irst meeting with her cousin,--of whom, in fact, she knew very
little. She had not intended to discuss these things at all, and
certainly not in such a manner as this. So she remained silent. "This
is the beginning of the park," said Lady Glencora, pointing to a
grand old ruin of an oak tree, which stood on the wide margin of the
road, outside the rounded corner of the park palings, propped up with
a skeleton of supporting sticks all round it. "And that is Matching
oak, under which Coeur de Lion or Edward the Third, I forget which,
was met by Sir Guy de Palisere as he came from the war, or from
hunting, or something of that kind. It was the king, you know, who
had been fighting or whatever it was, and Sir Guy entertained him
when he was very tired. Jeffrey Palliser, who is my husband's cousin,
says that old Sir Guy luckily pulled out his brandy-flask. But the
king immediately gave him all the lands of Matching,--only there was
a priory then and a lot of monks, and I don't quite understand how
that was. But I know one of the younger brothers always used to be
abbot and sit in the House of Lords. And the king gave him Littlebury
at the same time, which is about seven miles away from here. As
Jeffrey Palliser says, it was a great deal of money for a pull at his
flask. Jeffrey Palliser is here now, and I hope you'll like him. If
I have no child, and Mr Palliser were not to marry again, Jeffrey
would be the heir." And here again her voice was low and slow, and
altogether changed in its tone.

"I suppose that's the way most of the old families got their
estates."

"Either so, or by robbery. Many of them were terrible thieves, my
dear, and I dare say Sir Guy was no better than he should be. But
since that they have always called some of the Pallisers Plantagenet.
My husband's name is Plantagenet. The Duke is called George
Plantagenet, and the king was his godfather. The queen is my
godmother, I believe, but I don't know that I'm much the better for
it. There's no use in godfathers and godmothers;--do you think there
is?"

"Not much as it's managed now."

"If I had a child,-- Oh, Alice, it's a dreadful thing not to have a
child when so much depends on it!"

"But you're such a short time married yet."

"Ah, well; I can see it in his eyes when he asks me questions; but I
don't think he'd say an unkind word, not if his own position depended
on it. Ah, well; this is Matching. That other gate we passed, where
Dandy wanted t