treasure in their endeavours to open to their own footsteps.  He tried hard to realise what he had gained, but the dust and the noise and the crowds and the want of something august to the eye were almost too strong for him.  He managed, however, to take the oath early among those who took it, and heard the Queen s speech read and the Address moved and seconded.  He was seated very uncomfortably, high up on a back seat, between two men whom he did not know; and he found the speeches to be very long.  He had been in the habit of seeing such speeches reported in about a column, and he thought that these speeches must take at least four columns each.  He sat out the debate on the Address till the House was adjourned, and then he went away to dine at his club.  He did go into the dining-room of the House, but there was a crowd there, and he found himself alone,—­and to tell the truth, he was afraid to order his dinner.

The nearest approach to a triumph which he had in London came to him from the glory which his election reflected upon his landlady.  She was a kindly good motherly soul, whose husband was a journeyman law-stationer, and who kept a very decent house in Great Marlborough Street.  Here Phineas had lodged since he had been in London, and was a great favourite.  “God bless my soul, Mr. Phineas,” said she, “only think of your being a member of Parliament!”

“Yes, I’m a member of Parliament, Mrs. Bunce.”

“And you’ll go on with the rooms the same as ever?  Well, I never thought to have a member of Parliament in ’em.”

Mrs. Bunce really had realised the magnitude of the step which her lodger had taken, and Phineas was grateful to her.

CHAPTER IV

Lady Laura Standish

Phineas, in describing Lady Laura Standish to Mary Flood Jones at Killaloe, had not painted her in very glowing colours.  Nevertheless he admired Lady Laura very much, and she was worthy of admiration.  It was probably the greatest pride of our hero’s life that Lady Laura Standish was his friend, and that she had instigated him to undertake the risk of parliamentary life.  Lady Laura was intimate also with Barrington Erle, who was, in some distant degree, her cousin; and Phineas was not without a suspicion that his selection for Loughshane, from out of all the young liberal candidates, may have been in some degree owing to Lady Laura’s influence with Barrington Erle.  He was not unwilling that it should be so; for though, as he had repeatedly told himself, he was by no means in love with Lady Laura,—­who was, as he imagined, somewhat older than himself,—­nevertheless, he would feel gratified at accepting anything from her hands, and he felt a keen desire for some increase to those ties of friendship which bound them together.  No;—­he was not in love with Lady Laura Standish.  He had not the remotest idea of asking her to be his wife.  So he told himself, both