Page:Vivian Grey, Volume 1.djvu/112

 character, it is to make the Marquess of Carabas perform the duties which society requires from him, that I, Vivian Grey, a member of that society, and an humble friend of your Lordship, speak so boldly.""

"My friend," said the agitated Peer, "you cannot speak too boldly. My mind opens to you. I have felt, I have long felt, that I was not what I ought to be, that I was not what society requires me to be:—but where is your remedy, what is the line of conduct that I should pursue?"

"The remedy, my Lord! I never conceived, for a moment, that there was any doubt of the existence of means to attain all and every thing. I think that was your Lordship's phrase. I only hesitated as to the existence of the inclination, on the part of your Lordship."

"You cannot doubt it now," said the Peer, in a low voice; and then his Lordship looked anxiously round the room, as if he feared that