Then Mrs Dale, in her anxiety to repair what injury
might have been done to her daughter by over-exertion,
omitted any further mention of the farewell speech.
Dr Crofts as he rode home enjoyed but little of the
triumph of a successful lover. “It may
be that she’s right,” he said to himself;
“and, at any rate, I’ll ask again.”
Nevertheless, that “No” which Bell had
spoken, and had repeated, still sounded in his ears
harsh and conclusive. There are men to whom a
peal of noes rattling about their ears never takes
the sound of a true denial, and others to whom the
word once pronounced, be it whispered ever so softly,
comes as though it were an unchangeable verdict from
the supreme judgment-seat.
Fie, Fie!
Will any reader remember the loves,—no,
not the loves; that word is so decidedly ill-applied
as to be incapable of awakening the remembrance of
any reader; but the flirtations—of Lady
Dumbello and Mr Plantagenet Palliser? Those flirtations,
as they had been carried on at Courcy Castle, were
laid bare in all their enormities to the eye of the
public, and it must be confessed that if the eye of
the public was shocked, that eye must be shocked very
easily.
But the eye of the public was shocked, and people
who were particular as to their morals said very strange
things. Lady de Courcy herself said very strange
things indeed, shaking her head, and dropping mysterious
words; whereas Lady Clandidlem spoke much more openly,
declaring her opinion that Lady Dumbello would be off
before May. They both agreed that it would not
be altogether bad for Lord Dumbello that he should
lose his wife, but shook their heads very sadly when
they spoke of poor Plantagenet Palliser. As to
the lady’s fate, that lady whom they had both
almost worshipped during the days at Courcy Castle,—they
did not seem to trouble themselves about that.
And it must be admitted that Mr Palliser had been
a little imprudent,—imprudent, that is,
if he knew anything about the rumours afloat,—seeing
that soon after his visit at Courcy Castle he had
gone down to Lady Hartletop’s place in Shropshire,
at which the Dumbellos intended to spend the winter,
and on leaving it had expressed his intention of returning
in February. The Hartletop people had pressed
him very much,—the pressure having come
with peculiar force from Lord Dumbello. Therefore
it is reasonable to suppose that the Hartletop people
had at any rate not heard of the rumour.
Mr Plantagenet Palliser spent his Christmas with his
uncle, the Duke of Omnium, at Gatherum Castle.
That is to say, he reached the castle in time for
dinner on Christmas eve, and left it on the morning
after Christmas day. This was in accordance with
the usual practice of his life, and the tenants, dependants,
and followers of the Omnium interest were always delighted
to see this manifestation of a healthy English domestic
family feeling between the duke and his nephew.
But the amount of intercourse on such occasions between
them was generally trifling. The duke would smile
as he put out his right hand to his nephew, and say,—
