R MR. SPOONER,

I am commissioned to inform you that Miss Palliser is
engaged to be married to Mr. Gerard Maule.

Yours faithfully,

CHILTERN.

The young lady had consented to be thus explicit because it had been
already determined that no secret should be kept as to her future
prospects.

"He is one of those poverty-stricken wheedling fellows that one meets
about the world every day," said the Squire to his cousin--"a fellow
that rides horses that he can't pay for, and owes some poor devil of
a tailor for the breeches that he sits in. They eat, and drink, and
get along heaven only knows how. But they're sure to come to smash at
last. Girls are such fools nowadays."

"I don't think there has ever been much difference in that," said the
cousin.

"Because a man greases his whiskers, and colours his hair, and paints
his eyebrows, and wears kid gloves, by George, they'll go through
fire and water after him. He'll never marry her."

"So much the better for her."

"But I hate such d---- impudence. What right has a man to come
forward in that way who hasn't got a house over his head, or the
means of getting one? Old Maule is so hard up that he can barely
get a dinner at his club in London. What I wonder at is that Lady
Chiltern shouldn't know better."

CHAPTER XXX

Regrets

Madame Goesler remained at Matching till after the return of Mr.
Palliser--or, as we must now call him, the Duke of Omnium--from
Gatherum Castle, and was therefore able to fight her own battle
with him respecting the gems and the money which had been left her.
He brought to her with his own hands the single ring which she had
requested, and placed it on her finger. "The goldsmith will soon make
that all right," she said, when it was found to be much too large for
the largest finger on which she could wear a ring. "A bit shall be
taken out, but I will not have it reset."

"You got the lawyer's letter and the inventory, Madame Goesler?"

"Yes, indeed. What surprises me is that the dear old man should never
have spoken of so magnificent a collection of gems."

"Orders have been given that they shall be packed."

"They may be packed or unpacked, of course, as your Grace pleases,
but pray do not connect me with the packing."

"You must be connected with it."

"But I wish not to be connected with it, Duke. I have written to the
lawyer to renounce the legacy, and, if your Grace persists, I must
employ a lawyer of my