But that is what we all hope. Mary was saying,
only the other day, that if you were once married, we should all
feel quite safe about you. And you know we all take the most lively
interest in your welfare. It is not every day that a man from County
Clare gets on as you have done, and therefore we are bound to think
of you." Thus Mrs. Flood Jones signified to Phineas Finn that she had
forgiven him the thoughtlessness of his early youth,--even though
there had been something of treachery in that thoughtlessness to her
own daughter; and showed him, also, that whatever Mary's feelings
might have been once, they were not now of a nature to trouble her.
"Of course you will marry?" said Mrs. Flood Jones.

"I should think very likely not," said Phineas, who perhaps looked
farther into the mind of the lady than the lady intended.

"Oh, do," said the lady. "Every man should marry as soon as he can,
and especially a man in your position."

When the ladies met together in the drawing-room after dinner,
it was impossible but that they should discuss Mr. Monk. There
was Mrs. Callaghan from the brewery there, and old Lady Blood, of
Bloodstone,--who on ordinary occasions would hardly admit that she
was on dining-out terms with any one in Killaloe except the bishop,
but who had found it impossible to decline to meet a Cabinet
Minister,--and there was Mrs. Stackpoole from Sixmiletown, a far-away
cousin of the Finns, who hated Lady Blood with a true provincial
hatred.

"I don't see anything particularly uncommon in him, after all," said
Lady Blood.

"I think he is very nice indeed," said Mrs. Flood Jones.

"So very quiet, my dear, and just like other people," said Mrs.
Callaghan, meaning to pronounce a strong eulogium on the Cabinet
Minister.

"Very like other people indeed," said Lady Blood.

"And what would you expect, Lady Blood?" said Mrs. Stackpoole. "Men
and women in London walk upon two legs, just as they do in Ennis."
Now Lady Blood herself had been born and bred in Ennis, whereas Mrs.
Stackpoole had come from Limerick, which is a much more considerable
town, and therefore there was a satire in this allusion to the habits
of the men of Ennis which Lady Blood understood thoroughly.

"My dear Mrs. Stackpoole, I know how the people walk in London quite
as well as you do." Lady Blood had once passed three months in London
while Sir Patrick had been alive, whereas Mrs. Stackpoole had never
done more than visit the metropol