done so altogether till the moment should come in which she
should find herself alone with Phineas. But he slunk back from the
gathering before the fire, and stood solitary and silent till dinner
was announced. It became his fate to take an old woman into dinner
who was not very clearsighted. "Did you know that lady before?" she
asked.

"Oh, yes; I knew her two or three years ago in London."

"Do you think she is pretty?"

"Certainly."

"All the men say so, but I never can see it. They have been saying
ever so long that the old Duke of Omnium means to marry her on his
deathbed, but I don't suppose there can be anything in it."

"Why should he put it off for so very inopportune an occasion?" asked
Phineas.

CHAPTER XVI

Copperhouse Cross and Broughton Spinnies

After all, the thing had not been so very bad. With a little courage
and hardihood we can survive very great catastrophes, and go through
them even without broken bones. Phineas, when he got up to his room,
found that he had spent the evening in company with Madame Goesler,
and had not suffered materially, except at the very first moment of
the meeting. He had not said a word to the lady, except such as were
spoken in mixed conversation with her and others; but they had been
together, and no bones had been broken. It could not be that his
old intimacy should be renewed, but he could now encounter her in
society, as the Fates might direct, without a renewal of that feeling
of dismay which had been so heavy on him.

He was about to undress when there came a knock at the door, and his
host entered the room. "What do you mean to do about smoking?" Lord
Chiltern asked.

"Nothing at all."

"There's a fire in the smoking-room, but I'm tired, and I want to
go to bed. Baldock doesn't smoke. Gerard Maule is smoking in his
own room, I take it. You'll probably find Spooner at this moment
established somewhere in the back slums, having a pipe with old
Doggett, and planning retribution. You can join them if you please."

"Not to-night, I think. They wouldn't trust me,--and I should spoil
their plans."

"They certainly wouldn't trust you,--or any other human being. You
don't mind a horse that baulks a little, do you?"

"I'm not going to hunt, Chiltern."

"Yes, you are. I've got it all arranged. Don't you be a fool, and
make us all uncomfortable. Everybody rides here;--every man, woman,
and child about the place. You shall have one of the best horses