ould do so; but she
had let a word or two drop, hinting that Lady Glencora was very
young,--hinting that Lady Glencora's manners were charming in their
childlike simplicity; but hinting also that precaution was, for that
reason, the more necessary. Mr Palliser, who suspected nothing as to
Burgo or as to any other special peril, whose whole disposition was
void of suspicion, whose dry nature realized neither the delights
nor the dangers of love, acknowledged that Glencora was young. He
especially wished that she should be discreet and matronly; he feared
no lovers, but he feared that she might do silly things,--that she
would catch cold,--and not know how to live a life becoming the
wife of a Chancellor of the Exchequer. Therefore he submitted
Glencora,--and, to a certain extent, himself,--into the hands of Mrs
Marsham.

Lady Glencora had not been twenty-four hours in the house with this
lady before she recognized in her a duenna. In all such matters no
one could be quicker than Lady Glencora. She might be very ignorant
about the British Constitution, and, alas! very ignorant also as to
the real elements of right and wrong in a woman's conduct, but she
was no fool. She had an eye that could see, and an ear that could
understand, and an abundance of that feminine instinct which teaches
a woman to know her friend or her enemy at a glance, at a touch, at
a word. In many things Lady Glencora was much quicker, much more
clever, than her husband, though he was to be Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and though she did know nothing of the Constitution.
She knew, too, that he was easily to be deceived,--that though his
intelligence was keen, his instincts were dull,--that he was gifted
with no fineness of touch, with no subtle appreciation of the
characters of men and women; and, to a certain extent, she looked
down upon him for his obtusity. He should have been aware that Burgo
was a danger to be avoided; and he should have been aware also that
Mrs Marsham was a duenna not to be employed. When a woman knows that
she is guarded by a watch-dog, she is bound to deceive her Cerberus,
if it be possible, and is usually not ill-disposed to deceive also
the owner of Cerberus. Lady Glencora felt that Mrs Marsham was her
Cerberus, and she was heartily resolved that if she was to be kept in
the proper line at all, she would not be so kept by Mrs Marsham.

Alice rose and accepted Mrs Marsham's salutation quite as coldly as
it had been given,