"
"Were you wandering about alone?"
"No, I wasn't alone. Oswald Standish was with me. We were children
then. Do you know him?"
"Lord Chiltern;--yes, I know him. He and I have been rather friends
this year."
"He is very good;--is he not?"
"Good,--in what way?"
"Honest and generous!"
"I know no man whom I believe to be more so."
"And he is clever?" asked Miss Effingham.
"Very clever. That is, he talks very well if you will let him talk
after his own fashion. You would always fancy that he was going to
eat you;--but that is his way."
"And you like him?"
"Very much."
"I am so glad to hear you say so."
"Is he a favourite of yours, Miss Effingham?"
"Not now,--not particularly. I hardly ever see him. But his sister is
the best friend I have, and I used to like him so much when he was a
boy! I have not seen that cottage since that day, and I remember it
as though it were yesterday. Lord Chiltern is quite changed, is he
not?"
"Changed,--in what way?"
"They used to say that he was--unsteady you know."
"I think he is changed. But Chiltern is at heart a Bohemian. It is
impossible not to see that at once. He hates the decencies of life."
"I suppose he does," said Violet. "He ought to marry. If he were
married, that would all be cured;--don't you think so?"
"I cannot fancy him with a wife," said Phineas, "There is a savagery
about him which would make him an uncomfortable companion for a
woman.
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