carriage window.

"My dear Lady Montfort!--not seen you for an age! What times we live in!
How suddenly THE CRISIS has come upon us! Sad loss in poor dear
Montfort; no wonder you mourn for him! Had his failings, true--who is
not mortal?--but always voted right; always to be relied on in times of
CRISIS! But this crotchety fellow, who has so unluckily, for all but
himself, walked into that property, is the loosest fish! And what is a
House divided against itself? Never was the Constitution in such peril!
--I say it deliberately!--and here is the Head of the Viponts humming and
haaing, and asking whether Guy Darrell will join the Cabinet. And if Guy
Darrell will not, we have no more chance of the Montfort interest than if
we were Peep-o'-day Boys. But excuse me; I must be off; every moment is
precious in times of CRISIS. Think, if we can't form a Cabinet by to-
morrow night--only think what may happen; the other fellows will come in,
and then--THE DELUGE!"

Carr is gone to find mops and Dame Partingtons to stave off the deluge.
Colonel Morley has obeyed Lady Montfort's summons, and has entered the
carriage. Before she can speak, however, he has rushed into the subject
of which he himself is full. "Only think--I knew it would be so when the
moment came; all depends upon Guy Darrell; Montfort, who seems always in
a fright lest a newspaper should fall on his head and crush him, says
that if Darrell, whom he chooses to favour just because the newspapers
do, declines to join, the newspapers will say the CRISIS is a job!
Fancy!--a job--the CRISIS! Lord Mowbray de l'Arco and Sir Josiah Snodge,
who are both necessary to a united government, but who unluckily detest
each other, refuse to sit in the same Cabinet, unless Darrell sit
between--to save them, I suppose, from the fate of the cats of Kilkenny.
Sir John Cautly, our crack county member, declares that if Darrell does