here was nothing to be said on that matter. He could
not have congratulated her in the one case, nor could he either
congratulate her or condole with her on the other. And yet he did not
know how to speak to her as though no such events had occurred. "I
did not know that you were in town," he said.

"I only came yesterday. I have been, you know, at Rome with the
Effinghams; and since that I have been--; but, indeed, I have been
such a vagrant that I cannot tell you of all my comings and goings.
And you,--you are hard at work!"

"Oh yes;--always."

"That is right. I wish I could be something, if it were only a stick
in waiting, or a door-keeper. It is so good to be something." Was it
some such teaching as this that had jarred against Lord Chiltern's
susceptibilities, and had seemed to him to be a repetition of his
father's sermons?

"A man should try to be something," said Phineas.

"And a woman must be content to be nothing,--unless Mr. Mill can pull
us through! And now, tell me,--have you seen Lady Laura?"

"Not lately."

"Nor Mr. Kennedy?"

"I sometimes see him in the House." The visit to the Colonial Office
of which the reader has been made aware had not at that time as yet
been made.

"I am sorry for all that," she said. Upon which Phineas smiled and
shook his head. "I am very sorry that there should be a quarrel
between you two."

"There is no quarrel."

"I used to think that you and he might do so much for each
other,--that is, of course, if you could make a friend of him."

"He is a man of whom it is very hard to make a friend," said Phineas,
feeling that he was dishonest to Mr. Kennedy in saying so, but
thinking that such dishonesty was justified by what he owed to Lady
Laura.

"Yes;--he is hard, and what I call ungenial. We won't say anything
about him,--will we? Have you seen much of the Earl?" This she asked
as though such a question had no reference whatever to Lord Chiltern.

"Oh dear,--alas, alas!"

"You have not quarrelled with him too?"

"He has quarrelled with me. He has heard, Miss Effingham, of what
happened last year, and he thinks that I was wrong."

"Of course you were wrong, Mr. Finn."

"Very likely. To him I chose to defend myself, but I certainly shall
not do so to you. At any rate, you did not think it necessary to
quarrel with me."

"I ought to have done so. I wonder why my aunt does not come." Then
she rang the bell.

"Now I have told you all about myself," said h