nto a country
house, and there has been anything at all between them, I don't see
how he is to escape. Isn't there some trouble about money?"

"They wouldn't be very rich, Duchess."

"What a blessing for them! But then, perhaps, they'd be very poor."

"They would be rather poor."

"Which is not a blessing. Isn't there some proverb about going safely
in the middle? I'm sure it's true about money,--only perhaps you
ought to be put a little beyond the middle. I don't know why
Plantagenet shouldn't do something for her."

As to this conversation Lady Chiltern said very little to Adelaide,
but she did mention the proposed visit to Matching.

"The Duchess said nothing to me," replied Adelaide, proudly.

"No; I don't suppose she had time. And then she is so very odd;
sometimes taking no notice of one, and at others so very loving."

"I hate that."

"But with her it is neither impudence nor affectation. She says
exactly what she thinks at the time, and she is always as good as her
word. There are worse women than the Duchess."

"I am sure I wouldn't like going to Matching," said Adelaide.

Lady Chiltern was right in saying that the Duchess of Omnium was
always as good as her word. On the next day, after that interview
with Lord Chiltern about Mr. Fothergill and the foxes,--as to which
no present further allusion need be made here,--she went to work and
did learn a good deal about Gerard Maule and Miss Palliser. Something
she learned from Lord Chiltern,--without any consciousness on his
lordship's part, something from Madame Goesler, and something from
the Baldock people. Before she went to bed on the second night she
knew all about the quarrel, and all about the money. "Plantagenet,"
she said the next morning, "what are you going to do about the Duke's
legacy to Marie Goesler?"

"I can do nothing. She must take the things, of course."

"She won't."

"Then the jewels must remain packed up. I suppose they'll be sold at
last for the legacy duty, and, when that's paid, the balance will
belong to her."

"But what about the money?"

"Of course it belongs to her."

"Couldn't you give it to that girl who was here last night?"

"Give it to a girl!"

"Yes;--to your cousin. She's as poor as Job, and can't get married
because she hasn't got any money. It's quite true; and I must say
that if the Duke had looked after his own relations instead of
leaving money to people who don't want it and won't have it, it would