n could not be converted into an
Italian Duke without his own consent,--but had used very strong
arguments to show that in this case the Englishman ought to give his
consent. The Baron had expressed his own opinion that the Signorina
would be very much ill-used indeed if she were not allowed to take
her place among the Duchessinas. His own personal feelings were in
no degree mitigated. To be a Post Office clerk, living at Holloway,
with a few hundreds a-year to spend,--and yet to be known all over
the world as the claimant of a magnificently grand title! It seemed
as though a cruel fate had determined to crush him with a terrible
punishment because of his specially democratic views! That he of all
the world should be selected to be a Duke in opposition to his own
wishes! How often had he been heard to declare that all hereditary
titles were, of their very nature, absurd! And yet he was to be
forced to become a penniless hereditary Duke!

Nevertheless he would not rob her whom he hoped to make his wife of
that which would of right belong to her. "Fanny," he said to her one
day, "you cannot conceive how many people are troubling me about this
title."

"I know they are troubling me. But I would not mind any of
them;--only for papa."

"Is he very anxious about it?"

"I am afraid he is."

"Have I ever told you what your aunt said to me just before I left
Castle Hautboy?"

"Lady Persiflage, you mean. She is not my aunt, you know."

"She is more anxious than your father, and certainly uses the only
strong argument I have heard."

"Has she persuaded you?"

"I cannot say that; but she has done something towards persuading me.
She has made me half think that it may be my duty."

"Then I suppose you will take the name," she said.

"It shall depend entirely upon you. And yet I ought not to ask you. I
ought to do as these people bid me without even troubling you for an
expression of your wish. I do believe that when you become my wife,
you will have as complete a right to the title as has Lady Kingsbury
to hers. Shall it be so?"

"No," she said.

"It shall not?"

"Certainly, no; if it be left to me."

"Why do you answer in that way when all your friends desire it?"

"Because I believe that there is one friend who does not desire it.
If you can say that you wish it on your own account, of course I will
yield. Otherwise all that my friends may say on the matter can have
no effect on me. When I accepted the offer