"You could have supported them, if anything were proposed worthy of support," said Mr. Turnbull.
"Yes; but I could not have been so effective in taking care that some measure be proposed worthy of support as I may possibly be now. I thought a good deal about it, and I believe that my decision was right."
"I am sure you were right," said Mr. Kennedy.
"There can be no juster object of ambition than a seat in the Cabinet," said Phineas.
"Sir, I must dispute that," said Mr. Turnbull, turning round upon our hero. "I regard the position of our high Ministers as most respectable."
"Thank you for so much," said Mr. Monk. But the orator went on again, regardless of the interruption:—
"The position of gentlemen in inferior offices,—of gentlemen who attend rather to the nods and winks of their superiors in Downing Street than to the interest of their constituents,—I do not regard as being highly respectable."
"A man cannot begin at the top," said Phineas.
"Our friend Mr. Monk has begun at what you are pleased to call the top," said Mr. Turnbull. "But I will not profess to think that even he has raised himself by going into office. To be an independent representative of a really popular commercial constituency is, in my estimation, the highest object of an Englishman's ambition."
"But why commercial, Mr. Turnbull?" said Mr. Kennedy.