ss. He found a small party there, but not so small as the
Duchess had once suggested to him. "Your wife will be there, of
course, Mr. Finn. She is too good to desert me in my troubles. And
there will probably be Lady Rosina De Courcy. Lady Rosina is to the
Duke what your wife is to me. I don't suppose there will be anybody
else,--except, perhaps, Mr. Warburton." But Lady Rosina was not
there. In place of Lady Rosina there were the Duke and Duchess of St.
Bungay, with their daughters, two or three Palliser offshoots, with
their wives, and Barrington Erle. There were, too, the Bishop of the
diocese with his wife, and three or four others, coming and going, so
that the party never seemed to be too small. "We asked Mr. Rattler,"
said the Duchess in a whisper to Phineas, "but he declined, with a
string of florid compliments. When Mr. Rattler won't come to the
Prime Minister's house, you may depend that something is going to
happen. It is like pigs carrying straws in their mouths. Mr. Rattler
is my pig." Phineas only laughed and said that he did not believe
Rattler to be a better pig than any one else.

It was soon apparent to Phineas that the Duke's manner to him was
entirely altered, so much so that he was compelled to acknowledge to
himself that he had not hitherto read the Duke's character aright.
Hitherto he had never found the Duke pleasant in conversation.
Looking back he could hardly remember that he had in truth ever
conversed with the Duke. The man had seemed to shut himself up as
soon as he had uttered certain words which the circumstances of the
moment had demanded. Whether it was arrogance or shyness Phineas
had not known. His wife had said that the Duke was shy. Had he been
arrogant the effect would have been the same. He was unbending, hard,
and lucid only when he spoke on some detail of business, or on some
point of policy. But now he smiled, and though hesitating a little at
first, very soon fell into the ways of a pleasant country host. "You
shoot," said the Duke. Phineas did shoot but cared very little about
it. "But you hunt." Phineas was very fond of riding to hounds. "I am
beginning to think," said the Duke, "that I have made a mistake in
not caring for such things. When I was very young I gave them up,
because it appeared that other men devoted too much time to them. One
might as well not eat because some men are gluttons."

"Only that you would die if you did not eat."

"Bread, I suppose, would keep