It seemed
as though he were never to see Lady Laura again except when they
chanced to meet in company,--on which occasions he simply bowed to
her. Now the Earl had almost turned him out of his house. And though
there had been to a certain extent a reconciliation between him and
Lord Chiltern, he in these days never saw the friend who had once put
him upon Bonebreaker; and now,--now that Violet Effingham was again
free,--how was it possible to avoid some renewal of enmity between
them? He would, however, endeavour to see Lord Chiltern at once.
And then he thought of Violet,--of Violet again free, of Violet as
again a possible wife for himself, of Violet to whom he might address
himself at any rate without any scruple as to his own unworthiness.
Everybody concerned, and many who were not concerned at all, were
aware that he had been among her lovers, and he thought that he could
perceive that those who interested themselves on the subject, had
regarded him as the only horse in the race likely to run with success
against Lord Chiltern. She herself had received his offers without
scorn, and had always treated him as though he were a favoured
friend, though not favoured as a lover. And now even Lady Baldock was
smiling upon him, and asking him to her house as though the red-faced
porter in the hall in Berkeley Square had never been ordered to
refuse him a moment's admission inside the doors.
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