"Me Lord Duke." "Me Lord Duke." "Your nephew." "Mr. Plantagenet Palliser." "Plantagenet" "Your Grace." "Well, Plantagenet, very busy?" " Yes, yes indeed, sir." " House of Commons and all that?" "Rather a grind, eh?" "Few can take it seriously." "The work has to be done, Your Grace." "One does what is expected of one, if that's what you mean." "You sit in the Commons in my baronet, ...and I sit here entertaining half the sycophants in London." "Hah, and the country thinks it's getting its money's worth, and let's the thing go on." "There's no pleasure in doing all this, you know, as you'll find out when it's your turn." "I never think about it, Your Grace." "I don't believe you do." "Too wrapped up in all those parliamentary black books of yours." "Blue books, Your Grace." "Umm, what the my most deuce color the books are." "The important thing is that there should be a Palliser sitting in the House...as a Whig." " Liberals they're called nowadays." " Certainly." "There's always been a Palliser with the Whigs." "And now it's your turn." "And they tell me you are making a very nice stride." "I've told Folliguilde ...that from now on your account is to see to be credited with an extra three thousand a year." "Well, thank you, Duke." "And, of course,..." "when you get married to the right kind of girl you can rely on me to see that everything's arranged tidily enough." " Your Grace is very good." " Oh, I'm not answering to know how things ought to be done." "Well." "Good afternoon, Plantagenet." "I'm glad to see you here." "Well, I don't think you'll find much to interest a serious fellow like yourself." " Dolly!" "Who's that leaving the Pavilion?" "Who's been honored with a very long audience." " Planty Pal." " Huh?" "Plantagenet Palliser." "Have you never seen him before, Vavasor?" "You forget how long I've been away, Dolly." "Well..." "Planty Pal is the Duke's nephew." "And also his heir, not that he makes much of it." "He's a dedicated House of Commons man, Planty is." "So it follows that he don't much care about being a duke." "Um, he looks a very know what it means when the time comes, all the same." "Oh he's got a certain air about him all right, has Planty." "But he doesn't...set himself up like other men would in his place." "Except when he's saying his piece in the Commons, he keeps himself to himself." "And he doesn't do the sort of things that chaps like you and me do, George." "He doesn't shoot...he doesn't hunt ...doesn't bet...doesn't smoke doesn't drink above a glass of wine a week, doesn't even eat so's you'd notice." "And like his uncle,..." "I wonder why the duke never married." "Well they do say that he lives in such style that he can't afford it, too." "But if you ask me, George, he just never fancied being tied up." "Oh, he likes the ladies, all right, but he's well enough suited without them." "What about his nephew, um..." " Plantagenet?" " Yes, has he married, yet?" "He's never look at a woman since they let him out of the nursery." "Well he's looking at one now, Dolly." "The fair girl over there on the bridge." " By jove, she's bowing to him!" " Huh, huh." "He's bearing down on her like a battleship." " You know who she is, of course?" " No, who?" " Griselda Goundkie, she was." "A clergyman's down from the country." "She's as dull as she's long and cold as a cod." "And what's more she's married as heavy as a ton of bricks to Lord Hartletop's son..." "Lord Dumbello." " What ever is Planty Pal thinking of?" " Nothing very much, I could say." "Just being civil." "You saw the way he went after her, positively sweeping people from his path." "But, now that he's there, Dolly, his behavior is not exactly...passionate." "You don't understand, Vavasor, for Planty Pal to go within ten yards of a woman is an act of absolute frenzy. " "You've been with the dear Duke of Omnium this afternoon, Mr. Palliser." "I have, Lady Dumbello." "How did you find His Grace?" "I think I may say, uh...gracious." "There are very few men like you,." "You've, uh, been in the House lately, Mr. Palliser?" "I go everyday, Lady Dumbello." "Oh, you were so fascinating about it last time you went." "The Weights, Measures and Coinage Act we were discussing." "Was it not?" "Why yes..." "Yes indeed it was." "Would it interest you, Lady Dumbello, to...to hear more about it?" "Oh it would, Mr. Palliser, it would." "The problem as I see it is this, the... the system of mensuration we have in this country to the need of revision and reform and would you care to take my arm, Lady Dumbello?" "The