mock anger.

CHAPTER LIX

The Earl's Wrath

The reader may remember that a rumour had been conveyed to
Phineas,--a rumour indeed which reached him from a source which he
regarded as very untrustworthy,--that Violet Effingham had quarrelled
with her lover. He would probably have paid no attention to the
rumour, beyond that which necessarily attached itself to any tidings
as to a matter so full of interest to him, had it not been repeated
to him in another quarter. "A bird has told me that your Violet
Effingham has broken with her lover," Madame Goesler said to him one
day. "What bird?" he asked. "Ah, that I cannot tell you. But this I
will confess to you, that these birds which tell us news are seldom
very credible,--and are often not very creditable, You must take
a bird's word for what it may be worth. It is said that they have
quarrelled. I daresay, if the truth were known, they are billing and
cooing in each other's arms at this moment."

Phineas did not like to be told of their billing and cooing,--did
not like to be told even of their quarrelling. Though they were to
quarrel, it would do him no good. He would rather that nobody should
mention their names to him;--so that his back, which had been so
utterly broken, might in process of time get itself cured. From what
he knew of Violet he thought it very improbable that, even were
she to quarrel with one lover, she would at once throw herself into
the arms of another. And he did feel, too, that there would be
some meanness in taking her, were she willing to be so taken. But,
nevertheless, these rumours, coming to him in this way from different
sources, almost made it incumbent on him to find out the truth. He
began to think that his broken back was not cured;--that perhaps,
after all, it was not in the way of being cured, And was it not
possible that there might be explanations? Then he went to work
and built castles in the air, so constructed as to admit of the
possibility of Violet Effingham becoming his wife.

This had been in April, and at that time all that he knew of Violet
was, that she was not yet in London. And he thought that he knew the
same as to Lord Chiltern. The Earl had told him that Chiltern was not
in town, nor expected in town as yet; and in saying so had seemed to
express displeasure against his son. Phineas had met Lady Baldock at
some house which he frequented, and had been quite surprised to find
himself graciously received by