CHAPTER LXV
The Cabinet Minister at Killaloe
Phineas did not throw himself into the river from the Duke's garden;
and was ready, in spite of Violet Effingham, to start for Ireland
with Mr. Monk at the end of the first week in August. The close of
that season in London certainly was not a happy period of his life.
Violet had spoken to him after such a fashion that he could not bring
himself not to believe her. She had given him no hint whether it was
likely or unlikely that she and Lord Chiltern would be reconciled;
but she had convinced him that he could not be allowed to take Lord
Chiltern's place. "A woman cannot transfer her heart," she had said.
Phineas was well aware that many women do transfer their hearts;
but he had gone to this woman too soon after the wrench which her
love had received; he had been too sudden with his proposal for a
transfer; and the punishment for such ill judgment must be that
success would now be impossible to him. And yet how could he have
waited, feeling that Miss Effingham, if she were at all like other
girls whom he had known, might have promised herself to some other
lover before she would return within his reach in the succeeding
spring? But she was not like some other girls. Ah;--he knew that now,
and repented him of his haste.
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