Part 23 (1/2)
”I told you that I should do just what the wise people told me. I asked papa, and he said that it would be better. So the lawyers were driven out of their minds, and the milliners out of their bodies, and the thing was done.”
”Who was there at the marriage?”
”Oswald was not there. That I know is what you mean to ask. Papa said that he might come if he pleased. Oswald stipulated that he should be received as a son. Then my father spoke the hardest word that ever fell from his mouth.”
”What did he say?”
”I will not repeat it,--not altogether. But he said that Oswald was not ent.i.tled to a son's treatment. He was very sore about my money, because Robert was so generous as to his settlement. So the breach between them is as wide as ever.”
”And where is Chiltern now?” said Phineas.
”Down in Northamptons.h.i.+re, staying at some inn from whence he hunts.
He tells me that he is quite alone,--that he never dines out, never has any one to dine with him, that he hunts five or six days a week,--and reads at night.”
”That is not a bad sort of life.”
”Not if the reading is any good. But I cannot bear that he should be so solitary. And if he breaks down in it, then his companions will not be fit for him. Do you ever hunt?”
”Oh yes,--at home in county Clare. All Irishmen hunt.”
”I wish you would go down to him and see him. He would be delighted to have you.”
Phineas thought over the proposition before he answered it, and then made the reply that he had made once before. ”I would do so, Lady Laura,--but that I have no money for hunting in England.”
”Alas, alas!” said she, smiling. ”How that hits one on every side!”
”I might manage it,--for a couple of days,--in March.”
”Do not do what you think you ought not to do,” said Lady Laura.
”No; certainly. But I should like it, and if I can I will.”
”He could mount you, I have no doubt. He has no other expense now, and keeps a stable full of horses. I think he has seven or eight. And now tell me, Mr. Finn; when are you going to charm the House? Or is it your first intention to strike terror?”
He blushed,--he knew that he blushed as he answered. ”Oh, I suppose I shall make some sort of attempt before long. I can't bear the idea of being a bore.”
”I think you ought to speak, Mr. Finn.”
”I do not know about that, but I certainly mean to try. There will be lots of opportunities about the new Reform Bill. Of course you know that Mr. Mildmay is going to bring it in at once. You hear all that from Mr. Kennedy.”
”And papa has told me. I still see papa almost every day. You must call upon him. Mind you do.” Phineas said that he certainly would.
”Papa is very lonely now, and I sometimes feel that I have been almost cruel in deserting him. And I think that he has a horror of the house,--especially later in the year,--always fancying that he will meet Oswald. I am so unhappy about it all, Mr. Finn.”
”Why doesn't your brother marry?” said Phineas, knowing nothing as yet of Lord Chiltern and Violet Effingham. ”If he were to marry well, that would bring your father round.”
”Yes,--it would.”
”And why should he not?”
Lady Laura paused before she answered; and then she told the whole story. ”He is violently in love, and the girl he loves has refused him twice.”