The Debate on the Ballot Phineas took his seat in the House with a consciousness of much inward trepidation of heart on that night of the ballot debate.

After leaving Lord Chiltern he went down to his club and dined alone.

Three or four men came and spoke to him; but he could not talk to them at his ease, nor did he quite know what they were saying to him.

He was going to do something which he longed to achieve, but the very idea of which, now that it was so near to him, was a terror to him.
To be in the House and not to speak would, to his thinking, be a disgraceful failure.

Indeed, he could not continue to keep his seat unless he spoke.