PHINEAS FINN. Oh no," said Phineas, remembering the glories of Trinity. "Because there would have been an opening. What do you say to Stratford, the new Essex borough? " Broadbury the brewer is there already!" "Yes; and ready to spend any money you like to name. Let me see. Loughton is grouped with Smotherem, and Walker is a deal too strong at Smotherem to hear of any other claim. I don't think we could dare to propose it. There are the Chelsea hamlets, but it will take a wack of money." "I have not got a wack of money," said Phineas, laughing. 66 "That's the devil of it. I think, if I were you, I should hark back upon some place in Ireland. Couldn't you get Laurence to give you up his seat?" 66 What! Fitzgibbon ? " "Yes. He has not a ghost of a chance of getting into office again. Nothing on earth would induce him to look at a paper during all those weeks he was at the Colonial Office; and when Cantrip spoke to him, all he said was, Ah, bother!' Cantrip did not like it, I can tell you." "But that wouldn't make him give up his seat." "Of course you'd have to arrange it." By which Phineas understood Barrington Erle to mean that he, Phineas, was in some way to give to Laurence Fitzgibbon some adequate compensation for the surrender of his position as a county member. "I am afraid that's out of the question," said Phineas. "If he were to go, I should not get it." this, could not help thinking, that Barring- He wrote to his father, asking after the borough, and asking after the health of almost pathetiMr. Morris. And in his letter he told his own story very plainly, cally. He perhaps had been wrong to make the attempt which he had made. He began But at to believe that he had been wrong. any rate he had made it so far successfully, and failure now would be doubly bitter. He thought that the party to which he belonged must now remain in office. It would hardly be possible that a new election would produce a House of Commons favourable to a conservative ministry. And with a liberal ministry he, Phineas, would be sure of his place, and sure of an official income, — if The old only he could find a seat. It was all very true, and was almost pathetic. doctor, who was inclined to be proud of his son, was not unwilling to make a sacrifice. Mrs. Finn said before her daughters that if there was a seat in all Ireland, Phineas ought to have it. And Mary Flood Jones stood Would he by listening, and wondering what Phineas would do if he lost his seat. come back and live in County Clare, and be like any other girl's lover? Poor Mary had come to lose her ambition, and to think that girls whose lovers stayed at home were the happiest. Nevertheless, she would have walked all the way to Lord Tulla's house and back again, might that have availed to get the seat for Phineas. Then there came an express over from Castlemorris. The doctor was wanted at once to see Mr. Morris. Mr. Morris was very bad with gout in his stomach. According to the messenger it was supposed that Mr. Morris was dying. Before Dr. Finn had had an opportunity of answering his son's letter, Mr. Morris, the late member for Loughshane, had been gathered to his fathers. Dr. Finn understood enough of elections for Parliament, and of the nature of bor"Would you have a chance at Lough-oughs, to be aware that a candidate's chance shane?" "I was thinking of trying it," said Phineas. "Of course you know that Morris is very of success is very much improved by being early in the field; and he was aware, also, that the death of Mr. Morris would probably create various aspirants for the honour of representing Loughshane. But he could hardly address the Earl on the subject while the dead body of the late member was lying in the house at Castlemorris. The bill which had been passed in the late session for reforming the constitution of the House of Commons had not touched Ireland, a future measure having been promised to the Irish for their comfort; and Loughshane therefore was, as to Lord Tulla's influence, the same as it had ever been. He had not then the plenary power which the other lord had held in his hands in regard to Loughton; but still the Castlemorris interest would go a long way. It might be possible to stand against it, but it would be much more desirable that the candidate should have it at his back. Dr. Finn was fully alive to this as he sat opposite to the old lord, saying now a word about the old lord's gout in his legs and arms, and then about the gout in the stomach, which had carried away to another world the lamented late member for the borough. "Poor Jack!" said Lord Tulla, piteously. "If I'd known it, I needn't have paid over two thousand pounds for him last year; need I, doctor?" "No, indeed," said Dr. Finn, feeling that his patient might perhaps approach the subject of the borough himself. "He never would live by any rule, you know," said the desolate brother. Very hard to guide; lord ?" 66 66 was he not, my The very devil. Now, you see, I do what I'm told pretty well, don't I, doctor?" "Sometimes." 