ray?"

"A person in my position can hardly venture to speak freely, Sir, on a
delicate matter of this kind."

Sir Patrick's temper flashed out, half-seriously, half-whimsically, as
usual.

"Is that a snap at Me, you old dog? If I am not your friend, as well as
your master, who is? Am _I_ in the habit of keeping any of my harmless
fellow-creatures at a distance? I despise the cant of modern Liberalism;
but it's not the less true that I have, all my life, protested against
the inhuman separation of classes in England. We are, in that respect,
brag as we may of our national virtue, the most unchristian people in
the civilized world."

"I beg your pardon, Sir Patrick--"

"God help me! I'm talking polities at this time of night! It's your
fault, Duncan. What do you mean by casting my station in my teeth,
because I can't put my night-cap on comfortably till you have brushed
my hair? I have a good mind to get up and brush yours. There! there! I'm
uneasy about my niece--nervous irritability, my good fellow, that's all.
Let's hear what you have to say about Miss Lundie. And go on with my
hair. And don't be a humbug."

"I was about to remind you, Sir Patrick, that Miss Lundie has another
interest in her life to turn to. If this matter of Miss Silvester ends
badly--and I own it begins to look as if it would--I should hurry my
niece's marriage, Sir, and see if _that_ wouldn't console her."

Sir Patrick started under the gentle discipline of the hair-brush in
Duncan's hand.

"That's very sensibly put," said the old gentleman. "Duncan! you are,
what I call, a clear-minded man. Well worth thinking of, old Truepenny!
If the worst comes to the worst, well worth thinking of!"

It was not the first time that Duncan's steady good sense had struck
light, under the form of a new thought, in his master's mind. But never
yet had he wrought such mischief as the mischief which he had innocently
done now. He had sent Sir Patrick to bed with the fatal idea of
hastening the marriage of Arnold and Blanche.

The situation of affairs at Windygates--now that Anne had apparently
obliterated all trace of herself--was becoming serious. The one chance
on which the discovery of Arnold's position depended, was the chance
that accident might reveal the truth in the lapse of time. In this
posture of circumstances, Sir Patrick now resolved--if nothing happened
to relieve Blanche's anxiety in the course of the week--to advance the
celebration of the