltern has taken such a dislike to shooting-men, that he won't +shoot pheasants himself. We don't hunt on Wednesdays or Sundays, +and then everybody lies in bed. Here is Mr Maule, he lies in bed +on other mornings as well, and spend the rest of his day riding +about the country looking for the hounds. + +'Does he ever find them?' + +'What did become of you all today?' said Mr Maule, as he took his +place at the dinner-table. 'You can't have drawn any of the +coverts regularly.' + +'Then we found our foxes without drawing them,' said the master. + +'We chopped one at Bromley's,' said Mr Spooner. + +'I went there.' + +'Then you ought to have known better,' said Mrs Spooner. 'When a +man loses the hounds in that country, he ought to go direct to +Brackett's Wood. If you had come on to Brackett's Wood, you'd have +seen as good a thirty-two minutes as ever you wished to ride.' +When the ladies went out of the room Mrs Spooner gave a parting +word of advice to her husband, and to the host. 'Now, Tom, don't +you drink port-wine. Lord Chiltern, look after him, and don't let +him have port-wine.' + +Then there began an altogether different phase of hunting +conversation. As long as the ladies were there it was all very +well to talk of hunting as an amusement, good sport, a thirty +minutes or so, the delight of having a friend in a ditch, or the +glory of a still-built rail were fitting subjects for a higher +hour. But now the business of the night was to begin. The +difficulties, the enmities, the precautions, the resolutions, the +resources of the Brake hunt were to be discussed. And from thence +the conversation of these devotees strayed away to the perils at +large to which hunting in these modern days is subjected;--not the +perils of broken necks and crushed ribs, which can be reduced to +an average, and so an end made of that small matter; but the +perils from outsiders, the perils of newfangled prejudices, the +perils from more modern sports, the perils from over-cultivation, +the perils from extended population, the perils from intruding +cads, the perils from indifferent magistrates,--the Duke of Omnium +for instance,--and that peril of perils, the peril of decrease of +funds and increase of expenditure! The jaunty gentleman who puts +on his dainty breeches and his pair of boots, and his single horse +rides out on a pleasant morning to some neighbouring meet, +thinking himself a sportsman, has but a faint idea of the troubles +which a few staunch workmen endure in order that he may not be +made to think that his boots, and his breeches, and his horse, +have not been in vain. + +A word or two further was at first said about that unfortunate +wood for which Silverbridge at the present felt himself +responsible. Finn said that he was sure the Duke would look to it, +if Silverbridge would mention it. Chiltern simply groaned. +Silverbridge said nothing, remembering how many troubles he had on +hand at this moment. Then by degrees their solicitude worked +itself round to the cares of a neighbouring hunt. The A.R.U. had +lost their master. One Captain Glomax was going, and the county +had been driven to the necessity of advertising for a successor. +'When hunting comes to that,' said Lord Chiltern, 'one begins to +think that it is in a bad way.' It may always be observed that +when hunting-men speak seriously of their sport, they speak +despondingly. Everything is going wrong. Perhaps the same thing +may be remarked in other pursuits. Farmers are generally on the +verge of ruin. Trade is always bad. The church is in danger. The +House of Lords isn't worth a dozen years' purchase. The throne +totters. + +'An itinerant master with a carpet-bag never can carry on a +country,' said Mr Spooner. + +'You ought really to have a gentleman of property in the country,' +said Lord Chiltern, in a self-deprecating tone. His father's acres +lay elsewhere. + +'It should be someone who has a real stake in the country,' +replied Mr Spooner,--'whom the farmers can respect. Glomax +understood hunting no doubt, but the farmers didn't care for him. +If you don't have the farmers with you, you can't have hunting.' +Then he filled a glass of port. + +'If you don't approve of Glomax, what do you think of a man like +Major Tifto?' asked Mr Maule. + +'That was in the Runnymede,' said Spooner contemptuously. + +'Who is Major Tifto?' asked Lord Chiltern. + +'He is the man,' said Silverbridge boldly, 'who owned Prime +Minister with me, when he didn't win the Leger last September.' + +'There was a deuce of a row,' said Maule. Then Mr Spooner, who read +his 'Bell's Life' and 'Field' very religiously, and who never +missed an article in 'Bayley's', proceeded to give them an account +of everything that had taken place in the Runnymede Hunt. It +mattered but little that he was wrong in all his details. +Narrations always are. The result to which he nearly came right +when he declared that the Major had been turned off, that a +committed had been appointed, and that Messrs Topps and Jawstock +had been threatened with a lawsuit. + +'That comes,' said Lord Chiltern solemnly, 'of employing men like +Major Tifto in places for which they are radically unfit. I +daresay Major Tifto knew how to handle a pack of hounds,--perhaps +almost as well as my huntsman. But I don't think a county would +get on very well which appointed Fowler as Master of Hounds. He is +an honest man, and therefore would be better than Tifto. But--it +would not do. It is a position in which a man should at any rate +be a gentleman. If he be not, all those who should be concerned in +maintaining the hunt will turn their backs on him. When I take my +hounds over this man's ground, and that man's ground, certainly +without doing him any good, I have to think of a great many +things. I have to understand that those whom I cannot compensate +by money, I have to compensate by courtesy. When I shake hands +with a farmer and express my obligation to him because he does not +lock his gates, he is gratified. I don't think any decent farmer +would care much for shaking hands with Major Tifto. If we fall +into that kind of thing there must soon be an end of hunting. +Major Tiftos are cheap no doubt; but in hunting, as in most other +things, cheap and nasty go together. If men don't choose to put +their hands in their pockets they had better say so, and give the +thing up altogether. If you won't take any more wine, we'll go to +the ladies. Silverbridge, the trap will start from the door +tomorrow morning precisely at 9.30 am. Grantingham Cross is +fourteen miles.' Then they all left their chairs,--but as they did +so Mr Spooner finished the bottle of port-wine. + +'I never heard Chiltern speak so much like a book before,' said +Spooner to his wife as she drove him home that night. + +The next morning everybody was ready for a start at half-past +nine, except Mr Maule,--as to whom his wife declared that she had +left him in bed when she came down to breakfast. 'He can never get +there if we don't take him,' said Lord Chiltern, who was in truth +the most good-natured man in the world. Five minutes were allowed +him, and then he came down with a large sandwich in one hand and a +button-hook in the other, with which he was prepared to complete +his toilet. 'What the deuce makes you always in such a hurry?' +were the first words he spoke as Lord Chiltern got on the box. The +Master knew him too well to argue the point. 'Well;--he always is +in a hurry,' said the sinner, when his wife accused him of +ingratitude. + +'Where's Spooner?' asked the Master when he saw Mrs Spooner +without her husband at the meet. + +'I knew how it would be when I saw the port-wine,' she said in a +whisper that could be heard all round. 'He has got it this time +sharp,--in his great toe. We shan't find at Grantingham. They were +cutting wood there last week. If I were you, my Lord, I'd go away +to the Spinnies at once.' + +'I must draw the country regularly,' muttered the Master. + +The country was drawn regularly, but in vain till about two +o'clock. Not only was there no fox at Grantingham Wood, but none +even at the Spinnies. And at two, Fowler, with an anxious face, +held a consultation with his more anxious master. Trumpington Wood +lay on their right, and that no doubt would have been the proper +draw. 'I suppose we must try it,' said Lord Chiltern. + +Old Fowler looked very sour. 'You might as well look for a fox +under my wife's bed, my Lord.' + +'I daresay we should find one there,' said one of the wags of the +hunt. Fowler shook his head, feeling that this was no time for +joking. + +'It ought to be drawn,' said Chiltern. + +'Of course you know best, my Lord. I wouldn't touch it,--never no +more. Let 'em all know what the Duke's Wood is.' + +'This is Lord Silverbridge, the Duke's son,' said Chiltern +laughing. + +'I beg his Lordship's pardon,' said Fowler, taking off his cap. +'We shall have a good time coming some day. Let me trot 'em off to +Michaelmas Daisies, my Lord. I'll be there in thirty minutes.' In +the neighbouring parish of St Michael de Dezier there was a +favourite little gorse which among hunting-men had acquired this +unreasonable name. After a little consideration the Master +yielded, and away they trotted. + +'You'll cross the ford, Fowler?' asked Mrs Spooner. + +'Oh yes, ma'am; we couldn't draw the Daisies this afternoon if we +didn't.' + +'It'll be up to the horses' bellies.' + +'Those who don't like it can go round.' + +'They'd never be there in time, Fowler.' + +'There's many a man, ma'am, as don't mind that. You won't be one +to stay behind.' The water was up to the horses' bellies, but, +nevertheless, Mrs Spooner was at the gorse side when the Daisies +were drawn. + +They found and were away in a minute. It was all done so quickly +that Fowler, who had along gone into the gorse, had hardly time to +get out with his hounds. The fox ran right back, as though he were +making for the Duke's pernicious wood. In the first field or two +there was a succession of gates, and there was not much to do in +the way of jumping. Then the fox, keeping straight ahead, deviated +from the line by which they had come, making for the brook by a +more direct course. The ruck of the horsemen, understanding the +matter very well, left the hounds, and went to the right, riding +for the ford. The ford was of such a nature that but one horse +could pass it at a time, and that one had to scramble through deep +mud. 'There'll be the devil to pay here,' said Lord Chiltern, +going straight with his hounds. Phineas Finn and Dick Rabbit were +close after him. Old Fowler had craftily gone to the ford; but Mrs +Spooner, who did not intend to be shaken off, followed the Master, +and close with her was Lord Silverbridge. 'Lord Chiltern hasn't +got it right,' she said. 'He can't do it among these bushes.' As +she spoke the Master put his horse at the bushes and then-- +disappeared. The lady had been right. There was no ground at that +spot to take off from, and the bushes had impeded him. Lord +Chiltern had got over, but his horse was in the water. Dick Rabbit +and poor Phineas Finn were stopped in their course by the +necessity of helping the Master in his trouble. + +But Mrs Spooner, the judicious Mrs Spooner, rode at the stream +where it was, indeed, a little wider, but at a place in which the +horse could see what he was about, and where he could jump from +and to firm ground. Lord Silverbridge followed her gallantly. They +both jumped the brook well, and then were together. 'You'll beat +me in pace,' said the lady as he rode up alongside of her. 'Take +the fence ahead straight, and then turn sharp to your right.' +With all her faults, Mrs Spooner was a thorough sporstman. + +He did take the fence ahead,--or rather tried to do so. It was a +bank and a double ditch,--not very great in itself, but requiring a +horse to land on the top and go off with a second spring. Our +young friend's nag, not quite understanding the nature of the +impediment, endeavoured to 'swallow it whole', as hard-riding men +say, and came down in the further ditch. Silverbridge came down on +his head, but the horse pursued his course,--across a heavily- +ploughed field. + +This was very disagreeable. He was not in the least hurt, but it +became his duty to run after his horse. A very few furrows of that +work suffice to make a man think that hunting was a 'beastly sort +of thing'. Mrs Spooner's horse, who had shown himself to be a +little less quick of foot than his own, had known all about the +bank and the double ditch, and had, apparently of his own accord, +turned down to the right, either seeing or hearing the hounds, and +knowing that the ploughed ground was to be avoided. But his rider +changed his course. She went straight after the riderless horse, +and when Silverbridge had reduced himself to utter speechlessness +by his exertions, brought him back his steed. + +'I am,--I am, I am--so sorry,' he struggled to say,--and then as she +held his horse for him he struggled up into his saddle. + +'Keep down this furrow,' said Mrs Spooner, 'and we shall be with +them in the second field. There's nobody near them yet.' + + + +CHAPTER 63 + +'I've Seen 'em Like That Before' + +On this occasion Silverbridge stayed only a few days at +Harrington, having promised Tregear to entertain him at The +Baldfaced Stag. It was here that his horses were standing, and he +now intended, by limiting himself to one horse a day, to mount his +friend for a couple of weeks. It was settled at last that Tregear +should ride his friend's horse one day, hire the next, and so on. +'I wonder what you'll think of Mrs Spooner?' he said. + +'Why should I think anything of her?' + +'Because I doubt whether you ever saw such a woman before. She +does nothing but hunt.' + +'Then I certainly shan't want to see her again.' + +'And she talks as never I heard a lady talk before.' + +'Then I don't care if I don't see her at all.' + +'But she is the most plucky and most good-natured human being I +ever saw in my life. After all, hunting is good fun.' + +'Very; if you don't do it so often as to be sick of it.' + +'Long as I have known you I don't think I ever saw you ride yet.' + +'We used to have hunting down in Cornwall, and thought we did it +pretty well. And I have ridden in South Wales, which I can assure +you isn't an easy thing to do. But you mustn't expect much from +me.' + +They were both out the Monday and Tuesday in that week, and then +again on the Thursday without anything special in the way of +sport. Lord Chiltern, who had found Silverbridge to be a young man +after his own heart, was anxious that he should come back to +Harrington and bring Tregear with him. But to this Tregear would +not assent, alleging that he should feel himself to be a burden +both to Lord and Lady Chiltern. On the Friday Tregear did not go +out, saying that he would avoid the expense, and on that day there +was a good run. 'It is always the way,' said Silverbridge. 'If you +miss a day, it is sure to be the best thing of the season. An hour +and a quarter with hardly anything you could call a check! It is +the only very good thing I have seen since I have been here. Mrs +Spooner was with them all through.' + +'And I suppose you were with Mrs Spooner.' + +'I wasn't far off. I wish you had been there.' + +On the next day the meet was at the kennels, close to Harrington, +and Silverbridge drove his friend over in a gig. The Master and +Lady Chiltern, Spooner and Mrs Spooner, Maule, and Mrs Maule, +Phineas Finn, and host of others condoled with the unfortunate +young man because he had not seen the good thing yesterday. 'We've +had it a little faster once or twice,' said Mrs Spooner with +deliberation, 'but never for so long. Then it was straight as a +line, and a real open kill. No changing you know. We did go +through the Daisies, but I'll swear to its being the same fox.' +All of which set Tregear wondering. How could she swear to her +fox? And if they had changed, what did it matter? And if it had +been a little crooked, why would it have been less enjoyable? And +was she really so exact a judge of pace as she pretended to be? +'I'm afraid we shan't have anything like that today,' she +continued. 'The wind's in the west, and I never do like a westerly +wind.' + +'A little to the north,' said her husband, looking round the +compass. + +'My dear,' said the lady, 'you never know where the wind comes +from. Now don't you think of taking off your comforter, I won't +have it.' + +Tregear was riding his friend's favourite hunter, a thoroughbred +bay horse, very much more than up to his rider's weight, and +supposed to be peculiarly good at timber, water, or any well- +defined kind of fence, however high or broad. They found a covert +near the kennels, and killed their fox after a burst of a few +minutes. They found again, and having lost their fox, all declared +that there was not a yard of scent. 'I always know what a west +wind means,' said Mrs Spooner. + +Then they lunched, and smoked, and trotted about with an apparent +acknowledgement that there wasn't much to be done. It was not +right that they should expect much after so good a thing as they +had had yesterday. At half-past two Mr Spooner had been sent home +by his Providence, and Mrs Spooner was calculating that she would +be able to ride her horse again on the Tuesday. When on a sudden +the hounds were on a fox. It turned out afterwards that Dick +Rabbit had absolutely ridden him up among the stubble, and that +the hounds had nearly killed him before he had gone a yard. But +the astute animal making the best use of his legs till he could +get the advantage of the first ditch, ran, and crept, and jumped +absolutely through the pack. Then there was shouting, and yelling, +and riding. The men who were idly smoking threw away their cigars. +Those who were loitering at a distance lost their chance. But the +real sportsmen, always on the alert, always thinking of the +business in hand, always mindful that there may be at any moment a +fox just before the hounds, had a glorious opportunity of getting +'well away'. Among these no one was more intent, or, when the +moment came, 'better away' than Mrs Spooner. + +Silverbridge had been talking to her and had the full advantage of +her care. Tregear was riding behind with Lord Chiltern, who had +been pressing him to come with his friend to Harrington. As soon +as the shouting was heard Chiltern was off like a rocket. It was +not only that he was anxious to 'get well away', but that a sense +of duty compelled him to see how the thing was being done. Old +Fowler was certainly a little slow, and Dick Rabbit, with the true +bloody-minded instinct of a whip, was a little apt to bustle a fox +back into the covert. And then, when a run commences with a fast +rush, riders are apt to over-ride the hounds, and then the hounds +will over-run the fox. All of which has to be seen to by a Master +who knows his business. + +Tregear followed, and being mounted on a fast horse was soon as +forward as a judicious rider would desire. 'Now, Runks, don't you +press on and spoil it all,' said Mrs Spooner to the hard-riding +objectionable son of old Runks the vet from Rufford. But young +Runks did press on till the Master spoke a word. The word shall +not be repeated, but it was efficacious. + +At that moment there had been a check,--as there is generally after +a short spurt, when fox, hounds, and horsemen get off together, +and not always in the order in which they have been placed there. +There is too much bustle, and the pack becomes disconcerted. But +it enabled Fowler to get up, and by dint of growling at the men and +conciliating his hounds, he soon picked up the scent. 'If they'd +all stand still for two minutes and be d-d to them,' he muttered +aloud to himself, 'they'd 'ave some'at to ride arter. They might +go then, and there's some of 'em'd soon be nowhere.' + +But in spite of Fowler's denunciations there was, of course, +another rush. Runks had slunk away, but by making a little +distance was now again ahead of the hounds. And unfortunately +there was half-a-dozen with him. Lord Chiltern was very wrath. +'When he's like that,' said Mrs Spooner to Tregear, 'it's always +well to give him a wide berth.' But as the hounds were now +running fast it was necessary, that even in taking this precaution +due regard should be had to the fox's line. 'He's back for +Harrington bushes,' said Mrs Spooner. And as she said so, she rode +at a bank, with a rail at the top of it perhaps a foot-and-a-half +high, with a deep drop in the field beyond. It was not a very nice +place, but it was apparently the only available spot in the fence. +She seemed to know it well, for as she got close to it she brought +her horse almost to a stand and so took it. The horse cleared the +rail, seemed just to touch the bank on the other side, while she +threw herself back almost on to his crupper, and so came down with +perfect case. But she, knowing that it would not be easy to all +horses, paused a moment to see what would happen. + +Tregear was next to her and was intending to 'fly' the fence. But +when he saw Mrs Spooner pull her horse and pause, he also had to +pull his horse. This he did so to enable her to take her leap +without danger or encumbrance from him, but hardly so as to bring +his horse to the bank in the same way. It may be doubted whether +the animal he was riding would have known enough and been quiet +enough to have performed the acrobatic manoeuvre which had carried +Mrs Spooner so pleasantly over the peril. He had some idea of +this, for the thought occurred to him that he would turn and ride +fast at the jump. But before he could turn he saw that +Silverbridge was pressing on him. It was thus his only resource to +do as Mrs Spooner had done. He was too close to the rail, but +still he tried it. The horse attempted to jump, caught his foot +against the bar, and of course went over head-foremost. This +probably would have been nothing, had not Silverbridge with his +rushing beast been immediately after them. When the young lord saw +that his friend was down it was too late for him to stop his +course. His horse was determined to have the fence,--and did have +it. He touched nothing, and would have skimmed in glory over the +next field had he not come right down on Tregear and Tregear's +steed. There they were, four of them, two men and two horses in +one confused heap. + +The first person with them was Mrs Spooner, who was off her horse +in a minute. And Silverbridge too was very soon on his legs. He at +any rate was unhurt, and the two horses were up before Mrs Spooner +was out of her saddle. But Tregear did not move. 'What are we to +do?' said Lord Silverbridge, kneeling down over his friend. 'Oh, +Mrs Spooner, what are we to do?' + +The hunt had passed on and no one else was immediately with them. +But at this moment Dick Rabbit, who had been left behind to bring +up his hounds, appeared above the bank. 'Leave your horse and come +down,' said Mrs Spooner. 'Here is a gentleman who has hurt +himself.' Dick wouldn't leave his horse, but was soon on the +scene, having found his way through another part of the fence. + +'No; he ain't dead,' said Dick--'I've seen 'em like that before, +and they wurn't dead. But he's had a hawful squeege.' Then he +passed his hand over the man's neck and chest. 'There's a lot of +'em is broke,' said he. 'We must get him to farmer Tooby's.' + +After awhile he was got into farmer Tooby's, when that surgeon +came who is always in attendance on a hunting-field. The surgeon +declared that he had broken his collar-bone, two of his ribs, and +his left arm. And then one of the animals had struck him on the +chest as he raised himself. A little brandy was poured down his +throat, but even under that operation he gave no sign of life. +'No, missis, he aren't dead,' said Dick Rabbit to Mrs Tooby; 'no +more he won't die this bout; but he's got it very nasty.' + +That night Silverbridge was sitting by his friend's bedside at ten +o'clock in Lord Chiltern's house. Tregear had spoken a few words, +and the bones had been set. But the doctor had not felt himself +justified in speaking with that assurance which Dick had +expressed. The man's whole body had been bruised by the horse +which had fallen on him. The agony of Silverbridge was extreme, +for he knew that it had been his doing. 'You were a little too +close,' Mrs Spooner had said to him, 'but nobody saw it, and we'll +hold our tongues.' Silverbridge however would not hold his +tongue. He told everybody how it had happened, how he had been +unable to stop his horse, how had jumped upon his friend, and +perhaps had killed him. 'I don't know what I am to do. I am so +miserable,' he said to Lady Chiltern with the tears running down +his face. + +The two remained at Harrington and the luggage was brought over +from The Baldfaced Stag. The accident happened on a Saturday. On +the Sunday there was no comfort. On the Monday the patient's +recollection and mind were re-established, and the doctor thought +that perhaps, with great care, his constitution would pull him +through. On that day the consternation at Harrington was so great +that Mrs Spooner would not go to the meet. She came over from +Spoon Hall, and spent a considerable part of the day in the sick +man's room. 'It's sure to come right if it's above the vitals,' +she said expressing an opinion which had come from much +experience. 'That is,' she added, 'unless the neck's broke. When +poor old Jack Stubbs drove his head into his cap and dislocated +his wertebury, of course it was all up with him.' The patient +heard this and was seen to smile. + +On the Tuesday there arose the question of family communication. +As the accident would make its way into the papers a message had +been sent to Polwenning to say that various bones had been broken, +but that the patient was upon the whole doing well. Then there had +been different messages backwards and forwards, in all of which +there had been an attempt to comfort old Mr Tregear. But on the +Tuesday letters were written. Silverbridge, sitting in his +friend's room, sent a long account of the accident to Mrs Tregear, +giving a list of the injuries done. + +'Your sister,' whispered the poor fellow from the pillow. + +'Yes,--yes;--yes, I will.' + +'And Mabel Grex.' Silverbridge nodded assent and again went to the +writing-table. He did write to his sister, and in plain words told +her everything. 'The doctor says he is not now in danger.' Then +he added a postscript. 'As long as I am here I will let you know +how he is.' + + + +CHAPTER 64 + +'I Believe Him to be a Worthy Young Man' + +Lady Mary and Mrs Finn were alone when the tidings came from +Silverbridge. The Duke had been absent, having gone to spend an +unpleasant week in Barsetshire. Mary had taken the opportunity of +his absence to discuss her own prospects at full length. 'My +dear,' said Mrs Finn, 'I will not express an opinion. How can I +after all that has passed? I have told the Duke the same. I +cannot be heart and hand with either without being false to the +other.' But still Lady Mary continued to talk about Tregear. + +'I don't think papa has a right to treat me in this way,' she +said. 'He wouldn't be allowed to kill me, and this is killing me.' + +'While there is life there is hope,' said Mrs Finn. + +'Yes; while there is life there is hope. But one doesn't want to +grow old first.' + +'There is no danger of that, Mary.' + +'I feel very old. What is the use of life without something to +make it sweet? I am not even allowed to hear anything that he is +doing. If he were to ask me, I think I would go away with him +tomorrow.' + +'He would not be foolish enough for that.' + +'Because he does not suffer as I do. He has his borough, and his +public life, and a hundred things to think of. I have got nothing +but him. I know he is true;--quite as true as I am. But it is I +that have the suffering in all this. A man can never be like a +girl. Papa ought not to make me suffer like this.' + +That took place on the Monday. On the Tuesday Mrs Finn received a +letter from her husband giving an account of the accident. 'As far +as I can learn,' he said, 'Silverbridge will write about it +tomorrow.' Then he went on to give a by no means good account of +the state of the patient. The doctor had declared him to be out of +immediate danger, and had set the broken bones. As tidings would +be sent on the next day she had better say nothing about the +accident to Lady Mary. This letter reached Matching on Tuesday and +made the position of Mrs Finn very disagreeable. She was bound to +carry herself as though nothing was amiss, knowing as she did so, +the condition of Mary's lover. + +On the evening of the next day Lady Mary was more lively than +usual, though her liveliness was hardly of a happy nature. 'I +don't know what papa can expect. I've heard him say a hundred +times that to be in Parliament is the highest place a gentleman +can fill, and now Frank is in Parliament.' Mrs Finn looked at her +with beseeching eyes, as though begging her not to speak of +Tregear. 'And then think of their having that Lord Popplecourt +there! I shall always hate Lady Cantrip, for it was her place. +That she should have thought it possible! Lord Popplecourt! Such +a creature. Hyperion to a satyr. Isn't it true? Oh that papa +should have thought it possible!' Then she got up, and walked +about the room, beating her hands together. All this time Mrs Finn +knew that Tregear was lying at Harrington with half his bones +broken, and in danger of his life! + +On the next morning Lady Mary received her letters. There were two +lying before her plate when she came into breakfast, one from her +father and the other from Silverbridge. She read that from the +Duke first while Mrs Finn was watching her. 'Papa will be home on +Saturday,' she said. 'He declares that the people in the borough +are quite delighted with Silverbridge for a member. And he is +quite jocose. "They used to be delighted with me once," he says, +"but I suppose everybody changes."' Then she began to pour out +the tea before she opened her brother's letter. Mrs Finn's eyes +were still on her anxiously. 'I wonder what Silverbridge has got +to say about the Brake Hunt.' Then she opened her letter. + +'Oh;--oh!' she exclaimed,--'Frank has killed himself.' + +'Killed himself! Not that. It is not so bad as that.' + +'You had heard it before?' + +'How is he, Mary?' + +'Oh, heavens! I cannot read it. Do you read it. Tell me all. Tell +me the truth. What am I to do? Where shall I go?' Then she threw +up her hands, and with a loud scream fell on her knees with her +head upon the chair. In the next moment Mrs Finn was down beside +her on the floor. 'Read it; why do you not read it? If you will +not read it, give it to me.' + +Mrs Finn did read the letter, which was very short, but still +giving by no means an unfavourable account of the patient. 'I am +sorry to say he has broken ever so many bones, and we were very +much frightened about him.' Then the writer went into details, +from which the reader who did not read the whole words carefully +might well imagine that the man's life was still in danger. + +Mrs Finn did read it all, and did her best to comfort her friend. +'It has been a bad accident,' she said, 'but it is clear that he +id getting better. Men do so often break their bones, and then +seem to think nothing of it afterwards.' + +'Silverbridge says it was his fault. What does he mean?' + +'I suppose he was riding too close to Mr Tregear, and that they +came down together. Of course it is distressing, but I do not +think you need make yourself positively unhappy about it.' + +'Would you not be unhappy if it were Mr Finn?' said Mary, jumping +up from her knees. 'I shall go to him. I should go mad if I were +to remain here and know nothing about it but what Silverbridge +will tell me.' + +'I will telegraph Mr Finn.' + +'Mr Finn won't care. Men are so heartless. They write about each +other just as though it did not signify in the least whether +anybody were dead or alive. I shall go to him.' + +'You cannot do that.' + +'I don't care now what anybody may think. I choose to be +considered as belonging to him, and if papa were here I would do +the same.' It was of course not difficult to make her understand +that she could not go to Harrington, but it was by no means easy +to keep her tranquil. She would send a telegram herself. This was +debated for a long time, till at last Lady Mary insisted that she +was not subject to Mrs Finn's authority. 'If papa were here, even +then I would send it.' And she did send it, in her own name, +regardless of the fact pointed out to her by Mrs Finn, that the +people at the post-office would thus know her secret. 'It is no +secret,' she said. 'I don't want it to be a secret.' The telegram +went in the following words. 'I have heard it. I am so wretched. +Send me one word to say how you are.' She got an answer back, +with Tregear's own name to it, on that afternoon. 