“Everything, my love! everything. I have no other thought.” “To keep it honourable and true--above all unworthy thoughts, above dishonesty and untruth,” she said slowly, telling over the words like beads. “That is what I desire,” said the Duke. Then he added his gloss. “To retain our old nobility unbroken, to sully the name with no _mésalliances_. Your brother has disregarded my wishes; but though I would never have sanctioned it, he has secured another kind of advantage, and perhaps I have no right to complain. But you, my Jane, nothing must touch you: you must remain the pride of your family. And,” he added soothingly, “do not lose heart, my love. Lady Jane Altamont will not want for opportunities. Do not think from what I said that you are considered _passée_ by any one, or that a good marriage is less likely than before. We are not come the length of putting up with an inferior, trust me, my dear.” Lady Jane’s pallor changed into an overwhelming blush. She turned away from him, almost shaking his hand from her shoulder. “In that case,” she said, with a muffled voice full of some emotion which he did not quite understand, nor yet feel comfortable about--“in that case there is certainly no more to say.” And without any little civility, such as, though not indispensable, it is pretty to keep up between the nearest relations, no little bow or smile, or glance of pleasant understanding, she turned from him and went out of the room, suddenly and noiselessly. The Duke did not like it: he felt there was something in it which he had not fathomed. He stood in the place where she had left him, his hand still stretched out where she had shaken it off, his mouth and his eyes open, a bewildered alarm in his mind. What did she mean? Was there more meaning than one in those simple-seeming words? Was this real submission as he hoped, or a something else? He could not tell. But a cold chill got into his veins; he did not know what to make of it. After a while, however, he reasoned with himself, and recovered his comfort. Jane, who had always been so docile, so ready to accept his views, why should she turn against him and all his traditions now? END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.