e. As he went, making his way much quicker through the crowd
than he had done when he had no such object for haste, he purposely
avoided the door by which Mr. Kennedy had stood. It would have been
his nearest way, but his present service, he thought, required that
he should keep aloof from the man. But Mr. Kennedy passed through the
door and intercepted him in his path.

"Is she going?" he asked.

"Well. Yes. I dare say she may before long. I shall look for Lord
Brentford's carriage by-and-by."

"Tell her she need not go because of me. I shall not return. I shall
not annoy her here. It would have been much better that a woman in
such a plight should not have come to such an assembly."

"You would not wish her to shut herself up."

"I would wish her to come back to the home that she has left, and, if
there be any law in the land, she shall be made to do so. You tell
her that I say so." Then Mr. Kennedy fought his way down the stairs,
and Phineas Finn followed in his wake.

About half an hour afterwards Phineas returned to the two ladies with
tidings that the carriage would be at hand as soon as they could be
below. "Did he see you?" said Lady Laura.

"Yes, he followed me."

"And did he speak to you?"

"Yes;--he spoke to me."

"And what did he say?" And then, in the presence of Violet, Phineas
gave the message. He thought it better that it should be given;
and were he to decline to deliver it now, it would never be given.
"Whether there be law in the land to protect me or whether there be
none, I will never live with him," said Lady Laura. "Is a woman like
a head of cattle, that she can be fastened in her crib by force? I
will never live with him though all the judges of the land should
decide that I must do so."

Phineas thought much of all this as he went to his solitary lodgings.
After all, was not the world much better with him than it was with
either of those two wretched married beings? And why? He had not,
at any rate as yet, sacrificed for money or social gains any of
the instincts of his nature. He had been fickle, foolish, vain,
uncertain, and perhaps covetous;--but as yet he had not been false.
Then he took out Mary's last letter and read it again.

CHAPTER LXXI

Comparing Notes

It would, perhaps, be difficult to decide,--between Lord Chiltern and
Miss Effingham,--which had been most wrong, or which had been nearest
to the right, in the circumstances which had led to their separation