Did he not value her love more than anything in the
world? A thousand times he told himself that he did.
She was there in the old house at Killaloe to greet him. Her
engagement was an affair known to all the county, and she had no
idea that it would become her to be coy in her love. She was in his
arms before he had spoken to his father and mother, and had made her
little speech to him,--very inaudibly indeed,--while he was covering
her sweet face with kisses. "Oh, Phineas, I am so proud of you; and
I think you are so right, and I am so glad you have done it." Again
he covered her face with kisses. Could he ever have had such
satisfaction as this had he allowed Madame Goesler's hand to remain
in his?
On the first night of his arrival he sat for an hour downstairs
with his father talking over his plans. He felt,--he could not but
feel,--that he was not the hero now that he had been when he was last
at Killaloe,--when he had come thither with a Cabinet Minister under
his wing. And yet his father did his best to prevent the growth of
any such feeling. The old doctor was not quite as well off as he had
been when Phineas first started with his high hopes for London. Since
that day he had abandoned his profession and was now living on the
fruits of his life's labour.
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