e accepted the offer, but he did
so with a positive assurance that no consideration should at present
take him to Tankerville.

"We ain't going to charge you, not one penny," said Mr. Gadmire, with
enthusiasm.

"I feel all that I owe to the borough," said Phineas, "and to the
warm friends there who have espoused my cause; but I am not in a
condition at present, either of mind or body, to put myself forward
anywhere in public. I have suffered a great deal."

"Most cruel!" said Troddles.

"And am quite willing to confess that I am therefore unfit in my
present position to serve the borough."

"We can't admit that," said Gadmire, raising his left hand.

"We mean to have you," said Troddles.

"There isn't a doubt about your re-election, Mr. Finn," said Ruddles.

"I am very grateful, but I cannot be there. I must trust to one of
you gentlemen to explain to the electors that in my present condition
I am unable to visit the borough."

Messrs. Ruddles, Gadmire, and Troddles returned to Tankerville,
--disappointed no doubt at not bringing with them him whose
company would have made their feet glorious on the pavement of
their native town,--but still with a comparative sense of their own
importance in having seen the great sufferer whose woes forbade that
he should be beheld by common eyes. They never even expressed an idea
that he ought to have come, alluding even to their past convictions
as to the futility of hoping for such a blessing; but spoke of him as
a personage made almost sacred by the sufferings which he had been
made to endure. As to the election, that would be a matter of course.
He was proposed by Mr. Ruddles himself, and was absolutely seconded
by the rector of Tankerville,--the staunchest Tory in the place,
who on this occasion made a speech in which he declared that as an
Englishman, loving justice, he could not allow any political or even
any religious consideration to bias his conduct on this occasion. Mr.
Finn had thrown up his seat under the pressure of a false accusation,
and it was, the rector thought, for the honour of the borough that
the seat should be restored to him. So Phineas Finn was re-elected
for Tankerville without opposition and without expense; and for
six weeks after the ceremony parcels were showered upon him by
the ladies of the borough who sent him worked slippers, scarlet
hunting waistcoats, pocket handkerchiefs, with "P.F." beautifully
embroidered, and chains made of their ow