,
and by the doubts which from time to time pervaded even her audacious
spirit. "I'm not a god," she said, "or a Pitt, or an Italian with a
long name beginning with M., that I should be able to do these things
without ever making a mistake. And yet they must be done. And as for
him,--he does not help me in the least. He wanders about among the
clouds of the multiplication table, and thinks that a majority will
drop into his mouth because he does not shut it. Can you tie the
fagot any better?" "I think I would leave it untied," said Mrs. Finn.
"You would not do anything of the kind. You'd be just as fussy as I
am." And thus the game was carried on at Gatherum Castle from week to
week.

"But you won't leave him?" This was said to Phineas Finn by his wife
a day or two before Christmas, and the question was intended to ask
whether Phineas thought of giving up his place.

"Not if I can help it."

"You like the work."

"That has but little to do with the question, unfortunately. I
certainly like having something to do. I like earning money."

"I don't know why you like that especially," said the wife, laughing.

"I do at any rate,--and, in a certain sense, I like authority. But in
serving with the Duke I find a lack of that sympathy which one should
have with one's chief. He would never say a word to me unless I spoke
to him. And when I do speak, though he is studiously civil,--much
too courteous,--I know that he is bored. He has nothing to say to me
about the country. When he has anything to communicate, he prefers to
write a minute for Warburton, who then writes to Morton,--and so it
reaches me."

"Doesn't it do as well?"

"It may do with me. There are reasons which bind me to him, which
will not bind other men. Men don't talk to me about it, because
they know that I am bound to him through you. But I am aware of the
feeling which exists. You can't be really loyal to a king if you
never see him,--if he be always locked up in some almost divine
recess."

"A king may make himself too common, Phineas."

"No doubt. A king has to know where to draw the line. But the Duke
draws no intentional line at all. He is not by nature gregarious or
communicative, and is therefore hardly fitted to be the head of a
ministry."

"It will break her heart if anything goes wrong."

"She ought to remember that Ministries seldom live very long," said
Phineas. "But she'll recover even if she does break her heart. She is
too full of