hat,--still it would have comforted her. But at this moment, though
he remembered much that had passed between them, he was not even
thinking of the Braes of Linter. All that had taken place four years
ago;--and there had been so many other things since which had moved
him even more than that! "You have heard what I have arranged for
myself?" she said at last.

"Your father has told me that you are going to Dresden."

"Yes;--he will accompany me,--coming home of course for Parliament.
It is a sad break-up, is it not? But the lawyer says that if I remain
here I may be subject to very disagreeable attempts from Mr. Kennedy
to force me to go back again. It is odd, is it not, that he should
not understand how impossible it is?"

"He means to do his duty."

"I believe so. But he becomes more stern every day to those who are
with him. And then, why should I remain here? What is there to tempt
me? As a woman separated from her husband I cannot take an interest
in those things which used to charm me. I feel that I am crushed and
quelled by my position, even though there is no disgrace in it."

"No disgrace, certainly," said Phineas.

"But I am nobody,--or worse than nobody."

"And I also am going to be a nobody," said Phineas, laughing.

"Ah; you are a man and will get over it, and you have many years
before you will begin to be growing old. I am growing old already.
Yes, I am. I feel it, and know it, and see it. A woman has a fine
game to play; but then she is so easily bowled out, and the term
allowed to her is so short."

"A man's allowance of time may be short too," said Phineas.

"But he can try his hand again." Then there was another pause. "I had
thought, Mr. Finn, that you would have married," she said in her very
lowest voice.

"You knew all my hopes and fears about that."

"I mean that you would have married Madame Goesler."

"What made you think that, Lady Laura?"

"Because I saw that she liked you, and because such a marriage would
have been so suitable. She has all that you want. You know what they
say of her now?"

"What do they say?"

"That the Duke of Omnium offered to make her his wife, and that she
refused him for your sake."

"There is nothing that people won't say;--nothing on earth," said
Phineas. Then he got up and took his leave of her. He also wanted to
part from her with some special expression of affection, but he did
not know how to choose his words. He had wished that some allus