Monk said to him. After all, these official and
parliamentary honours were greater when seen at a distance than he
found them to be now that he possessed them. Mr. Low worked ten hours
a day, and could rarely call a day his own; but, after all, with all
this work, Mr. Low was less of a slave, and more independent, than
was he, Phineas Finn, Under-Secretary of State, the friend of Cabinet
Ministers, and Member of Parliament since his twenty-fifth year! He
began to dislike the House, and to think it a bore to sit on the
Treasury bench;--he, who a few years since had regarded Parliament
as the British heaven on earth, and who, since he had been in
Parliament, had looked at that bench with longing envious eyes.
Laurence Fitzgibbon, who seemed to have as much to eat and drink as
ever, and a bed also to lie on, could come and go in the House as he
pleased, since his--resignation.

And there was a new trouble coming. The Reform Bill for England had
passed; but now there was to be another Reform Bill for Ireland. Let
them pass what bill they might, this would not render necessary a
new Irish election till the entire House should be dissolved. But he
feared that he would be called upon to vote for the abolition of his
own borough,--and for other points almost equally distasteful to him.
He knew that he would not be consulted,--but would be called upon to
vote, and perhaps to speak; and was certain that if he did so, there
would be war between him and his constituents. Lord Tulla had already
communicated to him his ideas that, for certain excellent reasons,
Loughshane ought to be spared. But this evil was, he hoped, a distant
one. It was generally thought that, as the English Reform Bill had
been passed last year, and as the Irish bill, if carried, could not
be immediately operative, the doing of the thing might probably be
postponed to the next session.

When he first saw Lady Laura he was struck by the great change in her
look and manner. She seemed to him to be old and worn, and he judged
her to be wretched,--as she was. She had written to him to say that
she would be at her father's house on such and such a morning, and
he had gone to her there. "It is of no use your coming to Grosvenor
Place," she said. "I see nobody there, and the house is like a
prison." Later in the interview she told him not to come and dine
there, even though Mr. Kennedy should ask him.

"And why not?" he demanded.

"Because everything would be st