capable of the earliest and most direct proof. You will believe
Lady Mary, and she will confirm me in the one and the other.'

The Duke was almost beside himself with emotion and grief. He did
know,--though now at this moment he was most loath to own to
himself that it was so,--that his dear wife had been the most
imprudent of women. And he recognized in her encouragement of this
most pernicious courtship,---if she had encouraged it,---a repetition
of that romantic folly by which she had so nearly brought herself
to shipwreck her own early life. If it had been so,---even whether
it had been so or not,--he had been wrong to tell the man that he
did not believe him. And the man had rebuked him with dignity. 'At
any rate it is impossible,' he repeated.

'I cannot allow that it is impossible.'

'That is for me to judge, sir.'

'I trust that you will excuse me when I say that I also must hold
myself to be in some degree a judge in the matter. If you were in
my place, you would feel--'

'I could not possibly be in your place.'

'If your Grace were in my place you would feel that as long as you
were assured by the young lady that your affection was valued by
her you would not be deterred by the opposition of her father.
That you should yield to me, of course, I do not expect; that Lady
Mary should be persistent in her present feelings when she knows
your mind, perhaps I have no right to hope. But should she be so