unit of measure that we employ is irregular, being adapted to popular use, and a system of notation it would disgrace a hoard of black savages." "Oh, how very powerfully you put it, Mr. Palliser." "20 shillings in the pound;" "21 in the guinea;" "12 pennies in a shilling;" "12 farthings in a penny." "I..." "I tell you Lady Dumbello, ...it's a scandal in its human intellect." "Tell me, Adelaide,...how long has Lady Dumbello been married?" "Oh about 18 months..." "Why do you ask, Charlotte?" "Ohh, she seems rather to fancy young Mr. Palliser." "She was very strictly brought up, you know." "An archdeacon's daughter." "And as for Mr. Palliser, huh, he's entirely respectable." "No man is entirely respectable." "Not if he's got any Palliser blood in his veins." "Umm." "Ah,..." "I see the duke has noticed it." "He won't like it very much." "But, I hardly think it would be notice" " of respectability would worry him." " Oh." "Fothergill." "My Lord Duke." "Kindly find out over the next few days, whether my nephew is in the habit of seeing Lady Dumbello." "My Lord Duke." "Get the orchestra started, and let them all dance, if that's what they want." "I'll sit out a pair of waltzes, and then I'll go in." "His Grace wishes the dancing to recommence." "It's getting chilly." "Summer evenings aren't as warm as they used to be." "No, no, please." "Dancing will now start." "Well, if the Duke don't like his nephew going about with Lady Dumbello you can be quite sure that he'll stop it, quick enough." "Well, that's the Duke's concern, Adelaide." "Mine is Glencora." "I could have sworn Glencora was all right." "She was playing croquet with Lord and Lady Catrum." "Well...she ain't playing croquet now!" "She's waltzing with Burgo Fitzgerald." "Curr!" "I can hear her purring from here!" "Achh!" " That's enough of that, they..." " There's nothing you can do about it," "Charlotte, but sit quietly, and behave as though nothing were happening." "My God, what a lovely girl." "Who is she, Dolly?" "Who?" "Dancing with Burgo Fitzgerald." "Ohh, so you remember Burgo, do you?" "I knew him, yes." "But who's the girl, Dolly?" "That is the Lady Glencora McCluskey." "The only daughter and the only child of the late Lord of the Isles." "Her mother is dead now, so she's an orphan." "She's worth a queen's mint in money." "She's only been out a few months." "And already Burgo Fitzgerald has his hooks in." "Some say that he is very fond of her, in his way." "And she certainly likes the cut of him." "But there's a great big black fly in that ointment." "She's got a guardian, the Marquis of Auld Reekie." "He don't count for much, if I remember rightly." "But his wife counts for more than a dozen, and she'd sooner that Glencora married the devil rather than Burgo Fitzgerald." "That's her behind that weeping elm." "In that lair." "The one that looks like a toad on a toadstool." "There ain't much chance for Burgo Fitzgerald while she sits there watching." "Who's the old ironclad with her?" "That is the Countess of Midlothian." "She takes an occasional shift when the old toad starts nodding." "Twenty-four hour picket, you see." "I-I cannot, I-I will not allow her!" "To throw herself away." "She owns four counties, ten houses, and furthermore, she descended from Robert de Bruce." "And Mr. Fitzgerald, as she informed me only the other day is descended from Richard the Lionheart." " Bah!" "From the wrong side of a great many blankets, they say." "And the blood had gone bad long before it had reached him." "Ho." "He drinks like a fishwife and lost all his money on horses." "And she's been following him about with stars in her eyes ever since you brought her down from Scotland." "It must be done, Adelaide." "And this very evening." "I have it, Charlotte." "One of the Kilmarnock boys!" "Oh." "We hadn't heard." "Ah!" ".." "And now you have." "Oh keep thinking, Adelaide, keep thinking." "If, uh, Burgo's have it still like they were." "They are." "Seems to have weathered very well." "How does he manage about money?" "Manages somehow." "Those sort of people always do." "Some say that his aunt,..." "Lady Monk, does it for him." "Some say that it's one of the countesses." "But if you ask me, George, his best friends are the Jews." "So, either way, the uh..." "the rich little McCluskey would suit him down to the ground." "Which brings me to another point." "The commercial advantages of any..." " I do apologize." " I do apologize." "Lady Glencora." "Mr. Fitzgerald." "Good evening, Mr. Palliser." "Are you going to take a turn on the