The Dukes Children | Page 4

before him, and no pen ready to his hand. He
was dressed of course in black. That, indeed, was usual with him, but
now the tailor by his funeral art had added some deeper dye of
blackness to his appearance. When he rose and turned to her she
thought that he had at once become an old man. His hair was grey in
parts, and he had never accustomed himself to use that skill in
managing his outside person by which many men are able to preserve
for themselves a look, if not of youth, at any rate of freshness. He was
thin, of an adust complexion, and had acquired a habit of stooping
which, when he was not excited, gave him an appearance of age. All
that was common to him; but now it was so much exaggerated that he
who was not yet fifty might have been taken for over sixty.
He put out his hand to greet her as she came up to him. 'Silverbridge,'
he said, 'tells me that you go back to London tomorrow.'
'I thought it would be best, Duke. My presence here can be of no
comfort to you.'
'I will not say anything can be of comfort. But of course it is right that
you should go. I can have no excuse for asking you to remain. While
there was yet a hope for her--' Then he stopped, unable to say a word
further in that direction, and yet there was no sign of a tear and no
sound of a sob.
'Of course I would stay, Duke, if I could be of any service.'
'Mr Finn will expect you to return to him.'
'Perhaps it would be better that I should say that I would stay were it
not that I know that I can be of no real service.'
'What do you mean by that, Mrs Finn?'

'Lady Mary should have with her at such a time some other friend.'
'There was none other whom her mother loved as she loved you--none,
none.' This he said almost with energy.
'There was no one lately, Duke, with whom circumstances caused her
mother to be so closely intimate. But even that perhaps was
unfortunate.'
'I never thought so.'
'That is a great compliment. But as to Lady Mary, will it not be well
that she should have with her, as soon as possible, someone,-- perhaps
someone of her own kindred if it be possible, or, if not that, at least one
of her own kind?'
'Who is there? Whom do you mean?'
'I mean no one. It is hard, Duke, to say what I do mean, but perhaps I
had better try. There will be,--probably there have been,--some among
your friends who have regretted the great intimacy which chance
produced between me and my lost friend. While she was with us no
such feeling would have sufficed to drive me from her. She had chosen
for herself, and if others disapproved of her choice that was nothing to
me. But as regards Lady Mary, it will better, I think, that from the
beginning she should be taught to look for friendship and guidance to
those--to those who are more naturally connected with her.'
'I was not thinking of any guidance,' said the Duke.
'Of course not. But with one so young, where there is intimacy there
will be guidance. There should be somebody with her. It was almost the
last thought that occupied her mother's mind. I could not tell her, Duke,
but I can tell you, that I cannot with any advantage to your girl be that
somebody.'
'Cora wished it.'
'Her wishes, probably, were sudden and hardly fixed.'
'Who should it be, then?' asked the father, after a pause.
'Who am I, Duke, that I should answer such a question?'
After that there was another pause, and then the conference was ended
by a request from the Duke that Mrs Finn would stay at Matching for
yet two days longer. At dinner they all met,--the father, the three
children, and Mrs Finn. How far the young people among themselves
had been able to throw off something of the gloom of death need not
here be asked; but in the presence of their father they were sad and

sombre, almost as he was. On the next day, early in the morning, the
younger lad returned to his college, and Lord Silverbridge went up to
London, where he was supposed to have his home.
'Perhaps you would not mind reading these letters,' the Duke said to
Mrs Finn, when she again went to him in compliance with a message
from him asking for her presence. Then she sat down and read two
letters, one from Lady Cantrip, and the other from a Mrs Jeffrey