pose a man is constant to what he really loves best. But what
a history you have brought back with you, Mrs. Roden! I do not know
whether I am to call you Mrs. Roden."

"Certainly, my lord, you are to call me so."

"What does it mean?" asked Marion.

"You have not heard," he said. "I have not been here time enough to
tell her all this, Mrs. Roden."

"You know it then, Lord Hampstead?"

"Yes, I know it;--though Roden has not condescended to write me a
line. What are we to call him?" To this Mrs. Roden made no answer
on the spur of the moment. "Of course he has written to Fanny, and
all the world knows it. It seems to have reached the Foreign Office
first, and to have been sent down from thence to my people at
Trafford. I suppose there isn't a club in London at which it has not
been repeated a hundred times that George Roden is not George Roden."

"Not George Roden?" asked Marion.

"No, dearest. You will show yourself terribly ignorant if you call
him so."

"What is he then, my lord?"

"Marion!"

"I beg your pardon. I will not do it again this time. But what is
he?"

"He is the Duca di Crinola."

"Duke!" said Marion.

"That's what he is, Marion."

"Have they made him that over there?"

"Somebody made one of his ancestors that ever so many hundred years
ago, when the Traffords were--; well, I don't know what the Traffords
were doing then;--fighting somewhere, I suppose, for whatever they
could get. He means to take the title, I suppose?"

"He says not, my lord."

"He should do so."

"I think so too, Lord Hampstead. He is obstinate, you know; but,
perhaps, he may consent to listen to some friend here. You will tell
him."

"He had better ask others better able than I am to explain all the
ins and outs of his position. He had better go to the Foreign Office
and see my uncle. Where is he now?"

"He has gone to the Post Office. We reached home about noon, and he
went at once. It was late yesterday when we reached Folkestone, and
he let me stay there for the night."

"Has he always signed the old name?" asked Hampstead.

"Oh yes. I think he will not give it up."

"Nor his office?"

"Nor his office. As he says himself, what else will he have to live
on?"

"My father might do something." Mrs. Roden shook her head. "My sister
will have money, though it may probably be insufficient to furnish
such an income as they will want."

"He would never live in idleness upon her money, my lord. Indeed I