She could not bear to think that he should be left alone in London till Parliament should meet, and had therefore appealed to Lady Chiltern as to the memory of many past events.

The appeal had been unnecessary and superfluous.

It cannot be said that Phineas and his affairs were matters of as close an interest to Lady Chiltern as to Lady Laura.

If any woman loved her husband beyond all things Lord Chiltern's wife did, and ever had done so.

But there had been a tenderness in regard to the young Irish Member of Parliament, which Violet Effingham had in old days shared with Lady Laura, and which made her now think that all good things should be done for him.