ilverbridge would have to make him
should she at the end of three months accept his offer. She was quite
aware that Lord Silverbridge need not repeat the offer unless he
were so pleased. But she thought that he would come again. He had so
spoken that she was sure of his love; and had so spoken as to obtain
hers. Yes;--she was sure that she loved him. She had never seen
anything like him before;--so glorious in his beauty, so gentle in
his manhood, so powerful and yet so little imperious, so great in
condition, and yet so little confident in his own greatness, so
bolstered up with external advantages, and so little apt to trust
anything but his own heart and his own voice. In asking for her
love he had put forward no claim but his own love. She was glad he
was what he was. She counted at their full value all his natural
advantages. To be an English Duchess! Oh--yes; her ambition
understood it all! But she loved him, because in the expression of
his love no hint had fallen from him of the greatness of the benefits
which he could confer upon her. Yes, she would like to be a Duchess;
but not to be a Duchess would she become the wife of a man who should
begin his courtship by assuming a superiority.

Now the chances of society had brought her into the company of his
nearest friends. She was in the house with his father and with his
sister. Now and again the Duke spoke a few words to her, and always
did so with a peculiar courtesy. But she was sure that the Duke had
heard nothing of his son's courtship. And she was equally sure that
the matter had not reached Lady Mary's ears. She perceived that the
Duke and her father would often converse together. Mr. Boncassen
would discuss republicanism generally, and the Duke would explain
that theory of monarchy as it prevails in England, which but very few
Americans have ever been made to understand. All this Miss Boncassen
watched with pleasure. She was still of opinion that it would not
become her to force her way into a family which would endeavour to
repudiate her. She would not become this young man's wife if all
connected with the young man were resolved to reject the contact. But
if she could conquer them,--then,--then she thought that she could
put her little hand into that young man's grasp with a happy heart.

It was in this frame of mind that she laid herself out not
unsuccessfully to win the esteem of Lady Mary Palliser. "I do not
know whether you approve it," Lady Cantri