66 "By George, I do nearly always. I don't know what you mean by sometimes. I've been drinking brandy-and-water till I'm sick of it, to oblige you, and you tell me about sometimes. You doctors expect a man to be a slave. Haven't I kept it out of my stomach? " ..Thank God, yes." "It's all very well thanking God, but I should have gone as poor Jack has gone, if I hadn't been the most careful man in the world. He was drinking champagne ten days ago; would do it, you know." Lord Tulla could talk about himself and his own ailments by the hour together, and Dr. Finn, who had thought that his noble patient was approaching the subject of the borough, was beginning again to feel that the double interest of the gout that was present, and the gout that had passed away, would be too absorbing. He, however, could say but little to direct the conversation. "Mr. Morris, you see, lived more in London than you do, and was subject to temptation." "I don't know what you call temptation. Haven't I the temptation of a bottle of wine under my nose every day of my life?" "No doubt you have." "And I don't drink it. I hardly ever take above a glass or two of brown sherry. By George! when I think of it, I wonder at my own courage. I do, indeed." 'But a man in London, my lord 66 66 Why the deuce would he go to London? By-the-bye, what am I to do about the borough now?" "Let my son stand for it, if you will, my lord." "They've clean swept away Brentford's seat at Loughton, haven't they? Ha, ha, ha! What a nice game for him, to have been forced to help to do it himself! There's nobody on earth I pity so much as a radical peer who is obliged to work like a nigger with a spade to shovel away the ground from under his own feet. As for me, I don't care who sits for Loughshane. I did care for poor Jack while he was alive. I don't think I shall interfere any longer. I am glad it lasted Jack's time." Lord Tulla had probably already forgotten that he himself had thrown Jack over for the last session but one. 66 Phineas, my lord," began the father, "is now Under Secretary of State.” 66 ‘Oh, I've no doubt he's a very fine fellow; but, you see, he's an out-and-out Radical." 66 66 No, my lord." "Then how can he serve with such men as Mr. Gresham and Mr. Monk? They've turned out poor old Mildmay among them, because he's not fast enough for them. Don't tell me." "My anxiety, of course, is for my boy's prospects. He seems to have done so well in Parliament." The money, you know, my lord!” "I shan't interfere here, doctor. If he comes, and the people then choose to return him, I shall say nothing. They may do just as they please. They tell me Lambert St. George, of Mockrath, is going to stand. If he does, it's the dpiece of impudence I ever heard of. He's a tenant of my own, though he has a lease for ever; and his father never owned an acre of land in the county till his uncle died." Then the doctor knew that, with a little management, the lord's interest might be secured for his son. Phineas came over and stood for the borough against Mr. Lambert St. George, and the contest was sharp enough. The gentry of the neighbourhood could not understand why such a man as Lord Tulla should admit a liberal candidate to succeed his brother. No one canvassed for the young Under Secretary with more persistent zeal than did his father, who, when Phineas first spoke of going into Parliament, had produced so many good arguments against that perilous step. Lord Tulla's agent stood aloof, - desolate with grief at the death of the late member. At such a moment of family affliction, Lord Tulla, he declared, could not think of such a matter as the borough. But it was known that Lord Tulla was dreadfully jealous of Mr. Lambert St. George, whose property in that part of the county was now nearly equal to his own, and who saw much more company at Mockrath than was ever entertained at Castlemorris. A word from Lord Tulla, so said the Conservatives of the county, would have put Mr. St. George into the seat; but that word was not spoken, and the Conservatives of the neighbourhood swore that Lord Tulla was a renegade. The contest was very sharp, but our hero was returned by a majority of seventeen votes. Again successful! As he thought of it he remembered stories of great generals who were said to have chained Fortune to the wheels of their chariots, but it seemed to him that the goddess had never served any general with such staunch obedience as she had displayed in his cause. Had not everything gone well with him; so well, as almost to justify him in expecting that even yet Violet Effingham would become his wife? Dear, dearest Violet! If he could only achieve that, no general, who ever led an army across the Alps, would be his equal either in success or in the reward of success. Then he questioned himself as to what he would say to Miss Flood Jones on that very night. He was to meet dear little Mary Flood Jones that evening at a neighbour's house. His sister Barbara had so told him in a tone of voice which he quite understood to imply a caution. "I shall be so glad to see her," Phineas had replied. "If there ever was an angel on earth, it is Mary," said Barbara Finn. "I know that she is as good as gold," said Phineas. "Don't laugh at me, Phineas, when I am thinking of nothing but of you and your interests, and when I am making all manner of excuses for you because I know what must be the distractions of the world in which you live." Barbara made more than one attempt to renew the conversation before the evening came, but Phineas thought that he had had enough of it. He did not like being told that excuses were made for him. After all, what had he done? He had once kissed Mary Flood Jones behind the door. "I am so glad to see you, Mary," he said, coming and taking a chair by her side. He had been specially warned not to single Mary out for his attention, and yet there was the chair left vacant as though it were expected that he would fall into it. Thank you. We did not happen to meet last year, did we, Mr. Finn?" 