n to us, Mr. Finn." Phineas said
that he would return and trespass on the Duke's hospitality for yet a
few days. He was quite resolved that something must be said to Madame
Goesler before he left the roof under which she was living. In the
course of the autumn she purposed, as she had told him, to go to
Vienna, and to remain there almost up to Christmas. Whatever there
might be to be said should be said at any rate before that.

He did speak a few words to her before his journey to London, but in
those words there was no allusion made to the great subject which
must be discussed between them. "I am going up to London," he said.

"So the Duchess tells me."

"Mr. Gresham has sent for me,--meaning, I suppose, to offer me the
place which he would not give me while that poor man was alive."

"And you will accept it of course, Mr. Finn?"

"I am not at all so sure of that."

"But you will. You must. You will hardly be so foolish as to let the
peevish animosity of an ill-conditioned man prejudice your prospects
even after his death."

"It will not be any remembrance of Mr. Bonteen that will induce me to
refuse."

"It will be the same thing;--rancour against Mr. Gresham because he
had allowed the other man's counsel to prevail with him. The action
of no individual man should be to you of sufficient consequence to
guide your conduct. If you accept office, you should not take it as a
favour conferred by the Prime Minister; nor if you refuse it, should
you do so from personal feelings in regard to him. If he selects you,
he is presumed to do so because he finds that your services will be
valuable to the country."

"He does so because he thinks that I should be safe to vote for him."

"That may be so, or not. You can't read his bosom quite
distinctly;--but you may read your own. If you go into office you
become the servant of the country,--not his servant, and should
assume his motive in selecting you to be the same as your own in
submitting to the selection. Your foot must be on the ladder before
you can get to the top of it."

"The ladder is so crooked."

"Is it more crooked now than it was three years ago;--worse than it
was six months ago, when you and all your friends looked upon it as
certain that you would be employed? There is nothing, Mr. Finn, that
a man should fear so much as some twist in his convictions arising
from a personal accident to himself. When we heard that the Devil
in his sickness wanted to be