floor?" "It's not quite my line." "Ah, but it may be Lady Dumbello's." " Is it you line...?" " I was just listening to Mr. Palliser." "He's been telling me all about the House of Commons." "Oh." "So, that's why you both to be so engrossed." "But, Burgo, why do you never have such fascinating things to tell me, as Mr. Palliser tells Lady Dumbello." "Excuse me, Mr. Palliser, but at last I see Lord Dumbello." "Oh yes...yes, yes of course." "Lady Glencora..." "Mr. Fitzgerald." "I wonder which one of those two is the more boring." "Mr. Palliser, I should think." "He knows so much more to be boring about." "Why, of course." " Mr. Plantagenet Palliser. " " Now why didn't we think of him before?" "He can't be meaning to go off with Lady Dumbello." "That's all nonsense." "Oh, he's so right for Glencora." "The name is right." "The age is right." "Ha, ha, ha, and the money's right." "And, what is more, Charlotte." "The man's right." "Glencora needs someone to respect." "Someone to simmer her down." "The Duke!" "Ah." "Lady Auld Reekie and Lady Midlothian, Me Lord Duke." "Lady Midlothian and Lady Auld Reekie." "Uh, Lady Auld Reekie." "Lady Midlothian." "Your Grace..." "We have come to you with a proposal which we think might suit you." " Quite as it will suit us." "In brief, Duke, my ward, Lady Glencora McCluskey and your nephew, Mr. Plantagenet Palliser." "Have you spoken to the Lady Glencora about it?" "No, but we soon shall..." "if Your Grace is of a mind with us." "Well, they tell me that she's a young lady who likes her own way." "Oh, but what young lady does not." "Glencora must learn to put her duty before her preference." "We shall teach her." "I've not doubt of that." "And you hope that I will teach Mr. Palliser." " Uh huh." "Very well." "I have given your proposal my full consideration." "And I find that it will do." "I find that it will suit me..." "well enough." "Tell me, George,...what did you actually do out there in the colonies?" " Made a lot of tin, I suppose." " Huh huh." "A certain amount." "And now you've come home to...enjoy it." "It depends on what you mean by enjoyment, Dolly." "I mean to go into parliament." "Well your own grandfather up in Westmorland won't approve of that." "After all, he refused to shell out for you for a seat before you went away." "Uh huh, that's why I went away." "But now I've got a bit of my own money, Dolly, and I intend to spend it as I please, and be damned of my own grandfather." "That's all very well, George, but he might disinherit you." "Not a chance..." "The Vavasor estate must come to me." " But it ain't entailed on you." " No." "And you're uncle's still alive?" "But my dead father was the eldest son, and that old mule up in Westmorland believes in primogeniture as devoutly as he believes in holy writ." "While we're discussing my family, Dolly, there's something you may know that I don't." "Do you remember my cousin, Alice?" "The girl you was engaged to?" "Yes." "Well, they tell me she's now engaged to a Mr. Grey." "John Grey." "Do you know anything about him?" "He lives down in the Fens near Ely, and he's as dull as the mud that he lives in." " Dolly." "Burgo." " Vavasor!" " Ho ho." "My dear fellow." "How good - to see you again." " And you." "You came back at last." "Uh..." "Made your pile, I suppose?" "Everyone seems to suppose that." "George is going into parliament, just to annoy his grandfather at Vavasor Hall." "I just might have more serious motives, Dolly." "But first you'll have to find a seat." "Chelsea District." "They want a bit of movement, and uh, they won't get it with the sitting member." " Lord Dally Balian?" " Yes." "I'm going to put up against him at the general election." "It's too late, old boy." "His father is near dead of the whiskeys." "So, if the House of Lords would in a bye-election in the Chelsea District." "I hope not." "Bye-elections can come expensive in London and I'd have it all to do again at the general election." "Well, you can manage that, old man, after all the loot that you brought home from the colonies." "You should have gone with him, Burgo." "Some of it might have rubbed off on you." " Huh, huh, huh." " My time may come sooner than you think." "I think, Burgo, that the time has come for some supper." " Coming, George?" " Yeah." "Vavasor!" "Just a minute." "You must have heard how it is with me and Glencora McCluskey." " Uh-huh" " Everyone knows." " Hm." "Well, the thing is... you can help me." " Your cousin, Alice Vavasor." " What about her?" "Well, she's a sort of cousin of Glencora's on her