But as he went home he thought more of Miss Effingham than he did of Lady Laura; and I think that the voice of Miss Effingham had done almost as much towards comforting him as had the kindness of the other.

At any rate, he had been comforted.

CHAPTER XXI

“Do be punctual”

On the very morning after his failure in the House of Commons, when Phineas was reading in the Telegraph,—­he took the Telegraph not from choice but for economy,—­the words of that debate which he had heard and in which he should have taken a part, a most unwelcome visit was paid to him.  It was near eleven, and the breakfast things were still on the table.  He was at this time on a Committee of the House with reference to the use of potted peas in the army and navy, at which he had sat once,—­at a preliminary meeting,—­and in reference to which he had already resolved that as he had failed so frightfully in debate, he would certainly do his duty to the utmost in the more easy but infinitely more tedious work of the Committee Room.  The Committee met at twelve, and he intended to walk down to the Reform Club, and then to the House.  He had just completed his reading of the debate and of the leaders in the Telegraph on the subject.  He had told himself how little the writer of the article knew about Mr. Turnbull, how little about Mr. Monk, and how little about the people,—­such being his own ideas as to the qualifications of the writer of that leading article,—­and was about to start.  But Mrs. Bunce arrested him by telling him that there was a man below who wanted to see him.

“What sort of a man, Mrs. Bunce?”

“He ain’t a gentleman, sir.”

“Did he give his name?”

“He did not, sir; but I know it’s about money.  I know the ways of them so well.  I’ve seen this one’s face before somewhere.”

“You had better show him up,” said Phineas.  He knew well the business on which the man was come.  The man wanted money for that bill which Laurence Fitzgibbon had sent afloat, and which Phineas had endorsed.  Phineas had never as yet fallen so deeply into troubles of money as to make it necessary that he need refuse himself to any callers on that score, and he did not choose to do so now.  Nevertheless he most heartily wished that he had left his lodgings for the club before the man had come.  This was not the first he had heard of the bill being overdue and unpaid.  The bill had been brought to him noted a month since, and then he had simply told the youth who brought it that he would see Mr. Fitzgibbon and have the matter settled.  He had spoken to his friend Laurence, and Laurence had simply assured him that all should be made right in two days,—­or, at furthest, by the end of a week.  Since that time he had observed that his friend had been somewhat shy of speaking to him when no others were with them.  Phineas would not have alluded to the bill had he and Laurence been alone together; but he had been quick enough to guess from his friend’s manner that the matter was not settled.  Now, no doubt, serious trouble was about to commence.