"I think it has," said Madame Goesler, slowly. "You see, Mr. Finn, that you as a young man can hardly understand how natural it is that a young woman,—if I may call myself young,—should minister to an old man."
"But there should be some bond to the old man."
"There is a bond."
"You must not be angry with me," said Phineas.
"I am not in the least angry."
"I should not venture to express any opinion, of course,—only that you ask me."
"I do ask you, and you are quite welcome to express your opinion. And were it not expressed, I should know what you thought just the same. I have wondered at it myself sometimes,—that I should have become as it were engulfed in this new life, almost without will of my own. And when he dies, how shall I return to the other life? Of course I have the house in Park Lane still, but my very maid talks of Matching as my home."
"How will it be when he has gone?"
"Ah,—how indeed? Lady Glencora and I will have to curtsey to each other, and there will be an end of it. She will be a duchess then, and I shall no longer be wanted."
"But even if you were wanted—?"