"I may rather say that I have. I do not think your engagement to be wise." "But it has been made," said she. "And may be unmade." "No;--unless by him." "I shall tell him that it ought to be unmade,--for the happiness of both of you." "He will not believe you." Then Lord Hampstead shrugged his shoulders, and thus the conversation was finished. It was now about the end of June, and the Marquis felt it to be a grievance that he should be carried away from the charm of political life in London. In the horror of the first revelation he had yielded, but had since begun to feel that too much was being done in withdrawing him from Parliament. The Conservatives were now in; but during the last Liberal Government he had consented so far to trammel himself with the bonds of office as to become Privy Seal for the concluding six months of its existence, and therefore felt his own importance in a party point of view. But having acceded to his wife he could not now go back, and was sulky. On the evening before their departure he was going to dine out with some of the party. His wife's heart was too deep in the great family question for any gaiety, and she intended to remain at home,--and to look after the final packings-up for the little lords. "I really do not see why you should not have gone without me," the Marquis said, poking his head out of his dressing-room. "Impossible," said the Marchioness. "I don't see it at all." "If he should appear on the scene ready to carry her off, what should I have done?" Then the Marquis drew his head in again, and went on with his dressing. What, indeed, could he do himself if the man were to appear on the scene, and if his daughter should declare herself willing to go off with him? When the Marquis went to his dinner party the Marchioness dined with Lady Frances. There was no one else present but the two servants who waited on them, and hardly a word was spoken. The Marchioness felt that an awful silence was becoming in the situation. Lady Frances merely determined more strongly than ever that the situation should not last very long. She would go abroad now, but would let her father understand that the kind of life planned out for her was one that she could not endure. If she was supposed to have disgraced her position, let her be sent away.