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.
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