"I hope you have made up your mind that he is no fit companion for yourself."
"That's over. Everybody understands that, sir."
"Is anything more necessary?"
"I don't like feeling that he has been ill-used. They have made him resign the club, and I fancy they won't have him at the hunt."
"He has lost no money by you?"
"Oh no."
"Then I think you may be indifferent. From all that I hear I think he must have won money,—which will probably be a consolation to him."
"I think they have been hard upon him," continued Silverbridge. "Of course he is not a good man, nor a gentleman, nor possessed of very high feelings. But a man is not to be sacrificed altogether for that. There are so many men who are not gentlemen, and so many gentlemen who are bad fellows."
"I have no doubt Mr. Lupton knew what he was about," replied the Duke.
On the next morning the Duke and Lady Mary went down to Matching, and as they sat together in the carriage after leaving the railway the father endeavoured to make himself pleasant to his daughter. "I suppose we shall stay at Matching now till Christmas," he said.