ary, 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 as yet 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 by
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 crush, and quench, and kill the evil spirit within me; it
is now 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 come all
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 wo