s, and gave rise to
many prophecies of failure. But in the midst of it all no office
was assigned to Phineas Finn; and there was a general feeling, not
expressed, but understood, that his affair with Mr. Kennedy stood in
his way.

Quintus Slide had undertaken to crush him! Could it be possible that
so mean a man should be able to make good so monstrous a threat?
The man was very mean, and the threat had been absurd as well as
monstrous; and yet it seemed that it might be realised. Phineas was
too proud to ask questions, even of Barrington Erle, but he felt
that he was being "left out in the cold," because the editor of _The
People's Banner_ had said that no government could employ him; and at
this moment, on the very morning of the day which was to usher in the
great debate, which was to be so fatal to Mr. Daubeny and his Church
Reform, another thunderbolt was hurled. The "we" of _The People's
Banner_ had learned that the very painful matter, to which they had
been compelled by a sense of duty to call the public attention in
reference to the late member for Dunross-shire and the present member
for Tankerville, would be brought before one of the tribunals of the
country, in reference to the matrimonial differences between Mr.
Kennedy and his wife. It would be in the remembrance of their readers
that the unfortunate gentleman had been provoked to fire a pistol
at the head of the member for Tankerville,--a circumstance which,
though publicly known, had never been brought under the notice of
the police. There was reason to hope that the mystery might now be
cleared up, and that the ends of justice would demand that a certain
document should be produced, which they,--the "we,"--had been
vexatiously restrained from giving to their readers, although it had
been most carefully prepared for publication in the columns of _The
People's Banner_. Then the thunderbolt went on to say that there was
evidently a great move among the members of the so-called Liberal
party, who seemed to think that it was only necessary that they
should open their mouths wide enough in order that the sweets of
office should fall into them. The "we" were quite of a different
opinion. The "we" believed that no Minister for many a long day had
been so firmly fixed on the Treasury Bench as was Mr. Daubeny at the
present moment. But this at any rate might be inferred;--that should
Mr. Gresham by any unhappy combination of circumstances be called
upon to form