Laurence Fitzgibbon could always get the ear of the House if he chose to speak, and his friends declared that he might have been high up in office long since if he would have taken the trouble to work.

He was a welcome guest at the houses of the very best people, and was a friend of whom any one might be proud.

It had for two years been a feather in the cap of Phineas that he knew Laurence Fitzgibbon.

And yet people said that Laurence Fitzgibbon had nothing of his own, and men wondered how he lived.

He was the youngest son of Lord Claddagh, an Irish peer with a large family, who could do nothing for Laurence, his favourite child, beyond finding him a seat in Parliament.
"Well, Finn, my boy," said Laurence, shaking hands with the young member on board the steamer, "so you've made it all right at Loughshane." Then Phineas was beginning to tell all the story, the wonderful story, of George Morris and the Earl of Tulla,--how the men of Loughshane had elected him without opposition; how he had been supported by Conservatives as well as Liberals;--how unanimous Loughshane had been in electing him, Phineas Finn, as its representative.