Chiltern likes blowing fellows up."

"It's a part of his business."

"That's the way I look at it. But I should think it must be
disagreeable. He takes such a deal of trouble about it. I heard him
going on to-day to some one as though his whole soul depended on it."

"He is very energetic."

"Just so. I'm quite sure it's a mistake. What does a man ever get by
it? Folks around you soon discount it till it goes for nothing."

"I don't think energy goes for nothing, Mr. Maule."

"A bull in a china shop is not a useful animal, nor is he ornamental,
but there can be no doubt of his energy. The hare was full of energy,
but he didn't win the race. The man who stands still is the man who
keeps his ground."

"You don't stand still when you're out hunting."

"No;--I ride about, and Chiltern swears at me. Every man is a fool
sometimes."

"And your wisdom, perfect at all other times, breaks down in the
hunting-field?"

"I don't in the least mind your chaffing. I know what you think of me
just as well as though you told me."

"What do I think of you?"

"That I'm a poor creature, generally half asleep, shallow-pated,
slow-blooded, ignorant, useless, and unambitious."

"Certainly unambitious, Mr. Maule."

"And that word carries all the others. What's the good of ambition?
There's the man they were talking about last night,--that Irishman."

"Mr. Finn?"

"Yes; Phineas Finn. He is an ambitious fellow. He'll have to starve,
according to what Chiltern was saying. I've sense enough to know I
can't do any good."

"You are sensible, I admit."

"Very well, Miss Palliser. You can say just what you like, of course.
You have that privilege."

"I did not mean to say anything severe. I do admit that you are
master of a certain philosophy, for which much may be said. But you
are not to expect that I shall express an approval which I do not
feel."

"But I want you to approve it."

"Ah!--there, I fear, I cannot oblige you."

"I want you to approve it, though no one else may."

"Though all else should do so, I cannot."

"Then take the task of curing the sick one, and of strengthening
the weak one, into your own hands. If you will teach, perhaps I may
learn."

"I have no mission for teaching, Mr. Maule."

"You once said that,--that--"

"Do not be so ungenerous as to throw in my teeth what I once
said,--if I ever said a word that I would not now repeat."

"I do not think that I am ungenerous, Miss Palliser."

"I