"What friends?" she asked.
He was still standing with his arm round her waist, and he did not like to mention the name of Madame Goesler.
"The Duchess of Omnium,—whom you remember as Lady Glencora Palliser."
"Is she a friend of yours?"
"No;—not particularly. But she is an indiscreet woman, and hates Bonteen, and has taken it into her stupid head to interest herself in my concerns. It is no doing of mine, and yet I cannot help it."
"She will succeed."
"I don't want assistance from such a quarter; and I feel sure that she will not succeed."
"What will you do, Phineas?"
"What shall I do? Carry on the battle as long as I can without getting into debt, and then—vanish."
"You vanished once before,—did you not,—with a wife?"