Lady Mary no doubt had had her confidences with her mother,--confidences from which it had been intended by both that the father should be excluded; and now she seemed naturally to expect that this new ally should look at this great question as her mother had looked at it.

The father had been regarded as a great outside power, which could hardly be overcome, but which might be evaded, or made inoperative by stratagem.

It was not that the daughter did not love him.

She loved him and venerated him highly,--the veneration perhaps being stronger than the love.

The Duchess, too, had loved him dearly,--more dearly in late years than in her early life.