he could not put off from him into the gutter, and there leave as
buried in the mud. And there came, too, a feeling upon him, which
he had no time to analyse, but of which he was part aware, that
this terrible indiscretion on the part of his daughter and of his
late wife was less wonderful than it had at first appeared to be.
But not on that account was he the less determined to make the
young man feel that his parental opposition would be invincible.
'It is quite impossible, sir. I do not think that I need say
anything more.' Then, while Tregear was meditating whether to
make any reply; the Duke asked a question which had better have
been left unasked. The asking of it diminished somewhat from that
ducal, grand-ducal, quasi-archducal, almost Godlike superiority
which he had assumed, and showed the curiosity of a mere man. 'Has
anybody else been aware of this?' he said, still wishing to know
whether he had cause for anger against Silverbridge in the matter.

'Mrs Finn is aware of it,' said Tregear.

'Mrs Finn!' exclaimed the Duke, as though he had been stung by an
adder. This was the woman whom he had prayed to remain awhile with
his daughter after his wife had been laid in her grave, in order
that there might be someone near whom he could trust! And this
very woman whom he had so trusted,--whom, in his early associations
with her, he had disliked and distrusted, but had taught himself
both to like and to trust because his wife had loved her,--this
woman was the she-Pandarus who had managed matters between Tregear
and his daughter! His wife had been too much subject to her
influence. That he had always known. And now, in this last act of
her life, she had allowed herself to be persuaded to give up her
daughter by the baneful wiles of this most pernicious woman. Such