as I tell you. But a good
time is coming, when I shall have to do everything that you tell me."
Then it was arranged that Mrs. and Miss Boncassen were to be taken
down to the house in their own carriage, and were to be received at
the door by Lord Silverbridge.

Another arrangement had also been made. Isabel was to be taken to the
Duke immediately upon her arrival and to be left for awhile with him,
alone, so that he might express himself as he might find fit to do to
this newly-adopted child. It was a matter to him of such importance
that nothing remaining to him in his life could equal it. It was not
simply that she was to be the wife of his son,--though that in itself
was a consideration very sacred. Had it been Gerald who was bringing
to him a bride, the occasion would have had less of awe. But this
girl, this American girl, was to be the mother and grandmother of
future Dukes of Omnium,--the ancestress, it was to be hoped, of all
future Dukes of Omnium! By what she might be, by what she might have
in her of mental fibre, of high or low quality, of true or untrue
womanliness, were to be fashioned those who in days to come might be
amongst the strongest and most faithful bulwarks of the constitution.
An England without a Duke of Omnium,--or at any rate without any
Duke,--what would it be? And yet he knew that with bad Dukes his
country would be in worse stress than though she had none at all.
An aristocracy;--yes; but an aristocracy that shall be of the very
best! He believed himself thoroughly in his order; but if his order,
or many of his order, should become as was now Lord Grex, then, he
thought, that his order not only must go to the wall but that, in the
cause of humanity, it had better do so. With all this daily, hourly,
always in his mind, this matter of the choice of a wife for his heir
was to him of solemn importance.

When they arrived Silverbridge was there and led them first of all
into the dining-room. "My!" said Mrs. Boncassen, as she looked around
her. "I thought that our Fifth Avenue parlours whipped everything in
the way of city houses."

"What a nice little room for Darby and Joan to sit down to eat a
mutton-chop in," said Isabel.

"It's a beastly great barrack," said Silverbridge;--"but the best of
it is that we never use it. We'll have a cosy little place for Darby
and Joan;--you'll see. Now come to the governor. I've got to leave
you with him."

"Oh me! I am in such a fright."

"He can