four o'clock
Many boroughs , however , would doubtless be set free from aristocratic influence by the redistribution of seats which must take place , as Mr. Slide declared , at any rate in the next session . Then he named the borough of Loughton ; and Phineas Finn , thinking of Saulsby , thinking of the Earl , thinking of Lady Laura , and thinking of Violet , walked away disgusted . Would it not be better that the quiet town , clustering close round the walls of Saulsby , should remain as it was , than that it should be polluted by the presence of Mr. Quintus Slide ? On the last day of the debate , at a few moments before four o'clock , Phineas encountered another terrible misfortune . He had been at the potted peas since twelve , and had on this occasion targed two or three commissariat officers very tightly with questions respecting cabbages and potatoes , and had asked whether the officers on board a certain ship did not always eat preserved asparagus while the men had not even a bean . I fear that he had been put up to this business by Mr. Quintus Slide , and that he made himself nasty . There was , however , so much nastiness of the kind going , that his little effort made no great difference .