But--as she thinks me worthy--'
'She! What she?'
'Lady Mary.'
'She think you worthy!'
'Yes, your Grace.'
'I do not believe it.' On hearing this, Frank simply bowed his
head. 'I beg your pardon, Mr Tregear. I do not mean to say that I
do not believe you. I never gave the lie to any gentleman, and I
hope I never may be driven to do so. But there must be some
mistake in this.'
'I am complying with Lady Mary's wishes in asking your permission
to enter your house as a suitor.' The Duke stood for a moment
biting his lips in silence. 'I cannot believe it,' he said at
last. 'I cannot bring myself to believe it. There must be some
mistake. My daughter! Lady Mary Palliser!' Again the young man
bowed his head. 'What are your pretensions?'
'Simply her regard.'
'Of course it is impossible. You are not so ignorant but that you
must have known as much when you came to me.'
There was so much scorn in his words, and in the tone in which
they were uttered, that Tregear in his turn was becoming angry. He
had prepared himself to bow humbly before the great man, before
the Duke, before the Croesus, before the late Prime Minister,
before the man who was to be regarded as certainly the most
exalted of the earth; but he had not prepared himself to be looked
at as the Duke looked at him.
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