young lady herself was very beautiful.  And he could remember how his uncle, the last duke, who had seldom taken much trouble in merely human affairs, had said a word or two—­’I have heard a whisper about you and Lady Glencora McCloskie, nothing could be better.’  The result had been undoubtedly good.  His Cora and all her money had been saved from a worthless spendthrift.  He had found a wife who he now thought had made him happy.  And she had found at any rate a respectable husband.  The idea when picked to pieces is not a nice idea.  ’Let us look out for a husband for this girl, so that we may get her married—­out of the way of her lover.’  It is not nice.  But it had succeeded in one case, and why should it not succeed in another?

But how was it to be done?  Who should do it?  Whom should he select to play the part which he had undertaken in that other arrangement?  No worse person could be found then himself in managing such an affair.  When the idea had at first been raised he had thought that Lady Cantrip would do it all; but now he was angry with Lady Cantrip.

How was it to be done?  How should it be commenced?  How had it been commenced in his own case?  He did not in the least know how he had been chosen.  Was it possible that his uncle, who was the proudest man in England, should have condescended to make a bargain with an old dowager whom everybody had despised?  And in what way had he been selected?  No doubt he had been known to be the heir-apparent to a dukedom and ducal reverence.  In his case old Lady Midlothian had begun the matter with him.  It occurred to him that in royal marriages such beginnings are quite common.

But who should be the happy man?  Then he began to count up the requisite attributes.  He must be of high rank, and an eldest son, and the possessor of, or the heir to a good estate.  He did despise himself when he found that he put these things first,—­as a matter of course.  Nevertheless he did put them first.  He was ejecting this other man because he possessed none of these attributes.  He hurried himself on to add that the man must be of good character, and such as a young girl might learn to love.  But yet he was aware that he added these things for his conscience’s sake.  Tregear’s character was good, and certainly the girl loved him.  But was it not clear to all who knew anything of such matters that Mr Francis Tregear should not have dared even to think of marrying the daughter of the Duke of Omnium?

Who should be the happy man?  There were so many who evidently were unfit.  Young Lord Percival was heir to a ruined estate and beggared peerage.  Lord Glasslough was odious to all men.  There were three or four others of whom he thought that he knew some fatal objection.  But when he remembered Lord Popplecourt there seemed to be no objection which need be fatal.