se."

"Is there a town at Matching?"

"Oh, a little bit of a place. I'll go round by it if you like, and in
at the further gate."

"Oh, no!" said Alice.

"Ah, but I should like. It was a borough once, and belonged to the
Duke; but they put it out at the Reform Bill. They made some kind of
bargain;--he was to keep either Silverbridge or Matching, but not
both. Mr Palliser sits for Silverbridge, you know. The Duke chose
Silverbridge,--or rather his father did, as he was then going to
build his great place in Barsetshire;--that's near Silverbridge. But
the Matching people haven't forgiven him yet. He was sitting for
Matching himself when the Reform Bill passed. Then his father died,
and he hasn't lived there much since. It's a great deal nicer place
than Gatherum Castle, only not half so grand. I hate grandeur; don't
you?"

"I never tried much of it, as you have."

"Come now; that's not fair. There's no one in the world less grand
than I am."

"I mean that I've not had grand people about me."

"Having cut all your cousins,--and Lady Midlothian in particular,
like a naughty girl as you are. I was so angry with you when you
accused me of selling you about that. You ought to have known that
I was the last person in the world to have done such a thing."

"I did not think you meant to sell me, but I thought--"

"Yes, you did, Alice. I know what you thought; you thought that Lady
Midlothian was making a tool of me that I might bring you under her
thumb, so that she might bully you into Mr Grey's arms. That's what
you thought. I don't know that I was at all entitled to your good
opinion, but I was not entitled to that special bad opinion."

"I had no bad opinion;--but it was so necessary that I should guard
myself."

"You shall be guarded. I'll take you under my shield. Mr Grey shan't
be named to you, except that I shall expect you to tell me all about
it; and you must tell me all about that dangerous cousin, too, of
whom they were saying such terrible things down in Scotland. I had
heard of him before." These last words Lady Glencora spoke in a lower
voice and in an altered tone,--slowly, as though she were thinking of
something that pained her. It was from Burgo Fitzgerald that she had
heard of George Vavasor.

Alice did not know what to say. She found it impossible to discuss
all the most secret and deepest of her feelings out in that open
carriage, perhaps in the hearing of the servant behind, on this her
f