right I think it to be for the good of our country,
for the good of our order, for the good of our individual families,
that we should support each other by marriage. It is not as though we
were a narrow class, already too closely bound together by family
alliances. The room for choice might be wide enough for you without
going across the Atlantic to look for her who is to be the mother
of your children. To this Mr. Boncassen replied that he was to look
solely to his daughter's happiness. He meant me to understand that
he cared nothing for my feelings. Why should he? That which to me is
deep wisdom is to him an empty prejudice. He asked me then how others
would receive her."

"I am sure that everybody would like her," said Silverbridge.

"I like her. I like her very much."

"I am so glad."

"But still all this is a sorrow to me. When however he put that
question to me about the world around her,--as to those among whom
her lot would be cast, I could not say that I thought she would be
rejected."

"Oh no!" The idea of rejecting Isabel!

"She has a brightness and a grace all her own," continued the Duke,
"which will ensure her acceptance in all societies."

"Yes, yes;--it is just that, sir."

"You will be a nine days' wonder,--the foolish young nobleman who
chose to marry an American."

"I think it will be just the other way up, sir,--among the men."

"But her place will I think be secure to her. That is what I told Mr.
Boncassen."

"It is all right with him then,--now?"

"If you call it all right. You will understand of course that you are
acting in opposition to my advice,--and my wishes."

"What am I to say, sir?" exclaimed Silverbridge, almost in despair.
"When I love the girl better than my life, and when you tell me that
she can be mine if I choose to take her; when I have asked her to be
my wife, and have got her to say that she likes me; when her father
has given way, and all the rest of it, would it be possible that I
should say now that I will give her up?"

"My opinion is to go for nothing,--in anything!" The Duke as he said
this knew that he was expressing aloud a feeling which should have
been restrained within his own bosom. It was natural that there
should have been such plaints. The same suffering must be encountered
in regard to Tregear and his daughter. In every way he had been
thwarted. In every direction he was driven to yield. And yet now he
had to undergo rebuke from his own son, b