‘I mentioned her name,’ said Tregear,
’because I thought she had been a friend of
the family.’
’That will do, sir. I have been greatly
pained as well as surprised by what I have heard.
Of the real state of the case I can form no opinion
till I see my daughter. You, of course, will
hold no further intercourse with her.’
He paused as though for a promise, but Tregear did
not feel himself called upon to say a word in one
direction or the other. ’It will be my care
that you shall not do so. Good-morning, sir.’
Tregear, who during the interview had been standing,
then bowed, turned upon his heel and left the room.
The Duke seated himself, and, crossing his arms upon
his chest, sat for an hour looking up at the ceiling.
Why was it that, for him, such a world of misery had
been prepared? What wrong had he done, of what
imprudence had been guilty, that, at every turn of
life, something should occur so grievous as to make
him think of himself the most wretched of men?
No man had ever loved his wife more dearly than he
had done; and yet now, in that very excess of tenderness
which her death had occasioned, he was driven to accuse
her of a great sin against himself, in that she had
kept from him her knowledge of this affair;—for,
when he came to turn the matter over in his mind,
he did believe Tregear’s statement as to her
encouragement. Then, too, he had been proud of
his daughter. He was a man so reticent and undemonstrative
in his manner that he had never known how to make
confidential friends of his children. In his
sons hitherto he had not taken pride. They were
gallant, well-grown, handsome boys with a certain
dash of cleverness,—more like their mother
than their father; but they had not as yet done anything
as he would have made them do it. But the girl,
in the perfection of her beauty, in the quiescence
of her manner, in the nature of her studies, and in
the general dignity of her bearing, had seemed to
be all that he had desired. And now she had engaged
herself, behind his back, to the younger son of a county
squire!
But his anger against Mrs Finn was hotter than the
anger against anyone in his own family.
Major Tifto
Major Tifto had lately become a member of the Beargarden
Club, under the auspices of his friend Lord Silverbridge.
It was believed, by those who had made some inquiry
into the matter, that the Major had really served
a campaign as a volunteer in the Carlist army in the
north of Spain. When, therefore, it was declared
by someone else that he was not a major at all, his
friends were able to contradict the assertion, and
to impute it to slander. Instances were brought
up,—declared by these friends to be innumerable,
but which did, in truth, amount to three of four,—of
English gentlemen who had come up from a former Carlist
war, bearing the title of colonel, without any contradiction
or invidious remark. Had this gallant officer
appeared as Colonel Tifto, perhaps less might have
been said about it. There was a little lack of
courage in the title which he did choose. But
it was accepted at last, and, as Major Tifto, he was
proposed, seconded, and elected at the Beargarden.
