thought that commercial men were generally preferred in the City,” said the Duchess, taking a strong and goodnatured interest in the matter.
“Mr Palliser means to make a fortune in trade as a preliminary,” said Mrs Sparkes.
“I don’t think he meant anything of the kind,” said the Duchess.
“At any rate I have got to do something, so I can’t go and ride,” said Jeffrey.
“And you ought to do something,” said Iphigenia from her desk.
Twice during this little conversation Lady Glencora had looked up, catching Alice’s eye, and Alice had well known what she had meant. “You see,” the glance had said, “Plantagenet is beginning to take an interest in his cousin, and you know why. The man who is to be the father of the future dukes must not be allowed to fritter away his time in obscurity. Had I that cradle upstairs Jeffrey might be as idle as he pleased.” Alice understood it well.
Of course Jeffrey did join the riding party. “What is a man like me to do who wants to do something?” he said to Alice. Alice was quite aware that Lady Glencora had contrived some little scheme that Mr Palliser should be riding next to her. She liked Mr Palliser, and therefore had no objection; but she declared to herself that her cousin was a goose for her pains.
“Mrs Sparkes says you ought to go into Parliament.”
“Yes;—and the dear Duchess would perhaps suggest a house in Belgrave Square. I want to hear your advice now.”
“I can only say ditto to Miss Palliser.”
“What! Iphy? About procrastination? But you see the more of my time he steals the better it is for me.”
“That’s the evil you have got to cure.”
“My cousin Plantagenet suggested—marriage.”
“A very good thing too, I’m sure,” said Alice; “only it depends something on the sort of wife you get.”
“You mean, of course, how much money she has.”
“Not altogether.”
“Looking at it from my cousin’s point of view, I suppose that it is the only important point. Who are there coming up this year,—in the way of heiresses?”
“Upon my word I don’t know. In the first place, how much money makes an heiress?”
“For such a fellow as me, I suppose ten thousand pounds ought to do.”
“That’s not much,” said Alice, who had exactly that amount of her own.
“No—; perhaps that’s too moderate. But the lower one went in the money speculation, the greater would be the number to choose from, and the better the chance of getting something decent in the woman herself. I have something of my own,—not much you know; so with the lady’s ten thousand pounds we might be able to live,—in some second-rate French town perhaps.”
“But I don’t see what you would gain by that.”
“My people here would have got rid of me. That seems to be the great thing. If you hear of any girl with about that sum, moderately good-looking, not too young so that she might know something of the world, decently born, and able to read and write, perhaps you will bear me in mind.”
“Yes, I will,” said Alice, who was quite aware that he had made an accurate picture of her own position. “When I meet such a one, I will send for you at once.”
“You know no such person now?”
“Well, no; not just at present.”
“I declare I don’t think he could do anything better,” her cousin said to her that night. Lady Glencora was now in the habit of having Alice with her in what she called her dressingroom every evening, and then they would sit till the small hours came upon them. Mr Palliser always burnt the midnight oil and came to bed with the owls. They would often talk of him and his prospects till Alice had perhaps inspired his wife with more of interest in him and them than she had before felt. And Alice had managed generally to drive her friend away from those topics which were so dangerous,—those allusions to her childlessness, and those hints that Burgo Fitzgerald was still in her thoughts. And sometimes, of course, they had spoken of Alice’s own prospects, till she got into a way of telling her cousin freely all that she felt. On such occasions Lady Glencora would always tell her that she had been right,—if she did not love the man. “Though your finger were put out for the ring,” said Lady Glencora on one such occasion, “you should go back, if you did not love him.”
“But I did love him,” said Alice.
“Then I don’t understand it,” said Lady Glencora; and, in truth, close as was their intimacy, they did not perfectly understand each other.
But on this occasion they were speaking of Jeffrey Palliser. “I declare I don’t think he could do any better,” said Lady Glencora.
“If you talk such nonsense, I will not stay,” said Alice.
“But why should it be nonsense? You would be very comfortable with your joint incomes. He is one of the best fellows in the world. It is clear that he likes you; and then we should be so near to each other. I am sure Mr Palliser would do something for him if he married,—and especially if I asked him.”
“I only know of two things against it.”
“And what are they?”
“That he would not take me for his wife, and that I would not take him for my husband.”
“Why not? What do you dislike in him?”
“I don’t dislike him at all. I like him very much indeed. But one can’t marry all the people one likes.”
“But what reason is there why you shouldn’t marry him?”
“This chiefly,” said Alice, after a pause; “that I have just separated myself from a man whom I certainly did love truly, and that I cannot transfer my affections quite so quickly as that.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth she knew that they should not have been spoken. It was exactly what Glencora had done. She had loved a man and had separated herself from him and had married another all within a month or two. Lady Glencora first became red as fire over her whole face and shoulders, and Alice afterwards did the same as she looked up, as though searching in her cousin’s eyes for pardon.
“It is an unmaidenly thing to do, certainly,” said Lady Glencora very slowly, and in her lowest voice. “Nay, it is unwomanly; but one may be driven. One may be so driven that all gentleness of womanhood is driven out of one.”
“Oh, Glencora!”
“I did not propose that you should do it as a sudden thing.”
“Glencora!”
“I did do it suddenly. I know it. I did it like a beast that is driven as its owner chooses. I
