When the carriage stopped at the hall door he was
thinking of her rather than of Lady Laura Kennedy.
He was shown at once to his bedroom,--the very room in which he had
written the letter to Lord Chiltern which had brought about the duel
at Blankenberg. He was told that he would find Lady Laura in the
drawing-room waiting for dinner for him. The Earl had already dined.
"I am so glad you are come," said Lady Laura, welcoming him. "Papa is
not very well and dined early, but I have waited for you, of course.
Of course I have. You did not suppose I would let you sit down alone?
I would not see you before you dressed because I knew that you must
be tired and hungry, and that the sooner you got down the better. Has
it not been hot?"
"And so dusty! I only left Matching yesterday, and seem to have been
on the railway ever since."
"Government officials have to take frequent journeys, Mr. Finn. How
long will it be before you have to go down to Scotland twice in one
week, and back as often to form a Ministry? Your next journey must be
into the dining-room;--in making which will you give me your arm?"
She was, he thought, lighter in heart and pleasanter in manner than
she had been since her return from Dresden.
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