He did not know quite what to make of it.  Mabel Grex had declared that she had behaved like an angel.  But yet, as he thought of what he had seen, he shuddered with vexation.  ’I was thinking of the governor.’

‘He shall be told everything.’

‘That you met Tregear?’

’Certainly; and that I—­kissed him.  I will do nothing that I am ashamed to tell everybody.’

‘He will be very angry.’

’I cannot help it.  He should not treat me as he is doing.  Mr Tregear is a gentleman.  Why did he let him come?  Why you bring him?  But it is of no use.  The thing is settled.  Papa can break my heart, but he cannot make me say that I am not engaged to Mr Tregear.’

On that night Mary told the whole of her story to Lady Cantrip.  There was nothing she tried to conceal.  ‘I got up,’ she said, ’and threw my arms round him.  Is he not all the world to me?’

‘Had it been planned?’ asked Lady Cantrip.

’No;—­no!  Nothing had been planned.  They are cousins and very intimate, and he goes there constantly.  Now I want you to tell papa all about it.’

Lady Cantrip began to think that it had been an evil day for her when she had agreed to take charge of this very determined young lady, but she consented to write to the Duke.  As the girl was in her hands she must take care not to lay herself open to reproaches.  As this objectionable lover had either contrived a meeting, or had met her without contriving, it was necessary that the Duke should be informed.  ’I would rather you wrote the letter,’ said Lady Mary.  ’But pray tell him that all along I have meant him to know about it.’

Till Lady Cantrip seated herself at her writing-table she did not know how great the difficulty would be.  It cannot in any circumstance be easy to write to a father of his daughter’s love for an objectionable lover; but the Duke’s character added much to the severity of the task.  And then that embrace!  She knew that the Duke would be struck with horror as he read of such a tale, and she found herself almost struck with horror as she attempted to write it.  When she came to the point she found that she could not write it.  ’I fear there was a good deal of warmth shown on both sides,’ she said, feeling that she was calumniating the man, as to whose warmth she had heard nothing.  ‘It is quite clear,’ she added, ‘that this is not a passing fancy on her part.’

It was impossible that the Duke should be made to understand exactly what had occurred.  That Silverbridge had taken Mary he did understand, and that they had together gone to Lord Grex’s house.  He understood also that the meeting had taken place in the presence of Silverbridge and Lady Mabel.  ’No doubt it was all an accident,’ Lady Cantrip wrote.  How could it be an accident?

‘You had Mary up in town on Friday?’ he said to his son on the following Sunday morning.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘And that friend of yours came in?’