Part 60 (1/2)
”It is pleasant to succeed, of course,” said Phineas, ”let the success be ever so little.”
”We knew you would succeed,” said Lady Laura. ”We were quite sure of it. Were we not, Violet?”
”You always said so, my dear. For myself I do not venture to have an opinion on such matters. Will you always have to go to that big building in the corner, Mr. Finn, and stay there from ten till four?
Won't that be a bore?”
”We have a half-holiday on Sat.u.r.day, you know,” said Phineas.
”And do the Lords of the Treasury have to take care of the money?”
asked Madame Max Goesler.
”Only their own; and they generally fail in doing that,” said Phineas.
He sat there for a considerable time, wondering whether Mr. Kennedy would come in, and wondering also as to what Mr. Kennedy would say to Madame Max Goesler when he did come in. He knew that it was useless for him to expect any opportunity, then or there, of being alone for a moment with Violet Effingham. His only chance in that direction would be in some crowded room, at some ball at which he might ask her to dance with him; but it seemed that fate was very unkind to him, and that no such chance came in his way. Mr. Kennedy did not appear, and Madame Max Goesler with Violet went away, leaving Phineas still sitting with Lady Laura. Each of them said a kind word to him as they went. ”I don't know whether I may dare to expect that a Lord of the Treasury will come and see me?” said Madame Max Goesler. Then Phineas made a second promise that he would call in Park Lane. Violet blushed as she remembered that she could not ask him to call at Lady Baldock's. ”Good-bye, Mr. Finn,” she said, giving him her hand.
”I'm so very glad that they have chosen you; and I do hope that, as Madame Max says, they'll make you a secretary and a president, and everything else very quickly,--till it will come to your turn to be making other people.” ”He is very nice,” said Madame Goesler to Violet as she took her place in the carriage. ”He bears being petted and spoilt without being either awkward or conceited.” ”On the whole, he is rather nice,” said Violet; ”only he has not got a s.h.i.+lling in the world, and has to make himself before he will be anybody.” ”He must marry money, of course,” said Madame Max Goesler.
”I hope you are contented?” said Lady Laura, rising from her chair and coming opposite to him as soon as they were alone.
”Of course I am contented.”
”I was not,--when I first heard of it. Why did they promote that empty-headed countryman of yours to a place for which he was quite unfit? I was not contented. But then I am more ambitious for you than you are for yourself.” He sat without answering her for awhile, and she stood waiting for his reply. ”Have you nothing to say to me?” she asked.
”I do not know what to say. When I think of it all, I am lost in amazement. You tell me that you are not contented;--that you are ambitious for me. Why is it that you should feel any interest in the matter?”
”Is it not reasonable that we should be interested for our friends?”
”But when you and I last parted here in this room you were hardly my friend.”
”Was I not? You wrong me there;--very deeply.”
”I told you what was my ambition, and you resented it,” said Phineas.
”I think I said that I could not help you, and I think I said also that I thought you would fail. I do not know that I showed much resentment. You see, I told her that you were here, that she might come and meet you. You know that I wished my brother should succeed.
I wished it before I ever knew you. You cannot expect that I should change my wishes.”
”But if he cannot succeed,” pleaded Phineas.
”Who is to say that? Has a woman never been won by devotion and perseverance? Besides, how can I wish to see you go on with a suit which must sever you from my father, and injure your political prospects;--perhaps fatally injure them? It seems to me now that my father is almost the only man in London who has not heard of this duel.”
”Of course he will hear of it. I have half made up my mind to tell him myself.”
”Do not do that, Mr. Finn. There can be no reason for it. But I did not ask you to come here to-day to talk to you about Oswald or Violet. I have given you my advice about that, and I can do no more.”
”Lady Laura, I cannot take it. It is out of my power to take it.”
”Very well. The matter shall be what you members of Parliament call an open question between us. When papa asked you to accept this place at the Treasury, did it ever occur to you to refuse it?”
”It did;--for half an hour or so.”
”I hoped you would,--and yet I knew that I was wrong. I thought that you should count yourself to be worth more than that, and that you should, as it were, a.s.sert yourself. But then it is so difficult to draw the line between proper self-a.s.sertion and proper self-denial;--to know how high to go up the table, and how low to go down. I do not doubt that you have been right,--only make them understand that you are not as other junior lords;--that you have been willing to be a junior lord, or anything else for a purpose; but that the purpose is something higher than that of fetching and carrying in Parliament for Mr. Mildmay and Mr. Palliser.”