“The ballot chiefly,—­that, and manhood suffrage.”

“Ah! she said something more than that, I am sure.  Madame Max Goesler never lets any man go without entrancing him.  If you have anything near your heart, Mr. Finn, Madame Max Goesler touched it, I am sure.”  Now Phineas had two things near his heart,—­political promotion and Violet Effingham,—­and Madame Max Goesler had managed to touch them both.  She had asked him respecting his journey to Blankenberg, and had touched him very nearly in reference to Miss Effingham.  “You know Madame Max Goesler, of course?” said Violet to Lord Fawn.

“Oh yes, I know the lady;—­that is, as well as other people do.  No one, I take it, knows much of her; and it seems to me that the world is becoming tired of her.  A mystery is good for nothing if it remains always a mystery.”

“And it is good for nothing at all when it is found out,” said Violet.

“And therefore it is that Madame Max Goesler is a bore,” said Lord Fawn.

“You did not find her a bore?” said Violet.  Then Phineas, choosing to oppose Lord Fawn as well as he could on that matter, as on every other, declared that he had found Madame Max Goesler most delightful.  “And beautiful,—­is she not?” said Violet.

“Beautiful!” exclaimed Lord Fawn.

“I think her very beautiful,” said Phineas.

“So do I,” said Violet.  “And she is a dear ally of mine.  We were a week together last winter, and swore an undying friendship.  She told me ever so much about Mr. Goesler.”

“But she told you nothing of her second husband?” said Lord Fawn.

“Now that you have run into scandal, I shall have done,” said Violet.

Half an hour after this, when Phineas was preparing to fight his way out of the house, he was again close to Madame Max Goesler.  He had not found a single moment in which to ask Violet for an answer to his old question, and was retiring from the field discomfited, but not dispirited.  Lord Fawn, he thought, was not a serious obstacle in his way.  Lady Laura had told him that there was no hope for him; but then Lady Laura’s mind on that subject was, he thought, prejudiced.  Violet Effingham certainly knew what were his wishes, and knowing them, smiled on him and was gracious to him.  Would she do so if his pretensions were thoroughly objectionable to her?

“I saw that you were successful this evening,” said Madame Max Goesler to him.

“I was not aware of any success.”

“I call it great success to be able to make your way where you will through such a crowd as there is here.  You seem to me to be so stout a cavalier that I shall ask you to find my servant, and bid him get my carriage.  Will you mind?” Phineas, of course, declared that he would be delighted.  “He is a German, and not in livery.  But if somebody will call out, he will hear.  He is very sharp, and much more attentive than your English footmen.  An Englishman hardly ever makes a good servant.”