himself and his
position for the sake of some fair girl with a pink complexion and
grey eyes, and smooth hair, and a father, Lady Glencora thought that
she would have forgiven it better. It might be that Madame Goesler
would win her way to the coronet; but when she came to put it on, she
should find that there were sharp thorns inside the lining of it. Not
a woman worth the knowing in all London should speak to her;--nor a
man either of those men with whom a Duchess of Omnium would wish to
hold converse. She should find her husband rated as a doting fool,
and herself rated as a scheming female adventuress. And it should go
hard with Lady Glencora, if the Duke were not separated from his new
Duchess before the end of the first year! In her anger Lady Glencora
was very unjust.

The Duke, when he left his house without telling his household
whither he was going, did send his address to,--the top brick of the
chimney. His note, which was delivered at Madame Goesler's house late
on the Sunday evening, was as follows:--"I am to have your answer on
Monday. I shall be at Brighton. Send it by a private messenger to the
Bedford Hotel there. I need not tell you with what expectation, with
what hope, with what fear I shall await it.--O." Poor old man! He had
run through all the pleasures of life too quickly, and had not much
left with which to amuse himself. At length he had set his eyes on a
top brick, and being tired of everything else, wanted it very sorely.
Poor old man! How should it do him any good, even if he got it?
Madame Goesler, when she received the note, sat with it in her
hand, thinking of his great want. "And he would be tired of his new
plaything after a month," she said to herself. But she had given
herself to the next morning, and she would not make up her mind that
night. She would sleep once more with the coronet of a duchess within
her reach. She did do so; and woke in the morning with her mind
absolutely in doubt. When she walked down to breakfast, all doubt was
at an end. The time had come when it was necessary that she should
resolve, and while her maid was brushing her hair for her she did
make her resolution.

"What a thing it is to be a great lady," said the maid, who may
probably have reflected that the Duke of Omnium did not come here so
often for nothing.

"What do you mean by that, Lotta?"

"The women I know, madame, talk so much of their countesses, and
ladyships, and duchesses. I would never r