We have been all speaking of it as a certainty."

He longed to inquire who were the all of whom she spoke, but he could
not do it without an egotism which would be distasteful to him. "I
can hardly tell;--but I don't think I shall be asked to join them."

"You would wish it?"

"Yes;--talking to you I do not see why I should hesitate to say so."

"Talking to me, why should you hesitate to say anything about
yourself that is true? I can hold my tongue. I do not gossip about my
friends. Whose doing is it?"

"I do not know that it is any man's doing."

"But it must be. Everybody said that you were to be one of them if
you could get the other people out. Is it Mr. Bonteen?"

"Likely enough. Not that I know anything of the kind; but as I hate
him from the bottom of my heart, it is natural to suppose that he has
the same feeling in regard to me."

"I agree with you there."

"But I don't know that it comes from any feeling of that kind."

"What does it come from?"

"You have heard all the calumny about Lady Laura Kennedy."

"You do not mean to say that a story such as that has affected your
position."

"I fancy it has. But you must not suppose, Madame Goesler, that I
mean to complain. A man must take these things as they come. No one
has received more kindness from friends than I have, and few perhaps
more favours from fortune. All this about Mr. Kennedy has been
unlucky,--but it cannot be helped."

"Do you mean to say that the morals of your party will be offended?"
said Madame Goesler, almost laughing.

"Lord Fawn, you know, is very particular. In sober earnest one cannot
tell how these things operate; but they do operate gradually. One's
friends are sometimes very glad of an excuse for not befriending
one."

"Lady Laura is coming home?"

"Yes."

"That will put an end to it."

"There is nothing to put an end to except the foul-mouthed malice of
a lying newspaper. Nobody believes anything against Lady Laura."

"I'm not so sure of that. I believe nothing against her."

"I'm sure you do not, Madame Goesler. Nor do I think that anybody
does. It is too absurd for belief from beginning to end. Good-bye.
Perhaps I shall see you when the debate is over."

"Of course you will. Good-bye, and success to your oratory." Then
Madame Goesler resolved that she would say a few judicious words to
her friend, the Duchess, respecting Phineas Finn.

CHAPTER XXXIII

The Two Gladiators

The great debate wa