act upon him or upon her."

"I do not see that you can do good by going to either."

"Well, we will see. If she be the woman I take her to be, I think I
could do something with her. I have never supposed her to be a bad
woman,--never. I will think of it." Then Lady Glencora left her
husband, and did not consult him afterwards as to the course she
would pursue. He had his budget to manage, and his speeches to make.
The little affair of the Duke and Madame Goesler, she thought it best
to take into her own hands without any assistance from him. "What a
fool I was," she said to herself, "to have her down there when the
Duke was at Matching!"

Madame Goesler, when she was left alone, felt that now indeed she
must make up her mind. She had asked for two days. The intervening
day was a Sunday, and on the Monday she must send her answer. She
might doubt at any rate for this one night,--the Saturday night,--and
sit playing, as it were, with the coronet of a duchess in her lap.
She had been born the daughter of a small country attorney, and now a
duke had asked her to be his wife,--and a duke who was acknowledged
to stand above other dukes! Nothing at any rate could rob her of that
satisfaction. Whatever resolution she might form at last, she had by
her own resources reached a point of success in remembering which
there would always be a keen gratification. It would be much to be
Duchess of Omnium; but it would be something also to have refused to
be a Duchess of Omnium. During that evening, that night, and the next
morning, she remained playing with the coronet in her lap. She would
not go to church. What good could any sermon do her while that bauble
was dangling before her eyes? After church-time, about two o'clock,
Phineas Finn came to her. Just at this period Phineas would come
to her often;--sometimes full of a new decision to forget Violet
Effingham altogether, at others minded to continue his siege let the
hope of success be ever so small. He had now heard that Violet and
Lord Chiltern had in truth quarrelled, and was of course anxious to
be advised to continue the siege. When he first came in and spoke a
word or two, in which there was no reference to Violet Effingham,
there came upon Madame Goesler a strong wish to decide at once that
she would play no longer with the coronet, that the gem was not worth
the cost she would be called upon to pay for it. There was something
in the world better for her than the coronet,