Plot
After seven years of exile in
At the death of the old Duke, Plantagenet
Palliser succeeded to his honors. The Daubeny government fell, Mr. Gresham
became Prime Minister and the new Duke Lord Privy Seal. Mr. Bonteen had
expected to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was angry and disappointed
when asked to take the Presidency of the Board of Trade. There had never been
friendship between Phineas and Mr. Bonteen, and one night, after a quarrel at
their club, Mr. Bonteen was murdered. Suspicion was first directed to the
husband of Lizzie Eustace, the converted Jew Emilius, since Mr. Bonteen was
attempting to discover evidence that his marriage to Lizzie was bigamous, but
Emilius had, seemingly, a perfect alibi. The quarrel at the club had been
overheard by a number of members and, on purely circumstantial evidence,
reinforced by the hesitating testimony of the blundering Lord Fawn,
Phineas was indicted. His friends rallied to his support but the case against
him was very strong. New evidence of the duplicity of Emilius was found through
the ingenuity of Madame Goesler, and Phineas was acquitted. Unnerved by his sufferings, he
resigned his seat, but was immediately re-elected and offered his old place as
Undersecretary of the Colonies. He refused, and soon after he and Madame Goesler were married.
The old Duke of Omnium had left valuable jewels
and a large sum of money to Madame Goesler in his will. She refused to accept
them, and with the consent of the new Duke returned the jewels to the
estate and turned over the legacy to Adelaide Palliser, a charming young cousin
of the younger Duke, whose love affair with the equally impecunious Gerard
Maule was thus brought to a happy conclusion.
GEROULD,
WINIFRED GREGORY;
A GUIDE TO TROLLOPE.
© 1948 Princeton University Press,
1976 renewed PUP
Reprinted by permission of
Url: http://www.anthonytrollope.com/
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
©Davinia Moreno Arroyo
Universitat de Valčncia
Press
damoa2@alumni.uv.es