He thought it better that it should be given;
and were he to decline to deliver it now, it would never be given.
"Whether there be law in the land to protect me or whether there be
none, I will never live with him," said Lady Laura. "Is a woman like
a head of cattle, that she can be fastened in her crib by force? I
will never live with him though all the judges of the land should
decide that I must do so."
Phineas thought much of all this as he went to his solitary lodgings.
After all, was not the world much better with him than it was with
either of those two wretched married beings? And why? He had not,
at any rate as yet, sacrificed for money or social gains any of
the instincts of his nature. He had been fickle, foolish, vain,
uncertain, and perhaps covetous;--but as yet he had not been false.
Then he took out Mary's last letter and read it again.
CHAPTER LXXI
Comparing Notes
It would, perhaps, be difficult to decide,--between Lord Chiltern and
Miss Effingham,--which had been most wrong, or which had been nearest
to the right, in the circumstances which had led to their separation.
The old lord, wishing to induce his son to undertake work of some
sort, and feeling that his own efforts in this direction were worse
than useless, had closeted himself with his intended daughter-in-law,
and had obtained from her a promise that she would use her influence
with her lover.
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