This annoyed him, and he
complained to Mr. Monk; but Mr. Monk only shrugged his shoulders and
told him that he must make his choice. He soon discovered Mr. Monk's
meaning. "If you choose to make Parliament a profession,--as you have
chosen,--you can have no right even to think of independence. If the
country finds you out when you are in Parliament, and then invites
you to office, of course the thing is different. But the latter is a
slow career, and probably would not have suited you." That was the
meaning of what Mr. Monk said to him. After all, these official and
parliamentary honours were greater when seen at a distance than he
found them to be now that he possessed them. Mr. Low worked ten hours
a day, and could rarely call a day his own; but, after all, with all
this work, Mr. Low was less of a slave, and more independent, than
was he, Phineas Finn, Under-Secretary of State, the friend of Cabinet
Ministers, and Member of Parliament since his twenty-fifth year! He
began to dislike the House, and to think it a bore to sit on the
Treasury bench;--he, who a few years since had regarded Parliament
as the British heaven on earth, and who, since he had been in
Parliament, had looked at that bench with longing envious eyes.
Laurence Fitzgibbon, who seemed to have as much to eat and drink as
ever, and a bed also to lie on, could come and go in the House as he
pleased, since his--resignation.
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