He would at any rate see the session out, and try a
fall with Mr. Bonteen when they should be sitting on different
benches,--if ever fortune should give him an opportunity. And in the
meantime, what should he do about Madame Goesler? What a fate was his
to have the handsomest woman in London with thousands and thousands
a year at his disposal! For,--so he now swore to himself,--Madame
Goesler was the handsomest woman in London, as Mary Flood Jones was
the sweetest girl in the world.
He had not arrived at any decision so fixed as to make him
comfortable when he went home and dressed for Mrs. Gresham's party.
And yet he knew,--he thought that he knew that he would be true to
Mary Flood Jones.
CHAPTER LXX
The Prime Minister's House
The rooms and passages and staircases at Mrs. Gresham's house were
very crowded when Phineas arrived there. Men of all shades of
politics were there, and the wives and daughters of such men; and
there was a streak of royalty in one of the saloons, and a whole
rainbow of foreign ministers with their stars, and two blue ribbons
were to be seen together on the first landing-place, with a stout
lady between them carrying diamonds enough to load a pannier.
Everybody was there. Phineas found that even Lord Chiltern was come,
as he stumbled across his friend on the first foot-ground that he
gained in his ascent towards the rooms.
Pages:
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990