e's party. Liberalism was swirling in like a
flood....

I found the next few weeks very unsatisfactory and distressing. I don't
clearly remember what it was I had expected; I suppose the fuss and
strain of the General Election had built up a feeling that my return
would in some way put power into my hands, and instead I found myself
a mere undistinguished unit in a vast but rather vague majority. There
were moments when I felt very distinctly that a majority could be
too big a crowd altogether. I had all my work still before me, I had
achieved nothing as yet but opportunity, and a very crowded opportunity
it was at that. Everyone about me was chatting Parliament and
appointments; one breathed distracting and irritating speculations as
to what would be done and who would be asked to do it. I was chiefly
impressed by what was unlikely to be done and by the absence of any
general plan of legislation to hold us all together. I found the talk
about Parliamentary procedure and etiquette particularly trying. We
dined with the elder Cramptons one evening, and old Sir Edward was
lengthily sage about what the House liked, what it didn't like, what
made a good impression and what a bad one. "A man shouldn't speak more
than twice in his first session, and not at first on too contentious a
topic," said Sir Edward. "No."

"Very much depends on manner. The House hates a lecturer. There's a sort
of airy earnestness--"

He waved his cigar to eke out his words.

"Little peculiarities of costume count for a great deal. I could name
one man who spent three years living down a pair of spatterdashers. On
the other hand--a thing like that--if it catches the eye of the PUNCH
man, for example, may be your making."

He went off into a lengthy speculation of why the House had come to like
an originally unpopular Irishman named Biggar....

The opening of Parliament gave me some peculiar moods. I began to feel
more and more like a branded sheep. We were sworn in in batches,
dozens and scores of fresh men, trying not to look too fresh under the
inspection of policemen and messengers, all of us carrying new silk hats
and wearing magisterial coats. It is one of my vivid memories from this
period, the sudden outbreak of silk hats in the smoking-room of the
National Liberal Club. At first I thought there must have been a
funeral. Familiar faces that one had grown to know under soft felt hats,
under bowlers, under liberal-minded wide brims, and ab