any harm, and yet how keen I
was about it. We can't give you the rank now, and you won't take the
money."

"Not the money, certainly."

"Plantagenet says you'll have to take it;--but it seems to me he's
always wrong. There are so many things that one must do that one
doesn't do. He never perceives that everything gets changed every
five years. So Mr. Finn is the favourite again?"

"He is a friend whom I like. I may be allowed to have a friend, I
suppose."

"A dozen, my dear;--and all of them good-looking. Good-bye, dear.
Pray come to us. Don't stand off and make yourself disagreeable.
We shan't be giving dinner parties, but you can come whenever you
please. Tell me at once;--do you mean to be disagreeable?"

Then Madame Goesler was obliged to promise that she would not be more
disagreeable than her nature had made her.

CHAPTER XXXII

The World Becomes Cold

A great deal was said by very many persons in London as to the
murderous attack which had been made by Mr. Kennedy on Phineas Finn
in Judd Street, but the advice given by Mr. Slide in _The People's
Banner_ to the police was not taken. No public or official inquiry
was made into the circumstance. Mr. Kennedy, under the care of his
cousin, retreated to Scotland; and, as it seemed, there was to be
an end of it. Throughout the month of March various smaller bolts
were thrust both at Phineas and at the police by the editor of the
above-named newspaper, but they seemed to fall without much effect.
No one was put in prison; nor was any one ever examined. But,
nevertheless, these missiles had their effect. Everybody knew that
there had been a "row" between Mr. Kennedy and Phineas Finn, and that
the "row" had been made about Mr. Kennedy's wife. Everybody knew
that a pistol had been fired at Finn's head; and a great many people
thought that there had been some cause for the assault. It was
alleged at one club that the present member for Tankerville had spent
the greater part of the last two years at Dresden, and at another
that he had called on Mr. Kennedy twice, once down in Scotland,
and once at the hotel in Judd Street, with a view of inducing that
gentleman to concede to a divorce. There was also a very romantic
story afloat as to an engagement which had existed between Lady Laura
and Phineas Finn before the lady had been induced by her father to
marry the richer suitor. Various details were given in corroboration
of these stories. Was it not known th