'Do not be +unhappy. I am doing well. Silverbridge is with me.' + +On the Thursday Gerald came home from Scotland. He had arranged +his little affair with Lord Percival, not however without some +difficulty. Lord Percival had declared that he did not understand +I.O.U.s in an affair of that kind. He had always thought that +gentlemen did not play for stakes for which they could not pay at +once. This was not said to Gerald himself;--or the result would +have been calamitous. Nidderdale was the go-between, and at last +arranged it,--not however till he had pointed out that Percival +having won so large a sum of money from a lad under twenty-one +years was very lucky in receiving substantial security for its +payment. + +Gerald has chosen the period of his father's absence for his +return. It was necessary that the story of the gambling debt +should be told the Duke in February! Silverbridge had explained +that to him, and he had quite understood it. He, indeed, would be +up at Oxford in February, and, in that case, the first horror of +the thing would be left to poor Silverbridge! Thinking of this, +Gerald felt that he was bound to tell his father himself. He +resolved that he would do so, but he was anxious to postpone the +evil day. He lingered therefore in Scotland till he knew that his +father was in Barsetshire. + +On his arrival he was told of Tregear's accident. 'Oh Gerald, have +you heard?' said his sister. He had not as yet heard, and then the +history was repeated to him. Mary did not attempt to conceal her +own feelings. She was as open with her brother as she had been +with Mrs Finn. + +'I suppose he'll get over it,' said Gerald. + +'Is that all you say?' she asked. + +'What can I say better? I suppose he will. Fellows always do get +over that kind of thing. Herbert de Burgh smashed both his thighs, +and now he can move about again,--of course with crutches.' + +'Gerald. How can you be so unfeeling!' + +'I don't know what you mean. I always liked Tregear, and I am very +sorry for him. If you would take it a little quieter, I think it +would be better.' + +'I could not take it quietly. How can I take it quietly when he is +more than the world to me?' + +'You should keep that to yourself.' + +'Yes,--and so let people think that I didn't care, till I broke my +heart! I shall say just the same to papa when he comes home.' +After than the brother and sister were not on very good terms with +each other for the remainder of the day. + +On the Saturday there was a letter from Silverbridge to Mrs Finn. +Tregear was better; but was unhappy because it had been decided +that he could not be moved for the next month. This entailed two +misfortunes on him;--first that of being enforced guest of persons +who were not,--or, hitherto had not been his own friends,--and then +his absence from the first meeting of Parliament. When a gentleman +has been in Parliament some years he may be able to reconcile +himself to an obligatory vacation with a calm mind. But when the +honours and glory are new, and the tedium of the benches has not +yet been experienced, then such an accident is felt to be a +grievance. But the young member was out of danger, and was, as +Silverbridge declared in the very best quarters which could be +provided for a man in his position. + +Phineas Finn told him all the politics; Mrs Spooner related to +him, on Sundays and Wednesdays, all the hunting details; while +Lady Chiltern read to him light literature, because he was not +allowed to hold a book in his hand. 'I wish it were me,' said +Gerald. 'I wish I were there to read to him,' said Mary. + +Then the Duke came home. 'Mary,' said he, 'I have been distressed +to hear of this accident.' This seemed to her to be the kindest +word she had heard from him for a long time. 'I believe him to be +a worthy young man. I am sorry that he should be the cause of so +much sorrow to you--and to me.' + +'Of course I was sorry for his accident,' she replied, after +pausing awhile; 'but now that he is better I will not cause him a +cause of sorrow--to me.' Then the Duke said nothing further about +Tregear; nor did she. + +'So you have come at last,' he said to Gerald. That was the first +greeting,--to which the son responded by an awkward smile. But in +the course of the evening he walked straight up to his father--'I +have something to tell you, sir,' said he. + +'Something to tell me?' + +'Something that will make you very angry.' + + + +CHAPTER 65 + +'Do You Ever Think What Money Is?' + +Gerald told his story, standing bolt upright, and looking his +father full in the face as he told it. 'You lost three thousand +four hundred pounds at one sitting to Lord Percival--at cards!' + +'Yes, sir.' + +'In Lord Nidderdale's house.' + +'Yes, sir. Nidderdale wasn't playing. It wasn't his fault.' + +'Who were playing?' + +'Percival, and Dolly Longstaff, and Jack Hinde,--and I. Popplecourt +was playing at first.' + +'Lord Popplecourt!' + +'Yes, sir. But he went away when he began to lose.' + +'Three thousand four hundred pounds! How old are you?' + +'I am just twenty-one.' + +'You are beginning the world well, Gerald! What is the engagement +which Silverbridge has made with Lord Percival?' + +'To pay him the money at the end of next month.' + +'What had Silverbridge to do with it?' + +'Nothing, sir. I wrote to Silverbridge because I didn't know what +to do. I knew he would stand me.' + +'Who is to stand either of you if you go on thus I do not know.' +To this Gerald of course made no reply, but an idea came across +his mind that he knew who would stand both himself and his +brother. 'How did Silverbridge mean to get the money?' + +'He said he would ask you. But I thought that I ought to tell +you.' + +'Is that all?' + +'All what, sir?' + +'Are there other debts?' To this Gerald made no reply. 'Other +gambling debts?' + +'No, sir;--not a shilling of that kind. I have never played +before.' + +'Does it ever occur to you that going on at that rate you may very +soon lose all the fortune that will ever come to you? You were +not yet of age and you lost three thousand four hundred pounds at +cards to a man whom you probably knew to be a professed gambler!' + Then the Duke seemed to wait for a reply, but poor Gerald had not +a word to say. 'Can you explain to me what benefit you proposed to +yourself when you played for such stakes as that?' + +'I hoped to win back what I had lost.' + +'Facilis descensus Averni!' said the Duke, shaking his head. +'Noctes atque dies patet atri jauna Ditis.' No doubt, he thought, +that as his son was at Oxford, admonitions in Latin would serve +him better than in his native tongue. But Gerald, when he heard +the grand hexameter rolled out in his father's grandest tone, +entertained a comfortable feeling that the worst of the interview +was over. 'Win back what you had lost! Do you think that that is +the common fortune of young gamblers when they fall among those +who are more experienced than themselves?' + +'One goes on, sir, without reflecting.' + +'Go on without reflecting! Yes, and where to? where to? Oh, +Gerald, where to? Whither will such progress without reflection +take you?' 'He means--to the devil,' said the lad inwardly to +himself, without moving his lips. 'There is but one goal for such +going on as that. I can pay three thousand four hundred pounds to +you certainly. I think it hard that I should have to do so; but I +can do it,--and I will do it.' + +'Thank you, sir,' murmured Gerald. + +'But how can I wash your young mind clean from the foul stain +which has already defiled it? Why did you sit down to play? Was +it to win the money which these men had in their pockets?' + +'Not particularly.' + +'It cannot be that a rational being should consent to risk the +money he has himself,--to risk even the money which he has not +himself,--without a desire to win that which as yet belongs to his +opponents. You desired to win.' + +'I suppose I did hope to win.' + +'And why? Why did you want to extract their property from their +pockets, and to put it into your own? That the footpad on the +road should have such desire when, with his pistol, he stops the +traveller on his journey we all understand. And we know what to +think of the footpad,--and what we must do to him. He is a poor +creature, who from his youth upwards has had no good thing done +for him, uneducated, an outcast, whom we should pity more than we +despise him. We take him as a pest which we cannot endure, and +lock him up where he can harm us no more. On my word, Gerald, I +think that the so-called gentleman who sits down with the +deliberate intention of extracting money from the pockets of his +antagonists, who lays out for himself that way of repairing the +shortcomings of fortune, who looks to that resource as an aid to +his means,---is worse, much worse, than the public robber! He is +meaner, more cowardly, and has I think in his bosom less of the +feeling of an honest man. And he probably has been educated,--as +you have been. He calls himself a gentleman. He should know black +from white. It is considered terrible to cheat at cards.' + +'There was nothing of that, sir.' + +'The man who plays and cheats has fallen low indeed. + +'I understand that, sir.' + +'He who plays that he may make an income, but does not cheat, has +fallen nearly as low. Do you ever think what money is?' + +The Duke paused so long, collecting his own thoughts and thinking +of his own words, that Gerald found himself obliged to answer. +'Cheques, and sovereigns, and bank-notes,' he replied with much +hesitation. + +'Money is the reward of labour,' said the Duke, 'or rather, in the +shape it reaches you, it is your representation of that reward. +You may earn it yourself, or, as is, I am afraid, more likely to +be the case with you, you may possess it honestly as prepared for +you by the labour of others who have stored it up for you. But it +is a commodity of which you are bound to see that the source is +not only clean but noble. You would not let Lord Percival give you +money.' + +'He wouldn't do that, sir, I am sure.' + +'Nor would you take it. There is nothing so comfortable as money,-- +but nothing so defiling if it be come by unworthily; nothing so +comfortable, but nothing so noxious if the mind be allowed to +dwell upon it constantly. If a man have enough, let him spend it +freely. If he wants it, let him earn it honestly. Let him do +something for it, so that the man who pays it to him may get its +value. But to think that it may be got by gambling, to hope to +live after that fashion, to sit down with your fingers almost in +your neighbours' pockets, with your eye on his purse, trusting +that you may know better than he some studied calculations as to +the pips concealed in your hands, praying to the only god you +worship that some special card may be vouchsafed to you,--that I +say is to have left far, far behind you, all nobility, all +gentleness, all manhood! Write me down Lord Percival's address +and I will send him the money. + +Then the Duke wrote a cheque for the money claimed and sent it +with a note as follows: + +'The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to Lord Percival. The +Duke has been informed by Lord Gerald Palliser that Lord Percival +has won at cards from him the sum of three thousand four hundred +pounds. The Duke now encloses a cheque for that amount, and +requests that the document which Lord Percival holds from Lord +Silverbridge as security for that amount, may be returned to Lord +Gerald.' + +Let the noble gambler have his prey. He was little solicitous +about that. If he could only operate on the mind of this son,--so +operate on the minds of both his sons, as to make them see the +foolishness of folly, the ugliness of what is mean, the squalor +and dirt of ignoble pursuits, then he could easily pardon past +faults. If it were half his wealth what would it signify if he +could teach his children to accept those lessons without which no +man can live as a gentleman, let his rank be the highest known, +let his wealth be as the sands, his fashion unrivalled? + +The word or two which his daughter had said to him, declaring that +she still took pride in her lover's love, and then this new +misfortune on Gerald's part, upset him greatly. He almost +sickened of politics when he thought of his domestic bereavement +and his domestic misfortunes. How completely had he failed to +indoctrinate his children with the ideas by which his own mind was +fortified and controlled! Nothing was so base to him as a +gambler, and they had both commenced their career by gambling. +From their young boyhood nothing had seemed so desirable to him as +that they should be accustomed by early training to devote +themselves to the service of their country. He saw other young +noblemen around him who at eighteen were known as debaters at +their colleges, or at twenty-five were already deep in politics, +social science, and educational projects. What good would all his +wealth or all his position do for his children if their minds +could rise to nothing beyond the shooting of deer and the hunting +of foxes? There was young Lord Buttercup, the son of the Earl of +Woolantallow, only a few months older than Silverbridge,--who was +already a junior lord, and as constant at his office, or during +the Session on the Treasury Bench, as though there were not a pack +of hounds or a card-table in Great Britain! Lord Buttercup, too, +had already written an article in 'The Fortnightly' on the subject +of Turkish finance. How long would it be before Silverbridge would +write an article, or Gerald sign his name in the service of the +public? + +And then those proposed marriages,--as to which he was beginning to +know that his children would be too strong for him! Anxious as he +was that both his sons should be permeated by liberal politics, +studious as he had ever been to teach them that the highest duty +of those high in rank was to use their authority to elevate those +beneath them, still he was hardly less anxious to make them +understand that their second duty required them to maintain their +own position. It was by feeling this, second duty,--by feeling it +and performing it,--that they would be enabled to perform the first. +And now both Silverbridge and his girl were bent upon marriages by +which they would depart out of their own order! Let Silverbridge +marry whom he might, he could not be other than the heir to the +honours of the family. But by his marriage he might either support +or derogate from these honours. And now, having at first made a +choice that was good, he had altered his mind from simple freak, +captivated by a pair of bright eyes and an arch smile, and without +a feeling in regard to his family, was anxious to take to his +bosom the granddaughter of an American day-labourer! + +And then his girl,--of whose beauty he was so proud, from whose +manners, and tastes, and modes of life he had expected to reap +those good things, in a feminine degree, which his sons as young +men seemed so little fitted to give him! By slow degrees he had +been brought round to acknowledge that the young man was worthy. +Tregear's conduct had been felt by the Duke to be manly. The +letter he had written was a good letter. And then he had won for +himself a seat in the House of Commons. When forced to speak of +him to his girl he had been driven by justice to call him worthy. +But how could he serve to support and strengthen the nobility, the +endurance and perpetuation of which should be the peculiar care of +every Palliser? + +And yet as the Duke walked about his room he felt that his +opposition either to the one marriage or to the other was vain. Of +course they would marry according to their wills. + +That same night Gerald wrote to his brother before he went to bed, +as follows: + +'DEAR SILVER,--I was awfully obliged to you for sending me the I O +U for that brute Percival. He only sneered when he took it, and +would have said something disagreeable, but that he saw that I was +in earnest. I know he did say something to Nid, only I can't find +out what. Nid is an easy-going fellow, and, as I saw, didn't want +to have a rumpus. + +'But now what do you think I've done? Directly I got home I told +the governor all about it! As I was in the train I made up my +mind that I would. I went slap at it. If there is anything that +never does any good, it is craning. I did it all at one rush, +just as though I was swallowing a dose of physic. I wish I could +tell you all that the governor said, because it was really tip- +top. What is a fellow to get by playing high,--a fellow like you +and me? I didn't want any of that beast's money. I don't suppose +he had any. But one's dander gets up, and one doesn't like to be +done, and so it goes on. I shall cut that kind of thing +altogether. You should have heard the governor spouting Latin! +And then the way he sat upon Percival, without mentioning the +fellow's name! I do think it mean to set yourself to work to win +money at cards,--and it is awfully mean to lose more than you have +got to pay. + +'Then at the end the governor said he'd send the beast a cheque +for the amount. You know his way of finishing up, just like two +fellows fighting,--when one has awfully punished the other he goes +up and shakes hands with him. He did pitch it into me,--not abusing +me, nor even saying a word about the money, which he at once +promised to pay, but laying it on to gambling with a regular cat- +o'-ninetails. And then there was an end of it. He just asked the +fellow's address and said that he would send him the money. I will +say this;--I don't think there's a greater brick than the governor +anywhere. + +'I am awfully sorry about Tregear. I can't make out how it +happened. I suppose you were too near him, and Melrose always does +rush at his fences. One fellow shouldn't be too near another +fellow,--only it so often happens that it can't be helped. It's +just like anything else, if nothing comes of it then it's all +right. But if anybody comes to grief then he's got to be pitched +into. Do you remember when I nearly cut over old Sir Simon +Slowbody? Didn't I hear about it! + +'I am awfully glad you didn't smash up Tregear altogether because +of Mary. I am quite sure it is no good anybody setting up his back +against that. It's one of the things that have got to be. You +always have said that he is a good fellow. If so, what's the harm? + At any rate it has got to be. + +'Your affectionate Brother, +GERALD.' + +'I go up in about a week.' + + + +CHAPTER 66 + +The Three Attacks + +During the following week the communication between Harrington and +Matching were very frequent. There were no further direct messages +between Tregear and Lady Mary, but she heard daily of his +progress. The Duke was conscious of the special interest which +existed in his house as to the condition of the young man, but, +after his arrival not a word had been spoken for some days between +him and his daughter on the subject. Then Gerald went back to his +college, and the Duke made his preparations for going up to town +and making some attempt at parliamentary activity. + +It was by no concert that an attack was made upon him from three +quarters at once as he was preparing to leave Matching. On the +Sunday morning during church time, for on that day Lady Mary went +to her devotions alone,--Mrs Finn was closeted an hour with the +Duke in his study. 'I think you ought to be aware,' she said to +the Duke, 'that though I trust Mary implicitly and know her to be +thoroughly high principled, I cannot be responsible for her, if I +remain here.' + +'I do not quite follow your meaning.' + +'Of course there is but one matter on which there can, probably, +be any difference between us. If she should choose to write to Mr +Tregear, or to send him any message, or even to go to him, I could +not prevent it.' + +'Go to him!' exclaimed the horrified Duke. + +'I merely suggest such a thing in order to make you understand +that I have absolutely no control over her.' + +'What control have I?' + +'Nay; I cannot define that. You are her father, and she +acknowledges your authority. She regards me as a friend,--and as +such treats me with the sweetest affection. Nothing can be more +gratifying than her manner to me personally.' + +'It ought to be so.' + +'She has thoroughly won my heart. But still I know that if there +were a difference between us she would not obey me. Why should +she?' + +'Because you hold my deputed authority.' + +'Oh, Duke, that goes for very little anywhere. No one can depute +authority. It comes too much from personal accidents, and too +little from reason or law to be handed over to others. Besides, I +fear, that on one matter concerning her you and I are not agreed.' + +'I shall be sorry if it be so.' + +'I feel that I am bound to tell you my opinion.' + +'Oh yes.' + +'You think that in the end Lady Mary will allow herself to be +separated from Tregear. I think that in the end they will become +man and wife.' + +This seemed to the Duke to be not quite so bad as it might have +been. Any speculation as to results were very different from an +expressed opinion as to propriety. Were he to tell the truth as to +his own mind, he might perhaps have said the same thing. But one +is not to relax in one's endeavours to prevent that which is +wrong, because one fears that the wrong may be ultimately +perpetuated. 'Let that be as it may,' he said, 'it cannot alter my +duty.' + +'Nor mine, Duke, if I may presume to think that I have a duty in +this matter.' + +'That you should encounter the burden of the duty binds me to you +for ever.' + +'If it be that they will certainly be married one day--' + +'Who has said that? Who has admitted that?' + +'If it be so; if it seems to me that it must be so,--then how can I +be anxious to prolong her sufferings? She does suffer terribly.' +Upon this the Duke frowned, but there was more of tenderness in +his frown than in the hard smile which he had hitherto worn. 'I do +not know whether you see it all.' He well remembered all that he +had seen when he and Mary were travelling together. 'I see it, and +I do not pass half an hour with her without sorrowing for her.' +On hearing this he sighed and turned his face away. 'Girls are so +different! There are many who though they be genuinely in love, +though their natures are sweet and affectionate, are not strong +enough to support their own feelings in resistance to the will of +those who have authority over them.' Had it been so with his +wife? At this moment all the former history passed through his +mind. 'They yield to that which seems to be inevitable, and allow +themselves to be fashioned by the purposes of others. It is well +for them often that they are so plastic. Whether it would be +better for her that she should be so I will not say.' + +'It would be better,' said the Duke doggedly. + +'But such is not her nature. She is as determined as ever.' + +'I may be determined too.' + +'But if at last it will be of no use,--if it be her fate either to +be married to this man or to die of a broken heart,--' + +'What justifies you in saying that? How can you torture me by such +a threat?' + +'If I think so, Duke, I am justified. Of late I have been with her +daily,--almost hourly. I do not say that this will kill her now,--in +her youth. It is not often, I fancy, that women die after that +fashion. But a broken heart may bring the sufferer to the grave +after a lapse of many years. How will it be with you if she should +live like a ghost beside you for the next twenty years, and you +should then see her die, faded and withered before her time,--all +her life gone without a joy,--because she had loved a man whose +position in life was displeasing to you? Would the ground on +which the sacrifices had been made then justify itself to you? In +that performing your duty to your order would you feel satisfied +that you had performed that to your child?' + +She had come there determined to say it all,--to liberate her own +soul as it were,--but had much doubted the spirit in which the Duke +would listen to her. That he would listen to her she was sure,--and +then if he chose to cast her out, she would endure his wrath. It +would not be to her now as it had been when he accused her of +treachery. But, nevertheless, bold as she was and independent, he +had imbued her, as he did all those around him, with so strong a +sense of his personal dignity, that when she had finished she +almost trembled as she looked in his face. Since he had asked how +she could justify to herself the threats which she was using he +had sat still with his eyes fixed upon her. Now, when she had +done, he was in no hurry to speak. He rose slowly and walking +towards the fireplace stood with his back towards her, looking +down upon the fire. She was the first to speak again. 'Shall I +leave you now?' she said in a low voice. + +'Perhaps it will be better,' he answered. His voice, too was very +low. In truth he was so moved that he hardly knew how to speak at +all. Then she rose and was already on her way on to the door when +he followed her. 'One moment if you please,' he said almost +sternly. 'I am under a debt of gratitude to you of which I cannot +express my sense in words. How far I may agree with you, and where +I may disagree I will not attempt to point out to you now.' + +'Oh no.' + +'But all that you have troubled yourself to think and to feel in +this matter, and all that true friendship has compelled you to say +to me, shall be written down in the tablets of my memory.' + +'Duke!' + +'My child has at any rate been fortunate in securing the +friendship of such a friend.' Then he turned back to the +fireplace, and she was constrained to leave the room without +another word. + +She had determined to make the best plea in her power for Mary; +and while she was making the plea had been almost surprised by her +own vehemence; but the greater had been her vehemence, the +stronger, she thought, would have been the Duke's anger. And as +she had watched the workings of his face she had felt for the +moment, that the vials of his wrath were about to be poured upon +her. Even when she left the room she almost believed that had he +not taken those moments for consideration at the fireplace his +parting words would have been different. But, as it was, there +could be no question now of her departure. No power was left to +her of separating herself from Lady Mary. Though the Duke had not +as yet acknowledged himself to be conquered, there was no doubt to +her now but that he would be conquered. And she, either here or in +London, must be the girl's nearest friend up to the day when she +should be given over to Mr Tregear. That was one of the three +attacks which were made upon the Duke before he went up to his +parliamentary duties. + +The second was as follows. Among the letters on the following +morning one was brought to him from Tregear. It is hoped that the +reader will remember the lover's former letter and the very +unsatisfactory answer which had been sent to it. Nothing could +have been colder, less propitious, or more inveterately hostile +than the reply. As he lay in bed with his broken bones at +Harrington he had ample time for thinking over all this. He knew +every word of the Duke's distressing note by heart, and had often +lashed himself to rage as he had repeated it. But he could effect +nothing by showing his anger. He must go on and still do something. +Since the writing of that letter he had done something. He had got +his seat in Parliament. And he had secured the interest of his +friend Silverbridge. This had been partially done at Polwenning, +but the accident in the Brake country had completed the work. The +brother had at last declared himself in his friend's favour. 'Of +course I should be glad to see it,' he had said while sitting by +Tregear's bedside. 'The worst is that everything does seem to go +against the poor governor.' + +Then Tregear made up his mind that he would write another letter. +Personally he was not in the best condition for doing this as he +was lying in bed with his left arm tied up, and with straps and +bandages all round his body. But he could sit up in bed, and his +right hand and arm were free. So he declared to Lady Chiltern his +purpose of writing a letter. She tried to dissuade him gently and +offered to be his secretary. But when he assured her that no +secretary could write his letter for him she understood pretty +well what would be the subject of the letter. With considerable +difficulty Tregear wrote his letter. + +'MY LORD DUKE,'--On this occasion he left out the epithet which he +had before used-- + +'Your Grace's reply to my last letter was not encouraging, but in +spite of your prohibition I venture to write to you again. If I +had the slightest reason for thinking that your daughter was +estranged from me, I would not persecute either you or her. But if +it be true that she is as devoted to me as I am to her, can I be +wrong in pleading my case? Is it not evident to you that she is +made of such stuff that she will not be controlled in her choice,-- +even by your will? + +'I have had an accident in the hunting-field and an now writing +from Lord Chiltern's house, where I am confined to bed. But I +think you will understand me when I say that even in this helpless +condition I feel myself constrained to do something. Of course I +ask for nothing from you on my own behalf,--but on her behalf may I +not add my prayers to hers? + +'I have the honour to be, +'Your Grace's faithful Servant, +'FRANCIS TREGEAR.' + +This coming alone would perhaps have had no effect. The Duke had +desired the young man not to address him again; and the young man +had disobeyed him. No mere courtesy would now have constrained him +to send any reply further to this letter. But coming as it did +while his heart was still throbbing with the effects of Mrs Finn's +words, it was allowed to have a certain force. The argument was a +true argument. His girl was devoted to the man who sought her +hand. Mrs Finn had told him that sooner or later he must yield,-- +unless he was prepared to see his child wither and fade at his +side. He had once thought that he would be prepared even for that. +He had endeavoured to strengthen his own will by arguing with +himself that when he saw a duty plainly before him, he should +cleave to that let the results be what they might. But that +picture of her face withered and wan after twenty years of +sorrowing had had its effect upon his heart. He even made excuses +within his own breast in the young man's favour. He was in +Parliament now, and what may not be done for a young man in +Parliament? Altogether the young man appeared to him in a +different light from that through which he had viewed the +presumptuous, arrogant young suitor who had come to him, now +nearly a year since, in Carlton Terrace. + +He went to breakfast with Tregear's letter in his pocket, and was +then gracious to Mrs Finn, and tender to his daughter. 'When do +you go, papa?' Mary asked. + +'I shall take the 11.45 train. I have ordered the carriage at a +quarter before eleven.' + +'May I go to the train, papa?' + +'Certainly; I shall be delighted.' + +'Papa!' Mary said as soon as she found herself seated beside her +father in the carriage. + +'My dear.' + +'Oh, papa!' and she threw herself on to his breast. He put his arm +round her and kissed her,--as he would have had so much delight in +doing, as he would have done so often before, had there not been +this ground of discord. She was very sweet to him. It had never +seemed to him that she had disgraced herself by loving Tregear--but +that a great misfortune had fallen upon her. Silverbridge when he +had gone into a racing partnership with Tifto, and Gerald when he +had played for money which he did not possess, had--degraded +themselves in his estimation. He would not have used such a word; +but it was his feeling. They were less noble, less pure than they +might have been, had they kept themselves free from such stain. But +this girl,--whether she should live and fade by his side, or +whether she should give her hand to some fitting noble suitor,--or +even though she might at last become the wife of this man who +loved her, would always have been pure. It was sweet to him to +have something to caress. Now in the solitude of his life, as +years were coming on him, he felt how necessary it was that he +should have someone who would love him. Since his wife had left +him he had been debarred from these caresses, by the necessity of +showing his antagonism to her dearest wishes. It had been his duty +to be stern. In all his words to his daughter he had been governed +by a conviction that he never ought to allow the duty of +separating her from her lover to be absent from his mind. He was +not prepared to acknowledge that that duty had ceased;--but yet +there had crept over him a feeling that as he was half conquered, +why should he not seek some recompense in his daughter's love. +'Papa,' she said, 'you do not hate me?' + +'Hate you, my darling!' + +'Because I am disobedient. Oh, papa, I cannot help it. He should +not have come. He should not have been let to come.' He had not a +word to say to her. He could not as yet bring himself to tell +her,--that it should be as she desired. Much less could he now +argue with her as to the impossibility of such a marriage as he +had done on former occasions when the matter had been discussed. +He could only press his arm tightly round her waist, and be +silent. 'It cannot be altered now, papa. Look at me. Tell me that +you love me.' + +'Have you doubted my love?' + +'No, papa,--but I would do anything to make you happy; anything +that I could do. Papa, you do not want me to marry Lord +Popplecourt?' + +'I would not have you marry any man without loving him.' + +'I never can love anybody else. That is what I wanted you to know, +papa.' + +To this he made no reply, nor was there anything else said upon +the subject before the carriage drove up to the railway station. +'Do not get out, dear,' he said, seeing that her eyes had been +filled with tears. 