Mrs. Bunce was delighted when she found that Phineas had hired a servant; but Mr. Bunce predicted nothing but evil from so vain an expense.  “Don’t tell me; where is it to come from?  He ain’t no richer because he’s in Parliament.  There ain’t no wages.  M.P. and M.T.,”—­whereby Mr. Bunce, I fear, meant empty,—­“are pretty much alike when a man hasn’t a fortune at his back.”  “But he’s going to stay with all the lords in the Cabinet,” said Mrs. Bunce, to whom Phineas, in his pride, had confided perhaps more than was necessary.  “Cabinet, indeed,” said Bunce; “if he’d stick to chambers, and let alone cabinets, he’d do a deal better.  Given up his rooms, has he,—­till February?  He don’t expect we’re going to keep them empty for him!”

Phineas found that the house was full at Saulsby, although the sojourn of the visitors would necessarily be so short.  There were three or four there on their way on to Loughlinter, like himself,—­Mr. Bonteen and Mr. Ratler, with Mr. Palliser, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his wife,—­and there was Violet Effingham, who, however, was not going to Loughlinter.  “No, indeed,” she said to our hero, who on the first evening had the pleasure of taking her in to dinner, “unfortunately I haven’t a seat in Parliament, and therefore I am not asked.”

“Lady Laura is going.”

“Yes;—­but Lady Laura has a Cabinet Minister in her keeping.  I’ve only one comfort;—­you’ll be awfully dull.”

“I daresay it would be very much nicer to stay here,” said Phineas.

“If you want to know my real mind,” said Violet, “I would give one of my little fingers to go.  There will be four Cabinet Ministers in the house, and four un-Cabinet Ministers, and half a dozen other members of Parliament, and there will be Lady Glencora Palliser, who is the best fun in the world; and, in point of fact, it’s the thing of the year.  But I am not asked.  You see I belong to the Baldock faction, and we don’t sit on your side of the House.  Mr. Kennedy thinks that I should tell secrets.”

Why on earth had Mr. Kennedy invited him, Phineas Finn, to meet four Cabinet Ministers and Lady Glencora Palliser?  He could only have done so at the instance of Lady Laura Standish.  It was delightful for Phineas to think that Lady Laura cared for him so deeply; but it was not equally delightful when he remembered how very close must be the alliance between Mr. Kennedy and Lady Laura, when she was thus powerful with him.

At Saulsby Phineas did not see much of his hostess.  When they were making their plans for the one entire day of this visit, she said a soft word of apology to him.  “I am so busy with all these people, that I hardly know what I am doing.  But we shall be able to find a quiet minute or two at Loughlinter,—­unless, indeed, you intend to be on the mountains all day.  I suppose you have brought a gun like everybody else?”

“Yes;—­I have brought a gun.  I do shoot; but I am not an inveterate sportsman.”