lutely been as yet more than a
demigod, our Muse, light as she is, may venture to report that he
told Mr. Ratler that "he'd be d---- if he'd stand it. If he were to
be thrown over now, he'd make such a row, and would take such care
that the fat should be in the fire, that his enemies, whoever they
were, should wish that they had kept their fingers off him. He knew
who was doing it." If he did not know, his guess was right. In his
heart he accused the young duchess, though he mentioned her name
to no one. And it was the young duchess. Then there was made an
insidious proposition to Mr. Gresham,--which reached him at last
through Barrington Erle,--that matters would go quieter if Phineas
Finn were placed in his old office at the Colonies instead of Lord
Fawn, whose name had been suggested, and for whom,--as Barrington
Erle declared,--no one cared a brass farthing. Mr. Gresham, when he
heard this, thought that he began to smell a rat, and was determined
to be on his guard. Why should the appointment of Mr. Phineas Finn
make things go easier in regard to Mr. Bonteen? There must be some
woman's fingers in the pie. Now Mr. Gresham was firmly resolved that
no woman's fingers should have anything to do with his pie.

How the thing went from bad to worse, it would be bootless here
to tell. Neither of the two dukes absolutely refused to join the
Ministry; but they were persistent in their objection to Mr. Bonteen,
and were joined in it by Lord Plinlimmon and Sir Harry Coldfoot. It
was in vain that Mr. Gresham urged that he had no other man ready
and fit to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. That excuse could not be
accepted. There was Legge Wilson, who twelve years since had been
at the Treasury, and would do very well. Now Mr. Gresham had always
personally hated Legge Wilson,--and had, therefore, offered him the
Board of Trade. Legge Wilson had disgusted him by accepting it, and
the name had already been published in connection with the office.
But in the lists which had appeared towards the end of the week, no
name was connected with the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and no office was connected with the name of Mr. Bonteen. The editor
of _The People's Banner_, however, expressed the gratification of
that journal that even Mr. Gresham had not dared to propose Mr.
Phineas Finn for any place under the Crown.

At last Mr. Bonteen was absolutely told that he could not be
Chancellor of the Exchequer. If he would consent to gi