mother's side." " If that is..." " Well, the thing is... it'd be perfectly natural for Glencora to call on her cousin, Alice, and, it would be perfectly natural if you called on you cousin, Alice the same day bringing me with you." "Rather sly, Burgo." "Well, I have to be..." "Those horrible old women hanging around Glencora with their fangs bared make it awfully hard for us to meet." "I warn you, Burgo, my cousin Alice, though a spirited girl, is very strait-laced." "Just so that Glencora and I can be in the same room." "Please, George." "Huh." "Might do Alice good to see a bit of the smart set." "I'll have a word with her, Burgo." "And I'll get word to Glencora." "Let me say it plainly and for the last time, Glencora, you can not receive Mr. Fitzgerald in this house." "Why not?" "Because he ain't suitable!" "That's why not." "Because he's a drunkard and bankrupt and something else, which delicacy forbids me to say." "You marry that Burgo Fitzgerald, Missy, and he'll gamble away everything you've got, and then beat you when it's gone." "Well, I'd would rather be beaten by Burgo Fitzgerald than kissed by anybody else." "Well, he ain't setting a foot in your aunt's house, and that's that." "It's a lovely day and I may through walk in the park." "You're not going to meet that man!" "Don't worry, Aunt, according to your idea that he's lying in bed full of brandy, and won't get up till dinner." "And if I do meet him, what then?" "Huh?" "D'you think he'll ravish me in full view of the palace?" " Glencora!" " I'm a free woman, now, and I can go where I want." "You'll take your maid, Missy." "Oh, yes, I'll take my maid, and then Mr. Fitzgerald can ravish her, too." "Ah!" "Ohhh!" "Ah,...good of you to come so promptly, Plantagenet." "I..." "I want to say a word or two in season." "The fact is...people have been talking about you and Lady Dumbello." "Upon my word, people are very kind." "Kind enough, are they not?" "But you have, I think, been seen much in her company." "Well, Lady Dumbello and I have a common interest in things." "In politics." "Politics, eh?" "Now, see here, Plantagenet, the fact is...that for many years" "I have been very intimate with their family." "And, at one time,..." "with none more intimate, then with Lady Hartletop." "Who, as you are doubtless aware, is Lady Dumbello's mother-in-law." "Now, if my name was linked with Lady Hartletop, that is, maybe... but if my heir, nephew, now starts sniffing about her daughter-in-law, we shall both of us look damned ridiculous." "Duke, I can't cheat." "Say it, or not, as you choose." "But you should remember that hitherto" "I have given much and asked nothing." "In this matter I expect to be obliged." "If you are looking for someone to spend your time with you could do a lot worse than that little Glencora McCluskey." "Devilish taking little woman." "But entirely frivolous." "Caw... come to that, you're other baggage is just plain stupid." "Ha, ha...you'll find little McCluskey understands politics, well enough." "If you explain them the right way." "Lady Dumbello, the problem is this." "How could a man, eh,..." "a politician, that is better said, remain independent and uncorrupt?" "Well, how?" "If he's a member of the commons." "And as such, unpaid." "When he may speak his mind..." "he may follow his will." "Oh, yes." "If he takes office under the government receives a handsome emolument for so doing." "Well then he must trim his opinions, in accord with those of his masters." "Yes, Mr. Palliser." "If a man wishes to rise in the world, well he must accept such conditions." "There are some things, Lady Dumbello, for which the world might well be lost." "This can't be long." "That maid's going to speak to my aunt." "I can't believe I met you by accident." "Glencora, it was no accident." "I was waiting for you outside Lady Auld Reekie's house." "When I saw you come out, I followed you and cut you off." "Burgo...we must have somewhere to meet properly." "Now listen...do you know a cousin of yours called Alice Vavasor?" "The one that looks like a policeman?" "I hardly ever see her." "Well start seeing her now." "Go to her everyday until it becomes a matter of course." "You understand?" "The old ladies will like it because she's engaged to be married to John Grey, the dullest man in England and properly respectable." "We won't have much fun." "Oh, yes you will, when the other cousin starts arriving." "George Vavasor bringing me with him." "And you'll see, that will become a matter of course." "And then gradually everything