Then Phineas retreated again
within his shell, with a certainty that nothing would be done for
him.
And yet to whom could this question of place be of such vital
importance as it was to him? He had come back to his old haunts from
Ireland, abandoning altogether the pleasant safety of an assured
income, buoyed by the hope of office. He had, after a fashion, made
his calculations. In the present disposition of the country it was,
he thought, certain that the Liberal party must, for the next twenty
years, have longer periods of power than their opponents; and he had
thought also that were he in the House, some place would eventually
be given to him. He had been in office before, and had been
especially successful. He knew that it had been said of him that of
the young debutants of latter years he had been the best. He had left
his party by opposing them; but he had done so without creating any
ill-will among the leaders of his party,--in a manner that had been
regarded as highly honourable to him, and on departing had received
expressions of deep regret from Mr.
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