‘I am awfully fond of her,’ said Silverbridge, who felt that he really had behaved well to the old lady.

’So am I,—­and therefore she shall go to see the house now.  You are as good as gold,—­and do everything just as I tell you.  But a good time is coming, when I shall have to do everything that you tell me.’  Then it was arranged that Mrs and Miss Boncassen were to be taken down to the house in their own carriage, and were to be received at the door by Lord Silverbridge.

Another arrangement had also been made.  Isabel was to be taken to the Duke immediately upon her arrival, and to be left for a while with him, so that he might express himself as might find fit to do to this newly-adopted child.  It was a matter to him of such importance that nothing remaining to him in his life could equal it.  It was not simply that she was to be the wife of his son,—­ though that in itself was a consideration very sacred.  Had it been Gerald who was bringing to him a bride, the occasion would have had less of awe.  But this girl, this American girl, was to be the mother and grandmother of future Dukes of Omnium,—­the ancestress, it was to be hoped, of all future Dukes of Omnium!  By what she might be, by what she might have in her of mental fibre, of high or low quality, of true or untrue womanliness, were to be fashioned those who in days to come might be amongst the strongest and most faithful bulwarks of the constitution.  An England without a Duke of Omnium,—­or at any rate without any Duke,—­what would it be?  And yet he knew that with bad Dukes his country would be in worse stress than though she had none at all.  An aristocracy;—­yes; but an aristocracy that shall be of the very best!  He believed himself thoroughly in this order; but if this order or many of his order, should become as was now Lord Grex, then, he thought, that his order not only must go to the wall, but that, in the cause of humanity, it had better do so.  With all this daily, hourly, always in his mind, this matter in the choice of a wife for his heir was to him of solemn importance.

When they arrived Silverbridge was there and led them first of all into the dining-room.  ‘My!’ said Mrs Boncassen, as she looked around her.  ’I thought that our Fifth Avenue parlous whipped up everything in the way of city houses.’

’What a nice little room for Darby and Joan to sit down to eat a mutton-chop in,’ said Isabel.

‘It’s a beastly great barrack,’ said Silverbridge;—­’but the best of it is that we never use it.  We’ll have a cosy little place for Darby and Joan;—­you’ll see.  Now come to the governor.  I’ve got to leave you with him.’

‘Oh me!  I am in such a fright.’

‘He can’t eat you,’ said Mrs Boncassen.

‘And he won’t even bite,’ said Silverbridge.

’I should not mind that because I could bite again.  But if he looks as though he thought I shouldn’t do, I shall drop.’