push the argument further. Ellen's eye caught mine, and gave me a look so
kind, and almost grateful, that I forgot every thing else in the world. A
few moments afterwards a friend of Lady Glanville's was announced, and I
left the room.




CHAPTER LV.

Intus et in jecore aegro,
Nascuntur domini.
--Persius.

The next two or three days I spent in visiting all my male friends in the
Lower House, and engaging them to dine with me, preparatory to the great
act of voting on--'s motion. I led them myself to the House of Commons,
and not feeling sufficiently interested in the debate to remain, as a
stranger, where I ought, in my own opinion, to have acted as a performer,
I went to Brookes's to wait the result. Lord Gravelton, a stout, bluff,
six-foot nobleman, with a voice like a Stentor, was "blowing up" the
waiters in the coffee-room. Mr.--, the author of T--, was conning the
Courier in a corner; and Lord Armadilleros, the haughtiest and most
honourable peer in the calendar, was monopolizing the drawing-room, with
his right foot on one hob and his left on the other. I sat myself down in
silence, and looked over the "crack article" in the Edinburgh. By and by,
the room got fuller; every one spoke of the motion before the House, and
anticipated the merits of the speeches, and the numbers of the voters.

At last a principal member entered--a crowd gathered round him. "I have