‘I would not have you marry any man without
loving him.’
’I never can love anybody else. That is
what I wanted you to know, papa.’
To this he made no reply, nor was there anything else
said upon the subject before the carriage drove up
to the railway station. ‘Do not get out,
dear,’ he said, seeing that her eyes had been
filled with tears. ’It is not worth while.
God bless you my child! You will be up in London
I hope in a fortnight, and we must try to make the
house a little less dull for you.’
And so he encountered the third attack.
Lady Mary, as she was driven home, recovered her spirits
wonderfully. Not a word had fallen from her father
which she could use hereafter as a refuge from her
embarrassments. He had made her no promise.
He had assented to nothing. But there had been
something in his manner, in his gait, in his eye, in
the pressure of his arm, which made her feel that
her troubles would soon be at an end.
‘I do love you so much,’ she said to Mrs
Finn late on that afternoon.
‘I am glad of that, dear.’
’I shall always love you,—because
you have been on my side all through.’
‘No, Mary;—that is not so.’
’I know it is so. Of course you have to
be wise because you are older. And papa would
not have you here with me if you were not wise.
But I know you are on my side,—and papa
knows it too. And someone else shall know it
some day.’
‘He is Such a Beast’
Lord Silverbridge remained in the Brake country till
a few days before the meeting of Parliament, and had
he been left to himself he would have had another
week in the country and might probably have overstayed
the opening day; but he had not been left to himself.
In the last week in January an important despatch reached
his hands, from no less important person than Sir Timothy
Beeswax, suggesting to him that he should undertake
the duty of seconding the address in the House of
Commons. When the proposition first reached him
it made his hair stand on end. He had never yet
risen to his feet in the House. He had spoken
at those election meetings in Cornwall, and had found
it easy enough. After the first or second time
he had thought it good fun. But he knew that standing
up in the House of Commons would be different from
that. Then there would be the dress! ’I
should so hate to fig myself out and look like a guy,’
he said to Tregear, to whom of course he confided
the offer that was made to him. Tregear was very
anxious that he should accept it. ’A man
should never refuse anything of that kind which comes
his way,’ Tregear said.
‘It is only because I am the governor’s
son,’ Silverbridge pleaded.
’Partly so perhaps. But if it be altogether
so, what of that? Take the goods the gods provide
you. Of course all these things which our ambition
covets are easier to Duke’s sons than to others.
But not on that account should a Duke’s son
refuse them. A man when he sees a rung vacant
on the ladder should always put his foot there.’
