tter through,--read it probably more than once;
but there was only one sentence in it that had for her any enduring
interest. "I will not go to Loughlinter myself." Though she had known
that he would not come her heart sank within her, as though now, at
this moment, the really fatal wound had at last been inflicted. But,
in truth, there was another sentence as a complement to the first,
which rivetted the dagger in her bosom. "In the meantime I am going
to Matching." Throughout his letter the name of that woman was not
mentioned, but of course she would be there. The thing had all been
arranged in order that they two might be brought together. She
told herself that she had always hated that intriguing woman, Lady
Glencora. She read the remainder of the letter and understood it; but
she read it all in connection with the beauty, and the wealth, and
the art,--and the cunning of Madame Max Goesler.

CHAPTER LXXI

Phineas Finn is Re-elected

The manner in which Phineas Finn was returned a second time for the
borough of Tankerville was memorable among the annals of English
elections. When the news reached the town that their member was to be
tried for murder no doubt every elector believed that he was guilty.
It is the natural assumption when the police and magistrates and
lawyers, who have been at work upon the matter carefully, have come
to that conclusion, and nothing but private knowledge or personal
affection will stand against such evidence. At Tankerville there was
nothing of either, and our hero's guilt was taken as a certainty.
There was an interest felt in the whole matter which was full of
excitement, and not altogether without delight to the Tankervillians.
Of course the borough, as a borough, would never again hold up its
head. There had never been known such an occurrence in the whole
history of this country as the hanging of a member of the House of
Commons. And this Member of Parliament was to be hung for murdering
another member, which, no doubt, added much to the importance of the
transaction. A large party in the borough declared that it was a
judgment. Tankerville had degraded itself among boroughs by sending
a Roman Catholic to Parliament, and had done so at the very moment
in which the Church of England was being brought into danger.
This was what had come upon the borough by not sticking to honest
Mr. Browborough! There was a moment,--just before the trial was
begun,--in which a large propo