by some snare?

But could she love him? That a woman should not marry a man without
loving him, she partly knew. But she thought she knew also that there
must be exceptions. She would do her very best to love him. That
other man should be banished from her very thoughts. She would be
such a wife to him that he should never know that he lacked anything.
Poor boy! Sweet dear boy! He, as he went away to his dinner, had
his thoughts also about her. Of all the girls he knew she was the
jolliest,--and of all his friends she was the pleasantest. As she was
anxious that he should go to work in the House of Commons he would
go to work there. As for loving her! Well;--of course he must marry
someone, and why not Lady Mab as well as any one else?

CHAPTER XVII

The Derby

An attendance at the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting had
unfortunately not been compatible with the Silverbridge election.
Major Tifto had therefore been obliged to look after the affair
alone. "A very useful mare," as Tifto had been in the habit of
calling a leggy, thoroughbred, meagre-looking brute named Coalition,
was on this occasion confided to the Major's sole care and judgment.
But Coalition failed, as coalitions always do, and Tifto had to
report to his noble patron that they had not pulled off the event.
It had been a match for four hundred pounds, made indeed by Lord
Silverbridge, but made at the suggestion of Tifto;--and now Tifto
wrote in a very bad humour about it. It had been altogether his
Lordship's fault in submitting to carry two pounds more than Tifto
had thought to be fair and equitable. The match had been lost. Would
Lord Silverbridge be so good as to pay the money to Mr. Green Griffin
and debit him, Tifto, with the share of his loss?

We must acknowledge that the unpleasant tone of the Major's letter
was due quite as much to the ill-usage he had received in reference
to that journey to Silverbridge, as to the loss of the race. Within
that little body there was a high-mounting heart, and that heart had
been greatly wounded by his Lordship's treatment. Tifto had felt
himself to have been treated like a servant. Hardly an excuse had
even been made. He had been simply told that he was not wanted. He
was apt sometimes to tell himself that he knew on which side his
bread was buttered. But perhaps he hardly knew how best to keep
the butter going. There was a little pride about him which was
antagonistic to the best interests of such