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the murderer, among whom were all those who had been ranked among
the staunch friends of our hero. The Chilterns so believed, and Lady
Laura; the Duchess so believed, and Madame Goesler. Mr. Low felt sure
of it, and Mr. Monk and Lord Cantrip; and nobody was more sure than
Mrs. Bunce. There were many who professed that they doubted; men such
as Barrington Erle, Laurence Fitzgibbon, the two Dukes,--though the
younger Duke never expressed such doubt at home,--and Mr. Gresham
himself. Indeed, the feeling of Parliament in general was one of
great doubt. Mr. Daubeny never expressed an opinion one way or the
other, feeling that the fate of two second-class Liberals could
not be matter of concern to him;--but Sir Orlando Drought, and Mr.
Roby, and Mr. Boffin, were as eager as though they had not been
Conservatives, and were full of doubt. Surely, if Phineas Finn were
not the murderer, he had been more ill-used by Fate than had been any
man since Fate first began to be unjust. But there was also a very
strong party by whom no doubt whatever was entertained as to his
guilt,--at the head of which, as in duty bound, was the poor widow,
Mrs. Bonteen. She had no doubt as to the hand by which her husband
had fallen, and clamoured loudly for the vengeance of the law. All
the world, she said, knew how bitter against her husband had been
this wretch, whose villainy had been exposed by her dear, gracious
lord; and now the evidence against him was, to her thinking,
complete. She was supported strongly by Lady Eustace, who, much as
she wished not to be the wife of the Bohemian Jew, thought even that
preferable to being known as the widow of a murderer who had been
hung. Mr. Ratler, with one or two others in the House, was certain
of Finn's guilt. The _People's Banner_, though it prefaced each
one of its daily paragraphs on the subject with a statement as to
the manifest duty of an influential newspaper to abstain from the
expression of any opinion on such a subject till the question had
been decided by a jury, nevertheless from day to day recapitulated
the evidence against the Member for Tankerville, and showed how
strong were the motives which had existed for such a deed. But, among
those who were sure of Finn's guilt, there was no one more sure than
Lord Fawn, who had seen the coat and the height of the man,--and the
step. He declared among his intimate friends that of course he could
not swear to the person. He could not venture, whe