第230章

As Easter Sunday fell on the seventeenth of April, and as the arrangement of the new Cabinet, with its inferior offices, was not completed till the sixth of that month, there was only just time for the new elections before the holidays. Mr Monk sat on his bench so comfortably that he hardly seemed ever to have been off it. And Phineas Finn resumed the peculiar ministerial tone of voice just as though he had never allowed himself to use the free and indignant strains of the opposition. As to a majority,--nothing as yet was known about that. Some few besides Silverbridge might probably transfer themselves to the Government. None of the ministers lost their seats in the new elections. The opposite party seemed for a while to have been paralysed by the defection of Sir Timothy, and men who liked a quiet life were able to comfort themselves with the reflection that nothing could be done this session.

For our loves this was convenient. Neither of them would have allowed their parliamentary energies to have interfered at such a crisis with his domestic affairs; but still it was well to have time at command. The day for the marriage of Isabel and Silverbridge had been now fixed. That was to take place on the Wednesday after Easter, and was to be celebrated by special royal favour in the chapel at Whitehall. All the Pallisers would be there, and all the relations of the Pallisers, all the ambassadors, and of course all the Americans in London. It would be a 'wretched grind', as Silverbridge said, but it had to be done. In the meantime the whole party, including the new President of the Council, were down at Matching. Even Isabel, though it must be presumed that she had much to do in looking after her bridal garments, was able to be there for a day or two. But Tregear was the person to whom this visit was of the greatest importance.

He had been allowed to see Lady Mary in London, but hardly to do more than see her. With her he had been alone for about five minutes, and then the cruel circumstances,--circumstances, however, which were not permanently cruel,--had separated them. All their great difficulties had been settled, and no doubt they were happy.

Tregear, though he had been as it were received into grace by that glass of wine, still had not entered into the intimacies of the house. This he felt himself. He had been told that he had better restrain himself from writing to Mary, and he had restrained himself. He had therefore no immediate opportunity of creeping into that perfect intimacy with the house and household which is generally accorded to a promised son-in-law.

On this occasion he travelled down alone, and as he approached the house he, who was not by nature timid, felt himself to be somewhat cowed. That the Duke should not be cold to him was almost impossible. Of course he was there in opposition to the Duke's wishes. Even Silverbridge had never quite liked the match. Of course he was to have all that he desired. Of course he was the most fortunate of men. Of course no man had ever stronger reason to be contented with the girl he loved. But still his heart was a little low as he was driven up to the door.

The first person he saw was the Duke himself, who, as the fly from the station arrived, was returning from his walk. 'You are welcome to Matching,' he said, taking off his hat with something of ceremony. This was said before the servants, but Tregear was then led into the study and the door was closed. 'I never do anything by halves, Mr Tregear,' he said. 'Since it is to so you shall be the same to me as though you had come under other auspices. Of yourself personally I hear all that is good. Consider yourself at home here, and in all things use me as your friend.' Tregear endeavoured to make some reply, but could not find words that were fitting. 'I think that young people are out,' continued the Duke.

'Mr Warburton will help you find them if you like to go upon the search.' The words had been very gracious, but still there was something in the manner of the man which made Tregear find it almost impossible to regard him as he might have regarded another father-in-law. He had often heard the Duke spoken of as a man who could become awful if he pleased, almost without an effort. He had been told of the man's mingled simplicity, courtesy, self-assertion against which no impudence or raillery could prevail.

And now he seemed to understand it.

He was not driven to go under the private secretary's escort in quest of the young people. Mary had understood her business much better than that. 'If you please, sir, Lady Mary is in the little drawing-room,' said a well-arrayed young girl to him as soon as the Duke's door was closed. This was Lady Mary's own maid who had been on the look-out for the fly. Lady Mary had known all details, as to the arrival of the trains and the length of the journey from the station, and had not been walking with the other young people when the Duke had intercepted her lover. Even the delay she had thought was hard. The discreet maid opened the door of the little drawing-room,--and discreetly closed it instantly. 'At last!' she said, throwing herself into his arms.

'Yes,--at last.'

On this occasion time did not envy them. The long afternoons of spring had come, and as Tregear had reached the house between four and five they were able to go out together before the sun set.

'No,' she said when he came to inquire as to her life during the last twelve months, 'you had not much to be afraid of as to my forgetting.'

'But when everything was against me?'

'One thing was not against you. You ought to have been sure of that.'

'And so I was. And yet I felt that I ought not to have been sure.

Sometimes, in my solitude, I used to think that I myself had been wrong. I began to doubt whether under any circumstances I could have been justified in asking your father's daughter to be my wife.'

'Because of his rank?'

'Not so much his rank as his money.'

'Ought that to be considered?'

'A poor man who marries a rich woman will always be suspected.'