Plot
Between the close of The Prime Minister and
the opening of The Duke's Children, the Duchess of Omnium died,
leaving to the Duke the care of his three children. The eldest, Lord Silverbridge, had been sent down from Oxford as a result of
a certain amount of red paint applied to the front of the Dean's house; the
second son, Lord Gerald Palliser, was doing indifferently well at Cambridge;
Lady Mary Palliser, the only daughter, was determined on what seemed to her
father an unsuitable marriage.
Before the story opens, while the family were in
Meanwhile Lord Silverbridge
became a partner with a certain Major Tifto in the ownership of a race
horse called "Prime Minister," which failed to win the Leger, as a
result of Tifto's treachery, and with a loss to Silverbridge
of £70,000. The Duke paid the debt on his son's promise to forsake the turf and
devote himself to his duties as MP from the family borough. He urged an early
marriage, thinking it would steady his son. At about this time a beautiful and
talented American girl, Isabel Boncassen, had come to London with her parents
and had been received into the best society. Lord Silverbridge
met her and fell deeply in love. Although the Duke was attracted to her charm
and beauty, and had a sincere respect for her scholarly father, he was strongly
opposed to the marriage of the heir to a dukedom and the granddaughter of an
American laboring man. Like Lady Mary, Lord Silverbridge
had something of the self-will and tenacity of purpose of their mother, and
would not he denied. It was not long before his son's
insistence and Isabel's charm had vanquished the Duke's prejudice, and when
Frank Tregear secured a seat in Parliament he
sanctioned both marriages.
GEROULD,
WINIFRED GREGORY;
A GUIDE TO TROLLOPE.
© 1948 Princeton University Press,
1976 renewed PUP
Reprinted by permission of
Url: http://www.anthonytrollope.com/
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
©Davinia Moreno Arroyo
Universitat de València
Press
damoa2@alumni.uv.es