I understand it all, of course. She means to show that she didn't
want anything from the Duke. As she refused the name and title, she
won't have the money and jewels. You can't make her take them, and
I'm quite sure you can't talk her over." The young Duke was not
persuaded, but had to give the battle up,--at any rate, for the
present.
On the 19th of March Madame Goesler returned to London, having been
at Matching Priory for more than three weeks. On her journey back to
Park Lane many thoughts crowded on her mind. Had she, upon the whole,
done well in reference to the Duke of Omnium? The last three years of
her life had been sacrificed to an old man with whom she had not in
truth possessed aught in common. She had persuaded herself that there
had existed a warm friendship between them;--but of what nature could
have been a friendship with one whom she had not known till he had
been in his dotage? What words of the Duke's speaking had she ever
heard with pleasure, except certain terms of affection which had been
half mawkish and half senile? She had told Phineas Finn, while riding
home with him from Broughton Spinnies, that she had clung to the Duke
because she loved him, but what had there been to produce such love?
The Duke had begun his acquaintance with her by insulting her,--and
had then offered to make her his wife.
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