lace between the two gentlemen,
and to the correspondence between them which had followed, as to
which phase it may be said that though there were many rumours
abroad, very little was known. It was reported in some circles that
the two aspirants for office had been within an ace of striking
each other; in some, again, that a blow had passed,--and in others,
further removed probably from the House of Commons and the Universe
Club, that the Irishman had struck the Englishman, and that the
Englishman had given the Irishman a thrashing. This was a phase
that was very disagreeable to Phineas Finn. And there was a third,
--which may perhaps be called the general social phase, and which
unfortunately dealt with the name of Lady Laura Kennedy. They all,
of course, worked into each other, and were enlivened and made
interesting with the names of a great many big persons. Mr. Gresham,
the Prime Minister, was supposed to be very much concerned in this
matter. He, it was said, had found himself compelled to exclude
Phineas Finn from the Government, because of the unfortunate alliance
between him and the wife of one of his late colleagues, and had also
thought it expedient to dismiss Mr. Bonteen from his Cabinet,--for
it had amounted almost to dismissal,--because Mr. Bonteen had made
indiscreet official allusion to that alliance. In consequence of this
working in of the first and third phase, Mr. Gresham encountered
hard usage from some friends and from many enemies. Then, of course,
the scene at Macpherson's Hotel was commented on very generally. An
idea prevailed that Mr. Kennedy, driven to madness by his wife's
infidelity, which had become known to him through the quarrel between
Phineas and Mr. Bonteen,--had endeavoured to murder his wife's lover,
who had with the utmost effrontery invaded the injured husband's
presence with a view of deterring him by threats from a publication
of his wrongs. This murder had been nearly accomplished in the centre
of the metropolis,--by daylight, as if that made it worse,--on a
Sunday, which added infinitely to the delightful horror of the
catastrophe; and yet no public notice had been taken of it! The
would-be murderer had been a Cabinet Minister, and the lover who was
so nearly murdered had been an Under-Secretary of State, and was even
now a member of Parliament. And then it was positively known that the
lady's father, who had always been held in the highest respect as
a nobleman, favoured his