Part 50 (1/2)

Phineas sat there for half an hour and then got up to go, having spoken no word on any other subject than that of politics. He longed to ask after Violet. He longed to make some inquiry respecting Lord Chiltern. And, to tell the truth, he felt painfully curious to hear Lady Laura say something about her own self. He could not but remember what had been said between them up over the waterfall, and how he had been warned not to return to Loughlinter. And then again, did Lady Laura know anything of what had pa.s.sed between him and Violet? ”Where is your brother?” he said, as he rose from his chair.

”Oswald is in London. He was here not an hour before you came in.”

”Where is he staying?”

”At Moroni's. He goes down on Tuesday, I think. He is to see his father to-morrow morning.”

”By agreement?”

”Yes;--by agreement. There is a new trouble,--about money that they think to be due to me. But I cannot tell you all now. There have been some words between Mr. Kennedy and papa. But I won't talk about it.

You would find Oswald at Moroni's at any hour before eleven to-morrow.”

”Did he say anything about me?” asked Phineas.

”We mentioned your name certainly.”

”I do not ask from vanity, but I want to know whether he is angry with me.”

”Angry with you! Not in the least. I'll tell you just what he said.

He said he should not wish to live even with you, but that he would sooner try it with you than with any man he ever knew.”

”He had got a letter from me?”

”He did not say so;--but he did not say he had not.”

”I will see him to-morrow if I can.” And then Phineas prepared to go.

”One word, Mr. Finn,” said Lady Laura, hardly looking him in the face and yet making an effort to do so. ”I wish you to forget what I said to you at Loughlinter.”

”It shall be as though it were forgotten,” said Phineas.

”Let it be absolutely forgotten. In such a case a man is bound to do all that a woman asks him, and no man has a truer spirit of chivalry than yourself. That is all. Look in when you can. I will not ask you to dine here as yet, because we are so frightfully dull. Do your best on Tuesday, and then let us see you on Wednesday. Good-bye.”

Phineas as he walked across the park towards his club made up his mind that he would forget the scene by the waterfall. He had never quite known what it had meant, and he would wipe it away from his mind altogether. He acknowledged to himself that chivalry did demand of him that he should never allow himself to think of Lady Laura's rash words to him. That she was not happy with her husband was very clear to him;--but that was altogether another affair. She might be unhappy with her husband without indulging any guilty love. He had never thought it possible that she could be happy living with such a husband as Mr. Kennedy. All that, however, was now past remedy, and she must simply endure the mode of life which she had prepared for herself. There were other men and women in London tied together for better and worse, in reference to whose union their friends knew that there would be no better;--that it must be all worse. Lady Laura must bear it, as it was borne by many another married woman.

On the Monday morning Phineas called at Moroni's Hotel at ten o'clock, but in spite of Lady Laura's a.s.surance to the contrary, he found that Lord Chiltern was out. He had felt some palpitation at the heart as he made his inquiry, knowing well the fiery nature of the man he expected to see. It might be that there would be some actual personal conflict between him and this half-mad lord before he got back again into the street. What Lady Laura had said about her brother did not in the estimation of Phineas make this at all the less probable. The half-mad lord was so singular in his ways that it might well be that he should speak handsomely of a rival behind his back and yet take him by the throat as soon as they were together, face to face. And yet, as Phineas thought, it was necessary that he should see the half-mad lord. He had written a letter to which he had received no reply, and he considered it to be inc.u.mbent on him to ask whether it had been received and whether any answer to it was intended to be given. He went therefore to Lord Chiltern at once,--as I have said, with some feeling at his heart that there might be violence, at any rate of words, before he should find himself again in the street. But Lord Chiltern was not there. All that the porter knew was that Lord Chiltern intended to leave the house on the following morning. Then Phineas wrote a note and left it with the porter.

DEAR CHILTERN,

I particularly want to see you with reference to a letter I wrote to you last summer. I must be in the House to-day from four till the debate is over. I will be at the Reform Club from two till half-past three, and will come if you will send for me, or I will meet you anywhere at any hour to-morrow morning.

Yours, always, P. F.

No message came to him at the Reform Club, and he was in his seat in the House by four o'clock. During the debate a note was brought to him, which ran as follows:--

I have got your letter this moment. Of course we must meet. I hunt on Tuesday, and go down by the early train; but I will come to town on Wednesday. We shall require to be private, and I will therefore be at your rooms at one o'clock on that day.--C.

Phineas at once perceived that the note was a hostile note, written in an angry spirit,--written to one whom the writer did not at the moment acknowledge to be his friend. This was certainly the case, whatever Lord Chiltern may have said to his sister as to his friends.h.i.+p for Phineas. Phineas crushed the note into his pocket, and of course determined that he would be in his rooms at the hour named.