nion which he had all to himself.

During the three or four days which followed the scene in the
billiard-room Isabel kept herself out of her lover's way. She had
explained to him that which she wished him to do, and she left him to
do it. Day by day she watched the circumstances of the life around
her, and knew that it had not been done. She was sure that it could
not have been done while the Duke was explaining to her the beauty of
quints, and expatiating on the horrors of twelve pennies, and twelve
inches, and twelve ounces,--variegated in some matters by sixteen and
fourteen! He could not know that she was ambitious of becoming his
daughter-in-law, while he was opening out to her the mysteries of
the House of Lords, and explaining how it came to pass that while he
was a member of one House of Parliament, his son should be sitting
as a member of another;--how it was that a nobleman could be a
commoner, and how a peer of one part of the Empire could sit as the
representative of a borough in another part. She was an apt scholar.
Had there been a question of any other young man marrying her, he
would probably have thought that no other young man could have done
better.

Silverbridge was discontented with himself. The greatest misfortune
was that Lady Mabel should be there. While she was present to his
father's eyes he did not know how to declare his altered wishes.
Every now and then she would say to him some little word indicating
her feelings of the absurdity of his passion. "I declare I don't know
whether it is you or your father that Miss Boncassen most affects,"
she said. But to this and to other similar speeches he would make no
answer. She had extracted his secret from him at Killancodlem, and
might use it against him if she pleased. In his present frame of mind
he was not disposed to joke with her upon the subject.

On that second Sunday,--the Boncassens were to return to London on
the following Tuesday,--he found himself alone with Isabel's father.
The American had been brought out at his own request to see the
stables, and had been accompanied round the premises by Silverbridge
and by Mr. Warburton, by Isabel and by Lady Mary. As they got out
into the park the party were divided, and Silverbridge found himself
with Mr. Boncassen. Then it occurred to him that the proper thing
for a young man in love was to go, not to his own father, but to the
lady's father. Why should not he do as others always did? Isabel