“Mr. Kennedy is nothing to me.”

“He is something to me, and so I suppose I had better go on.  And now I shall have that horrid man from the little town pawing me and covering everything with snuff, and bidding me take Scotch physic,—­which seems to increase in quantity and nastiness as doses in England decrease.  And he will stand over me to see that I take it.”

“What;—­the doctor from Callender?”

“No;—­but Mr. Kennedy will.  If he advised me to have a hole in my glove mended, he would ask me before he went to bed whether it was done.  He never forgot anything in his life, and was never unmindful of anything.  That I think will do, Mr. Finn.  You have brought me out from the trees, and that may be taken as bringing me home.  We shall hardly get scolded if we part here.  Remember what I told you up above.  And remember also that it is in your power to do nothing else for me.  Good-bye.”  So he turned away towards the lake, and let Lady Laura go across the wide lawn to the house by herself.

He had failed altogether in his intention of telling his friend of his love for Violet, and had come to perceive that he could not for the present carry out that intention.  After what had passed it would be impossible for him to go to Lady Laura with a passionate tale of his longing for Violet Effingham.  If he were even to speak to her of love at all, it must be quite of another love than that.  But he never would speak to her of love; nor,—­as he felt quite sure,—­would she allow him to do so.  But what astounded him most as he thought of the interview which had just passed, was the fact that the Lady Laura whom he had known,—­whom he had thought he had known,—­should have become so subject to such a man as Mr. Kennedy, a man whom he had despised as being weak, irresolute, and without a purpose!  For the day or two that he remained at Loughlinter, he watched the family closely, and became aware that Lady Laura had been right when she declared that her father was afraid of Mr. Kennedy.

“I shall follow you almost immediately,” said the Earl confidentially to Phineas, when the candidate for the borough took his departure from Loughlinter.  “I don’t like to be there just when the election is going on, but I’ll be at Saulsby to receive you the day afterwards.”

Phineas took his leave from Mr. Kennedy, with a warm expression of friendship on the part of his host, and from Lady Laura with a mere touch of the hand.  He tried to say a word; but she was sullen, or, if not, she put on some mood like to sullenness, and said never a word to him.