"Do not abuse her, Lady Laura."
"I do not intend,—not to you at any rate. But I can better understand that she should receive the admiration of a gentleman than the affectionate friendship of a lady. That the old Duke should have been infatuated was intelligible."
"She was very good to the old Duke."
"But it was a kind of goodness which was hardly likely to recommend itself to his nephew's wife. Never mind; we won't talk about her now. Barrington was there?"
"For a day or two."
"He seems to be wasting his life."
"Subordinates in office generally do, I think."
"Do not say that, Phineas."
"Some few push through, and one can almost always foretell who the few will be. There are men who are destined always to occupy second-rate places, and who seem also to know their fate. I never heard Erle speak even of an ambition to sit in the Cabinet."
"He likes to be useful."