Phineas Finn | Page 6

endeavour to support myself by my pen. I have already done a little for
the magazines.
Give my best love to my mother and sisters. If you will receive me
during the time of the election, I shall see them soon. Perhaps it will be
best for me to say that I have positively decided on making the attempt;
that is to say, if the Club Committee is as good as its promise. I have
weighed the matter all round, and I regard the prize as being so great,
that I am prepared to run any risk to obtain it. Indeed, to me, with my
views about politics, the running of such a risk is no more than a duty. I
cannot keep my hand from the work now that the work has come in the
way of my hand. I shall be most anxious to get a line from you in
answer to this.
Your most affectionate son,
PHINEAS FINN.

I question whether Dr. Finn, when he read this letter, did not feel more
of pride than of anger,--whether he was not rather gratified than
displeased, in spite of all that his common-sense told him on the subject.
His wife and daughters, when they heard the news, were clearly on the
side of the young man. Mrs. Finn immediately expressed an opinion
that Parliament would be the making of her son, and that everybody
would be sure to employ so distinguished a barrister. The girls declared
that Phineas ought, at any rate, to have his chance, and almost asserted
that it would be brutal in their father to stand in their brother's way. It
was in vain that the doctor tried to explain that going into Parliament
could not help a young barrister, whatever it might do for one
thoroughly established in his profession; that Phineas, if successful at
Loughshane, would at once abandon all idea of earning any
income,--that the proposition, coming from so poor a man, was a
monstrosity,--that such an opposition to the Morris family, coming
from a son of his, would be gross ingratitude to Lord Tulla. Mrs. Finn
and the girls talked him down, and the doctor himself was almost
carried away by something like vanity in regard to his son's future
position.
Nevertheless he wrote a letter strongly advising Phineas to abandon the
project. But he himself was aware that the letter which he wrote was
not one from which any success could be expected. He advised his son,
but did not command him. He made no threats as to stopping his
income. He did not tell Phineas, in so many words, that he was
proposing to make an ass of himself. He argued very prudently against
the plan, and Phineas, when he received his father's letter, of course felt
that it was tantamount to a paternal permission to proceed with the
matter. On the next day he got a letter from his mother full of affection,
full of pride,--not exactly telling him to stand for Loughshane by all
means, for Mrs. Finn was not the woman to run openly counter to her
husband in any advice given by her to their son,--but giving him every
encouragement which motherly affection and motherly pride could
bestow. "Of course you will come to us," she said, "if you do make up
your mind to be member for Loughshane. We shall all of us be so
delighted to have you!" Phineas, who had fallen into a sea of doubt
after writing to his father, and who had demanded a week from

Barrington Erle to consider the matter, was elated to positive certainty
by the joint effect of the two letters from home. He understood it all.
His mother and sisters were altogether in favour of his audacity, and
even his father was not disposed to quarrel with him on the subject.
"I shall take you at your word," he said to Barrington Erle at the club
that evening.
"What word?" said Erle, who had too many irons in the fire to be
thinking always of Loughshane and Phineas Finn,--or who at any rate
did not choose to let his anxiety on the subject be seen.
"About Loughshane."
"All right, old fellow; we shall be sure to carry you through. The Irish
writs will be out on the third of March, and the sooner you're there the
better."
CHAPTER II
Phineas Finn Is Elected for Loughshane
One great difficulty about the borough vanished in a very wonderful
way at the first touch. Dr. Finn, who was a man stout at heart, and by
no means afraid of his great friends, drove himself over to Castlemorris
to tell his news to the Earl, as soon as he got a second letter from his
son declaring his intention of proceeding with