'It is not worth while. God bless you my child! + You will be up in London I hope in a fortnight, and we must try +to make the house a little less dull for you.' + +And so he encountered the third attack. + +Lady Mary, as she was driven home, recovered her spirits +wonderfully. Not a word had fallen from her father which she could +use hereafter as a refuge from her embarrassments. He had made her +no promise. He had assented to nothing. But there had been +something in his manner, in his gait, in his eye, in the pressure +of his arm, which made her feel that her troubles would soon be at +an end. + +'I do love you so much,' she said to Mrs Finn late on that +afternoon. + +'I am glad of that, dear.' + +'I shall always love you,--because you have been on my side all +through.' + +'No, Mary;--that is not so.' + +'I know it is so. Of course you have to be wise because you are +older. And papa would not have you here with me if you were not +wise. But I know you are on my side,--and papa knows it too. And +someone else shall know it some day.' + + + +CHAPTER 67 + +'He is Such a Beast' + +Lord Silverbridge remained in the Brake country till a few days +before the meeting of Parliament, and had he been left to himself +he would have had another week in the country and might probably +have overstayed the opening day; but he had not been left to +himself. In the last week in January an important despatch reached +his hands, from no less important person than Sir Timothy Beeswax, +suggesting to him that he should undertake the duty of seconding +the address in the House of Commons. When the proposition first +reached him it made his hair stand on end. He had never yet risen +to his feet in the House. He had spoken at those election meetings +in Cornwall, and had found it easy enough. After the first or +second time he had thought it good fun. But he knew that standing +up in the House of Commons would be different from that. Then +there would be the dress! 'I should so hate to fig myself out and +look like a guy,' he said to Tregear, to whom of course he +confided the offer that was made to him. Tregear was very anxious +that he should accept it. 'A man should never refuse anything of +that kind which comes his way,' Tregear said. + +'It is only because I am the governor's son,' Silverbridge +pleaded. + +'Partly so perhaps. But if it be altogether so, what of that? Take +the goods the gods provide you. Of course all these things which +our ambition covets are easier to Duke's sons than to others. But +not on that account should a Duke's son refuse them. A man when he +sees a rung vacant on the ladder should always put his foot +there.' + +'I'll tell you what,' said Silverbridge. 'If I thought this was +all fair sailing I'd do it. I should feel certain that I should +come a cropper, but still I'd try it. As you say, a fellow should +try. But it's all meant as a blow at the governor. Old Beeswax +thinks that if he can get me up to swear that he and his crew are +real first-chop hands, that will hit the governor hard. It's as +much as saying to the governor,--"This chap belongs to me, not to +you." That's a thing I won't go in for.' Then Tregear counselled +him to write to his father for advice, and at the same time ask +Sir Timothy to allow him a day or two for consideration. This +counsel he took. His letter reached his father two days before he +left Matching. In answer to it there came first a telegram begging +Silverbridge to be in London on the Monday, and then a letter, in +which the Duke expressed himself as being anxious to see his son +before giving a final answer to the question. Thus it was that +Silverbridge had been taken away from his hunting. + +Isabel Boncassen, however, was now in London, and from her it was +possible that he might find consolation. He had written to her +soon after reaching Harrington, telling her that he had had it all +out with the governor. 'There is a good deal that I can only tell +you when I see you,' he said. Then he assured her with many +lover's protestations that he was and always would be till death +altogether her own most loving S. To this he had received an +answer by return of post. She would be delighted to see him up in +town,--as would her father and mother. They had now got a +comfortable house in Brook Street. And then she signed herself his +sincere friend, Isabel. Silverbridge thought that it was cold, and +remembered certain scraps of another feminine handwriting in which +more passion was expressed. Perhaps this was the way with American +young ladies when they were in love. + +'Yes,' said the Duke, 'I am glad that you have come up at once, as +Sir Timothy should have his answer without further delay.' + +'But what shall I say?' + +The Duke, though he had already considered the matter very +seriously, nevertheless took a few minutes to consider it again. +'The offer,' said he, 'must be acknowledged as very flattering.' + +'But the circumstances are not usual.' + +'It cannot often be the case that a minister should ask the son of +his keenest political opponent to render him such a service. But, +however, we will put that aside.' + +'Not quite, sir.' + +'For the present we will put that on one side. Not looking at the +party which you may be called upon to support, having for the +moment no regard to this or that line in politics, there is no +opening to the real duties of parliamentary life which I would +sooner see accorded to you than this.' + +'But if I were to break down?' Talking to his father he could not +quite venture to ask what might happen if he were to 'come a +cropper'. + +'None but the brave deserve the fair,' said the Duke slapping his +hands upon the table. 'Why, if "We fail, we fail! But screw your +courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail." What high +point would ever be reached if caution such as that were allowed +to prevail? What young men have done before cannot you do? I +have no doubt of your capacity. None.' + +'Haven't you, sir,' said Silverbridge, considerably gratified,--and +also surprised. + +'None in the least. But, perhaps, some of your diligence.' + +'I could learn it by heart, sir,--if you mean that.' + +'But I don't mean that; or rather I mean much more than that. You +have first to realise in your mind the thing to be said, and then +the words in which you should say it, before you come to learning +by heart.' + +'Some of them I suppose would tell me what to say.' + +'No doubt with your inexperience it would be unfit that you should +be left entirely to yourself. But I would wish you to know,-- +perhaps I should say to feel, that the sentiments expressed by you +were just.' + +'I should have to praise Sir Timothy.' + +'Not that necessarily. But you would have to advocate that course +in Parliament which Sir Timothy and his friends have taken and +propose to take.' + +'But I hate him like poison.' + +'There need be no personal feeling in the matter. I remember that +when I moved the address in your house Mr Mildmay was Prime +Minister,--a man for whom my regard and esteem was unbounded,--who +had been in political matters the preceptor of my youth, whom as a +patriotic statesman I almost worshipped, whom I now remember as a +man whose departure from the arena of politics left the country +very destitute. No one has sprung up since like him,--or hardly +second to him. But in speaking on so large a subject as the policy +of a party, I thought it beneath me to eulogise a man. The same +policy reversed may keep you silent respecting Sir Timothy.' + +'I needn't of course say what I think about him.' + +'I suppose you do agree with Sir Timothy as to his general policy? + On no other condition can you undertake such a duty.' + +'Of course I have voted with him.' + +'So I have observed,--not so regularly perhaps as Mr Roby would +have desired.' Mr Roby was the Conservative whip. + +'And I suppose the people at Silverbridge expect me to support +him.' + +'I hardly know how that may be. They used to be contented with +more poor services. No doubt they feel they have changed for the +better.' + +'You shouldn't say that, sir.' + +'I am bound to suppose that they think so, because when the matter +was left in their own hands they at once elected a Conservative. +You need not fear that you will offend them by seconding the +address. They will probably feel proud to see their young member +brought forward on such an occasion; as I shall be proud to see my +son.' + +'You would if it were on the other side, sir.' + +'Yes, Silverbridge, yes; I should be very proud if it were on the +other side. But there is a useful old adage which bids us not cry +for spilt milk. You have a right to your opinions, though perhaps +I may think that in adopting what I must call new opinions you +were a little precipitate. We cannot act together in politics. But +not on the less on that account do I wish to see you take an +active and useful part on that side to which you have attached +yourself.' As he said this he rose from his seat and spoke with +emphasis, as though he were addressing some imaginary Speaker or a +house of legislators around. 'I shall be proud to hear you second +the address. If you do it as gracefully and fitly as I am sure you +may if you will give yourself the trouble, I shall hear you do it +with infinite satisfaction, even though I shall feel at the same +time anxious to answer all your arguments and to disprove your +assertions. I should be listening no doubt to my opponent;--but I +should be proud to feel that I was listening to my son. My advice +to you is to do as Sir Timothy has asked you.' + +'He is such a beast, sir,' said Silverbridge. + +'Pray do not speak in that way on matters so serious.' + +'I do not think you understand it, sir.' + +'Perhaps not. Can you enlighten me?' + +'I believe he has done this only to annoy you.' The Duke, who had +again seated himself, and was leaning back in his chair, raised +himself up, placed his hands on the table before him, and looked +his son hard in the face. The idea which Silverbridge had just +expressed had certainly occurred to himself. He remembered well +all the circumstances of the time when he and Sir Timothy Beeswax +had been members of the same government,--and he remembered how +animosities had grown, and how treacherous he had thought the man. +From the moment in which he had read the minister's letter to the +young member, he had felt that the offer had too probably come +from a desire to make the political separation between himself and +his son complete. But he had thought that in counselling his son +he was bound to ignore such a feeling; and it certainly had not +occurred to him that Silverbridge would have been astute enough to +perceive the same thing. + +'What makes you fancy that?' said the Duke, striving to conceal by +his manner, but not altogether successful in concealing, the +gratification he certainly felt. + +'Well, sir, I am not sure that I can explain it. Of course it is +putting you in a different boat from me.' + +'You have already chosen your boat.' + +'Perhaps he thinks I may get out again. I dislike the skipper so +much, that I am not sure that I shall not.' + +'Oh, Silverbridge,--that is such a fault! So much is included in +that which is unstatesmanlike, unpatriotic, almost dishonest! Do +you mean to say that you would be this or that in politics +according to your personal liking for an individual?' + +'When you don't trust the leader, you can't believe very firmly in +the followers,' said Silverbridge doggedly. 'I won't say, sir, +what I may do. Though I daresay that what I think is not of much +account, I do think a good deal about it.' + +'I am glad of that.' + +'And as I think it not at all improbable that I may go back again, +if you don't mind it, I will refuse.' Of course after that the +Duke had no further arguments to use in favour of Sir Timothy's +proposition. + + + +CHAPTER 68 + +Brook Street + +Silverbridge had now a week on his hands which he felt he might +devote to the lady of his love. It was a comfort to him that he +need having nothing to do with the address. To have to go, day +after day, to the Treasury in order that he might learn his +lesson, would have been disagreeable to him. He did not quite know +how the lesson would have been communicated, but fancied it would +have come from 'Old Roby', whom he did not love much better than +Sir Timothy. Then the speech must have been composed, and +afterwards submitted to someone,--probably to old Roby again, by +whom no doubt it would be cut and slashed, and made quite a +different speech than he had intended. If he had not praised Sir +Timothy himself, Roby,--or whatever other tutor might have been +assigned to him,--would have put the praise in. And then how many +hours it would have taken to learn 'the horrid thing' by heart. He +proudly felt that he had not been prompted by idleness to decline +the task; but not the less was he glad to have shuffled the burden +from off his shoulders. + +Early the next morning he was in Brook Street, having sent a note +to say he would call, and having named the hour. And yet when he +knocked at the door, he was told with the utmost indifference by a +London footman, that Miss Boncassen was not at home,--also that Mrs +Boncassen was not at home,--also that Mr Boncassen was not at home. +When he asked at what hour Miss Boncassen was expected home, the +man answered him, just as though he had been anyone else, that he +knew nothing about it. He turned away in disgust, and had himself +driven to the Beargarden. In his misery he had recourse to game- +pie and a pint of champagne for his lunch. 'Halloa, old fellow, +what is this I hear about you?' said Nidderdale, coming in, and +sitting opposite to him. + +'I don't know what you have heard.' + +'You are going to second the address. What made them pick you out +from the lot of us?' + +'It is just what I am not going to do.' + +'I saw it all in the papers.' + +'I daresay;--and yet it isn't true. I shouldn't wonder if they ask +you.' + +At this moment a waiter handed a large official letter to Lord +Nidderdable, saying that the messenger who had brought it was +waiting for an answer in the hall. The letter bore the important +signature of T. Beeswax on the corner of the envelope, and so +disturbed Lord Nidderdale that he called at once for a glass of +soda-and-brandy. When opened it was found to be very nearly a +counterpart of that which Silverbridge had received down in the +country. There was, however, added a little prayer that Lord +Nidderdale would at once come down to the Treasury Chambers. + +'They must be very hard up,' said Lord Nidderdale. 'But I shall do +it. Cantrip is always at me to do something, and you see if I +don't butter them up properly.' Then having fortified himself +with game-pie and a glass of brown sherry he went away at once to +the Treasury Chambers. + +Silverbridge felt himself a little better after his lunch,--better +still when he had smoked a couple of cigarettes walking about the +empty smoking-room. And as he walked he collected his thoughts. +She could hardly have meant to slight him. No doubt her letter +down to him at Harrington had been very cold. No doubt he had been +ill-treated in being sent away so unceremoniously from the door. +But yet she could hardly intend that everything between them +should be over. Even an American girl could not be so unreasonable +as that. He remembered the passionate way in which she had assured +him of her love. All that could not have been forgotten! He had +done nothing by which he could have forfeited her esteem. She had +desired him to tell the whole affair to her father, and he had +done so. Mr Boncassen might perhaps have objected. It might be that +this American was so prejudiced against the English aristocrats as +to desire no commerce with them. There were not many Englishmen +who would not have welcomed him as a son-in-law, but Americans +might be different. Still,--still Isabel would hardly have shown +her obedience to her father in this way. She was too independent +to obey her father in a matter concerning her own heart. And if he +had not been the possessor of her heart at that last interview, +then she must have been false indeed! So he got once more into +his hansom and had himself taken back to Brook Street. + +Mrs Boncassen was in the drawing-room alone. + +'I am so sorry,' said the lady, 'but Mr Boncassen has, I think, +just gone out.' + +'Indeed! and where is Isabel?' + +'Isabel is downstairs,--that is if she hasn't gone out too. She did +talk of going with her father to the Museum. She is getting quite +bookish. She has got a ticket, and goes there, and has all the +things brought to her just like the other learned folk.' + +'I am anxious to see her, Mrs Boncassen.' + +'My! If she has gone out it will be a pity. She was only saying +yesterday she wouldn't wonder if you shouldn't turn up.' + +'Of course I've turned up, Mrs Boncassen. I was here an hour ago.' + +'Was it you who called and asked all them questions? My! We +couldn't make out who it was. The man said it was a flurried +young gentleman who wouldn't leave a card,--but who wanted to see +Mr Boncassen most special.' + +'It was Isabel I wanted to see. Didn't I leave a card? No; I don't +think I did. I felt so--almost at home, that I didn't think of a +card.' + +'That's very kind of you, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'I hope you are going to be my friend, Mrs Boncassen.' + +'I am sure I don't know, Lord Silverbridge. Isabel is most used to +having her own way I guess. I think when hearts are joined almost +nothing ought to stand between them. But Mr Boncassen does have +doubts. He don't wish Isabel should force herself anywhere. But +here she is, and now she can speak for herself.' Whereupon not +only did Isabel enter the room, but at the same time Mrs Boncassen +most discreetly left it. It must be confessed that American +mothers are not afraid of their daughters. + +Silverbridge, when the door was closed, stood looking at the girl +for a moment and thought that she was more lovely than ever. She +was dressed for walking. She still had on her fur jacket, but had +taken off her hat. 'I was in the parlour downstairs,' she said, +'when you came in, with papa; and we were going out together; but +when I heard who was here, I made him go alone. Was I not good?' + +He had not thought of a word to say, or a thing to do;--but he felt +as he looked at her that the only thing in the world worth living +for, was to have her for his own. For a moment he was half- +abashed. Then in the next she was close in his arms with his lips +pressed to hers. He had been so sudden that she had been unable, +at any rate thought that she had been unable to repress him. 'Lord +Silverbridge,' she said, 'I told you I would not have it. You have +offended me.' + +'Isabel!' + +'Yes; Isabel! Isabel is offended with you. Why did you do it?' + +Why did he do it? It seemed to him to be the most unnecessary +question. 'I want you to know how I love you.' + +'Will that tell me? That only tells me how little you think of +me.' + +'Then it tells you a falsehood;--for I am thinking of you always. +And I always think of you as being the best and dearest and +sweetest thing in the world. And now I think you dearer and +sweeter than ever.' Upon this she tried to frown; but her frown +at once broke out into a smile. 'When I wrote to say that I was +coming why did you not stay at home for me this morning?' + +'I got no letter, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'Why didn't you get it?' + +'That I cannot say, Lord Silverbridge.' + +'Isabel, if you are so formal, you will kill me.' + +'Lord Silverbridge, if you are so forward, you will offend me.' +Then it turned out that no letter from him had reached the house; +and as the letter had been addressed to Bruton Street instead of +Brook Street, the failure on the part of the post-office was not +surprising. + +Whether or no she was offended or he killed remained with her the +whole afternoon. 'Of course I love you,' she said. 'Do you suppose +I should be here with you if I did not, or that you could have +remained in the house after what you did just now? I am not given +to run into rhapsodies quite so much as you are,--and being a woman +perhaps it is as well that I don't. But I think I can be quite as +true to you as you are to me.' + +'I am so much obliged to you for that,' he said, grasping at her +hand. + +'But I am sure that rhapsodies won't do any good. Now I'll tell +you my mind.' + +'You know mine,' said Silverbridge. + +'I will take it for granted that I do. Your mind is to marry me +will ye nil ye, as the people say.' He answered this by merely +nodding his head and getting a little nearer to her. 'That is all +very well in its way, and I am not going to say but what I am +gratified.' Then he did grasp her hand. 'If it pleases you to +hear me say so, Lord Silverbridge--' + +'Not Lord!' + +'Then I shall call you Plantagenet;--only it sounds so horribly +historical. Why are you not Thomas or Abraham? But if it will +please you to hear me say so, I am ready to acknowledge that +nothing in all my life ever came near to the delight I have in +your love.' Hereupon he almost succeeded in getting his arm round +her waist. But she was strong, and seized his hand and held it. +'And I speak no rhapsodies. I tell you a truth which I want you to +know and to keep to your heart,--so that you may be always, always +sure to. + +'I will never doubt it.' + +'But that marrying will ye nill ye, will not suit me. There is so +much wanted for happiness in life.' + +'I will do all that I can.' + +'Yes. Even though it be hazardous, I am willing to trust you. If +you were as other men are, if you could do as you please as lower +men may do, I would leave father and mother and my own country,-- +that I might be your wife. I would do that because I love you. But +what will my life be here, if they who are your friends turn their +backs upon me? What will your life be, if, through all that, you +continued to love me?' + +'That will all come right.' + +'And what will your life be, or mine,' she said, going on with her +own thoughts without seeming to have heard his last words, 'if in +such a condition as that you did not continue to love me?' + +'I should always love you.' + +'It might be very hard:--and if once felt to be hard, then +impossible. You have not looked at it as I have done. Why should +you? Even with a wife that was a trouble to you--' + +'Oh, Isabel!' + +His arm was now round her waist, but she continued speaking as +though she were not aware of the embrace. 'Yes, a trouble! I +shall not be always just what I am now. Now I can be bright and +pretty and hold my own with others because I am so. But are you +sure,--I am not,--that I am such stuff as an English lady should be +made of? If in ten years' time you found that others did not +think so,--that, worse again, you did not think so yourself, would +you be true to me then?' + +'I will always be true to you.' + +She gently extricated herself, as though she had done so that she +might better turn round and look into his face. 'Oh, my own one, +who can say of himself that it would be so? How could it be so, +when you would have all the world against you? You would be still +what you are,--with a clog round your leg while at home. In +Parliament, among your friends, at your clubs, you would be just +what you are. You would be that Lord Silverbridge who had all the +good things at his disposal,--except that he had been unfortunate +in his marriage! But what should I be?' Though she paused he +could not answer her,--not yet. There was a solemnity in her speech +which made it necessary that he should hear her to the end. 'I, +too, have my friends in my own country. It is not disgrace to me +there that my grandfather worked on the quays. No one holds her +head higher than I do, or is more sure of being able to hold it. I +have there that assurance of esteem and honour which you have +here. I would lose it all to do you a good. But I will not lose it +all to do you an injury.' + +'I don't know about injuries,' he said, getting up and walking +about the room. 'But I am sure of this. You will have to be my +wife.' + +'If your father will take me by the hand and say that I shall be +his daughter, I will risk the rest. Even then it might not be +wise; but we love each other too well not run some peril. Do you +think I want anything better than to preside in your home, to +soften you cares, to welcome your joys, to be mother perhaps of +your children, and to know that you are proud that I should be so? + No, my darling. I can see a Paradise;--only, only, I may not be +fit to enter it. I must use some judgement better that my own, +sounder, dear, than yours. Tell the Duke what I say;--tell him that +with what language a son may use to his father. And remember that +all you ask for yourself you will ask doubly for me.' + +'I will ask him so that he cannot refuse me.' + +'If you do I shall be contented. And now go. I have said ever so +much, and I am tired.' + +'Isabel! Oh, my love.' + +'Yes; Isabel;--your love! I am that at any rate for the present,-- +and proud to be so as a queen. Well, if it must be, this once,--as +I have been so hard to you.' Then she gave him her cheek to kiss, +but of course he took much more than she gave. + +When he got into the street it was dark, and there was sill +standing the faithful cab. But he felt that at the present moment +it would be impossible to sit still, and he dismissed the +equipage. He walked rapidly along Brook Street into Park Lane, and +from thence to the park, hardly knowing whither he went in the +enthusiasm of the moment. He walked back to the Marble Arch, and +thence round by the drive to the Guard House and the bridge over +the Serpentine, by the Knightsbridge Barracks to Hyde Park Corner. +Though he should give up everything and go and live in her own +country with her, he would marry her. His politics, his hunting, +this address to the Queen, his horses, his guns, his father's +wealth, and his own rank,--what were they all to Isabel Boncassen? + In meeting her he had net the one human being in all the world +who could really be anything to him either in friendship or in +love. When she had told him what she would do for him to make his +home happy, it had seemed to him that all other delights must fade +away from him for ever. How odious were Tifto and his racehorses, +how unmeaning the noise of his club, how terrible the tedium of +those parliamentary benches! He could not tell his love as she +had told hers! He acknowledged to himself that his words could +not be as her words,--nor his intellect as hers. But his heart +could be as true. She had spoken to him of his name, his rank, and +all his outside world around him. He would make her understand at +last that there were nothing to him in comparison with her. When +he had got round to Hyde Park Corner, he felt that he was almost +compelled to go back again to Brook Street. In no other place +could there be anything to interest him;--nowhere else could there +be light, or warmth, or joy! But what would she think of him? To +go back hot, and soiled with mud, in order that he might say one +more adieu,--that possibly he might ravish one more kiss,--would +hardly be manly. He must postpone all that for the morrow. On the +morrow of course he would be there. + +But his word was before him! That prayer had to be made to his +father, or rather some wonderful effort of eloquence must be made +by which his father might be convinced that this girl was so +infinitely superior to anything of feminine creation that had ever +hitherto been seen or heard of, that all ideas as to birth, +country, rank, or name ought in this instance to count for +nothing. He did believe himself that he had found such a pearl, +that no question of seeing need be taken into consideration. If +the Duke would not see it the fault would be in the Duke's eyes, +or perhaps in his own words,--but certainly not in the pearl. + +Then he compared her to poor Lady Mabel, and in doing so did +arrive at something near the truth in his inward delineation of +the two characters. Lady Mabel with all her grace, with all her +beauty, with all her talent, was a creature of efforts, or, as it +might be called, a manufactured article. She strove to be +graceful, to be lovely, to be agreeable and clever. Isabel was all +this and infinitely more without any struggle. When he was most +fond of Mabel, most anxious to make her his wife, there had always +been present to him a feeling that she was old. Though he knew her +age to a day,--and knew her to be younger than himself, yet she was +old. Something had gone of her native bloom, something had been +scratched and chipped from the first fair surface, and this had +been repaired by varnish and veneering. Though he had loved her he +had never been altogether satisfied with her. But Isabel was as +young as Hebe. He knew nothing of her actual years, but he did +know that to have seemed younger, or to have seemed older,--to have +seemed in any way different from what she was,--would have been to +be less perfect. + + + +CHAPTER 69 + +Pert Poppet + +On a Sunday morning,--while Lord Silverbridge was alone in a +certain apartment in the house at Carlton Terrace which was called +his own sitting-room, the name was brought to him of a gentleman +who was anxious to see him. He had seen his father and had used +all the eloquence of which he was master,--but not quite with the +effect which he had desired. His father had been very kind to him, +but he, too, had been eloquent;--and had, as is often the case with +orators, been apparently more moved by his own words than by those +of his adversary. If he had not absolutely declared himself as +irrevocably hostile to Miss Boncassen he had not said a word that +might be supposed to give a token of assent. + +Silverbridge, therefore, was moody, contemplative, and desirous of +solitude. Nothing that the Duke had said had shaken him. He was +still sure of his pearl, and quite determined that he would wear +it. Various thoughts were running through his brain. What if he +were to abdicate the title and become a republican? He was +inclined to think that he could not abdicate, but he was quite +sure that no one could prevent him from going to America and +calling himself Mr Palliser. That his father would forgive him and +accept his daughter-in-law brought to him, were he in the first +place to marry without sanction, he felt quite sure. What was +there that his father would not forgive? But then Isabel would +not assent to this. He was turning all this in his head and ever +and anon trying to relieve his mind by 'Clarissa', which he was +reading in conformity with his father's advice, when the +gentleman's card was put into his hand. 'Whatever does he want +here?' he said to himself; and then ordered that the gentleman +might be shown up. The gentleman in question was our old friend +Dolly Longstaff. Dolly Longstaff and Silverbridge had been +intimate as young men are. But they were not friends, nor, as far +as Silverbridge knew, had Dolly ever set foot in that house +before. 'Well, Dolly,' said he, 'what's the matter now?' + +'I suppose you are surprised to see me?' + +'I didn't think that you were ever up so early.' It was at this +time almost noon. + +'Oh, come now, that's nonsense. I can get up as early as anybody +else. I have changed all that for the last four months. I was at +breakfast this morning very soon after ten.' + +'What a miracle! Is there anything I can do for you?' + +'Well yes,--there is. Of course you are surprised to see me?' + +'You never were here before; and therefore it is odd.' + +'It is odd. I felt that myself. And when I tell you what I have +come about you will think it more odd. I know I can trust you with +a secret.' + +'That depends, Dolly.' + +'What I mean is, I know you are good-natured. There are ever so +many fellows that are one's most intimate friends that would say +anything on earth they could that was ill-natured.' + +'I hope they are not my friends.' + +'Oh yes they are. Think of Glasslough, or Popplecourt, or Hindes! + If they knew anything about you that you didn't want to have +known,--about a young lady or anything of that kind,--don't you +think they'd tell everybody?' + +'A man can't tell anything he doesn't know.' + +'That's true. I had thought of that myself. But then there's a +particular reason for my telling you this. It is about a young +lady! You won't tell; will you?' + +'No, I won't. But I can't see why on earth you should come to me. +You are ever so many years older than I am.' + +'I had thought of that too. But you are just the person I must +tell. I want you to help me.' + +These last words were said almost in a whisper, and Dolly as he +said them had drawn nearer to his friend. Silverbridge remained in +suspense, saying nothing by way of encouragement. Dolly, either in +love with his own mystery or doubtful of his own purpose, sat +still, looking eagerly at his companion. 