Maule, senior, had on that very day asked Madame
Goesler to share her lot with his, and the request had been--almost
indignantly, refused. The general theory that the wooing of widows
should be quick had, perhaps, misled Mr. Maule. Perhaps he did not
think that the wooing had been quick. He had visited Park Lane with
the object of making his little proposition once before, and had
then been stopped in his course by the consternation occasioned by
the arrest of Phineas Finn. He had waited till Phineas had been
acquitted, and had then resolved to try his luck. He had heard of the
lady's journey to Prague, and was acquainted of course with those
rumours which too freely connected the name of our hero with that of
the lady. But rumours are often false, and a lady may go to Prague on
a gentleman's behalf without intending to marry him. All the women in
London were at present more or less in love with the man who had been
accused of murder, and the fantasy of Madame Goesler might be only as
the fantasy of others. And then, rumour also said that Phineas Finn
intended to marry Lady Laura Kennedy.
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