You know what I have thought about her ever since she
first came up in London. Nothing ever surprised me so much as that
you should take her by the hand."

"I do not know that I took her specially by the hand."

"You had her down at Harrington."

"Yes; I did. And I do like her. And I know nothing against her. I
think you are prejudiced against her, Laura."

"Very well. Of course you think and can say what you please. I hate
her, and that is sufficient." Then, after a pause, she added, "Of
course he will marry her. I know that well enough. It is nothing to
me whom he marries--only,--only,--only, after all that has passed it
seems hard upon me that his wife should be the only woman in London
that I could not visit."

"Dear Laura, you should control your thoughts about this young man."

"Of course I should;--but I don't. You mean that I am disgracing
myself."

"No."

"Yes, you do. Oswald is more candid, and tells me so openly. And
yet what have I done? The world has been hard upon me, and I have
suffered. Do I desire anything except that he shall be happy and
respectable? Do I hope for anything? I will go back and linger
out my life at Dresden, where my disgrace can hurt no one." Her
sister-in-law with all imaginable tenderness said what she could to
console the miserable woman;--but there was no consolation possible.
They both knew that Phineas Finn would never renew the offer which he
had once made.

CHAPTER LXVI

The Foreign Bludgeon

In the meantime Madame Goesler, having accomplished the journey from
Prague in considerably less than a week, reached London with the
blacksmith, the attorney's clerk, and the model of the key. The trial
had been adjourned on Wednesday, the 24th of June, and it had been
suggested that the jury should be again put into their box on that
day week. All manner of inconvenience was to be endured by various
members of the legal profession, and sundry irregularities were of
necessity sanctioned on this great occasion. The sitting of the Court
should have been concluded, and everybody concerned should have been
somewhere else, but the matter was sufficient to justify almost any
departure from routine. A member of the House of Commons was in
custody, and it had already been suggested that some action should
be taken by the House as to his speedy deliverance. Unless a jury
could find him guilty, let him be at once restored to his duties and
his privileges. The case was invol