p wrote. How could it be an accident?

"You had Mary up in town on Friday," he said to his son on the
following Sunday morning.

"Yes, sir."

"And that friend of yours came in?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you not know what my wishes are?"

"Certainly I do;--but I could not help his coming. You do not suppose
that anybody had planned it?"

"I hope not."

"It was simply an accident. Such an accident as must occur over and
over again,--unless Mary is to be locked up."

"Who talks of locking anybody up? What right have you to speak in
that way?"

"I only meant that of course they will stumble across each other in
London."

"I think I will go abroad," said the Duke. He was silent for awhile,
and then repeated his words. "I think I will go abroad."

"Not for long, I hope, sir."

"Yes;--to live there. Why should I stay here? What good can I do
here? Everything I see and everything I hear is a pain to me." The
young man of course could not but go back in his mind to the last
interview which he had had with his father, when the Duke had been so
gracious and apparently so well pleased.

"Is there anything else wrong,--except about Mary?" Silverbridge
asked.

"I am told that Gerald owes about fifteen hundred pounds at
Cambridge."

"So much as that! I knew he had a few horses there."

"It is not the money, but the absence of principle,--that a young
man should have no feeling that he ought to live within certain
prescribed means! Do you know what you have had from Mr. Morton?"

"Not exactly, sir."

"It is different with you. But a man, let him be who he may, should
live within certain means. As for your sister, I think she will
break my heart." Silverbridge found it to be quite impossible to say
anything in answer to this. "Are you going to church?" asked the
Duke.

"I was not thinking of doing so particularly."

"Do you not ever go?"

"Yes;--sometimes. I will go with you now, if you like it, sir."

"I had thought of going, but my mind is too much harassed. I do not
see why you should not go."

But Silverbridge, though he had been willing to sacrifice his morning
to his father,--for it was, I fear, in that way that he had looked at
it,--did not see any reason for performing a duty which his father
himself omitted. And there were various matters also which harassed
him. On the previous evening, after dinner, he had allowed himself
to back the Prime Minister for the Leger to a very serious amount.
In fact h