s young, so
ought the Duke to be controlled now that he was old. It is all very
well for a man or woman to boast that he,--or she,--may do what he
likes with his own,--or with her own. But there are circumstances in
which such self-action is ruinous to so many that coercion from the
outside becomes absolutely needed. Nobody had felt the injustice of
such coercion when applied to herself more sharply than had Lady
Glencora. But she had lived to acknowledge that such coercion might
be proper, and was now prepared to use it in any shape in which it
might be made available. It was all very well for Madame Goesler
to laugh and exclaim, "Psha!" when Lady Glencora declared her real
trouble. But should it ever come to pass that a black-browed baby
with a yellow skin should be shown to the world as Lord Silverbridge,
Lady Glencora knew that her peace of mind would be gone for ever. She
had begun the world desiring one thing, and had missed it. She had
suffered much, and had then reconciled herself to other hopes. If
those other hopes were also to be cut away from her, the world would
not be worth a pinch of snuff to her. The Duke had fled, and she
could do nothing to-day; but to-morrow she would begin with her
batteries. And she herself had done the mischief! She had invited
this woman down to Matching! Heaven and earth!--that such a man as
the Duke should be such a fool!--The widow of a Jew banker! He, the
Duke of Omnium,--and thus to cut away from himself, for the rest of
his life, all honour, all peace of mind, all the grace of a noble
end to a career which, if not very noble in itself, had received
the praise of nobility! And to do this for a thin, black-browed,
yellow-visaged woman with ringlets and devil's eyes, and a beard on
her upper lip,--a Jewess,--a creature of whose habits of life and
manners of thought they all were absolutely ignorant; who drank,
possibly; who might have been a forger, for what any one knew;
an adventuress who had found her way into society by her art and
perseverance,--and who did not even pretend to have a relation in
the world! That such a one should have influence enough to intrude
herself into the house of Omnium, and blot the scutcheon, and,--
what was worst of all,--perhaps be the mother of future dukes! Lady
Glencora, in her anger, was very unjust to Madame Goesler, thinking
all evil of her, accusing her in her mind of every crime, denying
her all charm, all beauty. Had the Duke forgotten