ing; and as to Gatherum Castle, I would
not spend another week there, if they would give it me. You haven't
heard of his will?"

"No;--not a word. I hope he remembered you,--to mention your name.
You hardly wanted more."

"Just so. I wanted no more than that."

"It was made, perhaps, before you knew him."

"He was always making it, and always altering it. He left me money,
and jewels of enormous value."

"I am so glad to hear it."

"But I have refused to take anything. Am I not right?"

"I don't know why you should refuse."

"There are people who will say that--I was his mistress. If a woman
be young, a man's age never prevents such scandal. I don't know that
I can stop it, but I can perhaps make it seem to be less probable.
And after all that has passed, I could not bear that the Pallisers
should think that I clung to him for what I could get. I should be
easier this way."

"Whatever is best to be done, you will do it;--I know that."

"Your praise goes beyond the mark, my friend. I can be both generous
and discreet;--but the difficulty is to be true. I did take one
thing,--a black diamond that he always wore. I would show it you, but
the goldsmith has it to make it fit me. When does the great affair
come off at the House?"

"The bill will be read again on Monday, the first."

"What an unfortunate day!--You remember young Mr. Maule? Is he not
like his father? And yet in manners they are as unlike as possible."

"What is the father?" Phineas asked.

"A battered old beau about London, selfish and civil, pleasant and
penniless, and I should think utterly without a principle. Come again
soon. I am so anxious to hear that you are getting on. And you have
got to tell me all about that shooting with the pistol." Phineas as
he walked away thought that Madame Goesler was handsomer even than
she used to be.

CHAPTER XXXI

The Duke and Duchess in Town

At the end of March the Duchess of Omnium, never more to be called
Lady Glencora by the world at large, came up to London. The
Duke, though he was now banished from the House of Commons, was
nevertheless wanted in London; and what funereal ceremonies were left
might be accomplished as well in town as at Matching Priory. No old
Ministry could be turned out and no new Ministry formed without the
assistance of the young Duchess. It was a question whether she should
not be asked to be Mistress of the Robes, though those who asked
it knew very well that sh