undoubtedly had the reputation of being very
great in council on such matters; but it must not be supposed that
Gerard Maule was contented to take his advice implicitly. He was
unhappy, ill at ease, half conscious that he ought to do something,
full of regrets,--but very idle.

In the meantime Miss Palliser, who had the finer nature of the two,
suffered grievously. The Spooner affair was but a small addition to
her misfortune. She could get rid of Mr. Spooner,--of any number of
Mr. Spooners; but how should she get back to her the man she loved?
When young ladies quarrel with their lovers it is always presumed,
especially in books, that they do not wish to get them back. It is to
be understood that the loss to them is as nothing. Miss Smith begs
that Mr. Jones may be assured that he is not to consider her at all.
If he is pleased to separate, she will be at any rate quite as well
pleased,--probably a great deal better. No doubt she had loved him
with all her heart, but that will make no difference to her, if he
wishes,--to be off. Upon the whole Miss Smith thinks that she would
prefer such an arrangement, in spite of her heart. Adelaide Palliser
had said something of the kind. As Gerard Maule had regarded her
as a "trouble", and had lamented that prospect of "Boulogne" which
marriage had presented to his eyes, she had dismissed him with a few
easily spoken words. She had assured him that no such troubles need
weigh upon him. No doubt they had been engaged;--but, as far as she
was concerned, the remembrance of that need not embarrass him. And so
she and Lord Chiltern between them had sent him away. But how was she
to get him back again?

When she came to think it over, she acknowledged to herself that it
would be all the world to her to have him back. To have him at all
had been all the world to her. There had been nothing peculiarly
heroic about him, nor had she ever regarded him as a hero. She had
known his faults and weaknesses, and was probably aware that he was
inferior to herself in character and intellect. But, nevertheless,
she had loved him. To her he had been, though not heroic,
sufficiently a man to win her heart. He was a gentleman,
pleasant-mannered, pleasant to look at, pleasant to talk to, not
educated in the high sense of the word, but never making himself
ridiculous by ignorance. He was the very antipodes of a Spooner, and
he was,--or rather had been,--her lover. She did not wish to change.
She did no