Phineas Redux

nsidered as the great day of the annual exodus, and he remembered how he, too, in former times had gone to Scotland to shoot grouse, and what he had done there besides shooting. He had been

s bride after she had accepted the rich man's hand? Thence had come great trouble, but nevertheless there had been that between Mr. Kennedy and our hero which made Phineas feel that he ought still to be welcomed as a guest should he show himself at the door of Loughlinter Castle. The idea came upon him simply because he found that almost every man for whom he inquired had just started, or was just starting, for the North; and he would have liked to go where others went. He asked a few quest

attempt at a reconcil

that she may be safe. Of all hatreds that the world produces, a wife

" inn, to find that the people of the town would treat him as though he were rolling in wealth. He was soon tired of Tankerville, and as he could do nothing further, on the spot, till the time for canvassing

Finn," said

at martinet in the field, and works at it as though it were for his bread. We have been here looking after the kennels and getting up the horses since the

happy out of Parliament, and that your real home must be somewhere near the Treasury Chambers. You can't alter a man's nature. Oswald was born to be a master of hounds, a

y good stables, and such a stud! I can't tell you how many there are. In October it seems as though their name were legion. In March there is never anything for any body to ride on. I generally find then that mine are taken for the whips. Do come and

ilent in writing. If you were here of course I should speak of her. And I would rather re

er most

t Chi

n Hall, W

sought him out at once, at the moment of his reappearance. That she would have remembered him, he was quite sure, and that her husband, Lord Chiltern, should remember him also, was beyond a doubt. There had been passages in their joint lives which people cannot forget. But it might so well have been the case

otel, Jerm

ber

Lady C

so. I am uneasy till I can see once more the Speaker's wig, and hear bitter things said of this "right honourable gentleman," and of that noble friend. I want to be once more in the midst of it; and as I have been left singularly desolate in the world, without a tie by which I am bound to aug

s the Brake, and I have heard also that he is doing it uncommonly well. Tell him that I have hardly seen a hound since the memorable day on which I pulled him out from under his horse in the brook at Wissindine. I don't know whether I can ride a yard now. I will get to you on the 4th, and will remain if you will

to him. Does he make a g

lways fa

eas

at pleasure I look forwar

, with his old friends, he would not scruple for a moment in owning that such was the case. He had fixed his day, however, and did remain in London till the 4th. Barrington Erle and Mr. Ratler he saw occasionally, for they

s disliked Ratler, and had known himself t

n at it all his life. Money is no object to him, and he doesn't care a s

d that then the gloom would go. The comforting words of his friends would mean quite as little as the discourtesies of Mr. Ratler. He understood that thoroughly, and felt that he ought to hold a stronger control over his own impulses. He must take the thing as it would come, and neither the flatt

er when he came into the room, and at once greeted him as an old friend,-as a loved and loving friend who was to be made free at once to all the inmost privileges of real friendship, which are given to and are desired by so few. "Yes, here we are again," said Lady Chiltern, "settled, as far as I suppose we ever sh

tern and

to E

yelping dogs

show Baby, and Oswald shows the hounds. We've nothing else to interest anybody. But nurse shall take him now. Come out and have a turn in the shrubber

asked Phineas, a

aide Palliser. I don't t

nything to the o

was one of six her share of the family wealth is small. Those Pallisers are very peculiar, and I doubt whether she ever saw the old duke.

er Mrs. A

have been, as she calls herself one-and-twenty now. You'll think her pretty. I don't. But she is my grea

for th

could. There's only one other thing ab

wh

stion, and indeed I'm not sure that she is

ow, if she's

ght not to have said a word about it. I shouldn't have done so to an

to b

er on hunting days. When the cubbing

get up at

ay with you if you choose till you dress for dinner. I did know so wel

e changed in

g always of what he will do in the world; whether he'll be a master of hounds or a Cabinet Minister or a great farmer;-or perh

f anything so wretc

to think that my boy should be better than others? But I do; and I fancy that he will be a great statesman. After all, Mr. Finn, that is the best

better than the spen

ld be used merely as a preparation for the next; and yet there is something so cold and comfortless in the theory t

c. But the discussion was stopped by

ound of trumpets to make him audible throughout the house." Then she wen

e was hardly able to see her as she stood there a moment in her hat and habit. There was ever so much said about the day's work. The earths had not been properly sto

n awful shame. Then they all swore that it was an awful shame, and everybody was furious. And you might hear one man saying to anot

as it,

n Wood expecting to be happy there. I've ha

er all the way home," said Miss Pallise

room," said Lord Chiltern. "It's not quite as co

d to teach himself, and the facts of the last two years had seemed to show that the lesson was a true lesson. He had disappeared from among his former companions, and had heard almost nothing from them. From neither Lord Chiltern or his wife had he received any tidings. He had expected to receive none,-had known that in the common course of things none was to be expected. There were many others with whom he had been intimate-Barrington Erle, Laurence Fitzgibbon, Mr. Monk, a politician who had been in the Cabinet, and in consequence of whose political teaching he, Phineas Finn, had banished himself from the political world;-from none of these had he received a line till there came that letter summoning him back to the battle. There had

has a woman? A Horace Walpole may write to a Mr. Mann about all things under the sun, London gossip or transcendental philosophy, and if the Horace Walpole of the occasion can write well and will labour diligently at that vocation, his letters may be worth reading by his Mr. Mann, and by others; but, for the maintenance of love and friendship, continued correspondence between distant friends is naught. Distance in time and place, but especially in time, will diminish friendship. It is a rule of nature that it should be so, and thus the friendships which a man most fosters are those which

iend sitting there alone. "Mr. Finn," said the old lady, "I hope I see you quit

of conversation, which they had had together, Lady Chiltern had said not a word to Phineas of her aunt

that the daughter was dead; and, from his remembrance of Augusta Boreham, he would have thought her to be the last woman in the world to run away with the coachman. At the moment there did not seem to be any other sufficient cause for so melanc

very

e don't know ho

at, Lady

wheedling priest got hold of her, and now she's a nun, and calls herself-Sister Veronica John!" Lady Baldock threw great strength and unction into her description

he door was opened, and Lord Chiltern came