ebt, let her do what she would. As for the admiral, the dean's
elder brother, he had been notorious for insolvency; and Frank was a
Greystock all over. He was the very man to whom money with a wife was
almost a necessity of existence.

And his pretty cousin, the widow, who was devoted to him, and would
have married him at a word, had ever so many thousands a year! Of
course, Lizzie Eustace was not just all that she should be;--but then
who is? In one respect, at any rate, her conduct had always been
proper. There was no rumour against her as to lovers or flirtations.
She was very young, and Frank might have moulded her as he pleased.
Of course there were regrets. Poor dear little Lucy Morris was as
good as gold. Mrs. Greystock was quite willing to admit that. She
was not good-looking;--so at least Mrs. Greystock said. She never
would allow that Lucy was good-looking. And she didn't see much in
Lucy, who, according to her idea, was a little chit of a thing. Her
position was simply that of a governess. Mrs. Greystock declared to
her daughter that no one in the whole world had a higher respect for
governesses than had she. But a governess is a governess;--and for a
man in Frank's position such a marriage would be simply suicide.

"You shouldn't say that, mamma, now; for it's fixed," said Ellinor
Greystock.

"But I do say it, my dear. Things sometimes are fixed which must be
unfixed. You know your brother."

"Frank is earning a large income, mamma."

"Did you ever know a Greystock who didn't want more than his income?"

"I hope I don't, mamma, and mine is very small."

"You're a Jackson. Frank is Greystock to the very backbone. If he
marries Lucy Morris he must give up Parliament. That's all."

The dean himself was more reticent and less given to interference
than his wife; but he felt it also. He would not for the world have
hinted to his son that it might be well to marry money; but he
thought that it was a good thing that his son should go where money
was. He knew that Frank was apt to spend his guineas faster than
he got them. All his life long the dean had seen what came of such
spending. Frank had gone out into the world and had prospered,--but
he could hardly continue to prosper unless he married money. Of
course, there had been regrets when the news came of that fatal
engagement with Lucy Morris. "It can't be for the next ten years, at
any rate," said Mrs. Greystock.

"I thought at one time that he would