"I am going to dine with Lord Brentford to-morrow, and I dare say she will be there."
"Yes;—she is in town. I saw her yesterday in her father's carriage. I think that she had no cause to leave me."
"Of course I cannot say anything about that."
"I think she had no cause to leave me." Phineas as he heard this could not but remember all that Lady Laura had told himself, and thought that no woman had ever had a better reason for leaving her husband. "There were things I did not like, and I said so."
"I suppose that is generally the way," replied Phineas.
"But surely a wife should listen to a word of caution from her husband."
"I fancy they never like it," said Phineas.
"But are we all of us to have all that we like? I have not found it so. Or would it be good for us if we had?" Then he paused; but as Phineas had no further remark to make, he continued speaking after they had walked about a third of the length of the hall. "It is not of my own comfort I am thinking now so much as of her name and her future conduct. Of course it will in every sense be best for her that she should come back to her husband's roof."
"Well; yes;—perhaps it would," said Phineas.
"Has she not accepted that lot for better or for worse?" said Mr. Kennedy, solemnly.