ter him would venture to
face the task. It behoved Lady Glencora to see that her Hercules did
not kill himself.

In this state of affairs Lady Glencora,--into whose hands the custody
of Mr. Palliser's uncle, the duke, had now altogether fallen,--had
a divided duty between Matching and London. When the members of
Parliament went up to London, she went there also, leaving some
half-dozen friends whom she could trust to amuse the duke; but she
soon returned, knowing that there might be danger in a long absence.
The duke, though old, was his own master; he much affected the
company of Madame Goesler, and that lady's kindness to him was
considerate and incessant; but there might still be danger, and Lady
Glencora felt that she was responsible that the old nobleman should
do nothing, in the feebleness of age, to derogate from the splendour
of his past life. What if some day his grace should be off to Paris
and insist on making Madame Goesler a duchess in the chapel of the
Embassy! Madame Goesler had hitherto behaved very well;--would
probably continue to behave well. Lady Glencora really loved Madame
Goesler. But then the interests at stake were very great! So
circumstanced, Lady Glencora found herself compelled to be often on
the road between Matching and London.

But though she was burthened with great care, Lady Glencora by no
means dropped her interest in the Eustace diamonds; and when she
learned that on the top of the great Carlisle robbery a second
robbery had been superadded, and that this had been achieved while
all the London police were yet astray about the former operation, her
solicitude was of course enhanced. The duke himself, too, took the
matter up so strongly, that he almost wanted to be carried up to
London, with some view, as it was supposed by the ladies who were
so good to him, of seeing Lady Eustace personally. "It's out of the
question, my dear," Lady Glencora said to Madame Goesler, when the
duke's fancy was first mentioned to her by that lady. "I told him
that the trouble would be too much for him." "Of course it would be
too much," said Lady Glencora. "It is quite out of the question."
Then, after a moment, she added in a whisper, "Who knows but what
he'd insist on marrying her! It isn't every woman that can resist
temptation." Madame Goesler smiled, and shook her head, but made
no answer to Lady Glencora's suggestion. Lady Glencora assured her
uncle that everything should be told to him. She wou