d not at first been willing to receive the gentleman,
remembering that when they had last met the intercourse had not been
pleasant,--but he knew that enmities are foolish things, and that
it did not become him to perpetuate a quarrel with such a man as Mr.
Quintus Slide. "I remember him very well, Mrs. Bunce."

"I know you didn't like him, Sir."

"Not particularly."

"No more don't I. No more don't Bunce. He's one of them as 'd say
a'most anything for a plate of soup and a glass of wine. That's what
Bunce says."

"It won't hurt me to see him."

"No, sir; it won't hurt you. It would be a pity indeed if the likes
of him could hurt the likes of you." And so Mr. Quintus Slide was
shown up into the room.

The first greeting was very affectionate, at any rate on the part of
the editor. He grasped the young member's hand, congratulated him
on his seat, and began his work as though he had never been all but
kicked out of that very same room by its present occupant. "Now you
want to know what I'm come about; don't you?"

"No doubt I shall hear in good time, Mr. Slide."

"It's an important matter;--and so you'll say when you do hear. And
it's one in which I don't know whether you'll be able to see your way
quite clear."

"I'll do my best, if it concerns me."

"It does." So saying, Mr. Slide, who had seated himself in an
arm-chair by the fireside opposite to Phineas, crossed his legs,
folded his arms on his breast, put his head a little on one side,
and sat for a few moments in silence, with his eyes fixed on his
companion's face. "It does concern you, or I shouldn't be here.
Do you know Mr. Kennedy,--the Right Honourable Robert Kennedy, of
Loughlinter, in Scotland?"

"I do know Mr. Kennedy."

"And do you know Lady Laura Kennedy, his wife?"

"Certainly I do."

"So I supposed. And do you know the Earl of Brentford, who is, I take
it, father to the lady in question?"

"Of course I do. You know that I do." For there had been a time in
which Phineas had been subjected to the severest censure which the
_People's Banner_ could inflict upon him, because of his adherence
to Lord Brentford, and the vials of wrath had been poured out by the
hands of Mr. Quintus Slide himself.

"Very well. It does not signify what I know or what I don't. Those
preliminary questions I have been obliged to ask as my justification
for coming to you on the present occasion. Mr. Kennedy has I believe
been greatly wronged."

"I am not pre