'What the mischief is +it?' asked Silverbridge impatiently. + +'I have quite made up my own mind.' + +'That's a good thing at any rate.' + +'I am not what you would have called a marrying sort of man.' + +'I should have said,--no. But I suppose most men do marry sooner or +later.' + +'That's just what I said to myself. It has to be done, you know. +There are three different properties coming to me. At least one +has come already.' + +'You're a lucky fellow.' + +'I've made up my mind; and when I say a thing I mean to do it.' + +'But what can I do?' + +'That's just what I'm coming to. If a man does marry I think he +ought to be attached to her.' To this, a broad proposition, +Silverbridge was ready to accede. But, regarding Dolly, a middle- +aged sort of fellow, one of those men who marry because it is +convenient to have a house kept for them, he simply nodded his +head. 'I am awfully attached to her,' Dolly went on to say. + +'That's all right.' + +'Of course there are fellows who marry girls for their money. I've +known men who had married their grandmothers.' + +'Not really!' + +'That kind of thing. When a woman is old it does not much matter +who she is. But my one! She's not old!' + +'Nor rich?' + +'Well;--I don't know about that. But I'm not after her money. Pray +understand that. It's because I'm downright fond of her. She's an +American.' + +'A what!' said Silverbridge, startled. + +'You know her. That's the reason I've come to you. It's Miss +Boncassen.' A dark frown came across the young man's face. That +all this should be said to him was disgusting. That an owl like +that should dare to talk of loving Miss Boncassen was offensive to +him. + +'It's because you know her that I've come to you. She thinks that +you're after her.' Dolly as he said this lifted himself quickly +up in his seat, and nodded his head mysteriously as he looked into +his companion's face. It was as much as though he should say, 'I +see you are surprised, but so it is.' Then he went on. 'She does, +pert poppet!' This was almost too much for Silverbridge; but +still he contained himself. 'She won't look at me because she has +got it into her head that perhaps some day she may become Duchess +of Omnium! That of course is out of the question.' + +'Upon my word all this seems to me to be so very--very,--distasteful +that I think you had better say nothing more about it.' + +'It is distasteful,' said Dolly; 'but in truth I am so downright,-- +what you may call enamoured--' + +'Don't talk such stuff as that here,' said Silverbridge, jumping +up. 'I won't have it.' + +'But I am. There is nothing I wouldn't do to get her. Of course +it's a good match for her. I've got three separate properties; and +when the governor goes off I shall have a clear fifteen thousand a +year.' + +'Oh, bother!' + +'Of course that's nothing to you, but it is a very tidy income for +a commoner. And how is she to do better?' + +'I don't know how she could do much worse,' said Silverbridge in a +transport of rage. Then he pulled his moustache in vexation, angry +with himself that he should have allowed himself to say even a +word on so preposterous a supposition. Isabel Boncassen and Dolly +Longstaff! It was Titania and Bottom over again. It was +absolutely necessary that he should get rid of this intruder, and +he began to be afraid that he could not do this without using +language which would have been uncivil. 'Upon my word,' he said, +'I think you had better not talk about it any more. The young lady +is one for whom I have a very great respect.' + +'I mean to marry her,' said Dolly, thinking to vindicate himself. + +'You might as well think of marrying one of the stars.' + +'One of the stars!' + +'Or a royal princess.' + +'Well! Perhaps that is your opinion, but I can't say that I agree +with you. I don't see why she shouldn't take me. I can give her a +position which you may call A1 out of the Peerage. I can bring her +into society. I can make an English lady of her.' + +'You can't make anything of her,--except to insult her,--and me too +by talking of her.' + +'I don't quite understand this,' said the unfortunate lover +getting up from his seat. 'Very likely she won't have me. Perhaps +she has told you so.' + +'She never mentioned your name to me in her life. I don't suppose +she remembers your existence.' + +'But I say that there can be no insult in such a one as me asking +such a one as her to be my wife. To say that she doesn't remember +my existence is absurd.' + +'Why should I be troubled with all this?' + +'Because I think you are making a fool of her, and because I am +honest. That's why,' said Dolly with much energy. There was +something in this which partly reconciled Silverbridge to his +despised rival. There was a touch of truth about the man, though +he was so utterly mistaken in his ideas. 'I want you to give over +in order that I may try again. I don't think you ought to keep a +girl from her promotion, merely for the fun of a flirtation. +Perhaps you're fond of her;--but you won't marry her. I am fond of +her, and I shall.' + +After a minute's pause, Silverbridge resolved that he would be +magnanimous. 'Miss Boncassen is going to be my wife,' he said. + +'Your wife!' + +'Yes;--my wife. And now I think you will see that nothing further +can be said about this matter.' + +'Duchess of Omnium!' + +'She will be Lady Silverbridge.' + +'Oh; of course she'll be that first. Then I've got nothing further +to say. I'm not going to enter myself to run against you. Only I +shouldn't have believed it if anybody else had told me.' + +'Such is my good fortune.' + +'Oh ah,--yes; of course. That is one way of looking at it. Well, +Silverbridge. I'll tell you what I shall do; I shall hook it.' + +'No; not you.' + +'Yes, I shall. I daresay you won't believe me, but I've got such a +feeling about me here'--as he said this he laid his hand upon his +heart,--'that if I stayed I should go for hard drinking. I shall +take the great Asiatic tour. I know a fellow that wants to go, but +he hasn't got any money. I daresay I shall be off before the end +of next month. You don't know any fellow that would buy a half-a- +dozen hunters; do you?' Silverbridge shook his head. 'Good-bye,' +said Dolly, in a melancholy tone. 'I am sure I am very much +obliged to you for telling me. If I'd known you'd meant it, I +shouldn't have meddled, of course. Duchess of Omnium!' + +'Look here, Dolly, I have told you what I should have not have +told anyone, but I wanted to screen the young lady's name.' + +'It was so kind of you.' + +'Do not repeat it. It is a kind of thing that ladies are +particular about. They choose their own time of letting everybody +know.' Then Dolly promised to be as mute as a fish, and took his +departure. + +Silverbridge had felt, towards the interview, that he had been +arrogant to the unfortunate man,--particular in saying that the +young lady would not remember the existence of such a suitor,--and +had also recognised a certain honesty in the man's purpose, which +had not been less honest because it was so absurd. Actuated by the +consciousness of this, he had swallowed his anger, and had told +the whole truth. Nevertheless things had been said which were +horrible to him. This buffoon of a man had called his Isabel a- +pert poppet! How was he to get over the remembrance of such an +offence? And then the wretch had declared that he was--enamoured! + There was sacrilege in the term when applied by such a man to +Isabel Boncassen. He had thought of days to come, when everything +would be settled, when he might sit close to her, and call her +pretty names,--when he might in sweet familiarity tell that she was +a little Yankee and a fierce republican, and 'chaff' her about the +stars and stripes; and then, as he pictured the scene to himself +in his imagination, she would lean upon him and would give him +back his chaff, and would call him an aristocrat and would laugh +at his titles. As he thought of all this he would be proud with +the feeling that such privileges would be his own. And now this +wretched man had called her a pert poppet! + +There was a sanctity about her,--a divinity which made it almost a +profanity to have talked about her at all to such a one as Dolly +Longstaff. She was his Holy of Holies, at which vulgar eyes should +not even be allowed to gaze. It had been a most unfortunate +interview. But this was clear, that, as he had announced his +engagement to such a one as Dolly Longstaff, the matter now would +admit of no delay. He would explain to his father that as tidings +of the engagement had got abroad, honour to the young lady would +compel him to come forward openly as her suitor at once. If this +argument might serve him, then perhaps this intrusion would not +have been altogether a misfortune. + + + +CHAPTER 70 + +'Love May be a Great Misfortune' + +Silverbridge when he reached Brook Street that day was surprised +to find that a large party was going to lunch there. Isabel had +asked him to come, and he had thought her the dearest girl in the +world for doing so. but now his gratitude for that favour was +considerably abated. He did not care just now for the honour of +eating his lunch in the presence of Mr Gotobed, the American +minister, whom he found there already in the drawing-room with Mrs +Gotobed, nor with Ezekiel Sevenkings, the great American poet from +the far West, who sat silent and stared at him in an unpleasant +way. When Sir Timothy Beeswax was announced, with Lady Beeswax, +and her daughter, his gratification certainly was not increased. +And the last comer,--who did to arrive till they were all seated at +the table,--almost made him start from his chair and take his +departure suddenly. That last comer was no other than Mr Adolphus +Longstaff. As it happened he was seated next to Dolly, with Lady +Beeswax on the other side of him. Whereas his Holy of Holies was +on the other side of Dolly! The arrangement made seemed to have +been monstrous. He had endeavoured to get next to Isabel; but she +had so manoeuvred that there should be a vacant seat between them. +He had not much regarded this because a vacant chair may be pushed +on one side. But before he had made all his calculations Dolly +Longstaff was sitting there! He almost thought that Dolly winked +at him in triumph,--that very Dolly, who an hour ago had promised +to take himself upon his Asiatic travels! + +Sir Timothy and the minister kept up the conversation very much +between them, Sir Timothy flattering everything that was American, +and the minister finding fault with very many things which were +English. Now and then Mr Boncassen would put in a word to soften +the severe honesty of his countryman, or to correct the +euphemistic falsehoods of Sir Timothy. The poet seemed always to +be biding his time. Dolly ventured to whisper a word to his +neighbour. It was but to say that the frost had broken up. But +Silverbridge heard it and looked daggers at everyone. Then Lady +Beeswax expressed to him a hope that he was going to do great +things in Parliament this session. 'I don't mean to go near the +place,' he said, not at all conveying any purpose to which he had +really come, but driven by the stress of the moment to say +something that should express his general hatred of everybody. Mr +Lupton was there, on the other side of Isabel, and was soon +engaged with her in a pleasant familiar conversation. Then +Silverbridge remembered that he had always thought Lupton to be a +most conceited prig. Nobody gave himself so many airs, or was so +careful as to the dyeing of his whiskers. It was astonishing that +Isabel should allow herself to be amused by such an antiquated +coxcomb. When they had finished eating they moved about and +changed their places. Mr Boncassen being rather anxious to stop +the flood of American eloquence which came from his friend Mr +Gotobed. British viands had become subject to his criticism, and +Mr Gotobed had declared to Mr Lupton that he didn't believe that +London could produce a dish of squash tomatoes. He was quite sure +you couldn't have sweet corn. Then there had been a moving of +seats in which the minister was shuffled off to Lady Beeswax, and +the poet found himself by the side of Isabel. 'Do you not regret +our mountains and our prairies?' said the poet; 'our great waters +and our green savannahs?' 'I think more perhaps of Fifth Avenue,' +said Miss Boncassen. Silverbridge, who at this moment was being +interrogated by Sir Timothy, heard every word of it. + +'I was so sorry, Lord Silverbridge,' said Sir Timothy, 'that you +could not accede to our little request.' + +'I did not quite see my way,' said Silverbridge, with his eye upon +Isabel. + +'So I understood, but I hope that things will make themselves +clearer to you shortly. There is nothing that I desire so much as +the support of young men such as yourself,--the very cream, I may +say, of the whole country. It is to the young conservative +thoughtfulness and the truly British spirit of our springing +aristocracy that I look for that reaction which I am sure will at +last carry us safely over the rocks and shoals of communistic +propensities.' + +'I shouldn't wonder if it did,' said Silverbridge. They didn't +think that he was going to remain down there talking politics to +an old humbug like Sir Timothy when the sun and moon, and all the +stars had gone up into the drawing-room! For at that moment +Isabel was making her way to the door. + +But Sir Timothy had buttonholed him. 'Of course it is late now to +say anything further about that address. We have arranged that. +Not quite as I would have wished, for I had set my heart upon +initiating you into the rapturous pleasure of parliamentary +debate. But I hope that a good time is coming. And pray remember +this, Lord Silverbridge;--there is no member sitting on our side of +the House, and I need hardly say on the other, whom I would go +farther to oblige than your father's son.' + +'I'm sure that's very kind,' said Silverbridge, absolutely using a +little force as he disengaged himself. Then at once he followed +the ladies upstairs passing the poet on the stairs. 'You have +hardly spoken to me,' he whispered to Isabel. He knew that to +whisper to her now, with the eyes of so many upon him, with the +ears of many open, was an absurdity; but he could not refrain +himself. + +'There are so many to be,--entertained, as people say! I don't +think I ought to have to entertain you,' she answered, laughing. +No one heard her but Silverbridge, yet she did not seem to +whisper. She left him, however, at once, and was soon engaged in +conversation with Sir Timothy. + +A convivial lunch I hold to be altogether bad, but the worst of +its many evils is that vacillating mind which does not know when +to take its owner off. Silverbridge was on this occasion +determined not to take himself off at all. As it was only lunch +the people must go, and then he would be left with Isabel. But the +vacillation of the others was distressing to him. Mr Lupton went, +and poor Dolly got away apparently without a word. But the +Beeswaxes and the Gotobeds would not go, and the poet sat staring +immovably. In the meantime Silverbridge endeavoured to make the +time pass lightly by talking to Mrs Boncassen. He had been so +determined to accept Isabel with all her adjuncts that he had come +almost to like Mrs Boncassen, and would certainly have taken her +part violently had anyone spoke ill of her in his presence. + +Then suddenly he found that the room was almost empty. The +Beeswaxes and the Gotobeds were gone, and at last the poet +himself, with a final glare of admiration at Isabel, had taken his +departure. When Silverbridge looked round, Isabel was also gone. +Then to Mrs Boncassen had left the room suddenly. At the same +instant Mr Boncassen entered by another door, and the two men were +alone together. 'My dear Lord Silverbridge,' said the father, 'I +want to have a few words with you.' Of course there was nothing +for him but to submit. 'You remember what you said to me down at +Matching?' + +'Oh yes; I remember that.' + +'You did me the great honour of expressing a wish to make my child +your wife.' + +'I was asking for a very great favour.' + +'That also;--for there is no greater favour I could do to any man +than to give him my daughter. Nevertheless, you were doing me a +great honour,--and you did it, as you do everything, with an honest +grace that went far to win my heart. I am not at all surprised, +sir, that you should have won hers.' The young man as he heard +this could only blush and look foolish. 'If I know my girl, +neither your money nor your title would go for anything.' + +'I think much more of her love, Mr Boncassen, than I do of +anything else in the world.' + +'But love, my Lord, may be a great misfortune.' As he said this +the tone of his voice was altered, and there was a melancholy +solemnity not only in his words but in his countenance. 'I take it +that young people when they love rarely think of more than the +present moment. If they did so the bloom would be gone from their +romance. But others have to do this for them. If Isabel had come +to me saying that she loved a poor man, there would not have been +much to disquiet me. A poor man may earn bread for himself and his +wife, and if he failed I could have found them bread. Nor had she +loved somewhat below her degree, should I have opposed her. So +long as her husband had been an educated man, there might have +been no future punishment to fear.' + +'I don't think she could have done that,' said Silverbridge. + +'At any rate she has not done so. But how am I to look upon this +that she has done?' + +'I'll do my best for her, Mr Boncassen.' + +'I believe you would. But even your love can't make her an +English-woman. You can make her a Duchess.' + +'Not that, sir.' + +'But you can't give her a parentage fit for a Duchess;--not fit at +least in the opinion of those with whom you will pass your life, +with whom,--or perhaps without whom,--she will be destined to pass +her life, if she becomes your wife! Unfortunately it does not +suffice that you should think it fit. Though you loved each other +as well as any man and woman that ever were brought into each +other's arms by the beneficence of God, you cannot make her +happy,--unless you can ensure her the respect of those around her.' + +'All the world will respect her.' + +'Her conduct;--yes. I think the world, your world, would learn to +do that. I do not think it could help itself. But that would not +suffice. I may respect the man who cleans my boots, but he would +be a wretched man if he were thrown on me for society. I would not +give him my society. Will your Duchesses and Countesses give her +theirs?' + +'Certainly they will.' + +'I do not ask for it as thinking it to be of more value than that +of others; but were she to become your wife she would be so +abnormally placed as to require it for her comfort. She would have +become a lady of high rank,--not because she loves rank, but +because she loves you.' + +'Yes, yes, yes,' said Silverbridge, hardly himself knowing why +became impetuous. + +'But having removed herself into that position, being as she would +be, a Countess, or a Duchess, or what not, how could she be happy +if he were excluded from the community of Countesses and +Duchesses?' + +'They are not all like that,' said Silverbridge. + +'I will not say that they are, but I do not know. Having Anglican +tendencies I have been wont to contradict my countrymen when they +have told me of the narrow exclusiveness of your nobles. Having +found your nobles and your commoners all alike in their courtesy,-- +which is a cold word; in their hospitable friendships,--I would now +not only contradict, but would laugh to scorn any such charge,'--so +far he spoke somewhat loudly, and then dropped his voice as he +concluded,--'were it anything less than the happiness of my child +that is in question.' + +'What am I to say, sir? I only know this; I am not going to lose +her.' + +'You are a fine fellow. I was going to say that I wished you were +an American, so that Isabel need not lose you. But, my boy, I have +told you that I do not know how it might be. Of all whom you know, +who could best tell me the truth on such a subject? Who is there, +whose age will have given him experience, whose rank will have +made him familiar with this matter, who from friendship to you +would be least likely to decide against your wishes, who from his +own native honesty would be most likely to tell the truth?' + +'You mean my father,' said Silverbridge. + +'I do mean your father. Happily he has taken no dislike to the +girl herself. I have seen enough of him to feel that he is devoted +to his own children.' + +'Indeed he is.' + +'A just and liberal man;--one whom I should say not carried away by +prejudices! Well,--my girl and I have just put our heads together, +and we have come to a conclusion. If the Duke of Omnium will tell +us that she would be safe as your wife,--safe from the contempt of +those around her,--you shall have her. And I shall rejoice to give +her to you,--not because you are Lord Silverbridge, not because of +your rank and wealth; but because you are--that individual human +being whom I now hold by the hand.' + + + +CHAPTER 71 + +'What am I to Say, Sir?' + +When Silverbridge left Mr Boncassen's house he was resolved to go +to his father without an hour's delay, and represent to the Duke +exactly how the case stood. He would be urgent, piteous, +submissive, and eloquent. In any other matter he would promise to +make whatever arrangements his father might desire. He would make +his father understand that all his happiness depended on this +marriage. When once married he would settle down, even at Gatherum +Castle if the Duke should wish it. He would not think of +racehorses, he would desert the Beargarden, he would learn blue- +books by heart, and only do as much shooting and hunting as would +become a young nobleman in his position. All this he would say as +eagerly and as pleasantly as it might be said. But he would add to +all this an assurance of his unchangeable intention. It was his +purpose to marry Isabel Boncassen. If he could do this with his +father's good will,--so best. But at any rate he would marry her! + +The world at this time was altogether busy with political rumours; +and it was supposed that Sir Timothy Beeswax would do something +very clever. It was supposed also that he would sever himself from +some of his present companions. On that point everybody was +agreed,--and on that point only everybody was right. Lord Drummond, +who was the titular Prime Minister, and Sir Timothy, had, during a +considerable part of the last session, and through the whole +vacation, so belarded each other with praise in their public +expressions that it was quite manifest that they had quarrelled. +When any body of statesmen make public asseverations by one or +various voices, that there is no discord among them, not a +dissentient voice on any subject, people are apt to suppose that +they cannot hang together much longer. It is the man who has not +peace at home declares abroad that his wife is an angel. He who +lives on comfortable terms with the partner of his troubles can +afford to acknowledge the ordinary rubs of life. Old Mr Mildmay, +who was Prime Minister for so many years, and whom his party +worshipped, used to say that he had never found a gentleman who +had quite agreed with him all round; but Sir Timothy has always +been in exact accord with all his colleagues,--till he has left +them, or they him. Never had there been such concord as of late,-- +and men, clubs, and newspapers now protested that as a natural +consequence there would soon be a break-up. + +But not on that account would it perhaps be necessary that Sir +Timothy should resign,--or not necessary that his resignation +should be permanent. The Conservative majority had dwindled,--but +still there was a majority. It certainly was the case that Lord +Drummond could not get on without Sir Timothy. But might it not be +possible that Sir Timothy should get on without Lord Drummond? If +so he must begin his action in that direction by resigning. He +would have to place his resignation, no doubt with infinite +regret, in the hands of Lord Drummond. But if such a step were to +be taken now, just as Parliament was about to assemble, what would +become of the Queen's speech, of the address, and of the noble +peers and noble and other commoners who were to propose and second +it in the two Houses of Parliament? There were those who said +that such a trick played at the last moment would be very shabby. +But then again there were those who foresaw that the shabbiness +would be made to rest anywhere than on the shoulders of Sir +Timothy. If it should turn out that he had striven manfully to +make things run smoothly,--that the Premier's incompetence, or the +Chancellor's obstinacy, or this or that Secretary's peculiarity of +temper had done it all;--might not Sir Timothy then be able to +emerge from the confused flood, and swim along pleasantly with his +head higher than ever above the waters? + +In these great matters parliamentary management goes for so much! +If a man be really clever and handy at his trade, if he can work +hard and knows what he is about, if he can give and take and be +not thin-skinned or sore-boned, if he can ask pardon for a +peccadillo and seem to be sorry with a good grace, if above all +things he be able to surround himself with the prestige of +success, then so much will be forgiven him! Great gifts of +eloquence are hardly wanted, or a deep-seated patriotism which is +capable of strong indignation. A party has to be managed, and he +who can manage it best, will probably be its best leader. The +subordinate task of legislation and of executive government may +well fall into the inferior hands of less astute practitioners. It +was admitted on both sides that there was no man like Sir Timothy +for managing the House or coercing a party, and there was +therefore a general feeling that it would be a pity that Sir +Timothy should be squeezed out. He knew all the little secrets of +the business;--could arrange let the cause be what it might, to get +a full House for himself and his friends, and empty benches for +his opponents,--could foresee a thousand little things to which +even a Walpole would have been blind, which a Pitt would not have +condescended to regard, but with which his familiarity made him a +very comfortable leader of the House of Commons. There were +various ideas prevalent as to the politics of the coming session; +but the prevailing idea was in favour of Sir Timothy. + +The Duke was at Longroyston, the seat of his old political ally +the Duke of St Bungay, and had been absent from Sunday the sixth +till the morning of Friday the eleventh, on which day Parliament +was to meet. On that morning at about noon a letter came to the +son saying that his father had returned and would be glad to see +him. Silverbridge was going to the House on that day and was not +without his own political anxieties. If Lord Drummond remained in, +he thought that he must for the present stand by the party which +he had adopted. If, however, Sir Timothy should become Prime +Minister there would be a loophole for escape. There were some +three or four besides himself who detested Sir Timothy, and in +such case he might perhaps have company in his desertions. All +this was on his mind; but through all this he was aware that there +was a matter of much deeper moment which required his energies. +When his father's message was brought to him he told himself at +once that now was the time for eloquence. + +'Well, Silverbridge,' said the Duke, 'how are matters going on +with you?' There seemed to be something in his father's manner +more than ordinarily jocund and good-humoured. + +'With me, sir?' + +'I don't mean to ask any party secrets. If you and Sir Timothy +understand each other, of course you will be discreet.' + +'I can't be discreet, sir, because I don't know anything about +him.' + +'When I heard,' said the Duke smiling, 'of your being in close +conference with Sir Timothy--' + +'I, sir?' + +'Yes, you. Mr Boncassen told me that you and he were so deeply +taken up with each other at his house that nobody could get a word +with either of you.' + +'Have you seen Mr Boncassen?' asked the son, whose attention was +immediately diverted from his father's political badinage. + +'Yes;--I have seen him. I happened to meet him where I was dining +last Sunday, and he walked home with me. He was so intent upon +what he was saying that I fear he allowed me to take him out of +his way.' + +'What was he talking about,' said Silverbridge. All his +preparations, all his eloquence, all his method, now seemed to +have departed from him. + +'He was talking about you,' said the Duke. + +'He had told me that he wanted to see you. What did he say, sir?' + +'I suppose you can guess what he said. He wished to know what I +thought of the offer you have made to his daughter.' The great +subject had come up so easily, so readily, that he was almost +aghast when he found himself in the middle of it. And yet he must +speak of the matter, and that at once. + +'I hope you raised no objection, sir,' he said. + +'The objection came mainly from him; and I am bound to say that +every word that fell from him was spoken with wisdom.' + +'But still he asked you to consent.' + +'By no means. He told me his opinion,--and then he asked me a +question.' + +'I am sure he did not say that we ought not to be married.' + +'He did say that he thought you ought not to be married if--' + +'If what, sir?' + +'If there were probability that his daughter would not be well +received as your wife. Then he asked me what would be my reception +of her.' Silverbridge looked up into his father's face with +beseeching imploring eyes as though everything now depended on the +few next words that he might utter. 'I shall think it an unwise +marriage,' said the Duke. Silverbridge when he heard this at once +knew that he had gained his cause. His father had spoken of the +marriage as a thing that was to happen. A joyous light dawned in +his eyes, and the look of pain went from his brow, all which the +Duke was not slow to perceive. 'I shall think it an unwise +marriage,' he continued, repeating his words; 'but I was bound to +tell him that were Miss Boncassen to become your wife she would +also become my daughter.' + +'Oh sir.' + +'I told him why the marriage would be distasteful to me. Whether I +may be wrong or right I think it to be for the good of our +country, for the good of our order, for the good of our individual +families, that we should support each other by marriage. It is not +as though we were a narrow class, already too closely bound +together by family alliances. The room for choice might be wide +enough for you without going across the Atlantic to look for her +who is to be the mother of your children. To this Mr Boncassen +replied that he was to look solely to his daughter's happiness. He +meant me to understand that he cared nothing for my feelings. Why +should he? That which to me is deep wisdom is to him an empty +prejudice. He asked me then how others would receive her.' + +'I am sure everybody would like her,' said Silverbridge. + +'I like her. I like her very much.' + +'I am so glad.' + +'But still all this is a sorrow to me. When however he put that +question to me about the world around her,--as to those among whom +her lot would be cast, I could not say I thought she would be +rejected.' + +'Oh no!' The idea of rejecting Isabel. + +'She has a brightness and a grace all her own,' continued the +Duke, 'which will ensure her acceptance in all societies.' + +'Yes, yes;--it is just that, sir.' + +'You will be a nine days' wonder,--the foolish thing young nobleman +who chose to marry an American.' + +'I think it will be just other way up, sir--among the men.' + +'But her place will I think be secure to her. That is what I told +Mr Boncassen.' + +'It is all right with him, then,--now?' + +'If you call it all right. You will understand of course that you +are acting in opposition to my advice,--and my wishes.' + +'What am I to say, sir?' exclaimed Silverbridge, almost in +despair. 'When I love the girl better than my life, and when you +tell me that she can be mine if I choose to take her; when I have +asked her to be my wife, and have got her to say that she likes +me, when her father has given way, and all the rest of it, would +it be possible that I should say now that I will give her up?' + +'My opinion is to go for nothing,--in anything?' The Duke as he +said this knew that he was expressing aloud a feeling which should +have been restrained within his own bosom. It was natural that +there should have been such plaints. The same suffering must be +encountered in regard to Tregear and his daughter. In every way he +had been thwarted. In every direction he was driven to yield. And +yet now he had to undergo rebuke from his own son, because one of +the inward plaints would force itself from his lips! Of course +this girl was to be taken among the Pallisers and treated with an +idolatrous love,--as perfect as though 'all the blood of all the +Howards' were running in her veins. What further inch of ground +was there for a fight? And if the fight were over, why should he +rob his boy of one sparkle from the joy of his triumph? +Silverbridge was now standing before him abashed by that plaint, +inwardly sustained no doubt by the conviction of his great +success, but subdued by his father's wailing. 'However,--perhaps we +had better let that pass,' said the Duke, with a long sigh. Then +Silverbridge took his father's hand, and looked up in his face. 