made a choice that was good, he had altered
his mind from simple freak, captivated by a pair of bright eyes and
an arch smile; and without a feeling in regard to his family, was
anxious to take to his bosom the granddaughter of an American
day-labourer!

And then his girl,--of whose beauty he was so proud, from whose
manners, and tastes, and modes of life he had expected to reap those
good things, in a feminine degree, which his sons as young men seemed
so little fitted to give him! By slow degrees he had been brought
round to acknowledge that the young man was worthy. Tregear's conduct
had been felt by the Duke to be manly. The letter he had written was
a good letter. And then he had won for himself a seat in the House of
Commons. When forced to speak of him to this girl he had been driven
by justice to call him worthy. But how could he serve to support and
strengthen that nobility, the endurance and perpetuation of which
should be the peculiar care of every Palliser?

And yet as the Duke walked about his room he felt that his opposition
either to the one marriage or to the other was vain. Of course they
would marry according to their wills.

That same night Gerald wrote to his brother before he went to bed, as
follows:

DEAR SILVER,--I was awfully obliged to you for sending me
the I.O.U. for that brute Percival. He only sneered when
he took it, and would have said something disagreeable,
but that he saw that I was in earnest. I know he did say
something to Nid, only I can't find out what. Nid is an
easy-going fellow, and, as I saw, didn't want to have a
rumpus.

But now what do you think I've done? Directly I got home
I told the governor all about it! As I was in the train I
made up my mind that I would. I went slap at it. If there
is anything that never does any good, it's craning. I did
it all at one rush, just as though I was swallowing a dose
of physic. I wish I could tell you all that the governor
said, because it was really tip-top. What is a fellow to
get by playing high,--a fellow like you and me? I didn't
want any of that beast's money. I don't suppose he had
any. But one's dander gets up, and one doesn't like to be
done, and so it goes on. I shall cut that kind of thing
altogether. You should have heard the governor spouting
Latin! And then the way he sat upon Percival, without
mentioning the fellow's name! I do think it mean to set