dge."

"And what about Mr. and Mrs. Finn?"

"She promised she would come again, you know. They are at their own
place in Surrey. They will come unless they have friends with them.
They have no shooting, and nothing brings people together now except
shooting. I suppose there are things here to be shot. And be sure you
write to Silverbridge."

CHAPTER LI

The Duke's Guests

"The Duke of Omnium presents his compliments to Mr. Francis Tregear,
and begs to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Tregear's letter of ----.
The Duke has no other communication to make to Mr. Tregear, and must
beg to decline any further correspondence." This was the reply which
the Duke wrote to the applicant for his daughter's hand. And he wrote
it at once. He had acknowledged to himself that Tregear had shown a
certain manliness in his appeal; but not on that account was such a
man to have all that he demanded! It seemed to the Duke that there
was no alternative between such a note as that given above and a
total surrender.

But the post did not go out during the night, and the note lay hidden
in the Duke's private drawer till the morning. There was still that
"locus poenitentiae" which should be accorded to all letters written
in anger. During the day he thought over it all constantly, not
in any spirit of yielding, not descending a single step from that
altitude of conviction which made him feel that it might be his duty
absolutely to sacrifice his daughter,--but asking himself whether it
might not be well that he should explain the whole matter at length
to the young man. He thought he could put the matter strongly. It
was not by his own doing that he belonged to an aristocracy which,
if all exclusiveness were banished from it, must cease to exist.
But being what he was, having been born to such privileges and
such limitations, was he not bound in duty to maintain a certain
exclusiveness? He would appeal to the young man himself to say
whether marriage ought to be free between all classes of the
community. And if not between all, who was to maintain the limits but
they to whom authority in such matters is given? So much in regard
to rank! And then he would ask this young man whether he thought
it fitting that a young man whose duty, according to all known
principles, it must be to earn his bread, should avoid that manifest
duty by taking a wife who could maintain him. As he roamed about his
park alone he felt that he could write such