aid Mrs. Finn.

"I understood you to say," replied the Duke, almost angrily, "that
she ought to go to 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 here for a
time. I do not think that I am fit to have any human being here with
me in my sorrow."

CHAPTER II

Lady Mary Palliser

It may as well be said at once that Mrs. Finn knew something of Lady
Mary which was not known to the 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 Oliphant 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 th