The Dukes Children | Page 5

Palliser, each of which contained an invitation for his daughter, and
expressed a hope that Lady Mary would not be unwilling to spend
some time with the writer. Lady Cantrip's letter was long, and went
minutely into circumstances. If Lady Mary would come to her, she
would abstain from having other company in the house till her young
friend's spirits should have somewhat recovered themselves. Nothing
could be more kind, or proposed in a sweeter fashion. There had,
however, been present in the Duke's mind as he read it a feeling that a
proposition to a bereaved husband to relieve him of the society of an
only daughter, was not one which would usually be made to a father. In
such a position a child's company would probably be his best solace.
But he knew,--at this moment, he painfully remembered,--that he was
not as other men. He acknowledged the truth of this, but he was not the
less grieved and irritated by the reminder. The letter from Mrs Jeffrey
Palliser was to the same effect, but was much shorter. If it would suit
Mary to come to them for a month or six weeks at their place in
Gloucestershire, they would both be delighted.
'I should not choose her to go there,' said the Duke, as Mrs Finn
refolded the latter letter. 'My cousin's wife is a very good woman, but
Mary would not be happy with her.'
'Lady Cantrip is an excellent friend for her.'
'Excellent. I know no one whom I esteem more than Lady Cantrip.'
'Would you wish her to go there, Duke?'
There came a piteous look over the father's face. Why should he be
treated as no other father would be treated? Why should it be supposed
that he would desire to send his girl away from him? But yet he felt that
it would be better that she should go. It was his present purpose to
remain at Matching through a portion of the summer. What could he do
to make a girl happy? What comfort would there be in his
companionship?

'I suppose she ought to go somewhere,' he said.
'I had not thought of it,' said Mrs Finn.
'I understood you to say,' replied the Duke, almost angrily, 'that she
ought to go someone who would take care of her.'
'I was thinking of some friend coming to her.'
'Who would come? Who is there that I could possibly ask? You will
not stay.'
'I certainly would stay, if it were for her good. I was thinking, Duke,
that perhaps you might ask the Greys to come to you.'
'They would not come,' he said, after a pause.
'When she was told that it was for her sake, she would come, I think.'
Then there was another pause. 'I could not ask them,' he said; 'for his
sake I could not have it put to her in that way. Perhaps Mary had better
go to Lady Cantrip. Perhaps I had better be alone for a time. I do not
think that I am fit to have any human being with me in my sorrow.'

CHAPTER 2
Lady Mary Palliser
It may be said at once that Mrs Finn knew something of Lady Mary
which was not known to her father, and which she was not yet prepared
to make known to him. The last winter abroad had been passed at
Rome, and there Lady Mary Palliser had become acquainted with a
certain Mr Tregear,--Francis Oliver Tregear. The Duchess, who had
been in constant correspondence with her friend, had asked questions
by letter as to Mr Tregear, of whom she had only known that he was
the younger son of a Cornish gentleman, who had become Lord
Silverbridge's friend at Oxford. In this there had certainly been but little
to recommend him to the intimacy of such a girl as Lady Mary Palliser.
Nor had the Duchess, when writing, ever spoken of him as a probable
suitor for her daughter's hand. She had never connected the two names
together. But Mrs Finn had been clever enough to perceive that the
Duchess had become fond of Mr Tregear, and would willingly have
heard something to his advantage. And she did hear something to his
advantage,--something also to his disadvantage. At his mother's death,
this young man would inherit a property amounting to about fifteen

hundred a year. 'And I am told,' said Mrs Finn, 'that he is quite likely to
spend his money before it comes to him.' There had been nothing more
written specially about Mr Tregear, but Mrs Finn had feared not only
that the young man loved the girl, but that the young man's love had in
some imprudent way been fostered by the mother.
Then there had been some fitful confidence