id Mr
Palliser.

From all this it may be seen that Mr Palliser and Mr Grey had become
very intimate. Had chance brought them together in London they might
have met a score of times before Mr Palliser would have thought of
doing more than bowing to such an acquaintance. Mr Grey might have
spent weeks at Matching, without having achieved anything like
intimacy with its noble owner. But things of that kind progress more
quickly abroad than they do at home. The deck of an ocean steamer is
perhaps the most prolific hotbed of the growth of sudden friendships;
but an hotel by the side of a Swiss lake does almost as well.

For some time after this Lady Glencora's conduct was frequently so
indiscreet as to drive her husband almost to frenzy. On the very day
after the news had been communicated to him, she proposed a picnic,
and made the proposition not only in the presence of Alice, but in
that of Mr Grey also! Mr Palliser, on such an occasion, could not
express all that he thought; but he looked it.

"What is the matter, now, Plantagenet?" said his wife.

"Nothing," said he;--"nothing. Never mind."

"And shall we make this party up to the chapel?"

The chapel in question was Tell's chapel--ever so far up the lake. A
journey in a steam-boat would have been necessary.

"No!" said he, shouting out his refusal at her. "We will not."

"You needn't be angry about it," said she;--as though he could have
failed to be stirred by such a proposition at such a time. On another
occasion she returned from an evening walk, showing on her face some
sign of the exercise she had taken.

"Good G----! Glencora," said he, "do you mean to kill yourself?"

He wanted her to eat six or seven times a day; and always told her
that she was eating too much, remembering some ancient proverb about
little and often. He watched her now as closely as Mrs Marsham and Mr
Bott had watched her before; and she always knew that he was doing
so. She made the matter worse by continually proposing to do things
which she knew he would not permit, in order that she might enjoy the
fun of seeing his agony and amazement. But this, though it was fun to
her at the moment, produced anything but fun, as its general result.

"Upon my word, Alice, I think this will kill me," she said. "I am not
to stir out of the house now, unless I go in the carriage, or he is
with me."

"It won't last long."

"I don't know what you call long. As for walking with him, it's out
o