of the present system. When such a patron as
Lord Brentford,—himself a Cabinet Minister
with a sinecure,—could by his mere word
put into the House such a stick as Phineas Finn,—a
man who had struggled to stand on his legs before
the Speaker, but had wanted both the courage and the
capacity, nothing further could surely be wanted to
prove that the Reform Bill of 1832 required to be
supplemented by some more energetic measure.
Phineas laughed as he read the article, and declared
to himself that the joke was a good joke. But,
nevertheless, he suffered. Mr. Quintus Slide,
when he was really anxious to use his thong earnestly,
could generally raise a wale.
Was He Honest?
On the 10th of August, Phineas Finn did return to
Loughton. He went down by the mail train on the
night of the 10th, having telegraphed to the inn for
a bed, and was up eating his breakfast in that hospitable
house at nine o’clock. The landlord and
landlady with all their staff were at a loss to imagine
what had brought down their member again so quickly
to his borough; but the reader, who will remember
that Lady Baldock with her daughter and Violet Effingham
were to pass the 11th of the month at Saulsby, may
perhaps be able to make a guess on the subject.
Phineas had been thinking of making this sudden visit
to Loughton ever since he had been up in town, but
he could suggest to himself no reason to be given
to Lord Brentford for his sudden reappearance.
The Earl had been very kind to him, but he had said
nothing which could justify his young friend in running
in and out of Saulsby Castle at pleasure, without
invitation and without notice. Phineas was so
well aware of this himself that often as he had half
resolved during the last ten days to return to Saulsby,
so often had he determined that he could not do so.
He could think of no excuse. Then the heavens
favoured him, and he received a letter from Lord Chiltern,
in which there was a message for Lord Brentford.
“If you see my father, tell him that I am ready
at any moment to do what is necessary for raising
the money for Laura.” Taking this as his
excuse he returned to Loughton.
As chance arranged it, he met the Earl standing on
the great steps before his own castle doors.
“What, Finn; is this you? I thought you
were in Ireland.”
“Not yet, my lord, as you see.” Then
he opened his budget at once, and blushed at his own
hypocrisy as he went on with his story. He had,
he said, felt the message from Chiltern to be so all-important
that he could not bring himself to go over to Ireland
without delivering it. He urged upon the Earl
that he might learn from this how anxious Lord Chiltern
was to effect a reconciliation. When it occurred
to him, he said, that there might be a hope of doing
anything towards such an object, he could not go to
Ireland leaving the good work behind him. In
