“Well, Plantagenet,—­very busy, I suppose?”

The duke was the only living being who called him Plantagenet to his face, though there were some scores of men who talked of Planty Pal behind his back.  The duke had been the only living being so to call him.  Let us hope that it still was so, and that there had arisen no feminine exception, dangerous in its nature and improper in its circumstances.

“Well, Plantagenet,” said the duke, on the present occasion, “very busy, I suppose?”

“Yes, indeed, duke,” said Mr Palliser.  “When a man gets the harness on him he does not easily get quit of it.”

The duke remembered that his nephew had made almost the same remark at his last Christmas visit.

“By-the-by,” said the duke, “I want to say a word or two to you before you go.”

Such a proposition on the duke’s part was a great departure from his usual practice, but the nephew of course undertook to obey his uncle’s behests.

“I’ll see you before dinner to-morrow,” said Plantagenet.

“Ah, do,” said the duke.  “I’ll not keep you five minutes.”  And at six o’clock on the following afternoon the two were closeted together in the duke’s private room.

“I don’t suppose there is much in it,” began the duke, “but people are talking about you and Lady Dumbello.”

“Upon my word, people are very kind.”  And Mr Palliser bethought himself of the fact,—­for it certainly was a fact,—­that people for a great many years had talked about his uncle and Lady Dumbello’s mother-in-law.

“Yes; kind enough; are they not?  You’ve just come from Hartlebury, I believe.”  Hartlebury was the Marquis of Hartletop’s seat in Shropshire.

“Yes, I have.  And I’m going there again in February.”

“Ah, I’m sorry for that.  Not that I mean, of course, to interfere with your arrangements.  You will acknowledge that I have not often done so, in any matter whatever.”

“No; you have not,” said the nephew, comforting himself with an inward assurance that no such interference on his uncle’s part could have been possible.

“But in this instance it would suit me, and I really think it would suit you too, that you should be as little at Hartlebury as possible.  You have said you would go there, and of course you will go.  But if I were you, I would not stay above a day or two.”

Mr Plantagenet Palliser received everything he had in the world from his uncle.  He sat in Parliament through his uncle’s interest, and received an allowance of ever so many thousand a year which his uncle could stop to-morrow by his mere word.  He was his uncle’s heir, and the dukedom, with certain entailed properties, must ultimately fall to him, unless his uncle should marry and have a son.  But by far the greater portion of the duke’s property was unentailed; the duke might probably live for the next twenty years or more; and it was quite possible that, if offended, he might marry and become a father.  It may be said that no man could well be more dependent on another than Plantagenet Palliser was upon his uncle; and it may be said also that no father or uncle ever troubled his heir with less interference.  Nevertheless, the nephew immediately felt himself aggrieved by this allusion to his private life, and resolved at once that he would not submit to such surveillance.