"I don't in the least, Mrs. Bonteen."
"I should have thought you would have been so triumphant," said Madame Goesler.
"Not in the least, Madame Goesler. Why should I be triumphant? Of course the position is very high,—very high indeed. But it's no more than what I have always expected. If a man give up his life to a pursuit he ought to succeed. As for ambition, I have less of it than any woman. Only I do hate jealousy, Mr. Finn." Then Mrs. Bonteen took her leave, kissing her dear friend, Madame Goesler, and simply bowing to Phineas.
"What a detestable woman!" said Phineas.
"I know of old that you don't love her."
"I don't believe that you love her a bit better than I do, and yet you kiss her."
"Hardly that, Mr. Finn. There has come up a fashion for ladies to pretend to be very loving, and so they put their faces together. Two hundred years ago ladies and gentlemen did the same thing with just as little regard for each other. Fashions change, you know."
"That was a change for the worse, certainly, Madame Goesler."
"It wasn't of my doing. So you've had a great victory."
"Yes;—greater than we expected."