'I +most sincerely hope that she may make you a good and loving wife,' +said the Duke, 'and that she may do her duty by you in that not +easy sphere of life to which she will be called.' + +'I am quite sure she will,' said Silverbridge, whose ideas as to +Isabel's duties were confined at present to a feeling that she +would now have to give him kisses without stint. + +'What I have seen of her personally recommends her to me,' said +the Duke. 'Some girls are fools--' + +'That's quite true, sir.' + +'Who think that the world is to be nothing but dancing, and going +to parties.' + +'Many have been doing it for many years,' said Silverbridge, 'that +they can't understand that there should be an end of it.' + +'A wife ought to feel the great responsibility of her position. I +hope she will.' + +'And the sooner she begins the better,' said Silverbridge stoutly. + +'And now,' said the Duke, looking at his watch, 'we might as well +have lunch and go down to the House. I will walk with you if you +please. It will be about time for each of us.' Then the son was +forced to go down and see a somewhat faded ceremony of seeing +Parliament opened by three Lords sitting in commission before the +throne. Whereas but for such stress as his father had laid upon +him, he would have disregarded his parliamentary duties and have +rushed at once up to Brook Street. As it was he was so handed over +from one political pundit to another, was so buttonholed by Sir +Timothy, so chaffed as to the address by Phineas Finn, and at last +so occupied with the whole matter that he was compelled to sit in +his place till he had heard Nidderdale make his speech. This the +young Scotch Lord did so well, and received so much praise for the +doing of it, and looked so well in his uniform, that Silverbridge +almost regretted the opportunity that he had lost. At seven the +sitting was over, the speeches, though full of interest, having +been shorter than usual. They had been full of interest, but +nobody understood in the least what was going to happen. 'I don't +know anything about the Prime Minister,' said Mr Lupton as he left +the House with our hero and another not very staunch supporter of +the Government, 'but I'll back Sir Timothy to be the Leader of the +House on the last day of the session, against all comers. I don't +think it much matters who is Prime Minister nowadays.' + +At half-past seven Silverbridge was at the door at Brook Street. +Yes; Miss Boncassen was at home. The servant thought that she was +upstairs dressing. Then Silverbridge made his way without further +invitation into the drawing-room. There he remained alone for ten +minutes. At last the door opened, and Mrs Boncassen entered. +'Dear! Lord Silverbridge, who ever dreamed of seeing you? I +thought all you Parliament gentlemen were going through your +ceremonies. Isabel had a ticket and went down, and saw your +father.' + +'Where is Isabel?' + +'She's gone.' + +'Gone! Where on earth has she gone to?' asked Silverbridge, as +though fearing lest she had been already carried off to the other +side of the Atlantic. Then Mrs Boncassen explained. Within the +last three minutes Mrs Montacute Jones had called and carried +Isabel off to the play. Mrs Jones was up in town for a week and +this had been a very old engagement. 'I hope you did not want her +particularly,' said Mrs Boncassen. + +'But I did,--not particularly,' said Lord Silverbridge. The door +was opened and Mr Boncassen entered the room. 'I beg your pardon +for coming at such a time,' said the lover, 'but I did so want to +see Isabel.' + +'I rather thinks she wants to see you,' said the father. + +'I shall go to the theatre after her.' + +'That might be awkward,--particularly as I doubt whether anybody +knows what theatre they are gone to. Can I receive a message for +her, my lord?' This was certainly not what Lord Silverbridge had +intended. 'You know, perhaps, that I have seen the Duke?' + +'Oh yes;--I have seen him. Everything is settled.' + +'That is the only message she will want to hear when she comes +home. She is a happy girl and I am proud to think that I should +live to call such a grand young Briton as you my son-in-law.' +Then the American took the young man's two hands and shook them +cordially, while Mrs Boncassen bursting into tears insisted on +kissing him. + +'Indeed she is a happy girl,' said she; 'but I hope Isabel won't +be carried away too high and mighty.' + + + +CHAPTER 72 + +Carlton Terrace + +Three days after this it was arranged that Isabel should be taken +to Carlton Terrace to be accepted there into the full good graces +of her future father-in-law, and to go through the pleasant +ceremony of seeing the house which it was her destiny to be +mistress. What can be more interesting to a girl than this first +visit to her future home? And now Isabel Boncassen was to make +her first visit to the house In Carlton Terrace, which the Duke +had already declared his purpose of surrendering to the young +couple. She was going among very grand things,--so grand that those +whose affairs in life are less magnificent may think that her mind +should have soared altogether above the chairs and tables, and +reposed itself among diamonds, gold and silver ornaments, rich +necklaces, the old masters, and alabaster statuary. But Dukes and +Duchesses must sit upon chairs,--or at any rate on sofas,--as well +as their poorer brethren, and probably have the same regard for +their comfort. Isabel was not above her future furniture, or the +rooms that were to be her rooms, or the stairs which she would +have to tread, or the pillow on which her head must rest. She had +never yet seen the outside of the house in which she was to live, +and was now prepared to make her visit with as much enthusiasm as +though her future abode was to be prepared for her in a small +house in a small street beyond Islington. + +But the Duke was no doubt more than the house, the father-in-law +more than the tables. Isabel, in the ordinary way of society, he +had known almost with intimacy. She, the while, had been well +aware that if all things could possibly be made to run smoothly +with her, this lordly host, who was so pleasantly courteous to +her, would become her father-in-law. But she had known also that, +in his courtesy, had been altogether unaware of any such intention +on her part, and that she would now present herself to him in an +aspect very different from that in which she had hitherto been +regarded. She was well aware that the Duke had not wished to take +her into the family,--would not himself have chosen her for his +son's wife. She had seen enough to make her sure that he had even +chosen another bride for his heir. She had been too clever not to +perceive that Lady Mabel Grex had been not only selected,--but +almost accepted as though the thing had been certain. She had +learned nearly the whole truth from Silverbridge, who was not good +at keeping a secret from one to whom his heart was open. That +story had been read by her with exactness. 'I cannot lose you +now,' she had said to him, leaning on his arm;--'I cannot afford to +lose you now. But I fear that someone else is losing you.' To +this he answered nothing, but simply pressed her closer to his +side. 'Someone else,' she continued, 'who perhaps may have reason +to think that you have injured her.' 'No,' he said boldly; 'no; +there is no such person.' For he had never ceased to assure +himself that in all that matter with Mabel Grex he had been guilty +of no treachery. There had been a moment, indeed, in which she +might have taken him; but she had chosen to let it pass from her. +All of which, or nearly all of which,--Isabel now saw, and had seen +also that the Duke had been a consenting party to that other +arrangement. She had reason therefore to doubt the manner of her +acceptance. + +But she had been accepted. She had made such acceptance by him a +stipulation in her acceptance of her son. She was sure of the +ground on which she trod and was determined to carry herself, if +not with pride, yet with dignity. There might be difficulties +before her, but it should not be her fault if she were not as good +as a Countess, and,--when time would have it so,--as good a Duchess +as another. + +The visit was not quite in the fashion in which Silverbridge +himself had wished. His idea had been to call for Isabel in his +cab and take her down to Carlton Terrace. 'Mother must go with +me,' she had said. Then he looked blank,--as he could look when he +was disappointed, as he had looked when she would not talk to him +at the lunch, when she told him that it was not her business to +entertain him. 'Don't be selfish,' she added, laughing. 'Do you +think that mother will not want to have seen the house that I am +to live in?' + +'She shall come afterwards as often as she likes.' + +'What,--paying me morning visits from New York! She must come now, +if you please. Love me, love my mother.' + +'I am awfully fond of her,' said Silverbridge, who felt that he +really had behaved well to the old lady. + +'So am I,--and therefore she shall go to see the house now. You are +as good as gold,--and do everything just as I tell you. But a good +time is coming, when I shall have to do everything that you tell +me.' Then it was arranged that Mrs and Miss Boncassen were to be +taken down to the house in their own carriage, and were to be +received at the door by Lord Silverbridge. + +Another arrangement had also been made. Isabel was to be taken to +the Duke immediately upon her arrival, and to be left for a while +with him, so that he might express himself as might find fit to do +to this newly-adopted child. It was a matter to him of such +importance that nothing remaining to him in his life could equal +it. It was not simply that she was to be the wife of his son,-- +though that in itself was a consideration very sacred. Had it been +Gerald who was bringing to him a bride, the occasion would have +had less of awe. But this girl, this American girl, was to be the +mother and grandmother of future Dukes of Omnium,--the ancestress, +it was to be hoped, of all future Dukes of Omnium! By what she +might be, by what she might have in her of mental fibre, of high +or low quality, of true or untrue womanliness, were to be +fashioned those who in days to come might be amongst the strongest +and most faithful bulwarks of the constitution. An England without +a Duke of Omnium,--or at any rate without any Duke,--what would it +be? And yet he knew that with bad Dukes his country would be in +worse stress than though she had none at all. An aristocracy;--yes; +but an aristocracy that shall be of the very best! He believed +himself thoroughly in this order; but if this order or many of his +order, should become as was now Lord Grex, then, he thought, that +his order not only must go to the wall, but that, in the cause of +humanity, it had better do so. With all this daily, hourly, +always in his mind, this matter in the choice of a wife for his +heir was to him of solemn importance. + +When they arrived Silverbridge was there and led them first of all +into the dining-room. 'My!' said Mrs Boncassen, as she looked +around her. 'I thought that our Fifth Avenue parlous whipped up +everything in the way of city houses.' + +'What a nice little room for Darby and Joan to sit down to eat a +mutton-chop in,' said Isabel. + +'It's a beastly great barrack,' said Silverbridge;--'but the best +of it is that we never use it. We'll have a cosy little place for +Darby and Joan;--you'll see. Now come to the governor. I've got to +leave you with him.' + +'Oh me! I am in such a fright.' + +'He can't eat you,' said Mrs Boncassen. + +'And he won't even bite,' said Silverbridge. + +'I should not mind that because I could bite again. But if he +looks as though he thought I shouldn't do, I shall drop.' + +'My belief is that he's almost as much in love with you as I am,' +said Silverbridge, as he took her to the door of the Duke's room. +'Here we are, sir.' + +'My dear,' said the Duke, rising up and coming to her, 'I am very +glad to see you. It is good of you to come to me.' Then he took +her in both his hands and kissed her forehead and her lips. She, +as she put her face up to him, stood quite still in his embrace, +but her eyes were bright with pleasure. + +'Shall I leave her?' said Silverbridge. + +'For a few minutes.' + +'Don't keep her too long, for I want to take her all over the +house.' + +'A few minutes,--and then I will bring her up to the drawing-room.' + Upon this the door was closed, and Isabel was alone with her new +father. 'And so, my dear, you are to be my child.' + +'If you will have me.' + +'Come here and sit down by me. Your father has already told you +that;--has he not? + +'He has told me that you had consented.' + +'And Silverbridge has said as much?' + +'I would sooner hear it from you than from either of them.' + +'Then hear it from me. You shall be my child. And if you will love +me you shall be very dear to me. You shall be my own child,--as +dear to me as my own. I must either love his wife very dearly, or +else I must be an unhappy man. And she most love me dearly, or I +must be unhappy.' + +'I will love you,' she said, pressing his hand. + +'And now let me say some few words to you, only let there be no +bitterness in them to your young heart. When I say that I take you +to my own heart, you may be sure that I do so thoroughly. You +shall be as dear to me and as near as though you had been all +English.' + +'Shall I?' + +'There shall be no difference made. My boy's wife shall be my +daughter in very deed. But I had not wished it to be so.' + +'I knew that,--but could I have given up?' + +'He at any rate could not give up. There were little prejudices;-- +you can understand that.' + +'Oh yes.' + +'We who wear black coats could not bring ourselves readily to put +on scarlet garments; nor should we sit comfortably with our legs +crossed like Turks.' + +'I am your scarlet coat and our cross-legged Turk,' she said, with +feigned self-reproach in her voice, but with a sparkle of mirth in +her eye. + +'But when I have once got into my scarlet coat I can be very proud +of it, and when I am once seated in my divan I shall find it of +all postures the easiest. Do you understand me?' + +'I think so.' + +'Not a shade of any prejudice shall be left to darken my mind. +There shall be no feeling but that you are in truth his chosen +wife. After all neither can country, nor race, nor rank, nor +wealth, make a good woman. Education can do much. But nature must +have done much also.' + +'Do not expect too much of me.' + +'I will so expect that all shall be taken for the best. You know, +I think, that I have liked you since I first saw you.' + +'I know that you have always been good to me.' + +'I have liked you from the first. That you are lovely perhaps is +no merit, though, to speak the truth, I am well pleased that +Silverbridge should have found so much beauty.' + +'That is all a matter of taste, I suppose,' she said, laughing. + +'But there is much a young woman may do for herself, which I think +you have done. A silly girl, though she be a second Helen, would +hardly have satisfied me.' + +'Or perhaps him,' said Isabel. + +'Or him; and it is in that feeling that I find my chief +satisfaction,--that he should have the sense to have liked such a +one as you better than others. Now I have said it. As not being +one of us I did at first object to his choice. As being what you +are yourself, I am altogether reconciled to it. Do not keep him +long waiting.' + +'I do not think he likes being kept waiting for anything.' + +'I dare say not. I dare say not. And how there is one thing else.' + Then the Duke unlocked a little drawer that was close to his +hand, and taking out a ring put it on her finger. It was a bar of +diamonds, perhaps a dozen or them, fixed in a little circlet of +gold. 'This must never leave you,' he said. + +'It never shall,--having come from you.' + +'It was the first present that I gave to my wife, and it is the +first that I shall give to you. You may imagine how sacred it is +to me. On no other hand could it be worn without something which +to me would be akin to sacrilege. Now I must not keep you longer +or Silverbridge will be storming about the house. He of course +will tell me when it is to be; but do not you keep him long +waiting.' Then he kissed her and led her up into the drawing- +room. When he had spoken a word of greeting to Mrs Boncassen, he +left them to their own devices. + +After that they spent the best part of an hour in going over the +house; but even that was done in a manner unsatisfactory to +Silverbridge. Wherever Isabel went, there Mrs Boncassen went also. +There might have been some fun in showing even the back kitchens +to his bride-elect by herself;--but there was one in wandering +about those vast underground regions with a stout old lady who was +really interested with the cooking apparatus and the washhouses. +The bedrooms one after another became tedious to him when Mrs +Boncassen would make communications respecting each of them to her +daughter. 'That is Gerald's room,' said Silverbridge. 'You have +never seen Gerald. He is such a brick.' Mrs Boncassen was charmed +with the whips and sticks and boxing-gloves in Gerald's room, and +expressed an opinion that young men in the States mostly carried +their knickknacks about with them to the Universities. When she +was told that he had another collection of 'knickknacks' at +Matching, and another at Oxford, she thought that he was a very +extravagant young man. Isabel who had heard all about the gambling +in Scotland, looked round her lover and smiled. + +'Well, my dear,' said Mrs Boncassen, as they took their leave, 'it +is a very grand house, and I hope with all my heart you may have +your health there and be happy. But I don't know that you'll be +any happier because it's so big.' + +'Wait till you see Gatherum,' said Silverbridge. 'That, I own, +does make me unhappy. It has been calculated that three months at +Gatherum Castle would drive a philosopher mad.' + +In all this there had been a certain amount of disappointment for +Silverbridge; but on that evening, before dinner in Brook Street, +he received compensation. As the day was one somewhat peculiar in +its nature he decided that it should be kept together as a +holiday, and he did not therefore go down to the House. And not +going to the House of course he spent the time with the +Boncassens. 'You know you ought to go,' Isabel said to him when +the found themselves alone together in the back drawing-room. + +'Of course I ought.' + +'Then go. Do you think I would keep a Briton from his duties?' + +'Not though the constitution should fall in ruins. Do you suppose +that a man wants no rest after inspecting all the pots and pans in +that establishment? A woman, I believe, could go on doing that +kind of thing all day long.' + +'You should remember at least that the--woman was interesting +herself about your pots and pans.' + +'And now, Bella, tell me what the governor said to you.' Then she +showed him the ring. 'Did he give you that?' She nodded her head +in assent. 'I did not think he would ever part with that.' + +'It was your mother's.' + +'She wore it always. I almost think that I never saw her hand +without it. He would not have given you that unless he had meant +to be very good to you.' + +'He was very good to me, Silverbridge, I have a great deal to do, +to learn to be your wife.' + +'I'll teach you.' + +'Yes; you will teach me. But will you teach me right? There is +something almost awful in your father's serious dignity and solemn +appreciation of the responsibilities of his position. Will you +ever come to that?' + +'I shall never be a great man as he is.' + +'It seem to me that life to him is a load;--which he does not +object to carry, but which he knows must be carried with a great +struggle.' + +'I suppose it ought to be so with everyone.' + +'Yes,' she said, 'but the higher you put your foot on the ladder +the more constant should be your thought that your stepping +requires care. I fear that I am climbing too high.' + +'You can't come down now, young woman.' + +'I have to go on now,--and do the best I can. I will try to do my +best. I will try to do my best. I told him so, and now I tell you +so. I will try to do my best.' + +'Perhaps after all I am only a "pert poppet",' she said half an +hour afterwards, for Silverbridge had told her of the terrible +mistake made by poor Dolly Longstaff. + +'Brute!' he exclaimed. + +'Not at all. And when we are settled down in the real Darby-and- +Joan way I shall hope to see Mr Longstaff very often. I daresay he +won't call me a pert poppet, and I shall not remind him of the +word. But I shall always think of it; and remembering the way in +which my character struck an educated Englishman,--who was not +altogether ill-disposed towards me,--I may hope to improve myself.' + + + +CHAPTER 73 + +'I Have Never Loved You.' + +Silverbridge had now been in town three or four weeks, and Lady +Mabel Grex had also been in London all that time, and yet he had +not seen her. She had told him that she loved him and had asked +him plainly to make her his wife. He had told her he could not do +so,--that he was altogether resolved to make another woman his +wife. Then she had rebuked him, and had demanded from him how he +had dared to treat her as he had done. His conscience was clear. +He had his own code or morals as to such matters; and had, as he +regarded it, kept within the law. But she thought that she was +badly treated, and had declared that she was now left out in the +cold for ever through his treachery. Then her last word had been +almost the worst of all, 'Who can tell what may come to pass?'-- +showing too plainly that she would not even now give up her hope. +Before the month was up she wrote to him as follows: + +'DEAR LORD SILVERBRIDGE, + +'Why do you not come and see me? Are friends so plentiful with +you that one so staunch as I may be thrown over? But of course I +know why you do not come. Put all that aside,--and come. I cannot +hurt you. I have learned to feel that certain things which the +world regards as too awful to be talked of,--except in the way of +scandal, may be discussed and then laid aside just like other +subjects. What though I wear a wig or a wooden leg, I may still be +fairly comfortable among my companions unless I crucify myself by +trying to hide my misfortune. It is not the presence of the +skeleton that crushes us. Not even that will hurt us much if we +let him go about the house as he lists. It is the everlasting +effort which the horror makes to peep out of his cupboard that +robs us of our ease. At any rate come and see me. + +'Of course I know that you are to be married to Miss Boncassen. +Who does not know it? The trumpeters have been at work for the +last week. + +'Your very sincere Friend, +'MABEL.' + +He wished that she had not written. Of course he must go to her. +And though there was a word or two in her letter which angered +him, his feelings towards her were kindly. Had not that American +angel flown across the Atlantic to his arms he could have been +well content to make her his wife. But the interview at the +present moment could hardly be other than painful. She could, she +said, talk of her own misfortunes, but the subject would be very +painful to him. It was not to him a skeleton, to be locked out of +sight, but it had been a misfortune, and the sooner that such +misfortune could be forgotten the better. + +He knew what she meant about trumpeters. She had intended to +signify that Isabel in her pride had boasted of her matrimonial +prospects. Of course there had been trumpets. Are there not always +trumpets when a marriage is contemplated, magnificent enough to be +called an alliance? As for that he himself had blown the +trumpets. He had told everybody that he was going to be married to +Miss Boncassen. Isabel had blown no trumpets. In her own +straightforward way she had told the truth to whom it concerned. +Of course he would go and see Lady Mabel, but he trusted that for +her own sake nothing would be said about trumpets. + +'So you have come at last,' Mabel said when he entered the room. +'No;--Miss Cassewary is not here. As I wanted to see you alone I +got her to go out this morning. Why did you not come before?' + +'You said in your letter you knew why.' + +'But in saying so I was accusing you of cowardice;--was I not?' + +'It was not cowardice.' + +'Why then did you not come?' + +'I thought you would hardly wish to see me so soon,--after what +passed.' + +'That is honest at any rate. You felt that I must be too much +ashamed of what I said to be able to look you in the face.' + +'Not that exactly.' + +'Any other man would have felt the same, but no other man would be +honest enough to tell me so. I do not think that ever in your life +you have constrained yourself to the civility of a lie.' + +'I hope not.' + +'To be civil and false is often better than to be harsh and true. + I may be soothed by the courtesy and yet not deceived by the lie. +But what I told you in my letter,--which I hope you have destroyed--' + +'I will destroy it.' + +'Do. It was not intended for the partner of your future joys. As I +told you then I can talk freely. Why not? We know it,--both of us. +How your conscience may be I cannot tell; but mine is clear from +that soil with which you think it should be smirched.' + +'I think nothing of the sort.' + +'Yes, Silverbridge, you do. You have said to yourself this;--That +girl has determined to get me, and she has not stopped as to how +she would do it.' + +'No such idea ever crossed my mind.' + +'But you have never told yourself of the engagement which you gave +me. Such condemnation as I have spoken of would have been just if +my efforts had been sanctioned by no words, no looks, no deeds +from you. Did you give me warrant for thinking that you were my +lover?' + +That theory by which he had justified himself to himself seemed to +fall away from him under her questioning. He could not now +remember his words to her in those old days before Miss Boncassen +had crossed his path; but he did know that he had once intended to +make her understand that he loved her. She had not understood +him;--or understanding, had not accepted his words; and therefore +he had thought himself free. But it now seemed that he had not +been entitled so to regard himself. There she sat, looking at him, +waiting for his answer; and he who had been so sure that he had +committed no sin against her, had not a word to say to her. + +'I want you to answer that, Lord Silverbridge. I have told you +that I would have no skeleton in the cupboard. Down at Matching, +and before that at Killancodlem, I appealed to you, asking you to +take me as your wife.' + +'Hardly that.' + +'Altogether that! I will have nothing denied what I have done,-- +nor will I be ashamed of anything. I did do so,--even after this +infatuation. I thought then that one so volatile might perhaps fly +back again.' + +'I shall not do that,' said he, frowning at her. + +'You need trouble yourself with no assurance, my friend. Let us +understand each other now. I am not now supposing that you can fly +back again. You have found your perch, and you must settle on it +like a good domestic barn-door fowl.' Again he scowled. If she +were too hard upon him he would certainly turn upon her. 'No; you +will not fly back again now;--but was I, or was I not, justified +when you came to Killancodlem in thinking that my lover had come +there?' + +'How can I tell? It is my own justification I am thinking of.' + +'I see all that. But we cannot both be justified. Did you mean me +to suppose that you were speaking to me words in earnest when +there,--sitting in that very spot,--you spoke to me of your love.' + +'Did I speak of my love?' + +'Did you speak of your love! And now, Silverbridge,--for if there +be an English gentleman on earth I think you are one,--as a +gentleman tell me this. Did you not even tell your father that I +should be your wife? I know you did.' + +'Did he tell you?' + +'Men such as you and he, who cannot even lie with your eyelids, +who will not condescend to cover up a secret by a moment of +feigned inanimation, have many voices. He did tell me; but he +broke no confidence. He told me, but did not mean to tell me. Now +you also have told me.' + +'I did. I told him so. And then I changed my mind.' + +'I know you changed your mind. Men often do. A pinker pink, a +whiter white,--a finger that will press you just half an ounce the +closer,--a cheek that will consent to let itself come just a little +nearer-!' + +'No; no; no! It was because Isabel had not easily consented to +such approaches!' + +'Trifles such as these will do it;--and some such trifles have done +it with you. It would be beneath me to make comparisons where I +might seem to be the gainer. I grant her beauty. She is very +lovely. She has succeeded.' + +'I have succeeded.' + +'But;--I am justified, and you are condemned. Is it not so? Tell +me like a man.' + +'You are justified.' + +'And you are condemned? When you told me that I should be your +wife, and then told your father the same story, was I to think it +all meant nothing? Have you deceived me?' + +'I did not mean it.' + +'Have you deceived me? What; you cannot deny it, and yet have not +the manliness to own it to a poor woman who can only save herself +from humiliation by extorting the truth from you!' + +'Oh, Mabel, I am so sorry that it should be so.' + +'I believe you are,--with a sorrow that will last till she is again +sitting close to you. Nor, Silverbridge, do I wish it to be +longer. No;--no;--no. Your fault after all has not been great. You +deceived, but did not mean to deceive me?' + +'Never, never.' + +'And I fancy you have never known how much you bore about with +you. Your modesty has been so perfect that you have not thought of +yourself as more than other men. You have forgotten that you have +had in your hand the disposal to some one woman of a throne in +Paradise.' + +'I don't suppose you thought of that.' + +'But I did. Why should I tell falsehoods now. I have determined +that you should know everything,--but I could better confess to you +my own sins, when I had shown that you too have not been innocent. +Not think of it! Do not men think of high titles and great wealth +and power and place? And if men, why should not women? Do not +men try to get them;--and are they not even applauded for their +energy? A woman has but one way to try. I tried.' + +'I do not think it was well for that.' + +'How shall I answer that without a confession which even I am not +hardened enough to make? In truth, Silverbridge, I have never +loved you.' + +He drew himself up slowly before he answered her, and gradually +assumed a look very different from that easy boyish smile which +was customary to him. 'I am glad of that,' he said. + +'Why are you glad?' + +'Now I can have no regrets.' + +'You need have none. It was necessary to me that I should have my +little triumph;--that I should show you that I knew how far you had +wronged me! But now I wish you should know everything. I have +never loved you.' + +'There is an end of it then.' + +'But I have liked you so well;--so much better than all others! A +dozen men have asked me to marry them. And though they might be +nothing till they made the request, then they became,--things of +horror to me. But you were not a thing of horror. I could have +become your wife, and I think I would have learned to love you.' + +'It is best as it is.' + +'I ought to say so too; but I have a doubt I should have liked to +be Duchess of Omnium, and perhaps I might have fitted the place +better than one who can as yet know but little of its duties or +its privileges. I may, perhaps, think that that other arrangement +would have been better even for you.' + +'I can take care of myself in that.' + +'I should have married you without loving you, but I should have +done so determined to serve you with a devotion which a woman who +does love hardly thinks necessary. I would have so done my duty +that you should never have guessed that my heart had been in the +keeping of another man.' + +'Another man!' + +'Yes; of course. If there had been no other man, why not you? Am +I so hard, do you think that I can love no one? Are you not such +a one that a girl would naturally love,--were she not preoccupied? + That a woman should love seems as necessary as that a man should +not.' + +'A man can love too.' + +'No;--hardly. He can admire, and he can like, and he can fondle and +be fond. He can admire, and approve, and perhaps worship. He can +know of a woman that she is part of himself, the most sacred part, +and therefore will protect her from the very winds. But all that +will not make love. It does not come to a man that to be separated +from a woman is to be dislocated from his very self. A man has but +one centre, and that is himself. A woman has two. Though the +second may never be seen by her, may live in the arms of another, +may do all for that other that man can do for a woman,--still, +still, though he be half the globe asunder from her, still he is +to her the other half of her existence. If she really love, there +is, I fancy, no end of it. To the end of time I shall love Frank +Tregear.' + +'Tregear!' + +'Who else?' + +'He is engaged to Mary.' + +'Of course he is. Why not;--to her or to whomsoever else he might +like best? He is as true I doubt not to your sister as you are to +your American beauty,--or as you would have been to me had fancy +held. He used to love me.' + +'You were always friends.' + +'Always;--dear friends. And he would have loved me if a man were +capable of loving. But he could sever himself from me easily, just +when he was told to do so. I thought that I could do the same. +But I cannot. A jackal is born a jackal, and not lion, and cannot +help himself. So is a woman born--a woman. They are clinging, +parasite things, which cannot but adhere; though they destroy +themselves by adhering. Do not suppose that I take pride in it. I +would give one of my eyes to be able to disregard him.' + +'Time will do it.' + +'Yes; time,--that brings wrinkles and rouge-pots and rheumatism. +Though I have so hated those men as to be unable to endure them, +still I want some man's house, and his name,--some man's bread and +wine,--some man's jewels and titles and woods and parks and +gardens,--if I can get them. Time can help a man in his sorrow. If +he begins at forty to make speeches, or to win races, or to breed +oxen, he can yet live a prosperous life. Time is but a poor +consoler for a young woman who has to be married.' + +'Oh Mabel.' + +'And now let there be not a word more about it. I know--that I can +trust you.' + +'Indeed you may.' + +'Though you will tell her everything else you will not tell her +this.' + +'No;--not this.' + +'And surely you will not tell your sister!' + +'I shall tell no one.' + +'It is because you are so true that I have dared to trust you. I +had to justify myself,--and then to confess. Had I at that moment +taken you at your word, you would have never have known anything +of all this. "There is a tide in the affairs of men-!" But I let +the flood go by! I shall not see you again before you are +married; but come to me afterwards.' + + + +CHAPTER 74 + +'Let Us Drink a Glass of Wine Together' + +Silverbridge pondered it all much as he went home. What a terrible +story was that he had heard! The horror to him was chiefly in +this,--that she should yet be driven to marry some man without even +fancying that she could love him! And his was Lady Mabel Grex, +who, on his own first entrance into London life, now not much more +than twelve months ago, had seemed to him to stand above all other +girls in beauty, charm, and popularity! + +As he opened the door of his house with his latch-key, who should +be coming out but Frank Tregear,--Frank Tregear with his arm in a +sling, but still with an unmistakable look of general +satisfaction. 