"I go to Ireland."
"Home to your own people. How nice! I have no people to go to. I have one sister, who lives with her husband at Riga. She is my only relation, and I never see her."
"But you have thousands of friends in England."
"Yes,—as you see them,"—and she turned and spread out her hands towards the crowded lawn, which was behind them. "What are such friends worth? What would they do for me?"
"I do not know that the Duke would do much," said Phineas laughing.
Madame Goesler laughed also. "The Duke is not so bad," she said. "The Duke would do as much as any one else. I won't have the Duke abused."
"He may be your particular friend, for what I know," said Phineas.
"Ah;—no. I have no particular friend. And were I to wish to choose one, I should think the Duke a little above me."
"Oh, yes;—and too stiff, and too old, and too pompous, and too cold, and too make-believe, and too gingerbread."
"Mr. Finn!"