“Who can tell? Of course I do not understand,—but
it was only the other day when Mr. Mildmay was there,
and only the day before that when Lord de Terrier
was there, and again only the day before that when
Lord Brock was there.” Phineas endeavoured
to make her understand that of the four Prime Ministers
whom she had named, three were men of the same party
as himself, under whom it would have suited him to
serve. “I would not serve under any man
if I were an English gentleman in Parliament,”
said Madame Goesler.
“What is a poor fellow to do?” said Phineas,
laughing.
“A poor fellow need not be a poor fellow unless
he likes,” said Madame Goesler. Immediately
after this Phineas left her, and as he went along
the street he began to question himself whether the
prospects of his own darling Mary were at all endangered
by his visits to Park Lane; and to reflect what sort
of a blackguard he would be,—a blackguard
of how deep a dye,—were he to desert Mary
and marry Madame Max Goesler. Then he also asked
himself as to the nature and quality of his own political
honesty if he were to abandon Mary in order that he
might maintain his parliamentary independence.
After all, if it should ever come to pass that his
biography should be written, his biographer would
say very much more about the manner in which he kept
his seat in Parliament than of the manner in which
he kept his engagement with Miss Mary Flood Jones.
Half a dozen people who knew him and her might think
ill of him for his conduct to Mary, but the world
would not condemn him! And when he thundered
forth his liberal eloquence from below the gangway
as an independent member, having the fortune of his
charming wife to back him, giving excellent dinners
at the same time in Park Lane, would not the world
praise him very loudly?
When he got to his office he found a note from Lord
Brentford inviting him to dine in Portman Square.
The Joint Attack
The note from Lord Brentford surprised our hero not
a little. He had had no communication with the
Earl since the day on which he had been so savagely
scolded about the duel, when the Earl had plainly told
him that his conduct had been as bad as it could be.
Phineas had not on that account become at all ashamed
of his conduct in reference to the duel, but he had
conceived that any reconciliation between him and
the Earl had been out of the question. Now there
had come a civilly-worded invitation, asking him to
dine with the offended nobleman. The note had
been written by Lady Laura, but it had purported to
come from Lord Brentford himself. He sent back
word to say that he should be happy to have the honour
of dining with Lord Brentford.