will fall into place." "Oh,..." "Burgo." "'Rumors have reached me from more than one quarter, 'all concern my own daughter." "I hardly know how to put it." "'They say that you are intimate with Mr. Palliser, the nephew of the duke." "'And that your husband is much offended." "'They...they say that it is thought that you are going to put yourself 'under Mr. Palliser's protection.'" "And that, Mr. Palliser, is everything, I think." "Oh, thank you, Mr. Fothergill." "Mr. Palliser, I hope you'll excuse me, but" "I wonder you don't think of marrying." "Marrying, Mr. Fothergill?" "I hope you'll excuse me, Mr. Palliser, I do indeed but," "I tender the suggestion because I am half afraid of some...some diminution of good feeling between you and your uncle." "I was not aware of any such probability." "I trust there is none,...but the duke is a very determined man if he takes anything into his head." "And then you know he has so much in his power." "Well he has not me in his power, Mr. Fothergill." "Oh, no, no, no, one man does not have another in his power in this country, Mr. Palliser." "But only think if he should take offense what one word of his might do." "There is this new arrangement whereby you now receive an extra three thousand pounds a year." "But the duke did say something to me the other day which made me fancy he might just be thinking of changing the arrangement back again to what it was before, or even, Mr. Palliser to something far less generous than that." "So it would hardly do to offend him." "Now, would it?" "I would rather not offend him, Mr. Fothergill, certainly." "But then I would rather not offend anyone." "Exactly so." "But his grace has indicated that he wishes you not to keep company with a certain party whom we need not name." "Now the trouble is, Mr. Palliser,..." "you ain't stop seeing that certain party...now have you?" "Will you excuse me, Mr. Fothergill?" "I have another appointment." "Of course, Mr. Palliser, of course." "But do remember what a word of the duke's might do and how much easier it would make him in his mind if you was only married and settled on one of his estates." "Because, if once you was married, Mr. Palliser, his grace will come down handsome as a king." "Good morning, Mr. Fothergill." "You've understood what I've been saying?" "Uh, you have followed my drift?" "Um, yes." "Yes, indeed, Mr. Palliser." "Then you realize, perhaps, what I'm leading up to." "Of the...climax..." "to which I am now coming?" "Yes..." "Yes, pray come to it quickly, Mr. Palliser." "Very well." "Now, if matters could be arranged, as I have been suggesting to you." "But they surely can be, Mr. Palliser." "Oh, they surely can." "Well then we should be able to achieve everything we desire." "By the simple expedient of having ten pennies in every shilling," " instead of twelve." " Oh." " That is as a rational currency." " At last. " "Oh,...you have not yet been up to Westmorland to see grandfather?" "No." "Nor I shall." "He doesn't want to see me, cousin Alice." "Nor I, him." "All the same, cousin George, since you are to be his heir." "I am his heir." "It might be tactful to go up to Vavasor Hall and pay him a little attention." "But Kate's up there." "She'll look after my interests with old squire Vavasor." "Kate may be a very loyal sister to you, but she won't be able to guard your interests if she isn't there." "What do you mean, not there?" "Haven't you heard, George?" "Kate and my father and I are going to Switzerland for a twelve week tour." "We leave at the end of next month." "No, I hadn't heard." "It was arranged before you..." "came back." "I'm not sure it suits me." "Kate leaving the old man for 12 weeks." "Then you'll have to be unsuited." "Kate needs a change, George, and a change she's going to have." "A wretched dull place, Switzerland." "Where are you going?" "Interlaken, Bern, and then on to Lucerne, where we shall be joined for a while by by Mr. Grey." "Your fiancé." "My fiancé." "No use looking like that, George." "I broke it off with you for excellent reasons which you very well remember." "And I'm not obliged to remain a spinster all my life in your memory." "Mr. Grey is a...scholar and a gentleman." "Will be a husband whom I can love and trust." "They tell me he's a damned dull dog." "If you're going to talk like that, George, I think you'd better leave." "Perhaps I had." "But I'll come again soon..." "Alice." "Huh huh, I very much hope so." "I'll bring a friend with me, if I may." "My old chum, Burgo Fitzgerald." "He wants to meet