g which should
have made the proposal of such a marriage distasteful to her. A man
cannot rid himself of a prejudice because he knows or believes it
to be a prejudice. That the two, if they continued to wish it, must
become man and wife he acknowledged to himself;--but he could not
bring himself not to be sorry that it should be so.

There were some words on the subject between himself and his father
before the Marquis went abroad with his family, which, though they
did not reconcile him to the match, lessened the dissatisfaction. His
father was angry with him, throwing the blame of this untoward affair
on his head, and he was always prone to resent censure thrown by any
of his family on his own peculiar tenets. Thus it came to pass that
in defending himself he was driven to defend his sister also. The
Marquis had not been at Hendon when the revelation was first made,
but had heard it in the course of the day from his wife. His Radical
tendencies had done very little towards reconciling him to such
a proposal. He had never brought his theories home into his own
personalities. To be a Radical peer in the House of Lords, and to
have sent a Radical tailor to the House of Commons, had been enough,
if not too much, to satisfy his own political ideas. To himself and
to his valet, to all those immediately touching himself, he had
always been the Marquis of Kingsbury. And so also, in his inner
heart, the Marchioness was the Marchioness, and Lady Frances Lady
Frances. He had never gone through any process of realizing his
convictions as his son had done. "Hampstead," he said, "can this
possibly be true what your mother has told me?" This took place at
the house in Park Lane, to which the Marquis had summoned his son.

"Do you mean about Frances and George Roden?"

"Of course I mean that."

"I supposed you did, sir. I imagined that when you sent for me it was
in regard to them. No doubt it is true."

"What is true? You speak as though you absolutely approved it."

"Then my voice has belied me, for I disapprove of it."

"You feel, I hope, how utterly impossible it is."

"Not that."

"Not that?"

"I cannot say that I think it to be impossible,--or even improbable.
Knowing the two, as I do, I feel the probability to be on their
side."

"That they--should be married?"

"That is what they intend. I never knew either of them to mean
anything which did not sooner or later get itself accomplished."

"You'll have to lear