e conviction that Bonteen had spoken the opinion
of other men as well as his own, and that he had plainly indicated
that the gates of the official paradise were to be closed against the
presumed offender. Phineas had before believed that it was to be so,
but that belief had now become assurance. He got up in his misery to
leave the room, but as he did so he met Laurence Fitzgibbon. "You
have heard the news about Bonteen?" said Laurence.

"What news?"

"He's to be pitchforked up to the Exchequer. They say it's quite
settled. The higher a monkey climbs--; you know the proverb." So
saying Laurence Fitzgibbon passed into the room, and Phineas Finn
took his departure in solitude.

And so the man with whom he had managed to quarrel utterly was to be
one in the Cabinet, a man whose voice would probably be potential in
the selection of minor members of the Government. It seemed to him to
be almost incredible that such a one as Mr. Bonteen should be chosen
for such an office. He had despised almost as soon as he had known
Mr. Bonteen, and had rarely heard the future manager of the finance
of the country spoken of with either respect or regard. He had
regarded Mr. Bonteen as a useful, dull, unscrupulous politician, well
accustomed to Parliament, acquainted with the bye-paths and back
doors of official life,--and therefore certain of employment when
the Liberals were in power; but there was no one in the party he had
thought less likely to be selected for high place. And yet this man
was to be made Chancellor of the Exchequer, while he, Phineas Finn,
very probably at this man's instance, was to be left out in the cold.

He knew himself to be superior to the man he hated, to have higher
ideas of political life, and to be capable of greater political
sacrifices. He himself had sat shoulder to shoulder with many men
on the Treasury Bench whose political principles he had not greatly
valued; but of none of them had he thought so little as he had done
of Mr. Bonteen. And yet this Mr. Bonteen was to be the new Chancellor
of the Exchequer! He walked home to his lodgings in Marlborough
Street, wretched because of his own failure;--doubly wretched because
of the other man's success.

He laid awake half the night thinking of the words that had been
spoken to him, and after breakfast on the following morning he wrote
the following note to his enemy:--

House of Commons, 5th April, 18--.

DEAR MR. BONTEEN,

It is matter