"And your wisdom, perfect at all other times, breaks down in the hunting-field?"
"I don't in the least mind your chaffing. I know what you think of me just as well as though you told me."
"What do I think of you?"
"That I'm a poor creature, generally half asleep, shallow-pated, slow-blooded, ignorant, useless, and unambitious."
"Certainly unambitious, Mr. Maule."
"And that word carries all the others. What's the good of ambition? There's the man they were talking about last night,—that Irishman."
"Mr. Finn?"
"Yes; Phineas Finn. He is an ambitious fellow. He'll have to starve, according to what Chiltern was saying. I've sense enough to know I can't do any good."
"You are sensible, I admit."
"Very well, Miss Palliser. You can say just what you like, of course. You have that privilege."