, and an arrangement was made for remitting
a weekly sum of fifteen pounds to Burgo, through a member of the
diplomatic corps, as long as he should remain at a certain small
German town which was indicated, and in which there was no public
gambling-table. Lady Glencora expressed herself satisfied for the
present; but I must doubt whether poor Burgo lived long in comfort
on the allowance made to him.

Here we must say farewell to Burgo Fitzgerald.

CHAPTER LXXVII

The Travellers Return Home

Mr Palliser did not remain long in Baden after the payment of
Burgo's bill. Perhaps I shall not throw any undeserved discredit
on his courage if I say that he was afraid to do so. What would he
have said,--what would he have been able to say, if that young man
had come to him demanding an explanation? So he hurried away to
Strasbourg the same day, much to his wife's satisfaction.

The journey home from thence was not marked by any incidents.
Gradually Mr Palliser became a little more lenient to his wife and
slightly less oppressive in his caution. If he still inquired about
the springs of the carriages, he did so in silence, and he ceased to
enjoin the necessity of a day's rest after each day's journey. By
the time that they reached Dover he had become so used to his wife's
condition that he made but little fluttering as she walked out of
the boat by that narrow gangway which is so contrived as to make an
arrival there a serious inconvenience to a lady, and a nuisance even
to a man. He was somewhat staggered when a big man, in the middle
of the night, insisted on opening the little basket which his wife
carried, and was uncomfortable when obliged to stop her on the plank
while he gave up the tickets which he thought had been already
surrendered; but he was becoming used to his position, and bore
himself like a man.

During their journey home Mr Palliser had by no means kept his seat
opposite to Lady Glencora with constancy. He had soon found that it
was easier to talk to Mr Grey than to his wife, and, consequently,
the two ladies had been much together, as had also the two gentlemen.
What the ladies discussed may be imagined. One was about to become
a wife and the other a mother, and that was to be their fate after
each had made up her mind that no such lot was to be hers. It may,
however, be presumed that for every one word that Alice spoke Lady
Glencora spoke ten. The two men, throughout these days of close
intimac