f you
were here of course I should speak of her. And I would
rather renew your grief for a time than allow you to think
that I am indifferent. Pray come to us.

Yours ever most sincerely,

VIOLET CHILTERN.

Harrington Hall, Wednesday.

Phineas Finn at once made up his mind that he would go to Harrington
Hall. There was the prospect in this of an immediate return to some
of the most charming pleasures of the old life, which was very
grateful to him. It pleased him much that he should have been so
thought of by this lady,--that she should have sought him out
at once, at the moment of his reappearance. That she would have
remembered him, he was quite sure, and that her husband, Lord
Chiltern, should remember him also, was beyond a doubt. There had
been passages in their joint lives which people cannot forget. But
it might so well have been the case that they should not have cared
to renew their acquaintance with him. As it was, they must have
made close inquiry, and had sought him at the first day of his
reappearance. The letter had reached him through the hands of
Barrington Erle, who was a cousin of Lord Chiltern, and was at once
answered as follows:--

Fowler's Hotel, Jermyn Street,
October 1st.

MY DEAR LADY CHILTERN,

I cannot tell you how much pleasure the very sight of
your handwriting gave me. Yes, here I am again, trying my
hand at the old game. They say that you can never cure a
gambler or a politician; and, though I had very much to
make me happy till that great blow came upon me, I believe
that it is so. I am uneasy till I can see once more the
Speaker's wig, and hear bitter things said of this "right
honourable gentleman," and of that noble friend. I want to
be once more in the midst of it; and as I have been left
singularly desolate in the world, without a tie by which
I am bound to aught but an honourable mode of living, I
have determined to run the risk, and have thrown up the
place which I held under Government. I am to stand for
Tankerville, as you have heard, and I am told by those to
whose tender mercies I have been confided by B. E. that I
have not a chance of success.

Your invitation is so tempting that I cannot refuse it. As
you say, I have nothing to do till the play begins. I have
issued my address, and must leave my name and my fame
to be discussed by the Tankervillians till I make my
app