you." "Why?" "Hmm, he's heard you've a strong character, and as he's as loose as jam himself he's hoping you'll teach him your...secret." "Good morning, Duke." "And a very good morning to you, Plantagenet." "I don't think you've met old friend Lady Hartletop." "But you are of course acquainted with her daughter-in-law, Lady Dumbello." "Now Lady Dumbello," "I expect you'd like to tell my nephew what I've just been telling you." "Then we can all understand one another." "Well come along, my dear,..." "nobody's going to eat you." "The duke says, Mr. Palliser,..." "the duke says... that we both of us have so much in life that it would be a very great pity if we were to hanker after anything extra." "That we can't be allowed." "Like each other." "And the duke says that, in view of our respective positions it does seem so very foolish ...for us to...and..." "I mean..." "She means, Plantagenet, that she is called a countess, and one day she'll be a marchioness, which is good enough going for any lady in the land." "Even for one as beautiful as she is." "Uh, so...there's no point in upsetting Dumbello and tossing away the whole thing." "What for?" "For you?" "True,...as my nephew you stand to be a duke one day." "But as to that, sir." "...No one need think" "I'm too old to marry, and get a few sons if it suits me." "Lady Dumbello has done me the goodness to see the force of my arguments." "I very much hope that you will follow her example." " Griselda." " Yes." " Griselda." " No, Mr. Palliser." "Never resented to you." "Lady Dumbello." "Your servant, ma'am." "Fetch her ladyship's carriage." "You see, my dear boy,..." "she never really wanted you." "And you don't really want her." "All this billing and cooing just isn't your style." "Now, do as I ask you, there's a good fellow." "And everything will go as neat and steady as the clock." "Marry the little McCluskey." "Three words will do the trick." "The Lady Glencora McCluskey." " Thank you." "Cousin Alice." "Alice, how very good to see you." "After so long, Lady Glencora." "Oh, don't be unkind." "Well I waited and waited for you to come to me, and then when you didn't, I said to myself," ""Alice has deserted me."" "And I cried myself to sleep every night." " Uh-huh." "And then at last I said to myself," ""Well, if the mountain won't come to Mohammed."" "And, here I am." "Dear Alice." "Yes, and with a thousand questions." "But, uh...first of all." "I must beg of you tell me all about Mr. Grey." "Mr. Grey is a learned man of several habits." "He writes long articles for the quarterlies, and lives in his small house near Ely, where he walks in his garden and reads in his library." "Oh." "Rather a quiet life." "I like a quiet life, Lady Glencora." "So, everything has turned out very conveniently, except for poor Mr. George Vavasor." "Mr. George Vavasor was to blame for that." "But you still see him, though?" "Oh, yes indeed." "He'll be coming here this afternoon, I think." "And Mr. Fitzgerald with him?" "Why do you mention Mr. Fitzgerald, Lady Glencora?" "Well, I know him to be a friend of Mr. Vavasor's." "Well, I mean...that is, it seems they are very much together." " And when you see..." " I understand, Lady Glencora." " Well, when you..." " Pray say no more." "Mr. George Vavasor's here ma'am with Mr. Fitzgerald." "You will tell them that I cannot receive Mr. Fitzgerald." " Please, Alice, please." " No." "Please, Alice, I bid you just this one time." "Alice, what the devil's going on?" " Nothing is going on, Mr. Vavasor." "Not in my house." "You may come here, if you will, and you may bring your friends if you wish." "But, I will not have this house used as a place of assignation." "Now, send him away." "Tell Mr. Fitzgerald." "Heartless...for just this once was all I asked." "Why should I not see him?" "Why should I not marry him?" " He is my equal." " I don't know, even, why you should not marry Mr. Fitzgerald." "But something is badly amiss, Lady Glencora, if you must meet him by stratagem in the house of a distant cousin." "In the house of a friend." "As I...thought." "Alice, help me." "Help me Alice...please." "Please, Alice, please." "Alice...how can I bribe you?" "Alice, next to him, I will love you better than all the world." "That would mean much to me." "But no." "I cannot do as you ask." "You're heartless!" "You...you have never loved!" "Oh, but I have." "Well then why will you not understand?" "I understand, but for a woman to give her love to a certain kind of man is perdition." "I'm sorry for you." "I know what it means to reject