The speaker sat down amid an ovation from his own side. Three men on the
Liberal side jumped up, hat in hand, simultaneously. Two of them subsided
at once. The third began to speak.

A sigh of boredom ran through the latticed gallery above, and several
persons rose and prepared to vacate their places. The lady in the corner
addressed some further remarks on the subject of the speech which had
just concluded to an acquaintance who came up to greet her.
"Childish!--positively childish!"

Lady Coryston caught the words, and as Mrs. Prideaux rose with alacrity
to go into the Speaker's private house for a belated cup of tea, her Tory
neighbor beckoned to her daughter Marcia to take the vacant chair.

"Intolerable woman!" she said, drawing a long breath. "And they're in for
years! Heaven knows what we shall all have to go through."

"Horrible!" said the girl, fervently. "She always behaves like that. Yet of
course she knew perfectly who you were."

"Arthur will probably follow this man," murmured Lady Coryston, returning
to her watch.

"Go and have some tea, mother, and come back."

"No. I might miss his getting up."

There was silence a little. The House was thinning rapidly, and half the
occupants of the Ladies' Galleries had adjourned to the tearooms on the