That he was unjust to her,—­cruelly unjust, she was quite sure.  He accused her of intentional privity as to a secret which it behooved him to know, and of being a party to that secrecy.  Whereas from the moment in which she had heard the secret she had determined that it must be made known to him.  She felt that she had deserved his good opinion in all things, but in nothing more than in the way in which she had acted in this matter.  And yet he had treated her with an imperious harshness which amounted to insolence.  What a letter it was that he had written to her!  The very tips of her ears tingled with heat as she read again to herself.  None of the ordinary courtesies of epistle-craft had been preserved either in the beginning or in the end.  It was worse even than if he had called her, Madam without an epithet.  ’The Duke understands—­’ ‘The Duke thinks—­’ ‘The Duke feels—­’ feels that he should not be troubled with either letters or conversation; the upshot of it all being that the Duke declared her to have shown herself unworthy of being treated like a lady!  And this is after all she had done!

She would not bear it.  That at present was all that she could say to herself.  She was not angry with Lady Mary.  She did not doubt but that the girl had done the best in her power to bring her father to reason.  But because Lady Mary had failed, she, Mrs Finn, was not going to put up with so grievous an injury.  And she was forced to bear all this alone!  There was none with whom she could communicate;—­no one from whom she could ask advice.  She would not bring her husband into a quarrel which might be prejudicial to his position as a member of his political party.  There was no one else to whom she would tell the secret of Lady Mary’s love.  And yet she could not bear this injustice done to her.

Then she wrote as follows to the Duke: 

’Mrs Finn presents her compliments to the Duke of Omnium.  Mrs Finn finds it to be essential to her that she should see the Duke in reference to his letter to her.  If his Grace will let her know on what day and at what hour he will be kind enough to call on her, Mrs Finn will be at home to receive him.  ‘Park Lane.  Thursday 12th May, 18-’

CHAPTER 14

The New Member for Silverbridge

Lord Silverbridge was informed that it would be right that he should go down to Silverbridge a few days before the election, to make himself known to the electors.  As the day for the election drew near it was understood that there would be no other candidate.  The Conservative side was the popular side among the tradesmen of Silverbridge.  Silverbridge had been proud to be honoured by the services of the heir of the House of Omnium, even while that heir had been a Liberal,—­had regarded it as so much a matter of course that the borough should be at his disposal that no question as to politics had ever arisen while he retained the seat.  And had the