Why should I dare to think that my boy should be better than others?
But I do; and I fancy that he will be a great statesman.

After all, Mr.Finn, that is the best thing that a man can be, unless it is given him to be a saint and a martyr and all that kind of thing,--which is not just what a mother looks for." "That would only be better than the spendthrift and gambler." "Hardly better you'll say, perhaps.

How odd that is! We all profess to believe when we're told that this world should be used merely as a preparation for the next; and yet there is something so cold and comfortless in the theory that we do not relish the prospect even for our children.

I fancy your people have more real belief in it than ours." Now Phineas Finn was a Roman Catholic.

But the discussion was stopped by the noise of an arrival in the hall.
"There they are," said Lady Chiltern; "Oswald never comes in without a sound of trumpets to make him audible throughout the house." Then she went to meet her husband, and Phineas followed her out of the drawing-room.
Lord Chiltern was as glad to see him as she had been, and in a very few minutes he found himself quite at home.