CHAPTER II.
Lady Mary Palliser It may as well be said at once that Mrs.Finn knew something of Lady Mary which was not known to the father, and which she was not yet prepared to make known to him.

The last winter abroad had been passed at Rome, and there Lady Mary Palliser had become acquainted with a certain Mr.Tregear,--Francis Oliphant Tregear.

The Duchess, who had been in constant correspondence with her friend, had asked questions by letter as to Mr.Tregear, of whom she had only known that he was the younger son of a Cornish gentleman, who had become Lord Silverbridge's friend at Oxford.

In this there had certainly been but little to recommend him to the intimacy of such a girl as Lady Mary Palliser.

Nor had the Duchess, when writing, ever spoken of him as a probable suitor for her daughter's hand.