'When on earth did you come up?' asked Silverbridge. +Tregear told him that he had arrived on the previous evening from +Harrington. 'And why? The doctor would not have let you come if +he could have helped it.' + +'When he found he could not help it, he did let me come. I am +nearly all right. If I had been nearly all wrong I should have had +to come.' + +'And what are you doing here?' + +'Well; if you'll allow me I'll go back with you for a moment. What +do you think I have been doing?' + +'Have you seen my sister?' + +'Yes, I have seen your sister. And I have done better than that. I +have seen your father. Lord Silverbridge,--behold your brother-in- +law.' + +'You don't mean to say that it is arranged?' + +'I do.' + +'What did he say?' + +'He made me understand by most unanswerable arguments, that I had +no business to think of such a thing. I did not fight the point +with him,--but simply stood there, as conclusive evidence of my +business. He told me that we should have nothing to live on unless +he gave us an income. I assured him that I would never ask him +for a shilling. "But I cannot allow her to marry a man without an +income," he said.' + +'I know his way so well.' + +'I have just two facts to go upon,--that I would not give her up, +and that she would not give me up. When I pointed that out he tore +up his hair,--in a mild way, and said that he did not understand +that kind of thing at all.' + +'And yet he gave way.' + +'Of course he did. They say that when a king of old would consent +to see a petitioner for his life, he was bound by his royalty to +mercy. So it was with the Duke. Then, very early in the argument, +he forgot himself, and called her,--Mary. I knew that he had +thrown up the sponge then.' + +'How did he give way at last?' + +'He asked me what were my ideas about life in general. I said that +I thought Parliament was a good sort of thing, that I was lucky +enough to have a seat, and that I should take lodgings somewhere +near Westminster till-"Till what?" he asked. Till something is +settled I replied. Then he turned away from me and remained +silent. May I see Lady Mary? I asked. "Yes; you may see her," he +replied, as he rang the bell. Then when the servant was gone he +stopped me. "I love her too dearly to see her grieve," he said. "I +hope you will show that you can be worthy of her." Then I made +some sort of protestation and went upstairs. While I was with Mary +there came a message to me, telling me to come to dinner.' + +'The Boncassens are all dining there.' + +'Then we shall be a family party. So far I suppose I may say it is +settled. When he will let us marry heaven only knows. Mary +declares that she will not press him. I certainly cannot do so. +It is all a matter of money.' + +'He won't care about that.' + +'But he may perhaps think that a little patience will do us good. +You will have to soften him.' Then Silverbridge told all he knew +about himself. He was to be married in May; was to go to Matching +for a week or two after his wedding, was then to see the Session +to an end, and after that to travel with his wife to the United +States. 'I don't suppose we shall be allowed to run about the +world together so soon as that,' said Tregear, 'but I am too well +satisfied with my day's work to complain.' + +'Did he say what he meant to give her?' + +'Oh dear no;--nor even that he meant to give her anything. I should +not dream of asking a question about it. Nor when he makes any +proposition shall I think of having any opinion of my own.' + +'He'll make it all right;--for her sake you know.' + +'My chief object as regards him, is that he should not think I +have been looking for her money. Well; good-bye. I suppose we +shall all meet at dinner?' + +When Tregear left him Silverbridge went to his father's room. He +was anxious that they should understand each other as to Mary's +engagement. 'I thought you were at the House,' said the Duke. + +'I was going there, but I met Tregear at the door. He tells me you +have accepted him for Mary.' + +'I wish that he had never seen her. Do you think that a man can be +thwarted in everything and not feel it?' + +'I thought--you had reconciled yourself--to Isabel.' + +'If it were that alone I could do so the more easily, because +personally she wins upon me. And this man too;--it is not that I +find fault with himself.' + +'He is in all respects a high-minded gentleman.' + +'I hope so. But yet, had he a right to set his heart there, where +he could make his fortune,--having none of his own?' + +'He did not think of it.' + +'A gentleman should do more than not think of it. He should think +that it shall not be so. a man should own his means or should earn +them.' + +'How many, sir, do neither?' + +'Yes, I know,' said the Duke. 'Such a doctrine nowadays is caviare +to the general. One must live as others live around one, I +suppose. I could not see her suffer. It was too much for me. When +I became convinced that this was no temporary passion, no romantic +love which time might banish, that she was of such a temperament +that she could not change,--that I had to give way. Gerald I +suppose will bring me some kitchen-maid for his wife.' + +'Oh sir, you should not say that to me.' + +'No;--I should not have said it to you. I beg your pardon, +Silverbridge.' Then he paused a moment, turning over certain +thoughts within his own bosom. 'Perhaps after all it is well that +a pride of which I am conscious should be rebuked. And it may be +that the rebuke has come in such a form that I should be thankful. +I know that I can love Isabel.' + +'That to me will be everything.' + +'And this young man has nothing that should revolt me. I think he +has been wrong. But now that I have said it I will let all that +pass from me. He will dine with us today.' + +Silverbridge then went to see his sister. 'So you have settled +your little business, Mary.' + +'Oh Silverbridge, you will wish me joy?' + +'Certainly. Why not?' + +'Papa is so stern with me. Of course he has given way, and of +course I am grateful. But he looks at me as though I had done +something to be forgiven.' + +'Take the good the gods provide you, Mary. That will all come +right.' + +'But I have not done anything wrong, have I?' + +'That is a matter of opinion. How can I answer you when I don't +quite know whether I have done anything wrong or not myself. I am +going to marry the girl that I have chosen. That's enough for me.' + +'But you did change.' + +'We need not say anything about that.' + +'But I have never changed. Papa just told me that he would +consent, and that I might write to him. So I did write, and he +came. But papa looks at me as though I had broken his heart.' + +'I tell you what it is, Mary. You expect too much from him. He has +not had his own way with either of us, and of course he feels it.' + +As Tregear had said there was quite a family party in Carlton +Terrace, though as yet the family was not bound together by family +ties. All the Boncassens were there, the father, the mother, and +the promised bride. Mr Boncassen bore himself with more ease than +anyone in the company, having at his command a gift of manliness +which enabled him to regard this marriage exactly as he would have +done any other. America was not so far distant but what he would +be able to see his girl occasionally. He liked the young man and +he believed in the comfort of wealth. Therefore he was satisfied. +But when the marriage was spoken of, or written of, as an +'alliance', then he would say a hard word or two about dukes and +lords in general. On such an occasion as this he was happy and at +his ease. + +So much could not be said for his wife, with whom the Duke +attempted to place himself on terms of family equality. But in +doing this he failed to hide the attempt even from her, and she +broke down under it. Had he simply walked into the room with her +as he would have done on any other occasion, and then remarked +that the frost was keen or the thaw disagreeable, it would have +been better for her. But when he told her that he hoped that she +would often make herself at home in that house, and looked, as he +said it, as though he were asking her to take a place among the +goddesses of Olympus, she was troubled as to her answer. 'Oh, my +Lord Duke,' she said, 'when I think of Isabel living here and +being called by such a name, it almost upsets me.' + +Isabel had all her father's courage, but she was more sensitive; +and though she would have borne her honours well, was oppressed by +the feeling that the weight was too much for her mother. She could +not keep her ear from listening to her mother's words, or her eye +from watching her mother's motions. She was prepared to carry her +mother everywhere. 'As other girls have to be taken with their +belongings, so must I, if I be taken at all.' This she had said +plainly enough. There should be no division between her and her +mother. But still knowing that her mother was not quite at ease, +she was hardly at ease herself. + +Silverbridge came in at the last moment, and of course occupied a +chair next to Isabel. As the House was sitting, it was natural +that he should come in a flurry. 'I left Phineas,' he said, +'pounding away in his old style at Sir Timothy. By-the-bye, +Isabel, you must come down some day and hear Sir Timothy badgered. +I must be back again about ten. Well, Gerald, how are they all at +Lazarus?' He made an effort to be free and easy, but even he soon +found that it was an effort. + +Gerald had come up from Oxford for the occasion that he might make +acquaintance with the Boncassens. He had taken Isabel in to +dinner, but had been turned out of his place when his brother came +in. He had been a little confused by the first impression made +upon him by Mrs Boncassen, and had involuntarily watched his +father. 'Silver is going to have an odd sort of mother-in-law,' he +said afterwards to Mary, who remarked in reply that this would not +signify, as the mother-in-law would be in New York. + +Tregear's part was very difficult to play. He could not but feel +that though he had succeeded, still he was looked upon askance. +Silverbridge had told him that by degrees the Duke would be won +round, but that it was not to be expected that he should swallow +at once all his regrets. The truth of this could not but be +accepted. The immediate inconvenience, however, was not the less +felt. Each and everyone there knew the position of each and +everyone;--but Tregear felt it difficult to act up to his. He +could not play the well-pleased lover openly, as did Silverbridge. +Mary herself was disposed to be very silent. The heart-breaking +tedium of her dull life had been removed. Her determination had +been rewarded. All that she had wanted had been granted to her, +and she was happy. But she was not prepared to show off her +happiness before others. And she was aware that she was thought to +have done evil by introducing her lover into her august family. + +But it was the Duke who made the greatest efforts, and with the +least success. He had told himself again and again that he was +bound be every sense of duty to swallow all regrets. He had taken +himself to task on this matter. He had done so even out loud to +his son. He had declared that he would 'let it all pass from' him. +But who does not know how hard it is for a man in such matters to +keep his word to himself? Who has not said to himself at the very +moment of his own delinquency, 'Now,--it is now,--at this very +instant of time, that I should abate my greed, or smother my ill- +humour, or abandon my hatred. It is now, and here, that I should +drive out the fiend, as I have sworn to myself that I would do.'-- +and yet has failed? + +That it would be done, would be done at last, by this man was very +certain. When Silverbridge assured his sister that 'it would all +come right very soon,' he had understood his father's character. +But it could not be completed quite at once. Had he been required +to take Isabel only to his heart, it would have been comparatively +easy. There are men, who do not seem at first sight very +susceptible to feminine attractions, who nevertheless are +dominated by the grace of flounces, who succumb to petticoats +unconsciously, and who are half in love with every woman merely +for her womanhood. So it was with the Duke. He had given way in +regard to Isabel with less than half the effort that Frank Tregear +was likely to cost him. + +'You were not at the House, sir,' said Silverbridge when he felt +that there was a pause. + +'No, not today.' Then there was a pause again. + +'I think that we shall beat Cambridge this year to a moral,' said +Gerald, who was sitting at the round table opposite to his father. +Mr Boncassen, who was next him, asked, in irony probably rather +than in ignorance, whether the victory was to be achieved by +mathematical or classical proficiency. Gerald turned and looked +at him. 'Do you mean to say that you have never heard of the +University boat-races?' + +'Papa, you have disgraced yourself for ever,' said Isabel. + +'Have I, my dear? Yes, I have heard of them. But I thought Lord +Gerald's protestation was too great for a mere aquatic triumph.' + +'Now you are poking your fun at me,' said Gerald. + +'Well he may,' said the Duke sententiously. 'We have laid +ourselves very open to having fun poked at us in this matter.' + +'I think,' said Tregear, 'that they are learning to do the same +sort of thing in American Universities.' + +'Oh, indeed,' said the Duke in a solemn, dry, funereal tone. And +then all the little life which Gerald's remark about the boat-race +had produced, was quenched at once. The Duke was not angry with +Tregear for his little word of defence,--but he was not able to +bring himself into harmony with this one guest, and was almost +savage to him without meaning it. He was continually asking +himself why Destiny had been so hard upon him as to force him to +receive there at his table as his son-in-law a man who was +distasteful to him. And he was endeavouring to answer the +question, taking himself to task and telling himself that his +destiny had done him no injury, and that the pride which had been +wounded was a false pride. He was making a brave fight; but during +the fight he was hardly fit to be the genial father and father-in- +law of young people who were going to be married to one another. +But before the dinner was over he made a great effort. 'Tregear,' +he said,--and even that was an effort, for he had never hitherto +mentioned the man's name without the formal Mister, 'Tregear, as +this is the first time you have sat at my table, let me be old- +fashioned, and ask you to drink a glass of wine with me.' + +The glass of wine was drunk and the ceremony afforded infinite +satisfaction to one person there. Mary could not keep herself from +some expression of joy by pressing her finger for a moment against +her lover's arm. He, though not usually given to such +manifestations, blushed up to his eyes. But the feeling produced +on the company was solemn rather than jovial. Everyone there +understood it all. Mr Boncassen could read the Duke's mind down to +the last line. Even Mrs Boncassen was aware that an act of +reconciliation had been intended. 'When the governor drank that +glass of wine it seemed as though half the marriage ceremony had +been performed,' Gerald said to his brother that evening. When the +Duke's glass was replaced on the table, he himself was conscious +of the solemnity of what he had done, and was half ashamed of it. + +When the ladies had gone upstairs the conversation became +political and lively. The Duke could talk freely about the state +of things to Mr Boncassen, and was able gradually to include +Tregear in the badinage with which he attacked the conservatism of +his son. And so the half hour passed well. Upstairs the two girls +immediately came together, leaving Mrs Boncassen to chew the cud +of the grandeur around her in the sleepy comfort of an arm-chair. +'And so everything is settled for both of us,' said Isabel. + +'Of course I knew it was to be settled for you. You told me so at +Custins.' + +'I did not know it then. I only told you that he had asked me. And +you hardly believed me.' + +'I certainly believed you.' + +'But you knew about--Lady Mabel Grex.' + +'I only suspected something, and now I know it was a mistake. It +has never been more than a suspicion.' + +'And why, when we were at Custins, did you not tell me about +yourself?' + +'I had nothing to tell.' + +'I can understand that. But is it not joyful that it should all be +settled? Only poor Lady Mabel! You have got no Lady Mabel to +trouble your conscience.' From which it was evident that +Silverbridge had not told all. + + + +CHAPTER 75 + +The Major's Story + +By the end of March Isabel was in Paris, whither she had forbidden +her lover to follow her. Silverbridge was therefore reduced to the +shifts of a bachelor's life, in which his friends seemed to think +that he ought now to take special delight. Perhaps he did not take +much delight in them. He was no doubt impatient to commence that +steady married life for which he had prepared himself. But +nevertheless, just at present, he lived a good deal at the +Beargarden. Where was he to live? The Boncassens were in Paris, +his sister was at Matching with a houseful of other Pallisers, and +his father was again deep in politics. + +Of course he was much in the House of Commons, but that also was +stupid. Indeed everything would be stupid till Isabel came back. +Perhaps dinner was more comfortable at the club than at the House. + And then, as everybody knew, it was a good thing to change the +scene. Therefore he dined at the club, and though he would keep +his hansom and go down to the House again in the course of the +evening, he spent many long hours at the Beargarden. 'There'll +very soon be an end of this as far as you are concerned,' said Mr +Lupton to him one evening as they were sitting in the smoking-room +after dinner. + +'The sooner the better as far as this place is concerned.' + +'This place is as good as any other. For the matter of that I like +the Beargarden since we got rid of two or three not very charming +characters.' + +'You mean my poor friend Tifto,' said Silverbridge. + +'No;--I was not thinking of Tifto. There were one or two here who +were quite as bad as Tifto. I wonder what has become of that poor +devil?' + +'I don't know in the least. You heard of that row about the +hounds?' + +'And his letter to you.' + +'He wrote to me,--and I answered him, as you know. But whither he +vanished or what he is doing, or how he is living, I have not the +least idea.' + +'Gone to join those other fellows abroad I should say. Among them +they got a lot of money,--as the Duke ought to remember.' + +'He is not with them,' said Silverbridge, as though he were in +some degree mourning over the fate of his unfortunate friend. + +'I suppose Captain Green was the leader in all that.' + +'Now it is all done and gone I own to a certain regard for the +Major. He was true to me till he thought I snubbed him. I would +not let him go down to Silverbridge with me. I always thought that +I drove the poor Major to his malpractice.' + +At this moment Dolly Longstaff sauntered into the room and came up +to them. It may be remembered that Dolly had declared his purpose +of emigrating. As soon as he heard that the Duke's heir had +serious thoughts of marrying the lady whom he loved he withdrew at +once from the contest, but, as he did so, he acknowledged that +there could be no longer a home for him in the country which +Isabel was to inhabit as the wife of another man. Gradually, +however, better thoughts returned to him. After all, what was she +but a 'pert poppet'? He determined that marriage 'clips a +fellow's wings confoundedly', and so he set himself to enjoy life +after his old fashion. There was perhaps a little swagger as he +threw himself into a chair and addressed the happy lover. 'I'll be +shot if I didn't meet Tifto at the corner of the street.' + +'Tifto!' + +'Yes, Tifto. He looked awfully seedy, with a greatcoat buttoned up +to his chin, a shabby hat and gloves.' + +'Did he speak to you?' asked Silverbridge. + +'No;--nor I to him. He hadn't time to think whether he would speak +or not, and you may be sure I didn't.' + +Nothing further was said about the man, but Silverbridge was +uneasy and silent. When his cigar was finished he got up saying +that he should go back to the House. As he left the club he looked +about him as though expecting to see his old friend, and when he +had passed through the first street and had got into the Haymarket +there he was! The Major came up to him, touched his hat, asked to +be allowed to say a few words. 'I don't think it can do any good,' +said Silverbridge. The man had not attempted to shake hands with +him, or affected familiarity; but seemed to be thoroughly +humiliated. 'I don't think I can be of any service to you, and +therefore I had rather decline.' + +'I don't want you to be of any service, my Lord.' + +'Then what's the good?' + +'I have something to say. May I come to you tomorrow?' + +Then Silverbridge allowed himself to make an appointment, and an +hour was named at which Tifto might call into Carlton Terrace. He +felt that he almost owed some reparation to the wretched man,--whom +he had unfortunately admitted among his friends, whom he had used, +and to whom he had been uncourteous. Exactly at the hour named the +Major was shown into the room. + +Dolly had said that he was shabby,--but the man was altered rather +than shabby. He still had rings on his fingers and studs in his +shirt, and a jewelled pin in his cravat,--but he had shaven off his +moustache and the tuft from his chin, and his hair had been cut +short, and in spite of his jewellery there was a hang-dog look +about him. 'I've got something that I particularly want to say to +you, my Lord.' Silverbridge would not shake hands with him, but +could not refrain from offering him a chair. + +'Well;--you can say it now.' + +'Yes;--but it isn't so very easy to be said. There are some things, +though you want to say them ever, so you don't quite know how to +do it.' + +'You have your choice, Major Tifto. You can speak or hold your +tongue.' + +Then there was a pause, during which Silverbridge sat with his +hands in his pockets trying to look unconcerned. 'But if you've +got it here, and feel it as I do,'--the poor man as he said this +put his hand upon his heart,--'you can't sleep in your bed till +it's out. I did that thing that they said I did.' + +'What thing?' + +'Why, the nail! It was I lamed the horse.' + +'I am sorry for it. I can say nothing else.' + +'You ain't so sorry for it as I am. Oh no; you can never be that, +my Lord. After all what does it matter to you.' + +'Very little. I meant that I was sorry for your sake.' + +'I believe you are, my Lord. For though you could be rough you was +always kind. Now I will tell you everything, and then you can do +as you please.' + +'I wish to do nothing. As far as I am concerned the matter is +over. It made me sick of horses, and I do not wish to have to +think of it again.' + +'Nevertheless, my Lord, I've got to tell it. It was Green who put +me up to it. He did it just for the plunder. As God is my judge it +was not for the money I did it.' + +'Then it was revenge.' + +'It was the devil got hold of me, my Lord. Up to that I had always +been square,--square as a die! I got to think that your Lordship +was upsetting. I don't know whether your Lordship remembers, but +you did put me down once or twice rather uncommon.' + +'I hope I was not unjust.' + +'I don't say you was, my Lord. But I got a feeling on me that you +wanted to get rid of me, and I all the time doing the best I could +for the 'orses. I did do the best I could up to that very morning +at Doncaster. Well;--it was Green put me up to it. I don't say I +was to get nothing; but it wasn't so much more than I could have +got by the 'orse winning. And I've lost pretty nearly all that I +did get. Do you remember, my Lord,'--and now the Major sank his +voice to a whisper,--'when I come up to your bedroom that morning?' + +'I remember it.' + +'The first time?' + +'Yes; I remember it.' + +'Because I came twice, my Lord. When I came first it hadn't been +done. You turned me out.' + +'That is true, Major Tifto.' + +'You was very rough then. Wasn't you rough?' + +'A man's bedroom is generally supposed to be private.' + +'Yes, my Lord,--that's true. I ought to have sent your man first. I +came then to confess it all, before it was done.' + +'Then why couldn't you let the horse alone?' + +'I was in their hands. And then you was so rough with me! So I +said to myself I might as well do it,--and I did it.' + +'What do you want me to say? As far as my forgiveness goes, you +have it!' + +'That saying a great deal, my Lord,--a great deal,' said Tifto, now +in tears. 'But I ain't said it all yet. He's here; in London!' + +'Who's here.' + +'Green. He's here. He doesn't think I know, but I could lay my +hands on him tomorrow.' + +'There is no human being alive, Major Tifto, whose presence or +absence could be a matter of more indifference to me.' + +'I'll tell you what I'll do, my Lord. I'll go before any judge, or +magistrate, or police-officer in the country, and tell the truth. +I won't ask even for a pardon. They shall punish me and him too. +I'm in that state of mind that any change would be for the better. +But he,--he ought to have it heavy.' + +'It won't be done by me, Major Tifto. Look here, Major Tifto, you + have come here to confess that you have done me a great injury.' + +'Yes, I have.' + +'And you say you are sorry for it.' + +'Indeed I am.' + +'And I have forgiven you. There is only one way in which you can +show your gratitude. Hold your tongue about it. Let it be as a +thing done and gone. The money has been paid. The horse has been +sold. The whole thing has gone out of my mind, and I don't want to +have it brought back again.' + +'And nothing is to be done to Green?' + +'I should say nothing,--on that score.' + +'And he has got they say five-and-twenty thousand pounds clear +money.' + +'It is a pity, but it cannot be helped. I will have nothing +further to do with it. Of course I cannot bind you, but I have +told you my wishes.' The poor wretch was silent, but still it +seemed as though he did not wish to go quite yet. 'If you have +said what you have got to say, Major Tifto, I may as well tell you +that my time is engaged.' + +'And must that be all?' + +'What else?' + +'I am in such a state of mind, Lord Silverbridge, that it would be +satisfaction to tell it all, even against myself.' + +'I can't prevent you.' + +Then Tifto got up from his chair, as though he were going. 'I wish +I knew what I was going to do with myself.' + +'I don't know that I can help you, Major Tifto.' + +'I suppose not, my Lord. I haven't twenty pounds left in all the +world. It's the only thing that wasn't square that ever I did in +all my life. Your Lordship couldn't do anything for me? We was +very much together at one time, my Lord.' + +'Yes, Major Tifto, we were.' + +'Of course I was a villain. But it was only once; and your +Lordship was so rough with me! I am not saying but what I was a +villain. Think of what I did for myself by that one piece of +wickedness! Master of Hounds! Member of the club! And the horse +would have run in my name and won the Leger! And everybody knew +as your Lordship and me was together in him!' Then he burst out +into a paroxysm of tears and sobbing. + +The young Lord certainly could not take the man into partnership +again, nor could he restore to him either the hounds or his club,-- +or his clean hands. Nor did he know in what way he could serve the +man, except by putting his hand into his pocket,--which he did. +Tifto accepted the gratuity, and ultimately became an annual +pensioner on his former noble partner, living on the allowance +made him in some obscure corner of South Wales. + + + +CHAPTER 76 + +On Deportment + +Frank Tregear had come up to town at the end of February. He +remained in London, with an understanding that he was not to see +Lady Mary again till the Easter holidays. He was then to pay a +visit to Matching, and to enter it, it may be presumed, on the +full fruition of his advantages as accepted suitor. All this had +been arranged with a good deal of precision,--as though there had +still been a hope left that Lady Mary might change her mind. Of +course there was no such hope. When the Duke asked the young man +to dine with him, when he invited him to drink that memorable +glass of wine, when the young man was allowed, in the presence of +the Boncassens, to sit next to Lady Mary, it was of course +settled. But the father probably found some relief in yielding by +slow degrees. 