bout his wife, but it must not be supposed
that he feared the machinations of any Burgo Fitzgerald as being
destructive of his domestic comfort. The Duchess was and always
had been all that is proper. Ladies in high rank, when gifted with
excelling beauty, have often been made the marks of undeserved
calumny;--but no breath of slander had ever touched her name. I doubt
if any man alive had ever had the courage even to wink at her since
the Duke had first called her his own. Nor was she a spendthrift, or
a gambler. She was not fast in her tastes, or given to any pursuit
that was objectionable. She was simply a fool, and as a fool was ever
fearing that she was the mark of ridicule. In all such miseries she
would complain sorrowfully, piteously, and occasionally very angrily,
to her dear Duke and protector; till sometimes her dear Duke did not
quite know what to do with her or how to protect her. It did not suit
him, a Knight of the Garter and a Duke of St Bungay, to beg mercy
for that poor wife of his from such a one as Mrs Conway Sparkes; nor
would it be more in his way to lodge a formal complaint against that
lady before his host or hostess,--as one boy at school may sometimes
do as regards another. "If you don't like the people, my dear, we
will go away," he said to her late on that evening of which we have
spoken. "No," she replied, "I do not wish to go away. I have said
that we would stay till December, and Longroyston won't be ready
before that. But I think that something ought to be done to silence
that woman." And the accent came strong upon "something," and then
again with terrific violence upon "woman."

The Duke did not know how to silence Mrs Conway Sparkes. It was a
great principle of his life never to be angry with any one. How
could he get at Mrs Conway Sparkes? "I don't think she is worth your
attention," said the husband. "That's all very well, Duke," said the
wife, "and perhaps she is not. But I find her in this house, and I
don't like to be laughed at. I think Lady Glencora should make her
know her place."

"Lady Glencora is very young, my dear."

"I don't know about being so very young," said the Duchess, whose ear
had perhaps caught some little hint of poor Lady Glencora's almost
unintentional mimicry. Now as appeals of this kind were being made
frequently to the Duke, and as he was often driven to say some word,
of which he himself hardly approved, to some one in protection of his
Duchess, he was