第13章

'I owe you an apology of course, for meddling in your affairs at all. But as it will be more conducive to your success that the Duke should hear this from you than from me, and as I feel I am bound by my duty to him and to Lady Mary to see that he be not left in ignorance, I think that I am doing you a service.'

'I do not like to have a constraint put upon me.'

'That, Mr Tregear, is what a gentleman, I fancy, very often feels in regard to ladies. But the constraint of which you speak is necessary for their protection. Are you unwilling to see the Duke?'

He was very unwilling, but he would not confess so much. He gave various reasons for delay, urging repeatedly the question of his marriage was one which he could not press upon the Duke so soon after the death of the Duchess. And when she assured him that this was a matter of importance so great, that even the death of the man's wife should not be held by him to justify delay, he became angry, and for awhile insisted that must be allowed to follow his own judgement. But he gave her a promise that he would see the Duke before a week was over. Nevertheless he left the house in dudgeon, having told Mrs Finn more than once that she was taking advantage of Lady Mary's confidence. They hardly parted as friends, and her feeling was, on the whole, hostile to him and to his love. It could not, she thought, be for the happiness of such a one as Lady Mary that she should give herself to one who seemed to have so little to recommend him.

He, when he had left her, was angry with his own weakness. He had not only promised that he would make his application to the Duke, but that he would do so within the period of a week. Who was she that she should exact terms from him after this fashion, and prescribe days and hours? And now, because this strange woman had spoken to him, he was compelled to make a journey down to the Duke's country house, and seek an interview in which he would be surely snubbed?

This occurred on a Wednesday, and he resolved that he would go down to Matching on the next Monday. He said nothing of his plan to anyone, and not a word passed between him and Lord Silverbridge about Lady Mary during the first two or three days. But on Saturday Silverbridge appeared at breakfast with a letter in his hand. 'The governor is coming up to town,' he said.

'Immediately?'

'In the course of next week. He says that he thinks he shall be here on Wednesday.'

It immediately struck Tregear that this sudden journey must have some reference to Lady Mary and her engagement. 'Do you know why he is coming?'

'Because of these vacancies in Parliament.'

'Why should that bring him up?'

'I suppose he hopes to be able to talk me into obedience. He wants me to stand for the county--as a Liberal, of course. I intend to stand for the borough as a Conservative, and I have told them so down at Silverbridge. I am very sorry to annoy him, and all that kind of thing. But what the deuce is a fellow to do? If a man has got political convictions of his own, of course he must stick to them.' This the young Lord said with a good deal of self-assurance, as though he, by the light of his own reason, had ascertained on which side the truth lay in the political contests of the day.

'There is a good deal to be said on both sides of the question, my boy.' At this particular moment Tregear felt that the Duke ought to be propitiated.

'You wouldn't have me give up my convictions!'

'A seat in Parliament is a great thing.'

'I can probably secure that, whichever side I take. I thought you were so devilish hot against the Radicals.'

'So I am. But then you are, as it were, bound by family allegiance.'

'I'll be shot if I am. One never knows how to understand you nowadays. It used to be a great doctrine with you that nothing should induce a man to vote against his political opinion.'

'So it is,--if he has really got any. However, as your father is coming to London, I need not go down to Matching.'

'You don't mean that you were going to Matching?'

'I had intended to beard the lion in his country den; but now the lion will find me in his own town den, and I must beard him here.'

Then Tregear wrote a most chilling note to Mrs Finn, informing her with great precision, that, as the Duke of Omnium intended to be in town one day next week, he would postpone the performance of his promise for a day or two beyond the allotted time.