"They can't stand here, for there is not a stall."

"I am so sorry that my poor little fellow should incommode you," said
Miss Palliser.

"You're a licensed offender,--though, upon my honour, I don't know
whether I ought to give a feed of oats to any one having a connection
with Trumpeton Wood. And what is Phineas to ride?"

"He shall ride my horses," said Lady Chiltern, whose present
condition in life rendered hunting inopportune to her.

"Neither of them would carry him a mile. He wants about as good an
animal as you can put him upon. I don't know what I'm to do. It's all
very well for Laura to say that he must be mounted."

"You wouldn't refuse to give Mr. Finn a mount!" said Lady Chiltern,
almost with dismay.

"I'd give him my right hand to ride, only it wouldn't carry him. I
can't make horses. Harry brought home that brown mare on Tuesday with
an overreach that she won't get over this season. What the deuce they
do with their horses to knock them about so, I can't understand. I've
killed horses in my time, and ridden them to a stand-still, but I
never bruised them and battered them about as these fellows do."

"Then I'd better write to Mr. Finn, and tell him," said Lady
Chiltern, very gravely.

"Oh, Phineas Finn!" said Lord Chiltern; "oh, Phineas Finn! what a
pity it was that you and I didn't see the matter out when we stood
opposite to each other on the sands at Blankenberg!"

"Oswald," said his wife, getting up, and putting her arm over his
shoulder, "you know you would give your best horse to Mr. Finn,
as long as he chose to stay here, though you rode upon a donkey
yourself."

"I know that if I didn't, you would," said Lord Chiltern. And so the
matter was settled.

At night, when they were alone together, there was further discussion
as to the visitors who were coming to Harrington Hall. "Is Gerard
Maule to come back?" asked the husband.

"I have asked him. He left his horses at Doggett's, you know."

"I didn't know."

"I certainly told you, Oswald. Do you object to his coming? You can't
really mean that you care about his riding?"

"It isn't that. You must have some whipping post, and he's as good
as another. But he shilly-shallies about that girl. I hate all that
stuff like poison."

"All men are not so--abrupt shall I say?--as you were."

"I had something to say, and I said it. When I had said it a dozen
times, I got to have it believed. He doesn't say it as though he
meant to have i