“It was most improper language,—and
if you used it to me, I am sure you would to others.”
“To what others?”
“To Mr. Finn,—and those sort of people.”
“Call Mr. Finn A 1 to his face! Well,—upon
my honour I don’t know why I should not.
Lord Chiltern says he rides beautifully, and if we
were talking about riding I might do so.”
“You have no business to talk to Lord Chiltern
about Mr. Finn at all.”
“Have I not? I thought that perhaps the
one sin might palliate the other. You know, aunt,
no young lady, let her be ever so ill-disposed, can
marry two objectionable young men,—at the
same time.”
“I said nothing about your marrying Mr. Finn.”
“Then, aunt, what did you mean?”
“I meant that you should not allow yourself
to be talked of with an adventurer, a young man without
a shilling, a person who has come from nobody knows
where in the bogs of Ireland.”
“But you used to ask him here.”
“Yes,—as long as he knew his place.
But I shall not do so again. And I must beg you
to be circumspect.”
“My dear aunt, we may as well understand each
other. I will not be circumspect, as you call
it. And if Mr. Finn asked me to marry him to-morrow,
and if I liked him well enough, I would take him,—even
though he had been dug right out of a bog. Not
only because I liked him,—mind! If
I were unfortunate enough to like a man who was nothing,
I would refuse him in spite of my liking,—because
he was nothing. But this young man is not nothing.
Mr. Finn is a fine fellow, and if there were no other
reason to prevent my marrying him than his being the
son of a doctor, and coming out of the bogs, that
would not do so. Now I have made a clean breast
to you as regards Mr. Finn; and if you do not like
what I’ve said, aunt, you must acknowledge that
you have brought it on yourself.”
Lady Baldock was left for a time speechless.
But no card was sent to Phineas Finn.
Promotion
Phineas got no card from Lady Baldock, but one morning
he received a note from Lord Brentford which was of
more importance to him than any card could have been.
At this time, bit by bit, the Reform Bill of the day
had nearly made its way through the committee, but
had been so mutilated as to be almost impossible of
recognition by its progenitors. And there was
still a clause or two as to the rearrangement of seats,
respecting which it was known that there would be
a combat,—probably combats,—carried
on after the internecine fashion. There was a
certain clipping of counties to be done, as to which
it was said that Mr. Daubeny had declared that he
would not yield till he was made to do so by the brute
force of majorities;—and there was another
clause for the drafting of certain superfluous members
from little boroughs, and bestowing them on populous
towns at which they were much wanted, respecting which
