t any time would a man be called upon to fight,
because you simply wanted to take his wife from him. If you had done
it, indeed!"

"How am I to do it? I'd do it to-morrow if it depended on me. No one
can say that I'm afraid of anybody or of anything."

"I suppose something in the matter depends on her?"

"I believe she loves me,--if you mean that?"

"Look here, Burgo," and the considerate aunt gave to the impoverished
and ruined nephew such counsel as she, in accordance with her lights,
was enabled to bestow. "I think you were much wronged in that matter.
After what had passed I thought that you had a right to claim Lady
Glencora as your wife. Mr Palliser, in my mind, behaved very wrongly
in stepping in between you and--you and such a fortune as hers, in
that way. He cannot expect that his wife should have any affection
for him. There is nobody alive who has a greater horror of anything
improper in married women than I have. I have always shown it. When
Lady Madeline Madtop left her husband, I would never allow her to
come inside my doors again,--though I have no doubt he ill-used her
dreadfully, and there was nothing ever proved between her and Colonel
Graham. One can't be too particular in such matters. But here,
if you,--if you can succeed, you know, I shall always regard the
Palliser episode in Lady Glencora's life as a tragical accident. I
shall indeed. Poor dear! It was done exactly as they make nuns of
girls in Roman Catholic countries; and as I should think no harm
of helping a nun out of her convent, so I should think no harm of
helping her now. If you are to say anything to her, I think you might
have an opportunity at the party."

Burgo was still looking at the fireplace; and he sat on, looking and
still looking, but he said nothing.

"You can think of what I have said, Burgo," continued his aunt,
meaning that he should get up and go. But he did not go. "Have you
anything more that you wish to say to me?" she asked.

"I've got no money," said Burgo, still looking at the fireplace.

Lady Glencora's property was worth not less than fifty thousand
a year. He was a young man ambitious of obtaining that almost
incredible amount of wealth, and who once had nearly reached it, by
means of her love. His present obstacle consisted in his want of a
twenty-pound note! "I've got no money." The words were growled out
rather than spoken, and his eyes were never turned even for a moment
towards his aunt's face.