de no answer.

CHAPTER LXXVI

Madame Goesler's Legacy

One morning, very shortly after her return to Harrington, Lady
Chiltern was told that Mr. Spooner of Spoon Hall had called, and
desired to see her. She suggested that the gentleman had probably
asked for her husband,--who, at that moment, was enjoying his
recovered supremacy in the centre of Trumpeton Wood; but she was
assured that on this occasion Mr. Spooner's mission was to herself.
She had no quarrel with Mr. Spooner, and she went to him at once.
After the first greeting he rushed into the subject of the great
triumph. "So we've got rid of Mr. Fothergill, Lady Chiltern."

"Yes; Mr. Fothergill will not, I believe, trouble us any more. He
is an old man, it seems, and has retired from the Duke's service."

"I can't tell you how glad I am, Lady Chiltern. We were afraid that
Chiltern would have thrown it up, and then I don't know where we
should have been. England would not have been England any longer, to
my thinking, if we hadn't won the day. It'd have been just like a
French revolution. Nobody would have known what was coming or where
he was going."

That Mr. Spooner should be enthusiastic on any hunting question was a
matter of course; but still it seemed to be odd that he should have
driven himself over from Spoon Hall to pour his feelings into Lady
Chiltern's ear. "We shall go on very nicely now, I don't doubt," said
she; "and I'm sure that Lord Chiltern will be glad to find that you
are pleased."

"I am very much pleased, I can tell you." Then he paused, and the
tone of his voice was changed altogether when he spoke again. "But I
didn't come over only about that, Lady Chiltern. Miss Palliser has
not come back with you, Lady Chiltern?"

"We left Miss Palliser at Matching. You know she is the Duke's
cousin."

"I wish she wasn't, with all my heart."

"Why should you want to rob her of her relations, Mr. Spooner?"

"Because--because--. I don't want to say a word against her, Lady
Chiltern. To me she is perfect as a star;--beautiful as a rose."
Mr. Spooner as he said this pointed first to the heavens and then
to the earth. "But perhaps she wouldn't have been so proud of her
grandfather hadn't he been a Duke."

"I don't think she is proud of that."

"People do think of it, Lady Chiltern; and I don't say that they
ought not. Of course it makes a difference, and when a man lives
altogether in the country, as I do, it seems to signify so much