at the Earl had purchased the
submission of Phineas Finn by a seat for his borough of Loughton?
Was it not known that Lord Chiltern, the brother of Lady Laura, had
fought a duel with Phineas Finn? Was it not known that Mr. Kennedy
himself had been as it were coerced into quiescence by the singular
fact that he had been saved from garotters in the street by the
opportune interference of Phineas Finn? It was even suggested that
the scene with the garotters had been cunningly planned by Phineas
Finn, that he might in this way be able to restrain the anger of
the husband of the lady whom he loved. All these stories were very
pretty; but as the reader, it is hoped, knows, they were all untrue.
Phineas had made but one short visit to Dresden in his life. Lady
Laura had been engaged to Mr. Kennedy before Phineas had ever spoken
to her of his love. The duel with Lord Chiltern had been about
another lady, and the seat at Loughton had been conferred upon
Phineas chiefly on account of his prowess in extricating Mr. Kennedy
from the garotters,--respecting which circumstance it may be said
that as the meeting in the street was fortuitous, the reward was
greater than the occasion seemed to require.

While all these things were being said Phineas became something of a
hero. A man who is supposed to have caused a disturbance between two
married people, in a certain rank of life, does generally receive a
certain meed of admiration. A man who was asked out to dinner twice a
week before such rumours were afloat, would probably receive double
that number of invitations afterwards. And then to have been shot
at by a madman in a room, and to be the subject of the venom of a
_People's Banner_, tends also to Fame. Other ladies besides Madame
Goesler were anxious to have the story from the very lips of the
hero, and in this way Phineas Finn became a conspicuous man. But
Fame begets envy, and there were some who said that the member for
Tankerville had injured his prospects with his party. It may be very
well to give a dinner to a man who has caused the wife of a late
Cabinet Minister to quarrel with her husband; but it can hardly be
expected that he should be placed in office by the head of the party
to which that late Cabinet Minister belonged. "I never saw such a
fellow as you are," said Barrington Erle to him. "You are always
getting into a mess."

"Nobody ought to know better than you how false all these calumnies
are." This he said beca