"I certainly believed you."
"But you knew about—Lady Mabel Grex."
"I only suspected something, and now I know it was a mistake. It has never been more than a suspicion."
"And why, when we were at Custins, did you not tell me about yourself?"
"I had nothing to tell."
"I can understand that. But is it not joyful that it should all be settled? Only poor Lady Mabel! You have got no Lady Mabel to trouble your conscience." From which it was evident that Silverbridge had not told all.
CHAPTER LXXV
The Major's Story
By the end of March Isabel was in Paris, whither she had forbidden her lover to follow her. Silverbridge was therefore reduced to the shifts of a bachelor's life, in which his friends seemed to think that he ought now to take special delight. Perhaps he did not take much delight in them. He was no doubt impatient to commence that steady married life for which he had prepared himself. But nevertheless, just at present, he lived a good deal at the Beargarden. Where was he to live? The Boncassens were in Paris, his sister was at Matching with a houseful of other Pallisers, and his father was again deep in politics.