ally think it would
suit you too, that you should be as little at Hartlebury as possible.
You have said you would go there, and of course you will go. But if I
were you, I would not stay above a day or two."

Mr Plantagenet Palliser received everything he had in the world from
his uncle. He sat in Parliament through his uncle's interest, and
received an allowance of ever so many thousand a year which his uncle
could stop to-morrow by his mere word. He was his uncle's heir, and
the dukedom, with certain entailed properties, must ultimately fall
to him, unless his uncle should marry and have a son. But by far the
greater portion of the duke's property was unentailed; the duke might
probably live for the next twenty years or more; and it was quite
possible that, if offended, he might marry and become a father. It
may be said that no man could well be more dependent on another than
Plantagenet Palliser was upon his uncle; and it may be said also that
no father or uncle ever troubled his heir with less interference.
Nevertheless, the nephew immediately felt himself aggrieved by this
allusion to his private life, and resolved at once that he would not
submit to such surveillance.

"I don't know how long I shall stay," said he; "but I cannot say that
my visit will be influenced one way or the other by such a rumour as
that."

"No; probably not. But it may perhaps be influenced by my request."
And the duke, as he spoke, looked a little savage.

"You wouldn't ask me to regard a report that has no foundation."

"I am not asking about its foundation. Nor do I in the least wish to
interfere with your manner in life." By which last observation the
duke intended his nephew to understand that he was quite at liberty
to take away any other gentleman's wife, but that he was not at
liberty to give occasion even for a surmise that he wanted to take
Lord Dumbello's wife. "The fact is this, Plantagenet. I have for many
years been intimate with that family. I have not many intimacies, and
shall probably never increase them. Such friends as I have, I wish
to keep, and you will easily perceive that any such report as that
which I have mentioned, might make it unpleasant for me to go to
Hartlebury, or for the Hartlebury people to come here." The duke
certainly could not have spoken plainer, and Mr Palliser understood
him thoroughly. Two such alliances between the two families could not
be expected to run pleasantly together, and even the