'I would rather that there should be no +correspondence till then,' he said both to Tregear and to his +daughter. And they had promised there should be no correspondence. + At Easter they would meet. After Easter Mary was to come up to +London to be present at her brother's wedding, to which also +Tregear had been formally invited; and it was hoped that then +something might be settled as to their own marriage. Tregear, with +the surgeon's permission, took his seat in Parliament. He was +introduced by two leading Members on the conservative side, but +immediately afterwards found himself seated next to his friend +Silverbridge on the top bench behind the ministers. The House was +very full, as there was a feverish report abroad that Sir Timothy +Beeswax intended to make a statement. No one quite knew what the +statement was to be; but every politician in the House and out of +it thought that he knew that the statement would be a bid for +higher power on the part of Sir Timothy himself. If there had been +dissensions in the Cabinet, the secret of them had been well kept. +To Tregear who was not as yet familiar with the House there was no +special appearance of activity; but Silverbridge could see that +there was more than wonted animation. That the Treasury bench +should be full at this time was a thing of custom. A whole +broadside of questions would be fired off, one after another, like +a rattle of musketry down the ranks, when as nearly as possible +the report of each gun is made to follow close upon that of the +gun before,--with this exception, that in such case each little +sound is intended to be as like as possible to the preceding, +whereas with the rattle of the questions and answers, each +question and each answer becomes a little more authoritative and +less courteous than the last. The Treasury bench was ready for its +usual responsive firing, as the questioners were of course in +their places. The opposition front bench was also crowded, and +those behind were nearly equally full. There were many Peers in +the gallery, and a general feeling of sensation prevailed. All +this Silverbridge had been long enough in the House to +appreciate;--but to Tregear the House was simply the House. + +'It's odd enough we should have a row the very first day you +come,' said Silverbridge. + +'You think there will be a row?' + +'Beeswax has something special to say. He's not here yet you see. +They've left about six inches for him between Roper and Sir +Orlando. You'll have the privilege of looking just down on the top +of his head when he does come. I shan't stay much longer after +that.' + +'Where are you going?' + +'I don't mean today. But I should not have been here now,--in this +very place I mean,--but I want to stick to you just at first. I +shall move down below the gangway; and not improbably creep over +to the other side before long.' + +'You don't mean it?' + +'I think I shall. I begin to feel I've made a mistake.' + +'In coming to this side at all?' + +'I think I have. After all it is not very important.' + +'What is not important? I think it is very important.' + +'Perhaps it may be to you, and perhaps you may be able to keep it +up. But the more I think of it the less excuse I seem to have for +deserting the old ways of the family. What is there in those +fellows down there to make a fellow feel that he ought to bind +himself to them neck and heels?' + +'Their principles.' + +'Yes, their principles! I believe I have some vague idea as to +supporting property and land and all that kind of thing. I don't +know that anybody wants to attack anything.' + +'Somebody soon would want to attack if there no defenders.' + +'I suppose there is an outside power,--the people, or public +opinion, or whatever they choose to call it. And the country will +have to go very much as that outside power chooses. Here, in +Parliament, everybody will be as conservative as the outside will +let them. I don't think it matters on which side you sit;--but it +does matter that you shouldn't have to act with those who go +against the grain with you.' + +'I never heard worse political arguments in my life.' + +'I daresay not. However, there's Sir Timothy. When he looks in +that way, all buckram, deportment, and solemnity, I know he's +going to pitch into somebody.' + +At this moment the Leader of the House came in from behind the +Speaker's chair and took his place between Mr Roper and Sir +Orlando Drought. When a man has to declare a solemn purpose on a +solemn occasion in a solemn place, it is needful that he should be +solemn himself. And though the solemnity which befits a man best +will be that which the importance of the moment may produce, +without thought given by himself to his own outward person, still, +who is there can refrain himself from some attempt? Who can boast, +who that has been versed in the ways and duties of high places, +that he has kept himself free from all study of grace, of feature, +or attitude, of gait--or even of dress? For most of our bishops, +for most of our judges, or our statesmen, our orators, our +generals, for many even of our doctors and our parsons, even our +attorneys, our taxgatherers, and certainly our butlers and our +coachmen. Mr Turveydrop, the great professor of deportment, has +done much. But there should always be the art to underlie and +protect the art;--the art that can hide the art. The really clever +archbishop,--the really potent chief justice, the man, who as a +politician, will succeed in becoming a king of men, should know +how to carry his buckram without showing it. It was in this that +Sir Timothy perhaps failed a little. There are men who look as +though they were born to wear blue ribbons. It has come, probably, +from study, but it seems to be natural. Sir Timothy did not impose +on those who looked at him as do these men. You see a little of +the paint, you could hear the crumple of the starch and the +padding; you could trace something of the uneasiness in the would- +be composed grandeur of the brow. 'Turveydrop!' the spectator +would say to himself. But after all it may be a question whether a +man be open to reproach for not doing that well which the greatest +among us,--if we could find one great enough,--would not do at all. + +For I think we must hold that true personal dignity should be +achieved,--must, if it is to be quite true, have been achieved,-- +without any personal effort. Though it be evinced, in part, by the +carriage of the body, that carriage should be the fruit of the +operation of the mind. Even when it be assisted by external +garniture such as special clothes, and wigs, and ornaments, such +garniture should be prescribed by the sovereign or by custom, and +should not have been selected by the wearer. In regard to speech a +man may study all that which may make him suasive, but if he go +beyond that he will trench on those histrionic efforts, which he +will know to be wrong because he will be ashamed to acknowledge +them. It is good to be beautiful, but it should come of God and +not of the hairdresser. And personal dignity is a great +possession; but a man should struggle for it no more than he would +for beauty. Many, however, do struggle for it, and with such +success that, though they do not achieve quite the real thing, +still they get something on which they can bolster themselves up +and be mighty. + +Others, older men than Silverbridge, saw as much as did our young +friends, but they were more complaisant and more reasonable. They, +too, heard the crackle of the buckram, and were aware that the +last touch of awe had come upon that brow just as its owner was +emerging from the shadow of the Speaker's chair;--but to them it +was a thing of course. A real Csar is not to be found every day, +nor can we always have a Pitt to control our debates. That kind of +thing, that last touch has its effect. Of course it is all paint,-- +but how would the poor girl look before the gaslights if there +were no paint? The House of Commons likes a little deportment on +occasions. If a special man looks bigger than you, you can console +yourself by reflecting that he also looks bigger than your +fellows. Sir Timothy probably knew what he was about, and did +himself on the whole more good than harm by his little tricks. + +As soon as Sir Timothy had taken his seat, Mr Rattler got up from +the opposition bench to ask him some questions on a matter of +finance. The brewers were anxious about publican licences. Could +the Chancellor of the Exchequer say a word on the matter? Notice +had of course been given, and the questioner had stated a quarter +of an hour previously that he would postpone his query till the +Chancellor of the Exchequer was in the House. + +Sir Timothy rose from his seat, and in his blandest manner began +by apologising for his late appearance. He was sorry that he had +been prevented by public business from being in place to answer +the honourable gentleman's question in proper turn. And even now, +he feared, that he must decline to give any answer which could be +supposed to be satisfactory. It would probably be his duty to make +a statement to the House on the following day,--a statement which +he was not quite prepared to make at the present moment. But in +the existing state of things he was unwilling to make any reply to +any question by which he might seem to bind the government to any +opinion. Then he sat down. And rising again not long afterwards, +when the House had gone through certain formal duties, he moved +that it should be adjourned till the next day. Then all the +members trooped out, and with the others Tregear and Lord +Silverbridge. 'So that is the end our your first day in +Parliament,' said Silverbridge. + +'What does it all mean?' + +'Let us go down to the Carlton and hear what the fellows are +saying.' + +On that evening both the young men dined at Mr Boncassen's house. +Though Tregear had been cautioned not to write to Lady Mary, and +though he was not to see her before Easter, still it was so +completely understood that he was about to become her husband, +that he was entertained in that capacity by all those who were +concerned in the family. 'And so they will all go out,' said Mr +Boncassen. + +'That seems to be the general idea,' said the expectant son-in- +law. 'When two men want to be first and neither will give way, +they can't very well get on in the same boat together.' Then he +expatiated angrily on the treachery of Sir Timothy, and Tregear in +a more moderate way joined in the same opinion. + +'Upon my word, young men, I doubt whether you are right,' said Mr +Boncassen. 'Whether it can be possible that a man should have +risen to such a position with so little patriotism as you +attribute to our friend, I will not pretend to say. I should think +that in England it was impossible. But of this I am sure, that the +facility which exists here for a minister or ministers to go out +of office without disturbance of the Crown, is a great blessing. +You say the other party will come in.' + +'That is most probable,' said Silverbridge. + +'With us the other party never comes in,--never has a chance of +coming in,--except once in four years, when the President is +elected. That one event binds us for four years.' + +'But you do change your ministers,' said Tregear. + +'A secretary may quarrel with the President, or he may have the +gout, or be convicted of peculation.' + +'And yet you think yourselves more nearly free than we are.' + +'I am not so sure of that. We have had a pretty difficult task, +that of carrying on a government in a new country, which is +nevertheless more populous than almost any old country. The +influxions are so rapid, that every ten years the nature of the +people is changed. It isn't easy; and though I think on the whole +we've done pretty well, I am not going to boast that Washington is +as yet a seat of political Paradise.' + + + +CHAPTER 77 + +'Mabel, Good-Bye' + +When Tregear first came to town with his arm in a sling, and +bandages all round him,--in order that he might be formally +accepted by the Duke,--he had himself taken to one other house +besides the house in Carlton Terrace. He went to Belgrave Square, +to announce his fate to Lady Mabel Grex;--but Lady Mabel Grex was +not there. The Earl was ill at Brighton, and Lady Mabel had gone +down to nurse him. The old woman who came to him in the hall told +him that the Earl was very ill;--he had been attacked by the gout, +but in spite of the gout, and in spite of the doctors, he had +insisted on being taken to his club. Then he had been removed to +Brighton, under the doctor's advice, chiefly in order that he +might be kept out of the way of temptation. Now he was supposed to +be very ill indeed. 'My Lord is so imprudent!' said the old woman, +shaking her old head in real unhappiness. For though the Earl had +been a tyrant to everyone near him, yet when a poor woman becomes +old it is something to have a tyrant to protect her. 'My Lord!' +always had been imprudent. Tregear knew that it had been the +theory of my Lord's life that to eat and drink, and die was better +than to abstain and live. Then Tregear wrote to his friend as +follows: + +'MY DEAR MABEL, + +'I am up in town again as you will perceive, although I am still +in a helpless condition and hardly able to write even this letter. +I called today and was very sorry to hear so bad an account of +your father. Had I been able to travel I should have come down to +you. When I am able I will do so if you would wish to see me. In +the meantime pray tell me how he is, and how you are. + +'My news is this. The Duke accepted me. It is great news to me, +and I hope will be acceptable to you. I do believe that if a +friend has been anxious for a friend's welfare you have been +anxious for mine,--as I have been and ever shall be for yours.' + +'Of course this thing will be very much to me. I will not speak +now of my love for the girl who is to become my wife. You might +again call me Romeo. Nor do I like to say much of what may now be +pecuniary prospects. I did not ask Mary to become my wife because +I supposed she would be rich. But I could not have married her or +anyone else who had not money. What are the Duke's intentions I +have not the slightest idea, nor shall I ask him. I am to go down +to Matching at Easter, and shall endeavour to have some time +fixed. I suppose the Duke will say something about money. If he +does not, I shall not. + +'Pray write me at once, and tell me when I shall see you. + +'Your affectionate Cousin, +'F. O. TREGEAR.' + +In answer to this there came a note in a very few words. She +congratulated him,--not very warmly,--but expressed a hope that she +might see him soon. But she told him not to come to Brighton. The +Earl was better but very cross, and she would be up in town before +long. + +Towards the end of the month it became suddenly known in London +that Lord Grex had died at Brighton. There was a Garter to be +given away, and everybody was filled with regret that such an +ornament to the Peerage should have departed from them. The +conservative papers remembered how excellent a politician he had +been in his younger days, and the world was informed that the +family of Grex of Grex was about the oldest in Great Britain of +which authentic records were in existence. Then there came another +note from Lady Mabel to Tregear. + +'I shall be in town on the thirty-first in the old house, with +Miss Cassewary, and will see you if can come down on the first. +Come early, at eleven, if you can.' + +On the day named and at the hour fixed he was in Belgrave Square. +He had known this house since he was a boy, and could well +remember how, when he first entered it, he had thought with some +awe of the grandeur of the Earl. The Earl had then not paid much +attention to him, but he had become very much taken with the grace +and good nature of the girl who had owned him as a cousin. 'You +are my cousin, Frank,' she had said; 'I am so glad to have a +cousin.' He could remember the words now as though they had been +spoken only yesterday. Then there had quickly grown to be +friendship between him and this, as he thought, sweetest of all +girls. At that time he had just gone to Eton; but before he left +Eton they had sworn to love each other. And so it had been and the +thing had grown, till at last, just when he had taken his degree +two matters had been settled between them; the first was that each +loved the other irretrievably, irrevocably, passionately; the +second, that it was altogether out of the question that they +should ever marry each other. + +It is but fair to Tregear to say that this last decision +originated with the lady. He had told her that he certainly would +hold himself engaged to marry her at some future time; but she had +thrown this aside at once. How was it possible, she said, that two +such beings, brought up in luxury, and taught to enjoy all the +good things of the world, should expect to live and be happy +together without an income? He offered to go to the bar;--but she +asked him whether he thought it well that such a one as she should +wait say a dozen years for such a process. 'When the time comes, I +should be an old woman and you would be a wretched man.' She +released him,--declared her own purpose of marrying well; and then, +though there had been a moment in which her own assurance of her +own love had been passionate enough, she went so far as to tell +him that she was heartwhole. 'We have been two foolish children +but we cannot be children any longer,' she said. 'There must be an +end of it.' + +What had hitherto been the result of this the reader knows,--and +Tregear knew also. He had taken the privilege given to him, and +had made so complete a use of it that he had in truth transferred +his heart as well as his allegiance. Where is the young man who +cannot do so;--how few are there who do not do so when their first +passion has come on them at one-and-twenty? And he had thought +that she would do the same. But gradually he found that she had +not done so, did not do so, could not do so! When she first heard +of Lady Mary she had not reprimanded him,--but she could not keep +herself from showing the bitterness of her disappointment. Though +she would still boast of her own strength and of her own purpose, +yet it was too clear to him that she was wounded and very sore. +She would have liked him to remain single at any rate till she +herself had married. But the permission had hardly been given +before he availed himself of it. And then he talked to her not +only of the brilliancy of his prospects,--which she would have +forgiven,--but of his love--his love! + +Then she had refused one offer after another, and he had known it +all. There was nothing in which she was concerned that she did not +tell him. Then young Silverbridge had come across her, and she had +determined that he should be her husband. She had been nearly +successful,--so nearly that at moments she felt sure of success. +But the prize had slipped from her through her own fault. She knew +well enough that it was her own fault. When a girl submits to play +such a game as that, she could not stand on too nice scruples. She +had told herself this many a time since;--but the prize was gone. + +All this Tregear knew, and knowing it almost dreaded the coming +interview. He could not without actual cruelty have avoided her. +Had he done so before he could not have continued to do so now, +when she was left alone in the world. Her father had not been much +to her, but still his presence had enabled her to put herself +before the world as being somebody. Now she would be almost +nobody. And she had lost her rich prize, while he,--out of the same +treasury as it were,--had won his! + +The door opened to him by the same old woman, and he was shown, at +a funereal pace, up into the drawing-room which he had known so +well. He was told that Lady Mabel would be down to him directly. +As he looked about him he could see that already had been +commenced that work of division of spoil which is sure to follow +the death of most of us. Things were already gone which used to be +familiar to his eyes, and the room, though not dismantled, had +been deprived of many of its little prettiness and was ugly. + +In about ten minutes she came down to him,--with so soft a step +that he would not have been aware of her entrance had he not seen +her form in the mirror. Then, when he turned round to greet her, +he was astonished by the blackness of her appearance. She looked +as though she had become ten years older since he had last seen +her. As she came up to him she was grave and almost solemn in her +gait, but there was no sign of any tears. Why should there have +been a tear? Women weep, and men too, not from grief, but from +emotion. Indeed, grave and slow as she was her step, and serious, +almost solemn, as was her gait, there was something of a smile on +her mouth as she gave him her hand. And yet her face was very sad, +declaring to him too plainly something of the hopelessness of her +heart. 'And so the Duke has consented,' she said. He had told her +that in his letter, but since that, her father had died, and she +had been left, he did not as yet know how impoverished, but, he +feared, with no pleasant worldly prospects before her. + +'Yes, Mabel;--that I suppose will be settled. I have been so +shocked to hear all this.' + +'It has been very sad;--has it not? Sit down, Frank. You and I +have a good deal to say to each other now that we have met. It was +no good your going down to Brighton. He would not have seen you, +and at last I never left him.' + +'Was Percival there?' She only shook her head. 'That was +dreadful.' + +'It was not Percival's fault. He would not see him; nor till the +last hour or two would he believe in his own danger. Nor was he +ever to frightened for a moment,--not even then.' + +'Was he good to you?' + +'Good to me! Well;--he liked my being there. Poor papa! It had +gone so far with him that he could not be good to any one. I think +that he felt that it would be unmanly not to be the same till the +end.' + +'He would not see Percival.' + +'When it was suggested he would only ask what good Percival could +do him. I did send for him at last, in my terror, but he did not +see his father alive. When he did come he only told me how badly +his father had treated him! It was very dreadful!' + +'I did so feel for you.' + +'I am sure you did, and will. After all, Frank, I think that the +pious godly people have the best of it in this world. Let them be +ever so covetous, ever so false, ever so hard-hearted, the mere +fact that they must keep up appearances, makes them comfortable to +those around them. Poor papa was not comfortable to me. A little +hypocrisy, a little sacrifice to the feelings of the world, may be +such a blessing.' + +'I am sorry that you should feel it so.' + +'Yes; it is sad. But you;--everything is smiling with you! Let us +talk about your plans.' + +'Another time will do for that. I had come to hear about your own +affairs.' + +'There they are,' she said, pointing round the room. 'I have no +other affairs. You see that I am going from here.' + +'And where are you going?' She shook her head. 'With whom will +you live?' + +'With Miss Cass,--two old maids together. I know nothing further.' + +'But about money? That is if I am justified in asking.' + +'What would you not be justified in asking? Do you not know that +I would tell you every secret of my own heart;--if my heart had a +secret? It seems that I have given up what was to have been my +fortune. There was a claim of twelve thousand pounds on Grex. But +I have abandoned it.' + +'And there is nothing?' + +'There will be scrapings they tell me,--unless Percival refuses to +agree. This house is mortgaged, but not for its value. And there +are some jewels. But all that is detestable,--a mere grovelling +among mean hundreds; whereas you,--you will soar among--' + +'Oh Mabel! do not say hard things to me.' + +'No, indeed! why should I,--I who have been preaching that +comfortable doctrine of hypocrisy? I will say nothing hard. But I +would sooner talk of your good things than my evil ones.' + +'I would not.' + +'Then you must talk about them for my sake. How was it that the +Duke came round at last?' + +'I hardly know. She sent for me.' + +'A fine high-spirited girl. These Pallisers have more courage +about them than one expects from their outward manner. +Silverbridge has plenty of it.' + +'I remember telling you he could be obstinate.' + +'And I remember that I did not believe you. Now I know it. He has +that sort of pluck which enables a man to break a girl's heart,--or +to destroy a girl's hopes,--without wincing. He can tell a girl to +her face that she can go to the--mischief for him. There are so +many men who can't do that, from cowardice, though their hearts be +ever so well inclined. "I have changed my mind." There is +something great in the courage of a man who can say that to a +woman in so many words. Most of them, when they escape by lies and +subterfuges. Or they run away and won't allow themselves to be +heard of. They trust to a chapter of accidents, and leave things +to arrange themselves. But when a man can look a girl in the face +with those seemingly soft eyes, and say with that seemingly soft +mouth,--"I have changed my mind",--though she would look him dead in +return, if she could, still she must admire him.' +'Are you speaking of Silverbridge now?' + +'Of course I am speaking of Silverbridge. I suppose I ought to +hide it all and not tell you. But as you are the only person I do +tell, you must put up with me. Yes;--when I taxed him with his +falsehood,--for he had been false,--he answered me with those very +words! "I have changed my mind." He could not lie. To speak the +truth was a necessity to him, even at the expense of his +gallantry, almost of his humanity.' + +'Has he been false to you, Mabel?' + +'Of course he has. But there is nothing to quarrel about if you +mean that. People do not quarrel now about such things. A girl has +to fight her own battle with her own pluck and her own wits. As +with these weapons she is generally stronger than her enemy, she +succeeds sometimes although everything else is against her. I +think I am courageous, but his courage beat mine. I craned at the +first fence. When he was willing to swallow my bait, my hand was +not firm enough to strike the hook in his jaws. Had I not quailed +then I think I should have-"had him".' + +'It is horrid to hear you talk like this.' She was leaning over +from her seat, looking black as she was, so much older than her +wont, with something about her of the unworldly serious +thoughtfulness which a mourning always gives. And yet her words +were so worldly, so unfeminine! + +'I have got to tell the truth to somebody. It was so, just as I +have said. Of course I did not love him. How could I love him +after what has passed? But there need have been nothing much in +that. I don't suppose that Duke's eldest sons often get married +for love.' + +'Miss Boncassen loves him.' + +'I dare say the beggar's daughter loved King Cophetua. When you +come to distances such as that, there can be love. The very fact +that a man should have descended so far in the quest of beauty,-- +the flattery of it alone,--will produce love. When the angels came +after the daughters of men of course the daughters of men loved +them. The distance between him and me is not great enough to have +produced that sort of worship. There was no reason why Lady Mabel +Grex should not be good enough wife for the son of the Duke of +Omnium.' + +'Certainly not.' + +'And therefore I was not struck, as by the shining of la light +from heaven. I cannot say that I loved him, Frank,--I am beyond +worshipping even an angel from heaven.' + +'Then I do not know that you can blame him,' he said very +seriously. + +'Just so;--and as I have chosen to be honest I have told him +everything. But I had my revenge first.' + +'I would have said nothing.' + +'You would have recommended--delicacy! No doubt you think that +women should be delicate let them suffer what they may. A woman +should not let it be known that she has any human nature in her. I +had him on the hip, and for a moment I used my power. He had +certainly done me a wrong. He had asked for my love,--and with the +delicacy which you commend, I had not at once grasped at all that +such a request conveyed. Then, as he told me so frankly, he +"changed his mind"! Did he not wrong me?' + +'He should not have raised false hopes.' + +'He told me that--he had changed his mind. I think I loved him then +as nearly as I ever did,--because he looked me full in the face. +Then,--I told him that I had never cared for him, and that he need +have nothing on his conscience. But I doubt whether he was glad to +hear it. Men are so vain! I have talked too much about myself. +And so you are to be the Duke's son-in-law. And she will have +hundreds of thousands.' + +'Thousands perhaps, but I do not think very much about it. I feel +that he will provide for her.' + +'And that you, having secured her, can creep under his wing like +an additional ducal chick. It is very comfortable. The Duke will +be quite a Providence to you. I wonder that all young gentlemen do +not marry heiresses;--it is so easy. And you have got your seat in +Parliament too! Oh, your luck! When I look back upon it all it +seems so hard to me! It was for you;--for you that I used to be +anxious. Now it is I who have not an inch of ground to stand +upon.' Then he approached her and put out his hand to her. 'No,' +she said, putting both her hands behind her back, 'for God's sake +let there be no tenderness. But is it not cruel? Think of my +advantages at that moment when you and I agreed that our paths +should be separate. My fortune then had not been made quite +shipwreck by my father and brother. I had before me all that +society could offer. I was called handsome and clever. Where was +there a girl more likely to make her way to the top?' + +'You may do still.' + +'No;--no;--I cannot. And you at least should not tell me so. I did +not know then the virulence of the malady which had fallen on me. +I did not know that, because of you, other men would have been +abhorrent to me. I thought that I was as easy-hearted as you have +proved yourself.' + +'How cruel you can be.' + +'Have I done anything to interfere with you? Have I said a word +even to that young lad when I might have said a word? Yes; to him +I did say something; but I waited, and would not say it, while a +word could hurt you. Shall I tell you what I told him? Just +everything that has ever happened between you and me.' + +'You did?' + +'Yes;--because I saw that I could trust him. I told him because I +wanted him to be quite sure that I had never loved him. But, +Frank, I have put no spoke in your wheel. There has not been a +moment since you told me of your love for this rich young lady in +which I would not have helped you had help been in my power. +Whomever I may have harmed, I have never harmed you.' + +'Am I not as clear from blame towards you?' + +'No, Frank. You have done me the terrible evil of ceasing to love +me.' + +'It was at your own bidding.' + +'Certainly! But if I were to bid you to cut your throat, would +you do it?' + +'Was it not you who decided that we could not wait for each +other?' + +'And should it not have been for you to decide that you would +wait?' + +'You also would have married.' + +'It almost angers me that you should not see the difference. A +girl unless she marries becomes nothing, as I have become nothing +now. A man does not want a pillar on which to lean. A man, when he +has done as you have done with me, and made a girl's heart all his +own, even though his own heart had been flexible and plastic as +yours is, should have been true to her, at least for a while. Did +it never occur to you that you owed something to me?' + +'I have always owed you very much.' + +'There should have been some touch of chivalry if not of love to +make you feel that a second passion should have been postponed for +a year or two. You could wait without growing old. You might have +allowed yourself a little space to dwell--I was going to say on the +sweetness of your memories. But they were not sweet, Frank, they +were not sweet to you.' + +'These rebukes, Mabel, will rob them of their sweetness,--for a +time.' + +'It is gone; all gone,' she said, shaking her head,--'gone from me +because I have been so easily deserted; gone from you because the +change has been so easy to you. How long was it, Frank, after you +had left me before you were basking happily in the smiles of Lady +Mary Palliser?' + +'It was not very long, as months go.' + +'Say days, Frank.' + +'I have to defend myself, and I will do so with truth. It was not +very long,--as months go; but why should it have been less long, +whether for months or days? I had to cure myself of a wound.' + +'To put plaster on a scratch, Frank.' + +'And the sooner a man can do that the more manly he is. Is it a +sign of strength to wail under a sorrow that cannot be cured,--or +of truth to perpetuate the appearance of a woe?' + +'Has it been an appearance with me?' + +'I am speaking of myself now. I am driven to speak of myself by +the bitterness of your words. It was you who decided.' + +'You accepted my decision easily.' + +'Because it was based not only on my unfitness for such a +marriage, but on yours. When I saw that there would be perhaps +some years of misery for you, of course I accepted your decision. +The sweetness had been very sweet to me.' + +'Oh Frank, was it ever sweet to you?' + +'And the triumph of it had been very great. I had been assured of +the love of her who among all the high ones of the world seemed to +me to be the highest. Then came your decision. Do you really +believe that I could abandon the sweetness, that I could be robbed +of my triumph, that I could think I could never again be allowed +to put my arm round your waist, never again feel your cheek close +to mine, that I should lose all that had seemed left to me among +the gods, without feeling it?' + +'Frank, Frank!' she said, rising to her feet, and stretching out +her hands as though she were going to give him back all these +joys. + +'Of course I felt it. I did not then know what was before me.' +When he said this she sank immediately back upon her seat. 'I was +wretched enough. I had lost a limb and could not walk; my eyes, +and must always hereafter be blind; my fitness to be among men, +and must always hereafter be secluded. It is so that a man is +stricken down when some terrible trouble comes upon him. But it is +given to him to retrick his beams.' + +'You have retricked yours.' + +'Yes;--and the strong man will show his strength by doing it +quickly. Mabel, I sorrowed for myself greatly when that word was +spoken, partly because I thought that your love could be so easily +taken from me. And, since I have found that it has not been so, I +have sorrowed for you also. But I do not blame myself, and I will +not submit to have blame even from you.' She stared at him in the +face as he said this. 'A man should never submit to blame.' + +'But if he has deserved it?' + +'Who is to be the judge? But why should we contest this? You do +not really wish to trample on me!' + +'No;--not that.' + +'Nor to disgrace me; nor to make me feel myself disgraced in my +own judgement?' Then there was a pause for some moments as though +he had left her without another word to say. 