of the present system.  When such a patron as Lord Brentford,—­himself a Cabinet Minister with a sinecure,—­could by his mere word put into the House such a stick as Phineas Finn,—­a man who had struggled to stand on his legs before the Speaker, but had wanted both the courage and the capacity, nothing further could surely be wanted to prove that the Reform Bill of 1832 required to be supplemented by some more energetic measure.

Phineas laughed as he read the article, and declared to himself that the joke was a good joke.  But, nevertheless, he suffered.  Mr. Quintus Slide, when he was really anxious to use his thong earnestly, could generally raise a wale.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Was He Honest?

On the 10th of August, Phineas Finn did return to Loughton.  He went down by the mail train on the night of the 10th, having telegraphed to the inn for a bed, and was up eating his breakfast in that hospitable house at nine o’clock.  The landlord and landlady with all their staff were at a loss to imagine what had brought down their member again so quickly to his borough; but the reader, who will remember that Lady Baldock with her daughter and Violet Effingham were to pass the 11th of the month at Saulsby, may perhaps be able to make a guess on the subject.

Phineas had been thinking of making this sudden visit to Loughton ever since he had been up in town, but he could suggest to himself no reason to be given to Lord Brentford for his sudden reappearance.  The Earl had been very kind to him, but he had said nothing which could justify his young friend in running in and out of Saulsby Castle at pleasure, without invitation and without notice.  Phineas was so well aware of this himself that often as he had half resolved during the last ten days to return to Saulsby, so often had he determined that he could not do so.  He could think of no excuse.  Then the heavens favoured him, and he received a letter from Lord Chiltern, in which there was a message for Lord Brentford.  “If you see my father, tell him that I am ready at any moment to do what is necessary for raising the money for Laura.”  Taking this as his excuse he returned to Loughton.

As chance arranged it, he met the Earl standing on the great steps before his own castle doors.  “What, Finn; is this you?  I thought you were in Ireland.”

“Not yet, my lord, as you see.”  Then he opened his budget at once, and blushed at his own hypocrisy as he went on with his story.  He had, he said, felt the message from Chiltern to be so all-important that he could not bring himself to go over to Ireland without delivering it.  He urged upon the Earl that he might learn from this how anxious Lord Chiltern was to effect a reconciliation.  When it occurred to him, he said, that there might be a hope of doing anything towards such an object, he could not go to Ireland leaving the good work behind him.  In