CHAPTER III.
GERARD MAULE.
"Why didn't you tell me?" said Phineas that night after Lady Baldockwas gone to bed. The two men had taken off their dress coats, and hadput on smoking caps,--Lord Chiltern, indeed, having clothed himselfin a wonderful Chinese dressing-gown, and they were sitting round thefire in the smoking-room; but though they were thus employed and thusdressed the two younger ladies were still with them.
"How could I tell you everything in two minutes?" said Lady Chiltern.
"I'd have given a guinea to have heard her," said Lord Chiltern,getting up and rubbing his hands as he walked about the room. "Can'tyou fancy all that she'd say, and then her horror when she'd rememberthat Phineas was a Papist himself?"
"But what made Miss Boreham turn nun?"
"I fancy she found the penances lighter than they were at home," saidthe lord. "They couldn't well be heavier."
"Dear old aunt!"
"Does she never go to see Sister Veronica?" asked Miss Palliser.
"She has been once," said Lady Chiltern.
"And fumigated herself first so as to escape infection," said thehusband. "You should hear Gerard Maule imitate her when she talksabout the filthy priest."
"And who is Gerard Maule?" Then Lady Chiltern looked at her friend,and Phineas was almost sure that Gerard Maule was the man who wasdying for Adelaide Palliser.
"He's a great ally of mine," said Lady Chiltern.
"He's a young fellow who thinks he can ride to hounds," said LordChiltern, "and who very often does succeed in riding over them."
"That's not fair, Lord Chiltern," said Miss Palliser.
"Just my idea of it," replied the Master. "I don't think it's at allfair. Because a man has plenty of horses, and nothing else to do, andrides twelve stone, and doesn't care how he's sworn at, he's alwaysto be over the scent, and spoil every one's sport. I don't call it atall fair."
"He's a very nice fellow, and a great friend of Oswald's. He is to behere to-morrow, and you'll like him very much. Won't he, Adelaide?"
"I don't know Mr. Finn's tastes quite so well as you do, Violet. ButMr. Maule is so harmless that no one can dislike him very much."
"As for being harmless, I'm not so sure," said Lady Chiltern. Afterthat they all went to bed.
Phineas remained at Harrington Hall till the ninth, on which day hewent to London so that he might be at Tankerville on the tenth. Herode Lord Chiltern's horses, and took an interest in the hounds, andnursed the baby. "Now tell me what you think of Gerard Maule," LadyChiltern asked him, the day before he started.
"I presume that he is the young man that is dying for Miss Palliser."
"You may answer my question, Mr. Finn, without making any suchsuggestion."
"Not discreetly. Of course if he is to be made happy, I am bound atthe present moment to say all good things of him. At such a crisis itwould be wicked to tinge Miss Palliser's hopes with any hue less warmthan rose colour."
"Do you suppose that I tell everything that is said to me?"
"Not at all; but opinions do ooze out. I take him to be a good sortof a fellow; but why doesn't he talk a bit more?"
"That's just it."
"And why does he pretend to do nothing? When he's out he rideshard; but at other times there's a ha-ha, lack a-daisical air abouthim which I hate. Why men assume it I never could understand. Itcan recommend them to nobody. A man can't suppose that he'll gainanything by pretending that he never reads, and never thinks, andnever does anything, and never speaks, and doesn't care what he hasfor dinner, and, upon the whole, would just as soon lie in bed allday as get up. It isn't that he is really idle. He rides and eats,and does get up, and I daresay talks and thinks. It's simply a pooraffectation."
"That's your rose colour, is it?"
"You've promised secrecy, Lady Chiltern. I suppose he's well off?"
"He is an eldest son. The property is not large, and I'm afraidthere's something wrong about it."
"He has no profession?"
"None at all. He has an allowance of L800 a year, which in some sortof fashion is independent of his father. He has nothing on earth todo. Adelaide's whole fortune is four thousand pounds. If they were tomarry what would become of them?"
"That wouldn't be enough to live on?"
"It ought to be enough,--as he must, I suppose, have the propertysome day,--if only he had something to do. What sort of a life wouldhe lead?"
"I suppose he couldn't become a Master of Hounds?"
"That is ill-natured, Mr. Finn."
