I could not say so before your father, but it is
Mr. Bonteen's doing. There is no remedy. I am sure of that. I am only
afraid that people are interfering for me in a manner that will be as
disagreeable to me as it will be useless."
"What friends?" she asked.
He was still standing with his arm round her waist, and he did not
like to mention the name of Madame Goesler.
"The Duchess of Omnium,--whom you remember as Lady Glencora
Palliser."
"Is she a friend of yours?"
"No;--not particularly. But she is an indiscreet woman, and hates
Bonteen, and has taken it into her stupid head to interest herself in
my concerns. It is no doing of mine, and yet I cannot help it."
"She will succeed."
"I don't want assistance from such a quarter; and I feel sure that
she will not succeed."
"What will you do, Phineas?"
"What shall I do? Carry on the battle as long as I can without
getting into debt, and then--vanish."
"You vanished once before,--did you not,--with a wife?"
"And now I shall vanish alone. My poor little wife! It seems all like
a dream.
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