After a few days Lady Mary became more intimate with the American and his daughter than with any others of the party. Perhaps she liked to talk about Scandinavian poets, of whom, Mr Boncassen was so fond. Perhaps she felt sure that her transatlantic friend would not make love to her. Perhaps it was that she yielded to the various allurements of Miss Boncassen. Miss Boncassen saw the Duke of Omnium for the first time at Custins, and there had the first opportunity of asking herself how such a man as that would receive from his son and heir such an announcement as Lord Silverbridge would have to make him should she at the end of three months accept his offer. She was quite aware that Lord Silverbridge need not repeat his offer unless he were so pleased. But she thought that he would come again. He had so spoken that she was sure of his love; and had so spoken as to obtain hers. Yes;--she was sure that she loved him. She had never seen anything like him before;--so glorious in his beauty, so gentle in his manhood, so powerful and yet so little imperious, so great in condition, and yet so little confident in his own greatness, so bolstered up with external advantages, and so little apt to trust anything but his own heart and his own voice. She was glad he was what he was. She counted at their full value all his natural advantages. To be an English Duchess! Oh--yes; her ambition understood it all! But she loved him, because in the expression of his love no hint had fallen from him of the greatness of the benefits which he could confer upon her. Yes, she would like to be a Duchess; but not to be a Duchess would she become the wife of a man who should begin his courtship by assuming a superiority.
Now the chances of society had brought her into the company of his nearest friends. She was in the house with his father and with his sister. Now and again the Duke spoke a few words to her, and always did so with a polite courtesy. But she was sure that the Duke had heard nothing of his son's courtship. And she was equally sure that the matter had not reached Lady Mary's ears. She perceived that the Duke and her father would often converse together. Mr Boncassen would discuss republicanism generally, and the Duke would explain that theory of monarchy as it prevails in England, which but very few Americans had been made to understand.
All this Miss Boncassen watched with pleasure. She was still of opinion that it would not become her to force her way into a family which would endeavour to repudiate her. She would not become this young man's wife if all connected with the young man were resolved to reject the contact. But if she could conquer them,--then,--then she thought that she could put her little hand into that young man's grasp with a happy heart.
It was in this frame of mind that she laid herself out not unsuccessfully to win the esteem of Lady Mary Palliser. 'I do not know whether you approve it,' said Lady Cantrip to the Duke; 'but Mary has become very intimate with our new American friend.' At this time Lady Cantrip had become very nervous,--so as almost to wish that Lady Mary's difficulties might be unravelled elsewhere than at Custins.
'They seem to be sensible people,' said the Duke. 'I don't know when I have met a man with higher ideals on politics than Mr Boncassen.'
'His daughter is popular with everybody.'
'A nice ladylike girl,' said the Duke, 'and appears to have been well educated.'
It was now near the end of October, and the weather was peculiarly fine. Perhaps in our climate, October would of all months be the most delightful if something of its charms were not detracted from by the feeling that with it depart the last relics of delight of summer. The leaves are still there with their gorgeous colouring, but they are going. The last rose still lingers on the bush, but it is the last. The woodland walks are still pleasant to the feet, but caution is heard on every side by the coming winter.
