Tregear's conduct had been felt by the Duke to be manly. The
letter he had written was a good letter. And then he had won for
himself a seat in the House of Commons. When forced to speak of
him to his girl he had been driven by justice to call him worthy.
But how could he serve to support and strengthen the nobility, the
endurance and perpetuation of which should be the peculiar care of
every Palliser?
And yet as the Duke walked about his room he felt that his
opposition either to the one marriage or to the other was vain. Of
course they would marry according to their wills.
That same night Gerald wrote to his brother before he went to bed,
as follows:
'DEAR SILVER,--I was awfully obliged to you for sending me the I O
U for that brute Percival. He only sneered when he took it, and
would have said something disagreeable, but that he saw that I was
in earnest. I know he did say something to Nid, only I can't find
out what. Nid is an easy-going fellow, and, as I saw, didn't want
to have a rumpus.
'But now what do you think I've done? Directly I got home I told
the governor all about it! As I was in the train I made up my
mind that I would.
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