Madame Max Goesler rises high enough in society to receive a proposal of marriage from the Duke of Omnium but refuses to surrender her independence and later offers Phineas the possibility of love, wealth, and a secure future, while Phineas must also accept that Violet and Lord Chiltern have finally overcome their long quarrels and acknowledged the love that has always existed between them and begins to remember more clearly the quiet loyalty of Mary Flood Jones waiting for him in Ireland, and when the Irish tenant-right question places his political conscience against the policy of his own government he follows Monk, resigns his office, and gives up the parliamentary career that had brought him extraordinary success, ultimately rejecting Madame Goesler’s wealth and returning to Killaloe and Mary as he chooses personal honor, principle, and enduring affection over political advancement and fashionable ambition.
