The quarrel between Phineas Finn and Mr Bonteen had now become the talk of the town, and had taken many various phases. The political phase, though it was perhaps the best understood, was not the most engrossing¹. There was the personal phase — which had reference to the direct altercation² that had taken place between the two gentlemen, and to the correspondence between them which had followed, as to which phase it may be said that though there were many rumours⁴ abroad, very little was known. It was reported in some circles that the two aspirants⁵ for office had been within an ace³ of striking each other; in some, again, that a blow had passed — and in others; further removed probably from the House of Commons and the Universe Club, that the Irishman had struck the Englishman, and that the Englishman had given the Irishman a thrashing. This was a phase that was very disagreeable to Phineas Finn. And there was a third — which may perhaps be called the general social phase, and which unfortunately dealt with the name of Lady Laura Kennedy. They all, of course, worked into each other, and were enlivened and made interesting with the names of a great many big persons. Mr Gresham, the Prime Minister, was supposed to be very much concerned in this matter. He, it was said, had found himself compelled to exclude Phineas Finn from the Government, because of the unfortunate alliance between him and the wife of one of his late colleagues, and had also thought it expedient⁶ to dismiss Mr Bonteen from his Cabinet — for it had amounted almost to dismissal — because Mr Bonteen had made indiscreet official allusion⁷ to that alliance. In consequence of this working in of the first and third phase, Mr Gresham encountered hard usage from some friends and from many enemies. Then, of course, the scene at Macpherson’s Hotel was commented on very generally. An idea prevailed that Mr Kennedy, driven to madness by his wife’s infidelity, which had become known to him through the quarrel between Phineas and Mr Bonteen — had endeavoured to murder his wife’s lover, who had with the utmost

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