"That was just it," said Grey.

Mr Palliser began to think that something ought to be done to make
life more secure in the metropolis of the world. Had he not known Mr
Grey, or been accustomed to see the other man in Parliament, he would
not have thought so much about it. But it was almost too much for him
when he reflected that one man whom he now called his friend, had
been nearly murdered in daylight, in the heart of his own part of
London, by another man whom he had reckoned among his Parliamentary
supporters. "And he has got your money too!" said Palliser, putting
all the circumstances of the case together. In answer to this Mr Grey
said that he hoped the loss might eventually be his own; but that he
was bound to regard the money which had been taken as part of Miss
Vavasor's fortune. "He is simply the greatest miscreant of whom I
ever heard in my life," said Mr Palliser. "The wonder is that Miss
Vavasor should ever have brought herself to--to like him." Then Mr
Grey apologized for Alice, explaining that her love for her cousin
had come from her early years; that the man himself was clever and
capable of assuming pleasant ways, and that he had not been wholly
bad till ruin had come upon him. "He attempted public life and made
himself miserable by failing, as most men do who make that attempt,"
said Grey. This was a statement which Mr Palliser could not allow
to pass without notice. Whereupon the two men got away from George
Vavasor and their own individual interests, and went on seriously
discussing the merits and demerits of public life. "The end of it all
is," said Grey at last, "that public men in England should be rich
like you, and not poor like that miserable wretch, who has now lost
everything that the Fates had given him."

They continued to live at Lucerne in this way for a fortnight. Mr
Grey, though he was not unfrequently alone with Alice, did not plead
his suit in direct words; but continued to live with her on terms
of close and easy friendship. He had told her that her cousin had
left England,--that he had gone to America immediately after his
disappointment in regard to the seat in Parliament, and that he would
probably not return. "Poor George!" Alice had said; "he is a man
very much to be pitied." "He is a man very much to be pitied," Grey
had replied. After that, nothing more was said between them about
George Vavasor. From Lady Glencora Alice did hear something; but
Lady Glencora herself had n