"He is always
late."
"What a blow for me!" said Phineas.
"No,--you are always in good time. But there is a limit beyond which
good time ends, and being shamefully late at once begins. But here he
is." And then, as Laurence Fitzgibbon entered the room, Madame
Goesler rang the bell for dinner.
Phineas found himself placed between his hostess and Mr. Bonteen, and
Lord Fawn was on the other side of Madame Goesler. They were hardly
seated at the table before some one stated it as a fact that Lord
Brentford and his son were reconciled. Now Phineas knew, or thought
that he knew, that this could not as yet be the case; and indeed such
was not the case, though the father had already received the son's
letter. But Phineas did not choose to say anything at present about
Lord Chiltern.
"How odd it is," said Madame Goesler; "how often you English fathers
quarrel with your sons!"
"How often we English sons quarrel with our fathers rather," said
Lord Fawn, who was known for the respect he had always paid to the
fifth commandment.
"It all comes from entail and primogeniture, and old-fashioned
English prejudices of that kind," said Madame Goesler. "Lord Chiltern
is a friend of yours, Mr. Finn, I think."
"They are both friends of mine," said Phineas.
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