But I can be just as sure. If twenty Lord Fawns swore that
they had seen it, I would not believe them. Oh, God, what will they
do with him!"
The Duchess behaved very well to her friend, saying not a single word
to twit her with the love which she betrayed. She seemed to take
it as a matter of course that Madame Goesler's interest in Phineas
Finn should be as it was. The Duke, she said, could not come home
to dinner, and Madame Goesler should stay with her. Both Houses
were in such a ferment about the murder, that nobody liked to be
away. Everybody had been struck with amazement, not simply,--not
chiefly,--by the fact of the murder, but by the double destruction of
the two men whose ill-will to each other had been of late so often
the subject of conversation. So Madame Goesler remained at Carlton
Terrace till late in the evening, and during the whole visit there
was nothing mentioned but the murder of Mr. Bonteen and the peril of
Phineas Finn. "Some one will go and see him, I suppose," said Madame
Goesler.
"Lord Cantrip has been already,--and Mr.
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