s eyes. He had not told himself, even in his
dreariest moments, that there was before him "no escape, no hope, no
prospect of relief, no place of consolation." And then he began to
think whether this must in truth be the case with Lady Laura. What if
Mr. Kennedy were to die? What in such case as that would he do? In
ten or perhaps in five years time might it not be possible for him
to go through the ceremony of falling upon his knees, with stiffened
joints indeed, but still with something left of the ardour of his old
love, of his oldest love of all?

As he was thinking of this he was brought up short in his walk as he
was entering the Green Park beneath the Duke's figure, by Laurence
Fitzgibbon. "How dare you not be in your office at such an hour as
this, Finn, me boy,--or, at least, not in the House,--or serving your
masters after some fashion?" said the late Under-Secretary.

"So I am. I've been on a message to Marylebone, to find what the
people there think about the Canadas."

"And what do they think about the Canadas in Marylebone?"

"Not one man in a thousand cares whether the Canadians prosper or
fail to prosper. They care that Canada should not go to the States,
because,--though they don't love the Canadians, they do hate the
Americans. That's about the feeling in Marylebone,--and it's
astonishing how like the Maryleboners are to the rest of the world."

"Dear me, what a fellow you are for an Under-Secretary! You've heard
the news about little Violet."

"What news?"

"She has quarrelled with Chiltern, you know."

"Who says so?"

"Never mind who says so, but they tell me it's true. Take an old
friend's advice, and strike while the iron's hot."

Phineas did not believe what he had heard, but though he did not
believe it, still the tidings set his heart beating. He would have
believed it less perhaps had he known that Laurence had just received
the news from Mrs. Bonteen.

CHAPTER LVII

The Top Brick of the Chimney

Madame Max Goesler was a lady who knew that in fighting the battles
which fell to her lot, in arranging the social difficulties which she
found in her way, in doing the work of the world which came to her
share, very much more care was necessary,--and care too about things
apparently trifling,--than was demanded by the affairs of people in
general. And this was not the case so much on account of any special
disadvantage under which she laboured, as because she was ambitious
of