'Do not call me Mr. Finn, Mary." "You are such a great man now!" "Not at all a great man. If you only knew what little men we under-strappers are in London you would hardly speak to me." 66 "But you are something- of State now; - are you not?" "Well;-yes. That's the name they give me. It simply means that if any member wants to badger some one in the House about the Colonies, I am the man to be badgered. But if there is any credit to be had, I am not the man who is to have it." "But it is a great thing to be in Parliament and in the Government too." "It is a great thing for me, Mary, to have a salary, though it may only be for a year or two. However, I will not deny that it is pleasant to have been successful." "It has been very pleasant to us, Phineas. Mamma has been so much rejoiced." "I am so sorry not to see her. She is at Floodborough, I suppose." 66 Oh, yes; she is at home. She does not like coming out at night in winter. I have been staying here you know for two days, but I go home to-morrow." "I will ride over and call on your mother." Then there was a pause in the conversation for a moment. "Does it not seem odd, Mary, that we should see so little of each other?" You are so much away, of course." "Yes; that is the reason. But still it seems almost unnatural. I often wonder when the time will come that I shall be quietly at home again. I have to be back in my office in London this day week, and yet I have not had a single hour to myself since I have been at Killaloe. But I will certainly ride over and see your mother. "It is so, I can assure you; but since | better luck next year. In the meantime, the boy was born Lady Glencora can do we can only enjoy the good things that are anything with the Duke. She made him going." go to Ascot last Spring, and he presented her with the favourite for one of the races on the very morning the horse ran. They say he gave three thousand pounds for him." "And did Lady Glencora win? " "Socially, or politically, Madame Goesler?" "Oh, socially. How can I mean anything else when the Duke of Omnium is here? I feel so much taller at being in the same house with him. Do not you? But No; -the horse lost; and Mr. Pal-you are a spoilt child of fortune, and perliser has never known what to do with him haps you have met him before." since. But it was very pretty of the Duke; was it not?" Phineas, though he had intended to show to Mrs. Bonteen how little he thought about the Duke of Omnium, - how small was his respect for a great peer who took no part in politics, could not protect himself from a certain feeling of anxiety as to the aspect and gait and words of the man of whom people thought so much, of whom he had heard so often, and of whom he had seen so little. He told himself that the Duke of Omnium should be no more to him than any other man, but yet the Duke of Omnium was more to him than other men. When he came down into the drawing-room he was angry with himself, and stood apart; - and was then angry with himself again because he stood apart. Why should he make a difference in his own bearing because there was such a man in the company? And yet he could not avoid it. When he entered the room the Duke was standing in a large bow-window, and two or three ladies and two or three men were standing round him. Phineas would not go near the group, telling himself that he would not approach a man so grand as was the Duke of Omnium. He saw Madame Max Goesler among the party, and after a while he saw her retreat. As she retreated, Phineas knew that some word from Madame Max Goesler had not been received with the graciousness which she had expected. There was the prettiest smile in the world on the lady's face, and she took a corner on a sofa with an air of perfect satisfaction. But yet Phineas knew that she had received a wound. "I called twice on you in London," said Phineas, coming up close to her, "but was not fortunate enough to find you! "Yes; - but you came so late in the season as to make it impossible that there should be any arrangements for our meeting. What can any woman do when a gentleman calls on her in August ?" "I came in July." "Yes, you did; on the 31st. I keep the most accurate record of all such things, Mr. Finn. But let us hope that we may have 66 I think I once saw the back of a hat in the park, and somebody told me that the Duke's head was inside it." "And you have never seen him but that once?" Of course I do. For what do you take me, Madame Goesler?" "I do,- immensely. I believe him to be a fool, and I never heard of his doing a kind act to anybody in my life." "Not when he gave the racehorse to Lady Glencora?" "I wonder whether that was true. Did you ever hear of such an absurdity? As I was