She could think of no word to say,
and confessed her confusion by her sudden silence.
Phineas saw it all, and did his best for her. "I am sure she cared
for him," he said, "though I do not think it was a well-assorted
marriage. They had different ideas about religion, I fancy. So you
saw the hunting in the Brake country to the end? How is our old
friend, Mr. Spooner?"
"Don't talk of him, Mr. Finn."
"I rather like Mr. Spooner;--and as for hunting the country, I don't
think Chiltern could get on without him. What a capital fellow your
cousin the Duke is."
"I hardly know him."
"He is such a gentleman;--and, at the same time, the most abstract
and the most concrete man that I know."
"Abstract and concrete!"
"You are bound to use adjectives of that sort now, Miss Palliser, if
you mean to be anybody in conversation."
"But how is my cousin concrete? He is always abstracted when I speak
to him, I know."
"No Englishman whom I have met is so broadly and intuitively and
unceremoniously imbued with the simplicity of the character of a
gentleman.
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