think you are right," continued
Mr. Gresham.

"We have given strong evidence that we think so," said Phineas. "We
give up our places, and we are, both of us, very poor men."

"I think you are wrong, you know, not so much in your views on the
question itself--which, to tell the truth, I hardly understand as
yet."

"We will endeavour to explain them."

"And will do so very clearly, no doubt. But I think that Mr. Monk was
wrong in desiring, as a member of a Government, to force a measure
which, whether good or bad, the Government as a body does not desire
to initiate,--at any rate, just now."

"And therefore he resigned," said Phineas.

"Of course. But it seems to me that he failed to comprehend the only
way in which a great party can act together, if it is to do any
service in this country. Don't for a moment think that I am blaming
him or you."

"I am nobody in this matter," said Phineas.

"I can assure you, Mr. Finn, that we have not regarded you in that
light, and I hope that the time may come when we may be sitting
together again on the same bench."

Neither on the Treasury bench nor on any other in that House was
he to sit again after this fashion! That was the trouble which was
crushing his spirit at this moment, and not the loss of his office!
He knew that he could not venture to think of remaining in London
as a member of Parliament with no other income than that which his
father could allow him, even if he could again secure a seat in
Parliament. When he had first been returned for Loughshane he had
assured his friends that his duty as a member of the House of Commons
would not be a bar to his practice in the Courts. He had now been
five years a member, and had never once made an attempt at doing any
part of a barrister's work. He had gone altogether into a different
line of life, and had been most successful;--so successful that men
told him, and women more frequently than men, that his career had
been a miracle of success. But there had been, as he had well known
from the first, this drawback in the new profession which he had
chosen, that nothing in it could be permanent. They who succeed in
it, may probably succeed again; but then the success is intermittent,
and there may be years of hard work in opposition, to which,
unfortunately, no pay is assigned. It is almost imperative, as he now
found, that they who devote themselves to such a profession should
be men of fortune. When he had commenced hi