The Duke's Children

Impos

tter 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 latter 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 fathe

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 ever whispered a word of love to her, of no other man had an idea entered 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 fre

hat time she had received Mrs. Finn's first letter, but not the second. "I suppose you'll

se to see him. He is ca

extra

erbridge had taken upon himself to "own a horse or two," very much to his father's chagrin, and was at this moment part proprietor of an animal supposed to stand well for the Derby. The fact was not announced in t

is it,

ought to go in

e wishes i

ant together. There is hardly another agricultural county in England that will return a Liberal, and I fe

sit for Silve

onservatives. I cannot explain it all to you, but it

asked Lady Mary, who had had some political

from that young man Tregear, wit

was bound to be firm on what was now her side of the question, "I s

at at all," said

hat-the two

n 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

disposed to say anything as to his position in life, though at some future time she might not be so silent. A few days later they were

be long gone

hree or fou

ot mind th

Would you not be happier if you would let me write t

es when one feels that one ought to b

h me it is different. I am an old man, and cannot look for new pleasures in society. It has bee

e as yet," said she, think

e to see you with books, but books alone should not be sufficient at your age." How little, sh

now 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 th

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 this 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 enhan

Duke o

think you will find that what I ha

faithful

. Tr

hich was not displeasing to him. But he was not left long in this 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

ter!" said the Duke,

" said Frank, "and how unworthy I am

What

y Ma

ink you

your G

. Tregear. I do not mean to say that I do not believe you. I never yet gave the lie to a ge

a moment biting his lips in silence. "I cannot believe it," he said at last. "I cannot bring myself to believe it. Ther

y her

not so ignorant but that you must hav

, before the Cr?sus, before the late Prime Minister, before the man who was to be regarded as certainly one of the most exalted of the earth; but he had not prepared himself to be looked at as the Duke

been made at all

both of us only hope that

must neither see her, nor hear from her, nor in any way communicate with

le at pres

his impossible, that it would be useless to discuss one as being more important than others. Has any other one of my family known of this?"

," said

as kno

We had all her symp

that which he had just declared that he had never done in his life,-driven by the desire of his heart to a

ed direct assertions which I made you. But, luckily for me, the two assertions are capable of the earli

nd he recognised 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 in her own early

ow that it is

or me to j

lso must hold myself to be in some degree a judge in

possibly be i

on 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 n

ve that my daughter's happiness can be assured by a

is a violent

ord that will exp

to-morrow, no one in England would think she had disgraced herself. The Queen would receive her on h

would not

elf,-which I think to be impossible,-your countenance could not set her right. Nor can the withdrawal of your coun

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 hi

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

ware of it," an

he Duke, as though he ha

, 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

egear, "because I thought she h

on 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 n

ad been standing, then bowed, turne

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

n was hotter than his anger ag