“I don’t in the least, Mrs. Bonteen.”
“I should have thought you would have been so triumphant,” said Madame Goesler.
“Not in the least, Madame Goesler. Why should I be triumphant? Of course the position is very high—very high indeed. But it’s no more than what I have always expected. If a man give up his life to a pursuit he ought to succeed. As for ambition, I have less of it than any woman. Only I do hate jealousy, Mr. Finn.” Then Mrs. Bonteen took her leave, kissing her dear friend, Madame Goesler, and simply bowing to Phineas.
“What a detestable woman!” said Phineas.
“I know of old that you don’t love her.”
“I don’t believe that you love her a bit better than I do, and yet you kiss her.”
“Hardly that, Mr. Finn. There has come up a fashion for ladies to pretend to be very loving, and so they put their faces together. Two hundred years ago ladies and gentlemen did the same thing with just as little regard for each other. Fashions change, you know.”
“That was a change for the worse, certainly, Madame Goesler.”
“It wasn’t of my doing. So you’ve had a great victory.”
“Yes;—greater than we expected.”
“According to Mrs. Bonteen, the chief result to the country will be that the taxes will be so very safe in her husband’s hands! I am sure she believes that all Parliament has been at work in order that he might be made a Cabinet Minister. I rather like her for it.”
“I don’t like her, or her husband.”
“I do like a woman that can thoroughly enjoy her husband’s success. When she is talking of his carrying about his food in his pocket she is completely happy. I don’t think Lady Glencora ever cared in the least about her husband being Chancellor of the Exchequer.”
“Because it added nothing to her own standing.”
“That’s very ill-natured, Mr. Finn; and I find that you are becoming generally ill-natured. You used to be the best-humoured of men.”
“I hadn’t so much to try my temper as I have now, and then you must remember, Madame Goesler, that I regard these people as being especially my enemies.”
“Lady Glencora was never your enemy.”
“Nor my friend—especially.”
“Then you wrong her. If I tell you something you must be discreet.”
“Am I not always discreet?”
“She does not love Mr. Bonteen. She has had too much of him at Matching. And as for his wife, she is quite as unwilling to be kissed by her as you can be. Her Grace is determined to fight your battle for you.”
“I want her to do nothing of the kind, Madame Goesler.”
“You will know nothing about it. We have put our heads to work, and Mr. Palliser—that is, the new Duke—is to be made to tell Mr. Gresham that you are to have a place. It is no good you being angry, for the thing is done. If you have enemies behind your back, you must have friends behind your back also. Lady Cantrip is to do the same thing.”
“For Heaven’s sake, not.”
“It’s all arranged. You’ll be called the ladies’ pet, but you mustn’t mind that. Lady Laura will be here before it’s arranged, and she will get hold of Mr. Erle.”
“You are laughing at me, I know.”
“Let them laugh that win. We thought of besieging Lord Fawn through Lady Chiltern, but we are not sure that anybody cares for Lord Fawn. The man we specially want now is the other Duke. We’re afraid of attacking him through the Duchess because we think that he is inhumanly indifferent to anything that his wife says to him.”
“If that kind of thing is done I shall not accept place even if it is offered me.”
“Why not? Are you going to let a man like Mr. Bonteen bowl you over? Did you ever know Lady Glen fail in anything that she attempted? She is preparing a secret with the express object of making Mr. Ratler her confidant. Lord Mount Thistle is her slave, but then I fear Lord Mount Thistle is not of much use. She’ll do anything and everything—except flatter Mr. Bonteen.”
“Heaven forbid that anybody should do that for my sake.”
“The truth is that he made himself so disagreeable at Matching that Lady Glen is brokenhearted at finding that he is to seem to owe his promotion to her husband’s favour. Now you know all about it.”
“You have been very wrong to tell me.”
“Perhaps I have, Mr. Finn. But I thought it better that you should know that you have friends at work for you. We believe—or rather, the Duchess believes—that falsehoods have been used which are as disparaging to Lady Laura Kennedy as they are injurious to you, and she is determined to put it right. Someone has told Mr. Gresham that you have been the means of breaking the hearts both of Lord Brentford and Mr. Kennedy—two members of the late Cabinet—and he must be made to understand that this is untrue. If only for Lady Laura’s sake you must submit.”
“Lord Brentford and I are the best friends in the world.”
“And Mr. Kennedy is a madman—absolutely in custody of his friends, as everybody knows; and yet the story has been made to work.”
“And you do not feel that all this is derogatory to me?”
Madame Goesler was silent for a moment, and then she answered boldly, “Not a whit. Why should it be derogatory? It is not done with the object of obtaining an improper appointment on behalf of an unimportant man. When falsehoods of that kind are told you can’t meet them in a straightforward way. I suppose I know with fair accuracy the sort of connection there has been between you and Lady Laura.” Phineas very much doubted whether she had any such knowledge; but he said nothing, though the lady paused a few moments for reply. “You can’t go and tell Mr. Gresham all that; nor can any friend do so on your behalf. It would be absurd.”
“Most absurd.”
“And yet it is
