CHAPTER 2

Lady Mary Palliser

It may be said at once that Mrs Finn knew something of Lady Mary
which was not known to her father, and which she was not yet
prepared to make known to him. The last winter abroad had been
passed at Rome, and there Lady Mary Palliser had become acquainted
with a certain Mr Tregear,--Francis Oliver Tregear. The Duchess,
who had been in constant correspondence with her friend, had asked
questions by letter as to Mr Tregear, of whom she had only known
that he was the younger son of a Cornish gentleman, who had become
Lord Silverbridge's friend at Oxford. In this there had certainly
been but little to recommend him to the intimacy of such a girl as
Lady Mary Palliser. Nor had the Duchess, when writing, ever spoken
of him as a probable suitor for her daughter's hand. She had never
connected the two names together. But Mrs Finn had been clever
enough to perceive that the Duchess had become fond of Mr Tregear,
and would willingly have heard something to his advantage. And she
did hear something to his advantage,--something also to his
disadvantage. At his mother's death, this young man would inherit
a property amounting to about fifteen hundred a year. 'And I am
told,' said Mrs Finn, 'that he is quite likely to spend his money
before it comes to him.' There had been nothing more written
specially about Mr Tregear, but Mrs Finn had feared not only that
the young man loved the girl, but that the young man's love had in
some imprudent way been fostered by the mother.