"I did not mean it so. I did not indeed. You must know that I didnot."
"Of course Oswald had nothing to do, and, of course, there was a timewhen I wished that he should take to Parliament. No one knew all thatbetter than you did. But he was very different from Mr. Maule."
"Very different, indeed."
"Oswald is a man full of energy, and with no touch of thataffectation which you described. As it is, he does work hard. Noman works harder. The learned people say that you should producesomething, and I don't suppose that he produces much. But somebodymust keep hounds, and nobody could do it better than he does."
"You don't think that I meant to blame him?"
"I hope not."
"Are he and his father on good terms now?"
"Oh, yes. His father wishes him to go to Saulsby, but he won't dothat. He hates Saulsby."
Saulsby was the country seat of the Earl of Brentford, the name ofthe property which must some day belong to this Lord Chiltern, andPhineas, as he heard this, remembered former days in which he hadridden about Saulsby Woods, and had thought them to be anything buthateful. "Is Saulsby shut up?" he asked.
"Altogether, and so is the house in Portman Square. There never wasanything more sad or desolate. You would find him altered, Mr. Finn.He is quite an old man now. He was here in the spring, for a week ortwo;--in England, that is; but he stayed at an hotel in London. Heand Laura live at Dresden now, and a very sad time they must have."
"Does she write?"
"Yes; and keeps up all her interest about politics. I have alreadytold her that you are to stand for Tankerville. No one,--no otherhuman being in the world will be so interested for you as she is.If any friend ever felt an interest almost selfish for a friend'swelfare, she will feel such an interest for you. If you were tosucceed it would give her a hope in life." Phineas sat silent,drinking in the words that were said to him. Though they were true,or at least meant to be true, they were full of flattery. Why shouldthis woman of whom they were speaking love him so dearly? She wasnothing to him. She was highly born, greatly gifted, wealthy, and amarried woman, whose character, as he well knew, was beyond the taintof suspicion, though she had been driven by the hard sullenness ofher husband to refuse to live under his roof. Phineas Finn and LadyLaura Kennedy had not seen each other for two years, and when theyhad parted, though they had lived as friends, there had been no signsof still living friendship. True, indeed, she had written to him,but her letters had been short and cold, merely detailing certaincircumstances of her outward life. Now he was told by this woman'sdearest friend that his welfare was closer to her heart than anyother interest!
"I daresay you often think of her?" said Lady Chiltern.
"Indeed, I do."
"What virtues she used to ascribe to you! What sins she forgave you!How hard she fought for you! Now, though she can fight no more, shedoes not think of it all the less."
"Poor Lady Laura!"
"Poor Laura, indeed! When one sees such shipwreck it makes a womandoubt whether she ought to marry at all."
"And yet he was a good man. She always said so."
"Men are so seldom really good. They are so little sympathetic. Whatman thinks of changing himself so as to suit his wife? And yet menexpect that women shall put on altogether new characters when theyare married, and girls think that they can do so. Look at thisMr. Maule, who is really over head and ears in love with AdelaidePalliser. She is full of hope and energy. He has none. And yet he h
asthe effrontery to suppose that she will adapt herself to his way ofliving if he marries her."
"Then they are to be married?"
"I suppose it will come to that. It always does if the man isin earnest. Girls will accept men simply because they think itill-natured to return the compliment of an offer with a hearty 'No.'"
"I suppose she likes him?"
"Of course she does. A girl almost always likes a man who is in lovewith her,--unless indeed she positively dislikes him. But why shouldshe like him? He is good-looking, is a gentleman, and not a fool.Is that enough to make such a girl as Adelaide Palliser think a mandivine?"
"Is nobody to be accepted who is not credited with divinity?"
"The man should be a demigod, at least in respect to some part of hischaracter. I can find nothing even demi-divine about Mr. Maule."
"That's because you are not in love with him, Lady Chiltern."
Six or seven very pleasant days Phineas Finn spent at HarringtonHall, and then he started alone, and very lonely, for Tankerville.But he admitted to himself that the pleasure which he had receivedduring his visit was quite sufficient to qualify him in runningany risk in an attempt to return to the kind of life which he hadformerly led. But if he should fail at Tankerville what would becomeof him then?