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.’
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.
