y. He
astonished Phineas by the cool effrontery with which he took credit
to himself for not having purchased votes in the Fallgate on the
Liberal side, but Phineas was too wise to remind him that he himself
had hinted at one time that it would be well to lay out a little
money in that way. No one at the present moment was more clear than
was Ruddles as to the necessity of purity at elections. Not a penny
had been misspent by the Finnites. A vote or two from their score
was knocked off on grounds which did not touch the candidate or his
agents. One man had personated a vote, but this appeared to have been
done at the instigation of some very cunning Browborough partisan.
Another man had been wrongly described. This, however, amounted to
nothing. Phineas Finn was seated for the borough, and the judge
declared his purpose of recommending the House of Commons to issue
a commission with reference to the expediency of instituting a
prosecution. Mr. Browborough left the town in great disgust, not
without various publicly expressed intimations from his opponents
that the prosperity of England depended on the Church of her people.
Phineas was gloriously entertained by the Liberals of the borough,
and then informed that as so much had been done for him it was hoped
that he would now open his pockets on behalf of the charities of
the town. "Gentlemen," said Phineas, to one or two of the leading
Liberals, "it is as well that you should know at once that I am a
very poor man." The leading Liberals made wry faces, but Phineas was
member for the borough.

The moment that the decision was announced, Phineas, shaking off for
the time his congratulatory friends, hurried to the post-office and
sent his message to Lady Laura Standish at Dresden: "I have got the
seat." He was almost ashamed of himself as the telegraph boy looked
up at him when he gave in the words, but this was a task which he
could not have entrusted to any one else. He almost thought that this
was in truth the proudest and happiest moment of his life. She would
so thoroughly enjoy his triumph, would receive from it such great
and unselfish joy, that he almost wished that he could have taken
the message himself. Surely had he done so there would have been fit
occasion for another embrace.

He was again a member of the British House of Commons,--was again in
possession of that privilege for which he had never ceased to sigh
since the moment in which he lost it. A drunka