"What has happened?" asked Phineas, looking aghast. He knew Mr. Low
well enough to be sure that the thing referred to was of great and
distressing moment.
"You, too, have heard nothing?"
"Not a word--that I know of."
"You were at The Universe last night?"
"Certainly I was."
"Did anything occur?"
"The Prince was there."
"Nothing has happened to the Prince?" said Chiltern.
"His name has not been mentioned to me," said Mr. Low. "Was there not
a quarrel?"
"Yes;"--said Phineas. "I quarrelled with Mr. Bonteen."
"What then?"
"He behaved like a brute;--as he always does. Thrashing a brute
hardly answers nowadays, but if ever a man deserved a thrashing he
does."
"He has been murdered," said Mr. Low.
The reader need hardly be told that, as regards this great offence,
Phineas Finn was as white as snow. The maintenance of any doubt on
that matter,--were it even desirable to maintain a doubt,--would be
altogether beyond the power of the present writer. The reader has
probably perceived, from the first moment of the discovery of the
body on the steps at the end of the passage, that Mr.
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