'
'No,' said Lord Eskdale, looking up to the ceiling, 'I am thinking how
you may prevent Tancred from going to Jerusalem, without, at the same
time, opposing his wishes.'
'Ay, ay,' said the duke, 'that is it.' And he looked triumphantly to
his wife, as much as to say, 'Now you see what it is to be a man of the
world.'
'A man cannot go to Jerusalem as he would to Birmingham, by the next
train,' continued his lordship; 'he must get something to take him; and
if you make the sacrifice of consenting to his departure, you have a
right to stipulate as to the manner in which he should depart. Your son
ought to travel with a suite; he ought to make the voyage in his own
yacht. Yachts are not to be found like hack cabs, though there are
several for sale now; but then they are not of the admeasurement of
which you approve for such a voyage and such a sea. People talk very
lightly of the Mediterranean, but there are such things as white
squalls. Anxious parents, and parents so fond of a son as you are, and a
son whose life for so many reasons is so precious, have a right to make
it a condition of their consent to his departure, that he should embark
in a vessel of considerable tonnage. He will find difficulty in buying
one second-hand; if he finds one it will not please him.
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