Not that he spoke even to his friend a word that was triumphant in its tone. It was not thus that he rejoiced. He was by nature too placid for that. But there was a nervousness in his contentment which told the tale to any observer who might know how to read it.
“I hope you’ll like it,” he said to Grey.
“I shall never like it as you do,” Grey answered.
“And why not;—why not?”
“In the first place, I have not begun it so young.”
“Any time before thirty-five is young enough.”
“For useful work, yes,—but hardly for enjoyment in the thing. And then I don’t believe it all as you do. To you the British House of Commons is everything.”
“Yes;—everything,” said Mr Palliser with unwonted enthusiasm;—”everything, everything. That and the Constitution are everything.”
“It is not so to me.”
“Ah, but it will be. If you really take to the work, and put yourself into harness, it will be so. You’ll get to feel it as I do. The man who is counted by his colleagues as number one on the Treasury Bench in the English House of Commons, is the first of living men. That’s my opinion. I don’t know that I ever said it before; but that’s my opinion.”
“And who is the second;—the purse-bearer to this great man?”
“I say nothing about the second. I don’t know that there is any second. I wonder how we shall find Lady Glencora and the boy.” They had then arrived at the side entrance to the Castle, and Mr Grey ran upstairs to his wife’s room to receive her congratulations.
“And you are a Member of Parliament?” she asked.
“They tell me so, but I don’t know whether I actually am one till I’ve taken the oaths.”
“I am so happy. There’s no position in the world so glorious!”
“It’s a pity you are not Mr Palliser’s wife. That’s just what he has been saying.”
“Oh, John, I am so happy. It is so much more than I have deserved. I hope,—that is, I sometimes think—”
“Think what, dearest?”
“I hope nothing that I have ever said has driven you to it.”
“I’d do more than that, dear, to make you happy,” he said, as he put his arm round her and kissed her; “more than that, at least if it were in my power.”
Probably my readers may agree with Alice, that in the final adjustment of her affairs she had received more than she had deserved. All her friends, except her husband, thought so. But as they have all forgiven her, including even Lady Midlothian herself, I hope that they who have followed her story to its close will not be less generous.
Phineas Finn
Chapter I. Phineas Finn Proposes to Stand for Loughshane
Chapter II. Phineas Finn Is Elected for Loughshane
Chapter III. Phineas Finn Takes His Seat
Chapter IV. Lady Laura Standish
Chapter VI. Lord Brentford’s Dinner
Chapter VII. Mr. And Mrs. Bunce
Chapter VIII. The News About Mr. Mildmay and Sir Everard
Chapter IX. The New Government
Chapter XII. Autumnal Prospects
Chapter XV. Donald Bean’s Pony
Chapter XVI. Phineas Finn Returns to Killaloe
Chapter XVII. Phineas Finn Returns to London
Chapter XIX. Lord Chiltern Rides His Horse Bonebreaker
Chapter XX. The Debate on the Ballot
Chapter XXII. Lady Baldock at Home
Chapter XXIII. Sunday in Grosvenor Place
Chapter XXIV. The Willingford Bull
Chapter XXV. Mr. Turnbull’s Carriage Stops the Way
Chapter XXVI. “The First Speech”
Chapter XXVII. Phineas Discussed
Chapter XXVIII. The Second Reading Is Carried
Chapter XXIX. A Cabinet Meeting
Chapter XXX. Mr. Kennedy’s Luck