miss the glory of being loved by this lovely one for his
own sake,--for his own manhood, and his own gifts and his own
character.

And yet his attraction to her was so great that now in the day of his
sorrow he could think of no solace but what was to be found in her
company.

"Not at the Oaks!" she said as soon as he was shown into the
drawing-room.

"No;--not at the Oaks. Lord Grex is there, I suppose?"

"Oh yes;--that is a matter of course. Why are you a recreant?"

"The House sits to-day."

"How virtuous! Is it coming to that,--that when the House sits you
will never be absent?"

"That's the kind of life I'm going to lead. You haven't heard about
Gerald?"

"About your brother?"

"Yes--you haven't heard?"

"Not a word. I hope there is no misfortune."

"But indeed there is,--a most terrible misfortune." Then he told the
whole story. How Gerald had been kept in London, and how he had gone
down to Cambridge,--all in vain; how his father had taken the matter
to heart, telling him that he had ruined his brother; and how he, in
consequence, had determined not to go to the races. "Then he said,"
continued Silverbridge, "that his children between them would bring
him to his grave."

"That was terrible."

"Very terrible."

"But what did he mean by that?" asked Lady Mabel, anxious to hear
something about Lady Mary and Tregear.

"Well; of course what I did at Oxford made him unhappy; and now there
is this affair of Gerald's."

"He did not allude to your sister?"

"Yes he did. You have heard of all that. Tregear told you."

"He told me something."

"Of course my father does not like it."

"Do you approve of it?"

"No," said he--curtly and sturdily.

"Why not? You like Tregear."

"Certainly I like Tregear. He is the friend, among men, whom I like
the best. I have only two real friends."

"Who are they?" she asked, sinking her voice very low.

"He is one;--and you are the other. You know that."

"I hoped that I was one," she said. "But if you love Tregear so
dearly, why do you not approve of him for your sister?"

"I always knew it would not do."

"But why not?"

"Mary ought to marry a man of higher standing."

"Of higher rank you mean. The daughters of Dukes have married
commoners before."

"It is not exactly that. I don't like to talk of it in that way. I
knew it would make my father unhappy. In point of fact he can't marry
her. What is the good of approving of a thing that is impossi