the gas and the work and the
wiles of the world. Both the Duke and Phineas blushed; and though
their blushes were hidden, that peculiar glance of the eye which
always accompanies a blush was visible enough from one to the other.
The elder lady kept her countenance admirably, and the younger one
had no occasion for blushing. She at once ran forward and kissed her
friend. The Duke stood with his hat off waiting to give his hand to
the lady, and then took that of his late colleague. "How odd that we
should meet here," he said, turning to Mrs. Finn.

"Odd enough to us that your Grace should be here," she said, "because
we had heard nothing of your intended coming."

"It is so nice to find you," said Lady Mary. "We are this moment
come. Don't say that you are this moment going."

"At this moment we are only going as far as Halstadt."

"And are coming back to dinner? Of course they will dine with us.
Will they not, papa?" The Duke said that he hoped they would. To
declare that you are engaged at an hotel, unless there be some real
engagement, is almost an impossibility. There was no escape, and
before they were allowed to get into their carriage they had promised
they would dine with the Duke and his daughter.

"I don't know that it is especially a bore," Mrs. Finn said to her
husband in the carriage. "You may be quite sure that of whatever
trouble there may be in it, he has much more than his share."

"His share should be the whole," said her husband. "No one else has
done anything wrong."

When the Duke's apology had reached her, so that there was no longer
any ground for absolute hostility, then she had told the whole story
to her husband. He at first was very indignant. What right had the
Duke to expect that any ordinary friend should act duenna over his
daughter in accordance with his caprices? This was said and much more
of the kind. But any humour towards quarrelling which Phineas Finn
might have felt for a day or two was quieted by his wife's prudence.
"A man," she said, "can do no more than apologise. After that there
is no room for reproach."

At dinner the conversation turned at first on British politics,
in which Mrs. Finn was quite able to take her part. Phineas was
decidedly of opinion that Sir Timothy Beeswax and Lord Drummond could
not live another Session. And on this subject a good deal was said.
Later in the evening the Duke found himself sitting with Mrs. Finn in
the broad verandah over the hote