saying, I don't think he ever did any thing for anybody;-but then, you know, to be Duke of Omnium! It isn't necessary, is it, that a Duke of Omnium should do anything except be Duke of Omnium?” At this moment Lady Glencora came up to Phineas, and took him across to the Duke. The Duke had expressed a desire to be in troduced to him. Phineas, half pleased and half disgusted, had no alternative, and fol lowed Lady Glencora. The Duke shook hands with him, and made a little bow, and said something about the garroters, which Phineas, in his confusion, did not quite understand. He tried to reply as he would have replied to any body else; but the weight of the Duke's Majesty was too much for him, and he bungled. The Duke made another little bow, and in a moment was speaking a word of condescension to some other favoured individual. Phineas retreated altogether disgusted,-hating the Duke, but hating himself worse; but he would not retreat in the direction of Madame Max Goesler. It might suit that lady to take an instant little revenge for her discomfiture, but it did not suit him to do so. The qu→ tion with him would be, whether in some fr ture part of his career it might not be duty to assist in putting down Dukes of Omnium. At dinner Phineas sat between Mrs. B teen and the Duchess of St. Bungay, did not find himself very happy. At other end of the table the Duke,- the grea that the Earl and his son should meet and make up their quarrel at Mr. Palliser's house. But Lord Brentford stayed only one night, and Phineas on the next morning heard the whole history of his coming and going from Violet. "I have almost been on my knees to him to stay," she said. Indeed, I did go on my knees,-actually on my knees." Duke, was seated at Lady Glencora's right "Didn't you think the session was very long, Mr. Finn?" said the Duchess to Phin eas. 44 Very long indeed, Duchess," said Phineas, with his attention still fixed on Madame Max Goesler. “And what did he say? 66 'He put his arm round me and kissed me, and,—and,- I cannot tell you all that he said. But it ended in this, that if Chiltern can be made to go to Saulsby, fatted calves without stint will be killed. I shall do all I can to make him go; and so must you, Mr. Finn. Of course that silly affair in foreign parts is not to make any difference between you two." Phineas smiled, and said he would do his best, and looked up into her face, and was just able to talk to her as though things were going comfortably with him. But his heart was very cold. As Violet had spoken to him about Lord Chiltern there had come upon him, for the first time, for the first time since he had known that Lord Chiltern had been refused, -an idea, a doubt, whether even yet Violet might not become Lord Chiltern's wife. His heart was very sad, but he struggled on, declaring that it was incumbent on them both to bring together the father and son. "I am so glad to hear you say so, Mr. Finn," said Violet. "I really do believe that you can do more towards it than anyone else. Lord Chiltern would think nothing of my advice, would hardly speak to me on such a subject. But he respects you as well as likes you, and not the less because of what has occurred." -- "The Duke found it very troublesome." "I daresay he did," said Phineas. That duke and that duchess were no more than any other man and any other man's wife. The session had not been longer to the Duke of St. Bungay than to all the public servants. Phineas had the greatest possible respect for the Duke of St. Bungay, but he could not take much interest in the wailings of the Duchess on her husband's behalf. How was it that Violet should know "And things do seem to be so very un-aught of the respect or liking felt by this comfortable now," said the Duchess, rejected suitor for that other suitor, thinking partly of the resignation of Mr. Mildmay, and partly of the fact that her own peculiar maid who had lived with her for thirty years had retired into private life. who had also been rejected? And how was it that she was thus able to talk of one of them to the other, as though neither of them had ever come forward with such a suit? Phineas felt his position to be so strange as to be almost burdensome. He had told Violet, when she had refused him, very plainly, that he should come again to her, and ask once more for the great gift which he coveted. But he could not ask again now. In the first place, there was that in her manner which made him sure that were he to do so, he would ask in vain; and then "Not so very bad, Duchess, I hope," said Phineas, observing that at this moment Madame Max Goesler's eyes were brilliant with triumph. Then there came upon him a sudden ambition,- that he would like to ** cut out" the Duke of Omnium in the estimation of Madame Max Goesler. The brightness of Madame Max Goesler's eyes had not been thrown away upon our hero. he felt she was placing a special confidence Violet Effingham came at the appointed time, and, to the surprise of Phineas, was brought to Matching by Lord Brentford. Phineas at first thought that it was intended in him, against which he would commit a sin were he to use her present intimacy with him for purposes of making love. They two were to put their shoulders together to help Lord |