u about that--that newspaper."

"Yes, Duke. He seemed to think that there should be an action for
libel."

"I thought so too. It was very bad, you know."

"Yes;--it was bad. I have known the 'People's Banner' for some time,
and it is always bad."

"No doubt;--no doubt. It is bad, very bad. Is it not sad that there
should be such dishonesty, and that nothing can be done to stop it?
Warburton says that you won't hear of an action in your name."

"There are reasons, Duke."

"No doubt;--no doubt. Well;--there's an end of it. I own I think the
man should be punished. I am not often vindictive, but I think that
he should be punished. However, I suppose it cannot be."

"I don't see the way."

"So be it. So be it. It must be entirely for you to judge. Are you
not longing to get into the country, Mr. Finn?"

"Hardly yet," said Phineas, surprised. "It's only June, and we have
two months more of it. What is the use of longing yet?"

"Two months more!" said the Duke. "Two months certainly. But even two
months will come to an end. We go down to Matching quietly,--very
quietly,--when the time does come. You must promise that you'll come
with us. Eh? I make a point of it, Mr. Finn."

Phineas did promise, and thought that he had succeeded in mastering
one of the difficult passages in that book.

CHAPTER LXIII

The Duchess and Her Friend

But the Duke, though he was by far too magnanimous to be angry with
Phineas Finn because Phineas would not fall into his views respecting
the proposed action, was not the less tormented and goaded by what
the newspaper said. The assertion that he had hounded Ferdinand Lopez
to his death, that by his defence of himself he had brought the man's
blood on his head, was made and repeated till those around him did
not dare to mention the name of Lopez in his hearing. Even his wife
was restrained and became fearful, and in her heart of hearts began
almost to wish for that retirement to which he had occasionally
alluded as a distant Elysium which he should never be allowed to
reach. He was beginning to have the worn look of an old man. His
scanty hair was turning grey, and his long thin cheeks longer and
thinner. Of what he did when sitting alone in his chamber, either at
home or at the Treasury Chamber, she knew less and less from day to
day, and she began to think that much of his sorrow arose from the
fact that among them they would allow him to do nothing. There was no
special su