d ill
become him, as a Palliser and a Plantagenet, to regard it. The duke
would not marry. Of all men in the world he was the least likely to
spite his own face by cutting off his own nose; and, for the rest
of it, Mr Palliser would take his chance. Therefore he went down to
Hartlebury early in February, having fully determined to be very
particular in his attentions to Lady Dumbello.

Among a houseful of people at Hartlebury, he found Lord Porlock, a
slight, sickly, worn-out looking man, who had something about his eye
of his father's hardness, but nothing in his mouth of his father's
ferocity.

"So your sister is going to be married?" said Mr Palliser.

"Yes. One has no right to be surprised at anything they do, when one
remembers the life their father leads them."

"I was going to congratulate you."

"Don't do that."

"I met him at Courcy, and rather liked him."

Mr Palliser had barely spoken to Mr Crosbie at Courcy, but then in
the usual course of his social life he seldom did more than barely
speak to anybody.

"Did you?" said Lord Porlock. "For the poor girl's sake I hope he's
not a ruffian. How any man should propose to my father to marry a
daughter out of his house, is more than I can understand. How was my
mother looking?"

"I didn't see anything amiss about her."

"I expect that he'll murder her some day." Then that conversation
came to an end.

Mr Palliser himself perceived--as he looked at her he could not but
perceive--that a certain amount of social energy seemed to enliven
Lady Dumbello when he approached her. She was given to smile when
addressed, but her usual smile was meaningless, almost leaden, and
never in any degree flattering to the person to whom it was accorded.
Very many women smile as they answer the words which are spoken to
them, and most who do so flatter by their smile. The thing is so
common that no one thinks of it. The flattering pleases, but means
nothing. The impression unconsciously taken simply conveys a feeling
that the woman has made herself agreeable, as it was her duty to
do,--agreeable, as far as that smile went, in some very infinitesimal
degree. But she has thereby made her little contribution to society.
She will make the same contribution a hundred times in the same
evening. No one knows that she has flattered anybody; she does not
know it herself; and the world calls her an agreeable woman. But Lady
Dumbello put no flattery into her customary smiles. They w