"I
did not know that you were in town," he said.
"I only came yesterday. I have been, you know, at Rome with the
Effinghams; and since that I have been--; but, indeed, I have been
such a vagrant that I cannot tell you of all my comings and goings.
And you,--you are hard at work!"
"Oh yes;--always."
"That is right. I wish I could be something, if it were only a stick
in waiting, or a door-keeper. It is so good to be something." Was it
some such teaching as this that had jarred against Lord Chiltern's
susceptibilities, and had seemed to him to be a repetition of his
father's sermons?
"A man should try to be something," said Phineas.
"And a woman must be content to be nothing,--unless Mr. Mill can pull
us through! And now, tell me,--have you seen Lady Laura?"
"Not lately."
"Nor Mr. Kennedy?"
"I sometimes see him in the House." The visit to the Colonial Office
of which the reader has been made aware had not at that time as yet
been made.
"I am sorry for all that," she said. Upon which Phineas smiled and
shook his head. "I am very sorry that there should be a quarrel
between you two."
"There is no quarrel."
"I used to think that you and he might do so much for each
other,--that is, of course, if you could make a friend of him.
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