"see" Mr. Kennedy.
The amenities of such an interview, as this would be, had up to the
present day been postponed; and, in a certain way, Phineas had been
used as a messenger between Mr. Kennedy and his wife's family.

"I think it will end," she said, "in my going to Dresden, and
settling myself there. Papa will come to me when Parliament is not
sitting."

"It will be very dull."

"Dull! What does dulness amount to when one has come to such a pass
as this? When one is in the ruck of fortune, to be dull is very bad;
but when misfortune comes, simple dulness is nothing. It sounds
almost like relief."

"It is so hard that you should be driven away." She did not answer
him for a while, and he was beginning to think of his own case also.
Was it not hard that he too should be driven away? "It is odd enough
that we should both be going at the same time."

"But you will not go?"

"I think I shall. I have resolved upon this,--that if I give up my
place, I will give up my seat too. I went into Parliament with the
hope of office, and how can I remain there when I shall have gained
it and then have lost it?"

"But you will stay in London, Mr. Finn?"

"I think not. After all that has come and gone I should not be happy
here, and I should make my way easier and on cheaper terms in Dublin.
My present idea is that I shall endeavour to make a practice over in
my own country. It will be hard work beginning at the bottom;--will
it not?"

"And so unnecessary."

"Ah, Lady Laura,--if it only could be avoided! But it is of no use
going through all that again."

"How much we would both of us avoid if we could only have another
chance!" said Lady Laura. "If I could only be as I was before I
persuaded myself to marry a man whom I never loved, what a paradise
the earth would be to me! With me all regrets are too late."

"And with me as much so."

"No, Mr. Finn. Even should you resign your office, there is no reason
why you should give up your seat."

"Simply that I have no income to maintain me in London."

She was silent for a few moments, during which she changed her seat
so as to come nearer to him, placing herself on a corner of a sofa
close to the chair on which he was seated. "I wonder whether I may
speak to you plainly," she said.

"Indeed you may."

"On any subject?"

"Yes;--on any subject."

"I trust you have been able to rid your bosom of all remembrances of
Violet Effingham."

"Certainly not of all rememb