love." "But you have...the strength to do it." " I have not." " Then you must find it." "Then you will not let Mr. Fitzgerald come here?" "No." "Then it's hopeless." "Hopeless." "But you may always come." "If you please." " And even if he didn't ruin you." " No one would know you." " The queen would not receive you." " And your children would be" " worse than nameless, bearing his name." "But Mr. Plantagenet Palliser." "Is a very respectable name you will carry." "Milksop!" "The old duke will be very generous with money." "I am rich in my own rights." "Mr. Palliser will not waste your achievements." "Then, one day the old duke will die." "And you will be a duchess." "The Lady Glencora is enough." "Mr. Palliser..." "is much concerned with politics." "And I am not." "But Mr. Palliser's political interests need not disturb you, my dear." "Quite the reverse." "They will keep him out of the house, so to speak." "So you will have plenty of leisure for your own chosen pastimes." "Poetry and, uh...that kind of a thing." "Mr. Palliser is a very gentle, very..." "innocent man." "Not given to worldly manners." "Imagining others to be as innocent as he." "And so knowing nothing of the realities which lie behind the poetry books." "Of which you, dear Glencora, are so fond." "Our friends say we may do very well together." "Can it be so?" "Can it be so, Lady Glencora?" "If you wish it, Mr. Palliser." "I do wish it." "With all my heart." "There is one thing that you must know." "There has been another, and I loved him." "It shall not signify." "You must love me now." "Plantagenet,...in this as in all things, you've shown yourself to be everything that I could desire." "Duke." ", with the whole estate and all its revenues shall be handed over to you at once." "Glencora wedding present:" "The family jewels are, of course, at her complete disposal." "And I am sending her a carriage and six pairs of horses." "Those are small, a memento of this auspicious engagement." "Fothergill has been instructed to place substantial amounts of railway and mining stock in your name." "And above all this, you will be paid an annual allowance such as befits a married gentleman, who is my undoubted heir." "Your Grace is extremely generous, sir." "I do have one misgiving, is that...material possesssions alone do not necessarily make for a happy marriage." "There are other things to consider." "Indeed there are, but you've nothing to worry about that there, she's a nice enough little girl and very appetizing with it." "What more can you ask?" "Some people might mention love." "Love?" "We are talking about marriage, Plantagenet." "Well the two are sometimes talked about in conjunction." "Well see here, Plantagenet,...ploughboys may marry for love if they choose, but when Pallisers marry they marry for more important reasons." "And Pallisers are still flesh and blood, Your Grace." "Oh, enough of that." "You and the little McCluskey can contrive to suit each other, I suppose." "Well we can't know that in, Duke." "Well you must contrive to suit each other at any rate, until there's a son." "Two, to be on the safe side." "After that you, at least, can suit yourself." "Your Grace." "Oh, come, don't play the innocent with me, my dear boy, you've already had a bit of a with that Dumbello woman and know the strokes of the game." "You'll find as many bored wives to amuse you after you're married as you ever did before." "Uh-uh, but just see to it..." "that there's no open scandal." "Ho-ho, when I was a boy it didn't really matter much." "Although some reason it does now." "There will be no scandal, Duke." "Because there will be no cause." "If you will, Your Grace..." "I know that you have never taken marriage vows." "But you must know that they enjoin fidelity." "Aww,...words, Plantagenet..." "Words like any others." "Vows, sir." "And they are vows to be sworn...and kept." "Well...you do as you like about that." "In any case I'm very well pleased both with you and this arrangement." "And the sooner the day...the better." "Alice...see, see I've come in here because you were kind, very firm, but very kind." "Alice..." "Alice, they're forcing me to marry Mr. Palliser." "They've just been tormenting me until I couldn't bear it anymore." "Mr. Palliser is a good, kind man, who devotes himself to parliament in the public interest." "It's done." "But he means nothing to me." "Nothing, nothing to me." "And they're forcing me to marry him!" "They're forcing me, forcing me to marry!" "Oh Burgo." "Oh Burgo." "Oh Burgo." "Oh Burgo."