"Because he does not suffer as I do. He has his borough, and his
public life, and a hundred things to think of. I have got nothing but
him. I know he is true;--quite as true as I am. But it is I that have
the suffering in all this. A man can never be like a girl. Papa ought
not to make me suffer like this."

That took place on the Monday. On the Tuesday Mrs. Finn received
a letter from her husband giving his account of the accident. "As
far as I can learn," he said, "Silverbridge will write about it
to-morrow." Then he went on to give a by no means good account of
the state of the patient. The doctor had declared him to be out of
immediate danger, and had set the broken bones. As tidings would be
sent on the next day she had better say nothing about the accident
to Lady Mary. This letter reached Matching on Tuesday and made the
position of Mrs. Finn very disagreeable. She was bound to carry
herself as though nothing was amiss, knowing, as she did so, the
condition of Mary's lover.

On the evening of that day Lady Mary was more lively than usual,
though her liveliness was hardly of a happy nature. "I don't know
what papa can expect. I've heard him say a hundred times that to be
in Parliament is the highest place a gentleman can fill, and now
Frank is in Parliament." Mrs. Finn looked at her with beseeching
eyes, as though begging her not to speak of Tregear. "And then to
think of their having that Lord Popplecourt there! I shall always
hate Lady Cantrip, for it was her place. That she should have thought
it possible! Lord Popplecourt! Such a creature! Hyperion to a satyr.
Isn't it true? Oh, that papa should have thought it possible!" Then
she got up, and walked about the room, beating her hands together.
All this time Mrs. Finn knew that Tregear was lying at Harrington
with half his bones broken, and in danger of his life!

On the next morning Lady Mary received her letters. There were two
lying before her plate when she came into breakfast, one from her
father and the other from Silverbridge. She read that from the
Duke first while Mrs. Finn was watching her. "Papa will be home on
Saturday," she said. "He declares that the people in the borough
are quite delighted with Silverbridge for a member. And he is quite
jocose. 'They used to be delighted with me once,' he says, 'but I
suppose everybody changes.'" Then she began to pour out the tea
before she opened her brother's letter. Mrs. Finn's eyes were still
on her anx