‘I cannot tell, Duke.’

’Neither can I. But you are a woman and might know better than I do.  It is so hard that a man should be left with the charge of which from its very nature he cannot understand the duties.’  Then he paused, but she could find no words which would suit the moment.  It was almost incredible to her that after what had passed he should speak to her at all as to the condition of his daughter.  ‘I cannot, you know,’ he said very seriously, ’encourage a hope that she should be allowed to marry that man.’

‘I do not know.’

’You yourself, Mrs Finn, felt that when she told about it at Matching.’

‘I felt that you would disapprove of it.’

’Disapprove of it!  How could it be otherwise?  Of course you felt that.  There are ranks in life in which the first comer that suits a maiden’s eye may be accepted as a flirting lover.  I will not say but that they who are born to such a life may be the happier.  They are, I am sure, free from troubles to which they are incident whom fate has called to a different sphere.  But duty is duty;—­and whatever pang it may cost, duty should be performed.’

‘Certainly.’

‘Certainly;—­certainly; certainly,’ he said, re-echoing her word.

’But then, Duke, one has to be so sure what duty requires.  In many matters this is easy enough, and the only difficulty comes from temptation.  There are cases in which it is hard to know.’

‘Is this one of them?’

‘I think so.’

’Then the maiden should—­in any class of life—­be allowed to take the man that just suits her eye?’ As he said this his mind was intent on his Glencora and on Burgo Fitzgerald.

’I have not said so.  A man may be bad, vicious, a spendthrift,—­ eaten up by bad habits.’  Then he frowned, thinking that she also had her mind intent on his Glencora and on that Burgo Fitzgerald, and being most unwilling to have the difference between Burgo and Frank Tregear pointed out to him.  ‘Nor have I said,’ she continued, ’that even were none of these faults apparent in the character of a suitor, the lady should in all cases be advised to accept a young man because he has made himself agreeable to her.  There may be discrepancies.’

‘There are,’ said he, still with a low voice, but with infinite energy,—­’insurmountable discrepancies.’

’I only said that this was a case in which it might be difficult for you to see your duty plainly.’

‘Why should it be?’

‘You would not have her—­break her heart?’ Then he was silent for awhile, turning over in his mind the proposition which now seemed to have been made to him.  If the question came to that,—­should she be allowed to break her heart and die, or should he save her from that fate by sanctioning her marriage with Tregear?  If the choice could be put to him plainly by some supernal power, what then would he choose?  If duty required him to prevent this marriage, his duty