"We will not talk of vengeance. I believe he is wretched, and I know
that I am;--and that has come of the wrong that I have done."

"I will make no man wretched," said Violet.

"Do you mean that your mind is made up against Oswald?"

"I mean that, and I mean much more. I say that I will make no man
wretched. Your brother is not the only man who is so weak as to be
willing to run the hazard."

"There is Lord Fawn."

"Yes, there is Lord Fawn, certainly. Perhaps I should not do him much
harm; but then I should do him no good."

"And poor Phineas Finn."

"Yes;--there is Mr. Finn. I will tell you something, Laura. The only
man I ever saw in the world whom I have thought for a moment that
it was possible that I should like,--like enough to love as my
husband,--except your brother, was Mr. Finn."

"And now?"

"Oh;--now; of course that is over," said Violet.

"It is over?"

"Quite over. Is he not going to marry Madame Goesler? I suppose
all that is fixed by this time. I hope she will be good to him,
and gracious, and let him have his own way, and give him his tea
comfortably when he comes up tired from the House; for I confess that
my heart is a little tender towards Phineas still. I should not like
to think that he had fallen into the hands of a female Philistine."

"I do not think he will marry Madame Goesler."

"Why not?"

"I can hardly tell you;--but I do not think he will. And you loved
him once,--eh, Violet?"

"Not quite that, my dear. It has been difficult with me to love. The
difficulty with most girls, I fancy, is not to love. Mr. Finn, when I
came to measure him in my mind, was not small, but he was never quite
tall enough. One feels oneself to be a sort of recruiting sergeant,
going about with a standard of inches. Mr. Finn was just half an inch
too short. He lacks something in individuality. He is a little too
much a friend to everybody."

"Shall I tell you a secret, Violet?"

"If you please, dear; though I fancy it is one I know already."

"He is the only man whom I ever loved," said Lady Laura.

"But it was too late when you learned to love him," said Violet.

"It was too late, when I was so sure of it as to wish that I had
never seen Mr. Kennedy. I felt it coming on me, and I argued with
myself that such a marriage would be bad for us both. At that moment
there was trouble in the family, and I had not a shilling of my own."

"You had paid it for Oswald."

"At any rate, I had nothing;