usband and even the man's widow was to be
avoided rather than sought. "Quite out of the question!" said the
Duke, drawing himself up.

"Why out of the question?"

"There are a thousand reasons. I could not have it."

"Then I will say nothing more about it. But there is a romance
there,--something quite touching."

"You don't mean that she has--a lover?"

"Well;--yes."

"And she lost her husband only the other day,--lost him in so
terrible a manner! If that is so, certainly I do not wish to see her
again."

"Ah, that is because you don't know the story."

"I don't wish to know it."

"The man who now wants to marry her knew her long before she had
seen Lopez, and had offered to her ever so many times. He is a fine
fellow, and you know him."

"I had rather not hear any more about it," said the Duke, walking
away.

There was an end to the Duchess's scheme of getting Emily down to
Matching,--a scheme which could hardly have been successful even had
the Duke not objected to it. But yet the Duchess would not abandon
her project of befriending the widow. She had injured Lopez. She had
liked what she had seen of Mrs. Lopez. And she was now endeavouring
to take Arthur Fletcher by the hand. She called therefore at
Manchester Square on the day before she started for Matching, and
left a card and a note. This was on the 15th of August, when London
was as empty as it ever is. The streets at the West End were
deserted. The houses were shut up. The very sweepers of the crossings
seemed to have gone out of town. The public offices were manned by
one or two unfortunates each, who consoled themselves by reading
novels at their desks. Half the cab-drivers had gone apparently to
the seaside,--or to bed. The shops were still open, but all the
respectable shopkeepers were either in Switzerland or at their marine
villas. The travelling world had divided itself into Cookites and
Hookites;--those who escaped trouble under the auspices of Mr. Cook,
and those who boldly combated the extortions of foreign innkeepers
and the anti-Anglican tendencies of foreign railway officials "on
their own hooks." The Duchess of Omnium was nevertheless in town, and
the Duke might still be seen going in at the back entrance of the
Treasury Chambers every day at eleven o'clock. Mr. Warburton thought
it very hard, for he, too, could shoot grouse; but he would have
perished rather than have spoken a word.

The Duchess did not ask to see Mrs. Lopez, b