By which she perhaps meant to imply a belief that
a time was coming in which her husband would have a salary much
better than that now enjoyed by Phineas, and much more likely to be
permanent. The Radicals were not to have office for ever, and when
they were gone, what then? "I don't suppose he saves a shilling,"
said Mrs. Low. "How can he, keeping a horse in the park, and hunting
down in the country, and living with lords? I shouldn't wonder if he
isn't found to be over head and ears in debt when things come to be
looked into." Mrs. Low was fond of an assured prosperity, of money in
the funds, and was proud to think that her husband lived in a house
of his own. "L19 10s. ground-rent to the Portman estate is what we
pay, Mr. Bunce," she once said to that gallant Radical, "and that
comes of beginning at the right end. Mr. Low had nothing when he
began the world, and I had just what made us decent the day we
married. But he began at the right end, and let things go as they may
he can't get a fall." Mr. Bunce and Mrs. Low, though they differed
much in politics, sympathised in reference to Phineas.
"I never believes, ma'am, in nobody doing any good by getting a
place," said Mr. Bunce. "Of course I don't mean judges and them like,
which must be.
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