e 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 which had come upon her heart when she
had been severed from the man she had 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 this 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, as yet, was 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 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 e