'Shall I go now?' he +asked. + +'Oh Frank!' + +'I fear that my presence only makes you unhappy.' + +'Then what will your absence do? When shall I see you again? +But, no; I will not see you again. Not for many days,--not for +years. Why should I? Frank, is it wicked that I should love you?' + He could only shake his head in answer to this. 'If it be so +wicked that I must be punished for it eternally, still I love you. +I can never, never, never love another. You cannot understand it. +Oh God,--that I had never understood it myself! I think, I think, +that I would go with you now anywhere, facing all misery, all +judgements, all disgrace. You know, do you not, that if it were +possible, I should not say so. But as I know that you would not +stir a step with me, I do say so.' + +'I know that it is not meant.' + +'It is meant, though it could not be done. Frank, I must not see +her, not for awhile; not for years. I do not wish to hate her, but +how can I help it? Do you remember when she flew into your arms +in this room?' + +'I remember it.' + +'Of course you do. It is your great joy now to remember that, and +such like. She must be very good! Though I hate her!' + +'Do not say that you hate her, Mabel.' + +'Though I hate her she must be good. It was a fine and brave thing +to do. I have done it; but never before the world like that; have +I, Frank? Oh, Frank, I shall never do it again. Go now, and do +not touch me. Let us both pray that in ten years we may meet as +passionate friends.' He came to her hardly knowing what he meant, +but purposing, as though by instinct, to take her hand as he +parted from her. But she, putting both her hands before her face, +and throwing herself on to the sofa, buried her head among the +cushions. + +'Is there not to be another word?' he said. Lying as she did, she +still was able to make a movement of dissent and he left her, +muttering just one word between his teeth, 'Mabel, good-bye.' + + + +CHAPTER 78 + +The Duke Returns to Office + +That farewell took place on the Friday morning. Tregear as he +walked out of the Square knew now that he had been the cause of a +great shipwreck. At first when that passionate love had been +declared,--he could hardly remember whether with the fullest +passion by him or by her,--he had been as a god walking upon air. +That she who seemed to be so much above him should have owned that +she was all his own seemed then to be world enough for him. For a +few weeks he lived a hero to himself, and was able to tell +himself that for him, the glory of a passion was sufficient. In +those halcyon moments no common human care is allowed to intrude +itself. To one who has thus entered in upon the heroism of romance +his own daily work, his dinners, clothes, income, father and +mother, sisters and brothers, his own street and house are +nothing. Hunting, shooting, rowing, Alpine-climbing, even speeches +in Parliament,--if they perchance have been attained to,--all become +leather or prunella. The heavens have been opened to him and he +walks among them like a god. So it had been with Tregear. Then had +come the second phase of his passion,--which is not uncommon young +men who soar high in their first assaults. He was told that it +would not do; and was not so told by the hard-pressed parent, but +by the young lady herself. And she had spoken so reasonably, that +he had yielded, and had walked away with the sudden feeling of a +vile return to his own mean belongings, to his lodgings, and his +income, which not a few ambitious young men have experienced. But +she had convinced him. Then had come the journey to Italy, and the +reader knows all the rest. He certainly had not derogated in +transferring his affections,--but it may be doubted whether in his +second love he had walked among the stars as in the first. A man +can hardly mount twice among the stars. But he had been as eager,-- +and as true. And he had succeeded, without any flaw on his +conscience. It had been agreed, when that first disruption took +place, that he and Mabel should be friends; and, as to friends, he +had told her of his hopes. When first she had mingled something of +sarcasm in her congratulations, though it had annoyed him, it had +hardly made him unhappy. When she called him Romeo and spoke of +herself as Rosaline, he took her remark as indicating some +petulance rather than an enduring love. That had been womanly and +he could forgive it. He had his other great and solid happiness to +support him. Then he had believed that she would soon marry, if +not Silverbridge, then some other fitting young nobleman, and that +all would be well. But now things were very far from well. The +storm which was now howling round her afflicted her much. + +Perhaps the bitterest feeling of all was that her love should have +been so much stronger, so much more enduring than his own. He +could not but remember how in his first agony he had blamed her +because she had declared that they should be severed. He had then +told himself that such severing would be to him impossible, and +that her nature been as high as his, it would have been as +impossible to her. Which nature must he now regard as the higher? + She had done her best to rid herself of the load of her passion +and had failed. But he had freed himself with convenient haste. +All that he had said as the manliness of conquering grief had been +wise enough. But still he could not quit himself of some feeling +of disgrace in that he had changed and she had not. He tried to +comfort himself with reflecting that Mary was all his own,--that in +the matter he had been victorious and happy;--but for an hour or +two he thought more of Mabel than Mary. + +When the time came in which he could employ himself he called for +Silverbridge, and they walked together across the park to +Westminster. Silverbridge was gay and full of eagerness as to the +coming ministerial statement, but Tregear could not turn his mind +from the work of the morning. 'I don't seem to care very much +about it,' he said at last. + +'I do care very much,' said Silverbridge. + +'What difference will it make?' + +'I breakfasted with the governor this morning, and I have not seen +him in such good spirits since,--well for a long time.' The date +to which Silverbridge would have referred, had he not checked +himself was that of the evening on which it had been agreed +between him and his father that Mabel Grex should be promoted to +the seat of the highest honour in the house of Palliser,--but that +was a matter which must henceforward be buried in silence. 'He did +not say much, but I feel perfectly sure that he and Mr Monk have +arranged a new government.' + +'I don't see any matter for joy in that to Conservatives like you +and me.' + +'He is my father,--and as he is going to be your father-in-law I +should have thought that you would have been pleased.' + +'Oh, yes;--if he likes it. But I have heard so often of the +crushing cares of office, and I had thought that of all living men +he had been the most crushed by them.' + +All that had to be done in the House of Commons on that afternoon +was finished before five o'clock. By half-past five the House, and +all the purlieus of the House, were deserted. And yet at four, +immediately after prayers, there had been such a crowd that +members had been unable to find seats! Tregear and Silverbridge +having been early succeeded, but those who had been less careful +were obliged to listen as best they could in the galleries. The +stretching out of necks and the holding of hands behind the ears +did not last long. Sir Timothy had not much to say, but what he +did say was spoken with dignity which seemed to anticipate future +exaltation rather than present downfall. There had arisen a +question in regard to revenue,--he need hardly tell them that it +was the question in reference to brewers' licences which the +honourable gentlemen opposite had alluded on the previous day,--as +to which unfortunately he was not in accord with his noble friend +the Prime Minister. Under the circumstances it was hardly possible +that they should at once proceed to business, and he therefore +moved that the House should stand adjourned till Tuesday next. +That was the whole statement. + +Not very long afterwards the Prime Minister made another statement +in the House of Lords. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer had very +suddenly resigned and had thereby broken up the Ministry, he had +found himself compelled to place his resignation in the hands of +her Majesty. Then that House was also adjourned. On that +afternoon all the clubs were alive with admiration at the great +cleverness played by Sir Timothy in this transaction. It was not +only that he had succeeded in breaking up the Ministry, and that +he had done this without incurring violent disgrace; but he had +done it as to throw all the reproach upon his late unfortunate +colleague. It was thus that Mr Lupton explained it. Sir Timothy +had been at the pains to ascertain on what matters connected with +the revenue, Lord Drummond--or Lord Drummond's closest advisers,-- +had opinions of their own, opinions strong enough not to be +abandoned, and having discovered that, he also discovered +arguments on which to found an exactly opposite opinion. But as +the Revenue had been entrusted specially to his unworthy hands, he +was entitled to his own opinion in the matter. 'The majority of +the House,' said Mr Lupton, 'and the entire public, will no doubt +give him credit for self-abnegation.' + +All this happened on the Friday. During the Saturday it was +considered probable that the Cabinet would come to terms with +itself, and that internal wounds would be healed. The general +opinion was that Lord Drummond would give way. But on the Sunday +morning it was understood that Lord Drummond would not yield. It +was reported that Lord Drummond was willing to purchase his +separation from Sir Timothy even at the expense of his office. +That Sir Timothy should give way seemed to be impossible. Had he +done so it would have been impossible for him to recover the +respect of the House. Then it was rumoured that two or three +others had gone with Sir Timothy. And on Monday morning it was +proclaimed that the Prime Minister was not in a position to +withdraw his resignation. On the Tuesday the House met and Mr Monk +announced, still from Opposition benches, that he had that morning +been with the Queen. Then there was another adjournment, and all +the Liberals knew that the gates of Paradise were again about to +be opened to them. + +This is only interesting to us as affecting the happiness and +character of the Duke. He had consented to assist Mr Monk in +forming a government, and to take office under Mr Monk's +leadership. He had had many contests with himself before he could +bring himself to this submission. He knew that if anything could +once again make him contented it would be work; he knew that if he +could serve his country it was his duty to serve it; and he knew +also that it was only by the adhesion of such men as himself that +the tradition of his party could be maintained. But he had been +Prime Minister,--and he was sure he could never be Prime Minister +again. There are in all matters certain little, almost hidden, +signs, by which we can measure within our own bosoms the extent of +our successes and our failures. Our Duke's friends had told him +that his Ministry had been serviceable to the country; but no one +had ever suggested to him that he would again be asked to fill the +place which he had filled. He had stopped a gap. He would +beforehand have declared himself willing to serve his country even +in this way; but having done so,--having done that and no more than +that,--he felt that he had failed. He had in soreness declared to +himself that he would never more take office. He had much to do to +overcome this promise to himself;--but when he had brought himself +to submit he was certainly a happier man. + +There was no going to see the Queen. That on the present occasion +was done simply by Mr Monk. But on the Wednesday morning his name +appeared in the list of the new Cabinet as President of the +Council. He was perhaps a little fidgety, a little too anxious to +employ himself and to be employed, a little too desirous of +immediate work;--but still he was happy and gracious to all those +around him. 'I suppose you like that particular office,' +Silverbridge said to him. + +'Well; yes;--not best of all, you know,' and he smiled as he made +this admission. + +'You mean Prime Minister.' + +'No, indeed I don't. I am inclined to think that the Premier +should always sit in your House. No, Silverbridge, if I could have +my way,--which is of course impossible, for I cannot put off my +honours,--I would return to my old place. I would return to the +Exchequer where the work is hard and certain, where a man can do, +or at any rate attempt to do, some special thing. A man there if +he stick to that and does not travel beyond it, need not be +popular, need not be a partisan, need not be eloquent, need not be +a courtier. He should understand his profession, as should a +lawyer or doctor. If he does that thoroughly he can serve his +country without recourse to that parliamentary strategy for which +I know that I am unfit.' + +'You can't do that in the House of Lords, sir.' + +'No; no. I wish the title could have passed over my head, +Silverbridge, and gone to you at once. I think we both should have +been suited better. But there are things which one should not +consider. Even in this place I may perhaps do something. Shall you +attack us very bitterly?' + +'I am the only man who does not mean to change.' + +'How so?' + +'I shall stay where I am,--on the Government side of the House.' + +'Are you clear about that, my boy?' + +'Quite clear.' + +'Such changes should not be made without very much consideration.' + +'I have already written to them at Silverbridge and have had three +or four answers. Mr De Boung says that the borough is more than +grateful. Mr Sprout regrets it much, and suggests a few months' +consideration. Mr Sprugeon seems to think it does not much +signify.' + +'That is hardly complimentary.' + +'No;--not to me. But he is very civil to the family. As long as a +Palliser represents the borough, Mr Sprugeon thinks that it does +not matter on which side he may sit. I have had my little vagary, +and I don't think that I shall change again.' + +'I suppose that it is your republican bride-elect that has done +that,' said the Duke laughing. + + + +CHAPTER 79 + +The First Wedding + +As Easter Sunday fell on the seventeenth of April, and as the +arrangement of the new Cabinet, with its inferior offices, was not +completed till the sixth of that month, there was only just time +for the new elections before the holidays. Mr Monk sat on his +bench so comfortably that he hardly seemed ever to have been off +it. And Phineas Finn resumed the peculiar ministerial tone of +voice just as though he had never allowed himself to use the free +and indignant strains of the opposition. As to a majority,--nothing +as yet was known about that. Some few besides Silverbridge might +probably transfer themselves to the Government. None of the +ministers lost their seats in the new elections. The opposite +party seemed for a while to have been paralysed by the defection +of Sir Timothy, and men who liked a quiet life were able to +comfort themselves with the reflection that nothing could be done +this session. + +For our loves this was convenient. Neither of them would have +allowed their parliamentary energies to have interfered at such a +crisis with his domestic affairs; but still it was well to have +time at command. The day for the marriage of Isabel and +Silverbridge had been now fixed. That was to take place on the +Wednesday after Easter, and was to be celebrated by special royal +favour in the chapel at Whitehall. All the Pallisers would be +there, and all the relations of the Pallisers, all the +ambassadors, and of course all the Americans in London. It would +be a 'wretched grind', as Silverbridge said, but it had to be +done. In the meantime the whole party, including the new President +of the Council, were down at Matching. Even Isabel, though it must +be presumed that she had much to do in looking after her bridal +garments, was able to be there for a day or two. But Tregear was +the person to whom this visit was of the greatest importance. + +He had been allowed to see Lady Mary in London, but hardly to do +more than see her. With her he had been alone for about five +minutes, and then the cruel circumstances,--circumstances, however, +which were not permanently cruel,--had separated them. All their +great difficulties had been settled, and no doubt they were happy. +Tregear, though he had been as it were received into grace by that +glass of wine, still had not entered into the intimacies of the +house. This he felt himself. He had been told that he had better +restrain himself from writing to Mary, and he had restrained +himself. He had therefore no immediate opportunity of creeping +into that perfect intimacy with the house and household which is +generally accorded to a promised son-in-law. + +On this occasion he travelled down alone, and as he approached the +house he, who was not by nature timid, felt himself to be somewhat +cowed. That the Duke should not be cold to him was almost +impossible. Of course he was there in opposition to the Duke's +wishes. Even Silverbridge had never quite liked the match. Of +course he was to have all that he desired. Of course he was the +most fortunate of men. Of course no man had ever stronger reason +to be contented with the girl he loved. But still his heart was a +little low as he was driven up to the door. + +The first person he saw was the Duke himself, who, as the fly from +the station arrived, was returning from his walk. 'You are welcome +to Matching,' he said, taking off his hat with something of +ceremony. This was said before the servants, but Tregear was then +led into the study and the door was closed. 'I never do anything +by halves, Mr Tregear,' he said. 'Since it is to so you shall be +the same to me as though you had come under other auspices. Of +yourself personally I hear all that is good. Consider yourself at +home here, and in all things use me as your friend.' Tregear +endeavoured to make some reply, but could not find words that were +fitting. 'I think that young people are out,' continued the Duke. +'Mr Warburton will help you find them if you like to go upon the +search.' The words had been very gracious, but still there was +something in the manner of the man which made Tregear find it +almost impossible to regard him as he might have regarded another +father-in-law. He had often heard the Duke spoken of as a man who +could become awful if he pleased, almost without an effort. He had +been told of the man's mingled simplicity, courtesy, self- +assertion against which no impudence or raillery could prevail. +And now he seemed to understand it. + +He was not driven to go under the private secretary's escort in +quest of the young people. Mary had understood her business much +better than that. 'If you please, sir, Lady Mary is in the little +drawing-room,' said a well-arrayed young girl to him as soon as +the Duke's door was closed. This was Lady Mary's own maid who had +been on the look-out for the fly. Lady Mary had known all details, +as to the arrival of the trains and the length of the journey from +the station, and had not been walking with the other young people +when the Duke had intercepted her lover. Even the delay she had +thought was hard. The discreet maid opened the door of the little +drawing-room,--and discreetly closed it instantly. 'At last!' she +said, throwing herself into his arms. + +'Yes,--at last.' + +On this occasion time did not envy them. The long afternoons of +spring had come, and as Tregear had reached the house between four +and five they were able to go out together before the sun set. +'No,' she said when he came to inquire as to her life during the +last twelve months, 'you had not much to be afraid of as to my +forgetting.' + +'But when everything was against me?' + +'One thing was not against you. You ought to have been sure of +that.' + +'And so I was. And yet I felt that I ought not to have been sure. +Sometimes, in my solitude, I used to think that I myself had been +wrong. I began to doubt whether under any circumstances I could +have been justified in asking your father's daughter to be my +wife.' + +'Because of his rank?' + +'Not so much his rank as his money.' + +'Ought that to be considered?' + +'A poor man who marries a rich woman will always be suspected.' + +'Because people are so mean and poor-spirited; and because they +think that money is more than anything else. It should be nothing +at all in such matters. I don't know how it can be anything. They +have been saying that to me all along,--as though one were to stop +to think whether one was rich or poor.' Tregear, when this was +said, could not but remember a time not very much prior to that +which Mary had not stopped to think, neither for a while had he +and Mabel. 'I suppose it was worse for me than for you,' she +added. + +'I hope not.' + +'But it was, Frank; and therefore I ought to have made it up to me +now. It was very bad to be alone here, particularly when I felt +that papa always looked at me as though I were a sinner. He did +not mean it, but he could not help looking at me like that. As +there was nobody to whom I could say a word.' + +'It was pretty much the same with me.' + +'Yes; but you were not offending a father who could not keep +himself from looking reproaches at you. I was like a boy at school +who had been put into Coventry. And then they sent me to Lady +Cantrip!' + +'Was that very bad?' + +'I do believe that if I were a young woman with a well-ordered +mind, I should feel myself very much indebted to Lady Cantrip. She +had a terrible task of it. But I could not teach myself to like +her. I believe she knew all through that I should get my way at +last.' + +'That ought to have made you friends.' + +'But yet she tried everything she could. And when I told her about +that meeting up at Lord Grex's, she was so shocked! Do you +remember that?' + +'Do I remember it!' + +'Were you not shocked?' This question was not to be answered by +any word. 'I was,' she continued. 'It was an awful thing to do; +but I was determined to show them all that I was in earnest. Do +you remember how Miss Cassewary looked?' + +'Miss Cassewary knew all about it.' + +'I daresay she did. And so I suppose did Mabel Grex. I had thought +that perhaps I might make Mabel a confidante, but--' + +'But what?' + +'You like Mabel, do you not? I do.' + +'I like her very, very much.' + +'Perhaps you have liked her too well for that, eh, Frank?' + +'Too well for what?' + +'That she should have heard all that I had to say about you with +sympathy. If so, I am sorry.' + +'You need not fear that I have ever for a moment been untrue to +either her or you.' + +'I am sure you have not to me. Poor Mabel! Then they took me to +Custins. That was the worst of all. I cannot quite tell you what +happened there.' Of course he asked her,--but as she had said, she +could not quite tell him about Lord Popplecourt. + +The next morning the Duke asked his guest in a playful tone what +was his Christian name. It could hardly be that he should not have +known, but yet he asked the question. + +'Francis Oliphant,' said Tregear. + +'Frank,' whispered Mary, who was with them. + +'Then I will call you Frank, if you will allow me. The use of +Christian names is, I think, pleasant and hardly common enough +among us. I almost forget my own boy's name because the practice +has grown up of calling him by a title.' + +'I am going to call him Abraham,' said Isabel. + +'Abraham is a good name, only I do not think he got it from his +godfathers and godmothers.' + +'Who can call a man Plantagenet? I should as soon think of +calling my father-in-law Coeur de Lion.' + +'So he is,' said Mary. Whereupon the Duke kissed the two girls and +went his way,--showing that by this time he had adopted the one and +the proposed husband of the other into his heart. + +The day before the Duke had started for London to be present at +the grand marriage he sent for Frank. 'I suppose,' said he, 'that +you would wish that some time should be fixed for your own +marriage.' To this the accepted suitor of course assented. 'But +before we can do that something must be settled about--money.' +Tregear when he heard this became hot all over, and felt that he +could not restrain his blushes. Such must be the feeling of a man +when he finds himself compelled to own to a girl's father that he +intends to live upon her money and not upon his own. 'I do not +like to be troublesome,' continued the Duke, 'or to ask questions +which might seem to be impertinent.' + +'Oh no! Of course I feel my position. I can only say that it was +not because of your daughter might probably have money that I +first sought her love.' + +'It shall be so received. And now--But perhaps it will be best that +you should arrange all this with my man of business. Mr Morton +shall be instructed. Mr Morton lives near my place in Barsetshire, +but is now in London. If you will call on him he shall tell you +what I would suggest. I hope you will find that your affairs will +be comfortable. And now as to time.' + +Isabel's wedding was declared by the newspapers to have been one +of the most brilliant remembered in the metropolis. There were six +bridesmaids, of whom of course Mary was one,--and of whom poor Lady +Mabel Grex was equally of course not another. Poor Lady Mabel was +at this time with Miss Cassewary at Grex, paying what she believed +would be a last visit to the old family home. Among the others +were two American girls, brought into that august society for the +sake of courtesy rather than of personal love. And there were two +other Palliser girls and a Scotch McCloskie cousin. The breakfast +was of course given by Mr Boncassen at his home in Brook Street, +where the bridal presents were displayed. And not only were they +displayed; but a list of them, with an approximate statement as to +their value, appeared in one or two of the next day's newspapers;-- +as to which terrible sin against good taste neither was Mr or Mrs +Boncassen guilty. But in these days, in which such splendid things +were done on so very splendid a scale, a young lady cannot herself +lay out her friends' gifts so as to be properly seen by her +friends. Some well-skilled, well-paid hand is needed even for +that, and hence comes this public information on affairs which +should surely be private. In our grandmothers' time the happy +bride's happy mother herself compounded the cake;--or at any rate +the trusted housekeeper. But we all know that terrible tower of +silver which now stands niddle-noddling with its appendages of +flags and spears on the modern wedding breakfast-table. It will +come to pass with some of us soon that we must deny ourselves the +pleasure of having young friends, because their marriage presents +are so costly. + +Poor Mrs Boncassen had not perhaps a happy time with her august +guests on that morning; but when she retired to give Isabel her +last kiss in privacy she did feel proud to think that her daughter +would some day be an English Duchess. + + + + + +CHAPTER 80 + +The Second Wedding + +November is not altogether an hymeneal month, but it was not till +November that Lady Mary Palliser became the wife of Frank Tregear. +It was postponed a little perhaps, in order that the +Silverbridges,--as they were now called,--might be present. The +Silverbridges, who were now quite Darby and Joan, had gone to the +States when the Session had been brought to a close early in +August, and had remained there nearly three months. Isabel had +taken infinite pleasure in showing her English husband to her +American friends, and the American friends had not doubt taken +pride in seeing so glorious a British husband in the hands of an +American wife. Everything was new to Silverbridge, and he was +happy in his new possession. She too enjoyed it infinitely, and so +it happened that they were unwilling to curtail their sojourn. But +in November they had to return, because Mary had declared that her +marriage should be postponed till it could be graced by the +presence of her elder brother. + +The marriage of Silverbridge had been august. There had been a +manifest intention that it should be so. Nobody knew with whom +this originated. Mrs Boncassen had probably been told that it +ought to be so, and Mr Boncassen was willing to pay the bill. +External forces had perhaps operated. The Duke had simply been +passive and obedient. There had however been a general feeling +that the bride of the heir of the house of Omnium should be +produced to the world amidst a blaze of trumpets and a glare of +torches. So it had been. But both the Duke and Mary were +determined that this wedding should be different. It was to take +place at Matching, and none would be present but they who were +staying in the house, or lived around,--such as tenants and +dependants. Four clergymen united their forces to tie Isabel to +her husband, one of them was a bishop, one a canon, and the two +others royal chaplains; but there was only to be the Vicar of the +parish at Matching. And indeed there were no guests in the house +except the two bridesmaids and Mr and Mrs Finn. As to Mrs Finn +Mary had made a request, and then the Duke had suggested that the +husband should be asked to accompany his wife. + +It was very pretty. The church itself is pretty, standing in the +park, close to the old Priory, not above three hundred yards from +the house. And they all walked, taking the broad path through the +ruins, going under the figure of Sir Guy which Silverbridge had +pointed out to Isabel when they had been whispering together. The +Duke led the way with his girl upon his arm. The two bridesmaids +followed. Then Silverbridge and his wife, with Phineas and his +wife. and Gerald and the bridegroom accompanied them, belonging as +it were to the same party! It was very rustic;--almost improper! +'This is altogether wrong, you know,' said Gerald. 'You should +appear coming from some other part of the world, as if you were +almost unexpected. You ought not to have been in the house at all, +and certainly should have gone under disguise.' + +There had been rich presents too on this occasion, but they were +shown to none except to Mrs Finn and the bridesmaids,--and perhaps +to the favoured servants of the house. At any rate there was +nothing said of them in the newspapers. One present there was,-- +given not to the bride but to the bridegroom,--which he showed to +no one except to her. This came to him only on the morning of his +marriage, and the envelope containing it bore the postmark of +Sedburgh. He knew the handwriting well before he opened the +parcel. It contained a small signet-ring with his crest, and with +it there were but a few words written on a scrap of paper. 'I pray +that you may be happy. This was to have been given to you long +ago, but I kept it back because of that decision.' He showed the +ring to Lady Mary and told her that it had come from Lady Mabel;-- +but the scrap of paper no one saw but himself. + +Perhaps the matter most remarkable of the wedding was the hilarity +of the Duke. One who did not know him well might have said that he +was a man with very few cares, and who now took special joy in the +happiness of his children,--who was thoroughly contented to see +them marry after their own hearts. And yet, as he stood there on +the altar-steps giving his daughter to that new son and looking +first at his girl, and then at his married son, he was reminding +himself of all that he had suffered. + +After the breakfast,--which was by no means a grand repast and at +which the cake did not look so like an ill-soldered silver castle +as that other construction had done,--the happy couple were sent +away in a modest chariot to the railway station, and not above +half-a-dozen slippers were thrown after them. There were enough +for luck,---or perhaps there might have been luck even without them, +for the wife thoroughly respected her husband, as did the husband +his wife. Mrs Finn, when she was alone with Phineas, said a word +or two about Tregear. 'When she first told me of her engagement I +did not think it possible that she would marry him. But after he +had been with me I felt sure that he would succeed.' + +'Well, sir,' said Silverbridge to the Duke when they were out +together in the park that afternoon, 'what do you think about +him?' + +'I think he is a manly young man.' + +'He certainly is that. And then he knows things and understands +them. It was never a surprise to me that Mary should have been so +fond of him.' + +'I do not know that one ought to be surprised at anything. Perhaps +what surprised me most was that he should look so high. There +seemed so little to justify it. But now I will accept that as +courage which I before regarded as arrogance.' + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUKE'S CHILDREN *** + +This file should be named dkchl11.txt or dkchl11.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, dkchl11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, dkchl10a.txt + +This etext was prepared by KENNETH DAVID COOPER <cooper.kd@bigpond.com> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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