acpherson had cunningly secured on his return
from church, and given over to the cousin that same evening. There
was certainly no want of evidence, but nobody was disposed to use it.

At noon the injunction was served in Quartpot Alley, and was put into
Mr. Slide's hands on his arrival at the office at three o'clock. That
gentleman's duties required his attendance from three till five in
the afternoon, and then again from nine in the evening till any hour
in the morning at which he might be able to complete the _People's
Banner_ for that day's use. He had been angry with Phineas when the
Sunday night passed without a visit or letter at the office, as
a promise had been made that there should be either a visit or a
letter; but he had felt sure, as he walked into the city from his
suburban residence at Camden Town, that he would now find some
communication on the great subject. The matter was one of most
serious importance. Such a letter as that which was in his possession
would no doubt create much surprise, and receive no ordinary
attention. A _People's Banner_ could hardly ask for a better bit of
good fortune than the privilege of first publishing such a letter. It
would no doubt be copied into every London paper, and into hundreds
of provincial papers, and every journal so copying it would be bound
to declare that it was taken from the columns of the _People's
Banner_. It was, indeed, addressed "To the Editor of the _People's
Banner_" in the printed slip which Mr. Slide had shown to Phineas
Finn, though Kennedy himself had not prefixed to it any such
direction. And the letter, in the hands of Quintus Slide, would
not simply have been a letter. It might have been groundwork for,
perhaps, some half-dozen leading articles, all of a most attractive
kind. Mr. Slide's high moral tone upon such an occasion would have
been qualified to do good to every British matron, and to add
virtues to the Bench of Bishops. All this he had postponed with some
inadequately defined idea that he could do better with the property
in his hands by putting himself into personal communication with the
persons concerned. If he could manage to reconcile such a husband to
such a wife,--or even to be conspicuous in an attempt to do so; and
if he could make the old Earl and the young Member of Parliament
feel that he had spared them by abstaining from the publication, the
results might be very beneficial. His conception of the matter had
been somewha